Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru / Books Council of Wales
Maeār gyfres o lyfrau i ddysgwyr, Amdani, yn 5 mlwydd oed!
40 o lyfrau, wedi eu graddoli ar bedair lefel, gan amrywiol weisg.
Yn 2023 bydd pob teitl ar gael fel llyfr llafar am y tro cyntaf o wefan http://ffolio.cym
Mwy yma: https://llyfrau.cymru/amdani-dathlu-pum-mlynedd-orā¦/
Amdani, the series of Welsh books for learners, is 5 years old!
40 books, graded at four levels, from a variety of Welsh publishers.
In 2023 every title will be made available as an audiobook for the first time from https://ffolio.wales.
More here: https://llyfrau.cymru/ā¦/celebrating-five-years-ofā¦/
Happy World Book Day/Diwrnod y Llyfr everyone! To celebrate why not grab yourself a bargain?! Just Ā£2 each for any of these (plus postage) to make way for more books on my bookshelf!
And donāt forget the lovely Cyw book for children thatās available for Ā£1 in Wales! (Details here: World Book Day Wales)
Y Byw syān cysgu, Llechi and Pryfeta have gone now, but the others are still available
Hereās a recommendation for the more advanced readers among you: this novel won Book of the Year 2022, and I really enjoyed it. Itās a bit dark, but I kinda like that sort of thing
Ffion Dafis is from the north-west of Wales so youāll find a lot of the dialogue in that dialect (but not too much, I donāt think).
Any indication of theme/style/scenario? āA bit darkā sounds fine, NW-ish sounds fine, but is it a murder mystery, a supernatural thriller, slice-of-lifeā¦? (I hope that doesnāt sound peremptory - I skimmed the reviews, but could only see how well people thought of it, and not what it was about!)
Just a reminder that the second of these online āMeet the Authorā events is happening tonight. They only had about 5 people at the first one, which was disappointing for the organisers and author, but it does give you lots of opportunity to chat in Welsh!
Iāve read a review of this on Nation.Cymru (spoiler warning if you go looking for it, btw, it didnāt give away the ending but went into some depth about plot details etc) as I was also intrigued, but when it comes to dark themes I generally want a bit of forewarning myself.
It looks as if it focuses on ill mental health, death, and coping with trauma (in a modern setting, Facebook is mentioned). Reading the review, it reminded me a bit of The Girl On The Train especially in regards to the main character.
Sorry for the late response to the question - Iāve been in bed with the flu for a week! I can see that you have another answer below, which is pretty much on the nose. Those are the themes but itās far more engaging and not as depressing as those make it sound There are intriguing threads for the reader to follow / mysteries to be solved, and there are elements of humour also. Itās more āslice of lifeā than āsupernatural fantasyā. Hope that helps!
Iām pretty happy to hear this; Nation.Cymru did make it sound quite gritty. Iām a few years off ābig booksā, but Iāll pick this up when Iām more fluent!
I bought the book āRobā by Mared Lewis a while ago as it is marked as lefel Uwch but, now I am about to start on lefel uwch I canāt seem to find it listed in any of the course books. Does anyone happen to know where, in the recommended order, it appears, please? I know I could just read it anyyway but the books are usually listed after we have learned the relevant vocab.
Iām early Sylfaen with a lot of time clocked in SSIW/Duo/attempting to read the news, and found this a bit above my level - thereās no glossary, either. But, I had a dictionary and a notepad to hand and managed to finish this without stressing (which makes me wonder if I should try DeltaNet again).
It checks off a full rom-com bingo card, but itās light-hearted enough for a learner whoās still used to footnotes and Iād recommend it fully. I loved the challenge of something a bit above my level, but not impossible either.
Simon Chandler runs an online Welsh book club, if anyone is interested. Itās not for beginning learners though, more for accomplished Siaradwyr Newydd. If youāre on Facebook, you can reach him here:
Iāve noticed this one hasnāt yet been mentioned in this topic - itās part of the Cyfres yr Onnen series, so aimed at 9-14 year olds and not technically a learnersā book. Donāt let that put you off though, itās a lovely book and worth reading (I read it at the end of Sylfaen and only really struggled with some vocab).
Our main character in Sgrech y Mor is Sion, a grieving young lad in his early teens who regularly clashes with his stepfather. Mum sends Sion away for the summer holidays to live with āAnti Bethā, his late dadās free-spirited spinster older sister and her boisterous dog Gel. Sion isnāt sure about his new situation in this small Welsh seaside village, only agreeing to go to make Mum happy, but he soon gets a whole lot more than he bargained for.
A few sad bits but overall heartwarming, and we could have all done with an Anti Beth figure in our teenage years, I think. I wrote a Goodreads review which goes a bit more in-depth (warning: there is one bit in there that Iād consider a ātrue spoilerā but I have filtered it) but I read this without any knowledge of where the plot would go. I think I enjoyed it all the more for that.
