Welcome again to Page Turn: the Largo Public Library Podcast. Please subscribe and tell your friends!
The Spanish Language Book Review begins at 8:45 and end at 11:40
The English Language Transcript can be found below
Episode three’s Reader’s Advisory is His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik. If you like His Majesty’s Dragon you should also check out: The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch, Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho, and A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan.
My personal favorite Goodreads list His Majesty’s Dragon is on is “Book Recommendations for Daenerys Targaryen”
Episode three’s Library Tidbit comes from Ben Wiley. Ben is a retired professor of film and literature at SPC and is a current volunteer at the Friends of the Library Bookstore. When not volunteering, Ben writes BookStories for Creative Loafing. You can find his work at Ben Wiley. This BookStory is Rabid for Reading. We really appreciate Ben coming on to the Pod and we hope you check out his work. The library staff makes sure to read them when they come out.
Here is the English language Translation of Viajero de Libros, or Book Traveler:
Welcome to Book Traveler. My name is Victor and I am the Outreach Librarian here at Largo Public Library.
In this segment I am going to talk about a book that we have in the Spanish collection and I hope you are encouraged to read it.
This month’s book is The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
First, a small synopsis of the book:
Dawn in 1945, a boy is led by his father to a mysterious place hidden in the heart of the old city: the Cemetery of the Forgotten Books. There he finds The Shadow of the Wind , a cursed book that will change the course of his life and drag him into a labyrinth of intrigues and secrets buried in the dark soul of the city. Set in the enigmatic Barcelona of the early twentieth century, this literary mystery mixes techniques of storytelling, intrigue, historical novel, and comedy of manners, but is, above all, a historical tragedy of love whose echo is projected through time. With great narrative force, the author intertwines plots and enigmas, like Russian dolls, in an unforgettable story about the secrets of the heart and the enchantment of books, keeping up the intrigue to the last page.
It is a spectacular book. A tribute to books and the passion for reading. I have to confess that the first time I tried to read it, it bored me; but I tried again a few months later and I could not let go. I guess I was not prepared for Zafón’s kind of narrative: very poetic, simple but heavy. However, once I got used to it I found it completely addictive.
The Shadow of the Wind has a beautiful story full of magic and mystery around a special novel and a very particular author. Old Barcelona is a wonderful setting. Shadow of the Wind has a large, diverse list of characters, my favorite, Fermín Romero de Torres, is one of the best and wisest characters that I have had the opportunity to read.
The plot of the book has everything, mysteries to solve, love, romance, passion, violence, injustice, deceit, danger, and pain. I do not know what else you can ask for in a book. I enjoyed reading this a lot, it enriched my vocabulary and I felt that I lived inside the story while reading it. But despite of all this, I must also say that I do not recommend this book to a beginner Spanish reader, since both its language and its narrative is dense.
I leave you with one of my favorite phrases from the book: “Books are mirrors: you only see in them what you already have inside.”
Some upcoming library events to keep track of:
July 2 3 and 5: Summer Games and Crafts at 2:00pm in the Children’s Program Room
July 9: Teen Scene: Let’s Get Creative at 5:00pm in the Teen Room
July 9: Poets Live! At 6:30pm in the 1st Floor Quiet Reading Room
July 10: Instagram and Your Brand at 6:00pm in Jenkins Room A
July 11: Children’s Summer Entertainment: Drumming with Giving Tree Music at 2:00pm in the Jenkins Wing
July 16: 100 Years of Popular Songs at 6:30pm in the Gallery
July 30: Issues that Matter: How to Be an Ally at 6:00pm in Jenkins Room C
Thanks everyone for supporting the podcast. For everyone interested our intro music is by Break the Bans and the outro music is by Jahzzar, both artists can be found on Free Music Archive.
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