I think waiting a bit longer is a good idea, yeah!
Also, I realized there actually is a proper ebook available for Alguin para ti! So instant Kindle lookups might be possible, which is awesome, because that’s currently my preferred way to read in Spanish (it’s the closest setup I’ve found to basically getting to use Yomichan except for Spanish, haha).
How many nominations are we allowed to submit per person?
Oh, excellent. I guess they just embedded images throughout the text, instead of making the text an image as well. I think my book also has illustrations, looking at it; hopefully it’s also got selectable Kindle text.
How many nominations per person?
I’m going with Unlimited for now since we’re so small. Might be worth re-thinking if/when we get more people in the future, but I figure for now it wouldn’t be an issue.
I just added it to the template 
Book: Marina: 5019 (Biblioteca Carlos Ruiz Zafón) | L30??
Genre: might be magical realism?
Length: 304
Is there an ebook available?: yes
Is there an audiobook available?: no
Variety of Spanish: Castillan Spanish (probably)
En la Barcelona de 1980 Óscar Drai sueña despierto, deslumbrado por los palacetes modernistas cercanos al internado en el que estudia. En una de sus escapadas conoce a Marina, que comparte con Óscar la aventura de adentrarse en un enigma doloroso del pasado de la ciudad. Un misterioso personaje de la posguerra se propuso el mayor desafío imaginable, pero su ambición lo arrastró por sendas siniestras cuyas consecuencias debe pagar alguien todavía hoy.
«Quince años más tarde, la memoria de aquel día ha vuelto a mí. He visto a aquel muchacho vagando entre las brumas de la estación de Francia y el nombre de Marina se ha encendido de nuevo como una herida fresca. Todos tenemos un secreto encerrado bajo llave en el ático del alma. Éste es el mío.»
Fifteen-year-old Oscar Drai meets the strange Marina while he’s exploring an old quarter of Barcelona. She leads Oscar to a cemetery, where they watch a macabre ritual that occurs on the last Sunday of each month. At exactly ten o’clock in the morning, a woman shrouded in a black velvet cloak descends from her carriage to place a single rose on an unmarked grave.
When Oscar and Marina decide to follow her, they begin a journey that transports them to a forgotten postwar Barcelona–a world of aristocrats and actresses, inventors and tycoons–an reveals a dark secret that lies waiting in the mysterious labyrinth beneath the city streets.
None known
Why are you nominating this book: Carlos Ruiz Zafón is an extremely well-known, award-winning author, and I’d like to try one of his books. Marina is cited as one of his YA novels, so I thought it might be a good starting place.
I’d like to be part of Natively’s first Spanish book club! I’m a slightly rusty upper intermediate/lower advanced level.
We might be a bit of a mixed group taste-wise, but some of the proposals so far sounded interesting to me.
I’d probably vote for something not too challenging and not too long.
I know we have two Barcelona based recommendations already, but one of my favourite series is the Pepe Carvalho novels. He’s a private detective based in Barcelona, and also quite a foodie so each book usually has a couple of interesting culinary descriptions. The books were published between the late 1970s and the late 1990s.
Looking at my unread books on the bookshelf Cuentos de Eva Luna by Isabelle Allende might be interesting to others. It consists of stories told by the title character of Allende’s earlier novel Eva Luna, a mix of the real and the magical.
“Light novel” implies Japanese to me so I didn’t select it in the poll as I’d rather read Japanese books in Japanese, but young adult fiction is definitely appealing. I’d also be interested in some native Spanish comic books/graphic novels.
I thought I’d make a formal recommendation for Lobizona, now that I’ve read most of the first two chapters!
(Also, for the three books I recommended above, should I do individual posts like this for each of them, or is the information I already provided sufficient? I’m not quite sure how nominations typically work on this forum 
).
Book: Lobizona | L30??
Genre: young adult, urban fantasy, possible spoilers: LGBTQ themes?
Length: 384
Is there an ebook available?: yes
Is there an audiobook available?: no?
Variety of Spanish: I think mostly Latin American Spanish, with some Argentine Spanish specifically. The book was originally published in English, but the note at the beginning talks about the decision to keep some of the voseo in, though it sounds like that’s mainly in the beginning portion of the book. It might be a good introduction to voseo, actually, if you’ve never encountered it before!
Algunas personas son ilegales. Las lobizonas no existen. Estas dos afirmaciones son falsas. Manuela Azul se encuentra atrapada en una existencia que resulta demasiado pequeña para ella. Como inmigrante indocumentada que debe huir de la familia criminal de su padre en la Argentina, Manu se ve confinada a un pequeño apartamento y a una vida discreta en Miami, Florida. Hasta que la burbuja que la protegía estalla. Atacan a su abuela adoptiva. Muchas mentiras salen a la luz. El Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas arresta a su madre. Manu se queda sin hogar, sin respuestas y, ahora, sin cadenas que la aten.Investigará la única pista que tiene sobre su pasado: un misterioso emblema con forma de Z, que la guiará a un mundo secreto oculto en el nuestro. Un mundo conectado con su padre muerto y su pasado criminal. Un mundo sacado del folclore argentino, en el que la séptima hija consecutiva es una bruja y el séptimo hijo, un lobizón.
Some people ARE illegal.
Lobizonas do NOT exist.
Both of these statements are false.
Manuela Azul has been crammed into an existence that feels too small for her. As an undocumented immigrant who’s on the run from her father’s Argentine crime-family, Manu is confined to a small apartment and a small life in Miami, Florida.
Until Manu’s protective bubble is shattered.
Her surrogate grandmother is attacked, lifelong lies are exposed, and her mother is arrested by ICE. Without a home, without answers, and finally without shackles, Manu investigates the only clue she has about her past―a mysterious “Z” emblem―which leads her to a secret world buried within our own. A world connected to her dead father and his criminal past. A world straight out of Argentine folklore, where the seventh consecutive daughter is born a bruja and the seventh consecutive son is a lobizón, a werewolf. A world where her unusual eyes allow her to belong.
As Manu uncovers her own story and traces her real heritage all the way back to a cursed city in Argentina, she learns it’s not just her U.S. residency that’s illegal. . . .it’s her entire existence.
Why are you nominating this book: I discovered this series when trying to look up the word “lobizona” when reading a different book, and it seemed interesting to me, so I thought I’d give it a try! I’d hoped the YA label would make for a relatively breezy read, but I’d say it’s the hardest of the YA novels I’ve read so far, so keep that in mind ! It’s not a bad introduction to some aspects of Argentinian culture, folklore, and dialect, though!
Interesting, this isn’t something I’m used to, since I’m more focused on Castillan Spanish. I usually see usted instead (although not that much either).
Also, I stumbled upon a super interesting article about lobizonas, the meaning and origin of the word and why it’s used so little, especially in comparison to lobizón.
Yeah, I never learned about it in Spanish class (my classes were mainly Mexican Spanish, though they’d toss in vosotros because they were obligated to teach it, haha), so I was totally thrown off the first time I encountered “vos” in a book! You absolutely will see it, though. This is my third book with voseo, and I haven’t even intentionally sought out books by Argentine authors, haha, I just keep happening to pick them up…
Honestly, I wish it was taught in classes along with vosotros, even though both are only used in some dialects. Such a wide range of dialects use it, it feels worth knowing.
This particular book only uses it in occasional dialogue lines, at least thus far, and I think the context is usually pretty clear.
Oh, that’s a neat article! Good find! I didn’t have time to read it in full, but the parts that I skimmed got me interested for sure!
Yeah, from the reviews I read, Lobizona deals a lot with gender as one of the major themes! The book opens with the character’s menstrual cycle, so I feel like some of the specific themes touched on in that article are absolutely going to come up.
Interestingly, the book I first encountered “lobizona” in was Las malas, where it was used to describe a transgender woman who was a lobizona! My dictionary was less than useful… Upon searching for the word, I was fascinated to discover that there was no real existing female counterpart for “lobizón”. It’s interesting how different authors use it to sort of explore different things.
Those actually seem interesting and, more surprisingly, doable. 
The first more so than the third, but the blurbs all read fine. If they’re at all indicative of the actual text in book, I think I can manage!
I took about 3-4 years of Spanish in school and, aside from Duolingo some years ago, haven’t touched it since.
I’ve been wanting to get back to it, so a bookclub sounds great. The later the better - I have a couple graded readers I’d want to take a look at before and January is pretty swamped for me, but that seems to be the general consensus so far anyway from what I can see.
I would say do individual posts for each so they can be linked to in an index post.
Alright! Since a few people wanted nominations limited to three, I decided to formally nominate just two more, so I chose what seem to be the two easiest books of the three I suggested earlier.
Book: Alguien para ti (Sin miedo 1) (Random Cómics) | L30??
Genre: young adult, LGBTQ
Length: 336
Is there an ebook available?: yes
Is there an audiobook available?: yes
Variety of Spanish: Castillan Spanish
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?
Why are you nominating this book: I’ve personally found YA books about everyday life to be very readable if you’ve had a couple years of Spanish in school and/or have gotten decently far in a typical beginner course (like Duolingo), so I thought one might be a good starter book for the club. I’ve never read this one, but my personal preference is for LGBTQ books, and this one seemed interesting enough and also has nice illustrations, which might help comprehension even more!
Book: Mentirosa | L30??
Genre: young adult, LGBTQ
Length: 271
Is there an ebook available?: yes
Is there an audiobook available?: no?
Variety of Spanish: Castillan Spanish
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.
Why are you nominating this book: I picked it for the same reason as the last, which is that it seemed pretty approachable for people who might be new to reading native books in Spanish, and the summary sounded interesting enough.
Book: La Ciudad de las Bestias | L30??
Genre: young adult, adventure, fantasy
Length: 304
Is there an ebook available?: yes
Is there an audiobook available?: yes
Variety of Spanish: Presumably Latin American
En este primer volumen de las «Memorias del Águila y el Jaguar» Alexander Cold va a vivir una aventura que jamás olvidará.
Alexander Cold es un muchacho americano de quince años que parte al Amazonas con su abuela Kate, periodista especializada en viajes. La expedición se interna en la selva en busca de una extraña bestia gigantesca. Junto a su compañera de viaje, Nadia Santos, y un centenario chamán indígena, Alex conocerá un mundo sorprendente.
El universo ya conocido de Isabel Allende se amplía en La Ciudad de las bestias con nuevos elementos de realismo mágico, aventura y naturaleza. Los jóvenes protagonistas, Nadia y Alexander, se internan en la inexplorada selva amazónica llevando de la mano al lector en un viaje sin pausa por un territorio misterioso donde se borran los límites entre la realidad y el sueño, donde hombres y dioses se confunden, donde los espíritus andan de la mano con los vivos.
«Aquí está todo lo que soy yo: toda mi manera de ser y de ver el mundo.»
In this first volume of the “Memoirs of the Eagle and the Jaguar” Alexander Cold is going to live an adventure he will never forget.
Alexander Cold is a fifteen-year-old American boy who sets out for the Amazon with his grandmother Kate, a travel journalist. The expedition goes into the jungle in search of a strange giant beast. Together with his travel companion, Nadia Santos, and a centenarian indigenous shaman, Alex will discover a surprising world.
Isabel Allende’s already known universe is expanded in The City of Beasts with new elements of magical realism, adventure and nature. The young protagonists, Nadia and Alexander, enter the unexplored Amazon jungle, taking the reader by the hand on a non-stop journey through a mysterious territory where the boundaries between reality and dream are blurred, where men and gods are confused, where spirits walk hand in hand with the living.
“Here is everything that is me: my whole way of being and seeing the world.”
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
Nothing I could see
Why are you nominating this book: This book came up a lot when I was searching for recommendations for Spanish learners. It’s young adult so hopefully a good level. Isabelle Allende is a very famous and popular author in Spanish, I’ve enjoyed all the English translations I’ve read of her works in the past.
I was tempted to nominate El cuco de cristal | L30?? as I’m loving the Netflix series La chica de nieve Limited Series | L30?? which is based on a novel by the same author. El cuco de cristal is Javier Castillo’w latest novel, and seems to be very popular with great reviews. It’s on the easier end of novels aimed at adults, but at 488 pages I wonder if too long for our book club at this stage.
That’s one I’d definitely like to read as well, after seeing the show.
The general consensus for timing of when we would start is early March, with a close second being mid February. So I figure now might be the time to start on votes for books, so that everyone has the time to buy the one we end up reading.
Any last minute nominations?
I was having a play with lists and created a list of our nominations. I added a few of you as collaborators.
How many votes per person for choosing the book should we have?
