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Writer's pictureNancy López

My 2020 in books

In this entry, I will tell you all about the books I read in 2020. Thanks for reading!




The year 2020 was very particular. COVID-19 forced almost everyone to confine themselves to their homes and work or study from there. Over time, which became long for some, one of the options to not feel it was to attend art events offered online, training, and, in many cases, to resume or acquire the habit of reading.


I have several books on my bookshelf that I have not read, but when it comes to choosing, sometimes the process is difficult for me. For this reason, at the beginning of the year, I relied on the following applications Handy Library and Sorteo de números, nombres y equipos para juegos to make a list. In the first one, I have registered all the books I own and with this app, I can export an Excel file in which I assign a number to each one; with the other app, I can make a draw, and thus I obtained the list of my readings for the past year. I didn't finish reading everything I had set out to read, but what I did read was very varied and interesting. Here is some information about the books I did finish. Maybe it will help you choose some of your readings for this year.


This is the list of books I read:


1. Fábulas (Rafael García Goyena. Fables in verse)

3. Ladrona de libros (Markus Zusak. Novel)

4. Treinta años de mi vida (Enrique Gómez Carrillo. Autobiography)

6. Niebla (Miguel de Unamuno. Novel)

7. Don Juan Tenorio (José Zorrilla. Theater play)

9. La dama de las camelias (Alejandro Dumas. Novel)

10. Distensión del ansia (Rafael Romero. Poetry)

11. The Alpine Path. The Story of my Career (Lucy Maud Montgomery. Autobiography)

12. El misterio de la casa blanca (Romyna López. Short Narrative)


1. Fábulas (Fables in verse)


Author: Rafael García Goyena

Country: Guatemala

Publishing House: Tipografía Nacional

Pages: 171


From the back cover:


"The fables of Rafael García Goyena (Guayaquil 1766 - Guatemala 1823) cannot be missing in a selection of Guatemalan literature. His works are written in verses of clear and precise style, as is appropriate for poetry that pursues educational and moralizing purposes. However, their true value lies in the aesthetic quality of their writing, in the wit and humor that permeates them.


The contemporary reader will find in these pages something that goes beyond the simple testimony of a transitional period of our history in which colonial structures enter into crisis. More than the description of the idiosyncrasy of the Guatemalan who experienced that transition, what places García Goyena among the classics of Guatemalan literature is his ability to synthesize, in pieces of great emotion, his vast knowledge, his exceptional sensitivity, and his talent as a creator.


Since the posthumous publication of these Fables (in 1825), which were written a few years before his death in a context of suffocating literary backwardness, the author promotes the development of a literary form of great importance within the Guatemalan tradition, becoming an unavoidable reference for those who, already in the twentieth century, used the fable in their creative work."


Through this form of narration, the author gives the reader a review of the politics of his time; to complement and better understand, you can look for information on the history of Guatemala.


2. Apuntes de mi paso por el invierno (Poetry)


Author: Marwán

Country: Spain

Publishing house: Frida ediciones

Pages: 75


From the back cover:


"I remember that I was born on March 5, '79.


and I was already sad.

Sadness was the banner of my childhood.

My insides harbored a complete sadness,

of three hundred and sixty degrees,

a sadness of leap days.


This is the story in which I tell

how I turned the sock inside out,

the incredible story of my journey to the other side,

the Notes On My Passage Through Winter.


Button up your hearts, the journey begins."


With this, book Marwán takes us through a moving story through his poetic prose. This edition is also accompanied by an album that will make you appreciate this artist even more.


3. Ladrona de libros (Book Thief, novel)


Author: Markus Zusak

Translator: Laura Martín de Dios

Country: Mexico (printing)

Publishing house: Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial, S. A. de C. V.

Pages: 553


From the back cover:


"Once upon a time, there was a village where the nights were long, and death told its own story.


In the village lived a little girl who wanted to read, a man who played the accordion, and a young Jew who wrote beautiful stories to escape the horror of war. After a while, the girl became a thief who stole books and gave away words. With these, a beautiful and cruel story was written that is now an unforgettable novel."


This story also moved me, and I liked the particular way of narrating that the author gave it. No doubt it will not leave other readers indifferent.



4. Treinta años de mi vida (Thirty years of my life, Novel)


Author: Enrique Gómez Carrillo

Country: Guatemala

Publishing house: Editorial Universitaria. Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala

Pages: 372


From the back cover:


"Our dear Mayol told me one afternoon, with his Cadiz grace, referring to the first chapters of this book: -This little novel is going well, Erique...


I was about to get indignant... The loyal and complete history of my existence a novel... (?) Oh, heresy...! But I soon realized that, by speaking to me like that, the ingenious Andalusian nobleman was paying me, without meaning to, the best of tributes. What is existence if not a novel lived...? And that which is not that is hardly worth writing.


Mine, my life, my poor life, my poor wandering, and ardent life, either I am very much mistaken, or it turns out to be not only a novel but even an exemplary novel?


ENRIQUE GÓMEZ CARRILLO."


With this autobiography, Enrique Gómez Carrillo takes us by the hand through passages of his life on a journey through Guatemala, Paris, and Spain. It is an enjoyable read.


5. Delito, condena y ejecución de una gallina y otras obras de teatro grotesco (Crime, conviction and execution of a hen, and other grotesque plays, theater play)


Author: Manuel José Arce

Country: Guatemala

Publishing house: Editorial Cultura. Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes

Pages: 125


From the back cover:



"Of the plays collected in this volume, 'Crime, conviction and execution of a hen' is probably the one that has most filled with anguish and courage, laughter and hope its numerous spectators and also many readers. Its dialogues range from sarcasm to tenderness, passing through black humor; its characters have been carefully delineated, and its dialogues are provided with agility and strength. In short, it is a masterfully developed play, and therefore, a milestone in the history of Guatemalan theater.


'Sebastián goes shopping' is another play in which the grotesque grows into hostility, as it makes the spectator feel the increasingly tight and pressing encirclement that the merchants tend to the protagonist, a hardworking man who ends up crushed by their insinuations and demands.


The breath and poetry of the aforementioned works, are also found in 'Excuse me.' What's more, each one evidences how, from that time on, our author was aware of Guatemala's problems, so it makes no sense to say that 'it was in exile where Manuel acquired full awareness and information about the atrocious reality of his country...'.


The three plays gathered here represent a challenge to the imagination of the directors, and a challenge to the capacity of the actors.


Let this publication be a way of resuming the dialogue with one of the most conspicuous playwrights of the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of settling the debt we owe him."


In these plays, you can appreciate characteristics of Brechtian theater and they are very peculiar. The dialogues sometimes rush one after the other, and the reader must be very attentive in order not to get lost in them. They are very interesting, and undoubtedly reflect social realities still in force.


6. Niebla (The Fog, Novel)


Author: Miguel de Unamuno

Country: España (printed en México)

Publishing house: Grupo Editorial Tomo, S. A. de C. V.

Pages: 219


From the back cover:



"Niebla is the most open confrontation from the field of the novel with the central problem of the author and man. It is 'the novel of the existential absurd, of a man lost in the anguish of a life without purpose. Life is fog'.


This work by Miguel de Unamuno reiterates the vital ethics: humans must fight, and rebel against their creator if he exists; only this attitude will return to human existence a certain dignity... we have to live 'as if' what we need to believe were true because in this way, and at the very least, we will turn the arbitrary annihilation into a monstrous injustice.


Niebla also deserves to be remembered for its use of interior monologue. The text is rabidly modern, both in form and content.


This novel is also an innovation in the genre, directly referring to the author's position before the novelized reality. As a narrator, he rethinks the author-character hierarchy, anticipating positions of great transcendence in current art."


All the resources of this novel are masterfully executed by Unamuno, who surely surprised in his time with his interior monologues and the hierarchy of the elements as indicated on the back cover. Surprises are not long in coming in a novel as special as this one.


7. Don Juan Tenorio (Theater play)


Author: José Zorrilla

Country: España (printed inn Chile)

Publishing house: Empresa Editora Zig-Zag, S. A.

Pages: 226


From the preface:



"As a creature of the genius of man, Don Juan possesses a prominence and immortality that no human being properly so-called could possess. His greatness perhaps lies in the magnitude of the conflict between good and evil, between life and death. Many disparate elements integrate his personality: young, of noble lineage, courageous, audacious, without ideals, irresponsible and selfish, but seductive and attractive, at the same time possessing inexhaustible energy.


He is a man of action, not of thought, he is a conqueror of women, but he does not fall in love. His actions are carried out under the rule of whim and circumstance. His end, the satisfaction of his vanity, and desire for power. He abuses his advantages, his procedures being rather crude. His fearlessness borders on bullying and unnecessary cruelty, basing his pride and petulance on accumulating remarkable deeds. Thus, he breaks all laws and scoffs at beliefs. However, Tirso includes the encounter of the afterlife to give in the drama a moral lesson."


Don Juan Tenorio is already a classic and traditional play in Spain and Mexico. It is a very entertaining story of love, duels, and ghosts.


8. Las tribulaciones de un chino en China (Tribulations of a Chinaman y China, Novel)


Author: Jules Verne

Country: El Salvador (printing)

Publishing house: Editorial Jurídica Salvadoreña

Pages: 213


From the back cover:



"Kin-Fo lives in Shanghai and is accused by his good friend Wang of not having had enough troubles in his life to appreciate what true happiness is. When Kin-Fo receives the news that his fortune is lost, he arranges to open a policy to insure his life, which would be cashed in, if he were to die, even in the event of suicide. Kin-Fo plans his death but is unable to carry out his plan, so he hires someone else to do it. Then Kin-Fo learns that his fortune can still be saved. He then begins to travel all over China, hoping to avoid being killed."


With this book, I re-encountered the works of Jules Verne. As in other of his novels, it provides an adventure with great details of location and descriptions of cultural aspects, in this case, China. It is an exciting novel, and I recommended it if you want to start reading this author's books.


9. La dama de las camelias (The Lady of the Camellias, Novel)


Author: Alejandro Dumas (Junior)

Translator: Alfred Pelletier

Country: Mexico (printing)

Publishing house: Editores Mexicanos Unidos, S. A.

Pages: 207


From the back cover:


"A bouquet of camellias adorned Marguerite's box every night, she was an elite mistress. One day she decides to abandon the life of luxury provided by her partners and spend her days with a handsome young man of society. This couple will challenge the prejudices of the 19th-century Parisian community.


In his work, Dumas seeks to vindicate the disdained figure of the mistresses by using the clichés of the revolution of realism, and at the same time portrays the conflict between the French society of the time, and the individual that wishes for freedom."


This novel exemplifies all aspects of literary romanticism. Love and suffering spring forth and immerse the reader in the plot conflict.


10. Distensión del ansia (Distension of the craving, poetry)


Author: Rafael Romero

Country: Guatemala

Publishing house: Taller Experimental Alambiqve

Pages: 51


This work from the Caballo collection is an erotically themed collection of poems loaded with images and feelings. Like everything produced in Alambiqve's workshop, it is brief but with a lot of substance.








11. The Alpine Path: The Story of my Career (Autobiography)



Author: Lucy Maud Montgomery

Country: Canada

Publishing house: Distributed Proofreaders Canada (e-book)

Pages: 74


This edition of L. M. Montgomery's autobiographical publication is available on Amazon for reading on the Kindle app. In this book, Montgomery tells us some of the experiences that shaped her style and which she captured in her novels and short stories. For admirers of the author, as is my case, it is a delight to know these details that are part of her endearing novels.




12. El misterio de la casa blanca (The Mistery of the White House, Short Narrative)


Author: Romyna López

Country: Guatemala

Publishing house: Self-published on Amazon Kindle



This short novel is about the adventure of two friends who try to return an object to its enigmatic owner. The road they travel is full of diverse situations, and you don't have to miss the ending. Also, the author is my sister (sound self-promoting!).


What books caught your attention? Tell me about it, also tell me about the books you read last year.


See you at the next entry of the blog!






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