Bruno Blog

Did you know that the Japanese say that everyone has an IKIGAI, a reason to live? If I think of what my reason to live is, I can’t chose just one, so I think I haven’t found IKIGAI yet, but according to the people of Okinawa, THE ISLAND WITH THE MOST LONG-LIVED PEOPLE ON EARTH, the best kept secret is how they find IKIGAI, the joy of always being busy, and discovering what gives meaning to their existence and pushes them to live a hundred years in great shape; physically, mentally and what’s most important, emotionally.

Without a vibrant and optimistic experience, life may lose its meaning. Reading this great book that Francesc Miralles and Héctor García (Kirai) have just published, I’ve discovered many things I didn’t know, especially the meaning of IKIGAI, and that having a clear and defined Ikigai, a great passion, is something that gives satisfaction, happiness and meaning to life. You can find it with this book, as well as discovering many keys to Japanese philosophy for a long and healthy body, mind and soul. To me, this book is a delight; not just because my friend and wonderful author, Francesc Miralles, with whom I’ve already shared a great load of success, a lot of feelings and a long literary life together, told me that this project would be a success, which we still don’t know because it’s been in Bookstores for a week, but to me it already is. In less than a week I was able to sell it to 17 languages, a great bliss, so like many times before, Francesc nailed it, he’s a master of life, someone who’s ahead of the events and helps me find a meaning to my job.

The book gave me the chance to meet Héctor, who’s a special person without doubt, in the best of ways, and to get to know the laws of IKIGAI; “laws” that seem easy and that we should all understand very well, because they seem obvious, but most of us are incapable of following them all. It’s really giving value to the simple things that makes each person’s life be better: smiling, saying thank you, being surrounded by good friends, staying in shape, keeping active, and knowing how to prioritize. Following your IKIGAI, or maybe discovering it, because it’s still hidden, will give you that impulse you need to give it your best every day, and that meaning to life that we all need to keep going. We only have one life, one chance, and the best thing to do is to enjoy the trip. Will you join me?

Even if the character Robin Hood is a shameless rascal, most people always like him. Someone who “steals” from the rich to give to the poor, it’s not exactly right, because stealing is not good, or it shouldn’t be even if you live in Spain, and even if you steal from those who have the most things. Nevertheless, we always come to a truce because when it’s those who have the most who extort those who don’t, and mistreat without control and just for the pleasure of having more, maybe we don’t think it’s that bad. This makes me think that maybe society nowadays, with all the outrage related to envelopes and so on, maybe a good Robin Hood for the people wouldn’t be so bad, because it’s time for someone to say: stop extorting the little ones, and take out of the management of power all those people who have taken advantage of  it. The way I see it, nowadays, nobody would be left unpunished, even if we still don’t have a government or a clear candidate, because the people are tired of broken promises and people who lose the perspective of where they are and why they’re there, as soon as they get the job; and power turns into something completely selfish. I know it must not be easy, but it wouldn’t be easy to be Robin Hood either, because his philosophy was to steal and give it to those who needed it, something that most of us would do, so I would say; put a Robin Hood in your life, see if things work better.

Víctor Amela is the fair winner of the Premi Ramon Llull 2016, LA FILLA DEL CAPITÀ GROC, published by Editorial Planeta, and that will also be published in Spanish in a few days. It’s a “romantic” novel, set in the nineteenth century near the magical mountains of Puertos de Morella, which recreates the adventures of Tomás Penarrocha, a real character known as the Groc of Forcall who fought against the liberals in the area of Maestrazgo during the two Carlist Wars. He was Robin Hood of the forest, or of the mountains, in this case.

The author discovered the adventures of the Groc during the long summers of the childhood he spent in Forcall, town in which his grandfather was born, and thought it was clear that there was a story to tell; a sweet and wistful novel, but harsh and tragic at the same time, where a local character turns into a universal one. And we can’t forget the character of Manuela Penarrocha, his daughter, with her grey eyes with which you fall in love from the first page, and whose relationship with her father will be one of the most beautiful parts of this story; gentle and warm unlike the bloody battles of the time, the Carlists. There’s not much said about these battles and this is yet again a selling point for this novel that shows us a part of history, that’s not very known, in a suggesting way that turns this into an atypical historical novel because it hooks you in the same way a thriller does.  So readers of any genre will be interested in getting to know who EL CAPITÀ GROC is, where Forcall is, and to take a walk through the area; another element for this book that is bound to be successful, because of the quality and the “humanity” of the story.

I was able to read this in the newspaper El País from a few days ago: “The German publishing world suffered a small revolution last year. The news that Mein Kampf (the wicked book that had been out of stock for 70 years) was about to be reedited caused a great debate. On one side where the ones who defended the project of introducing in a critical way the thesis Adolf Hitler started writing since he was captive in Munich in 1924. On the other hand, those who were afraid it would be used as inspiration by the new puppies of the extreme right wing. The controversy even reached the German Secret Services, which concluded that the interest in the extremist circles about the foundation of National Socialism had dropped in the last decades”.

News like this make us think that Hitler, Nazism and their surroundings will never lose interest for most people, because even though it seems like we know it all, there’s always little historical gaps from which we can get information and that will give us new perspectives, and most of all, new novels that at first can seem like the same, but are not. I think that EL INFORME AHNENERBE is a novel with a lot of potential and Santi Baró’s first adult fiction book, in which he’s learned to be historically accurate in the part of Himmler and an absolutely original and frenetic novel itself, that gives us that game of a novel inside a novel. Here’s the summary:

Ten years after the publishing of the Ahnenerbe report, by Marcos Clos, a kid with no identity who’s hidden with his parents for nine years in an apartment in Barcelona, disappears under strange circumstances, as strange as his own life. Nagore, the private teacher that’s in charge of his schooling, will be the one to find out the truth of his disappearance and, later on, of his parents. All the clues lead precisely to Marcos. With him as an ally, she will relive the scenes the author lived ten years before in a search that, without meaning it, will make them find the real treasure Hitler was looking for in the heart of the Montserrat Mountain. A perfectly built novel, with great doses of suspense and constant unexpected twists that relives historical moments in the I and IX centuries, and perfectly recreates the Ahnenerbe society, an organization that’s built into the SS, whose leaders wanted to create a new elite body of warrior monks, a true Black Order, based on old German Paganism and the dogmas of faith in Nazism, which wanted to end Christianism.

A revealing story that makes two thousand years of Christianity blow up in the air. An exciting mystery that leaves the reader without breath. The typical historical action novel that both men and women like, and that also adds a mystery that keeps us on the edge until the last pages, which is the disappearance of a 10 year old who doesn’t have a conventional life. But why? A perfect page turner for this Sant Jordi, to be read by those who are avid readers and those who aren’t so much, because this novel can hook even those who don’t think of reading as their priority. Don’t miss it!

This year my eleven year old son already has to change schools; a change into adolescence, a different friends, different environment. He doesn’t like it. It’s completely normal, he feels like he’s in a comfort zone now, and he’s “afraid” of what he doesn’t know. I understand him perfectly because the same happens to me with a lot of things in life and maybe even with less important changes, like changing my routine for a week, changing a plan that was already thought out, or even having to start something new. People like us don’t assimilate change very well and it affects us more than it should, and most of the time, the changes are positive and even convenient. Because we have to face the mandatory changes no matter what, but the rest are challenges, dreams that we don’t dare to comply, because we’re scared, we’re comfortable or because it’s easier not to do anything.

We all have that list of things to do that we never end up doing for one reason or another, it’s “better” to stay in a no-risk zone. Therefore, it was the perfect chance for me to read the book “¿Y si realmente pudieras? La fuerza de tu determinación” by Pilar Jericó, because it explains what determination is, that we all have it because we’re born with it, and that what we need is to awaken it and be ourselves to accomplish this wish list, that these decisions we know we have to make but resist to do so can be easily made with our determination and it’s easier than we think. It’s a method that can apply to anyone and that Pilar has tested on thousands of students, readers and the people around her. This action-reaction thing becomes true when you get rid of the obstacles and the difficulties and discover the qualities you thought you’d never have. You just have to believe in yourself and that force called determination can plunge you to achieve what you want.

So from now on, I’ll try to show my son that next year he should dive into a new life and the positive things that this change will bring. And each morning, I’ll try to say to myself that I should face my daily challenges without being scared, and with determination, holy word that has become essential in the dictionary of my life. Thanks to Pilar for turning what seems complicated into something easy and for leaving us that inherent knowledge in your words, and for teaching us how to do it with such perseverance. Like you did with your best-seller NO MIEDO, here you’re able to make us all fall in love again, which is necessary in the society we live in nowadays. So I encourage you to read this book so your dreams or goals will come true. The answer is within you, not in a magic wand, which is really fantastic.

I’ve learned that you have to learn to behave in life. Respect everybody’s opinion, which doesn’t mean agreeing with them, but listening and accepting them even if your opinion is completely different, or even opposite. We have to learn to live with different kinds of people, with different views, but most of all with respect. One of the big debates is about what we call alternative; if homeopathy is good or bad, if what’s spiritual and natural is better. The truth is that I’ve always been interested in this world of the intangible, less scientific, without being extreme, because I always think that extremes aren’t healthy. This is why, when Gaspar Hernández suggested writing a book following a Catalan, Enric Corbera, who travels around the world saying that “nothing is real” and “we live in a dream”, I was equally surprised and excited. It’s true that I thought it wouldn’t be an easy book and even less so with just two hands, but Gaspar Hernández, author of EL SILENCIO, which sold more than 60000 copies, and LA TERAPEUTA, a novel that’s still alive in the market and is catching more followers because it’s the first novel that speaks loud and clear about ANXIETY, has managed to perfectly portray this  personality who’s not very known here, but a lot in Latin America, where he fills auditoriums, and whose Youtube videos have thousands of views.

The book NO SOY DE ESTE MUNDO/NO SÓC D’AQUEST MÓN published by Ediciones B, is a journalist work by Gaspar where he explains cases lived in the first person. He shows interest for non-duality, the Advaita, and the book “Un curso de Milagros”, and he investigates up to what point, Enric Corbera can perform miracles, like a lot of his followers claim. However, Corbera is also followed by doctors and his method is taught in universities in Latin America, but even so there are lots of people who think ¿Miracles? Those don’t exist. ¿Another enlightened one? ¿A guru who’s praised in Latin America because they believe in the supernatural more? These questions fill up this book, which shows a way of seeing life that’s radically different to the majority.

A spiritual diary, of the intangible. It’s difficult to explain, yes, but with this book you can check where the study comes from, what sources feed it and testimonies that live a life they may have not been able to live otherwise. A book that will open up debates, like I did in today’s blog, but that at the same time, gives an alternative, hope, for those who are in a vita finito moment. A journalistic and objective view of a method that everyone is free to follow or not, but that we should all know exists, before quitting.  There’s not a more precious value than each person’s life and we’re each is free to handle it however we want. And what’s most important is that I think we have the duty to respect it.