Promesas Rotas by Hiroshi Hirata (3.8🌟)

Title in English is Broken Promises. Seinen, manga. This is a short story collection on samurai and warrior stories. Hirata's style is always crude, sometimes violent and gross. The mangaka  transports the reader to the old Japan when the Clans and the Lords ruled, controlling economic and political affairs as well as people's lives. The titled in this volume are (my own translations):

1. Promesas Rotas, Broken promises: deals with the consequences of broken promises.
2. La Muerte del Doble, The death of the lookalike: an arrogant man is always saved by his twin brother until the brother decides not to help him anymore).
3. El Problema de la Tropa de Transporte, The problem of the transport team: samurai have to lead a convoy weapons and ammunition and deliver the cargo to their Lord who is about to start a war.

4. Corte con el filo hacia abajo (Gesta Marcial - Renuncia al estipendio), Cut with a sharp end... a warrior develops a technique to cut objects and kill people with out touching them.
5. Cut with the sharp end ... (original) - another story using the same them as the above story.
6. The Impotent - a wounded warrior seeks revenge
7. Guerrero Indomable, The Indomitable Warrior -  a Lord struggles to control one of his samurai.t
8. El Guerrero Demoniaco, The Demonic Warrior - a Lord wants to take possession of some lands but finds opposition with the native communities.

Ursula K Le Guin The Wild Girls plus... (4🌟)

Ursula K. Le Guin. The Wild Girls. Plus... is a compilation of 4 texts by Le Guin and an interview of the writer by Terry Bisson.

The first text by Le Guin is a wonderful short, thought provoking  story titled The Wild Girls. It is fantasy embedded with creative feminism. The events take place in a world where the strong abduct the weak and subject them to slavery. It is a system which no one questions but enjoy or endure. The story is very well crafted to make a point on social injustices, patriarchy, sexism, slavery and more.

The second text is an essay "Staying awake while we read" a criticism of the publishing industry, particularly their focus on sales and money.

Some poems.

A short feminist discussion on Modesty "The Conversation of the Modest" and

an interview.

I think I enjoyed the essay and discussion the most but that short story is so well written, it's beautiful. Actually the whole book is worth reading. Totally recommend this book to all Le Guin fans.

My edition was published by PM Press in their series of Outspoken Authors. It has 112 pages.

Three days and a Life by Pierre Lemaitre (4🌟)

Three days and a life is a French noir novel. Unlike the other book I have read by Lemaitre (Blood Wedding, thriller) this is a drama story. It focuses on how our decisions and the consequences of our actions can shape our lives.

Antoine is a 12 year old boy who after making the biggest mistake of his life, decides not to tell anyone. However the memories of the terrible act he committed follow him everywhere he goes. This only adds to the other mental and emotional issues he has. His parents are divorced and his mother is distant and cold. He is not allowed to spend much time with his school friends and he spends most of his time on his own. When his 6 year neighbour dissappears he does not want to join the town people in the search. Instead he tries to escape but fails. As the days pass he is taken in a roller coaster of doubts, fearing that he will be caught and sent to prison. He imagines everyone,  his family and his neighbours, outraged about what he did. The news, the media showing his face. Humiliation and torture to his mother. But will anyone find out what he did?

Opinion: to be honest I was expecting a thriller, but instead I got this wonderful gripping story. This is an in-depth exploration of human psyche as one child and then a man, deals with the consequences of his actions and decisions. The story is very well told. Well written. Interesting. There are no police chases, lawyers or trials. There is one person, hiding in plain sight, dealing with his own fears and remorses. The characters of Antoine and his mother are very well constructed and realistic. Other, secondary characters, were equally interesting, particularly the towns doctor.

I got my edition from my local library. Published by MacLehose Press. It has 251 pages.

Experimental Film by Gemma Files (3.8🌟)

Experimental Film is a ghost story. In fact there is a ghost woman and an evil (ancient) creature (a kind of god) who also has the appearance of a woman. And speaking of women the protagonist is also a woman.

The story follows Lois Cairns an unemployed film critic who, by chance, finds an excellent opportunity to get into a research project. She is interested in the life and work of Iris Whitcomb, a woman from the early 20th century,  with an troubled life and who apparently was one of the first female Canadian movie makers. Lois tracks historical documents from the woman and her husband and some strange footage she filmed. Apparently Mrs Whitcomb had an obsession with a woman creature who had something to do with her son's death. Nobody knows the meaning of the footage but Lois is determined to find out. However, there is someone who would like to take credit of Lois's work and who would do anything, legal or illegal, to get what he wants. And if that wasn't enough Lois personal live is far from easy, with an autistic son, and her own mental health issues. The more Lois digs into Mrs Whitcomb's life and everything she believed in, the more her own life crumbles. She hears strange voices and identifies similarities between her life and that of Mrs Whitcomb's including the presence of a creepy woman creature.

 Opinion: I liked it a lot but I wasn't blown away. The novel is well written. Good character descriptions and development. It provides an excellent historical and technical background for the craft of filming movies 100 years ago,  a bit of contemporary Canadian film industry and critics. I loved this bit. Also, I think Lois's personality and family problems, including the depiction of her son's autism, were realistic and interesting to read. I think I empathised with the protagonist's struggles. The story of Mrs Whitcomb was super interesting and the gothic-like atmosphere in the descriptions of her life were great.  The myth of the Lady Midday was creepy as well although the lady failed to deliver at the end of the story.

My edition was published in 2015 by Chizine publications. It has 305 pages.

Purgatory - Dante Alighieri (3.5🌟)

I read Inferno about a year ago.  Liked it but the reading was so hard and time consuming, I decided to stop and take a gap year.

Purgatory is an interesting read but I found Inferno much more engaging. Perhaps it was because the descriptions of the circles, the sinners and their punishments. I could see some of these descriptions reflected in modern (horror) literature. I think that contributed to my enjoyment. 

Purgatory is a sort of mountain which Dante and Virgilio ascend through its terraces. Two terraces for the ante-purgatory plus seven terraces  each representing a sin. At the end of the last terrace Dante meets Beatriz and is allowed to cross into paradise. This whole journey might seem simple but it isn't.  As in Inferno, Dante here uses innumerable literary, mythological  and historical references. So I had to stop my reading to read footnotes to understand. I think I ran out of motivation half way through the sloth terrace. The slothful are condemned to run and run until they are clean from their sins. I found this amusing but then very little happens.  Two or three terraces up I got to Lust and some long descriptions of Lust and chastity which I found, obviously, old fashioned.   Not much more to say except that  will wait another year to read paradise.

My edition is in Spanish published by Alianza editorial. 

Alfred Hitchcock. The Complete Films Ed. Paul Duncan (4.5🌟)

Alfred Hitchcock. The Complete Films is a beautiful illustrated book discussing the directors work. It contains an interesting  introduction briefly explaining Hitchcock's motivations and methodology. An essay continues which is divided in three parts each discussing the director's life and work in more detail in his early, mid and late career. The longest section of the book follows containing 6 to 10 page chapters on each of the 53 films the director produced. They include some background on the stories, (original novels), synopses (with spoilers) and anecdotes. The last, short section is a list of cameos by Hitchcock. All of the sections above are fully illustrated with beautiful photographs of the director, actors and sets. 

Hitchcock and his wife Alma discussing a production. An assistant is taking notes, right. (Photo in page 47)

Now, that I read this book, I appreciate Hitchcock's work much more. He was truly a genius. The book opens our eyes to the development of his style, to his evolution. From black and white silent movies to "talkies" and technicolour. I am impressed at how versatile he was, adapting to new technology and by being creative in its use. What else can I say?  I liked how Hitchcock created a brand of his name. Even when he was adapting stories from novels he made his movies HIS. He liked to take artistic licenses from the original stories sometimes even by changing the endings. There was one time when he was not allowed to do that though. The book relates the story of how famous producer David O. Selznick insisted (and forced?) Hitchcock to be more truthful to the story of Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. As a result the movie lacks some of the director's irony and humorous touches. Nevertheless, the irony, is that it won two Oscars for best picture and best cinematography. Anyways, this is great, fun read for any Hitchcock's fun who hasn't read anything about him before. I think there are other works which discuss his work much more in depth than this one.

Cary Grant and Alfred Hitchcock on the set of North by Northwest.  (Photo in page 185)

This book was published by Taschen and it has 686 pages.

El Castillo de los Cárpatos - Jules Verne (3.6🌟)

Title in English is The Carpathian Castle. This is a story about superstition, loss and the devil.

In Transilvania, by the Carpathian mountains, there is an old castle, abandoned for years. Its owner, baron Rodolphe de Gortz, the only survivor of the Gortz family, left the place years ago and has never been seen since. However as one day someone sees smoke coming out from the castle, everyone in the town of Werst start to panic. They fear that smoke can only be a bad sign. Ignorant and superstitious the whole town is sure the devil is the sole occupant of the old castle. But, is there any other possibility?

Days after, a traveler stops by Werst and hears the rumors. He doesn't believe and dismisses all of them. However when someone mentions the name of the owner of the castle he changes his mind and decides to investigate in person.

Opinion: this is a short, easy to read novel. The story is interesting but I wouldn’t classify this as horror  (as I have seen online). Verne provides some historical and geographical context to understand where the action takes place, what happened to the owner of the castle and what kind of people live in Werst. His descriptions of the town people as uneducated and extremely superstitious make the reader doubt of the veracity of some of the accounts. The Strange traveller is an interesting character. Count Franz de Telek has a dark past and is grieving for a lost love.  As he finds some hope in the castle we follow him in his journey to get inside the old building. However, the best for me, was Rodolphe de Gortz, not as a character per se, because we don't know him much but as the focus of the mystery. At some points we are led to think he might be the devil or that he has something to do with it. At the end I couldn't decide who was the evil character though, as the actions of the hero are questionable in my opinion. And what did Barón de Gortz do that was so disturbing?

The negative: I didn't like those bits where the  omniscient narrator explains some background to the story or, at the end,  explains the nature of the mystery as if this was a school text book.

My edition is in Spanish published by Ediciones Gato Azul in 2005. It has 207 pages and a few illustrations.