Italy

> Tag: Italy

Love is Not the End-All

The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany by Lori Nelson Spielman

April 29, 2022 by Pooja Leave a Comment

“To me, love is more like a lending library. To keep it, we must continually renew it. Otherwise we pay a hefty fine.” There is a purported family curse that afflicts the Fontana family – that second-born daughters will never find true love and wed. When their estranged great-aunt Poppy promises to break the curse if they accompany her on a trip to Italy, Emilia and Lucy’s lives change radically. This was a warm and engaging read about a trio of women who are misfits […]

Ferrante Never Misses

The Lost Daughter by Elena Ferrante

March 7, 2022 by andtheIToldYouSos Leave a Comment

…I state, after only reading two of her novels and two of her shorter pieces…but at this rate, I am all-in on Elena Ferrante and I am STILL mad at myself for taking this long to catch on. I’m two books deep in the Neapolitan Novels, but I had to interrupt my trajectory for two reasons: I needed to read this story before seeing the new (read: 2021) film adaptation I need to see the film in order to solidify all of my (mostly negative) […]

A fun, sexy conclusion

The Don by Katrina Jackson

March 6, 2022 by LB 1 Comment

It isn’t new to say Katrina Jackson is one of my absolute favorite authors and I hate that she made me love a mafia romance series, but here we are. The Don has been being set up since Beautiful and Dirty, and what a fantastic conclusion to the series! Now to wait for the spin-offs~ Shae and her cousin are sent to Italy by the Council of Aunties to retrieve her other cousin, but almost immediately she runs into Salvatore – a man she met […]

Vino with Guido

Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon

January 28, 2022 by Halbs Leave a Comment

Death at La Fenice is the first of 31 Commissario Brunetti mysteries. If you haven’t heard of this series, which began in 1992, Commissario Brunetti is a middle-aged detective in Venice, Italy. This inaugural mystery begins with a very dead, very famous maestro found on the floor of his dressing room. Tragic? Yes. But also very inconvenient – he died during the intermission of an opera! Word quickly spreads, as do the rumors and innuendo. Did he die of old age? Was he murdered? With […]

once again: great book, TERRIBLE cover

The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante

January 18, 2022 by andtheIToldYouSos Leave a Comment

The cover is even WORSE this time- not only do we have another DIY looking illustration, but the featured pull quote from The Australian‘s John Freeman is ABYSMAL: “Imagine if Jane Austen got angry and you’ll have some idea of how explosive these works are.” Fuck right off, guy. Emphasis on GUY. Just because Austen characters aren’t slapping and cussing each other out does not mean that they aren’t also filled with the contained rage of being a woman trapped in position- a woman who will do […]

Gucci? Man…

The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed by Sara Gay Forden

December 3, 2021 by Jake Leave a Comment

Being a fan of HBO’s Succession, I think I have a thing for rich people acting like dolts. Not even four years of the Trump regime could change that. I had checked out this book months ago but didn’t have time to read it. Plus the reviews were not very positive. However, as it got closer to movie time, I really wanted to know the story as it seemed fascinating. So I grabbed it again. This is a “true crime” book in a very nominal sense […]

narfna on And now, jump back hundreds and hundreds of years…#BlameMalin on this one for me, too, because she literally sent me a copy.
narfna on “And that very same evening—that very same evening—Lord Edgware dies. Good title that, by the way. Lord Edgware Dies. Look well on a book stall.”That's gotta be the new headcanon.
drmllz on “And that very same evening—that very same evening—Lord Edgware dies. Good title that, by the way. Lord Edgware Dies. Look well on a book stall.”I like to think the wife packs Hastings off to England to hang out with Poirot and enjoys having a whole ranch to herself...
Emmalita on And now, jump back hundreds and hundreds of years…Oh yay! Another #BlameMalin victim. That was an expensive miscommunication. I'm glad your grandmother is ok.
Emmalita on I liked this more as an exercise in boundary pushing for meI have to admit, I really liked this one. But Anita Kelly's whole vibe just works for me. I do have a couple of non...

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