Christina Widmann's Blog, page 44

Agustín Vidaller: Oasis

Muy autor mío:

Oasis me recuerda El Nombre de la Rosa. En ambos libros la trama da para una contraportada atractiva, pero el lector que por la contraportada compre el libro se llevará una decepción. Quien, empero, habiendo leído la primera página quede encantado y se deje llevar por una prosa que es canto y por un cuento que es más ensueño que realidad, disfrutará de Oasis como yo he disfrutado.

Forzoso es decir que Su estilo se parece al de Borges, también al de Juan Rulfo. Dicen los académicos que tras una larga época de influencia ibérica sobre la literatura americana, ahora es ésta la que influye sobre la española. Leyendo Oasis, lo creo. Usted, saboreando la mejor prosa de acá y de allá, se ha contagiado de los ya sobremanera habituales errores que desde América han venido y no distingue entre oír y escuchar, volver y retornar. Aún así, Su castellano es de lo mejor que de autores vivos he leído.

¿Qué diga de la trama? Que es cautivadora y que al mismo tiempo importa poco en una narrativa que a la vez es metáfora. Que obedece a la lógica de los sueños más que a la del mundo despierto.

Oasis es una novela para los lectores de poemas y un poema para los lectores de novelas. Lo iré recomendando a ambos.

Atentamente
Christina Widmann de Fran

Oasis - Una odisea negra de Agustín Vidaller Charlez

publicado en 2017 por Trea

ISBN: 978-84-17140-12-0
Amazon.es

Die Ehre des Scharfrichters

Mit makabrer Neugierde fängt man an, dieses Buch zu lesen. Schnell allerdings findet man sich im realen sechzehnten Jahrhundert wieder und merkt, wie überzeichnet und erfunden die meisten Romane es darstellen. Joel Harrington beschreibt das Leben von Meister Frantz, Scharfrichter in Nürnberg von 1573 bis 1617, aber er beschreibt gleichzeitig die Gesellschaft, die solche Scharfrichter brauchte. Die nüchternen, meist lakonisch kurzen Tagebucheinträge von Frantz Schmidt ergänzt Harrington durch Daten aus Gerichtsprotokollen und dem Stadtarchiv. So erfahren wir, was dem Scharfrichter wichtig war, und was er aus seinen Einträgen wegließ, was er wahrscheinlich dachte und fühlte.

Joel Harrington schreibt verständlich und übersetzt die Tagebucheinträge des Scharfrichters, Arztes und Autodidakten Franz Schmidt nicht nur in heutiges Deutsch, sondern auch in unsere Gedankenwelt. Gleichzeitig erzählt er die spannende Lebensgeschichte eines Mannes, der seine verlorene Familienehre wiederherstellen will, damit seine Söhne einen anderen Beruf ergreifen können, als ihr Vater auszuüben gezwungen war. Am Ende schließt Harrington über Meister Frantz und sein Tagebuch:

Sein Leben birgt in Wirklichkeit keine eindeutige Moral für unsere Zeit. Vielmehr müssen wir uns darauf beschränken, die Freuden und Enttäuschungen eines Mannes innerhalb des Kontexts seiner eigenen Welt zu teilen.

Dies ist Joel Harrington gelungen. Uneingeschränkte Leseempfehlung.

Die Ehre des Scharfrichters: Meister Frantz oder ein Henkersleben im 16. Jahrhundert von Joel Harrington

Erstausgabe erschienen 2013 bei Bodley Head als The Faithful Executioner: Life and Death in the Sixteenth Century.

Deutsche Übersetzung: Norbert Juraschitz für den Siedler Verlag, dem ich für ein Rezensionsexemplar danke.

Amazon: hier klicken

Gretchen Price: Modern Vegan Baking

Dear Gretchen Price,

I like baking and trying out new recipes, so when your publisher offered a free review copy of Modern Vegan Baking, I took the chance. The photo below is of a vegan cheesecake, a variation of your strawberry cheesecake recipe, without the base and without the strawberries. To be honest, it didn't taste much like cheesecake to me.

As an omnivore, the first thing I noticed about Modern Vegan Baking is that I needed to go shopping before trying any of your recipes. Except the pizza dough, everything contains at least one ingredient I don't usually have at home: soy milk, vegan butter, egg replacer, etc. With your explanations, they were easy to use.

I liked your detailed step-by-step descriptions. Still, a photo of the finished product at least for the more complicated cakes would have been useful.

All in all, a good baking book for a vegan, but no interesting new recipes for me. Maybe you could investigate recipes that use mashed bananas as a replacement for eggs? A vegan baking book without soy, tofu or expensive special ingredients - that would be a bestseller.

Yours sincerely
Christina Widmann de Fran

Modern Vegan Baking: The Ultimate Resource for Sweet&Savoury Baked Goods by Gretchen Price

Published in January, 2018
Get your copy on Amazon.

Scion Series: Plot holes and fridge logic

As a first video on my new youtube channel BrutalReviews, I made a brief compilation of contradictions, plot holes and fridge logic in the Scion series by Michael J. Allen. Enjoy, but be warned: Spoilers ahead!

Michael J. Allen: Unchained

Dear Mr. Allen,

The third book in your Scion series follows the same recipe as the first. Alaric fights, runs, takes on yet another false identity, and gets himself caught and enslaved for the fighting pits. While the boy is going through hell there, every faction outside is looking for him because they finally figured out who Alaric Ignaree det Regis really is. Pit fights, starship battles, plots and counterplots. Friendships, betrayals. Less comic relief in this volume, more Rule of Cool. The catfighting jealous ladies are new. Alaric is back to his sympathetic personality, and Unchained is an even more enjoyable read than Scion of Conquered Earth. I especially liked those last few paragraphs.

What I didn't like is, again, the lack of proofreading. The typos, grammatical errors and incomplete sentences are getting more with each volume.

There's still questions open. A new character has entered the set. I wonder what Cassandra is up to. You seem to be working on another volume, Mr. Allen. Unchained is designed to keep the readers eager for more.

Yours sincerely
Christina Widmann de Fran

Unchained: A Science Fiction Space Opera Adventure is book 3 in the Scion series by Michael J. Allen.

Self-published in 2017

Get your copy on Amazon.

Visit the author on DeliriousScribbles.com

Meshulam Riklis: $950 Million in 40 Minutes

Dear Mr. Riklis,

There is a sublte irony in your autobiography: The man who 25 years ago bought his wife roles in Hollywood and donated famous artwork to museums, today can't get his memoir into a professional publisher's portfolio. A two person e-publishing company converted your manuscript into a sloppy e-book and a slightly better paperback version and is now giving out free review copies in lieu of a marketing campaign - a good strategy to make sure a book stays buried in the depths of Amazon. It's a pity. $950 Million in 40 Minutes shows us what you want to be remembered for: your brilliant mind, your gift of convincing people, your generosity. The trick you invented to become a billionaire out of nothing.

I like your style of writing, Mr. Riklis. What you tell about your father and zionism before WWII was interesting because you mention things we never learned in history class. The account of your rise to fortune and fame is probably inspiring for those who strive to do the same. The downfall of your business empire would have been interesting to read in depth about. Your corporation braved crisis so often and always emerged stronger. What was it that brought it down in the end? You prefer not to dwell on this question, and the reader must understand.

Who is Meshulam Riklis? The man who bailed Martin Luther King out of jail several times. The man who maybe did, maybe didn't buy his second wife a Golden Globe Award. The man who walked into a bank and asked for a loan of $950 million and got it. And the author of this autobiography which, I hope, will find its readers after all.

Yours sincerely
Christina Widmann de Fran

$950 Million in 40 Minutes is the autobiography of Meshulam Riklis. Find out more about him on Wikipedia.

Published in 2017
ISBN: 978-1979721745

Get a copy on Amazon.

Charles Yu: How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe

Dear Charles Yu,

Were you trying to write the next Hitchhiker's Guide, or were you trying to win a bet on how many tropes and staples of the SciFi genre you could fit on 230 pages? Whatever your intentions, the result is boring. How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe feels like twice its length. Instead of a genre deconstruction you wrote a standard SciFi book cluttered with lampshades. The main character made me cringe, and the ending felt like you were cheating. Not an enjoyable read.

Yours sincerely
Christina Widmann de Fran

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu

published in 2011
ISBN: 978-1848876828

Get a copy on Amazon.

Nouw30DayChallenge

#nouw30daychallenge is back, and so am I. On the off chance a non-beauty blogger has, I'm committing to work hard for a month and make this blog even better for readers all over the world. I'm planning to

take my "letters to the author" approach in book reviews to the next level bring variety into this blog by writing about my second big passion next to books: health and the human bodyshare some food-related secretsrun giveaways and involve my readers more

Don't worry, this doesn't mean that everything must change. I'm keeping what I believe are the good and unique aspects of this blog: the simple design, the languages and the mercilessly honest reviews.

If you have any suggestions or opinions about my blog so far, feel free to leave a comment!

Lea Ben Shlomo: Journey to Water's Heart

Dear Lea Ben Shlomo,

Your publisher sent me a free review copy of Journey to Water's Heart in exchange for an Amazon review. You will find it short and harsh. I can't recommend this book to any reader. I can, however, recommend you as an author, and I do it here. You have a strong imagination. Once you hone your craft and enlist the help of an editor, I expect great books from you.

Yours sincerely
Christina Widmann de Fran

Journey to Water's Heart by Lea Ben Shlomo

published in 2017

ISBN: 978-1979718820
Amazon

Rod Raglin: End of the Rope

Dear Mr. Raglin,

Has End of the Rope made it to the stage by now? I hope it has. Theater producers will ignore your detailed instructions about setting and costume, and do whatever they want instead. Readers with a paper copy, however, profit from all the attention you invested into the stage instructions. It makes the play come alive in our minds.

The dialogue reads unnatural in some places. Three climbers stating, one after the other, why they keep risking their lives on mountains - it's contrived. It doesn't sound the way real people would talk about such things. The final monologue, too, sounds artificial. And still it almost made me cry. However awkwardly, the information comes across.

I read End of the Rope the day before yesterday, but couldn't review it as I usually do, immediately. The play was still resonating on my mind. I was still discovering nuances to plot and characters, savouring revelations. End of the Rope is a powerful piece of writing. Twenty pages of truth.

Yours in awe
Christina Widmann de Fran

End of the Rope: A Play in Four Acts by Rod Raglin

self-published in 2016
ASIN: B01K1RROUK

Visit rodraglin.com for a free sample or Amazon for a copy.