The Marble Faun
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Classics, Mystery, Italy | Published: 2002 (first 1860) | Goodreads
The fragility-and the durability-of human life and art dominate this story of American expatriates in Italy in the mid-nineteenth century. Befriended by Donatello, a young Italian with the classical grace of the "Marble Faun," Miriam, Hilda, and Kenyon find their pursuit of art taking a sinister turn as Miriam's unhappy past precipitates the present into tragedy.
Hawthorne's 'International Novel' dramatizes the confrontation of the Old World and the New and the uncertain relationship between the 'authentic' and the 'fake' in life as in art. The author's evocative descriptions of classic sites made The Marble Faun a favorite guidebook to Rome for Victorian tourists, but this richly ambiguous symbolic romance is also the story of a murder, and a parable of the Fall of Man. As the characters find their civilized existence disrupted by the awful consequences of impulse, Hawthorne leads his readers to question the value of Art and Culture and addresses the great evolutionary debate which was beginning to shake Victorian society.
RECIPE:
Bucatini all'Amatriciana
by Bon Appétit & Epicurious (here)
Yummy!
VIRTUAL VISIT:
HeyGo livestream: Fairytale Trastevere and the Island of Rome (upcoming tours)
VISIT bookstore: someday...
Libreria Giufà
(details) grab a coffee and book in this shop that gives off a fun and funky vibe
I took a trip arm-chair traveling with binge watching this series that ties in road trips, foodie experiences and books.
The Trip (2010)
Director: Michael Winterbottom
Stars: Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon
Comedy, Drama, Travel, North England | imdb | my rating: 4
Steve is asked to review restaurants for the UK's Observer who is joined on a working road trip by his friend Rob who fills in at the last minute when Coogan's romantic relationship falls apart.
Places:
Yorkshire Dales, Trough of Bowland and The Lake District
The Inn at Whitewell
L'Enclume
Holbeck Ghyll Country House
Yorke Arms
The Angel Inn
Hipping Hall
Bolton Abbey
Dove Cottage
Book/author mentioned:
Wadsworth
Coleridge
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Trip to Italy (2014)
Director: Michael Winterbottom
Stars: Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon
Comedy, Drama, Travel, Italy | imdb | my rating: 4
Two men, six meals in six different places on a road trip around Italy.
Places:
Liguria
Tuscany
Rome
Amalfi
Capri
Book/author mentioned:
Byron
Shelley
Cassanova
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Trip to Spain (2017)
Director: Michael Winterbottom
Stars: Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon
Comedy, Drama, Travel, Spain | imdb | my rating: 4
Actors Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon embark on a six-part episodic road trip through Europe. This time they're in Spain, sampling the restaurants, eateries, and sights along the way.
First sentence(s):
In Sicily, every story begins with a marriage or a death.
It was love at first sight when Tembi met professional chef, Saro, on a street in Florence. There was just one problem: Saro’s traditional Sicilian family did not approve of him marrying a black American woman, an actress no less. However, the couple, heartbroken but undeterred, forges on. They build a happy life in Los Angeles, with fulfilling careers, deep friendships and the love of their lives: a baby girl they adopt at birth. Eventually, they reconcile with Saro’s family just as he faces a formidable cancer that will consume all their dreams.
From Scratch chronicles three summers Tembi spends in Sicily with her daughter, Zoela, as she begins to piece together a life without her husband in his tiny hometown hamlet of farmers. Where once Tembi was estranged from Saro’s family and his origins, now she finds solace and nourishment—literally and spiritually—at her mother in law’s table. In the Sicilian countryside, she discovers the healing gifts of simple fresh food, the embrace of a close knit community, and timeless traditions and wisdom that light a path forward. All along the way she reflects on her and Saro’s incredible romance—an indelible love story that leaps off the pages.
My two-bits:
Inspiring and comforting read with much love, laughter and food despite sadness.
Commissario Stefania Valenti series:
Shadows on the Lake
Omicidio alla Stazione Centrale
Morte a Bellagio
First sentence(s):
At the end of the first year of the enforcement of the legislative decree of 4 January 1944, XXII, no.4, which provides for the seizure of properties belonging to citizens of the Jewish race, I hereby submit to you, DUCE, the statistical data relating to the work thus far accomplished.
A new atmospheric Italian mystery novel set in Lake Como, introducing the clever and captivating Inspector Stefania Valenti.
During the construction of a new road to the Swiss border in the mountains above Lake Como, the remains of a young man are unearthed on the powerful Cappelletti family's property. On the case is Stefania Valenti, forty-five, divorced with a young daughter, and a brilliant, determined police inspector.
Her investigation takes her back to World War II and deep into the history of the region, a place that during the war attracted smugglers, deserters, secret agents, and fleeing Jews. Steeped in the beautiful atmosphere of Northern Italy, Valenti's investigation brings to light a family's secret, a tragic romance, and reveals a fascinating piece of Italian history.
My two-bits:
I felt like this gently plodded along and comes to a halt with a classic mystery motive with a small town Italian vibe.
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* part of Books, Inc. Foreign Intrigue Book Club (here)
An Auntie Poldi Adventure series:
Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions
Auntie Poldi and the Vineyards of Etna
Auntie Poldi and the Fruits of the Lord
First sentence(s):
On her sixtieth birthday my Auntie Poldi moved to Sicily, intending to drink herself comfortably to death with a sea view.
Zombie sighting: My writing spans a wide range and I love to read a board range: from literary fiction to, er, zombie novels.
-Q&A with Mario Giordano, page 332
On her sixtieth birthday, Auntie Poldi retires to Sicily, intending to while away the rest of her days with good wine, a view of the sea, and few visitors. But Sicily isn’t quite the tranquil island she thought it would be, and something always seems to get in the way of her relaxation. When her handsome young handyman goes missing—and is discovered murdered—she can’t help but ask questions...
Soon there’s an investigation, a smoldering police inspector, a romantic entanglement, one false lead after another, a rooftop showdown, and finally, of course, Poldi herself, slightly tousled, but still perfectly poised.
My two-bits:
Loved this cozy mystery set in Sicily. Plenty of arm-chair traveling in and around the protagonist's small town as well as food references to make one go out to seek a restaurant serving a squid ink pasta dish - just for a taste.
The mystery solving includes some romantic interludes to spice things up.
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* part of Books, Inc. Foreign Intrigue Book Club (here)
First sentence(s):
Seated in a copper bathtub, Bear Bavinsky dunks his head under steaming water and shakes out his beard, flinging droplets across the art studio.
Rome, 1955
The artists are gathering together for a photograph. In one of Rome's historic villas, a party is bright with near-genius, shaded by the socialite patrons of their art. Bear Bavinsky, creator of vast, masculine, meaty canvases, is their god. Larger than life, muscular in both figure and opinion, he blazes at art criticism and burns half his paintings. He is at the centre of the picture. His wife, Natalie, edges out of the shot.
From the side of the room watches little Pinch - their son. At five years old he loves Bear almost as much as he fears him. After Bear abandons their family, Pinch will still worship him, striving to live up to the Bavinsky name; while Natalie, a ceramicist, cannot hope to be more than a forgotten muse. Trying to burn brightly under his father's shadow - one of the twentieth century's fiercest and most controversial painters - Pinch's attempts flicker and die. Yet by the end of a career of twists and compromises, Pinch will enact an unexpected rebellion that will leave forever his mark upon the Bear Bavinsky legacy.
What makes an artist? In The Italian Teacher, Tom Rachman displays a nuanced understanding of twentieth-century art and its demons, vultures and chimeras. Moreover, in Pinch he achieves a portrait of painful vulnerability and realism: talent made irrelevant by personality. Stripped of egotism, authenticity or genius, Pinch forces us to face the deep held fear of a life lived in vain.
My two-bits:
This story got into the truth and consequences of the people involved in an artist's life.
It also tackles the questions of what makes an artist and what/who influences artist in a painful and truthful way.
Just released: July 12, 2016
Publisher: Blue Rider Press
Genre: Italy, Travel, Women's Fiction
Hardback: 304 pages
Rating: 4
First sentence(s):
I have a snapshot of me standing on Finn's shoulders when I was twenty-nine, a trick we'd perfected.
An electrifying novel about marriage and deceit from bestselling author Delia Ephron that follows two couples on vacation in Siracusa, a town on the coast of Sicily, where the secrets they have hidden from one another are exposed and relationships are unraveled.
New Yorkers Michael, a famous writer, and Lizzie, a journalist, travel to Italy with their friends from Maine—Finn; his wife, Taylor; and their daughter, Snow. “From the beginning,” says Taylor, “it was a conspiracy for Lizzie and Finn to be together.” Told Rashomon-style in alternating points of view, the characters expose and stumble upon lies and infidelities past and present. Snow, ten years old and precociously drawn into a far more adult drama, becomes the catalyst for catastrophe as the novel explores collusion and betrayal in marriage.
With her inimitable psychological astuteness and uncanny understanding of the human heart, Ephron delivers a powerful meditation on marriage, friendship, and the meaning of travel. Set on the sun-drenched coast of the Ionian Sea, Siracusa unfolds with the pacing of a psychological thriller and delivers an unexpected final act that none will see coming.
My two-bits:
Good one for arm-chair traveling as a small town in Sicily is captured via a tourist viewpoint.
Although unlikable characters and their unsavory deeds are the focus of this story. The drama creates a kind of fascination for how things progress and meet its inevitable end.
The narration with four people makes the story come alive moreso. Loved hearing John Slattery ;-)
First sentence(s):
There are two kinds of people in this world; those who love coconut and those who hate coconut.
Slim, successful, and soon to marry the man of her dreams, Katie Cravens is leading the life she always wanted. As the face and CEO of Pasta Pronto, a “Carbs for the Calorie-Conscious” line of frozen food, Katie chooses to live life like one of her Slimline Spaghetti dinners―no mess, no surprises, and everything tied up in a neat little package. But when Katie’s fiancé runs off with another woman and a quality control fiasco sends her customers running for the hills, it’s time for Katie to make a change.
Her company’s salvation presents itself in the form of a partnership opportunity with the legendary Ristorante Caramelli of Rome, and Katie has no other choice but to jet off to Italy to convince gorgeous, hotheaded co-owner Luca Caramelli that she’s a worthy partner. Gaining Luca’s respect proves harder than Katie could have ever imagined, however, when he insists that she must learn how to cook―and how to eat―true Italian food before he will ever agree to their companies’ partnership.
Katie and Luca's tension in Italy mounts into a fierce public rivalry that erupts back in the States with a nationally televised cooking competition. As Katie tries to channel her inner Mario Batali to win the competition, she must choose between the flavorless prepackaged life that she worked so hard to maintain and the mouth-watering uncertainty of a life chock full of carbohydrates and Caramellis.
My two-bits:
There is some arm chair traveling to Italy with this delightful sort-of coming of age romantic read. At first, I found the main character, Katie, to be a bit annoying. But as the story progressed, her character developed into a more likable and better person.
The topics of food and cooking brought about thoughts on eating healthy and cooking from scratch.
I especially loved the descriptions of preparing and cooking pasta. Made me want to make pasta despite not having recipes provided.
Issues of diet and self-image also are touched upon in this story.
Got a sense of what it is like working for a small company in the food industry.
About the author:
Elisa Lorello was born and raised on Long Island, the youngest of seven children. She earned her bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth and launched a career teaching rhetoric and composition. She has been teaching first-year writing to university students since 2000, but went on sabbatical in fall 2012. Elisa spent six years in North Carolina, where she split her time between teaching and writing, and returned to the northeast in October 2012.
Elisa is the author of the Kindle best-selling novels "Faking It" and "Ordinary World", "Why I Love Singlehood" (co-authored with Sarah Girrell), and "Adulation".
Some of Elisa's favorite pastimes include chocolate, reading, and walking. She is also an avid fan of Duran Duran, pop tarts, and finding the perfect shade of lipstick.
First sentence(s):
The dying actress arrived in his village the only way one could come directly -- in a boat that motored into the cove, lurched past the rock jetty, and bumped against the end of the pier. She wavered a moment in the boat's stern, then extended a slender hand to grip the mahogany railing; with the other, she pressed a wide-brimmed hat against her head. All around her, shards of sunlight broke on the flickering waves.
The story begins in 1962. On a rocky patch of the sun-drenched Italian coastline, a young innkeeper, chest-deep in daydreams, looks out over the incandescent waters of the Ligurian Sea and spies an apparition: a tall, thin woman, a vision in white, approaching him on a boat. She is an actress, he soon learns, an American starlet, and she is dying.
And the story begins again today, half a world away, when an elderly Italian man shows up on a movie studio's back lot—searching for the mysterious woman he last saw at his hotel decades earlier.
What unfolds is a dazzling, yet deeply human, roller coaster of a novel, spanning fifty years and nearly as many lives. From the lavish set of Cleopatra to the shabby revelry of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Walter introduces us to the tangled lives of a dozen unforgettable characters: the starstruck Italian innkeeper and his long-lost love; the heroically preserved producer who once brought them together and his idealistic young assistant; the army veteran turned fledgling novelist and the rakish Richard Burton himself, whose appetites set the whole story in motion—along with the husbands and wives, lovers and dreamers, superstars and losers, who populate their world in the decades that follow.
Gloriously inventive, constantly surprising, Beautiful Ruins is a story of flawed yet fascinating people, navigating the rocky shores of their lives while clinging to their improbable dreams.
Zombie sighting: Claire mulls as she drives, zombie-like — all basic animal reflex.
-chapter 2, page 24
PeekAbook:
My two-bits:
Captured small coastal sleepy Italian town of the past (1960's) with wonderful detail. Although fictional believable with its nuances and community folklore.
Loved the varied characters that ran the gambit from locals in a small town to Hollywood celebrities.
Got me thinking of the life of celebrities and its lifestyle.
CHECK out the movie mentioned and highlighted in the book:
Directed by: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Screenplay by: Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Ranald MacDougall, and Sidney Buchman
Based on histories by: Plutarch, Suetonius and Appian
Also based on book: The Life and Times of Cleopatra by Carlo Mario Franzero
-Biography, Drama, History
Starring:
Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra
Richard Burton as Mark Antony
Rex Harrison as Julius Caesar
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* listened to the audio version which was excellent
* added this to my Books On The Nightstand Bingo challenge (details) - square: By an author of a different gender
* added to COYER challenge/scavenger hunt (details)
* part of my Armchair Summer Travel (details) - check it out to enter Armchair Summer Travel Book Box Giveaway
Places mentioned include:
Italy
Scotland
California, USA
Idaho, USA
Washington, USA
The Trip to Italy (2014)
Directed by: Michael Winterbottom
Screenplay by: Michael Winterbottom
-Comedy, Drama, Travel
Starring:
Steve Coogan as Steve
Rob Brydon as Rob
My rating: 4.5
Per imdb: Two men, six meals in six different places on a road trip around Italy. Liguria, Tuscany, Rome, Amalfi and ending in Capri.
PeekInside:
My two-bits:
Loved the sites from where these two stopped for meals and lodging during their road trip along the western coast of Italy.
Food plays a big part in the film with scrumptious looking dishes of pasta get served to tantalize our eyes and the actors' bellies.
A little bit of bookish trivia is included as they visit places related to romantic poets Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley.
The road chit chat is amusing with pop references and impressions of movie celebrities.
Places viewed:
Amalfi Coast
Camogli
Capri
Genoa
Liguria
Pisa
Ravello
Rome
San Fruttuoso
Tuscany
Villa Borghese
and more
Restaurants mentioned:
Cenobio dei Dogi, Camogli
La Suvera, Pievescola
La Cantina, San Fruttuoso
Il Riccio, Capri
Villa Cimbrone, Ravello
Oliver Glowig, Rome
Just released: April 14, 2015
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Genre: Illness, Italy, YA
Hardback: 272 pages
Rating: 4
First sentence(s):
If you could see me. If you were near.
This, I would say.
Here.
Something is not right with Nadia Cara. While spending a year in Florence, Italy, she's become a thief. She has secrets. And when she tries to speak, the words seem far away. Nadia finds herself trapped by her own obsessions and following the trail of an elusive Italian boy whom only she has seen.
Can Nadia be rescued or will she simply lose herself altogether? Set against the backdrop of a glimmering city, One Thing Stolen is an exploration of obsession, art, and a rare neurological disorder. It is a celebration of language, beauty, imagination, and the salvation of love.
My two-bits:
This story had an artsy feel to it. There is a mix of past and present imagery of Florence, Italy. There are scenes that are disjointed which adds a mystery element that begs the question of what is real. There are moments that can be confusing and frustrating similar to what the protagonist experiences.
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* review copy courtesy of publisher
* added to my COYER challenge/scavenger hunt (details)
* part of my Armchair Summer Travel (details) - check it out to enter Armchair Summer Travel Book Box Giveaway
The Medici Boy
Donatello: Art, Pain, Passion, Murder
by John L’Heureux
just released: April 2014 Amazon | Goodreads | Website
The worlds of art, politics and passion collide in John L’Heureux’s masterful new novel, The Medici Boy. With rich composition, L’Heureux ingeniously transports the reader to Donatello’s Renaissance Italy—directly into his bottega, (workshop), as witnessed through the eyes of Luca Mattei, a devoted assistant.
While creating his famous bronze of David and Goliath, Donatello’s passion for his enormously beautiful model and part time rent boy, Agnolo, ignites a dangerous jealousy that ultimately leads to Agnolo’s brutal murder. Luca, the complex and conflicted assistant, will sacrifice all to save the life of Donatello, even if it means the life of the master sculptor’s friend and great patron of art, Cosimo de’ Medici.
John L’Heureux’s long-awaited novel delivers both a monumental and intimate narrative of the creative genius, Donatello, at the height of his powers. With incisive detail, L’Heureux beautifully renders the master sculptor’s forbidden homosexual passions, and the artistry that enthralled the powerful and highly competitive Medici and Albizzi families. The finished work is a sumptuously detailed historical novel that entertains while it delves deeply into both the sacred and the profane within one of the Italian Renaissance’s most consequential cities, fifteenth century Florence.
About the author:
Award-winning poet, novelist, and short story writer, John L’Heureux has taught at Georgetown University, Tufts, Harvard, and (for more than 35 years) in the English Department of Stanford University where he was Lane Professor of Humanities. There he received the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and earned it again in 1998.
A prolific writer, L’Heureux has written more than twenty books of fiction, short fiction and poetry. His works have appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, Harper’s, The New Yorker, and have been included in dozens of anthologies including Best American Stories and Prize Stories: the O. Henry Awards.
John L’Heureux has twice received writing fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and in 2006 he was awarded a Guggenheim Grant to do research for The Medici Boy, his new novel.
He is retired and lives in Palo Alto with his wife Joan.
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PeekAbook: Cinematic book trailer
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* looks like a good one, adding it to my want list
Meet: Alice Occupation: Anthropologist Location: Steamland Genre: Steampunk, Action, Vampires
We are discovering steampunk locations in other countries besides England, France and America. The latest finds includes this one. This report covers the Italian steampunk front by Society member, Giada.
~-~-~-~-~ guest ~-~-~-~-~ by Giada ~-~-~-~-~ guest ~-~-~-~-~
Description from Giada: Ben is a young Londoner who suffers from hallucinations. He reads manuscripts for work. One night he receives a book , Alice in Steamland (Alice nel Paese della Vaporità).
It is the story of Alice, an anthropologist who lives in a Victorian London that never existed.
Alice travels in Steamland, a land filled with a gas that causes hallucinations and mutations. A land where reality changes every moment, in which 'right' and 'wrong' are just words and where words themselves become smells and emotions.
Alice’s adventure begins as a quest that it is immediately transformed into a life-and-death struggle.
Alice has to survive in a dark land, where there is no difference between horror and wonder.
Ben reads her story.
And something happens to him.
Giada's thoughts: Alice in Steamland is a book that begs to be devoured. Alice is one of the most unconventional character you can ever imagine, who shares only her name with Alice in Wonderland. The similarities with the masterpiece of Lewis Carrol are not many, only a few characters like a ruthless queen, a psychopathic white rabbit, a creature similar to the blue Caterpillar and Chesy, who recalls the Cheshire Cat.
Steamland is located outside the city of London, a steampunk capital where sophisticated machines work thanks to the steam, populated by vampires, monsters and strange flying creatures.
Steamland is a place of wonders of overwhelming beauty and glimpses of unspeakable horror, an illusory world where, until the end, you cannot understand what is the fruit of Alice’s imagination and what really exists.
With a plot dense of such bizarre situations in a world of “Flesh, Enchantment and Dream”, descriptions involving all five senses and a brilliant writing style, this is a book that won’t disappoint the highest expectations.
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