Bruno Blog

The school year is about to finish. Another year over, they all think, and three months ahead of holidays. I wish I could have them now! I remember saying to my parents, when it was summer that I was bored. Today I think that I’d love to have some time to get bored —look how things change! When you have a kid, who is almost a teenager, you start to see how important it is to them to be part of the group, and how with new technologies they’ve lost all oral communication, and are able to say many things through the phone, but nothing while looking on the eyes. This is a double-edged sword, and kids who are constantly doing this have to learn how to properly use these technologies, because in some cases it can be really harmful what one writes in a WhatsApp group. No one likes to be the weird one of the group, although maybe someone prefers it and it’s their choice in order to isolate themselves from something they dislike, as in the new novel by Francesc Miralles. In TÚ ERES LA NOCHE (‘You’re the Night’), we discover a group of people who can’t or doesn’t want to see the sunlight. They’re not vampires, but they live underground during the day, separated from the world we know.

The main character, Rai, meets by accident an undercover club that is frequented by those who have decided to live against the sunlight and live at night, among which we can find Lucia, an eighteen-year-old girl with self-destructive tendencies who Rai feels really attracted to. A week there is the minimum time to become an initiated, two weeks of access into The Cage of Darkness, a well under the Catacombs where darkness reigns and it’s possible to do the final test. Will Lucia be a part of the underground group? Will Rai be able to blend in for her, and leave behind his life?

This is a love story, about understanding and misunderstandings, that will appease all young readers and Miralles’ fans, who with his previous novels as well, such as PULSACIONES or RETRUM, talks about feelings of people who aren’t part of the ‘normal’. But do we know what is normal nowadays? That’s why I loved this novel, and I believe we all should read it, because Francesc, masterful as always, puts on the table really meaningful themes that will hook you in, and you’ll fall in love with the well-developed story between Rai and Lucia. Congratulations, Francesc, you’ve done it again. A delightful novel that can be dark at the same time, with the perfect dose so that everything happens for a reason.

We live in a world where social media is part of our lives and of our children’s. For me, I have to confess, it is a little scary, but we cannot close our eyes and do as if that didn’t exist. The thing we can do is to make our own decisions and see if we want to dive into this world, and how we want to do it. If we know how and why we want to, there shouldn’t be any problem, and relationships through the Internet don’t have to be negative. Sometimes, they can even surprise you.

The novel TODAS MIS FOTOS HABLAN DE TI (All My Photos Speak of You), by Cristina Maruri, is one of the newer bets by Ediciones B, by their new imprint Plan B, and I’m sure that anyone who enjoyed Against the North Wind, by Daniel Glattauer, and/or the movie You’ve Got Mail, is going to fall in love with this story that starts with some pictures posted on Instagram. The rest of the story has to do with the beauty in things and with our ability to click likes. Laura, the main character, writes and travels, William reads and is a photography lover, and Julles is in love. The three of them make a love triangle. Laura lives between the real and virtual world, and isn’t sure about which one to choose. One is solid and stable, and the other is all magic, like in a dream, but instead it is on the other side of the screen and through pictures that both of them post on Instagram. Can you fall in love with someone only because of what you see through their photos? Can you fall in love with someone through their writing? Who is the person behind each passion, each character?

Cristina Maruri debuts with one of the first novels about LOVE via Instagram, one of the social media most used in the past few years, and she does it with a literary and clean voice that will captivate anyone who believes in their passions, their illusions and that life is all about dreaming with open eyes. And dreams are there to make them happen and to reach them. Will Laura make it? A special novel to read this summer and live LOVE in capital letters.

This book is, once again, special to me, because I’ve got a personal story with the author and this turns it into one of those that adds up to your life. To me, working with Alba hasn’t been work, but a huge pleasure —meeting her has been one of the most magical things that have happened to me in the past few months. When I received an e-mail signed with the name ‘Hope’ —which already raised my interest—, I thought that it was a person that had many things to say. And, precisely, that’s what happened. Even though we receive many e-mails from authors that want us to help them with their manuscripts, we have to reject them because we cannot take that much work: we wouldn’t be helpful to them, on the contrary. However, Hope’s mail caught my attention and I went to her blog to read what she wrote: I discovered a fresh voice, different and solid, that made me go to the city of Blanes, to her house, in order to meet her. That’s not what I usually do, but my instinct told me to ‘help’ her make her dream come true. However, Hope is the pen-name of Alba Saskia, a 25-year-old girl who had already written a novel about overcoming personal struggles, and had already earned an open door to the publishing world, as it had been shortlisted for the Planeta Award. They also saw, like me, that behind that novel there was a unique voice, different and very strong.

Alba suffers from a disease that only 80 people over the world have: The Brown Vialetto Van Laere Syndrome, a strange neurodegenerative sickness. But she smiles, she’s a strong and happy woman, with many illusions who led her to write CON UN PAR DE ALAS (already in bookstores). She started to write to be active, because she lost some of her hearing due to her disease, was admitted to the hospital and couldn’t even walk nor eat. Her blog Infinity Hope saved her, along with the unconditional support from her family, which never fails you and is always there, either for better or for worse. Therefore, Alba wrote a wonderful blog and, later on, she dared to write this novel, which was selected among the hundreds of originals that are sent to the Planeta Award and that the editor Lola Gulias couldn’t let go. Nonetheless, Alba let me help her in this journey and, although she had already entered this business, she trusted us and the job we do. After that meeting, unforgettable to me, at her place in Blanes along with her sister —who is a beautiful person and was pregnant at the moment. She even baked us some delicious biscuits to make us feel like home!—, we were all there, my father and even my son, who came with me (and he never does, but everything happens for a reason). This meeting was special for the three of us, and I hope that it also was it for Alba. Now it’s when the long-run race starts, and I hope we can get many readers from all over the world to read this story.

It isn’t a self-help story, but a story about overcoming your own struggles, for all of us who believe there’s always hope. This is Lía’s story, who after living in Tarifa a heart-wrenching love story with Hugo, comes back to Barcelona heartbroken. Her friend Manu welcomes her in and gives her thirty days to put herself back together. In the meantime, Perpetua, Lía’s mother, unaware of her daughter’s drama, keeps sending her letters to Tarifa whilst believing she’s still there. The unconditional help from Perpetua and Manu will be crucial so that Lía can start a new life, especially when María, and old friend with whom she shared years of study in a ballet school, appears and becomes the bridge to build a professional future doing what she loves: dancing. And Marcelo, a handsome water polo player, will be ready to accompany her to this new dance that is her life.

Sometimes, it seems like everything is going wrong, the sky becomes grey and there’s no way we can see the light of the sun once again, but with this novel, where friendship has a key role and, also, the passion to pursue a dream is really present, Alba manages to convey that if you want to, you can do it. That we must never lose hope. That if you do what you want and what you feel, you get where you want to. For this reason, this novel is for any reader, because it brims with HOPE, which is what Alba has tattooed on her skin, and she deftly portrays that in this novel, so well-written, and with such a strong voice, that it won’t leave you indifferent. She’s not ‘another’ writer, but the discovery of a new voice. Congratulations, Alba, for getting to this point, for having let me accompany you in this special adventure in which we’ve just started to spread our wings, because I hope that we can fly together far away, like you deserve, with the soundtrack of the song by Diego Torres, which always makes me think of you.

(In Spanish, the title of this blog post refers to the song by Diego Torres ‘Color Esperanza’)

Throughout life you’ll meet many people and there will be a few that will stay in it and other people that will pass by it. You’d wish for some of them to stay, but they won’t do it. That always made me sad, and I said ‘made’, because after reading the books by Eva Sandoval, having had the great pleasure of meeting her and having been able to share many things with her, I’ve realized that my belief about friendship is mine, no one else’s, and I can’t and mustn’t force anyone to do something they don’t want to do. But it’s taken me a long time to get to this point (and I’ve still got a long path ahead of me) and I have to thank Eva’s books, as they help you perceive things from another perspective. Her first book ¿Y TU QUÉ CREES?, published by Urano (4 printings already!), helps you create the life you want by boosting your personal power. You learn to use the necessary tools to change your look on yourself, thus changing your viewpoint on what surrounds you. You discover the world of limiting beliefs and how to overcome them. ¿Y TÚ QUÉ CREES? wants us to be aware of the beliefs that limit your life and helps you find your own path to authenticity, wellbeing and fulfillment. Because when we change our mindset about ourselves, other people and life, then everything changes. And I assure you that it is like this, because I’m verifying that every day.

For this reason, I’m so happy to be able to share this new adventure, her second book, with Eva. Meeting her has been one of the best things that have happened to me this last year and, along with Pablo (a publisher that has believed in this book from the first moment and who, moreover, has always believed in me), we’ve shared already several successes together, and we’ll top them off with this new book. For sure. Both of them are great travel companions in this journey, and I hope that I can convince from here all of you who read us each Thursday to buy TU PODER NINJA, published by Ediciones B, which is already having an amazing start. In it, Eva conveys her coherent and always truthful message: trust, persevere, be flexible, and you’ll live how you want to. Acknowledging that the true master is inside you and training yourself in the art of life is one of the best advices that you can get from this book, where the author reflects on how martial arts have benefited her and how we can apply the ninja philosophy into our daily lives. Simple concepts, but powerful at the same time, that she shares with the reader so that people can learn how to connect with their inner wisdom and learn to get back the joy and happiness to live completely happy, always, no matter what, because to achieve that it’s only up to us.

This book is a gift to whomever receives it, because it’s entertaining, easy to read, and you can sense a smile in each page that will accompany you and open a door to a reality, unknown for most, but one that we all want to reach —even though we don’t know how to do it, because we’ve been programmed not to see it. TU PODER NINJA will open that door so only you can decide if you want to go through it. Thanks for sharing with all of us your values and for teaching us that dreams can come true.

Having personality isn’t easy. Not doing what everyone does, if you think you shouldn’t do it, isn’t easy. And if it isn’t when you’re a grown-up, imagine when you’re a teenager and you have to be the different one in the group. However, having things clear and not caring what people think of you is an ideal by which to live in peace. If you can surround yourself with people who vibrates just like you, things flow in an almost-magical way, effortlessly. Everything is simple. Even with the most mundane things, like drinking, you seem out of the group if you don’t drink wine, you don’t like beer or you can’t enjoy a gin-tonic. For this reason, the book by Meritxell Falgueras QUÉ BEBER CUANDO NO BEBES (What to drink when you don’t drink) interested me really quickly because I’ve always been a person unable to enjoy the taste of alcoholic drinks. I’m not sick, I’m not doing it because of a diet, and my doctor hasn’t forbidden me to drink; I’ve just never liked alcoholic drinks despite knowing that I’m missing one of the good things in life -because alcohol, in a moderate way, is a pleasure. And along with a certain kind of food and company, even more so. However, I’ve never liked it and I went through my phase of being ‘the weird’ of the group, but always with dignity, because I wasn’t going to drink even if everyone did it. It’s true that if you say you don’t drink, most people find it really strange.

At last I have in my hands a book with alternatives for those who, for any reason, and all of them acceptable, prefer non-alcoholic drinks. It’s a beautiful book, written by one of the wine experts of our country, a huge international wine-taster, but who also has a plan B, and defends it in a natural way, with recipes and amazing drink tastings that are alcohol free. Drinks that are perfect for any daily situation: celebrations, special moments, small pains in the body and soul… To refresh and hydrate yourself, to combine with a delicious dish or, simply, to enjoy a rich experience in smell, flavour and richness. There’s no doubt that everything “-free” is quite trendy, and even more so if they are drinks that stimulate senses, improve vitality and are easy to do; they’re an exceptional alternative plan.

We’ll discover drinks as cool as the michelada, perfect to have among friends; exotics, such as the kombucha, with miraculous characteristics; or relaxing, like the golden milk, to sleep better. You’ll also discover the best tea and juices combinations, tips for choosing a bottle of wine or an alcohol-free beer, and ideas for a vermouth or a ‘night’ drink.

I know many won’t give up a good glass of wine, but knowing there’s a plan B it’s the perfect excuse to buy this book to the abstinent people of the family or of the friends’ group —who can be abstinent by choice, not by force. Or, also, for athletes, pregnant women and, in general, for anyone who wishes to taste new and delightful experiences when toasting and celebrating.