Tag Archives: Italy

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 →

Posted in Book Reviews, History | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

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 →

Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

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 →

Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

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 →

Posted in Book Reviews, History, Military History | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Collected Poems

Posted on January 18, 2019 by

Collected Poems, by Primo Levi, translated by Ruth Feldman and Brian Swann This is a collection of poetry that is both dark and beautiful, spanning from the mid-40’s just after the poet was released from the German concentration camps where … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Letters To Juliet: Celebrating Shakespeare’s Greatest Heroine

Posted on August 27, 2017 by

Letters To Juliet:  Celebrating Shakespeare’s Greatest Heroine, The Magical City Of Verona, And The Power Of Love, by Lise Friedman & Ceil Friedman Like many people, I have participated in various reenactments of the famous balcony scene–once in the ninth … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, History | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Book Review: Gironimo!

Posted on August 22, 2017 by

Gironimo!:  Riding The Very Terrible 1914 Tour of Italy, by Tim Moore The ending of the first paragraph gives the reader a good idea of what to expect for this volume as a whole, and presumably the author’s entire body … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, History | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Book Review: Thoughts On Machiavelli

Posted on May 9, 2017 by

Thoughts On Machiavelli, by Leo Strauss It is not to be wondered that Leo Strauss has, as a political philosopher, been subject to a great deal of popular disdain. He fully earned his bad reputation as a corrupter of philosophy, … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Christianity, History | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Book Review: Lidia’s Commonsense Italian Cooking

Posted on October 1, 2016 by

Lidia’s Commonsense Italian Cooking:  150 Delicious And Simple Dishes That Anyone Can Cook, by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and Tanya Bastianich Manuali Even when one reads cookbooks that offer a lot of recipes that one cannot or will not eat for … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Machiavelli’s Revenge

Posted on July 26, 2016 by

For many years, one of my dream classes to teach on the university level would be a course on Machiavelli that would look at him from the point of view of history, literary criticism, and political philosophy, and that would … Continue reading →

Posted in Christianity, History, Military History, Musings | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments