“True beauty is always a little creepy.” Classic among the classics of training books, first printed in the early nineties, destined to remain over time, thanks to the topics covered: love, sexuality, friendship, responsibility, social recognition. In other words, what other writers, in other times, would have defined the shadow line. The story is set in a small college in Vermont, where six students of different backgrounds (even if some of them do everything to...
“Pain, when it comes, is not at all what we expect it to be.” Self-criticism: it may be that we did not understand the book, it may be that we were not able to immerse ourselves completely in the spirit that the writer wanted to convey to us, but we were disappointed by the text. We decided to open this writing in this way out of respect for the story told and for the writer’s...
“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...
