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I'm still reading Les Misérables started in December 2015.

Hope to read a lot of good books this year!

Good luck, dely!

Thanks Chrissie ;-)

Les Miserables is a big one, but definitely worth it. Are you reading it in the original French or translated?

Charbel wrote: "Les Miserables is a big one, but definitely worth it. Are you reading it in the original French or translated?"

I'm reading it in Italian. I don't think I would be able to read it in the original language because my French is very rusty!

One of my favourite French novel! Read in Italian as all French books

1) I miserabili 5/5

English edition: Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

I couldn't have started the year with a better book. It is a must read, absolutely. I would like to start the book again, it was so good and I'm already missing all the characters.

My Italian/English review: /review/show...

Loved the review. Thanks.

By the way, you have opened the New Year with a Five Star mega read. All the best for the coming days and reads.

Dhanaraj wrote: "Loved the review. Thanks.

By the way, you have opened the New Year with a Five Star mega read. All the best for the coming days and reads."

Thanks to you for reading.

Lol, don't say it otherwise I'm scared about my next reads! But I think that such a masterpiece can't be compared to "ordinary" reads. I'm pretty sure I won't be able to start a new book for the next two days. Till now I'm having fun with quizes and trivia questions :D

2) Lo specchio by Antonella Sacco 4/5

No English edition.

It's a collection of short stories that deal with loneliness, suicide, finished loved stories. Nearly all the stories are sad, depressing and gloomy. But there are also surreal and poetic stories. I liked them all. They were also very well written and the reader was able to feel the emotions by the various characters.

3) L'ingenuo 3,5/5

English edition: L'Ingenu: Or, the Sincere Huron. a True History. by Voltaire

After Les Misérables I need to read only short stories. So today I picked up this one that is since a long time in my to-read list.
It was a witty and satirical story about a too sincere person and what he has to endure when he falls in love and decides to live "as it's due" by society in order to stay with his beloved. Despite the shortness, Voltaire expresses his philosophical thoughts, above all his anticlericalism.

4) Zeus e altre semplici storie 1/5

English edition: Simple Stories by Ingo Schulze

A very short book with 5 or 6 short stories. They weren't interesting, they were too minimalist, there wasn't that much: no characterization of the characters, no plot, no real beginning....the reader was put inside a story as if he had know the background. They should be interlinked because we find the same characters in a few stories, but in different points of their lives and this, without an explanation, is even more weird. Didn't like it and was bored to death.

Review: /review/show...

5) Nove vite 4,5

English edition: Nine Lives by William Dalrymple

It was a very interesting and fascinating read. I didn't know if giving it 4 or 5 stars so I decided for 4,5 because it's more 5 than 4.

My English/Italian review: /review/show...

6) La Cavigliera d'Oro 2/5

English edition: Shilappadikaram by Ilango Adigal

I liked the story and the historical part but I also had a hard time reading it.

My Italian/English review: /review/show...

7) Saggezza senza tempo dall'antica India. Insegnamenti dal Vedanta e dalla Bhagavad Gita 3/5

English edition: Timeless wisdom from ancient India by Basant K. Gupta

It's a good introduction to Veda, Vedanta and Bhagavad Gita.

My review: /review/show...

8) Prima neve sul Fuji 2/5

English edition: First Snow on Fuji by Yasunari Kawabata

Didn't like this that much. Before starting it I didn't know it was a collection of short stories. I usually like short stories, but I wasn't in the right mood. I really needed a good fiction into lose myself.
Most part of the stories deal with marital infidelity and I liked how the author was able to look into female psychology. I think he did a good job. But most of the time the stories were boring, or perhaps too slow for my tastes, or I have read it in the wrong moment.

My Italian/English review: /review/show...

9) Le sei reincarnazioni di Ximen Nao 4/5

English edition: Life and Death are Wearing Me Out by Mo Yan


It was so good! I gave it only 4 stars because one part was a bit dragging, but otherwise it is a "whole book". It means there is everything: historical background (China from 1950 to 2000) a family saga, wonderful prose, good description of characters and their emotions and feelings, it was also funny and I liked the idea of the reincarnations. The story is told by the reincarnations of a landowner who had been killed by communists and by another family member (I don't want to add too much spoilers). The funny thing is that his reincarnations were animals but he never lost his memories of his previous lives.
It's not easy to talk about the plot, it's a book that has to be read.

10) Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz 4/5

Really liked this book, about an Egyptian family living in Cairo from early 1900 till the revolution of 1919.

My English review: /review/show...

11) Palace of Desire by Naguib Mahfouz 3/5

I liked it less compared to the first book of the trilogy.

My English review: /review/show...

12) Sugar Street by Naguib Mahfouz 4,5/5

This was again good, like the first one, and I was so enthralled that I read it very fast!

My review: /review/show...

13) Sozaboy by Ken Saro-Wiwa 4/5

I was really curious to read this book after have seen . The movie doesn't talk about Ken Saro-Wiwa, but it deals with one of the most tragic problems of Nigeria: multinational oil companies that exploited the land without worrying about the inhabitants' health or the environement. Ken Saro-Wiwa has been killed in 1995 for his pacific fight against these oil corporations and because of the corruption of his government. At the presentation of Black Gold they talked a lot about Saro-Wiwa and other intellecutals that have been killed without a trial. Sozaboy doesn't deal with the oil corporations, but about the Nigerian civil war. I was however curious to read something by this author and about Nigeria.

My review: /review/show...

14) Yoshe Kalb by Israel J. Singer 3/5

It isn't easy to review this book without adding spoilers. The story is set in the early 1900 and talks about the Orthodox Hasidic Jews of Galicia. The young main character, Nahum, struggles between his faith and an impossible love.
I liked a lot the descriptions of the people, their lives and habits and about religion. It was interesting to see this young man struggling between his feelings and the orthodox and harsh religious doctrine. It's an interesting book.

15) The Brothers Ashkenazi by Israel J. Singer 5/5

It was such a good and fulfilling read. There were never moments of boredom and despite the 600 pages it was very flowing.

It talks about two brothers, the Ashkenazi, who were very different: the "older" (they are twins) is very intelligent, he works hard to obtain what he wants, he is very harsh, clever and egocentric; the "younger" is brilliant, liked by everyone and obtains however richness thanks to his luck and liking.
They live in Lodz, Poland, and the story starts from the end of the 19th century till the end of WWI.
The story of the two brothers helps only to outline the historical time: when the first Germans started to arrive in Poland bringing work, the huge Jewish community that was at first very orthodox but slowly started to change while changing the period. So, from one side we have the orthodox Jews, bound to customs and tradition, and the younger Jews that started to be more openminded.
But there are also the first Communist movements, the fight of the proletariat, the Russian revolution and then the division between Bolsheviks and the other socialist parties, Poland's desire for independce, the hate for Jews that slowly starts, the pogroms, how Jews start to go away from Poland. I also liked that the author, though he himself is a Jew, was impartial with his coreligionists and more than once he criticizes them.

It was really a wonderful book that I would suggest to everyone!

My review: /review/show...

dely, your review is so good and enthusiastic that I've added the book to my wishlist. Shame on you for being co-responsible of the horrible growth of my infinite wishlist ;-)

Marina wrote: "dely, your review is so good and enthusiastic that I've added the book to my wishlist. Shame on you for being co-responsible of the horrible growth of my infinite wishlist ;-)"

Hahaha, I'm not sorry :P

It's such a good book!

Thanks!

16) 10 giorni che fecero tremare il mondo

English edition: Ten Days that Shook the World by John Reed

I don't rate it because I didn't finish it. I gave up after 100 pages. I wasn't engaged and it wasn't interesting.

My very short review: /review/show...

17) I quaranta giorni del Mussa Dagh 3,5

English edition: The Forty Days of Musa Dagh by Franz Werfel

I would have given it also 4 stars but it was too long and wordy. The author could have said the same things with 200 pages less. It's a good and interesting story about the Armenian genocide, but some parts were slow because of the wordiness.

18) Quando tutto sarà finito 3/5

English edition: The Undertaking by Audrey Magee

It shows, in my opinion, that in a war there are never winners or losers, all are only human beings that try to survive and that their lives change forever, they themselves change. It has nothing outstanding though it is a different book about WWII, it's a different way to talk about it.

I always wanted to read Franz Werfel. And this book that you have read (Mussa Dagh) touches on the theme that I wanted to read about. Thanks.

Dhanaraj wrote: "I always wanted to read Franz Werfel. And this book that you have read (Mussa Dagh) touches on the theme that I wanted to read about. Thanks."

You're welcome. I'm always glad if one of my reviews is of any help.

19) Un eroe dei nostri tempi 2/5

English edition: A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov

My English review where I explain why I didn't like it that much: /review/show...

20) La posizione della missionaria: Teoria e pratica di madre Teresa 2,5/5

English edition: The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice by Christopher Hitchens

It was an interesting book, above all the depositions of volunteers that have worked in Mother Teresa's hospital. The rest of the book is interesting too and the author shows how Mother Teresa didn't really worry about the poor and the sick, but wanted only to instill them her religious believes and, above all, the endurance of suffering in order to be nearer to Jesus. No one knows how much money she had, but she never used it for the poor, these had to continue to suffer and to live in poverty. Hers weren't real hospitals because there weren't doctors or professional staff; it was only a place where people could die even if in a real hospital they could have been saved or at least suffer less before dying. It's not very Christian this behaviour. She also accepted money from dictators or swindlers and never said a bad word about them and about what they were doing.
It's not only an attack on Mother Teresa, but to Catholicism, clergy and Vatican City. All in all, Mother Teresa followed the precepts of her religion.

I rated it so low only because it was too short and the best part were the depositions of the volunteers. The rest is interesting too but I had the impression the book had no "order", there wasn't a real logic to follow from the start to the end. At the end of the book some things were repeated and about others there was only a hint. I would have liked if the author would have deepened many things and I wanted more real depositions.

I think that Catholics shouldn't read this book, they would never believe it and I don't think that it would open their eyes.

21) La guardia bianca 2/5

English edition: The White Guard by Mikhail Bulgakov

I rated it so low because it was too confusing and to really appreciate this book, it should be read in the original language. Also, the reader should know pretty well Ucrainian history and historical characters of the time the story was set (from December 1918 to February 1919). My edition hadn't a helpful introduction and I had to look a lot of times on the internet for informations. This and also too many notes interrupted always my reading. Perhaps I have chosen a not very good translation. Surely Bulgakov wanted to put the reader in the same confused mood of the people of those months and in this he surely suceeds because it is really very confusing. It's difficult to understand or follow what is happening but this because it was chaotic also for the people in that time.

For now I have written only a review in Italian: /review/show...

22) La bellezza delle cose fragili 3/5

English edition: Ghana Must Go by Taiye Selasi

The English title is misleading, it isn't a story about the exodus of Ghanaians from Nigeria. It's the story of a Ghanaian family (two parents and four children) living in the States and the story is told through the memories of the characters.

My English review: /review/show...

23) Metà di un sole giallo 4,5/5

English edition: Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

A really good and enthralling book about the civil war in Nigeria, from 1967 to 1970, when the new state of Biafra was born but didn't last long.
We read about it through the eyes of the main characters: Odenigbo and his fiancé Olanna, her twin sister Kainene and her fiancé Richard, but also Ugwu, the 13 years old servant of Odenigbo.
It was a moving story, I could feel with the characters and there isn't only the story about the war and how it started and ended, but also friendship, life in that time and place, the relationship problems...there's a lot.

24) Città aperta 4/5

English edition: Open City by Teju Cole

Really liked it!

My Italian/English review: /review/show...

25) Vicino al cuore selvaggio 1/5

English edition: Near to the Wild Heart by Clarice Lispector

Stream of consciousness is not for me.
My very short review: /review/show...

26) Tornare a casa 2/5

There isn't an English edition, but it's a collection of six short non-fictional stories by Javier Cercas, a Spanish writer.

The various topics could be interesting (going back to his native town in Spain, the border between Messico and the US, his opinions about being an emerging writer, etc) but the stories were too short to envolve the reader.

27) Il conte di Montecristo 3/5

English edition: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas



My Italian/English review: /review/show...

28) L'animale d'allevamento by Kenzaburō Ōe 3/5

No English edition.

It's an interesting short story.

My Italian/English review: /review/show...

29) Garibaldi fu ferito - E noi? by Paolo Nori 1/5

No English edition.

For me it was a useless short book with an unbearable writing style. It has two speeches by the author: one about the Italian unification, above all about Ciro Menotti:
and the other speech talks about Tolstoj, Dostoyevsky, ridiculousness and goodness.

I also didn't like how he dealt with these two topics. The author wanted to be funny, but he got only on my nerves and I had the impression that he wanted to talk only about himself.

30) La saga di Gösta Berling 2/5

English edition: Gösta Berling's Saga by Selma Lagerlöf

Didn't like it very much. It was disjointed, it wasn't a flowing story but every chapter could be a short story. Also the characters were not believable, they weren't well depicted and also their behavior was not believable.

My English review: /review/show...

31) I primi sette anni e altri racconti by Bernard Malamud 4/5

There isn't an English edition but my edition had the following short stories:

The First Seven Years
The Girl of my Dreams
Angel Levine
The Magic Barrel

I really liked the writing style of this author. It's the first time I read something by him but I will surely read more because he isn't only able to write, but the four stories dealt with interesting topics, above all loneliness of people.

32) Morte al Chiabrera by Fiorenza Giorgi 2/5

There isn't an English translation but the title would be "Death at the Chiabrera" (it's the name of a theater in the city where I live).

It was an ok read for me. I don't like a lot thrillers and this one had also a slow pace. It wasn't a typical thrilling thriller where the reader wants to find out the murder. It was pretty slow and there were also descriptions of the city or of events that were not necessary to the plot. I bought it only because I found it at a charity stand and because it's set in the city where I live; also the author is from here.

I wrote only an Italian review: /review/show...

33) Lettera al padre 4,5/5

English edition: Letter to His Father by Franz Kafka

It was wonderful! Finally I also could understand better his novels. I think this is one of those authors about which we have to know his life in order to understand or appreciate more his books.

It's a letter he wrote to his father but he never gave him this letter, it also was never published while he was alive. It talks about their relationship and about how Kafka lived submitted to his father. I really could feel with Kafka and for him. I fully understood how he had to feel. Living a whole life full of guilt, though he wasn't guilty of anything, must have been very difficult. Despite everything he exculpated his father surely because he felt guilty also for considering his father the ruin of his life. Kafka was so able to look into himself and to psychoanalyse himself. I wanted to rate it with 5* but at the end I decided to give it 4* because I wanted more; I would have liked if he had written more about his relationship with his father.

Good to know that the book had impact on you as well, dely.

34) Mi innamoravo di tutto: Storia di un dissidente by Stefano Zorba 3,5/5

There is no English edition. The title could be "I felt in love with everything: Story of a dissident".

It's not easy to talk about this book if we don't know what's going on or what happened in Italy in these last years. Also the title of the book, is the title of a music album of a very famous Italian singer; also the nickname of the main character is the name of a song of the same singer-songwriter.
So, a very short synopsis: a dissident is caught by intelligence agents and while he is tortured, he thinks about his life: why he started to fight against injustices, his ideals till the day he is caught. It's not a spy thriller, but the book talks that in front of injustices we can't hide and do as if nothing happened; that it's important to know how things really are, to don't trust news because they tell us only what they want.

It's a book by an emerging writer that gave me a free copy for an honest review. It was good and I liked it.

My (only) Italian review: /review/show...

35) Lo straniero 3/5

English edition The Stranger by Albert Camus

The plot is easy: Meursault seems a normal and common person except that he doesn't care about anything. His mother dies: it doesn't matter; he kills a man because it's too hot and he's tired but it doesn't matter; he is sentenced to death, it doesn't matter, everyone dies sooner or later.

I liked it though I can't enter in the main character's head. I understood his musings about life, but I don't agree with him, I can't believe that there could be a person like him that doesn't care about anything. I also think that sometimes Camus was too cryptic or too fast to explain his points of view about life and death.

I think Camus is reflecting his times - the Second World War where he saw death everywhere and no meaning in life. No one cared for the other and neither for his own salvation. Because nothing had meaning in front of the gross violence caused by the war.

Dhanaraj wrote: "I think Camus is reflecting his times - the Second World War where he saw death everywhere and no meaning in life. No one cared for the other and neither for his own salvation. Because nothing had ..."

I didn't think about WW II. I was pretty sure there were his personal thoughts about life. Thanks for pointing this out.