Marta Magellan's 3 favorite reads in 2023

I became interested in primatology after writing a children’s book about a primatologist, Mireya Mayor, and reading about her life story.

In my quest for information, I read books and articles, watched many videos, and even drove to hear Jane Goodall speak in person. When I read a review of Frans de Waal and his book based on his work with primates, specifically, chimpanzees and bonobos, our closest relatives, I bought the book. It is a fascinating and truly balanced account.

He moves from chimpanzee to human behavior with ease, making the reader aware that we have a lot in common with these primates, especially as it applies to gender differences. I’m a big nonfiction reader because I love learning new things, especially things I’ve only recently become interested in. I enjoy a really fluent and easy-to-read book, which this one was.

I learned so much about chimpanzees and bonobos, some of it rather shocking. His personal anecdotes and scientific knowledge of these apes kept me interested. It didn’t read like nonfiction at all. He was compassionate and respectful to current culture’s ideas, but he gave biology its due in the gender difference argument, which I suspected.

Because he considers chimpanzees, bonobos, and humans the trio with a common ancestor, I became very interested in learning about this common ancestor if more information is discovered. Nonfiction books like this one always trigger interest in something else and keeps me busy learning.

Because I write children’s books, I often read children’s books to keep me up to date on what’s being published.

I have seen many good picture books, which I’ve given rave reviews for in Goodreads, but middle-grade novels, which I aspire to write, don’t always do much for me. A Wish in the Dark was such an obvious exception. For one thing, the plot and the characters stayed with me.

The intelligence of the theme was exceptional, embedded in a fantasy that was supposedly based on Les Miserables, with two children at odds with each other. It is quite different otherwise, and quite beautiful.

Ana Venciana-Suarez writes columns for the Miami Herald, and I appreciate her writing style and topics. When she announced the publication of her new book on social media, I bought it because I love historical fiction.

This book is set in Barcelona, mostly during the 1500s, so for me, the setting was a draw. The premise is clever. It is a fictional look at what could have been the model for Don Quixote’s love interest by the author himself, Cervantes.

The romance is tense because of class differences. Cervantes keeps leaving Barcelona and leaving her behind, but it works because neither can truly forget the other. I love a good romance, especially one that’s as intelligent as this one.