Italy

Call and Answer

Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman

February 23, 2019 by Nannerbears 1 Comment

What a lovely read. The language was lovely, almost lyrical. Very little actually happens but the author takes us on such a journey that we believe so much has happened. This is a relatively short review, simply to resist giving away the pieces of the book you should enjoy by reading it yourself. Elio is a young man falling for an older man who is visiting his house over the summer. The story slowly builds into an obsession. The tension is built through everything that is thought but never happens. Like any good story, eventually the tension is released. There […]

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Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman

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2/23/2019 | Nannerbears's CBR11 Review No:2 |

Italian Football (Soccer/Calcio): Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction

Winning at All Costs: A Scandalous History of Italian Soccer by John Foot

August 14, 2018 by Jake Leave a Comment

Read for Cannonball Read Bingo: place I want to visit. It’s tough to know where to begin describing this book because it is a wild 528-page ride. John Foot is a competent writer and a quality historian but he’s been tasked with a subject that’s overwhelming: the story of soccer in Italy. Foot does a great job at covering the history of Italy as a backdrop to its nation’s favorite sport and I learned a lot. I had no idea how young of a nation Italy is and how its still fractured by regional loyalties. Large swathes of people didn’t […]

8/14/2018 Jake's CBR10 Review No:6 |

The Glory of my Favorite Illustrator

In a Small Kingdom by Tomie dePaola

May 30, 2018 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

The end of March 2018 saw a reissue of a Tomie dePaola classic Big Anthony and the Magic Ring (now called Strega Nona’s Magic Ring). The beginning of March saw a reissue of The Clown of God (last night was the first time I could read without crying my eyes out). And early April saw a rare site: dePaola’s text and illustrations by Doug Salati with, In a Small Kingdom. It is a miracle I can tear myself away from reading them! (Yes, my friends, I am a Tomie dePaola stalker, I mean fan). I am such a fan that […]

5/30/2018 BlackRaven's CBR10 Review No:181 |

“Life is a public performance on the violin, in which you must learn the instrument as you go along.”

A Room with a View by E.M. Forster

February 3, 2018 by Halbs 1 Comment

I’ve always confused A Room with a View with A Room of One’s Own. I recently reviewed a book about how to understand literature, and it recommended one or both of those two books. I can’t remember which. I’ll read them both! Amazon recently released a free version of A Room with a View, so I downloaded and gave it the old college try. ARWAV, as the kids call it (no they don’t) is clever, cheeky, romantic, and Romantic. I may not be the target audience for the book, but I lapped it up all the same. ARWAV centers around Lucy Honeychurch, a young English […]

2/3/2018 Halbs's CBR10 Review No:9 |

The Review of the Great Books

The Story of a New Name, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, The Story of the Lost Child (The Neapolitan Novels #2-4) by Elena Ferrante

June 22, 2017 by alwaysanswerb Leave a Comment

I really, really liked Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend, which is an incredibly blase way to compliment a book so raw and confrontational and, well, brilliant. The remaining three books in the Neapolitan Novels series build on the strong momentum established by the first and, in the process, continue to be some of the most poignant reading I’ve experienced in ages. The feelings that these books provoked in me were strong and visceral, inflamed and tender in their ebb and flow. These are not feel-good stories, but they don’t feel gratuitous in their misery, either. As a woman, my vicarious […]

6/22/2017 alwaysanswerb's CBR9 Review No:47 |

A book that puts the privilege of my education in stark relief

My Brilliant Friend (The Neapolitan Novels #1) by Elena Ferrante

April 27, 2017 by alwaysanswerb Leave a Comment

Whatever “it” is, this book has it. Unsurprisingly, The Neapolitan Novels series has been among the much-discussed darlings of the lit fic world — a world that I largely ignore, as I mainly stick to genre. Despite sounding intriguing enough to prompt me to read it, I still knew very little about it. And so, Elena Greco and Lila Cerrullo came to me freshly conceived, raw and open and complex, out of their run-down and violent neighborhood, seeking an opening to become something more than their circumstances. I think everyone knows — or perhaps is — an Elena or a […]

4/27/2017 alwaysanswerb's CBR9 Review No:32 |

When you didn’t hate the book, but can’t think of the title: a meh-ish review.

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

December 6, 2016 by ardaigle Leave a Comment

This was the last book of the book club I started in my local area. Aaaaand I read it over a month ago, so my memory is fuzzy, so this review isn’t going to be one for the record books. The book was recommended to me by a few folks, plus it was set it Italy, where I had just returned from a trip, so it seemed like a no brainer to tackle it next. All in all, I found it serviceable, but I just didn’t love it. Beautiful Ruins is a non-linear story about love, loss, secrecy, and social […]

12/6/2016 ardaigle's CBR8 Review No:25 |

Back on a true crime kick

The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi

November 25, 2016 by kfishgirl Leave a Comment

This book is very interesting. OK, that sentence feels like a 4th grade book report. Really though , it’s interesting. There are so many details, and such well researched facts. You can tell that the authors got a little obsessed with the Monster. Their obsession cataloged thirty years worth of evidence, nearly half a dozen suspects (almost all were tried, convicted, and then acquitted), fourteen to sixteen murders, and two countries. Douglas Preston was an American author trying to write a crime novel. He met Mario Spezi, an Italian journalist semi-obsessed with the Monster of Florence case. Spezi was actually […]

11/25/2016 kfishgirl's CBR8 Review No:50 |

emmalita on “At this point, I think if you’re being silent, you’re making a choice and taking a side.”Added to my list!
emmalita on Will this be a review of this book or a review of my Episcopalian conversion? Stay tuned.What a powerful and intimate review. I was raised without church or religious community. The church going I did with extended family as a child...
Alexis Dubief on Loving the IAD Series RereadAm fully loving this podcast and it's been a welcome breather from Pod Saves America (which I also love but is crushing my soul a...
A. Monroe on Post-apocalypse with a political agendaOh sad little liberals whining about a book that doesn't tow the liberal narrative. Don't we have enough liberal authors for you snowflakes? That nut...
tillie on “…a duty, out of sheer cussedness, not to disappear completely, simply to ease the conscience of the rest.”Interesting! I read an article about her some time ago that raised some questions about her: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/09/26/a-decade-lived-in-the-dark I think it's really interesting that the book...