O cão que comeu o livro...

Anne of Green Gables: A Graphic Novel - a minha review

2018-05-22T22:26:00.001+01:00

Anne of Green Gables: A Graphic Novel, de Mariah Marsden, foi-me cedido pela Netgalley e pelo editor para que eu fizesse uma apreciação honesta deste livro. Não há de momento edição em português. Publiquei a minha opinião na Amazon e no Goodreads com 5/5 estrelas e a seguinte "review":

Written by Mariah Marsden
Illustrated by Brenna Thummler
Age Range: 7 – 12
Paperback: 232 pages
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing (2017)
ISBN: 978-1449479602

Do you have a ten-year-old daughter (one or several around this age!), who likes to read, fantasize and be overwhelmed by irresistible characters? Do you want to introduce her to literary characters she can’t help but love? Do you want to share a magical reading moment between mother and daughter? If so, this book is for you.

This book is an adaptation of the classic Anne of Green Gables, the 1908 novel by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery, transformed into a graphic novel.

This book is beautiful. I was so absorbed in it’s reading that I was surprised and sorry when it came to an end. In the end, it leaves you delighted. We return to the charm and the enchantment of Avonlea, the vibrant personality and imagination of Anne (always with an -e), her heartbreaking need to be loved and accepted in the beginning, the quiet, discreet love of Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert for the always extraordinary orphan, the faithful friend Diana, the teasing boy Gilbert Blythe.

This graphic novel respects and honors the original.

The illustrations are gorgeous, the colors beautiful, there are pages with only one illustration filling it like paintings, you go through the book marveled by its flowing.

However, I don’t know if this graphic novel version of the classic could stand alone, without the backup of the worldly known original book. The story is logically truncated, condensed by this art genre.

Yet, it’s a work of art in its own right.

I received this book as an ARC from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

"Poema à Mãe" de Eugénio de Andrade

2018-05-03T20:35:00.000+01:00

Stanka Kordic

No mais fundo de ti
Eu sei que te traí, mãe.

Tudo porque já não sou
O menino adormecido
No fundo dos teus olhos.

Tudo porque ignoras
Que há leitos onde o frio não se demora
E noites rumorosas de águas matinais.

Por isso, às vezes, as palavras que te digo
São duras, mãe,
E o nosso amor é infeliz.

Tudo porque perdi as rosas brancas
Que apertava junto ao coração
No retrato da moldura.

Se soubesses como ainda amo as rosas,
Talvez não enchesses as horas de pesadelos.

Mas tu esqueceste muita coisa;
Esqueceste que as minhas pernas cresceram,
Que todo o meu corpo cresceu,
E até o meu coração
Ficou enorme, mãe!

Olha - queres ouvir-me? -
Às vezes ainda sou o menino
Que adormeceu nos teus olhos;

Ainda aperto contra o coração
Rosas tão brancas
Como as que tens na moldura;

Ainda oiço a tua voz:
Era uma vez uma princesa
No meio do laranjal...

Mas - tu sabes - a noite é enorme,
E todo o meu corpo cresceu.
Eu saí da moldura,
Dei às aves os meus olhos a beber.

Não me esqueci de nada, mãe.
Guardo a tua voz dentro de mim.
E deixo as rosas.

Boa noite. Eu vou com as aves.

Eugénio de Andrade

Um poema e uma ilustração para o Dia da Mãe

2018-04-28T18:52:00.000+01:00

Lin Wang

SÓ POR ISSO, MÃE

Mesmo que a noite esteja escura,
Ou por isso,
Quero acender a minha estrela.

Mesmo que o mar esteja morto,
Ou por isso,
Quero enfunar a minha vela.

Mesmo que a vida esteja nua,
Ou por isso,
Quero vestir-lhe o meu poema.

Só porque tu existes,
Vale a pena!

Lopes Morgado, “Mulher Mãe”

A ouvir "Never Enough", da banda sonora do filme "The Greatest Showman": magnífica!

2018-04-25T00:59:00.000+01:00

"Never Enough" é uma das canções mais lindas do filme The Greatest Showman. Um dos momentos altos do filme (já aqui falei de outro) é quando a actriz Rebecca Ferguson, no papel de Jenny Lind, num dos momentos mais intensos e apoteóticos do filme, deslumbra com a sua beleza e interpretação, ao "cantar" esta música:

Na verdade, surpreendentemente, a voz não é da actriz mas da cantora Loren Allred. Aqui fica a prova:

Ilustração comemorativa do Dia Mundial do Livro / An illustration for World Book Day

2018-04-23T20:00:00.000+01:00

Fernando Vicente

Hoje é o Dia Mundial do Livro! / Today is World Book and Copyright Day!

2018-04-23T09:29:00.000+01:00

Imagem do site das Nações Unidas.

Clique na imagem para aumentar e saber porque este é o Dia Mundial do Livro.

"Write Smart, Write Happy: How to Become a More Productive, Resilient and Successful Writer": a minha "review"

2018-04-12T23:04:00.000+01:00

"Write Smart, Write Happy: How to Become a More Productive, Resilient and Successful Writer", de Cheryl St. John, foi-me cedido pela Netgalley e pelo editor para que eu fizesse uma apreciação honesta deste livro. Não há de momento edição em português. Publiquei a minha opinião na Amazon e no Goodreads com 4/5 estrelas e a seguinte "review":

"I’ll start to confess that I went to check how many books Cheryl St. John had published: the answer is dozens of them. She knows what she is talking about. She’s a prolific writer that was already getting published in the nineties.

This is not the usual book about the writing process, inspiration, emotion and momentum. This is not about the magic of creation. It’s about organized work and productivity. It's about showing up. It reminds me of some books about time management and setting goals. All this applied to creative writing, with multiple examples. Good book.

I received this book as an eARC from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review".

Livros têm a forma de portas: um poema / “Books are door-shaped”: a poem

2018-04-09T21:14:00.000+01:00

Quint Buchholz

Tula [“Books are door-shaped”]

Books are door-shaped

portals

carrying me

across oceans

and centuries,

helping me feel

less alone.

But my mother believes

that girls who read too much

are unladylike

and ugly,

so my father's books are locked

in a clear glass cabinet. I gaze

at enticing covers

and mysterious titles,

but I am rarely permitted

to touch

the enchantment

of words.

Poems.

Stories.

Plays.

All are forbidden.

Girls are not supposed to think,

but as soon as my eager mind

begins to race, free thoughts

rush in

to replace

the trapped ones.

I imagine distant times

and faraway places.

Ghosts.

Vampires.

Ancient warriors.

Fantasy moves into

the tangled maze

of lonely confusion.

Secretly, I open

an invisible book in my mind,

and I step

through its magical door-shape

into a universe

of dangerous villains

and breathtaking heroes.

Many of the heroes are men

and boys, but some are girls

so tall

strong

and clever

that they rescue other children

from monsters.

Margarita Engle

Essa coisa maravilhosa chamada livro / That wonderful thing called book

2018-04-05T15:00:00.000+01:00

Adrian Gottlieb

"When I was about eight, I decided that the most wonderful thing, next to a human being, was a book".

Margaret Walker

Andrew Scott interpreta de forma magnífica as primeiras falas de Hamlet: "To be or not to be"

2018-03-30T21:43:00.001+01:00

"Andrew Scott, as Hamlet, performs the opening lines of Shakespeare's most famous soliloquy".

BBCArts

Muito bom!

Poemas de ponta & mola

2018-03-30T21:00:00.000+01:00

poesia & poesia

poesia pró coração
poesia procuração
poesia rissóis pra fora
poesia para a velhice
para atrasados mentais
e também prá parvoíce

poesia libidinosa
para acordar os chéchés
e pra outras coisas mais

a poesia cor-de-rosa
para corações doentes
de donzelas suspirosas
rosas rosas amarelas

poesia clorofilada
para lavagem de dentes

poesia para o natal
expressamente encomendada
e poesia natalícia
pró menino dos papás
a poesia necrológica

dum velhinho trucla zás

a poesia só formal
porque o poeta coitado
tem o vício de escrever

a poesia cautelosa
porqu’isto nunca se sabe

a poesia fadunchada
e uma fadista aluada

a poesia da borbulha
que passa depois daquilo

poesia obrigada a mote
a cavalo num poeta
sentado num burro a trote

a poesia pra que conste
dum poeta muito muito
muito muito muito bicha

poesia quinquagenária
duma jovem rapariga

poesia bordada à mão
dum ancião já sem pé

a poesia ao pé da mão
a poesia ao pé do pé

poesia encapada capada

poesia para tudo
poesia para nada

Mendes de Carvalho "Poemas de ponta & mola"

Via Bruaá Editora

3 conselhos de Madeleine L'Engle para quem quer ser escritor / 3 advice from Madeleine L'Engle for those who want to write

2018-03-27T19:51:00.001+01:00

"The Writer", Agnes Boulloche

“I have advice for people who want to write. I don't care whether they're 5 or 500. There are three things that are important: First, if you want to write, you need to keep an honest, unpublishable journal that nobody reads, nobody but you. Where you just put down what you think about life, what you think about things, what you think is fair and what you think is unfair. And second, you need to read. You can't be a writer if you're not a reader. It's the great writers who teach us how to write. The third thing is to write. Just write a little bit every day. Even if it's for only half an hour — write, write, write.”

Madeleine L'Engle

3 citações para comemorar a Primavera / 3 quotes to celebrate Spring

2018-03-24T15:18:00.000+00:00

"Spring", 1933, Leon Wyczólkowski (1852-1936)

“I am alive, and drunk on sunlight.”

George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords, 2000

“She turned to the sunlight

And shook her yellow head,

And whispered to her neighbor:

‘Winter is dead.'”

A.A. Milne, When We Were Very Young, 1924

“I will be the gladdest thing under the sun! I will touch a hundred flowers and not pick.”

Edna St. Vincent Millay, “Afternoon On A Hill,” 1917

Dia Mundial da Poesia: um poema "sobre um poema"

2018-03-21T20:30:00.000+00:00

"Escrever com o coração", Fernando Vicente

Sobre um Poema

Um poema cresce inseguramente
na confusão da carne,
sobe ainda sem palavras, só ferocidade e gosto,
talvez como sangue
ou sombra de sangue pelos canais do ser.

Fora existe o mundo. Fora, a esplêndida violência
ou os bagos de uva de onde nascem
as raízes minúsculas do sol.
Fora, os corpos genuínos e inalteráveis
do nosso amor,
os rios, a grande paz exterior das coisas,
as folhas dormindo o silêncio,
as sementes à beira do vento,
- a hora teatral da posse.
E o poema cresce tomando tudo em seu regaço.

E já nenhum poder destrói o poema.
Insustentável, único,
invade as órbitas, a face amorfa das paredes,
a miséria dos minutos,
a força sustida das coisas,
a redonda e livre harmonia do mundo.

- Em baixo o instrumento perplexo ignora
a espinha do mistério.
- E o poema faz-se contra o tempo e a carne.

Herberto Helder

Fonte: Citador

Hoje é o Dia Mundial da Poesia! / Today is World Poetry Day!

2018-03-21T17:00:00.000+00:00

7 citações de Madeleine L’Engle / 7 quotes of ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ author Madeleine L’Engle

2018-03-19T20:43:00.000+00:00

“You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.”

“When we believe in the impossible, it becomes possible, and we can do all kinds of extraordinary things.”

“Inspiration usually comes during work rather than before it.”

“If we are not willing to fail we will never accomplish anything. All creative acts involve the risk of failure.”

Madeleine L’Engle

"Há mulheres que trazem o mar nos olhos" diz Sophia de Mello Breyner

2018-03-08T17:19:00.000+00:00

Charles Dana Gibson

Há mulheres que trazem o mar nos olhos
Não pela cor
Mas pela vastidão da alma

E trazem a poesia nos dedos e nos sorrisos
Ficam para além do tempo
Como se a maré nunca as levasse
Da praia onde foram felizes

Há mulheres que trazem o mar nos olhos
pela grandeza da imensidão da alma
pelo infinito modo como abarcam as coisas e os homens...
Há mulheres que são maré em noites de tardes...
e calma

Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, em "Obra Poética"

Porque amanhã é o Dia da Mulher, aqui fica o segredo de uma "mulher fenomenal" por Maya Angelou / "Phenomenal Woman", a poem by Maya Angelou

2018-03-07T19:29:00.000+00:00

Joseph Lorusso, 1966

Phenomenal Woman, por Maya Angelou

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.

I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much

But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Maya Angelou

"Storytelling for Pantsers: How to Write and Revise Your Novel Without an Outline": a minha review

2018-03-06T20:41:00.000+00:00

"Storytelling for Pantsers: How to Write and Revise Your Novel Without an Outline", de Annalisa Parent , foi-me cedido pela Netgalley e pelo editor para que eu fizesse uma apreciação honesta deste livro. Não há de momento edição em português. Publiquei a minha opinião na Amazon e no Goodreads com 5/5 estrelas e a seguinte "review":

This book is about a particular way of creative writing. It’s a guide for pantsers. Pantsers are the opposite of plotters. A plotter is someone who plans out their novel before they write it. When they start to write they already know how it is going to end. Because they made an outline. A pantser is someone who doesn’t plan out anything. Pantsers like the freedom of not being stuck following an outline. They can take their novel in any direction they want. That, speaking from my own experience, can be nowhere. Having no plan can mean you end up moving in circles and you don’t know where to go with your story or your characters. You get stuck.

If you are a pantser like me, with unfinished stories hidden in a drawer, read this book. It has great tips on writing in an intuitive, disorganized, untamed way, without an outline or previous plot. Thus, the importance of revising is well explained in this book. It presents pearls of wisdom on a pot (not in!). Really. The whole book is written with a great sense of humor. It’s really easy and enjoyable to read. The author’s writing is vivacious and funny. I recommend it to every fiction writer, not just pantsers.

I received this book as an eARC from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

THIS IS ME!!! - Um grande canção do filme "The Greatest Showman", cantada por Keala Settle

2018-03-03T18:11:00.000+00:00

Deixo outro vídeo, com menos glamour mas igualmente emotivo, desta música:

"A Leitora" por António Ramos Rosa

2018-03-02T21:00:00.000+00:00

Leopold Carl Müller, 1834-1892

A Leitora

A leitora abre o espaço num sopro subtil.
Lê na violência e no espanto da brancura.
Principia apaixonada, de surpresa em surpresa.
Ilumina e inunda e dissemina de arco em arco.
Ela fala com as pedras do livro, com as sílabas da sombra.

Ela adere à matéria porosa, à madeira do vento.
Desce pelos bosques como uma menina descalça.
Aproxima-se das praias onde o corpo se eleva
em chama de água. Na imaculada superfície
ou na espessura latejante, despe-se das formas,

branca no ar. É um torvelinho harmonioso,
um pássaro suspenso. A terra ergue-se inteira
na sede obscura de palavras verticais.
A água move-se até ao seu princípio puro.
O poema é um arbusto que não cessa de tremer.

António Ramos Rosa, in "Volante Verde"

A poesia é confissão / Poetry is confession

2018-02-26T21:00:00.000+00:00

Natalia Ciobanu

«Poetry is the one place where people can speak their original human mind. It is the outlet for people to say in public what is known in private...»

Allen Ginsberg

"Quiet Girl in a Noisy World: An Introvert's Story": a minha review.

2018-02-14T19:55:00.000+00:00

"Quiet Girl in a Noisy World: An Introvert's Story", de Debbie Tung , foi-me cedido pela Netgalley e pelo editor para que eu fizesse uma apreciação honesta deste livro. Não há de momento edição em português. Publiquei a minha opinião na Amazon e no Goodreads com 5/5 estrelas e a seguinte "review":

Quiet Girl in a Noisy World: An Introvert's Story is a comic book by Debbie Tung about a girl growing to accept her introversion as a feature instead of a flaw.

This book is SO me! I've always been an introvert and I used to feel inadequate. Now I'm older and ok with it. It's who I am and I know there is nothing wrong with it.

The author of this book really understands introverts, she must be one. Her portrait of introverts is accurate. The comics are short and to the point. The drawings are simple, in black and white and very expressive. They convey well, and without the help of much text, the message.

This is a good reading for introverts: it demystifies introversion. (I smiled as I recognized myself in some funny situations, I felt understood).

It's also a good book for extroverts who want to understand introverts. (I already told my husband, who is an extrovert, to read this book so he understands me better).

Yet, don't think that introverts don't like people, they do. They just get tired and drained after some time around people. They need some time alone.

There is another quirk to which I relate to the main character: I'm also a bookworm. I love to stay home with my kids, my husband, and my dogs. And also alone, in my corner, reading my books and recharging batteries.

I received this book as an eARC from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Clique para aumentar.

Um poema de amor de Fernando Pessoa para o Dia dos Namorados

2018-02-14T16:51:00.000+00:00

Fernando Vicente

O amor, quando se revela,
Não se sabe revelar.
Sabe bem olhar p'ra ela,
Mas não lhe sabe falar.

Quem quer dizer o que sente
Não sabe o que há de dizer.
Fala: parece que mente
Cala: parece esquecer

Ah, mas se ela adivinhasse,
Se pudesse ouvir o olhar,
E se um olhar lhe bastasse
Pr'a saber que a estão a amar!

Mas quem sente muito, cala;
Quem quer dizer quanto sente
Fica sem alma nem fala,
Fica só, inteiramente!

Mas se isto puder contar-lhe
O que não lhe ouso contar,
Já não terei que falar-lhe
Porque lhe estou a falar.

Fernando Pessoa

A contadora de histórias / The storyteller

2018-02-07T20:53:00.000+00:00

Hugues Merle (1823–1881)

"A man who tells secrets or stories must think of who is hearing or reading, for a story has as many versions as it has readers. Everyone takes what he wants or can from it and thus changes it to his measure. Some pick out parts and reject the rest, some strain the story through their mesh of prejudice, some paint it with their own delight. A story must have some points of contact with the reader to make him feel at home in it. Only then can he accept wonders.”

John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent