Spring is here at last, with all four seasons in one day! With regards to the National Book Month we would like to share with you the books we like to read, rain or shine. What is your favourite read? Leave a comment on our Facebook page.
Hanka recommends...
One of my favourite books is All the light we cannot see by Anthony Doerr .
It’s a historical novel set during World War II. The emphasis is on the act of humanity, the theme of loss and the imaginary power of light we all possess inside that can light up the path against the darkness and circumstances related to the war and its impact on our life.
The story is told in chapters. Each chapter reveals the lives of 2 main characters, Marie-Laure LeBlanc and Werner Pfennig. Marie is a blind, 6-year-old girl who lives in Paris trying to navigate her world with the help of her father. Werner is a young, intelligent orphan who gets an opportunity to attend a Reich-sponsored school. Both of them have to face difficulties while growing up: Marie has to deal with the loss of her mum and her blindness while Werner has to pay off his education by the loss of his humanity due to serving the Reich.
The story ends which their meeting, which forms a climax of the story. It is not a traditional love story. Nevertheless, Werner falls in love with Marie and later rescues her from death and helps her escape the city, which is still under siege, redeeming himself through this act of courage in defiance of his so-called duty to the Reich.
I like this novel a lot because it shows us that despite war and its impact on everybody’s life, people still didn’t forget to behave as human beings. Not everybody was influenced by the brutality of Hitler’s reign. At the end of the novel, when you finish reading it, you have a weird but strong feeling, as if you have got the power of light, some guideline against the darkness of war, against it all. The author uses simple language with lots of metaphors that show that the human spirit’s dedication is stronger and helps us preserve our own humanity, even under desperate circumstances created by World War II.
I highly recommend this novel to anyone who loves books about World War II ?
It contains lots of facts but also imaginary language and fictional situations created just for the purpose of the story.
Zuzka recommends...
One of my favourite books is A short history of nearly everything by Bill Bryson.
Bill Bryson is a journalist-become-writer who came to fame with his fabulous travel stories. His colourful style, sharp humour and a curious mind make his books both informative and thoroughly enjoyable.
He later extended his interest to other subjects and wrote several books on the English language (Troublesome words, Mother tongue, Shakespeare) and popular history (At home, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, One Summer: America 1927).
Short history is the result of Bryson’s frustration with his own scientific knowledge. He didn’t particularly enjoy his classes at school and yet always suspected there was much more to science than the textbooks offered.
“It was as if [the textbook writer] wanted to keep the good stuff secret by making all of it soberly unfathomable.”
So he decided to write a book on science that would be just as insightful as entertaining and Short history is just that. In it, he explains the history and milestones of Geology, Biology, Chemistry, Genetics and other sciences, including the obscure and fascinating details he always felt were missing from his school textbooks.
I love reading this book. I’ve read it several times and return to it frequently, even if just to dip into a few pages. It was published back in 2005 so it contains a few factual inaccuracies but, still, it’s popular science at its best.
Do you know how the Earth’s circumference was measured? Or how the size of the universe was calculated?
Silvia recommends...
Brits may have their master of suspense, but so do we!
The Slovak Hitchcock – Jozef Karika, a renowned and awarded publicist and writer, made his name with novels about Slovak gangland, mafia and corruption.
In the past years he has maddened Slovak readers with mysterious thrillers Strach (Fear), Trhlina (Gap) and Priepasť (Chasm).
When I don’t read for knowledge, I read for relax and Karika’s novels are meant to drive you away from everyday state of mind. Gripping, with rich, expansive vocabulary and wording, references to the social situation and historical happenings, unsettling feeling bordering with fascination – the perfect page-turner I save only for my holidays. Too good for ordinary days ! ?
Max recommends...
I’d definitely recommend reading War of the worlds by H.G Wells. The sci-fi approach is really interesting and the story quite gripping as well: it’s pretty much about Martians invading the Earth, and how humans are „coping“ with it. The lexicon is rich and the book is altogether very well written, which makes it challenging to read for natives and non-natives alike (as a matter of fact, I‘ve recommended it to some of my advanced students).
Josh recommends...
How many times have people asked me what my favorite book is? Countless times where I had to answer a question that is so difficult to answer given how many books I could discuss for hours. However, One Hundred Years of Solitude is always my answer, an immediate one. I adore every single line written. I feel blessed that I was able to read it in Spanish as the adjectives used are real, magical, well-thought and mind blowing.
One Hundred Years of Solitude defines magical realism with Gabriel García Márquez’s point of view of how human beings really are by portraying the desire for solitude and the need of feeling love in such a beautiful written prose, the simplicity of how sadness and love come hand in hand and how life is easy and complicated at the same time. It’s an epic tragedy following a long line of familial insanity that will squeeze your brain into understanding every single line. García Márquez is telling us the worst so that we can picture the best and, in a way, question our own lights and shadows.
“He really had been through death, but he had returned because he could not bear the solitude.”