Tag Archives: Italy

Book Review: The Leopard

Posted on September 9, 2019 by

The Leopard, by Guiseppe di Lampedusa, translated from the Italian by Archibald Colquhoun As someone who has an interest in the history of Sicily, I found this particular novel to be a stellar and deeply enjoyable example of a historical … Continue reading →

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Audiobook Review: Great Courses: How To Listen To And Understand Opera: Part 3

Posted on September 1, 2019 by

Great Courses: How To Listen To And Understand Opera: Part 3, instructed by Professor Robert Greenberg In most of the courses I have listened to in this particular professor’s series, all of which deal with music in the Western concert … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Sailing From Byzantium

Posted on August 31, 2019 by

Sailing From Byzantium:  How A Lost Empire Shaped The World, by Colin Wells I don’t know where I became someone who reads a lot of books on Byzantium, but there are a lot of books on that medieval society [1], … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Sicily: Three Thousand Years Of Human History

Posted on August 17, 2019 by

Sicily:  Three Thousand Years Of Human History, by Sandra Benjamin One of the advantages of reading several books about the same subject is that one gets to see the characteristic biases of the people who write the books.  When it … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Sicily

Posted on August 17, 2019 by

Sicily:  An Island At The Crossroads Of History, by John Julius Norwich In this book the author captures the melancholy of Sicilian history.  What is it that makes an area of sunshine and agricultural wealth (at least from the time … Continue reading →

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Book Review: La Cosa Nostra

Posted on August 17, 2019 by

La Cosa Nostra:  A History Of The Sicilian Mafia, by John Dickie This particular book is a history of the mafia and its parasitic relationship with the Italian state that was constructed from the 1860’s onward, demonstrating that far from … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Extra Virginity

Posted on July 13, 2019 by

Extra Virginity:  The Sublime And Scandalous World Of Olive Oil, by Tom Mueller To what extent should olive oil be treated like wine?  I consider myself in general a fan of olive oil, someone who appreciates using it as part … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Invisible Cities

Posted on February 15, 2019 by

Invisible Cities, by Italo Calvino This is an odd book, but it’s an odd book in the best possible way.  Set in the past, specifically during the time of Marco Polo and his travels to the Mongol emperor Kublai Khan … Continue reading →

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Book Review: The Path To The Spiders’ Nests

Posted on January 30, 2019 by

The Path To The Spiders’ Nests, by Italo Calvino It makes sense that Italo Calvino wrote this book early in his writing career, as it has the sex and violence that one would expect from someone who was an immature … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Primo Levi’s Resistance

Posted on January 21, 2019 by

Primo Levi’s Resistance:  Rebels And Collaborators In Occupied Italy, by Sergio Luzzatto It is striking, and something I did not know until reading this book, that the place of Primo Levi’s short and spectacularly unsuccessful career as a partisan against … Continue reading →

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