Bruno Blog

One of the best days of the year is just around the corner, Sant Jordi, and I must admit those who work in this market are pretty busy- before, during and after-. I must also admit I don’t know anyone of this Publishing world who doesn’t adore this day, who doesn’t have butterflies in the stomach when waking up, who doesn’t smile, who doesn’t feel the excitement about a day in which books themselves are the main characters.

I love waking up early, getting to see how roses and books stands are built, with that characteristic excitement of the day. To smell my wonderful city, Barcelona, all dressed up ready to celebrate. Our party. This year, the Agency will have a stand in the neighborhood where we will go on with our Charity Campaign LA LITERATURA ALIMENTA, and where we will be delighted to recommend the best book for that special person you want to surprise.

This blog has already dealt with many news which are already on sale and we hope reach the top. This year we have a special book, special for the date, a book which Comanegra has amazingly published, as everything they do. Silvia Tarragó is the author of the story, a modern Sant Jordi, in which love and books are the main characters, an amazing detail for all of those who think of books as the best present in the world. A plot in which a Jordi does not enjoy reading at all, but Anna -book fan- will make him fall in love with books… as they fall in love with each other. Simple, short, well developed. It is, with no doubt, the best present for reading lovers, for those who believe in love and those who love Sant Jordi. You should have a book like this one, you must.

They say a picture is word a thousand words, I don’t completely agree, but for those who agree, here we attach our special video for Sant Jordi, full of pictures and words which speak out for themselves. Have an amazing Sant Jordi, and keep on reading, because without books, we would not be what we are.

We’ve all come back from the holidays, and we’ve all returned to our routine and schedules. That translates into the fact that another year has come and gone and I feel like I’m getting older, because it gets harder every year to go back to normalcy. However, this also means that I’m enjoying everything that I do, and so I’ve made the most of the summer and loved every second of it. Maybe that’s why returning to “school” is hard, but when I stepped into the agency, went into my office, and saw my bookcase filled with successful book and heaps of them waiting to be published this autumn – waiting to become great sellers-, my adrenaline kicked in and I thought: how lucky I am to be working in something that truly speaks to me and makes me happy. So, I put away the nostalgia I had felt and I thought that I have to keep enjoying every second, with whatever it brings, be it the new books of the season or the smell of autumn.

The first book I want to recommend to you is special for many reasons, the first one being because her author, Coia Valls, is one of the best writers I have the pleasure to represent. She’s also one of the best people I know and that I can call friend, and this book -a small gem- deals with a topic that she’s clearly passionate about: empathy. This works wonders for her, as she’s also one of the most emphatic people I know.

However, having empathy isn’t easy, nor it is to define what exactly empathy is. The most accepted definition would be: TO KNOW HOW TO PUT YOURSELF IN SOMEBODY’S SHOES. Have you ever thought how many times have you ever truly done that? It’s a very interesting thought, because there are jobs, such as mine, in which almost every day I have to put myself in someone else’s shoes and try to understand why they do what they do -let me assure you that it’s not easy, but it’s very fulfilling. Coia’s book, called SI TÚ ME ESCUCHAS (‘If you listen to me’), has reminded me of what it is that I do every day. A good friend, also a writer, once told me that without having empathy I couldn’t be an agent and, maybe, he’s right.

John Cavage is the typical successful American man: a young family father with an amazing job, who has overcome any obstacle that life has thrown at him without having to ask for anything to anyone, without having to empathize with other people’s miseries. But the foul play of a colleague who wants his position leaves him without a job and that will force him to look beyond himself. When John is pushed to accept a job as a commercial to maintain his family, he realizes his lack of empathy nullifies him as a person, that there’s something lacking in all his relationships. Luckily, a friend of his will tell him about a mysterious course, done via regular post that will change his life. Stepping into someone else’s shoes opens up a window that maybe you’d have never opened otherwise. To try to understand who you’ve got in front you is a pending task for most of us, and it takes work, but it can be highly satisfying as well. Therefore, this treasure that Coia has to offer to us is the ideal book with which you can treat yourself. Give it, as well, to those who you truly love, because it’s a life lesson, beautifully written by an author who never forgets the most important thing: to smile to her readers. Happy reading!

There are moments in life when you feel strong, confident, and brave. As a consequence, you feel attractive, beautiful, and young. However, and I am talking now in first person, one needs to know how to make such moments last; because someone only needs to say something slightly unlucky, or if something doesn’t go the way you expected it, and I am not even saying wrong, just not as good as expected, the tables turn to the negative. And suddenly, that positive feeling becomes exactly the contrary, which tends to be long and tiring. Why the euphoric moment only concentrates always in small drops of happiness, short instants, intense, but timely, and, when the mirror shows its negative side however, these are long lasting feelings we don’t know how to overcome? We should believe more in ourselves, have more faith, and not listen that much to those who surround us and influence us to change what we feel or think, or more even, we are so silly sometimes that we allow them to have power. We allow them to break that tiny moment in which we are happy, in which we feel complete. To whom has this not happened? To me, many times, and I am still trying to fight against it. I am trying to listen to myself, and not to others, to trust what I believe and do without the need of examining myself daily. To know how to do my best to combine both my professional career and my family without forgetting about myself and the moments that are only for me. But it is not easy, you have to be ready. However, there are some techniques that can help you accomplish it; and reading this book written by Gemma Lienas is a way to take the first step.

In UN TESORO ESCONDIDO, published by Comanegra both in Spanish and Catalan, for the main character, Eva, everything tumbles and starts falling apart because of something that one of her neighbors says about her job. She loses her self-confidence and she seems unable recover from it. From that moment, everything goes wrong for her, she can only think in negative terms, she sees herself as incompetent, clumsy, ugly and incapable of doing anything. And even less capable of doing the conference she has programed for the weekend. As the week goes on, her lack of self-confidence grows and Eva enters a state of sadness and disdain for herself. But her friend Luz comes to help her and enlightens Eva’s way towards the recovery of her confidence and her abilities. Along a number of days, Luz talked to her about the deforming mirrors and how some people attack our image to position themselves above us. Luz shows Eva how to break her silence, since she is not the only person in such situation. She also shows her how to modify her interior monologue to stop devaluating herself constantly, to convince her that she is capable of many things, to relax, to establish positive connections that will help her day after day to build her own identity independently from others. She will also have to help other women not to fall in the same problem. First with the help of Luz, and then all by herself, Eva will be able to reestablish relations with her son, couple, mother, and above all, with herself. In the final scene we see how she is able to successfully give that conference she was so scared about at the start of the week.

This book is a small gem, short, but in which one will learn about the importance of self-confidence and the confidence of women. It offers very helpful tools to work with these two themes, that are, to many women, the Achilles’ heel of life. A simple text, direct and at the same time smart and with history, that profoundly connects with the reader. For those of us who live between work, family, and our personal care, but that also, many times feel like losing confidence only because of a minimum but toxic gesture of someone around us, or even for a personal thought that makes us feel unstable and insecure. To me, a compulsory reading that has helped me strengthen what I believe. A must read.