A book can be the best companion for a trip, whatever your literary tastes.
As the holidays start to smell like a holiday, it’s that time of the year when you start going through the books on your bedside table. Over the next few weeks it will be easier to find time off to hop on a minibus and open a book. Integralia have looked at the latest new publications to give you some suggestions on how to relax and enjoy a good read at the same time.
As Joan-Carles Mèlich, winner of the last National Essay Prize, wrote in his ‘Philosophy of summer’: “Reading in summer can be reading to pass the time, reading to rest, to disconnect. But it can also be reading to live, reading to not know, reading for nothing, because reading is also that, something that is done simply because it is done, without any project or purpose”.
In that case, if you want to read to discover new things, try ‘And three apples fell from the sky’ (Navona), by the Armenian writer Nariné Abgarián, a fable that explores the beauty of small details halfway between reality and magic.
If you want to know what a person’s childhood was like in post-war Ireland, try ‘The Invisible Furies of the Heart’ (Salamandra), by John Boyle, the author of ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’, although this time he talks about a man’s struggle to find his place in the world.
If you enjoy historical novels full of details and descriptions of the period, then Maggie O’Farrell’s ‘The Married Portrait’ (Libros del Asteroide) is for you. On this occasion, the British author describes the life of Lucrezia de Medici, just as she did with the young Shakespeare in ‘Hamnet’.
If cooking is your thing, take a look at ‘Cooking with popcorn’ (Editorial Ondas del Espacio), with 100 recipes related to films and historical series.
And finally, if you enjoy music, you can find out a little more about the pop music of the movidas in Madrid and Vigo in the book ‘Bailaréis sobre mi tumba’ (Seix Barral), the second novel by Alba Carballal.
That’s all. Enjoy reading while you can.