Book Reviews, My Reads: January – June 2020
Today we take a trip through my kindle. That is, I’ll tell you about all the books I read in the first months of 2020. I always like to find out what others are reading so I can get suggestions for my next readings. And so I thought I’d share mine, who knows, maybe they can be an inspiration for you. Also because summer is approaching and after the swimsuit test, the other age-old question is: what books to bring under the umbrella?
As you will see from the index below, I have whatsapp blasting divided the books between fiction and non-fiction for convenience. You will find the plot from the “back cover” and my considerations with a final rating from 1 to 5. Obviously according to my personal tastes. I hope it can be useful to you in discovering books to read and topics to explore.
Fiction
Confidence of Domenico Starnone
Plot
Pietro lives a stormy love with Teresa. After yet another argument, she has an idea: tell me something you’ve never told anyone – she suggests -, tell me the thing you’re most ashamed of, and I’ll do the same. That way we’ll stay together forever. They’ll break up, of course, shortly after. But a relationship that ends is often the fuse for the next one, especially for those who need confirmation.
My Notes
I don’t know why, but it reminded me a lot of Stoner. Maybe because of the male figure, who doesn’t seem to go very far in life. Well written, it’s a pleasure to read and the “powerful” figure of Teresa is intriguing. It certainly makes you think about the power of secrets.
Vote: ****
The beloved women by Francesco Pacifico
Plot
“In great novels by men, men get agitated, make mistakes, and slam into a pinball machine where women are the banks that ring and flash as soon as they are touched; flashy and crucial, so much so that they seem like protagonists – in reality they are a pure function of the man’s metal ball.” Before he turns forty, Marcello, an editor and poet, dreams of writing a novel how to run telegram ads and promotions that can escape this paradigm. A task that is far from easy, because for a man, telling the story of a woman means questioning himself and dealing with an obscure, elusive, inaccessible object like antimatter. But there are some women who have allowed him to get closer than others: the women in his life, the ones he loves, the ones he has loved. So Marcello decides: they will be the protagonists of the book.
My Notes
It promises more than it delivers. The idea of telling oneself through the women in one’s life is beautiful and interesting. The characters, however, in my opinion, could have been better delineated. Perhaps a little more depth would have been enough.
Vote: ***
The Animal I Carry Inside Me by Francesco Piccolo
Plot
, to escape the law of the pack – and at the same time, the surrender to its strength. The undecidable and vital struggle between the man you would like to be and the animal you carry inside. Because there is a code of men; almost all of its voices are difficult to repeat in public, yet there is no way to silence them. So many years spent trying to turn off that collective buzz only to find yourself listening to it, in your own heart, in the most unexpected moments.
My Notes
Beautiful, very beautiful indeed! It’s a shame I didn’t discover it before. It’s definitely a book a man can’t help but identify with. You realize you’re part of a big “pack”, for better or for worse.
We all have the animal inside us, the difference is made by those who know how to carry it inside.
Plot
The story of the adventures of a character worth knowing continues: Rocco Schiavone, a tough melancholic who evolves and changes over time, while he works, remembers, feels pity and anger, settles private accounts and a couple of business deals. And in this novel, hard, disturbing, high tension, the murder of a pensioner from the Saint-Vincent casino pushes him into the world of gambling addiction.
My Notes
Rocco Schiavone’s adventures never disappoint. The story and atmosphere always capture you, it’s an immersion in a world that involves and excites you so much. In this book, the protagonist’s story and the case to be solved unexpectedly intertwine.
I can’t wait to read the next ones.
I’ll Fall, Dreaming of Flying by Fabio Genovesi
Plot
You know when the radio plays the song you always listened to in high school, and you imagined yourself in the future, free and happy to do what you wanted… well, if hearing it makes your heart sink and you end up having to change the station, it means that in that future something didn’t go the way you dreamed. That’s how it is for Fabio, who is twenty-four and studies law. The subject doesn’t excite him at all, but a series of circumstances led him there, and he didn’t have the strength loan data to oppose it. So he proceeds wearily, until – it’s 1998 – to avoid compulsory military service he is sent to a hospice for priests on top of the mountains. Here the director is a rough and moody eighty-year-old former missionary, who doesn’t leave his room because he’s no longer interested in anything, and treats everyone badly except Gina, a girl who thinks she’s a chicken.
