The SSiW Welsh Book Club šŸ“– šŸ“š šŸ‘“

Happy World Book Day/Diwrnod y Llyfr everyone! To celebrate why not grab yourself a bargain?! Just £2 each for any of these (plus postage) to make way for more books on my bookshelf! :books:
And don’t forget the lovely Cyw book for children that’s available for Ā£1 in Wales! (Details here: World Book Day Wales)
Y Byw sy’n cysgu, Llechi and Pryfeta have gone now, but the others are still available :slight_smile:

Here’s a recommendation for the more advanced readers among you: this novel won Book of the Year 2022, and I really enjoyed it. It’s a bit dark, but I kinda like that sort of thing :slight_smile:

Ffion Dafis is from the north-west of Wales so you’ll find a lot of the dialogue in that dialect (but not too much, I don’t think).

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Any indication of theme/style/scenario? ā€œA bit darkā€ sounds fine, NW-ish sounds fine, but is it a murder mystery, a supernatural thriller, slice-of-life…? (I hope that doesn’t 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 ā€˜Meet the Author’ 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!

ā€˜Chat with an author’ online event for advanced learners

I’ve read a review of this on Nation.Cymru (spoiler warning if you go looking for it, btw, it didn’t 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.

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Sorry for the late response to the question - I’ve 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 it’s far more engaging and not as depressing as those make it sound :slight_smile: There are intriguing threads for the reader to follow / mysteries to be solved, and there are elements of humour also. It’s more ā€œslice of lifeā€ than ā€œsupernatural fantasyā€. Hope that helps!

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I’m pretty happy to hear this; Nation.Cymru did make it sound quite gritty. I’m a few years off ā€˜big books’, but I’ll pick this up when I’m more fluent!

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I bought the book ā€œRobā€ by Mared Lewis a while ago as it is marked as lefel Uwch but, now I am about to start on lefel uwch I can’t 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.

Thanks

Does this help? :slight_smile: Cyfres Amdani | Dysgu Cymraeg

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It does, thanks Cetra. They seem to have added ā€œYn y tÅ· hwnā€, although not in the same place.

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Here’s one that Blodwen Jones lovers will like - Un Noson by Llio Elain Maddocks:

I’m early Sylfaen with a lot of time clocked in SSIW/Duo/attempting to read the news, and found this a bit above my level - there’s 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 it’s light-hearted enough for a learner who’s still used to footnotes and I’d recommend it fully. I loved the challenge of something a bit above my level, but not impossible either.

Dwi’n mynd ar wyliau ym mis Ebrill, prynais bedwar llyfr i’w darllen.

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Shwmae Alan. Gad i ni gwybod shwd maen mynd plis.

S’mae John
Dan ni’n yn Tenerif ar hyn o bryd.

Another ā€˜meet the author’ Zoom event:

ā€˜Chat with an author’ online event for advanced learners