Chile – Cannonball Read 17

What would you do?

Shadows on the Ice: The 1972 Andes Disaster by Frédéric Bertocchini, Thierry Diette and Pacal Nino

March 14, 2025 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

History, CBR17 Pie Chart Challenge I am starting this with saying this is, to say the least, not an easy read. There are several situations that could be triggering. The main one is that this is about the 1972 Andes plane crash that would result in the eventual consumption of the deceased passengers. I was not completely ready for what was going to happen (and I felt I was prepared) and therefore I was not comfortable with the subject. Also, I will say that I […]

“If you don’t love yourself, how in the hell you gonna love somebody else?” RuPaul

Gay Giant by Gabriel Ebensperger

August 10, 2022 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

Yes, a graphic novel is what Gay Giant by Gabriel Ebensperger is called, but it is not the usual format of one. It is an art book, a journal, a peek into the mind of one person coming to terms with the fact that it is okay to be you, it is okay to be bigger than life as you try to live it, and it is okay to be gay (both meanings, happy and homosexual). The currently contemporary voice of Ebensperger tells us how […]

dreams fill in where memories fail

Space Invaders by Nona Fernández, Natasha Wimmer

June 5, 2021 by andtheIToldYouSos Leave a Comment

If you too are seeking respite from this surprisingly hot Saturday, I whole-heartedly recommend spending an hour curled up in front of a fan while reading Space Invaders from cover to cover. This is the second fictional account of being a child in Pinochet’s Chile to rise through my TBR pile this year; How to Order the Universe offered one girl’s story, while Space Invaders trades dreams and memories from a chorus of children who grew up too soon against the terror of the 1980s. Unlike the precocious […]

“Everything that happened next was only possible because my mother was absent. It wasn’t that she left the house much, it was that a part of her had abandoned her body and now resisted coming back.”

How to Order the Universe by María José Ferrada

March 2, 2021 by andtheIToldYouSos Leave a Comment

A precocious child, a beat-up Renault, traveling salesmen and the uneasy promise of ghosts populate this tiny but mighty book. M, our narrator, has struck a deal with her father. They haunt the dusty roads of Pinochet’s Chile as a sales-duo, using M’s charms to sway shop owners towards buy more nails, hammers, and other hardware than her father could sell on his own. If the person in charge focused on my pupils, instead of encountering me, he or she encountered every possible form of […]

A telenovela by any other name smells like a telenovela

January 17, 2017 by pluiedenovembre 2 Comments

At the end of 2016 I realized, to my horror, that I hadn’t read a single book in Spanish, so one of my main reading goals for this year is to read more books in Spanish, preferably by women. And they can’t be translations, that would be cheating, the goal is to read more Hispanophone writers. Enter Contigo en la distancia, by Chilean writer Carla Guelfenbein. This novel won one of the most famous literary prizes in the Spanish-speaking world, the Premio Alfaguara. And I […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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