It’s a good idea!
Books are best presents. They are not as expensive as perfumes, but give you as much pleasure as new Chanel.
Giving books is like opening a new world for people you love, giving new experience and new taste for life. Probably the worst thing which happens when you buy books for presents is that you see books for you everywhere… and it is not always easy to decide what to buy for an extravagant aunt. Here are some ideas, a very subjective choice of books for everybody. Also for you if you are looking for a book to read at Christmas time.
Carlos Ruiz Zafón – “The Shadow of the Wind”
A hit of this year!
We meet the main character, Daniel, for the first time when he is ten years old. From a big library he has, according to the old family tradition, to choose a book he will save from being forgotten. The book, when he has already grown up, will change his life completely.
Great present.
For everybody who loves books, Barcelona and mysteries.
Haruki Murakami – “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel”
Toku Okara loses his job, his cat disappears and then his wife doesn’t return home from work. This series of events starts a web of intrigue, finishing with meditation at the bottom of a dry well. Don’t expect in this strange novel to find solutions and answers: the reader is here always in a in-between state.
A great portrait of Japanese society.
The series of Murakami books (although in each book there are different characters they all represent one kind of masculine character – a man lost in the boredom of his own lack of adaptation to the modern times) have become cult books.
For everybody interested answering the most important questions.
Zadie Smith – “On Beauty”
Howard Belsey is a middle-class Rembrandt scholar. With his wife, Kiki, a black, big woman and three children each completely different, they form a great family. When the Kipps family, with different background and values appears on the stage, there will be a series of unexpected events and everybody in the book will have to change opinions and goals. Probably the best book of Zadie Smith. For people who like thick books.
Majgull Axelsson – “Augusta’s House”
Augusta’s house is full of stories. They are all stories of women, who struggled with their mysteries and sorrows. The house saw unwanted children and early pregnancies, saw all the problems women could face. They were never alone: the house cemented this feminine society.
For women, not only feminists.
Henning Mankell – “Faceless Killers”
Kurt Wallender is a middle-aged cop in Sweden. His wife has walked out on him and now he demonstrates his love for opera and alcohol. This time he has to face an awful murder. An elderly farmer gets beaten and stabbed to death. He is looking for a foreigner… For everybody who loves criminal stories and the gloomy Scandinavian atmosphere.
Caroline Graham – “Death of a Hollow Man”
It seems the ingredients are always the same. A small English village and a small community of people. A murderer can live anywhere. This time a Midsomer murder happens during an amateur theatre production of “Amadeus” and chief Inspector Barnaby and his assistant Sergeant Troy solve the mystery again. For everybody who loves the classical Agata Christie’s detective stories.
Improve your vocabulary!
struggle – zmagać się, walczyć
sorrows – smutki
unwanted – niepotrzebny, niechciany
gloomy – ponury