A coroa

Autora: Kiera Cass

Fonte: Wook.pt. 2017. A Coroa - Livro - WOOK. [online] Disponível em: <https://www.wook.pt/livro/a-coroa-kiera-cass/21024419> [Accessed 8 June 2020].

Título original: the crown

Editora: Marcador Editora

Edição: 1.ª (novembro de 2017)

Tradutora: Alexandra Cardoso

ISBN (international standard book number): 978-989-754-340-1

Número de páginas: 269

Origem do livro: comprado

Comprar: Wook (afiliado)

Sinopse: "Este é o volume final da saga A Seleção, que apaixonou milhares de leitores por todo o mundo! Em A Herdeira, o universo de A Seleção entrou numa nova era. Vinte anos se passaram desde que America Singer e o príncipe Maxon se apaixonaram, e a filha do casal é a primeira a passar pela sua própria seleção.

Eadlyn não acreditava que encontraria um companheiro entre os trinta e cinco pretendentes do concurso, muito menos o amor verdadeiro. Mas às vezes o coração tem uma maneira estranha de surpreender-nos...

E agora Eadlyn precisa fazer uma escolha muito mais difícil - e importante - do que esperava."

É um reinado em Illéa, algures na América. A época não está definida, mas parece contemporânea, talvez anos 90 ou 2000.

Trata-se da seleção final do esposo pela princesa Eadlyn. Inicia-se a leitura antevendo determinado desfecho. Mas a autora dá-nos um outro, não menos belo. É uma história bonita, com personagens de bom carácter, embora também haja um vilão. A personagem favorita é a princesa Eadlyn, pela sua força e traço íntegro.

É literatura para jovens, mas também a é para adultos que gostem de viver noutro mundo hipotético. A hierarquia e a diferença de classes são evidentes nesta saga, o que, paralelamente, não deixa de ser muito diferente da vida real, mais nuns países do que noutros. Problemas de discriminação sentem-se em algumas personagens, embora neste último livro não tão intensamente.

É uma história de leitura fácil e confortável, que entretém. Por isso, se classifica como de cinco estrelas.

Contudo, não faz sentido ler este livro sem ter lidos os antecessores, principalmente "A herdeira".

A bordo dos Descobrimentos (Portuguese) (on board the Discoveries)

By Matilde Silva:

Source: A Bordo dos Descobrimentos - Matilde Silva. Chiadoeditorakidscom. 2018. Available at: https://www.chiadoeditorakids.com/livraria/a-bordo-dos-descobrimentos. Accessed March 31, 2018.

This story was written by a 14-year-old girl! It is an adventure fiction aboard the ships that left Portugal under the direction of the navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral, in the year 1500 after Christ. The trip was destined for India, previously discovered by Vasco da Gama, but perhaps intentionally, deviated enough from the route and eventually discovered Brazil.

«Route taken by Cabral from Portugal to India in 1500 (in red), and the return route (in blue)»:

Source: Pedro Álvares Cabral. Enwikipediaorg. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_%C3%81lvares_Cabral#/media/File:Cabral_voyage_1500.svg. Accessed March 31, 2018.

«Romantic depiction of Cabral's first landing on the Island of the True Cross (present-day Brazil). He can be seen on the shore (center) standing in front of an armored soldier, who is carrying a banner of the Order of Christ»:

Source: Pedro Álvares Cabral. Enwikipediaorg. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_%C3%81lvares_Cabral#/media/File:Oscar_Pereira_da_Silva_-_Desembarque_de_Pedro_%C3%81lvares_Cabral_em_Porto_Seguro_em_1500.jpg. Accessed March 31, 2018.

It is a book that is recommended to all young people, as it gives a very realistic image of the hard life on board the ships of the Portuguese Discoveries.

«A book (...). It is a meeting between two people through the written word.», by Chiado Editora.

As pequenas memórias (Portuguese) (small memories)

By José Saramago:

Bibliblogue.files.wordpress.com. (2016). [online] Available at: https://bibliblogue.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/500_9789722118316_as_pequenas_memorias.jpg [Accessed 11 Dec. 2016].

It is an interesting memoir of a sad man, who bitterly mourns his youth of poverty. No man should be saddened by his past. All that Saramago lived was beautiful, unique, and he should feel proud.

Some passages from the book:

• «Let yourself be carried by the child you were.», by The Portuguese King Dom Duarte, in «O leal conselheiro [Portuguese] (The loyal counselor)».
• The parents of Saramago:

Propor.esccb.pt. (2016). .:: ProPor .::. José Saramago ::.. [online] Available at: http://propor.esccb.pt/saramago/saramago_biobiblio.htm [Accessed 11 Dec. 2016].

• Village of Azinhaga and the river Almonda, Golegã, Santarém:

6.fotos.web.sapo.io. (2016). [online] Available at: http://6.fotos.web.sapo.io/i/B4e0876c0/19812430_GfzW7.jpeg [Accessed 11 Dec. 2016].

Grandeturismo.com. (2016). [online] Available at: http://www.grandeturismo.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/IMG_9480.jpg [Accessed 11 Dec. 2016].

• Saramago with his mother, at the door of the ground-floor house where he was born, in Azinhaga:

Propor.esccb.pt. (2016). .:: ProPor .::. José Saramago ::.. [online] Available at: http://propor.esccb.pt/saramago/saramago_biobiblio.htm [Accessed 11 Dec. 2016].

• «Only I knew, unaware that I knew it, that (...) it had been written that I would still have to return to Azinhaga to finish being born.»
• «For each olive tree plucked, the European Community paid a premium to landowners, mostly large landlords, (...).»
• «It is now said that it is returning to plant olive trees, but of those that, for many years that live, will always be small. They grow faster and the olives are easily picked.»
• «This loss, however, has long ceased to cause me suffering because, by the reconstructive power of memory, I can raise its white walls at every instant, (...).»
• Olive grove:

Pakandl, P. (2016). [online] Emforma.net. Available at: http://www.emforma.net/imagens/olival.jpg [Accessed 15 Dec. 2016].

• «(...) the dense forest of tamarins, (...)»:

Lepidoptera.butterflyhouse.com.au. (2013). Australian Tamaricaceae. [online] Available at: http://lepidoptera.butterflyhouse.com.au/plants/tama/tamaricaceae.html [Accessed 16 Dec. 2016].

• Fagus:

Depositphotos, I. (2016). Feuilles de hêtre à grandes feuilles d'automne. [online] Depositphotos. Available at: http://fr.depositphotos.com/4203704/stock-photo-fall-leaves-of-american-beech.html [Accessed 17 Dec. 2016].

• Ash trees:

ArbreMons, (2011). Panoramio - Photo of Fraxinus angustifolia. [online] Panoramio.com. Available at: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/55469768 [Accessed 17 Dec. 2016].

• Populus alba L.:

Bico, M. (2014). Panoramio - Photo of Choupo ou Álamo (Populus alba L.), Jardim Botânico de Almada/ Casa da Cerca, Almada, Portugal. [online] Panoramio.com. Available at: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/108318215 [Accessed 17 Dec. 2016].

• «(...) the Paul de Boquilobo, a lake, a swamp, a marsh that the landscape maker had forgotten to take to paradise.»:

Visitportugal.com. (2013). Reserva Natural do Paul do Boquilobo. [online] Available at: https://www.visitportugal.com/pt-pt/NR/exeres/939FE05F-5E3C-47BC-8E2C-9E0E7B63F2E0 [Accessed 17 Dec. 2016].

• Blackberry bush:

Xavier, J. (2010). As amoras silvestres. [online] As plantas. Available at: https://asplantas.wordpress.com/2010/09/29/as-amoras-silvestres/ [Accessed 17 Dec. 2016].

• «(...) to listen to (...) the silence of the forest broken only by the tweet of the birds and the ranger of the branches under the impulse of the wind, (...)»
• The morass:

Cm-santarem.pt. (2016). Caracterização Ambiental. [online] Available at: http://www.cm-santarem.pt/concelho/caracterizacaodoconcelho/Paginas/ambiental.aspx [Accessed 17 Dec. 2016].

• «(...) weeping willow which grow in water, they aren't, one might say, a special justification in an age such as ours, in which, at five or six years of age, any child of the civilized world, even sedentary and indolent, (...) has already decimated the terrifying exercise of mechanical dragons awaiting the gold of Fort Knox, has already blown the king of tyrannosaurs to pieces.»:

park, S. (2016). Willow tree in park. [online] Dreamstime.com. Available at: https://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-willow-tree-park-image15383980 [Accessed 17 Dec. 2016].

• Fig tree (Ficus):

INTERIORES, R. (2016). ÁRVORE: FIGUEIRA. [online] Rwpaisagismo.blogspot.pt. Available at: http://rwpaisagismo.blogspot.pt/2012/12/arvore-figueira.html [Accessed 20 Dec. 2016].

• «Very little, in fact, but it is very likely that the heroic winner of tyrannosaurus would not even be able to catch a gecko at hand.»
• «Uncle António Barata did not spend saliva in circumlocutions, metaphors and periphrases, he called him silly directly, with all the letters. (...) Leandro (...) was dyslexic.»
• «(...) the most primitive of the refreshments that have already passed through my throat: a mixture of water, vinegar and sugar, (...).»
• «(...) many hours spent in vain (in vain, to tell the truth, none, because, without my realizing it, I was "fishing" things that would not be less important to me in the future, images, smells, sounds, breezes, sensations).»
• «In fact, child cruelty has no limits (this is the underlying reason not to have them also that of adults).»
• «(...) and two little drawers on the sides, full of odds and ends that were of no use and were going from one year to the other without visible changes of content.»
• «((...) in those days, "returning to penates" meant simply "returning home").»
• «I was 10 years old, but I read plainly, and I understood perfectly what I read, besides I do not make, at such a young age, too many spelling mistakes, which, by the way, is no merit worthy of a medal in that time.»

A world apart (uma terra distante [Portuguese])

By Nora Roberts:

Troca-se.pt. (2016). [online] Available at: http://troca-se.pt/uploads/items/2015/06/20/21/1305776/115585c9140b19c.jpg [Accessed 17 Oct. 2016].

I bought these six books "Once upon a time", by Nora Roberts, in a shop selling second-hand products. The six books have cost 2 euros. I won because this author delighted my afternoons with wonderful and beautiful stories, that melt the hearts of those who know what love is. This short story was first published in December 2002. Some quotes:

• «[Kadra] (...) You would be weak and foolish if you didn't question, and the weak and foolish would be of no use to me.»
• «[Kadra] Is your world so perfect, so important, that you believe it stands alone in the vastness of time and space? Harper Doyle, can you have lived and still believe you are alone? (...).»
• «[Harper] I recognized you, (...). I pushed that aside, clicked back into what made sense so I could deny it. But I recognized you, somehow, the minute I saw you.»
• «[Kadra] It was the same for me. This is not something I understand, but only feel. I do not know the meaning.»
• «[Kadra, at the zoo] It is not right to look them up. They are not born for this. (...) This is a cruel thing you do here. This is a sorry place, this zoo. Is this what you teach your young? (...) That one species can be locked away for the amusement of another?»
• «[Harper] (...) Civilization has encroached. There isn't as much room as there once was. In captivity,  they're safe, I guess, and tended. They can't be hunted or taken as trophies.»
• «[Kadra] They are not free, (...).»
• «[Kadra] No joining had ever been so intense or (...). Nor to find herself both conquered and victorious. (...) the intimacy of the kiss that had been like... feeding each other. (...).»
• «[Harper] Kissing isn't just for joining. (...) after making love... (...). Sometimes, after, while a couple is still tuned to each other, they kiss to show how much pleasure they were giving. (...).»
• «[Kadra] You make me want (...) in ways I have never wanted.»
• «[Harper] You make me need. (...). In ways I've never needed.»
• «(...) With him, a joy she hadn't known was locked inside her could be free.»
• «You're magnificent, Kadra. "Beautiful" is too ordinary, too simple a word (...).»
• «[Kadra] Don't speak of death, even as an expression. Not before battle. (...). It is bad luck. (...).»
• «The thing about New York, Harper thought, (...), was there was always someone dressed weirder than you were.»
• «[Kadra] We are born for a purpose. How we live, how we treat others who live with us forms our spirit and determines if we will fulfill that purpose or fail. (...).»
• «[Kadra] Your people have so many colors of skin. It's beautiful. You are blessed to have such richness of person, such variety. (...)».
• «(...) When this is over, Kadra, we'll find a way. That's what people do when they love each other. They find a way.»
• «[Kadra] (...) when they feed on us, they hope to consume what it is that makes us human. Our heart, our soul. But they cannot. All they can take and transform is the body. The heart and soul live on in another place. And that place is locked to them.»

A nova medicina (Portuguese) (the new medicine)

By João Lobo Antunes:

Quick passage through the key points of Medicine.

This essay is a delightful review of the history of medicine until the problems of our time. The reading is pleasant and it seems accessible to any non-medical person. The book is recommended to all health professionals, because it covers, with excels synthesis capacity, various problems of medicine in the world.

It is worth noting the following part of the text: "(...) for every five years of increase in life expectancy in a country, its gross national product (GNP) grows from 0.3 to 0.5%. Therefore, it is appropriate to ask whether health spending should be viewed as 'expenditure' or as 'investment'."