Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Leite Derramado, Chico Buarque


Novel written by Chico Buarque, a very famous and exceptionally talented songwriter and singer from Brazil. I've been his fan since I was 7 years old. The first song I new by heart was his. My whole lifetime I've been his fan! And now he writes novels and they are excellent. This is his 4th novel. I liked the 3rd one (Budapest) a lot. It's a pity because his novels probably won't be translated to English. This one was very good, showing a superb mastering of language and its rhythm.

Livro do Chico, de quem sou fã de carterinha desde os 7 anos. A vida toda. A primeira música que decorei foi dele. E agora o safado escreve e escreve bem demais. Já tinha gostado de Budapeste. E esse livro agora é ótimo, mostra um domínio incrível sobre a linguagem e seu ritmo. Mas também, se ele não tem isso, quem vai ter?

Silent in the Sanctuary, by Deanna Raybourn


Second in the Lady Julia Grey series. Like the first one, is full of clichés but is well written and quite a page turner. You can read it in a couple of days. It's not going to change your life, you're not going to learn anything, but it's going to provide you moments of escape of the world around you. That's a lot, because this kind of oblivion doesn't give a hangover the next day.

Friday, August 14, 2009

Silent in the Grave, by Deanna Raybourn


Lots of clichés, but the author knows how to make the reader keep on turning the pages...Perfect for vacations and airplanes, or when you're sick.

Um monte de clichés, mas a autora sabe como fazer com que o leitor continue lendo...Perfeito prá férias e aviões, ou quando se está doente.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Slammerkin, by Emma Donoghue


It's an imaginative narrative, full of almost crude details. It's about a girl who turns to prostitution in 18th century England. She has a short but quite eventful life. The book is well researched and not very well written. It's a middle brow historic fiction.

É uma narrativa imaginativa, cheia de detalhes quase que crus demais. É sobre uma menina que se torna prostituta na Inglaterra do século 18. Ela tem uma vida curta mas repleta de acontecimentos. O livro é bem pesquisado mas não muito bem escrito. É fição histórica para grande público.

Monday, August 3, 2009

A Cotswold Killing, by Rebecca Tope


It's the first one of a series about Thea Osbourne, a house sitter in the English countryside. She wants to solves a couple of murders that happened in the house she is in. But I thought the book was not very well written; kind of boring, over explained and she arrived in many conclusions that I didn't understand. Reading the dialogue I thought that Thea disliked someone; but it seems I was wrong, she liked the person. And that happened many times, with people, or something that occurred. Quite confusing. I'll probably not going to read the following books of the series.

É o primeiro livro de uma série sobre a Thea Osborne, que toma conta de casas quando as pessoas viajam no interior da Inglaterra. Ela quer solucionar dois assassinatos que aconteceram na casa que ela está cuidando. Mas achei que o livro não é muito bem escrito; meio chato, super explicado e ela chegou a várias conclusões que eu não entendi. Lendo o diálogo pensei que a Thea não gostava de alguém; mas parece que eu estava errada, ela gostou da pessoa. E isso aconteceu um monte de vezes, com pessoas ou com coisas que aconteceram. Muito confuso. Eu provavelmente não vou ler os livros seguintes da série.