Carmela's Books

Sweet and joyous with a pinch of teen drama, this Osemanverse novella is the perfect pick-me-up for any reader between books. Nick and Charlie are facing the start of university and the uncertainty that comes with it. Even with countless new hurdles, and two-hundred miles, between them, they manage to prove that some people are just meant to be. Everyone knows that Nick and Charlie are the perfect couple – that they’re inseparable. But now Nick is leaving for university, and Charlie will be left behind at Sixth Form. Everyone’s asking if they’re staying together, which is a stupid question – they’re ‘Nick and Charlie’ for God’s sake! But as the time to say goodbye gets inevitably closer, both Nick and Charlie question whether their love is strong enough to survive being apart. Or are they delaying the inevitable? Because everyone knows that first loves rarely last forever. You might know this novella from its iconic audiobook lines—“do you love me more than your dogs?” and “I’ve been d...

In a world bursting at the seams with expectations for the youth, from college to career to the ever-changing, ever-unattainable idea of “success,” the hardest thing to do is listen to yourself. Alice Oseman's Radio Silence meticulously presents these ins-and-outs of teenage life and anxieties, gifting us all with a story that, at its core, celebrates and prioritizes a quest for happiness. Frances Janvier spends most of her time studying. Everyone knows Aled Last as that quiet boy who gets straight As. You probably think that they are going to fall in love or something. Since he is a boy and she is a girl. They don’t. They make a podcast. In a world determined to shut them up, knock them down, and set them on a cookie cutter life path, Frances and Aled struggle to find their voices over the course of one life-changing year. Will they have the courage to show everyone who they really are? Or will they be met with radio silence? Alice Oseman was born in 1994 in Kent, England. She co...

I have seen a handful of Queer books, or books involving Queer characters, at various stores in Italy, but seeing Heartstopper at La Feltrinelli in Lecce still managed to surprise me somewhat. This was the first store I’d seen in Italy to specifically have an LGBTQ section, and even from across the room I was able to spot the various pride flags and the covers of Heartstopper’s first and fourth volumes, visibly turned out so you could see them. Maybe it’s because I’ve been re-reading all four volumes in preparation for the April 22nd Netflix series release, or maybe it’s because Alice Oseman and their works always manage to catch my eye no matter the situation, but, regardless, I scrambled over there real fast .  You can see the LGBTQ section behind me To my delight, they were indeed Italian translations of the books. The title wasn’t changed—though that honestly makes sense seeing as I can’t think of many easy translations of the word "heartstopper." “Heartstrings” is ...