Tiny Little Thing, de Beatriz Williams
Género: Ficción Histórica (con mucho romance)
In the summer of 1966, Christina Hardcastle—“Tiny” to her illustrious family—stands on the brink of a breathtaking future. Of the three Schuyler sisters, she’s the one raised to marry a man destined for leadership, and with her elegance and impeccable style, she presents a perfect camera-ready image in the dawning age of television politics. Together she and her husband, Frank, make the ultimate power couple: intelligent, rich, and impossibly attractive. It seems nothing can stop Frank from rising to national office, and he’s got his sights set on a senate seat in November. But as the season gets underway at the family estate on Cape Cod, three unwelcome visitors appear in Tiny’s perfect life: her volatile sister Pepper, an envelope containing incriminating photograph, and the intimidating figure of Frank’s cousin Vietnam-war hero Caspian, who knows more about Tiny’s rich inner life than anyone else. As she struggles to maintain the glossy façade on which the Hardcastle family’s ambitions are built, Tiny begins to suspect that Frank is hiding a reckless entanglement of his own…one that may unravel both her own ordered life and her husband’s promising career.
Tiny Little Thing by Beatriz WilliamsMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Historia de época (Guerra de Vietnam, años '60) contada en dos voces (Caspian y Tiny) y en años distintos (1964 y 1966).
Fue una lectura ligera, no se enfoca demasiado en la guerra sino en sus personajes principales. Más que nada en la hipocresía de una familia de plata que quiera dar la imagen perfecta en medio de la campaña política del hijo mayor, Frank, y que no va a parar por nada con tal de quedar bien ante los ojos del público. Lastimando así, en el camino, a casi todos los integrantes, forzándolos a a vivir en una mentira.
Me gustó mucho más de lo que me esperaba en un principio. Como regla, trato de no leer libros sobre soldados yanquis ya que nunca comparto las opiniones patrióticas de sus personajes (las odio, en realidad). Sin embargo, como dije antes, esta novela no gasta demasiadas palabras alabando las "Virtudes" de atacar países y, como bien dice uno de los personajes (view spoiler) , "matar mujeres y niños inocentes sólo porque su país decide tener un sistema socioeconómico y político distinto al capitalismo", sino que pone el énfasis en la vida de los personajes, los matrimonios fallidos, los amores desencontrados y las relaciones familiares (madre/hija; padre/hijo; hermana/hermana, etc.).
Está escrito de manera bien sencilla pero llevadera, de modo que se lee rápido y sin problemas.
Recomendado para lectores a quienes les gustan los amores en épocas difíciles, con trasfondo político y muchos secretos familiares.
The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition, de Caroline Alexander
Género: No ficción.
In August 1914, days before the outbreak of the First World War, the renowned explorer Ernest Shackleton and a crew of twenty-seven set sail for the South Atlantic in pursuit of the last unclaimed prize in the history of exploration: the first crossing on foot of the Antarctic continent. Weaving a treacherous path through the freezing Weddell Sea, they had come within eighty-five miles of their destination when their ship, Endurance, was trapped fast in the ice pack. Soon the ship was crushed like matchwood, leaving the crew stranded on the floes. Their ordeal would last for twenty months, and they would make two near-fatal attempts to escape by open boat before their final rescue.
Drawing upon previously unavailable sources, Caroline Alexander gives us a riveting account of Shackleton's expedition--one of history's greatest epics of survival. And she presents the astonishing work of Frank Hurley, the Australian photographer whose visual record of the adventure has never before been published comprehensively. Together, text and image re-create the terrible beauty of Antarctica, the awful destruction of the ship, and the crew's heroic daily struggle to stay alive, a miracle achieved largely through Shackleton's inspiring leadership.
The survival of Hurley's remarkable images is scarcely less miraculous: The original glass plate negatives, from which most of the book's illustrations are superbly reproduced, were stored in hermetically sealed cannisters that survived months on the ice floes, a week in an open boat on the polar seas, and several more months buried in the snows of a rocky outcrop called Elephant Island. Finally Hurley was forced to abandon his professional equipment; he captured some of the most unforgettable images of the struggle with a pocket camera and three rolls of Kodak film.
The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition by Caroline AlexanderMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Tengo pasión por todo lo que sean historias de supervivencia y/o acontecimientos históricos, sobre todo si los libros que leo sobre ellos tienen documentos de la época/fotos/etc.
Este en particular trata la historia de SIR Shackleton, un explorador polar, obsesionado por cumplir una meta casi imposible (para la época, me refiero a principios del siglo veinte, poco antes de la Primera Guerra Mundial), la Expedición Imperial Transantártica, con la cual pretendía atravesar el continente antártico.
Todo ésto con una tripulación de 27 hombres; entre ellos, un capitán-Frank Worsley-; el fotógrafo , Frank Hurley, gracias a quién existen las decenas de fotos que documentan el viaje y todas sus consecuencias; doctores, biólogos, decenas de perros y, por supuesto, la importantísima presencia de MRS. CHIPPY, la gara de Harry McNish, el carpintero; a bordo del barco Endurance
...nombre que refleja a la perfección la el carácter inquebrantable y perseverante de Ernest Shackleton, lo que a fin de cuentas, fue lo que en gran parte ayudó y, eventualmente, salvó a las personas que vivieron atrapados en el hielo y oceano durante dos años. La fuerza, la personalidad de Shackleton fue más que su amado barco. Y eso está plasmado en el libro.
Absolutamente fascinante, sobre todo si son fanáticos de historias verdaderas que pasaron hace siglos (un siglo nomás, en este caso) y de las cuales todavía quedan retazos para analizar, fotos o evidencias a ver y leer, voces, testimonios, piezas a armar, etc.
Excelente expedición hacia el fondo del asunto; de la recuperación del pasado, de las vivencias de un grupo de hombres que no se dejaron vencer por el frío ni el hambre.
5/5
Ripple: A Predilection for Tina
by Dave Cooper
Género: Novela Gráfica para Adultos
Ripple is a breakthrough graphic novel for Dave Cooper, creator of the wildly surreal and critically-acclaimed graphic novels Crumple and Suckle. Unlike those works, Ripple is a highly realistic story in terms of subject matter and drawing style. Martin is a floundering painter desperately attempting to pursue his fine art inclinations rather than toil in the world of commercial art. He hires a homely model, Tina, to pose for a series of "erotic" paintings that he hopes will be his breakthrough into the gallery world. Over time, Martin and Tina's relationship evolves from a tenuous working relationship to a confused sexual one. Martin's initial repulsion for Tina slowly turns to attraction and eventually lust, causing him to re-evaluate his own notions of beauty and sexuality. Meanwhile, Tina's own motives behind working for Martin are slowly turned upside down as well, building the book towards its inevitably explosive end. Throughout it all, Ripple is a complex love story poked and prodded from all angles, from Martin and Tina's physical and emotional feelings toward each other, Martin's dishonesty to himself, Tina's self-loathing, and everything in between. Sad, funny, and often uncomfortably titillating, Ripple is a remarkably introspective graphic novel, rendered with kinetic realism in a pen technique that calls to mind a more controlled Edward Sorel and Jules Feiffer.
Ripple: A Predilection for Tina by Dave CooperMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
¿Qué puedo decir?...
Lo leí en menos de una hora. Más allá del sexo, me pareció una historia muy interesante. No de amor, claro está, pero de sí de obsesión sexual.
¿Da para la canción de Soda?, ♬ ♭ ...ella conoce mi perversión, en una noche larga .... ♩ ♪ ♫
No apto para menores de 21 años.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario