Bruno Blog

A week ago, the new book was published by the great Spanish tandem Francesc Miralles and Héctor Garcia, who after selling more than 1,500,000 copies worldwide with their book IKIGAI, translated into 44 languages, have created ICHIGO-ICHIE. It was hard for me to learn this Japanese name, but after reading the book, I can assure you that I repeat it mentally many times a day. IGHIGO-ICHIE is an expression that can be found in most Japanese tea shops, and it means something like: MAKE EVERY INSTANT SOMETHING UNIQUE. The time to drink tea should be a moment of relaxation, of calm, of being able to taste it without haste, without our mobile phones nearby. Maybe in the East they can easily do it, but here in the West I think we hardly try to create a moment like this. More and more people are becoming aware of this, but there are still few who get to have that moment every  day, which can be with or without tea. I suppose you have to build a certain personality to be able to sit down and to think that we can free ourselves from the past and the future, to enjoy every moment, in the present, because if we let it go, we will have lost the chance to live that instant again.

However, I put myself in the shoes of those who are not going through a good time, and I am sure that your mind frequently travels to the past to remember the good old days, and to the future to wish this streak to be over soon. According to the authors, we translate emotions into time, and this does not allow us to live in the NOW, where serenity and joy reside, despite the bad moments. There are always bad times, moments that we would prefer not to live, but we must go through them, accept them and learn from them, because the here and now is what makes us alive. The present is a gift that must be opened, and although sometimes the day can be hard, is where the key to happiness lays. By incorporating the ICHIGO ICHIE to our routine we will learn to create unforgettable encounters in professional and personal life, improve our personal relationships and live every moment as if it were the last.

At the end of the book, the authors indicate the principles of ICHIGO-ICHIE and I must confess that it is not easy to apply them all, but I am trying. I must thank Francesc and Héctor again because it is a book whose purpose is the same as IKIGAI: to help us to live better, because there is only one life. We know it but we are not aware of it.  For this reason, it is worth living every second as something unique, and squeezing it like a lemon. It’s another wonderful book from which we can learn a lot. Happiness depends only on us and we can make this a pleasant path for ourselves and for those around us.

The meaning of revenge in the dictionary is: reprimand against someone. Normally someone will seek revenge when justice fails or thinks justice has not been done. I don’t think revenge is healthy, but I can understand that there are times when you feel that human need to avenge someone. This is what happens when Miquel, protagonist of the novel SAL ROJA by Ramon Gasch and Teresa Sagrera, a worker in the salt mines of Cardona, happy with his family, he sees how the  Felipe’s army massacre his village in the midst of the War of Succession, and kill what he loves the most: his family. From that moment on, this happy and familiar man will have only one objective: revenge. We will discover the Wolf of Cardona, who will be the leader of the guerrillas, and how he survived this era.

Ramon Gasch, author of BON COP DE FALÇ and LA VENJANÇA DELS ALMOGÀVERS, is a writer with a very good trajectory within the historical novel, and now returns with a great subject. It takes place at the beginning of the Reign of the Bourbons in Spain, which were no longer supported in 1711 by Catalonia, nor by Holland or England, who gave support to Charles of Hasburg. When the war was lost,  the Treaty of Utrecht was over, which recognised Philip V as King of Spain. From a Catalan village called Cardona, with its famous salt mines, the writers of this novel tell us this historical episode that marked the history of our country, and that will help us understand some problems still unresolved today, strange as it may seem. History should serve us to remember and to not fall into the same mistakes of the past.

To

LOVE FROM ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE

Today, on Valentine’s Day, we see hearts everywhere, boxes of chocolates in hearts shape, shirts full of hearts and even, heart-shaped hamburgers. I find it normal that each business tries to sell their products on this special day, and every year we are more imaginative with traditions that, perhaps, not everyone wants to celebrate, because love is usually related to being in a relationship. But love has many shapes and should be with us every minute, every second, and not once or twice a year.

However, today I also look opportunistic and I am taking advantage of the moment, since I have in my hands the right book for today, but it’s a trap, because this book is forever. Alex Rovira, with the collaboration of Francesc Miralles, tells us about love like you never heard it before. LOVE is the most powerful energy that we have, the one that unites us to the others in our day to day, and for that reason, we have to understand it and spread it. Love has three axes: the first is understanding, the second is taking care and the third is inspiration. Alex and Francesc invite us to think about raising the quality of our love bonds with couple, friends, children or even with the work team, and increasing our balance of love. Love is energy that well channeled will make us happy: the ones who love in fullness will find the meaning of his life, because to love is to live and to live is to love. The Zenith publishing house published this book a week ago and we are already reediting it, and that means that love interests us all, that we all need it, but we need to know, above all, how we can empower it because it is the key to happiness. Who doesn’t want to know the secret, when it is also something we all have inside and we just have to listen to it? A wonderful and necessary book for each person who wants to make this world a better place.

day, on Valentine’s Day, we see hearts everywhere, boxes of chocolates in hearts shape, shirts full of hearts and even, heart-shaped hamburgers. I find it normal that each business tries to sell their products on this special day, and every year we are more imaginative with traditions that, perhaps, not everyone wants to celebrate, because love is usually related to being in a relationship. But love has many shapes and should be with us every minute, every second, and not once or twice a year.

However, today I also look opportunistic and I am taking advantage of the moment, since I have in my hands the right book for today, but it’s a trap, because this book is forever. Alex Rovira, with the collaboration of Francesc Miralles, tells us about love like you never heard it before. LOVE is the most powerful energy that we have, the one that unites us to the others in our day to day, and for that reason, we have to understand it and spread it. Love has three axes: the first is understanding, the second is taking care and the third is inspiration. Alex and Francesc invite us to think about raising the quality of our love bonds with couple, friends, children or even with the work team, and increasing our balance of love. Love is an energy that well channeled will make us happy: the ones who love in fullness will find the meaning of his life, because to love is to live and to live is to love. The Zenith publishing house published this book a week ago and we are already reediting it, and that means that love interests us all, that we all need it, but we need to know, above all, how we can empower it because it is the key to happiness. Who doesn’t want to know the secret, when it is also something we all have inside and we just have to listen to it? A wonderful and necessary book for each person who wants to make this world a better place.

It is difficult at a certain age to build a personality, to not follow the group like sheep, and stand out for an opinion even when you are the only person who thinks that way. And then, there is the physical appearance: if you are tall or short, fat or skinny, ugly or beautiful. I used to tell my son a tale about how we should be able not to judge anyone before getting to know him. It was a made-up story about different children, with their virtues and flaws, that he loved, and when we finished we always said together: physical appearance doesn’t matter, what matters is what’s inside. Petrus Gonsalvus, a Guanche[1] King, is the protagonist of PONTE EN MI PIEL (put yourself in my shoes) by Emma Lira that Espasa Calpe has published this week.

It’s 1537 when a group of women from the Tenerife Island discover that the newborn has the little hand covered with hair. The King Petrus Gonsalvus has born and this is his story. Rejected by his people who consider him a devil, Petrus ends up in the Henry II Court, where they will use him as a clown for fun. However, the monarch sees in Petrus something special and decides to take him in under his protection. Petrus will meet Diana, the bastard daughter of the King, who will become his best friend. Together, they will try to find a place in this world that turns them down, until the companion of the Queen, Catherine, will be chosen to be Petrus’ wife. He will have to make up his mind.

We have in front of us the real story of The Beauty and The Beast, settled in the 16^th century. A novel that will move you and above all, it will make it impossible to put the book down for those who enjoy love and inspirational stories, and also for those who feel that being different doesn’t make you special. After reading these pages, perhaps their vision of the world will change and they will point out the value of being unique.

[1] A King from the Canary Islands.

I talked so many times about the value of friendship in this blog, and after reading the new book by Maria Barbal, TO MY SCOTTISH FRIEND, I cannot help but write again about what it means to me to have a friend. A friendship that is built in a very delicate and difficult moment but we will discover one of these relationships that last forever. Now, as I grow older, I find it more difficult to find new people and consider them as my friends, because a friend is always there, in the good times but above all, in the hard times. There are not many people like these in our surroundings, and if you have a true friend, make sure to keep him close. And remember: friendship should also be a two-way relationship, as Benet and George’s. This book about friendship travels back to Pallars, and at the same time, we will live through a love story.

Barbal is an icon of the Catalan Literature, and it makes me very happy to write this blog about the writer of ‘STONE IN LANDSLIDE’, a truly long-seller, that I read both in school and college, and that now, I have the honour to represent. Coincidences like this one are hard to explain because they are like a dream made true.

TO MY SCOTTISH FRIEND is a story of love and friendship. At the hospital where two injured soldiers are being healed, we find an inscription in the garden that says <<To my scottish friend>>. A boy who was born in a small town of the Pyrenees – Benet Enrich – wrote that to his friend George, the Scottish boy who joined the international brigade to fight in the Spanish Civil War. The two young men become friends during the war and will meet again 30 years later with great joy. George, a journalist for the Daily Telegraph, is our narrator at the beginning and at the end of the book. At first sight, George’s life looks more exciting, but it is Benet’s, an ordinary man, who will put light to the story. The plot narrates Benet’s life starting the day of his birth in a small town, son of a parents who will not understand him, and with two brothers. They will move to a bigger town but it won’t be until his stay in Barcelona where Benet will finally widen his horizons. The plot tackles the young dreams, the job concerns, the war wounds, the refusal of an artistic career and specially, the refusal of his love story with Elvira, a very special girl. The reader will get to know all the details of this love story by the letters that Benet writes her in first person.

An extraordinary novel that sends a clear message: there are no winners in the war whereas everybody always loses something. We should take this into consideration so fights won’t become wars, but dialogues and words to live peacefully in this world.