My Favourite Book

“A walk to remember” by Nicholas Sparks.

It is a story about two different persons who find out that what unites them is stronger than what divides them.
London Carter is a seventeen-year old boy, son of rich parents. He is irresponsible, rebellious and popular and he takes advantage of his freedom before going to college.
Jamie Sullivan is a seventeen-year old girl, daughter of the pastor.
She’s a sweet and quiet girl who likes to help children and carries the Bible everywhere.
It is almost time to the school ball, and London didn’t have company and no one was available, just Jamie. He decided to ask her to go with him. It was hard, but she accepted with one condition: he couldn’t fall in love with her.
Dance day finally came, and everything was fine.
Classes began and everything was normal, London pretended not to know Jamie, his friends thought that she was odd.
London was obliged to go to performance class, and he approached Jamie. One day they had to perform a play called “Christmas Angel” written by Hegbert, Jamie’s father. They performed the main role.
The first night of the play came, everyone was there, London was nervous, but when he saw Jamie, he felt something that he hadn’t felt before. She was beautiful, looked like an Angel.
After that day, they started spending much time together. One day in Jamie’s house, they kissed, and Jamie felt good but sad too.
In one of their conversation she confessed that her biggest dream was to get married.
They started dating, and one day Jamie said to London that he couldn’t love her, because she was dying. He felt that his world was falling apart.
She had leukaemia and that illness didn’t have a cure.
London asked to his father to help her, his father hired a good doctor and nurses to take care of her. But the illness had advanced and she was fragile and stopped to go to school. London was with her every day.
The days passed by and Jamie was very weak and London loved her so much that he decided to fulfil her dream.
He asked his father permission to marry Jamie and he allowed.
The wedding day came. Jamie was radiant and, despite being weak, she was walking to the altar, it was her father who celebrated the ceremony.
Jamie’s dream was fulfilled.
I loved this book. It was a beautiful story, but it has some sad moments.
But it is so intense and romantic that it is impossible not to like it.
The ending is a bit confusing because we don’t know if she dies, but it is good. The author lets it open for the readers to choose.

Marta Leite, 1108

“Extremely loud and incredibly close” by Safran Foer

This book was written by Jonathan Safran Foer that is my favourite writer too.
“Extremely loud and incredibly close” is a very creative, moving, funny, emotive and magic novel. It is a story that really could happen. It takes us to the world of Oskar, a nine-year-old boy, that is a jeweller, an astrophysicist, an actor, a pacifist, an inventor, a collector of stamps and butterflies that died by natural causes, an archaeologist, and many other things.
Oskar lost his father in the tragic 11th September and he lives trying to understand his own pain and feelings.
The action takes place in New York. The kid found a key inside an envelope with the name Black, in the middle of the things of his father. His curiosity and instincts take him through an interesting demand for the lock of the mysterious key. The adventure is so fascinating because Oskar is very intelligent and captivating.
The story starts mixing and connecting with letters written in Dresden during the WW2, until we understand that these letters are from Oskar’s grandfather, supposedly dead but, in fact, he is hiding in the apartment of Oskar’s grandmother.
In the end, Oskar realises that the demand didn’t help him to clear up his feelings. The truth is that his father is dead and he couldn’t do anything to bring him back. On the other hand, the demand helps Oskar in the relationship with his mother and his grandmother and it also helps him to understand a little bit more the world and human behaviours.
I love this book because it can be, at the same time, serious and funny and the main character, Oskar, is very-well constructed and he is very striking.
This story makes me smile but it breaks my heart too.

Isabel Cunha, 1108

"The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" by John Boyne

The book I most enjoyed reading so far was "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" by John Boyne, since this reports true events that marked the whole humanity forever.
This story tells about a nine year-old German boy, who lives in Berlin with his parents and sister with a wealthy lifestyle in the middle of World War II. One day they are notified that they will move house due to the employment of the father. They went to a place called Auschwitz that was quite different from that where they lived. Then, Bruno begins an innocent and intense journey outside the fences of the concentration camp, watching the prisoners as if they were families, all dressed in striped pajamas, since he knew nothing about the Final Solution and the Holocaust. He is not aware of the terrible cruelties that were being inflicted by his country to other countries in Europe.
One day, Bruno, in his exploration of the land where he lived, eventually found Schmuel, a Jewish boy who was on the other side of the fence.
His friendship with Shmuel would take Bruno's sweet innocence to gross revelation. And to discover what they involuntarily, he too was a part, would inevitably find themselves embroiled in this monstrous process and eventually be his victim.

Ana Catarina, 1108