15 Books with Few Pages to Read Lightly

For difficult days, a light reading helps to clear the mind; for quiet days, lightness is an excellent company. With that in mind, we selected books with a fluid and natural reading, with few pages, but with enriching stories.

1. The book of similarities (Ana Martins Marques)

The second book by one of the most important Brazilian poets of our time, The Book of Similarities it fits in the bag, on the headboard – wherever there is the desire to be with light words, well married, bringing us simple and familiar scenes. The poetry of Ana Martins Marques is part of everyday life and invites us to second glances. Divided into the sections “Book”, “Cartographies”, “Visits to the commonplace” and “The book of similarities”, the work is a dance tour of words and images.

The book of similarities, by Ana Martins Marques
BRL 34.90 – Companhia das Letras

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2. Let’s all be feminists (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie)

Chimamanda recalls the first time she was called a “feminist” and the pejorative tone that accompanied the term at the time. So many years later, today she calls herself a “happy African feminist who doesn’t hate men, and who likes to wear lipstick and high heels for herself, not for men”. This small book is an adaptation of the speech given by the Nigerian author at TEDx Euston, which has 3.4 million views on Youtube. The writer defends that the end of machismo would be liberating for women, finally free of standards, expectations and violence; and for men, freed from stereotypes of masculinity.

Let’s all be feminists (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie)
BRL 14.90 – Companhia das Letras

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3. Tips from the immensity (Margaret Atwood)

Tips from the immensity brings together ten short stories with female characters developed with depth and complexity worthy of real figures. They are young and adult women, indigenous, bourgeois, poets. The relationship with men is problematized – whether bosses, husbands, friends or lovers –, privileging women’s vision and experience. For The New York Times, Margaret Adwood conveys “the feeling that she has a complete understanding of her characters’ hearts and minds”. The book’s texts were originally published in magazines such as The New Yorker, Playboy, Granta and New Statesmen; now translated and published by Rocco publishing house, for our pleasure.

Hints of Immensity by Margaret Atwood
BRL 39.50 – Editora Rocco

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4. Black Eyes: Ten Black Women Writers Who Are Renewing Brazilian Literature

This collection of short stories and chronicles brings together ten black Brazilian women writers and some of their recent literary productions. The work was published by Malê, which is dedicated to increasing the visibility of Afro-Brazilian literature. There is a gap between how much the black artistic class produces and how much space it gets; initiatives like this one, therefore, come to reduce this inequality. The book features texts by Conceição Evaristo, Cidinha da Silva, Cristiane Sobral, Ana Paula Lisboa, Esmeralda Ribeiro, Fátima Trinchão, Geni Guimarães, Lia Vieira, Mirian Alves and Taís Espírito Santo.

Black Eyes: Ten Black Women Writers Who Are Renewing Brazilian Literature
BRL 40.00 – Editora Malê

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5. Bonsai (Alejandro Zambra)

Small, delicate and accurate. Such is the novel by Chilean Alejandro Zambra, such are bonsai. The book begins with its ending, without fear: “In the end she dies and he is left alone. (…) The rest is literature”. It is worth mentioning that it is polished literature, made by the skillful hands of a poet and teacher, accurate in the resources he uses. The characters Emilia and Julio are two Literature students who share love, youth and their reading – the rest is only discovered by reading.

Bonsai by Alejandro Zambra
BRL 21.60 – Cosac Naify

6. Thirty something (Antonio Prata)

Antonio Prata believes in the genre of his writing, the chronicle, as the possible and ideal “to break the hardship and sadness of today”. At the age of 38, his texts ramble on about age-related dilemmas, “not being pubescent or gagá”. The chronicles, originally published in the Silver column in Folha de São Paulo, sometimes went viral on the internet, dealing with diverse themes such as love, politics, football, family – always touched by the lightness, humor and self irony characteristic of the author.

Thirty something, by Antonio Prata
BRL 34.90 – Companhia das Letras

7. The lecture madman (Vanessa Barbara)

If the chronicles have the power to bring lightness to the days, talking about what is so much ours that we didn’t imagine reading through the words of others, “The crazy lecture” comes to keep us good company. Vanessa Barbara’s writing is born out of her deep capacity for observation of the human species and the intelligence she uses to transform what has been seen and heard into language. The book is composed of texts published in different vehicles, such as Piauí magazine and Folha de São Paulo newspaper, and brings us peculiar portraits of São Paulo, its street corners and people, as well as human sketches recognizable in any territory, such as “ lecture crazy”.

The lecture madman (Vanessa Barbara)
BRL 39.90 – Companhia das Letras

8. Chronicles – Volume 1 (Bob Dylan)

In 2016, Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize in Literature for having created “new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”. The composer showed surprise and intense gratitude for the award. Your book Chronicles – Volume 1 was considered by Billboard magazine as the best music book in history – and it is not necessarily a book only about music. The work brings memories of the artist, episodes lived in his career, friendships, passions, parties and all the possibilities of New York in the 60s. With his ability to tell stories, his passionate and humorous tone, Bob Dylan shows us in this book the paths that shaped his life and his art.

Chronicles – Volume 1 by Bob Dylan
BRL 41.90 – Editora Planeta

9. Seven Years (Fernanda Torres)

After the success of her debut novel The end, released in 2013, Companhia das Letras published this collection of chronicles by Fernanda Torres. The texts continue with an ironic, humorous and delivered writing – here, especially, there is a confessional tone, since the first matter of the chronicles is the own experience of those who write them. Dealing with real and intimate subjects, such as the death of her father, and also venturing into the fiction of scenes only possible in literature, Fernanda Torres offers a range of situations and insights that cause laughter, emotion and identification.

Seven Years, by Fernanda Torres
BRL 37.90 – Companhia das Letras

10. Recklessly poetic men (Valter Hugo Mãe)

With each novel Valter Hugo Mãe seems to have a sharper knife for sculpting humanity. In his most recent release, the Portuguese writer born in Angola makes an incursion into Japanese culture. His writing feels natural like breathing; effortlessly the characters become close, the streets of another place and once become familiar and all feelings are palpable and understandable. Literature is the result of the true dedication of the author, who travels and faithfully dedicates himself to each undertaking. The invitation now, therefore, is for a trip to a village at the foot of Mount Fuji, meeting the craftsman Ítaro and the potter Saburo.

Recklessly poetic men, by Valter Hugo Mãe
BRL 44.90 – Editora Biblioteca Azul

11. 10 years with Mafalda (Quino)

Many people are mistaken if they think that comics are children’s material; and the same goes for the strips of the famous Mafalda, a character by the Argentine comic artist Quino. In this book are compiled the 10 years in which Quino developed Mafalda’s comics. It is delicious, fun and always provocative to follow the adventures, questions and thoughts of the small and astute character. It is possible to learn about Argentina, childhood, wars, friendships, capitalism, innocence, beauty and much more.

10 years with Mafalda, by Quino
R$36.00 – Editora Martins Fontes

12. The Home Key (Tatiana Salem Levy)

Somehow, the house key it is already a classic among young women. In this fictional novel, the protagonist receives the key to the old family home in Turkey from her grandfather. Thus begins a search for roots and identity; understandings about family and losses. The different voices of the narrative complement each other and take us on external journeys – and thus we visualize beautiful landscapes – and internal ones, making us think about our own origins and paths.

The Home Key by Tatiana Salem Levy
BRL 22.90 – Editora Record

13. Animal Farm (George Orwell)

Sixty years after it was written, The Animal Revolution continues with the same vigour and pertinence. Written during World War II and used later, during the Cold War, as anti-communist propaganda, the work can today be read as what it always was: an ingenious fable about the human weaknesses that make us corruptible to power. The story has animals as characters, but it speaks of our humanity and sheds light on why the noblest political revolutions fail. Loaded with history and politics, the narrative has the feat of being light, fluid and fun – which also explains its timelessness.

Animal Farm, by George Orwell
BRL 29.90 – Companhia das Letras

14. Tectonic Plates (Margaux Riot)

This comic book was written by the French author at the age of 35, and it says a lot about being in your early thirties. With a lot of humor and reality, not afraid to undress and expose stumbling blocks, Margaux talks about separation, new loves and decisions that can make the ground crumble.

Tectonic Plates, by Margaux Motin
BRL 59.90 – Editora Nemo

15. Dizzy (Joan Cornellà)

Joan Cornellà is an internet phenomenon, with 5 million likes on Facebook and 1.2 million followers on Instagram. His comics are characteristic: bright colors and no speech. It may seem simple, but the Spaniard’s messages address everything: religious, political and sexual intolerance; family and love relationships; contemporaneity and its many questions. Everything has a touch of exaggeration and absurdity, attracting Internet users and readers. This is the first Brazilian edition of the Spanish author’s work, published in its original format. Cornellà is one of the most controversial comic artists today and Zonzo is an editorial milestone.

Zonzo, by Joan Cornella
BRL 48.00 – Editora Mino