The Beautiful Life

Érase una vez México, Tomo 1: De las Cavernas al Virreinato by Sandra Molina Arceo My rating: 4 of 5 stars I was never good at Mexican history, and I never held in my memory any of the key information I should've known as a Mexican. But I tried to change this situation by reading this book, and I have to admit that I never knew that Mexico's story was this interesting. This book goes from the very beginning of Mexico and its native people to the last years of the Spanish occupation, and the beginning of Mexican Independence days. It brushes through the story quickly with small side notes and funny stories that makes the reading really easy and interesting. Of course, is not the WHOLE story, because its a rather small book but for people like me who really isn't good at keeping hard data but somehow good at remembering stories it's really nice and enjoyable. I already bought all three books in this series, and I'm excited to contin...

Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist My rating: 5 of 5 stars Good book! I hate bullying and this book really made me feel desperate and helpless when it came to all the bullying scenes... but despite everything I enjoyed a lot!! I would read something from this author again sometime, but there are so many books in my To-Read list that haha maybe it will be in a while! Very recomendable! =) View all my reviews

神様はじめました 25 [Kamisama Hajimemashita 25] by Julietta Suzuki My rating: 5 of 5 stars This was my read for this whole weekend... I don’t want to add the 25 volumes of this manga because I don’t think that I read 25 books... Also, I feel like it inflates my book count and i don't want that, so instead I’ll just add the last volume. This is my favorite anime/manga series of all times... matching even Dragon Ball and Sailor Moon which are my favorites because are part of my childhood. I’ve seen the anime more than 2 times and this weekend I finally decided to read the whole manga and it was totally worth it, so much more story, more love, more things that I didn’t understand explained. Why I loved this story so much... of course... Tomoe. Tomoe is by far my favorite male character! He’s strong, powerful, feared, dominant but vulnerable, sweet and loving; only to Nanami, of course. I love his growth, his confidence and everything related to this charact...

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia My rating: 3 of 5 stars It was ok, I liked that for a change the story was told from the boy point of view. This book had lots of magic, lots of supernatural beings, lots of history, which made it very appealing to me, but I have to say, it's not the best YA magical book I've read. Main characters, teenagers and SO dramatic. Fun to read, but dramatic all the same. I liked the mental connection they shared, but even thought they had this cool means of wireless communication they sometimes forgot to use it in key moments... Of course, is the 1st of a book saga, of I think 4 or 5 books... I'd like to know what's next, but I don't feel the need to continue immediately haha so that should speak for the book... It's a good fun read, but maybe there are better books? I don't know. View all my reviews

Cuentos de buenas noches para niñas rebeldes by Elena Favilli My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is a LOVELY book filled with empowering stories for girls of all ages. I bought this book for my 6 year-old niece and we were reading one of this stories every night, and it was amazing how much she loved it and would bring it to me every night. Unfortunately I came to live to Japan and left the book back home so it took me longer to finish it. But finally I managed. The book itself is a work of art, it gathers not only the amazing stories of 100 magnificent women but also 100 beautiful portraits by 100 different female artists. The stories in it are one page long and easy to read and explain even to small kids, and tell the lives and most important achievements of important women like Jane Austin, Frida Khalo, Malala Yousafzai, Michelle Obama, Alek Wek, Maria Montessori, Cleopatra, and many many others. From all around the world and from ancestral times to thi...

Rough Guide To Japanese Dictionary Phrasebook 2 by Lexus Ltd. My rating: 2 of 5 stars It's a good Japanese guide and phrase book if you're a native english speaker, I could read and understand it all but since Spanish has a much more similar pronunciation to Japanese, it's very confusing to try and learn it from an english stand point. It has lots of advice on how to navigate through Japanese culture and traditions and that's what I liked the most about the little book. I feel like this book is for the people who don't know any Japanese and has to carry the book around for reference. View all my reviews

Parade by Shūichi Yoshida My rating: 2 of 5 stars This book falls completely into the "slice of life" genre that is so popular in Japan. It is narrated by 5 different characters throughout a time range of a few months. Ryosuke, Kotomi, Mirai, Naoki and later Satoru, find themselves living in the same apartment and sharing a life... the thing is they were not friends before, they just happened to be there and stay... they all have their own problems and ways of dealing with them, feeling that oversharing with the other inmates will cross the line that makes their living together be in total harmony. All of them one way or another know that their living arrangements are not permanent and for this reason find easy to oversee the superficial life they all share. Meanwhile, young Satoru their newest roommate lives a dangerous night life and has a very rare pastime, also they discover their own neighbor is running a shady business, and violent as...

The Toymakers by Robert Dinsdale My rating: 5 of 5 stars Fantasy in times of war, life-long love, magic toys, new life and life loss... all of this you'll find in this story... all this you find in the Emporium. It was heartbreakingly beautiful!! I've no way to describe all the feelings this book made me go through, it gave me wonder, despair, sadness, happiness, wonder again! Few books have made me feel tearfully grateful is over the way it is... and as happy as this one did. This book talks about harsh topics such as teen pregnancy, war atrocities, post-war trauma... but at the same time introduces them to you in a way that's not as horrible as it is in our minds. The author really told the story through a veil of fantasy that even though told very difficult stories everything seemed just as fantastical as the world inside the Emporium. I absolutely loved this book, and I can't wait to read more from this author! View a...

The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler My rating: 3 of 5 stars 3.5 stars haha It was a good story, I read its summary a long time ago so I didn't remember what it was about and it turned out it was nothing of what I was expecting, it was a surprise! Even though I liked the story, it was one of those books where the characters could've sold many things much before things went bad if they just talked to each other honestly, but it's not an easy thing to do in many stories apparently. This book is told in two time lines, the first in present time where a librarian is sent a book who turns out to have data about his past relatives; and a group of traveling performers (like a circus, before the circus was a thing) from the 1700s who stumble upon 2 very unusual characters that become the start of a curse that lasts for generations. We find circus performers old and new, mermaids, a wild boys, an electric boy, a tarot reader and among others a ...

Blog Prompt No. 7 Aren’t we starting with the very hard questions? hahaha but ok, here it goes... Professionally? I should start a master’s degree, I could start if I wanted… but I’m not sure yet… so I don’t do it haha !! Personally, I’ve no idea... I acctually have to sit and think about where I want to be in life… Life is hard… hard indeed… but as long as I have my family, friends and my books I’m quite happy!! haha so for the time being… it’s ok!

This is not recently read book, but I did read it this year. SInce I’ve got a few Murakami books in my reading queue I might as well make use of the tag… 😋 ⭐️⭐️⭐️ I gave this book 3 stars, but as in 3.5 stars… it was a short weird story. Here some review/summary of it. It was originaly written in spanish, so I’ll leave the spanish version at the bottom. Time flows slower after the sun has set. This book story happens in one night, a weird night, but maybe all nights are this strange but one’s never there to witness its anomalies. In this story we’re with the author, and together we’re a bodiless being that overflies a handfull of people in Tokyo City. We watch them go about in their nightly doings and interactions. Everybody bears no apparent relation to one another, but at the same time, the night unites them all... I liked the book, but there were some items missing that I would’ve like the author to elaborate on, but over all a good unexpected book. ** SPANISH VERSION ** El tiempo ...

This book was nothing like the kind of books I normally read. It was good, but not amazing, not for me at least. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ I gave it 3 stars… just plain 3. It was a good story, with lots of symbols I guess… but I’m at a stage where I like straightforward stories.. and this was not one of them. There might be spoilers ahead, so be warned. ** Spoilers ** This book talks about the life-long-story of Anthony Webster, Veronica Ford and Adrian Finn. Anthony or Tony, is the main character and the one’s point of view from where we see the story unfold, he had some friends at school and when a new very smart new student arrived to the class they turned their 3 man group in a 4 man group, the new addition was Adrian Finn. They all had very profound kind of talks, but Adrian was known to be the most mature of them all. Later in life when they were all off to college, they separated and Tony found a girlfriend, Veronica, with whom he dated some years and later fell out of love. But to his surprise, s...

It has been a while… 😅 I’ve had a lot of work lately, which is good but keeps me from doing the stuff that I like (this included haha), so anyway… about maybe 2 or 3 weeks ago I had a small gathering at my house with my friends from the Book Club, and no, it was not about books, it was a farewell party for a friend who’s going back to her house in Spain. This won’t be a long written post, I’d like to show you how the party decorations went, because I love to do that! With the help of my book club friends, we made the following items: Suitcase Candy Box Farewell Banner Pompom Banner Polaroid Message Table Here are some pictures from the party. I really liked how the party went, and the decoration as well. I hope I can do more stuff like this later. I’ll write about it when it happens again.

This book, OMG this book!! I’ve been wanting to read this book ever since I read about it on Goodreads (I think it was GoodReads), basically it said the book was about an impossible heist attempted by a bunch of people that did not get along… it got me! I love group dinamics, complicated characters and relationships, I love action, I love fantasy, and it basically promissed all the the things I look for in a book!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This review will be a little shorter than the previous ones I’ve made, but it may contain spoilers so, be warned! ** Some Spoilers Ahead ** At the beginning of the book we’re introduced to a drug called jurda that helps workers, guards, etc, to endure while long shifts of work, but instead of the harmless one, we see people experimenting on grisha with an enhanced variation of the drug called jurda parem, which basically makes their powers more potent, much more potent, so it can only be used by them and not regular people. Apparently, the Six of Crows bo...

Long time no see! I’ll try to be brief with this one, because it’s taking me very long to write reviews/summary and I’ve been reading more books than the ones I write about! The book name is My Sister’s Grave written by Robert Dugoni, and it is the first one of the series of Detective Tracy Crosswhite’s stories? cases? ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ I gave this book 3 stars on Goodreads, but is more like 3.5 stars… but I don’t feel like giving it 4 that means 3.5…. you know what I mean? Anyway, 3.5 Stars! The book was very very intriguing, I read it so fast, like in 2 days because I couldn’t put it down, but in the end the story was not so good for me… it didn’t hold water (lol) *** SPOILERS AHEAD *** The beginning to this story is pretty straightforward we’re introduced to Tracy Crosswhite who is a detective in Seattle, and she’s told some human remains were found on a small town nearby. (Obviously, this is important…) Later we’re told that Tracy had a sister that desapeared 20 years ago a...

I love coffee, is one of the things that makes me a happy person in the morning!! Most days I drink coffee from my office, or house… but on other days I like to go to Starbucks in the morning and sit there for a half an hour to read and enjoy my coffee (or wait for it to cool down) Anyway, something that I always check while I’m waiting in line to be served are the cards!! They’re almost always different and very pretty! (I acctually never use the card because I have the Starbucks App which has the same effect) Here are some of the cards I’ve collected in the past mmm year or two... Nice right? Talk to you later!

Ok, so I read this book in Spanish and the name was La sustancia del mal, which sort of translates to The substance of evil (or something along those lines…) and I have to say, I didn't get it (the Spanish title…), it was mentioned once, and still I didn't get it. At least the English title "Beneath the Mountain" is more identifiable in the story than the Spanish one but well, in the end it doesn’t matter very much. Starting off with this, I have to say that even though it was a very thrilling story in the end I didn’t like it very much… But, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it was a bad book! It was one of those stories that capture the reader and compels to continue reading until you actually know exactly what’s going on, which I believe is something good in a book! haha but the end (ugh… you’ll find out). On with it !! **** SPOILERS AHEAD**** The first (mmmmh) 3 or 4 pages are non-sence… you sort of understand them AFTER you finish the book (or at least have read...

Blog Prompt No. 6 Name something you want to change about yourself? Personally I think there’s only 1 thing I’d like to change about myself, nothing more. I want to stop being a procrastinator… is HORRIBLE, it affects my life in so many aspects and levels… of course I get things done, but it cost me effort because most time I don’t want to or get distracted easily. Is one of the reasons its so hard to mantain this blog, because I’m not consistent and that’s because I procrastinate… I say I’ll do something and then do something else less important... I want to read…. I turn on the TV I want to write… I grab a book I want to prepare food… I go to the bed and sleep... Is not nice… haha that’s why I think that’s what I want to change! Is the personal trait that causes most problems haha =) Either way, I’m working on it…

It has been a while since I found a manga that captured my attention, even though I actually am reading Shingeki no Kyojin (which is very very popular), Tokyo Ghoul has the kind of story that always capture my attention… or, most of the times at least! No, it is not about the violence or the blood (there’s plenty of that, yeah!) but is more the humanity of the characters in a world where humanity is rare. A seemingly weak and kind lead character with lots of unknown potential, AND cutely drawn! I love cute drawings! My Number 1 filter for choosing a manga is drawings! If I don’t like the drawings, I won’t like the story! That almost always happens… but anyway, back to Tokyo Ghoul, it had nice drawings and a storyline that seemed appealing to me so I started with it. (I have to admit, that I watched the Anime series first, so I kind of knew the story already, but the anime is soo good !! that I decided to now read the manga) In this post, I decided to write about the first 7 volumes o...

Continuing with this… haha (because why not!) Prompt Entry No. 5 What’s the best thing that happened to you this week? Frist, this week covers from today to 7 days back… meaning from July 12 to July 18, 2017. Well actually this week was a good week, first, it was my niece’s 6th birthday! and I asked some days off from work and spent the whole day with her and she loved it! =) We went to a place called Kidzania, which is a small city for kids where they can play to be adults and work and earn money… (haha if they knew) But it was actually a good excercize for my niece because she had to follow orders either way but have fun at the same time! So we enjoyed it very much! That week I also rested a LOT, there was one day where I almost slept the whole day and only woke up to eat haha it was awesome! 😌 Later I visited the new house of a recently married friend and watched some concerts and movies and it was great! I cooked some, we talked a lot and enjoyed time together! Next day, it was on...