april reads

not quite as much reading in April, as we traveled to Spain for Holy Week and Easter vacation -- but that trip was the impetus for reading many of these books! reading about the places where we'd be traveling gave me even more of an appreciation for the beauty and history of these cities, and made me feel a little less like a tourist. 

1) Miracle in Seville, by James Michener. a short but dense novel about a journalist who travels to Seville to write an in-depth piece about bullfighting. Seville was our first stop on our trip to Spain, and Michener's novel brought the neighborhoods to life for me, especially the neighborhood of Triana across the river from the town center. he captures the mystery and romance of the bullfighting tradition that seems almost to become a religion itself. 

2) Girls Burn Brighter, by Shobha Rao. wow ... wow ... wow. an utterly devastating novel about sexism and human trafficking, even more arresting for me to read because the setting moves from India to Seattle, where i grew up. it's disturbing and heart-wrenching, as it should be, because these things are disturbing and heart-wrenching. and even though it's a novel, you know that it's all based in truth. a word of caution that there are some graphic scenes, especially towards the end, and this may not be the right read for someone who has suffered physical, sexual or emotional abuse. 

3) Cathedral of the Sea, by Ildefanso Falcones. set in medieval Barcelona, this novel tells the sweeping tale of Arnau Estanyol, a serf born outside the city who is brought to the city by his father and eventually becomes one of the bastaixos, the stoneworkers built the incredible Basilica of Santa Maria del Mar. the book immerses you in the world of serfs and lords, the Jewish ghetto and the Spanish Inquisition, the wars between the divided Spanish kingdoms and the rest of the Mediterranean. when we visited the basilica ourselves, i felt like i had already seen and loved it through Arnau's eyes. 

4) Homage to Catalonia, by George Orwell. i probably wouldn't have read this book if we weren't traveling to Spain, or if it hadn't been written by George Orwell. i was intrigued by the subject matter: he chronicles his experiences fighting in the Spanish Civil War against the fascists. so it's basically a war journal, but his regiment didn't do all that much fighting. the most interesting part to me was towards the end of the book where he is actually on leave in Barcelona but has to hide out during the day in various buildings which i recognized once we were walking around the city ourselves. 

5) The Queen's Vow: A Novel of Isabella of Castile, by C. W. Gortner. this was a fascinating account of the woman who grew up to be Queen Isabella, married King Ferdinand of Aragon, united the nation of Spain and commissioned Christopher Columbus to sail to the New World. when we visited the Alcazar in Seville (southwestern Spain) as well as the Alfajeria in Zaragoza (northeastern Spain), both palaces where the royal couple lived, their reign truly came to life. 

up next: 

--The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

--The Seven Storey Mountain, by Thomas Merton

--Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson

--Cozy Minimalist Home, by Myquillyn Smith

--Need to Know, by Karen Cleveland

--Oscar Romero: Love Must Win Out, by Kevin Clarke

--Standard Deviation, by Katherine Heiny