Beers & Books (460) – Empty Spain

La España vacía
Leeres Spanien
Empty Spain

Sergio del Molino *16 August 1979

Beers & Books (459) – Flannery O'Connor: Stories

Not a soul can be trusted anymore.

Flannery O'Connor (25 March 1925 – 3 August 1964)

Friday is Skyday

Spectacular cloud shows

... in the sky these days.

Beers & Books (458) – Stories from Uruguay

La casa de la Calle Socorro & others

Beers&Books (457) – Storytellers of the world

Short stories from 28 countries.
Published 40 years ago.
Still excellent!

 

Friday is Skyday

It’s starting to turn autumnal.

Beers & Books (456) – Fernanda Melchor: Saison der Wirbelstürme

Hurricane Season
*
Temporada de hurracanes 

Fernanda Melchor *1982

Beers & Books (455) – El amante bilingüe

El amante bilingüe

Juan Marsé (8 January 1933 - 18 July 2020) 

Beers & Books (454) – Fischer vs. Spasski

The complete games 
from the World Chess Championship in Reykjavik, 
with detailed commentary

On 1 September 1972, the chess world had a new world champion. The American Robert ‘Bobby’ Fischer, a highly unpleasant character, ended the decades-long dominance of Russian chess players in Reykjavik with a 12.5–8.5 victory over the defending champion Boris Spassky, and pocketed the highest prize money ever awarded in chess up to that point: 78,125 dollars from the host country, Iceland, and the British banker Jim Slater, with special permission from the Bank of England, had a special prize of 50,000 pounds sterling transferred to an Icelandic bank account.

Beers & Books (453) – Edgar Hilsenrath: The Story of the Last Thought

The Story of the Last Thought

Edgar Hilsenrath (2 April 1926 – 30 December 30, 2018)

Beers & Books (452) – Jóanes Nielsen: Fliegende Hunde auf schwimmenden Inseln

Flying dogs on swimming islands

Jóanes Nielsen *5 April 1953

Beers & Books (451) – Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451

Ray Bradbury (22 August 1920 – 5 June 2012) 

Relats conjunts – Children of Love II

Mural a Penelles - una fotografia de Fra Miquel
*
 Relats d'estiu de la Carme: mes d'agost: El banc mágic 

The ultamative End of Children of Love

A few hours later, lights are on in the newsroom of the Concord local newspaper. A tired-looking man, clearly in foul mood after a restless night, is typing the following report on his typewriter; it is to appear in the next day’s edition in place of the 38-line preview of the local philatelic society’s upcoming anniversary:

                                                 
CONCORD, 8.19. (hdt.) A horrific, senseless double murder was discovered yesterday evening in Concord. Passers-by found the bodies of John (78) and Mary (76) Adams in their garden. The police, who had been alerted, managed to apprehend the 13- and 15-year-old perpetrators in a remote barn that very night.

As Lieutenant Frank Corey (46) explained, they had just been trying to hide a chequered blanket – which they had used to wipe their knives – under a bale of straw.

This blanket, bearing the initials M.A., was identified shortly afterwards by neighbours as belonging to the victims. The boys then confessed immediately.

When asked what had driven them to commit this atrocity, the older of the two stated: “We just wanted to see what it's like. The old folks wouldn’t have had long to live anyway, would they?”

The parents of the two boys, to whom they will return on court order until the trial begins, are devastated.

One of the mothers, Liberty W. (34), wept in disbelief: “How could the children do that? They had everything.”

© hrj 1978 / 2026