etnagigante Male, 33. Catania, Italy

When Police knocks on your door, you oughta be ready for worst. This kind of visit lets Paula Spencer think. Charlo's wife, even if she doesn't know where he is, begin thinking all her life, from the teenagehood till present day. Dublin's life, with people's marks and money trouble, is nothing compared to beeing kicked or slapped by own husband, especially when nobody seems to see. There's always a door to walk into or a domestic lack of attention for doctors. Paula lives again her life with us, letting us know about her problem with alcohol, money and relationship with parents and family. All these records bring us to the news about her husband.
Reading about real life problem is not easy when you expect relax from a book, but this novel flows without stops, even with all the incidents, people misunderstanding and sore for Paula. I appreciate Doyle's work, Dublin, with school and teaneger life.

A lot of chats, misunderstandings for the main character. Our heroine believes she is able to comprehend human minds and feelings and finds out her limits. Anyway, among lovely picnics, social evenings and jelousy everything goes to the right places. All the ladies get engaged or married and love is the real winner.
This is the first thought. A careful reading shows us a lot of links, words-games and gives us a different Emma, maybe more human and enjoyable

Maybe I'm too old for this teenage_vampire_love_story. The book is well written but the strong point of it is wake for me, for Bella's point of view is too far from me (beeing a 33yrs male is the point :D ).
Anyway, this book is a love story between two teenagers (at least one is at first sight), one of which is a little too boring for the way she fell in love while thinking what a loser she says to be.
The vampire story is quite different from the other I red; there's no blood, too less fear or action, but I appreciate the way S. Meyer described the Cullens, each one with a particular power.
I had a lot of fun reading the baseball game during the storm.

Last chapter takes all the mysteries away. I'll write nothing (or at least I'll try) about the plot so that who doesn't know will go on knowing nothing.
Last chapter of this saga is full of normal time episodes, as always in Rowling's book and these pages are always nice readings. In this book Harry and his friends are in fight with Voldemort and Death Eater for the last time (we suppose) and the story is quite all far from Hogwarts till the very end of the novel, during the last fight.
The character are always in trouble and in doubt, sometimes arguing eachothers and we have no matter_of_the_fact_heroes.
Perhaps the story ends as we expected, both in plot and in love stories, but we can be grate to J. Rowling for the gift she gave us with this saga.
Someone died anda someone is born at the end, and the authoress gives us another gift with lst chapter of the book, ninenteen years after the end of the story.

Take centuries of British literature, a big bad guy, a different history for the real world and you'll have this novel. Jasper Fforde plays with own rules and wins the game, for the characters are vivid and interesting, all the items created by Mycroft are wonderful and Thursday is a wannahave friend. Narrating what is written in this book isn't simple, for we have lots of crazy events. But it is funny playing with real novels and kidnapping Jane Eyre, among the others, from the pages she is written in.
Twist the time-space and read this book.

This book was not an easy reading, not for being written in a bad way but for the point of view of the author. Young Afrikaan, son of a general, Marnus has a pleasant and easy life till the arrival of a colleague of his father. The young boy discovers jealousy for his sister, secrets for his best friend and the ugly things that racism can do. His parents are growing him in a rigid, racist and too formal way. The book in a split in two temporal moment: the first with Marnus as a child and the second while he is in war.
Useful for a different vision of a far country like South Africa through the eyes of a white.

This book let you learn a lot of useful and unuseful things and words about history of USA and theirs language. Bryson is not a boring teacher and fills history with a lot of anecdotes and a lot of false commonplaces. We learned plenty of inaccurate legends by movies or novels, and this book unravels them. A right way to learn something in a funny way.

If you imagine zombie being possible in our world you have to read this book, for it explains how to save your life managing with walking deads, how to escape an attack, arrange defensive structures and other useful stuff like weapons, blades and killing shots.
It's a funny book in the first part, ironic and obsessive, fearful but with method of reasoning, with all the pros and the cons of weapons, buildings and survival kits. The second part of the book is merely pseudo-historical, showing all recorded zombie-attacks in the world; some of these records are funny, other are boring.
Anyway, you'll have fun with this book, for the author wrote it with experience. Maybe he's still running to escape a walking dead on his footsteps.

Funny and useful book for students of magic in HP world, and good point for a good action for charity. We may find a lot of links to HP books and movies for the beasts showed here.
The only bad point is the lack of images, only few drawings, for a book of this kind should have much more, and maybe too much beasts related to British Islands.
Anyway, an easy reading for anyone fond of HP saga or magic, for we may find hints or mythological news..
The funniest things are personal notes from the characters, supposing this book owned by Harry.

You could be neither vegetarian nor vegan, while the authors are that way, and will enjoy this book as a tasteful gift. Moby and Kelly Tisdale are smart, funny and write about their tea house in New York, showing us a lot of pictures of food, teas and customers. They give us recipes for gorgeous food, good looking drinks, while talking about music to be listened to, while Moby's presence as an artist only regards his funny comics.
I'll go on eating meat even if I really appreciate this book, with all its useful hints for the use of healing herbs or their way to show history of eastern east side in New York in a funny way.
With all its pictures this book allows you to smell and taste what is showed inside and makes you crazy for having a tea. Immediately.

This little book lets us know something about the particular sport JK Rowling created for HP saga, with lots onf info about Quidditch history and british teams. If we think about how much English teenagers are fond of sports it's easy to imagine the meaning of this book.
The history, the meanings and the different balls used in this sport are very funny.

This short story shows us how time and growth can be reversed in a funny and strage way. Benjamin is an old man when just born and keeps being younger as time goes. He's more used to life, but his body doesn't follow him in an normal way. Relationships with wike or son are also changed by his strange way to become old. His life will end as a baby.

Maybe the most celebrated english writer, Shakespeare is quite a mistery. Was he the author of his plays and was he who we believe? Anyway, single or multiple writer, british or not, this book shows us a different point of view of Shakespeare's life, letting us to know something about his friends, his way to sing documents and relationship with court and theatres, till Will's will.
I really enjoyed the reading, remembering when I played a theatral R.P.G. based on "Hamlet", mixing the real plot.
This book should be studied in English Literature Classes.

One of the best Shakespeare's comedy. In this play we can read about love, humor, fairies and a play in the play. People are changed by fairies, lovers change opinions by magic, true love wins on traditions and a lot of simple workers are appreciated by the Duke of Athens. Want more? Try to trust Robin Goodfellow, the Puck and you'll be lost for a moment.

When you read a Kinsella's book you often know what you will have: a good story, love always winning at the end, fun and crazy characters. Maybe it's so high literature but I really enjoy spending time with her books. In this one we find out how a top career lawyer puts her life dreams into the bin and begins cookins meal as a housekeeper. The story is a little more complicated and we will find ironic moments, stressed workers and the beauty of British countryside. Maybe this book could be the first of a new saga by Sophie Kinsella.

This graphic novel in two parts can be read as a single story, autobiographical novel of the Marjane, from a smart child to wise young girl, going out and back to her complex country that was Iran from the last Seventies. Marjane Satrapi has a light touch at drawing, clean even when describing death and martyrs. Reading this book (or watching to the film related, that is very close to the novel) we can learn something about Iran, filtered through the eyes of a young lady, and discover the difficulties linked to her journey in Austria in her teenagehood. In this novel Marjane gorws up learning a different way of life, several cultures, from Gemanic punk to Iranian fundamentalism and becomes an adult woman. Truly a powerful book.

Becky is back and pregnant. If a normal woman may behave in a strange way in this situation, our shopaholic is even better. She is able to misunderstand her husband, her must-have obstretician (her husband's ex-girlfriend) making the same mess we used to read in her stories. Her shopaddiction covers both her clothes and baby stuff, like brilliant prams and her intuitions are always fitting at the end of the story. If you love this saga, this book is another brick in the wall; it's not different from the others but still important and funny as always.

I really enjoyed this book even if I don't believe in life after death. Anyway, the story is very sweet because shows us that all people are related to eachother and every simple life can be important. Each person the main character meets in heaven teachs him (and us) a lesson about life, love and friendship.
This book begins with an end, because the main character, Eddie, dies in the first pages; but every end is a beginning.
A fun note for this is is that I learned a lot about amusement park, because Eddie, spent his life as mantainance man in it.

If you think about insane minds or psychopatic characters, you can easily think about this book. The main character has so many problems in his mind that he creates a double of himself acting during his insomnia, creating club to fight at night with certan rules and a complex society of men with the goal to overgo the system, inspire terror and create such of a new world.
We can read about home-made explosives like TNT, we may learn how to make napalm and how this society is full of problems. The main goal of the script could be opening our minds to some problems and showing where a crazy mind can lead. The novel is well written, strong and bad for the most of its parts and generates addiction, with or without the related movie.

Vonnegut is very great author; he can write about classcal SF or social SF or even about normal life and you are always linke to his pages. Sometimes he is pessimist, other times he is ironic about our society (even if the novels in this book wre written about 40 years ago).
Quite all the short novels are remarkable, while the sentence I remember is (more or less): "we'd have a problem if machines begin to deliver themselves", written about a girl travelling around USA to install a new type of machine.

This huge book contanins three Hornby's works: “Fever pitch”, “High fidelity” and “About a boy”.

Reading “Fever pitch” allows you to discover a meaning of football in a different way from italian one. Hornby is an Arsenal fan and lets us know his life through this sport as a weekly watcher for 20 years of his life, with all the discomforts related to the journeys, the cold and the huge amount of people put together to see a match. Hornby writes also about his teenagehood, England, some awful match like Liverpool-Juventus in 1985 and the Heysel madness, with a chapter for every single match described, even if sometimes football is only a side-away matter. It was a difficult reading because of the very small chapters but also funny in some parts and terrifying when Hornby wrote about hoolingans.

“High fidelity” is a book about music and love, love for music and a lost fidelity in love. The main character, Rob, the owner a music-shop Championship Vinyl
and ex-dj, shows us the tof-five of his life, from girlfriend breakups, to his favourite films or albums for every category you can imagine. His rigid way of life is a serious obstacle for beeing life; in fact he splits with his girlfriend Laura at the beginning of the story and has very blue time. After a lot of music chat with his employees Dick and Barry, a fast love with an american singers, Rob finds a new way to think of life and begins with Laura again.
Hornby shows us a lot of music in this novel, from '70 dance music to unknown or vey vell known rock bands, all of this music filtered by the maniacal point of view of the main character of the novel.

“About a boy” presents two point of view for the same events: the novel is in third person but shows us the beginning of a friendship between Marcus, a 12-year-old naive, introverted and bullied boy and Will, a 36-year-old bachelor. Marcus lifes with his hippy and vegetarian mother, while Will spends his life in unit of time, doing nothing all day long. One of Will's play lets the two of them in contact and creates new worlds for every person related to them, Marcus school friends or Will girlfriends, letting both of them growing in someway. Marcus understands that “two is not enough”, “the couple is not the answer” and is looking for a large number sort of family, while Will finds out that he is wasting his life having no real link with other persons. The both of them will find what they are looking for.
A novel that shows us english society, with a lot a mother-son families, bullism at school and the importance to be linked to someone.

I really enjoyed this book.
A mail friendship born between two persons that don't know the other writer and with the central point in books is very close to what append to me with bookcrossing.
Reading this book is a must for a booklover. I love the smell of new books and the feeling that an old book inspires me.

This book allows us to explore a piece of African way of life and landscape following a strong woman and her feet searching for mistery, truth and a new way to love the real life. A very big woman, with rough experience and determinated toughts. You can feel the sun burning your skin or the smell of south African dust along the streets.
An easy book to read.

When you read a book by Nick Hornby you know it will be a pleasure. Hornby has the gift to make British society easy to feel even if you are not British. In this work you are forced to think about your way of life, about what can be considered normal or not; and you can't bet for sure you'll understand on the first attempt.

A rough book, whose pages make you bleed. All of us know something about homeless for having see them on our cities but reading this book allow you to see the whole system. A huge amount of people living under the surface of our cities is a problem that this world should not have, nor people living above the surface but without food or water in other part of the world.
This is a really powerful book, all the people described in it are more human that they could appear. I red about underground societies such as “hypotetical society” in fictional works, but the underground I red about in a real thing.
Thanks a lot for the opportunity.

Another little brick in the wall of my endless love for Becky. We already know her way of life and all the mess she may create in every part of the world, in her honeymoon or within a real happening for saving the enviromental. In this book we can find a quite weak Becky, left alone by her friend Suze, her businesslike husband but with the new come sister, that can't really stand our Becky.
All of a sudden, with the magical power of the mess we love in Becky's adventures everything is gonna be alright, everyone comes back to her and the happy endind will always be.
Anyway, we have to overstand Milan and its posh style, a little walk over the hills during a real storm and Becky's injuries. Till the happy and surprising ending...

A quite powerful book. The author mixes ghosts, cats and music to create a journey. We follows two different travels just to understand the meaning of growing up. We could stand by Kafka and look at the difficult way to be a teenager or take by hand the old Nakata and undestand the sense of a whole life. Murakami creates for us parallelal universes and quite magical creatures to fill the plot in which a teenage boy tries to defeat and at the same time to follow the profecy of Aedipus Complex and an old stange man unable to read becomes a sort of spiritual leader for a character like Hoshino, who gives up his life to follow the strange Nakata.
The book is full of spiritual pages and shows us like art could help our life, like music for all the kind of people, both high cultured than low cultured ones.
Eventually you could say that the book is uneasy to read because of the dark passages in characters' soul, but the two paths bring us to the final destination of inner consciousness.

At least I've to understant that sometimes a crazy woman can become a very smart person. It's easy spending money and having secrets, but having a wonderful set for a wedding and keeping it fake and secret is the smartest move I red in a Shopaholic book.
I really enjoyed this book. Even if I've to say that at the beginning it wasn't funny. But it was only calm before shocking everywhere worldwide. Now we (the readers) have an adult Becky and a fragile (sometime) Luke. In this book the most important thing was the great link you can have in your family. Who cares enchanted woods or string players in a wedding when you can have your family and your friend. Even if, I've to say it, the two of them together is the best solution.
The only bad point in this book is the fact that I'm becoming Beckyaholic.

It was my first Vonnegut' book, and the first time is never-to-be-forgotten. The plot is simple but full of humor, strange moments and surrealism. The author follows the two main characters, Dwayne and Kilgore, till they meet altogether. With this book you could discover the real life of an ancient planet called Earth, the meaning of many human secrets and, last but not the least, what you'll have ordering a "Breakfast of Champions".
I really enjoyed this ring. Many thanks to Potbook. Now I'll go listening to the audiobook a friend of mine gave me and watching to the movie.

I loved Becky's adventures abroad and all the mess she was in. I found very romantic moments in NY but also amusement ones. She has the power to make the world spinning clockwise and counterclockwise even when she doesn't want. I'm starting to love her people, too. Her flatmate Suze could be a perfect friend of mine.
Using what is printed in "unreal money" :-) "In Becky we trust".

Lettura scorrevole su un universo parallelo; almeno questa è la prima associazione mentale quando unisco le parole donna + shopping. :-)
A parte le battute, il libro scorre tranquillamente e non necessita di una conoscenza enciclopedia dell'inglese (ma confesso che ho dovuto cercare qualche parola legata all'abbigliamento), è divertente e coinvolge a livello subliminale. Anche a me ricordava a tratti "Il diario di Bridget Jones" anche se meno ossessivo, fortunatamente. Da consigliare a tutti quelli che si ripromettono di smetterla con un qualunque tipo di "vizio" e a chi vive perennemente nella condizione di "vorrei ma non posso"...

Impossibile non restare affascinati da Isabel, così fuori dal tempo con la tenacia nel tentativo di dare un senso morale a una morte improvvisa di un perfetto sconosciuto e le sue disquisizioni etiche sulla verità. Indubbiamente è un personaggio un po' anacronistico, visti i tempi in cui viviamo, ma c'è sempre bisogno di personaggi positivi. A parte il finale sbrigativo, ma che comunque mi ha preso nei momenti di suspance, devo dire che il libro è orchestrato bene; i comprimari sono ben delineati, anche se ai limiti della caricatura, e rendono Edimburgh un posto piacevole da vivere, seppure un po' troppo rigido nei suoi schemi. In conclusione, un buon libro.

From the 4th cover:
"All the gifts so admired in Haddon's prose are strongly in evidence in his first book of poetry - the humanity of his voices, his dark humour an uncanny ventriloquism - but Haddon is also a poet of considerable seriousness, lyric power and surreal invention. With bittersweet love songs, comic set-pieces, lullabies, bold new version of Horace, wry postmodern shenanigans (include a note from the official board of censors on '18' certificate poetry), and an entire John Buchan novel condensed to five pages, this book confirms Haddon's reputation as one of the sharpest and most consistently surprising imaginations at work in contemporary literature."

I don't know much about modern poetry but i like the way Haddon writes. His verses are smart, romantic and ironic.
I decided to made a ring for this book, so that other readers can appreciate Haddon lyrics.