Paper Towns is about a story that starts with two characters; Quentin ‘Q’ Jacobsen and Margo Roth Spiegelman. Their lives and paths where completely different, but all changed when one day she appeared in his bedroom in the middle of the night asking him for help to join her on a mission of revenge.
Our protagonists spend all night in an adventure doing what she planned; getting revenge on his friends and her ex-boyfriend for cheating.

Margo has always been Quentin’s crush, furthermore she was his neighbour but he never had the chance to talk with her because they were opposite poles, he was shy and introverted and she was one of the most popular girls in their school.
The morning after Margo didn’t go at school, the days were passing by and Quentin was everyday more worried until one day he found one clue of her, that lead him to other clues and he came to the conclusion that she wanted him to go for her. In the research, two friends of Quentin, one friend of Margo and a detective join him to find her location.

At the end of the story they find her. Quentin and his friends go to a trip to Agloe, New York where they find Margo and she explains to Quentin that she wasn’t leaving clews to be searched but to leave signals of life. She also proposes to Quentin to stay with her in the Paper Town but he refuses her proposition because he tells her he has a life in Florida.
They finally kiss and say their last goodbye, Quentin leaves the town with his friends.

In my opinion, the book was interesting, I like the relation between the two protagonists but I hate how the story ends because it is all about how he searches for Margo and at the end she refuses him, making the plot twist so forced and sad, leaving the reader so disappointed and unhappy.
To sum up, I liked so much the story and the argument but the end was so surprisingly disappointing.

Maria Foix Franco

This story explains the exploits from Jay Gatsby to continue with the love relationship between them and Daisy Buchanan.

The main character, Nick Carraway, moved to live from the lake Forest to a small house near the huge mansion of Gatsby, near New York.  It’s a pretty place where the new fortunes moved to and built big houses and mansions near the sea.

Nick wants to be a writer but he declines to work as and work in a big company as a seller. His cousin, Daisy Buchannan is married to the almost richer man of New York, Tom Buchannan. Both of them live in front of Nick’s house.

One day, he goes to visit his cousin and eat something with her husband in their mansion and after having lunch, Nick and Tom travel to New York. They picked up on the way Myrtle Wilson, wife of Gorge Wilson, a car mechanics from the surround of the city. That day nick discovered they were lovers.

Jay Gatsby made huge parties in his mansion, where all the important people from New York went. In one of this parties, Nick met Gatsby and explain that they have to arrange a meeting with his cousin. They also explained to Nick that he already knows Daisy, because he met five years ago, but he had to go to the war and they lose the contact after. But he still loves her.

Gatsby was poor when he was young, left his house to look for something better. After the war met Dan Cody, a rich man to whom saved, and he explain everything he wants.

Nick finally arranged a meeting to Daisy and Gatsby. Daisy didn’t know that she would come back with Gatsby. They were lovers for a time and they decided to explain this to Tom one afternoon in New York.

Tom didn’t like what he had heard. Daisy and Gatsby left first and during the trip run over a woman walked out. When Tom returned from New York found the accident and stopped to know how was it. He found that the death woman was Myrtle Wilson, and when he talked to George Wilson, he said that the killer was Jay Gatsby.

George took the justice on his hand and kill Gatsby before suicide. Nobody know that the car was driven by Daisy.

Only went to Gatsby’s funeral Nick and Gatsby’s father and Tom and Daisy Buchannan marched to live somewhere else without saying anything to anyone.

Bruno is a boy who lives in Berlin with his parents and his older sister. They are a rich family because Bruno’s father is a soldier promoted to do important things for the nation. One of the conditions is that they have to move to another city, Out-with. Bruno does not like the idea because he is far from Berlin and will not be able to see his friends. The next day Bruno says goodbye to his friends sadly and they go to Out-with.

Bruno’s surprise is not the place or the house he expected, he was really close to the Out-with camp although he does not know it. Bruno did not understand anything of what was happening in that sinister place. His days were long since he was forbidden to leave the house, specifically, the back of the house. That made his desire to explore push him to run away from home and see what was in that strange place. He ran through the trees until he came to a large fence that enclosed the camp. In that instant he sees a boy sitting next to the fence. He goes to talk to him and asks him why he is there and why he is wearing blue and gray striped pajamas like all people. Bruno continues without understanding anything but they become friends with that boy named Shmuel. In all corners, hatred towards Jews is encouraged, including the teacher who educated Bruno and his sister. One day, Bruno finds Shmuel polishing glasses in a room in his house. He asks what he does there and offers him something to eat. At those moment, a soldier enters who believes that Shmuel got into the house and was stealing food. Bruno betrays Shmuel pretending he does not know him.

After a while, Bruno repents and he wants to apologize but is no longer there. For a few days Bruno goes to see Shmuel at the fence but does not appear. Bruno thinks he’s angry. At last, he met Shmuel and forgive Bruno. Bruno’s mother is not happy with the place and even less so that her children are raised in that environment. So they decide to move to a more secluded place. Just the day they leave, Bruno decides to go to the other side of the fence by making a tunnel and camouflaging himself with a pajamas that Shmuel gave him. Bruno felt indebted to Shmuel, so he helped him search his father who was missing. He marched cause they were being pushed by the soldiers. They were in a long room that was surprisingly warm…

After a long time, the soldiers had searched every part of the house, they discovered the clothes that bruno had left near the fence.The father formed a theory about what might have occurred…

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night- time is a fantastic novel by Mark Haddon, published in 2003 and awarded with the Whitbread Novel of the Year, among others.

The story is about a 15-year-old boy called Christopher Boone who has Asperger’s Syndrome, but the book doesn’t give us this information. It’s a data that you discover meanwhile you read the book.  He lives in Swindon with his father and his pet, a rat called Toby.  He hates yellow and brown colours, for example, he has the theory that if he sees four yellow cars in a row made, from that moment it will be a Black Day.

One day, Christopher found out his neighbour’s dog had been murdered. So, he decided to investigate about that incident, because he is very curious about all the things that happen around him. During his investigation, he discovered a box of letters from his mum in his dad’s bedroom. At this point, he realises that his father had been lying him about her mum, because he told him that his mum was dead.

After this, he found out who actually killed the dog. Whit the mystery solved, he decided to search for his mum who lives in London.  Afterward some adventures, he arrived at his mother’s house and explained to her what had happened and that he thought she was dead, and why he had frightened from his dad.  Despite his parent’s arguments over Christopher, his mum and Christopher decided to come back to Swindon. Once there, Christopher took the A–level in maths and his relationship with his dad was slowly restored.

The novel ends when Christopher is planning to take more A-level exams in physics and further maths to be possible to attend to the university. He knows that he can do all of this because he solved the dog’s mystery, he went to London alone and wrote a book.

I think it is a brilliant book and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys mystery, because it surprises me the way that the book change the way of the story. Moreover, it teaches you how someone can do all the things that proposes himself and how is the life with Asperger’s Syndrome.

Laura Huguet

REVIEW OF MY NAME IS LUCY BARTON.

MY NAME IS LUCY BARTON, IS ANOTHER VERY SIMPLE NOVEL ABOUT LOVE, IT WAS WRITTEN BY ELISABETH STROUT, WHO WAS AWARDED THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR HER NOVEL “OLIVER KITTERIDGE”.
It’s midge 1980 in New York and Lucy Barton is a succesful writer. She is in a hospital with a complication following what should have been a very simple operation, what happens is as she is recuperating. Then she gets an unexpected visit from her mother, a woman that she hasn’t kept in touch for many years. She grew up in a rural town in Illinois, her mother still lives there. In the hospital those days, started to reconnect their lives again. However, under the cover there are many unexplored tensions that haven’t been solved, for Lucy in her childhood had some bad experiences. Her family used to live in a garage, which was owned her uncle who lived belong they.

She grew up in very poor conditions, social exclusion, abuse and neglect. So, when she could, she goes away from her home and went to New York. Where she met with her husband and she got married to him, also they had two daughters and her live shone at the end.
This short novel is about love, how Lucy is and how complicated her childhood was. That marked her forever, and her life went on around solving her lack of love.
The book is easily read, the chapters are very short about three or four pages long. This is a very simple book that it doesn’t want a lot of concentration to understand it. It’s a very intense and beautiful short book, well written. Which explain us mother and daughter relationship and how complex can be. I would like to recommend this book so isn’t difficult to understand and is quite short, it’s a good option for beginners.

Francesc Farrerons

WONDER   /   M IMMACULADA MIRO FONTANET 11/04/2019

The book is about a boy who was different, his face wasn`t normal, although he was subjected to many surgeries since his birth, it didn’t get good enough results so as to look like a boy of his age that could blend in with other children without standing out.

He couldn`t go to school at the time that the other kids go because of his health  ,he had to recover of his successive operations into his face, so he was taught by his mother until she could, yet as the years were going by his family realized that he needed professional teachers to teach him better and new friends to meet and to interact or to  be related. Because of his deficiency he was a shy, polite boy and he was sheltered by all his family, above all by his mother.

In the family there were his father, supporting everything, his mother and one older daughter. All of them had to get used to living taking care of August, the name of the main character.

He began his first school-year, he must have been about ten years old,  obviously he had a lot of problems, small children don`t cheat nor hide, it was hard and with a lot of troubles:  in the classroom, in the dinning room, in the playground, in the aisles,  sharing their homework, at the excusions….,he demonstrates to be so brave and so smart   while he fought to integrate, despite so many difficulties, that finally he was the one who had better mates and who got on well with everybody from the school.

I would recomment reading the book because you could  learn that the life is  not easy to anyone, the boy was extremely clever but physically he had other faults. It is clear that in life everybody has to do a lot of effort. If you have one thing you will surely miss another.

The novel Everyman begins at a funeral. Relatives and friends of the deceased take turns talking about him before burying him. After this situation the novel makes a turn and takes us to when the protagonist was about nine years old. During this time the protagonist lives in Newark with his parents and his older brother Howie. It was during his childhood when the protagonist develops a hernia and is hospitalized for it, the protagonist undergoes the operation but with much fear of death, without expecting the opposite is saved from the operation.

After the intervention the book takes us to when the protagonist was about thirty years. At this time our protagonist works in advertising as creative director, he has two children Randy and Lonny and divorces his first wife Cecilia. He is divorced from his wife because he wants to start a relationship with another woman, Phoebe, who after a few years will be his second wife. At the middle of 1989, the protagonist was about fifty years old he has got a new woman called Phoebe and a daughter called Nancy. But the man is not proud of his life decides to divorce Phoebe and marry a third woman, whose name we do not know because the book does not say so. During this time our protagonist is hospitalized due to the obstructions that he has in his coronary arteries and he undergoes coronary bypass surgery. Before leaving the hospital, he hires a nurse named Maureen to take care of him when he is discharged. The protagonist arrives at his house and the affection that arises between the one and the other causes that they develop a relation first of friendship and soon sexual. It is during this time when the protagonist’s father dies, when this happen the protagonist feels overwhelmed by the feeling of loss.

The September eleven attacks take place, and years later our protagonist decided to leave the city and move to New York to live in a retirement community called Starfish Beach on the Jersey shore. To make the time shorter, our protagonist decides to pursue his passion, painting, and even organizes painting classes for the other retirees who also reside there. At this time the protagonist is single, and like other times also must undergo several surgical operations because he still has congested arteries. In one of his classes he meets a student who is the same age as him, Millicent with her establishes a very close bond of friendship. Millicent is a widowed woman who misses her husband a few days after meeting our protagonist the woman commits suicide with an overdose of painkillers, and the protagonist decides to cancel painting classes.After this episode the author locates us the protagonist married to Phoebe but maintaining an affair with the secretary of his advertising office. The adventure lasts little because soon after he starts a relationship with a 24-year-old model named Merete. While the protagonist is celebrating in Paris with Merete his wife calls him telling him that his mother has suffered a stroke. When the mother is already buried, Phoebe asks the protagonist for a divorce and after the divorce she goes home with Merete.

Then the narrative explains the life of the protagonist as a retiree. One day he receives a call who tells him that Phoebe is very ill. A few days later he receives other calls that tell him that many of his advertising partners have died or sick, that’s when the protagonist decides to go to New York to visit his ex-wife and his friends who are still well. A few days later the protagonist is diagnosed with some other arterial blockage and is hospitalized.

As a mark for this book I put a 5, in order to fail it. Obviously I would recommend reading it to people who like drama novels, because in my opinion this novel is a drama book.

Author: Anna Castells

The book is set in Botswana and it is about a story of an independent woman that when her father died, sold the cattle that she inherited and decided to buy a house and set up the only ladies’ detective agency in the country. The novel relates the cases that she has to solve.

The main character is Mma Ramotswe, a woman proud of being African, capable to run successfully a business which is not common, especially for a woman.

It is not a typical detective novel, with complicated and dangerous cases. Actually, mostly of Mma Ramotswe’s cases are about things that happen every day and that she solves with simplicity thanks to her intuition and her knowledge about people’s behaviour.

It is a book easy to read. The vocabulary is not difficult and it is like a set of short stories, although the entire novel follows the same plot.

I liked this book because the author conveys his feelings for a country that he describes through Mma Ramotswe’s adventures. He describes the landscape and its people. In fact, he shows a way of thinking, or understand of life and the world in general, and expresses his desire that Africa does not change, questioning as well the life that we have in these countries that we call developed.

Cèlia Farràs

My name is Lucy Barton is a novel by Elizabeth Strout, published in January, 2016. This is a story about a woman who loves her daughter imperfectly. This book cover’s a life story,  poverty, abuse, art, marriage and a difficult relationship  between a mother and daughter. It’s a contemplative novel, a novel about trying to make sense of life. Lucy barton spends 9 weeks  in the hospital in the 1980’s in New York city folllowing complications from a surgery. Her mother comes to stay with her. Who can only express her feelings by telling stories of old acquaintances and their imperfect lives and whlie listening , Lucy bartor revisits her  own memories and the things she doesn’t want to remember in order to make peace with herself and her family. Her husband and young daughters don’t visit her much, wich leads her to think about loneliness, her marriage and mother hood. And she also muses about writing, what it mean to her, and how she was inspired by a numberof people. For such a short novel, it’s dense with story, thoughts and emotions. It’s more of an experience than a story. A powerful short novel that is filled with the wisdom that only comes with age. I would recommend  reading the book because it’s a really quite beautiful novel, beautifully written by Elizabeth strout.

( Rifat Khan Ara )