Vacation time is the ideal time to relax with a book in hand in the shade of a tree or on the beach, and to distract oneself with the intellectual pastime par excellence: reading. From the Library Service, Marta de Juana and Ana Telleria, recommend a series of readings for the summer period.

In Marta's case, her recommendation is the book 'Mediohombre: Blas de Lezo y la batalla que Inglaterra ocultó al mundo'. It is a 348-page work published by La Esfera de los libros in 2017. In addition, it can be found physically in the library of Tecnun. 

Marta de Juana opts for this historical novel "which describes the last exploit of the great Basque sailor and strategist Blas de Lezo y Olavarrieta" (Pasajes, 1689 - Cartagena de Indias 1741). According to Marta De Juana, the narration seems more like an adventure novel, in which the protagonist, -who at this point in his life was missing a leg, an eye and an arm- with few means and fewer men, managed to defeat an entire English armada in the defense of the siege of Cartagena de Indias.

And why this book? Because "it manages to maintain a good pace and connect with the reader from the first page, bringing us closer to a forgotten episode of history in which ingenuity and courage prevailed and which Great Britain has passed over," says Marta De Juana.

Ana Telleria recommends "La chica de los siete nombres" by Hyeonseo Lee. It is published in 2015 by Ediciones Península, and has 384 pages. Ana recommends this work because she considers it an interesting real testimony, with which it is made known, "the difficult status that is lived in North Korea, due to its strict political regime".

The protagonist describes the brutal reality of North Korean tyranny, where children are forced to witness executions - hangings and shootings - but where most people struggle to survive and where there is widespread corruption as a means of overcoming the oppression of the system. Corruption is present in both bureaucrats and border police, particularly on the border with China, the easiest to cross. According to Ana Telleria, this is a story of self-improvement with an entertaining and easy-to-read essay .

Other recommended books

In addition to these two, the Library Service also recommends reading some of the books they have recently acquired.

'The village of fabrics' by Anne Jacobs. publishing house: place & Janes (2018). 624 pages.

The story starts in Augsburg, in 1913, when a young girl of eighteen, Marie, after leaving the orphanage where she was raised, arrives at the impressive mansion of the Melzer family, a wealthy family that owns one of the most important textile factories in the area, to work as a kitchen maid teaching assistant . A story with a magnificent setting, in which the society of the time is very well drawn: what life was like in a large mansion, the prevailing classism, the marked hierarchy existing in the service staff and the obstacles that were able to make each other with the sole purpose of improving a little. A very addictive work, with easy but elegant prose, narrated in third person.

'Las hijas del capitán' by María Dueñas. publishing house Planeta (2018). 620 pages.

The action takes place in New York, in 1936, when the Spanish immigrant Emilio Arenas works in what he can, to send money to his wife, Remedios, and his three daughters, Victoria, Mona and Luz, who have stayed in Malaga. He decides to become position of "El Capitan", a small restaurant on Catorce Street, where many members of the Spanish colony of the city live. He demands that the four women come to his side, and although the wife is willing to comply with his orders, the daughters resist, to the point that the mother has to notify the Civil Guard to force them to board. Once in New York, the girls feel out of place and do not even want to interact with the compatriots they meet in the city. But an unexpected event will make them have to mature and become strong to get ahead.

With a leisurely pace, it describes with enormous reality the experiences of the Spanish community in New York in the 1930s, and depicts the illusions of those who have left their loved ones behind in search of a better life, are unfamiliar with language and suffer from economic problems.

'The little country' by Gaël Faye. publishing house Salamandra (2018). 219 pages.

The author sample shows how the "normality" in the life of a ten year old boy cracks without him having time to come to terms with what is happening. At first, Gaby leads a quiet existence with his parents, his little sister and his gang. Both he and his friends belong to the privileged population of the city: they are mestizos, the children of a European father and a native mother. They are Westernized, in general, although on their mother's side of the family they have the remnants of a mythical belief system that refuses to disappear completely. The ethnic conflict between Tutsis and Hutus, difficult to understand for the child, seems distant, corresponding to adults who lived through a war, not to a boy who goes to school and shows off his bicycle; however, as the tension in Rwanda increases (and spreads to Burundi), violence settles, in its own way, in the daily life of the little ones. With a simple and precise style, it narrates a convulsive period of recent history.

'Cuando sale la reclusa' by Fred Vargas. publishing house Siruela (2018). 402 pages.

This novel belongs to a crime saga, whose protagonist, Commissioner Adamsberg, surrounded by a cast of well profiled characters, get an interesting plot full of intrigue and that encourages further reading. For lovers of crime novels, entertaining and well written. The author, has been award Príncipe de Asturias de las letras, 2018.