St.Valentine's Day

To my Valentine!!!
I Love you!!!

Summer Reading VII...

Isprinsessan ( A Princesa do Gelo) by Camilla Lackberg a new Swedish author that has become an international success.

The book is about Erica Falk that returns to her little hometown after her parents death. The death of a childhood friend, Alex, is the beginning of the mysteries in the city. She decides to investigate her friend's death and together with Patrik Hedstrom, the police in charge of the investigation they soon discover that things are not always what they seem. They found out the truth about the city with a really disturbing past...

An excellent book, enthusiastic reading.

Summer Reading VI...

Outlander( Nas Asas do Tempo) by Diana Gabaldon is about the old Scotland, its Clans, its mysteries and traditions.

In 1945, Claire Randall, an ex-nurse in the Army, comes back from the war and is with her husband in a second honey-moon in Scotland when unexpectadly she touches a circle of rocks. Suddenly, she is transported to the year 1743, to the centre of a battle between the English and the Scottish. Captain Black Jack Randall, an English and an ancestor of her husband thinks she is a prostitute, but next she is taken by the powerful Mackenzie clan. They believe she is an English spy or a witch, however her experience as a nurse gets her the respect of the men. She ends up being forced to get married to a member of the clan, Jamie Fraser, who devotes her true love that Claire feels divided between fidelity and a new passion as well as between two very different men.

She is also taken to a world of conspiracy, war between English and Scottish Claire must decide what to do when one knows the future?

A beautiful book. I loved it all through its 772 pages.

Summer Reading V...

Rules of Vengeance, written by Christopher Reich is a book that imprisioned me from the first to the last page.

Jonathan Ransom, is a doctor Without Frontiers working under a false identity in a distant place in Africa. Meanwhile, his wife Emma is hiding in the subworld of the international spying to escape the American Secret Services, which she betrayed.

Both are anxious to meet again and they have the opportunity in London, but an attack to foreign diplomats ends ups in a bloodshed. Emma disappears and Jonathan must fight to find again the hidden truth.

An excellent choice, full mystery

Summer Reading IV...

Here is another book I've read this summer.

Washington D.C., is an excellent book about politics, ethics, high society, blackmail, treason, conspiracy, love and marriage combined with an interesting insight into madness.
Gore Vidal, the author of this great book, writes about the Senator James Burden Day and his assistant Clay Overbury. There is also Blaise Sanford, a milionaire, that follows the political career of Clay Overbury. Clay is an ambitious, handsome and charming man, whose false dedication to the senator is going to give him a prestigious career in the American politics. He gets married to Enid Sanford. Clay is hated by Blaise Sanford in the beginning but he ends up being loved , even if for the wrong reasons.
The book shows the greatness of the American empire during the presidency of F. D. Rooselvelt and goes into the terror period of McCarthy.

A good way to understand American politics.

Summer Reading III...

" A Concubina Russa" by Kate Furnivall is an incredibly romantic and epic book. The story story begins in 1917 in Russia and ends in China, Junchow.
The story is about two rrussian refugees in China who live a very poor and difficult life. They, mother and daugther struggle to survive in a very hostile community, the old China with its ancient culture and criminality and the international community settled there.
The young girl, Lydia, is a brave character that goes through many adventures but above all great changes, the discovery of a forbidden love with a young communist chinese boy, the discovery of her own identity and the secrets of her mother.
I loved the book because I love to " travel" to distant and unknown cultures. The book is a valuable source of information about China and international politics too.
A beautiful love story.

Summer Reading II...

This is a post written immediately after having finished reading another book.

This is an extraordinary book about an extrordinary woman who became a Pope of Rome in the ancient times of 853 .

The book of " A Papisa Joana" written by Donna Woolfolk Cross, is the story of a young and brilliant girl who fought against all odds to have the right to learn. To have an academic education was forbbiden to girls because they were considered inferior. Joana, fought against her cruel father, against her mother, against the law of men just to have the pleasure to learn and to study. She was a brilliant student but also persecuted because of her intelligence. She lived most of her life hiding herself under the clothes of men.

Her intelligence, skills as doctor and character take her to Rome and near the Popes. Elected as one of them, she had dedicated those brief times as Pope to help the poorest.

The book is also about her love story.

She died in 855 in the streets of Rome while giving birth to a still-born child.

A book that absorbs our attention till the end.

Summer Reading I...

I love reading. I've already told you about this passion of mine.

Reading takes me very far away, it takes me to distant places, I meet new people and new cultures.

This year I've already read some books...

To start with I must recommend the Stieg Larson trilogy.

The first book "Os homens que odeiam as mulheres", the second " A rapariga que sonhava com uma lata de gasolina e um fósforo" and the third " A rainha no palácio das correntes de ar", are to be read in this order because the story, the lives of the famous journalist Mikael Blomkvist, of the strange girl and hacker Lisbeth Salander and many others are developed through the three books.

These books are a combination of romance with a thriller. Once you start reading....you can't stop.I vividly recommend this author who died before his work was acknowledged by the literary world.

R.I.P Portuguese Literature Nobel Prize...

José Saramago, the Portuguese Literature Nobel Prize, has just died in his home in Lanzarote, Spain.

José Saramago left the Portuguese and the world an enormous legacy in Literature. His literary works are of great pride for all the portuguese.

The Portuguese cultural scene is now poorer.

He wrote fabulous books such as Memorial do Convento, Levantado do Chão, Todos os Nomes and for me, a masterpiece Ensaio sobre a Cegueira ...to name but a few.

Rest In Peace.

Douro Valley...

A wonderful day spent in the most spectacular Oporto Wine region , Douro, in the North of Portugal.

A place worth a visit!