Anyone up to read something for the first Spanish bookclub? What are everyone’s levels? I’d be fine with anything (I saw that @eefara added some history books, those seem interesting, or novels too).
Nomination template!
**Book**: Put a Natively link here!
**Genre**: provide genre if it's clearly stated (mystery/horror/sf/etc), otherwise "general fiction" is fine, or leave blank
**Length**: number of pages, and number of volumes if applicable
**Is there an ebook available?**: yes or no (buying options are visible on the Natively book page)
**Is there an audiobook available?**: yes or no
**Variety of Spanish**: Is it Castillan Spanish? Latin American Spanish? When in doubt, look at where the author was born.
[details="Summary - Spanish"]
you can copy/paste this from wherever you'd like. Please have it in a drop down like shown.
[/details]
[details="Summary - English"]
Optional! Chuck the above summary into DeepL, Google Translate, or the like. Or remove this section.
[/details]
[details="Content warnings if known"]
You can't be expected to know all the content of a book you haven't read yet, but if you know it deals with specific heavy topics, or the author is known for doing so, please include it here.
[/details]
**Why are you nominating this book:** This section is optional, but it's nice to know why someone else is interested in reading a book, and might sway others to vote for it!
Ooooh, so it begins. Though granted I think there’s like, 3, maybe 4 people registering Spanish books on the site at the moment. XD
I’m not sure, honestly. Never took the CEFR, and my current situation is “learned school Spanish for 8 years, then took a 7 year break before thinking ‘huh, I should probably not let that all disappear’”. So, uh. I’ll find out real quick, haha.
Yes, my current obsession/motivation is finding Spanish-language materials talking about historical stuff set during Felipe II’s reign (mid-1500s to early-1600s, approximately), and my goal is to revive/improve my Spanish enough to read them all. ^o^ On that note, if you (or anyone else) finds any interesting books talking about Alonso Martínez de Leiva - Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre, please let me know.
Just to clarify, what are we talking about here when we say “light novel”? Light novels translated from Japanese into Spanish, or young adult Spanish novels?
I was thinking more on the line of YA novels, but who knows, I might just take a page out of @bibliothecary 's book and read something in both Spanish and Korean . It probably wouldn’t help my Spanish much though.
I’m in a similar situation, except I took very intense Spanish classes in highschool, so I have an additional Spanish highschool diploma. In theory I should be around C1 (or at least I was 4 years ago).
I took Spanish in high school and college and I’ve read a few books before, so I should theoretically be B2-C1 (but I’ve never tested). My speaking and listening are strong but my reading is so-so, so a YA novel would probably be better for me than something by Isabel Allende or Gabriel García Márquez.
I’m not sure what level I would be but my Spanish is pretty rusty so probably not very high.
I might join a spanish book club but would need to check what the book is and see if I could get a copy
If you do eventually read Gabriel García Marquez, you can start with Relato de un naufrago. It’s the first actual novel I read in Spanish (intended for adults at least), and I was around B1 (although with the help of French and Latin, so with easier comprehension of new words). The story is pretty straightforward, and I don’t remember having misunderstood anything big. It’s a classic example of realismo mágico.
I’d be potentially interested in joining, though I just started reading a new book, haha! It’s a YA novel that’s a translation of a book in English (by an Argentinian author) called Lobizona by Romina Garber (here’s the Spanish version, and here’s the English)
I accidentally found the series after seeing the word “lobizona” in Las malas and not finding anything for it in my dictionary, haha, so I googled it and the series came up, and I was like
I’d say my preference right now would be for YA books. I read a few adult novels last year, and they were doable, but a little tough, and I preferred the difficulty level of the YA books I’d been reading, so I decided to go back to YA for now. Depending on the book, though, I might be persuaded!
I have no idea what my actual level is, though . Probably upper intermediate/lower advanced? I can read YA novels about everyday topics pretty quickly, but fantasy vocab still slows me down a bit, and more literary novels are doable but slow-going.
One option is to pick something translated from English/another language; you’re not getting that “native Spanish work” bonus there, but depending on how confident people are of their skills, it could be an easier option since they’re more likely to be familiar with the base work/have the original to consult.
This site suggests “books for teens”; how they end up difficulty-wise is probably going to vary quite a bit. Some interesting ones I saw there:
Copo de algodón (might be more difficult due to historical vocab? seems to be on the shorter side, though; <150 pages.)
Nice proposals! Once we have a couple others, I’ll post a poll.
Another novel to add, which isn’t YA (or at least I don’t think so) but that’s supposed to be very easy to understand from what the author said. Sin noticias de Gurb lv30???
Eduardo Mendoza dice a propósito de Sin noticias de Gurb, unos años después de escribirla: “Dudo que exista en toda la historia de la literatura reciente un libro más fácil de leer, por la sencilla razón de que está escrito en un lenguaje coloquial, su contenido es ligero y las partes que lo integran tienen una extensión de muy pocos renglones. También es un libro alegre, como lo fueron las circunstancias en que fue escrito: una primavera llena de promesas. Es una mirada sobre el mundo asombrada, un punto desamparada, pero sin asomo de tragedia ni de censura. A esto contribuyó el hecho de haberlo escrito pensando en que tendría una vida efímera, que se iría esfumando de día en día, y de que por lo tanto no había de tener más entidad que una charla de amigotes”.
I’m bad at judging difficulty levels in Spanish, so we can include it in the proposals or not depending on what you all think.
Yeah, I’ve really enjoyed doing this! Most of the books like this I’ve read so far are by American authors with Latinx heritage, so often even the English original has some Spanish in it, and since many of them often feature Latinx characters, there are lots of cultural aspects present in the work, and it can be easy to forget that Spanish isn’t the language it was originally published in, haha.
One that I’d recommend, for example, is Aristóteles y Dante descubren los secretos del universo by Benjamin Alire Saenz. It’s a coming of age novel without too much specialized vocabulary, and I found it very easy to read.
If we want something easier, I’d recommend staying away from fantasy/sci-fi and anything too historical (older than like a few decades back, at least), or the amount of lookups most people will have to do will increase by a lot.
This was the first novel I read in Spanish! I’d say it’d be a good candidate for a club, except for the fact that I think several of us have already read it, haha .
Maybe if Natively manages to draw in more learners, that’d be a good beginner’s book club pick. There is definitely some more specialized vocab in it that’s harder, but it repeats a lot, and I found the sentences themselves generally easy enough to understand as long as I looked up all the words I didn’t know.
Personally, my preference is for LGBTQ books, or books where there is almost no romance. Romance is pretty common in YA, especially in the more everyday, coming-of-age type books that I’d recommend for being easier, haha, but I’ve sort of run out of patience with heterosexual romance, so I’m not sure I’d participate if we pick a book where it’s a major component.
As far as recommendations go, I discovered that Amazon es has a tag for Novelas juveniles sobre LGBTQ+, so I browsed the top sellers to see if I could find anything that looked decent and easy:
Esta no es la típica historia de chico conoce a chico y, a veces, una simple semana puede cambiarte la vida. Descubre uno de los últimos fenómenos de Wattpad en forma de novela ilustrada.
Me llamo Óscar. Tengo 15 años y tengo un secreto: me gusta Pablo Bernabé, el chico guay de la clase, el deportista, el buenorro, el guapísimo, el… bueno, pilláis la idea, ¿verdad? Sí, vamos juntos a clase, pero yo creo que ni se sabe mi nombre. Y llevo tiempo pensándolo. ¿Y si me acerco y le saludo? ¿Qué es lo peor que podría pasar?
336 pages
Originally published in Spanish (I think), so not a translation
It’s illustrated, so that might help comprehension!
Looks like it is actually available on Kindle in a better format than I first thought!
Mentirosa by Sonia Bellido Aguirre and Clara Ann Simons
Nina Álvarez lo tiene todo. Es la capitana del equipo de baloncesto del instituto y una de las chicas más populares de la escuela. Eso sin contar con su prometedora carrera como influencer en las redes sociales.
Un desafortunado comentario en una fiesta. Un vídeo que no debería haber subido a las redes y un cúmulo de circunstancias adversas logran que su perfecta imagen se tambalee.
Tachada de homófoba, no solo está perdiendo seguidores en las redes, sino que varias universidades han decidido retirar sus becas para jugar al baloncesto.
En pánico, Nina toma una rápida decisión, saldrá con una de las chicas de su instituto. Alguien a quien sus populares amigas no soportan… Alexia Taylor.
Alexia es todo lo contrario a Nina. Inteligente y callada, no esconde sus preferencias sexuales. Su máxima aspiración es trabajar un día en la NASA y para eso debe mantener unas notas perfectas.
Por supuesto, la oferta de Nina no le interesa en absoluto, pero cuando su amiga Cris se mete por el medio, no será tan fácil negarse.
271 pages
Originally published in Spanish (I think)
Seems to be designed for Kindle, so instant lookups are an option
Axel Waters odia a su hermano Ben, pero, sobre todo, odia a los mejores amigos de este. En especial a cierto rubio prepotente que no para de tocarle las narices.
Axel y Ben son dos mellizos muy distintos entre sí. El primero es el friki del instituto, el bicho raro. El segundo es el popular, el presidente del consejo estudiantil. En el hogar Waters las peleas son una constante y ambos hermanos parecen condenados a no llevarse nunca bien.
Todo cambia cuando la novia de Ben rompe con él y empieza a pasar más tiempo de lo normal en casa.
Incapaz de aguantar la tensión más tiempo, Axel decide idear una estrategia que le permita librarse de él, sin saber que su vida está a punto de cambiar. Porque Key Parker, la estrella y el chico más adorado del instituto, ha descubierto que hay algo raro en su comportamiento y no está dispuesto a dejar escapar la oportunidad de molestar al irritante hermano de su mejor amigo.
351 pages
Originally published in Spanish (I think)
Seems to be designed for Kindle, so instant lookups are an option
The preview for this one opens with a scene that seems especially difficult (there’s some fantasy vocabulary) and doesn’t seem reflective of most of the book, so if you check that out to gauge its difficulty, I’d either skip or skim through the first scene to get a better idea of how it’ll read for you.
I am also terrible at judging difficulty levels in Spanish, but I’d place all three of those at seeming to be on the lower to middle intermediate end? Like if you get decently far in the Duolingo Spanish course and/or have a couple years of high school Spanish lessons under your belt, I think they’d be a bit hard but doable, and if you have experience reading Spanish novels for adults, they’d probably be on the breezier end.
I guess I’d also nominate Lobizona, since I’m already reading it! It’s definitely harder than the three books I listed above, though. And it’s a translation of a book that was originally published in Spanish. But if we pick that, I’d be able to start earlier with the club, haha, since I’m currently reading it.
All of those look interesting to me fallynleaf. I was also able to more-or-less understand all the synopses without looking up any words, which at least makes me feel like hopefully the books themselves won’t be too bad. XD
Since it looks like we’re already getting some good options @HopeWaterfall, how do we want to handle book selection? Have a formal nomination template like other clubs, forgo that for the first book at least and let people toss in general ideas? And what date would we like to start voting? Looking at the poll, we’ve got a nice three-way tie so far for start date, haha.
(Granted, it’s still pretty early in January, so we could probably pretty easily wait at least another week or so before deciding how we want to proceed, in case we manage to pick up any new members.)
Oh, I hadn’t thought of a formal nomination template. Might be nice to have though.
Here is the one from the Korean Fiction Book Club:
**Book**: Put a Natively link here!
**Genre**: provide genre if it's clearly stated (mystery/horror/sf/etc), otherwise "general fiction" is fine, or leave blank
**Length**: number of pages, and number of volumes if applicable
**Is there an ebook available?**: yes or no (buying options are visible on the Natively book page)
**Is there an audiobook available?**: yes or no
**Variety of Spanish**: Is it Castillan Spanish? Latin American Spanish? When in doubt, look at where the author was born.
[details="Summary - Spanish"]
you can copy/paste this from wherever you'd like. Please have it in a drop down like shown.
[/details]
[details="Summary - English"]
Optional! Chuck the above summary into DeepL, Google Translate, or the like. Or remove this section.
[/details]
[details="Content warnings if known"]
You can't be expected to know all the content of a book you haven't read yet, but if you know it deals with specific heavy topics, or the author is known for doing so, please include it here.
[/details]
**Why are you nominating this book:** This section is optional, but it's nice to know why someone else is interested in reading a book, and might sway others to vote for it!
As for when we should start voting, I’m inclined towards waiting a bit more, like you said, so that we can hopefully get some more people to join.
Book: Sin noticias de Gurb lv30?? by Eduardo Mendoza Genre: sf Length: 192 pages Is there an ebook available?: yes Is there an audiobook available?: yes Variety of Spanish: Castillan (author from Barcelona, Spain)
Summary - Spanish
Perdido en la Barcelona preolímpica, el extraterrestre Gurb pone al servicio de su supervivencia la extraña cualidadde adoptar el aspecto que le plazca. Se pierde con la apariencia de Marta Sánchez, mientras su compañero alienígena inicia su búsqueda. Por su diario personal vamos conociendo las increíbles peripecias de un extraterrestre en Barcelona. En este relato de carácter paródico y satírico, la invención de Eduardo Mendoza convierte la Barcelona cotidiana en el escenario de una carnavalada tras la cual se revela el verdadero rostro del hombre urbano actual.
Summary - English
Lost in pre-Olympic Barcelona, the extraterrestrial Gurb puts at the service of his survival the strange quality of adopting any appearance he pleases. He gets lost with the appearance of Marta Sanchez, while his alien companion begins his search. Through his personal diary we learn about the incredible adventures of an extraterrestrial in Barcelona. In this parodic and satirical story, Eduardo Mendoza’s invention turns everyday Barcelona into the scene of a carnival behind which the true face of today’s urban man is revealed.
Why are you nominating this book: The author is pretty famous, he even got the Cervantes prize. This novel is pretty short, and from what the author said, it is supposed to be rather easy to read(to a native speaker at least).
Copo de Algodón, hija de la princesa de Tacuba y del señor de Tenochtitlan, nació en la era del Quinto Sol, en una ciudad que un pueblo fiero y guerrero levantó en una laguna de reflejos color turquesa. Creía en Tláloc y Huitzilopochtli, y amaba las flores y los cantos. Un día su mundo se agitó, como las aguas al lanzar una piedra… Conoce, a través de su voz, los acontecimientos de su época: las guerras floridas, la matanza de Cholula, la llegada de Hernán Cortés, la muerte de Moctezuma, el sitio de Tenochtitlan… y sumérgete en la historia antigua de México, en la existencia de sus personajes y en la fascinante cosmovisión de este pueblo.
Summary - English
Copo de Algodón, daughter of the princess of Tacuba and the lord of Tenochtitlan, was born in the era of the Fifth Sun, in a city that a fierce and warrior people built in a lagoon of turquoise reflections. She believed in Tláloc and Huitzilopochtli, and she loved flowers and songs. One day his world shook, like the waters throwing a stone… He knows, through his voice, the events of his time: the flowery wars, the massacre of Cholula, the arrival of Hernán Cortés, the death of Moctezuma , the site of Tenochtitlan… and immerse yourself in the ancient history of Mexico, in the existence of its characters and in the fascinating worldview of this town.
Content warnings if known
None known
Why are you nominating this book: This book is on the shorter side, and I’m really interested in reading about the Spanish conquistadors. The author blub mentions that the author is a well-known children’s/youth literature author, so hopefully that all combines to be an easy read:
Semblanza de la autora: María García Esperón hizo estudios de Ciencias Humanas en el Claustro de Sor Juana y de Letras Clásicas en la UNAM. Es apasionada de las lenguas modernas y antiguas, de la Historia y de la Arqueología. María García Esperón es una de las escritoras mexicanas más prolíficas en el campo de la literatura infantil y juvenil.
Ah, would it be possible to add “Is there an audiobook available?” to the official template?
It might be nice to know what variety of Spanish the work is written in as well, though that may be tough to tell unless you’ve already read the book… I suppose you could just look at where the author’s from, if that’s available.
Though granted I think there’s like, 3, maybe 4 people registering Spanish books on the site at the moment. XD
I’ll find out real quick, haha.
. It probably wouldn’t help my Spanish much though.
I was also able to more-or-less understand all the synopses without looking up any words, which at least makes me feel like hopefully the books themselves won’t be too bad. XD
