Fahrenheit 451: A Novel by Ray Bradbury My rating: 3 of 5 stars This is one of those books I always heard about, but hadn’t actually read, so I finally got around to it. This short novel follows “fireman” Guy Montag as he begins to question the society he lives in, and its emphasis on [...]

My father just forwarded me an email he received from AbeBooks.com which gathered the top 10 books written by librarians. Here is the content of the email and their selection of books. AbeBooks loves librarians. Librarians love AbeBooks. (And we think everyone else loves librarians too aside from the bean-counters who keep cutting their budgets.) [...]

This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All by Marilyn Johnson My rating: 5 of 5 stars I picked up a galley of this book while attending ALA Midwinter, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Marilyn Johnson became interested in librarians while researching her previous book on obituaries, and running into a few [...]

Gringo: A Coming of Age in Latin America by Chesa Boudin My rating: 4 of 5 stars I picked up this book because of the title; I’m a big fan of the word “Gringo.” And for those of you who are about to get offended, know that I am the daughter of a self-proclaimed “gringo” [...]

RTVE.es is Spain’s Radio and Television Corporation, and between news reports and other stories they also include reviews of the world’s literary classics. Presenter Esther Lorenzo creates brief descriptions of the story, gives some historical background, gives a little description of the specific edition she read, and encourages the listener to read the classics. Currently [...]

Una Botella de Ron pa’l Flaco: Crónicas Caleñas by Juan Manuel Caicedo My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is a collection of personal narratives by students affiliated with Universidad ICESI, which cover a wide range of Caleño society. Here you’ll meet a young Goth woman, an old Japanese-Colombian woman, a street mime who sets [...]

Razones de vida by Vera Grabe My rating: 5 of 5 stars I looked up this book because I was curious to read the story of one of Colombia’s guerilla groups (The M-19) from their point of view. Vera Grabe‘s story is similar to that of many other guerrilla fighters, they want to believe that [...]

Anne Boleyn: A New Life of England’s Tragic Queen by Joanna Denny My rating: 3 of 5 stars In this book Denny sets out to “correct” the negative impression history has left on Anne Boleyn, but unfortunatly she goes to the opposite extreme painting Boleyn as a passive victim to Henry VIII and history. The [...]

AMANDO A PABLO. ODIANDO A ESCOBAR by VALLEJO VIRGINIA My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is Virginia Vallejo’s version of her relationship with Pablo Escobar, and of Colombia’s history during the late 80′s and early 90′s. As Escobar’s lover she seems to have had a front row seat to some of the biggest events [...]

Mexican Enough: My Life Between the Borderlines by Stephanie Elizondo Griest My rating: 3 of 5 stars This is an interesting book, although it really only scratched the surface of the many issues it tried to explore. The main thrust behind Griest’s time abroad was to discover her roots, and while it seems she got [...]