“I think people who only have good experiences are not very interesting.” Chosen as the book for the second appointment of the GLOB reading group (Gruppo di Lettura Occasioni d’incontro – BooktoMi – BooktoMi), we recommend it for the same purpose to other readers, because it is capable of lighting fires of unexpected discussions. But let’s start with the plot. James Sveck is an apparently normal life boy of the American upper middle class. Close...
“FRIDAY DI-VERSO” I listened as in a dream to the roar of the waves and I knew that I would pass the test of my youth and be forgiven. Some books, quick to read, full of life yet airy, fresh, might be worth describing in pictures rather than words. An image that may suggest, perhaps, the state of mind of those who, having closed the book, after the last page, also close their eyes, to let...
“When you are sad you need to feel your pain made into music.” Book of memoirs, in which the writer recounts her experience as a patient in a US psychiatric clinic in the late 1960s. A leap into the void crossed after a perhaps incorrect diagnosis of personality disorder, following an alleged attempt to commit suicide. The stay at the McLean private hospital will last for eighteen months, during which the writer lives in a...
Written by Ludovica Micalizzi This review is available only in the original language _________________________________________________________________________ Per millenni dire donna è equivalso a dire mostro. La femminilità è stata capace di generare nei secoli una paura indomabile, implacabile e spesso incomprensibile. Partendo da tali assunti Jude Ellison Sady Doyle scrive quella che potremmo definire un’opera controcorrente: Il mostruoso femminile. Il testo non può essere definito un romanzo ma ugualmente non rientra nella categoria dei saggi; esso è infatti un’opera di decostruzione sistemica...
The books chosen by Andrea Salonia This review is available only in the original language _________________________________________________________________________ Mi è comparso davanti agli occhi per caso, un mattino di sole fuori e un fresco che aveva lasciato spazio ai primi caldi; leggevo da qualche parte, dove non lo ricordo neppure più bene; prima il tema, poi l’autore – Philippe Lançon – e da ultimo sono andato a cercare il titolo: La traversata. Un colpo di fulmine, e...
“For an increasing number of Americans, the dream of a middle-class life has gone from difficult to impossible.” Necessary. This is the adjective in which we think we can wrap the book before putting it in place in our library. A text necessary to expose the petty inconsistencies on which the US economic system is based, and by extension those of a large part of the Western world. A punch in the stomach of hypocrisy,...
“Was it fair for one to take the worst and the others the best?” Beautiful, delicate, intense, hollowed out and shaped book of life. The story talks about the story of the author, an Italian-American, who returned from the United States to fight on the Austrian front during the First World War. An epic-romantic beginning, therefore, of the emigrant who returns home to fight under the banner of his native country, against an unknown enemy....
Written by Alessia Colombo This review is available only in the original language. Tipologia: albo illustrato Tematiche principali: natura, migrazione, accoglienza, empatia Tecnica delle illustrazioni: matita e acquerello Età consigliata: 4-10 anni Da sinistra a destra. C’è uno scoglio in mezzo al mare su cui vivono delle foche. Una mamma ed il suo cucciolo cercano lì rifugio, ma le altre foche si rifiutano di accoglierli, dicendo che non c’è abbastanza posto. Cacciati via, nuotano soli verso...
“Something died inside me, – she tells me. – It took a long time, but now he’s dead. And you killed it, as if you had hit it with an ax.” Collection of short stories, including a very short two-page one, in which love is examined and dissected in many of its forms, with the simple story of everyday life. Family and non-family dynamics, in which it is easy to collide with the ghosts of...
Written by Alessia Colombo This review is available only in the original language. Tipologia: albi illustrati Tematiche principali: diversità, paura dell’altro Tecnica delle illustrazioni: tecnica mista tradizionale/digitale Età consigliata: 4-8 anni Nel mezzo di questo libro c’è un alto e solido muro di mattoni. Il piccolo cavaliere sul lato sinistro ci informa che il suo lato è quello sicuro e che è importante che il muro stia lì, perché dall’altra parte c’è un orco terribile che...
