What I read in 2011

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Sorry for my abscense but I've been working hard (remember, I'm a teacher) and writing my short stories and things for Norma Jean Magazine. Not an excuse, I KNOW. Anyway, this year I've discover I love making lists and I applied my new skills to record what I've read and the movies I've watched (next post). So here you have the books I've read:

-The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
-Beloved by Toni Morrison
-Heaven on Earth: 101 Happy Poems ed. by Wendy Cope
-The Machine Stops and the Celestial Omnibus by E.M. Forster
-Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro
-The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
-Que caiga el favorito by Ramiro Gairín Muñoz
-Animal Farm by George Orwell
-The Help by Kathryn Stockett
-Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
-The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

-Undeletable Scenes by Jeffrey Brown

-Maus by Art Spiegelman

-Ghost World by Daniel Clowes

-The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt

-Mother, Come Home by Paul Hornschemeier

-Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada by Pablo Neruda
-Kissing the Witch by Emma Donoghue
-Manderley en venta by Patricia Esteban Erlés
-The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
-The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy by Tim Burton
-Casa de Muñecas (Doll's House) by Henrik Ibsen
-Summer and the City by Candace Bushnell
-La tienda de los suicidas by Jean Teulé
-Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
-Ten: New Poets ed. by Evaristo & Nagra

-I Killed Adolf Hitler by Jason

-Everything We Miss by Luke Pearson

-Holocaust Poetry ed. by Hilda Schiff

-Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

-Guía de hoteles inventados by Oscar Sipán

And the best one is...written in bold. I strongly recommend Safran Foer. In 2012 I want to read "Everything is Illuminated" by this same author.
And the great discovery this year has been graphic novels. Just take a look at the green titles.

I wish you all a great 2012 full of good stories!

Very Short Story: The Nail

Just like he did when he was a kid, when the screaming escaped through the open doors, he passed the fingernail across the softest part of his arm, back and forth, once and again, turning it from pale to light pink until a subtle line of blood drew his distress. Now the source of his anguish wasn’t his parents but life, or rather the lack of it, so he thought. Is it life a life without love, a job, nothing to believe in? While he was struggling between yes and no, his nail, his body, had already decided.

"Mort Dieu" by Karen McCarthy Woolf

Our son

dear God

is dead

and gone.

His tomb

was red

with blood

and warm

as tears.

He was

born still.

Was this

dear God

your will?

(Photo by Mary Lou, photoshopped by me)

So Far this Week #18

I found THE TREE OF LIFE a fanstastic and beautiful movie, that's all I have to say. THE GUARDIAN and WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS were two terrible mistakes and curiously enough, Ashton Kutcher is in both of them... THE WOMEN and FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS were a surprising amount of fun. THE MACKINTOSH MAN was really entertaining considering I hate spy movies. HARRY POTTER is always a good way of spending time, even more if you remember Voldemort as a child and teen. And it is always a big pleasure watching LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE.

Coloured Seaside

My first, my last, my everything...

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

So Far this Week #17 (although it's more like this month)

 

Some comments:

1. The Skin I Live In  is AMAZINGLY GOOD! You can debate on whether it is or not a masterpiece but it surely is something NEW.

2. Captain America is the worst movie I've suffered in a long time.

3. The Mission was a huge disappointment. I imagined the movie was as good as the soundtrack. Wrong.

4. Rewatching The Graduate and Philadelphia is always a tremendous PLEASURE.

Bitches on the Move

Yesterday I had some guests to dinner and this is what we did after eating like pigs: taking photos. The result? Mostly this, featuring Mary Lou, Bea and Guillermo. Waiting for your comments!

 

THE CREW