Elanna's bookshelf: all en-US Wed, 23 Apr 2025 05:50:22 -0700 60 Elanna's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Matter (Culture, #8) 886066
Only the sister is not what she once was; Djan Seriy Anaplian has become an agent of the Culture's Special Circumstances section, charged with high-level interference in civilisations throughout the greater galaxy.

Concealing her new identity � and her particular set of abilities � might be a dangerous strategy. In the world to which Anaplian returns, nothing is quite as it seems; and determining the appropriate level of interference in someone else's war is never a simple matter.

Cover illustration by Debra Lill]]> 593 Iain M. Banks 1841494186 Elanna 0 4.09 2008 Matter (Culture, #8)
author: Iain M. Banks
name: Elanna
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/23
shelves: audio-books, checked, england, fantastic, favourites, libro-fm, novels, philosophical-sci-fi, science-fiction, scotland, currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Look to Windward (Culture, #7)]]> 12016
Also journeying to Masaq' is Major Quilan, an emissary from the war-ravaged world of Chel. In the aftermath of the conflict that split his world apart, most believe he has come to Masaq' to bring home Chel's most brilliant star & self-exiled dissident, the honored Composer Ziller. Ziller claims he will do anything to avoid a meeting with Quilan, who he suspects has come to murder him. But the Major's true assignment will have far greater consequences than the death of a mere political dissident, as part of a conspiracy more ambitious than even he can know--a mission his superiors have buried so deeply in his mind that even he can't remember it.

Hailed by SFX magazine as "an excellent hopping-on point if you've never read a Banks SF novel before," Look to Windward is an awe-inspiring immersion into the wildly original, vividly realized civilization Banks calls the Culture.]]> 496 Iain M. Banks 0743421922 Elanna 4 4.20 2000 Look to Windward (Culture, #7)
author: Iain M. Banks
name: Elanna
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/21
date added: 2025/04/23
shelves: audio-books, checked, fantastic, libro-fm, novels, science-fiction, scotland, favourites, philosophical-sci-fi
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life]]> 33295239 Bring meaning and joy to all your days with the internationally bestselling guide to ikigai.

According to the Japanese, everyone has an ikigai--a reason for living. And according to the residents of the Japanese island of Okinawa--home to the world’s longest-living people--finding it is the key to a happier and longer life.

Inspiring and soothing, this book will bring you closer to these centenarians� secrets: how they leave urgency behind; keep doing what they love for as long as possible; nurture friendships; live in the moment; participate in their communities; and throw themselves into their passions. And it provides practical tools to help you discover your own personal ikigai. Because who doesn’t want to find the joy in every day?]]> 208 Héctor García 178633089X Elanna 3 3.83 2016 Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life
author: Héctor García
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/18
date added: 2025/04/20
shelves: checked, mind, non-fiction, popularization, self-help, well-being
review:

]]> Cold Storage 42078804
Now, after decades of festering in a forgotten sub-basement, the specimen has found its way out and is on a lethal feeding frenzy.Ìý Only Diaz knows how to stop it.

He races across the country to help two unwitting security guards—one an ex-con, the other a single mother.Ìý Over one harrowing night, the unlikely trio must figure out how to quarantine this horror again.Ìý All they have is luck, fearlessness, and a mordant sense of humor.Ìý Will that be enough to save all of humanity?]]> 8 David Koepp 0062916467 Elanna 3 Well, immediately after, something happened that made this novel gain my undivided attention. There still are some plot holes the size of Texas about the containment of the contagion and more, but character building is quite superior to the average brain chewingum, and the narration is frankly hilarious in a good way.
We also have an American Spud character arc, for Trainspotting fans, which is a little treat.]]> 3.64 2019 Cold Storage
author: David Koepp
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2025/04/20
shelves: audio-books, brain-chewingum, checked, cosmic-and-existential-horror, horror, novels, science-fiction, thriller, united-states
review:
I thought this would be utter rubbish, especially after the hottie scientist meets the hottie secret agent on the airplane.
Well, immediately after, something happened that made this novel gain my undivided attention. There still are some plot holes the size of Texas about the containment of the contagion and more, but character building is quite superior to the average brain chewingum, and the narration is frankly hilarious in a good way.
We also have an American Spud character arc, for Trainspotting fans, which is a little treat.
]]> <![CDATA[The Andromeda Evolution (Andromeda #2)]]> 59776306 The Andromeda Strainâ€�killed every resident of the town ofÌýPiedmont, Arizona, save for an elderly man and an infant boy. Over the next five days, aÌýteam of top scientists assigned to Project Wildfire worked valiantly to save the worldÌýfrom an epidemic of unimaginable proportions. In the moments before a catastrophicÌýnuclear detonation, they succeeded.

In the ensuing decades, research on the microparticle continued. And the world thought it was safe�

Deep inside Fairchild Air Force Base, Project Eternal Vigilance has continued to watch and wait for the Andromeda Strain to reappear. On the verge of being shut down, the project has registered no activity—until now. A Brazilian terrain-mapping droneÌýhas detected a bizarre anomaly of otherworldly matter in the middle of the jungle, and, worse yet, the tell-tale chemical signature of the deadly microparticle.

Project Wildfire is activated, and a diverse team of experts hailing from all over the world is dispatched to investigate the potentially apocalyptic threat. If the Wildfire team can’t reach the quarantine zone, enter the anomaly, and figure out how to stop it, this new Andromeda Evolution will annihilate all life as we know it.]]> 10 Michael Crichton 0008173001 Elanna 2 3.50 2019 The Andromeda Evolution (Andromeda #2)
author: Michael Crichton
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2025/04/09
date added: 2025/04/20
shelves: audio-books, cosmic-and-existential-horror, entertaining-for-all-the-wrong-reas, feminism-done-wrong
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Andromeda Evolution (Andromeda, #2)]]> 44148860 The Andromeda Strainâ€�killed every resident of the town ofÌýPiedmont, Arizona, save for an elderly man and an infant boy. Over the next five days, aÌýteam of top scientists assigned to Project Wildfire worked valiantly to save the worldÌýfrom an epidemic of unimaginable proportions. In the moments before a catastrophicÌýnuclear detonation, they succeeded.

In the ensuing decades, research on the microparticle continued. And the world thought it was safe�

Deep inside Fairchild Air Force Base, Project Eternal Vigilance has continued to watch and wait for the Andromeda Strain to reappear. On the verge of being shut down, the project has registered no activity—until now. A Brazilian terrain-mapping droneÌýhas detected a bizarre anomaly of otherworldly matter in the middle of the jungle, and, worse yet, the tell-tale chemical signature of the deadly microparticle.

Project Wildfire is activated, and a diverse team of experts hailing from all over the world is dispatched to investigate the potentially apocalyptic threat. If the Wildfire team can’t reach the quarantine zone, enter the anomaly, and figure out how to stop it, this new Andromeda Evolution will annihilate all life as we know it.]]> 384 Daniel H. Wilson 0062473271 Elanna 2 3.64 2019 The Andromeda Evolution (Andromeda, #2)
author: Daniel H. Wilson
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2021/07/13
date added: 2025/04/20
shelves: brain-chewingum, checked, ebooks, library, novels, horror, science-fiction, thriller, united-states
review:
Definitely not Crichton. Ludicrous mediocrity. Nice idea, though.
]]> Fairy Tale 60177373 Legendary storyteller Stephen King goes deep into the well of his imagination in this spellbinding novel about a seventeen-year-old boy who inherits the keys to a parallel world where good and evil are at war, and the stakes could not be higher—for their world or ours.

Charlie Reade looks like a regular high school kid, great at baseball and football, a decent student. But he carries a heavy load. His mom was killed in a hit-and-run accident when he was ten, and grief drove his dad to drink. Charlie learned how to take care of himself—and his dad. Then, when Charlie is seventeen, he meets Howard Bowditch, a recluse with a big dog in a big house at the top of a big hill. In the backyard is a locked shed from which strange sounds emerge, as if some creature is trying to escape. When Mr. Bowditch dies, he leaves Charlie the house, a massive amount of gold, a cassette tape telling a story that is impossible to believe, and a responsibility far too massive for a boy to shoulder.

Because within the shed is a portal to another world—one whose denizens are in peril and whose monstrous leaders may destroy their own world, and ours. In this parallel universe, where two moons race across the sky, and the grand towers of a sprawling palace pierce the clouds, there are exiled princesses and princes who suffer horrific punishments; there are dungeons; there are games in which men and women must fight each other to the death for the amusement of the “Fair One.� And there is a magic sundial that can turn back time.

A story as old as myth, and as startling and iconic as the rest of King’s work, Fairy Tale is about an ordinary guy forced into the hero’s role by circumstance, and it is both spectacularly suspenseful and satisfying.]]> 607 Stephen King 1668002175 Elanna 0 to-read 4.05 2022 Fairy Tale
author: Stephen King
name: Elanna
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Book Eaters 58724745
Devon is part of The Family, an old and reclusive clan of book eaters. Her brothers grow up feasting on stories of valor and adventure, and Devon—like all other book eater women—is raised on a carefully curated diet of fairy tales and cautionary stories.

But real life doesn't always come with happy endings, as Devon learns when her son is born with a rare and darker kind of hunger—not for books, but for human minds.]]> 298 Sunyi Dean 1250810183 Elanna 2 3.60 2022 The Book Eaters
author: Sunyi Dean
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: checked, ebooks, fantastic, feminism-done-wrong, library, novels, rubbish, united-states, unlikeable-protagonists
review:

]]> Babel 57945316 From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a historical fantasy epic that grapples with student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of language and translation as the dominating tool of the British Empire

Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.

1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel. The tower and its students are the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver-working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as the arcane craft serves the Empire's quest for colonization.

For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realizes serving Babel means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to stopping imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide . . .

Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence?]]> 544 R.F. Kuang 0063021420 Elanna 0 to-read 4.17 2022 Babel
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Elanna
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Art and Beauty in the Middle Ages]]> 10519
Ìý“[A] delightful study. . . . [Eco’s] remarkably lucid and readable essay is full of contemporary relevance and informed by the energies of a man in love with his subject.â€� —Robert Taylor, Boston Globe

“The book lays out so many exciting ideas and interesting facts that readers will find it gripping.â€� â€� Washington Post Book WorldÌý

“A lively introduction to the subject.� —Michael Camille, The Burlington Magazine

“If you want to become acquainted with medieval aesthetics, you will not find a more scrupulously researched, better written (or better translated), intelligent and illuminating introduction than Eco’s short volume.� —D. C. Barrett, Art Monthly]]> 144 Umberto Eco 0300093047 Elanna 0 aesthetics, unfinished 4.02 1987 Art and Beauty in the Middle Ages
author: Umberto Eco
name: Elanna
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1987
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: aesthetics, unfinished
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Science Fiction: A Literary History]]> 35606447 256 Roger Luckhurst 0712356924 Elanna 0 4.18 2018 Science Fiction: A Literary History
author: Roger Luckhurst
name: Elanna
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: checked, library, litcrit, non-fiction, science-fiction, unfinished
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Irish Coroner: Death, murder and politics in Co. Monaghan, 1846-78]]> 62703101 240 Michelle McGoff-McCann 1801510636 Elanna 0 2.00 The Irish Coroner: Death, murder and politics in Co. Monaghan, 1846-78
author: Michelle McGoff-McCann
name: Elanna
average rating: 2.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: checked, history, ireland, library, non-fiction, politics, society, unfinished
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Memory Craft: Improve Your Memory With the Most Powerful Methods in History]]> 46158738
Memory Craft introduces the best memory techniques humans have ever devised, from ancient times and the Middle Ages, to methods used by today's memory athletes. Lynne Kelly has tested all these methods in experiments which demonstrate the extraordinary capacity of our brains at any age.

For anyone who needs to memorise a speech or a play script, learn anatomy or a foreign language, or prepare for an exam, Memory Craft is a fabulous toolkit. It offers proven techniques for teachers to help their students learn more effectively. There are also simple strategies for anyone who has trouble remembering names or dates, and for older people who want to keep their minds agile. Above all, memorising things can be playful, creative and great fun.]]> 320 Lynne Kelly 1643133241 Elanna 4 4.48 Memory Craft: Improve Your Memory With the Most Powerful Methods in History
author: Lynne Kelly
name: Elanna
average rating: 4.48
book published:
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: australia, checked, illustrated, library, mind, non-fiction, popularization, memory, unfinished
review:

]]> Republic (Collins Classics) 57293258

Plato's The Republic has influenced Western philosophers for centuries, with its main focus on what makes a well-balanced society and individual.]]> 432 Plato 0008480109 Elanna 0 3.00 -400 Republic (Collins Classics)
author: Plato
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.00
book published: -400
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: checked, classical-antiquity, classics, galway-bookshelf, philosophy, non-fiction, currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[That Memory Book: Distractibility, Forgetfulness and Other Unnerving High Jinks of the Middle Aged Brain]]> 7697442 352 Cathryn Jakobson Ramin 1844084558 Elanna 0 3.40 That Memory Book: Distractibility, Forgetfulness and Other Unnerving High Jinks of the Middle Aged Brain
author: Cathryn Jakobson Ramin
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.40
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: checked, england, library, mind, neurology, non-fiction, popularization, currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines]]> 18505820 How to Read Literature Like a Professor helps us to discover those hidden truths by looking at literature with the eyes—and the literary codes—of the ultimate professional reader: the college professor.

What does it mean when a literary hero travels along a dusty road? When he hands a drink to his companion? When he's drenched in a sudden rain shower? Ranging from major themes to literary models, narrative devices, and form, Thomas C. Foster provides us with a broad overview of literature—a world where a road leads to a quest, a shared meal may signify a communion, and rain, whether cleansing or destructive, is never just a shower—and shows us how to make our reading experience more enriching, satisfying, and fun.]]> 336 Thomas C. Foster 0062301675 Elanna 3 3.61 2003 How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines
author: Thomas C. Foster
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2003
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/28
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: about-books, checked, library, litcrit, non-fiction, popularization, united-states
review:

]]> The Andromeda Strain 27426010 8 Michael Crichton Elanna 3 3.53 1969 The Andromeda Strain
author: Michael Crichton
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.53
book published: 1969
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/03
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: audio-books, brain-chewingum, checked, novels, science-fiction, thriller, united-states
review:

]]> Oceanic 27817706 32 Greg Egan Elanna 0 to-read 3.72 2005 Oceanic
author: Greg Egan
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Capital: Volumes One and Two 18137694
Of central importance then and later was his book Das Kapital, or, as it is known to English readers, simply Capital. Volume One of Capital was published in Paris in 1867. This was the only volume published during Marx's lifetime and the only to have come directly from his pen. Volume Two, published in 1884, was based on notes Marx left, but written by his friend and collaborator, Friedrich Engels (1820-1895).

Readers from the nineteenth century to the present have been captivated by the unmistakable power and urgency of this classic of world literature. Marx's critique of the capitalist system is rife with big themes: his theory of 'surplus value', his discussion of the exploitation of the working class, and his forecast of class conflict on a grand scale. Marx wrote with purpose. As he famously put it, 'Philosophers have previously tried to explain the world, our task is to change it.']]> 1136 Karl Marx 1840226994 Elanna 0 4.11 Capital: Volumes One and Two
author: Karl Marx
name: Elanna
average rating: 4.11
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves: checked, classics, economics, favourites, galway-bookshelf, germany, non-fiction, philosophy, politics, society, waiting-list
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Chronicles Of A Liquid Society]]> 38589783
Written by Eco as articles for his regular column in ±ôâ€ÍÖ²õ±è°ù±ð²õ²õ´Ç magazine, he brings his dazzling erudition, incisiveness and keen sense of the everyday to bear on topics such as popular culture and politics, unbridled individualism, conspiracies, the old and the young, mobile phones, mass media, racism, good manners and the crisis in ideological values. It is a final gift to his readers â€� astute, witty and illuminating.]]> 320 Umberto Eco 1784705209 Elanna 0 3.64 2016 Chronicles Of A Liquid Society
author: Umberto Eco
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: checked, essays, favourites, italy, library, non-fiction, society, waiting-list
review:

]]> <![CDATA[James Joyce and the Politics of Egoism]]> 3007996 260 Jean-Michel Rabaté 0521009588 Elanna 0 3.73 1997 James Joyce and the Politics of Egoism
author: Jean-Michel Rabaté
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.73
book published: 1997
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: about-books, aesthetics, checked, essays, france, galway-bookshelf, ireland, litcrit, non-fiction, all-things-joyce, waiting-list
review:

]]> Tristram Shandy 862881 There is an alternate cover edition for this ISBN10 here.

A mock autobiography, in which the hero wrestles with the impossibility of explaining anything without explaining everything. In the process he explores every conceivable fictional device in a brilliant display of narrative fireworks.]]> 725 Laurence Sterne 1857150074 Elanna 0 3.85 1767 Tristram Shandy
author: Laurence Sterne
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1767
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves: 1001-libri, checked, classics, england, favourites, galway-bookshelf, humour-satire, modernism-and-postmodernism, novels, tesseracts, waiting-list
review:

]]> Walk the Blue Fields 5633953 183 Claire Keegan 0571233074 Elanna 0 4.02 2007 Walk the Blue Fields
author: Claire Keegan
name: Elanna
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves: checked, ireland, short-stories, waiting-list, galway-bookshelf
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Short Stories in Irish for Beginners: Read for pleasure at your level, expand your vocabulary and learn Irish the fun way! (Teach Yourself)]]> 57356028
"Olly's top-notch language-learning insights are right in line with the best of what we know from neuroscience and cognitive psychology about how to learn effectively. I love his work - and you will too!" - Barbara Oakley, PhD, Author of New York Times bestseller A Mind for Numbers

Short Stories in Irish for Beginners has been written especially for students from high-beginner to low-intermediate level, designed to give a sense of achievement, a feeling of progress and most importantly - enjoyment! Mapped to A1-B1 on the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) for languages, these eight captivating stories are designed to give you a sense of achievement and a feeling of progress when reading.

What does this book give you?

- Eight stories in a variety of exciting genres, from science fiction and crime to history and thriller - making reading fun, while you learn a wide range of new vocabulary
- Controlled language at your level to help you progress confidently
- Realistic spoken dialogues to help you learn conversational expressions and improve your speaking ability
- Accessible grammar so you learn new structures naturally, in a stress-free way
- Pleasure! Research shows that if you're enjoying reading in a foreign language, you won't experience the usual feelings of frustration - 'It's too hard!' 'I don't understand!'

Carefully curated to make learning a new language easy, these stories include key features that will support and consolidate your progress,

- A glossary for bolded words in each chapter
- Full plot summary
- A bilingual word list
- Comprehension questions after each chapter.

As a result, you will be able to focus on enjoying reading, delighting in your improved range of vocabulary and grasp of the language, without ever feeling overwhelmed. From science fiction to fantasy, to crime and thrillers, Short Stories in Irish for Beginners will make learning Irish easy and enjoyable.]]> 240 Olly Richards 152937720X Elanna 0 3.65 Short Stories in Irish for Beginners: Read for pleasure at your level, expand your vocabulary and learn Irish the fun way! (Teach Yourself)
author: Olly Richards
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.65
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves: checked, galway-bookshelf, ireland, languages, short-stories, irish-language, waiting-list
review:

]]> Ulysses Annotated 10543 Ulysses. Annotations in this edition are keyed both to the reading text of the new critical edition of Ulysses published in 1984 and to the standard 1961 Random House edition and the current Modern Library and Vintage texts.

Gifford has incorporated over 1,000 additions and corrections to the first edition. The introduction and headnotes to sections provide general geographical, biographical and historical background. The annotations gloss place names, define slang terms, give capsule histories of institutions and political and cultural movements and figures, supply bits of local and Irish legend and lore, explain religious nomenclature and practices, trace literary allusions and references to other cultures.

The suggestive potential of minor details was enormously fascinating to Joyce, and the precision of his use of detail is a most important aspect of his literary method. The annotations in this volume illuminate details which are not in the public realm for most of us.]]> 698 James Joyce 0520067452 Elanna 0 to-read 4.20 1922 Ulysses Annotated
author: James Joyce
name: Elanna
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1922
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets (Incerto)]]> 38315 Fooled by Randomness is a standalone book in Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s landmark Incerto series, an investigation of opacity, luck, uncertainty, probability, human error, risk, and decision-making in a world we don’t understand. The other books in the series are The Black Swan, Antifragile,and The Bed of Procrustes.]]> 368 Nassim Nicholas Taleb 0812975219 Elanna 2 Also, why does anybody who moves to America suddenly loses every sense for complexity and stops understanding continental philosophy?
This guy went over the top, declaring that Derrida and Hegel are nonsense because, well, they are obscure to him. Him, as in: the paragon of all shrewdness and preparedness and mathematicalness and many other excellentnesses, under a thin veneer of false modesty. He went on quoting a passage from Hegel, a very difficult one, and pointing at it as in: "you see, point proven, it's not immediately understandable to me, therefore it means NOTHING (Triumphant clash of cymbals)! You see, this guy I know made a Derrida generator that mixes sentences from his books and lo and behold: it didn't make sense to me before and it doesn't after shuffling it! THEREFORE DERRIDA'S WRITING IS MEANINGLESS!" I swear to God. I would like to create a Talib generator and see what he thinks of books that re-shuffle the same chapters six times in a row...
He also has a chip on his shoulder circa the size of a carriage with horses about having to work for a living - ah, the aristocratic mediterranean past of his family! - and makes a point of being NOT AT ALL average, not at all, very refined instead thank you very much, and of enjoying the confidence of the Exceptionally Smart and/or Powerful. I can picture him wearing a cravat, sitting in a leather armchair and sipping calvados while checking the effect in the mirror, stuff like that. Still, he can't understand Derrida.
I even agreed with him on many points about randomness and Popper (that, he can understand), and there is a lot to learn from this book, but a third into it he started repeating the same three concepts all over, and his smugness stopped being fun. The narrator's voice didn't help, with that American cadence from somewhere very macho and capitalist.
I'll go back to George Eliot for a while. Or I'll re-read Derrida, sitting on my Ikea sofa with my fluffy Homer Simpson slippers, after my 9-to-5 clerical workday, sipping Barry's tea.]]> 4.08 2001 Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets (Incerto)
author: Nassim Nicholas Taleb
name: Elanna
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2001
rating: 2
read at: 2025/02/25
date added: 2025/02/25
shelves:
review:
How many times can you repeat the concept that past success is not predictive of future outcomes, explain the survivor's bias, and tell an example about a wealthy professional who feels broke because he lives in a more affluent environment?
Also, why does anybody who moves to America suddenly loses every sense for complexity and stops understanding continental philosophy?
This guy went over the top, declaring that Derrida and Hegel are nonsense because, well, they are obscure to him. Him, as in: the paragon of all shrewdness and preparedness and mathematicalness and many other excellentnesses, under a thin veneer of false modesty. He went on quoting a passage from Hegel, a very difficult one, and pointing at it as in: "you see, point proven, it's not immediately understandable to me, therefore it means NOTHING (Triumphant clash of cymbals)! You see, this guy I know made a Derrida generator that mixes sentences from his books and lo and behold: it didn't make sense to me before and it doesn't after shuffling it! THEREFORE DERRIDA'S WRITING IS MEANINGLESS!" I swear to God. I would like to create a Talib generator and see what he thinks of books that re-shuffle the same chapters six times in a row...
He also has a chip on his shoulder circa the size of a carriage with horses about having to work for a living - ah, the aristocratic mediterranean past of his family! - and makes a point of being NOT AT ALL average, not at all, very refined instead thank you very much, and of enjoying the confidence of the Exceptionally Smart and/or Powerful. I can picture him wearing a cravat, sitting in a leather armchair and sipping calvados while checking the effect in the mirror, stuff like that. Still, he can't understand Derrida.
I even agreed with him on many points about randomness and Popper (that, he can understand), and there is a lot to learn from this book, but a third into it he started repeating the same three concepts all over, and his smugness stopped being fun. The narrator's voice didn't help, with that American cadence from somewhere very macho and capitalist.
I'll go back to George Eliot for a while. Or I'll re-read Derrida, sitting on my Ikea sofa with my fluffy Homer Simpson slippers, after my 9-to-5 clerical workday, sipping Barry's tea.
]]> Kaikeyi 57127277 “I was born on the full moon under an auspicious constellation, the holiest of positions—much good it did me.�

So begins Kaikeyi’s story. The only daughter of the kingdom of Kekaya, she is raised on tales about the might and benevolence of the gods: how they churned the vast ocean to obtain the nectar of immortality, how they vanquish evil and ensure the land of Bharat prospers, and how they offer powerful boons to the worthy. Yet she watches as her father unceremoniously banishes her mother, listens as her own worth is reduced to the marriage alliance she can secure. And when she calls upon the gods for help, they never seem to hear.

Desperate for independence, she turns to the texts she once read with her mother and discovers a magic that is hers alone. With it, Kaikeyi transforms herself from an overlooked princess into a warrior, diplomat, and most favored queen.

But as the evil from her childhood stories threatens the cosmic order, the path she has forged clashes with the destiny the gods have chosen for her family. And Kaikeyi must decide if resistance is worth the destruction it will wreak—and what legacy she intends to leave behind.

The unforgettable tale of a woman determined to leave her mark in a world gods and men dictate the shape of things to come. "Patel's mesmerizing debut shines a brilliant light on the vilified queen from the Ramayana"
(Publishers Weekly, starred review).]]> 478 Vaishnavi Patel 0759557330 Elanna 0 to-read 4.18 2022 Kaikeyi
author: Vaishnavi Patel
name: Elanna
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Vanishing Half 52195151 From The New York Times-bestselling author of The Mothers, a stunning new novel about twin sisters, inseparable as children, who ultimately choose to live in two very different worlds, one black and one white.

The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Many years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters' storylines intersect?

Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Brit Bennett produces a story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing. Looking well beyond issues of race, The Vanishing Half considers the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person's decisions, desires, and expectations, and explores some of the multiple reasons and realms in which people sometimes feel pulled to live as something other than their origins.

As with her New York Times-bestselling debut The Mothers, Brit Bennett offers an engrossing page-turner about family and relationships that is immersive and provocative, compassionate and wise.]]> 350 Brit Bennett Elanna 0 to-read 4.25 2020 The Vanishing Half
author: Brit Bennett
name: Elanna
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> James 173754979 A brilliant reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn—both harrowing and satirical—told from the enslaved Jim's point of view

When Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he runs away until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck has faked his own death to escape his violent father. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.

Brimming with nuanced humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a literary icon, this brilliant and tender novel radically illuminates Jim's agency, intelligence, and compassion as never before. James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first-century American literature.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780385550369.]]> 303 Percival Everett Elanna 0 to-read 4.46 2024 James
author: Percival Everett
name: Elanna
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> At Swim-Two-Birds 97333 This is an alternative cover edition for ISBN 9780141182681

A wildly comic send-up of Irish literature and culture, At Swim-Two-Birds is the story of a young, lazy, and frequently drunk Irish collegestudent who lives with his curmudgeonly uncle in Dublin. When not inbed (where he seems to spend most of his time) or reading he is composing a mischief-filled novel about Dermot Trellis, a second-rate author whose characters ultimately rebel against him and seek vengeance. From drugging him as he sleeps to dropping the ceiling onhis head, these figures of Irish myth make Trellis pay dearly for his bad writing. Hilariously funny and inventive, At Swim-Two-Birds has influenced generations of writers, opening up new possibilities for what can be done in fiction. It is a true masterpiece of Irish literature.

Flann O'Brien's first novel is a brilliant impressionistic jumble of ideas, mythology and nonsense. Operating on many levels it incorporates plots within plots, giving full rein to O'Brien's dancing intellect and Celtic wit. The undergraduate narrator lives with his uncle in Dublin, drinks too much with his friends and invents stories peopled with hilarious and unlikely characters, one of whom, in a typical O'Brien conundrum, creates a means by which women can give birth to full-grown people. Flann O'Brien's blend of farce, satire and fantasy result in a remarkable, astonishingly innovaative book.]]> 239 Flann O'Brien Elanna 5 3.88 1939 At Swim-Two-Birds
author: Flann O'Brien
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1939
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/24
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves: classics, modernism-and-postmodernism
review:

]]> <![CDATA[What Moves the Dead (Sworn Soldier, #1)]]> 60683915
What they find there is a nightmare of fungal growths and possessed wildlife, surrounding a dark, pulsing lake. Madeline sleepwalks and speaks in strange voices at night, and her brother Roderick is consumed with a mysterious malady of the nerves.

Aided by a redoubtable British mycologist and a baffled American doctor, Alex must unravel the secret of the House of Usher before it consumes them all.]]> 178 T. Kingfisher 1803360089 Elanna 3 3.93 2022 What Moves the Dead (Sworn Soldier, #1)
author: T. Kingfisher
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/23
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves: checked, cosmic-and-existential-horror, detective-stories, ebooks, fantastic, horror, library, novels, united-states, re-telling
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Essential Personal Finance: A Practical Guide for Employees]]> 41416907 248 Jonquil Lowe 1138488151 Elanna 3 3.00 Essential Personal Finance: A Practical Guide for Employees
author: Jonquil Lowe
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.00
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/24
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves: checked, england, handbooks, library, non-fiction, personal-finance, popularization
review:

]]> Budget Happy 207567730 256 Lisa Woodley 152943047X Elanna 3 3.00 Budget Happy
author: Lisa Woodley
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.00
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/11
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves: checked, england, handbooks, ireland, library, non-fiction, personal-finance, memoirs
review:

]]> Money Doctors 2024 206294865 This book is for everyone living in Ireland or who aspires to living in Ireland, and who wants to better manage and structure their personal finances.

� You will find this book relevant regardless of your financial position, age or gender.
� This guide � Ireland’s best-selling personal finance reference book � concentrates on ‘how to� how to manage your mortgage, how to get rid of your debts, how to build up savings, how to save tax and how to protect your family.
� If there is a particular subject you want to learn about, then check the detailed contents pages and index at the back of the book.
� The book is written in plain English and contains plenty

� case histories
� real-life examples
� checklists and
� action-orientated advice.

� The book is divided into nine sections plus Appendices, covering every aspect of personal finance. An annual handbook, the information it contains will always be up to date and includes latest budgetary and legislative changes.
� Each chapter begins with a summary and ends with a list of action points.]]> 0 John Lowe 1739088212 Elanna 3 3.33 Money Doctors 2024
author: John Lowe
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.33
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/12
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves: checked, handbooks, ireland, library, non-fiction, personal-finance, popularization
review:

]]> Orbital 96179800 139 Samantha Harvey 1529901790 Elanna 5 3.57 2023 Orbital
author: Samantha Harvey
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/13
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves: checked, ebooks, england, favourites, library, novels, philosophical-sci-fi, poetry, science-fiction, should-be-read-in-schools, tesseracts
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Hat Full of Sky (Discworld, #32; Tiffany Aching, #2)]]> 34501
No real witch would casually step out of their body, leaving it empty.

Tiffany Aching does. And there’s something just waiting for a handy body to take over. Something ancient and horrible, which can’t die.

To deal with it, Tiffany has to go to the very heart of what makes her a witch . . .]]> 352 Terry Pratchett 055255264X Elanna 4 4.31 2004 A Hat Full of Sky (Discworld, #32; Tiffany Aching, #2)
author: Terry Pratchett
name: Elanna
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/23
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves: checked, children, coming-of-age, england, fantastic, favourites, library, middle-school-age, novels, should-be-read-in-schools
review:

]]> <![CDATA[La vita dell'altro: Svevo, Joyce: un'amicizia geniale (Italian Edition)]]> 195086915 La vita dell’altro è il racconto inedito dell’amicizia molto speciale tra due giganti del Novecento. Joyce, irlandese abbastanza ribelle che arriva in Italia perché ama la lingua e la cultura italiana, ma anche per fuggire da un’Irlanda sotto il doppio giogo dell’Impero britannico e della Chiesa cattolica, e Svevo, un signore di mezza età, di origini ebraiche, che dopo anni in banca lavora nell’industria di vernici per applicazioni subacquee della famiglia della moglie.
Joyce insegna inglese, e si distingue subito a Trieste per i suoi comportamenti poco ortodossi. Svevo, bonario uomo di famiglia, si accorge di lui e inizia a frequentarlo, prima da allievo, poi da amico. Dal loro incontro nasce qualcosa. Si scambiano gli scritti e ammirano le rispettive opere. Svevo aiuta spesso Joyce, sempre a corto di denaro, e questi ricambierà la sua generosità contribuendo a farlo diventare un caso letterario internazionale.
Le loro storie si incrociano e ci parlano di un’amicizia profonda, non soltanto di affinità. E si intrecciano in un curioso entanglement anche le loro opere, capaci di dialogare da posizioni distanti su temi condivisi e segreti.
La vita dell’altro è una storia non ancora raccontata, che mostra l’esistenza tra questi due mostri sacri del Novecento di un rapporto assai profondo, di un’affinità elettiva ma anche di una voglia di sostenersi a vicenda e guardarsi negli occhi per riconoscersi.
Questa storia minima di due grandi racconta tramite eventi, resoconti, impressioni, incroci e simultaneità come le opere e le esistenze di Svevo e Joyce continuano a scrutarci oscuramente dal passato, con occhi attenti e divertiti, fissi sui nostri futuri.]]> 245 Enrico Terrinoni 8858799917 Elanna 0 3.46 La vita dell'altro: Svevo, Joyce: un'amicizia geniale (Italian Edition)
author: Enrico Terrinoni
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.46
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/21
shelves: about-books, biographies, checked, essays, galway-bookshelf, ireland, italy, non-fiction, waiting-list
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Allegro ma non troppo. Con Le leggi fondamentali della stupidità umana]]> 4590493 An alternate cover edition can be found here.

Un "divertissement", un guizzo anarchico dell'intelligenza. È così che si possono definire queste pagine nelle quali Cipolla abbandona gli austeri panni dello studioso e, giocando sul filo del paradosso e dell'assurdo, costruisce due brevi saggi: il primo, una ilare parodia della storia economica e sociale del Medioevo; il secondo, una sorta di scherzosa teoria generale della stupidità umana.]]> 83 Carlo M. Cipolla 8815019804 Elanna 4 3.95 1976 Allegro ma non troppo. Con Le leggi fondamentali della stupidità umana
author: Carlo M. Cipolla
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1976
rating: 4
read at: 2011/03/01
date added: 2025/02/21
shelves: economics, popularization, philosophy, maths, humour-satire, history, checked, favourites, should-be-read-in-schools, barrea-bookshelf, non-fiction, essays, galway-bookshelf, tesseracts
review:

]]> Centoundici haiku 17697697 La vie de ce fils de samourai, né près de Kyoto en 1644, fut exclusivement vouée à la poésie. Âgé de treize ans, il apprend auprès d'un maître du haikai les premiers rudiements de ce genre. Plus tard, après avoir lui-même fondé une école et connu le succès à Edo (l'actuelle Tokyo), il renonce à la vie mondaine, prend l'habit de moine, et s'installe dans son premier ermitage. Devant sa retraire il plante un bananier, un ²ú²¹²õ³óÅ, offert par l'un de ses disciples - ce qui lui vaudra son pseudonyme. Sa vie est dès lors faite de pauvreté, d'amitiés littéraires et de voyages. Osaka sera le dernier. Après avoir dicté un ultime haiku à ses disciples éplorés, il cesse de s'alimenter, brûle de l'encens, dicte son testament, demande à ses élèves d'écrire des vers pour lui et de le laisser seul. Il meurt le 28 novembre 1694. Sur sa tombe on plante un ²ú²¹²õ³óÅ.]]> 90 Matsuo BashÅ 8877992506 Elanna 0 4.25 1998 Centoundici haiku
author: Matsuo BashÅ
name: Elanna
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1998
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/21
shelves: checked, classics, favourites, galway-bookshelf, japan, poetry, waiting-list
review:

]]> <![CDATA[La panne: Una storia ancora possibile]]> 21839792 88 Friedrich Dürrenmatt 8845928705 Elanna 0 4.04 1956 La panne: Una storia ancora possibile
author: Friedrich Dürrenmatt
name: Elanna
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1956
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/21
shelves: checked, classics, galway-bookshelf, novels, swiss, waiting-list
review:

]]> Marilou is Everywhere 36222278 Consumed by the longing for a different life, a teenager flees her family and carefully slips into another -- replacing a girl whose own sudden disappearance still haunts the town.

Fourteen-year-old Cindy and her two older brothers live in rural Pennsylvania, in a house with occasional electricity, two fierce dogs, one book, and a mother who comes and goes for months at a time. Deprived of adult supervision, the siblings rely on one another for nourishment of all kinds. As Cindy's brothers take on new responsibilities for her care, the shadow of danger looms larger and the status quo no longer seems tolerable.

So when a glamorous teen from a more affluent, cultured home goes missing, Cindy escapes her own family's poverty and slips into the missing teen's life. As Jude Vanderjohn, Cindy is suddenly surrounded by books and art, by new foods and traditions, and most important, by a startling sense of possibility. In her borrowed life she also finds herself accepting the confused love of a mother who is constitutionally incapable of grasping what has happened to her real daughter. As Cindy experiences overwhelming maternal love for the first time, she must reckon with her own deceits and, in the process, learn what it means to be a daughter, a sister, and a neighbor.

Marilou Is Everywhere is a powerful, propulsive portrait of an overlooked girl who finds for the first time that her choices matter.]]> 276 Sarah Elaine Smith 0525535241 Elanna 5 3.39 2019 Marilou is Everywhere
author: Sarah Elaine Smith
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/05
date added: 2025/02/09
shelves: audio-books, checked, coming-of-age, favourites, library, novels, united-states
review:

]]> La gatta 9780180 144 Jun'ichirÅ Tanizaki 884524377X Elanna 4 3.57 1936 La gatta
author: Jun'ichirÅ Tanizaki
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.57
book published: 1936
rating: 4
read at: 2004/01/01
date added: 2025/02/06
shelves: classics, japan, novels, checked, favourites, galway-bookshelf
review:

]]> Faeries 7825491 Faeries has defined the world of Faerie for generations. Now, Froud and Lee return to their most enduring and beloved work with this deluxe collector's edition. The ultimate must-have for any Faeries fan, the edition includes eight frameable prints, as well as a large, foldout poster of the iconic cover image. Previously unpublished art by both Froud and Lee is featured alongside the classic pencil drawings and watercolors of the mythical creatures - faeries, sprites, goblins, pixies, bogies, leprechauns, trolls, and dwarves - that inspired a global faerie renaissance.

More than just a reissue, this revised and updated edition also contains new essays from both Froud and Lee on the continuing influence of Faeries, and a forward by bestselling author Jane Yoeln. This remarkable package is sue to delight the millions of fans of the original Faeries, as well as readers discovering the book for the first time.]]> 208 Brian Froud 0810995867 Elanna 5 4.56 1978 Faeries
author: Brian Froud
name: Elanna
average rating: 4.56
book published: 1978
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: checked, england, fantastic, favourites, galway-bookshelf, illustrated, miscellaneous, mythology, non-fiction, tesseracts
review:

]]> Colazione da Tiffany 11532466 128 Truman Capote Elanna 0 to-read 3.42 1958 Colazione da Tiffany
author: Truman Capote
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.42
book published: 1958
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Nine Perfect Strangers 43439586 Could ten days at a health resort really change you forever? Nine perfect strangers are about to find out...

Nine people gather at a remote health resort. Some are here to lose weight, some are here to get a reboot on life, some are here for reasons they can’t even admit to themselves. Amidst all of the luxury and pampering, the mindfulness and meditation, they know these ten days might involve some real work. But none of them could imagine just how challenging the next ten days are going to be.

Frances Welty, the formerly best-selling romantic novelist, arrives at Tranquillum House nursing a bad back, a broken heart, and an exquisitely painful paper cut. She’s immediately intrigued by her fellow guests. Most of them don’t look to be in need of a health resort at all. But the person that intrigues her most is the strange and charismatic owner/director of Tranquillum House. Could this person really have the answers Frances didn’t even know she was seeking? Should Frances put aside her doubts and immerse herself in everything Tranquillum House has to offer � or should she run while she still can?

It’s not long before every guest at Tranquillum House is asking exactly the same question.]]> 17 Liane Moriarty 148948034X Elanna 3 3.40 2018 Nine Perfect Strangers
author: Liane Moriarty
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.40
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/20
date added: 2025/01/21
shelves: audio-books, australia, brain-chewingum, checked, library, novels
review:

]]> Sin noticias de Gurb 192364 144 Eduardo Mendoza 8432207829 Elanna 0 to-read 3.78 1990 Sin noticias de Gurb
author: Eduardo Mendoza
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1990
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Mind's Eye 7937653 263 Oliver Sacks 033050889X Elanna 4 Narration was pleasant. It was nice to hear the actual voice of Oliver Sacks introducing each essay, but contrary to the details on Audible, I don't think it's him narrating the essays themselves. I'll have to double-check this.]]> 3.92 2010 The Mind's Eye
author: Oliver Sacks
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/12
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: audible, checked, essays, mind, neurology, non-fiction, popularization, tesseracts
review:
The usual brilliant insight into the plasticity of the human brain. The title essay contains some enlightening reflection on the nature of perception and on the way in which our cerebral cortex organises (and re-organises) itself around visual and auditory stimuli and their absence.
Narration was pleasant. It was nice to hear the actual voice of Oliver Sacks introducing each essay, but contrary to the details on Audible, I don't think it's him narrating the essays themselves. I'll have to double-check this.
]]> <![CDATA[Monstrous Regiment (Discworld, #31; Industrial Revolution, #3)]]> 34511 496 Terry Pratchett Elanna 4 4.23 2003 Monstrous Regiment (Discworld, #31; Industrial Revolution, #3)
author: Terry Pratchett
name: Elanna
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/15
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: checked, coming-of-age, england, fantastic, favourites, humour-satire, library, novels, should-be-read-in-schools
review:

]]> <![CDATA[How to Develop a Brilliant Memory Week by Week: 50 Proven Ways to Enhance Your Memory Skills]]> 1250623

This book is an expert course in memory enhancement, organized in 52 key lessons, complete with self-testing. Dominic O'Brien offers us tried and tested strategies and tips that will expand your mental capacities at a realistic but impressive rate to make your memory bigger, better and sharper, week-by-week.

]]> 176 Dominic O'Brien 1844831531 Elanna 0 3.98 2005 How to Develop a Brilliant Memory Week by Week: 50 Proven Ways to Enhance Your Memory Skills
author: Dominic O'Brien
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: checked, handbooks, library, mind, non-fiction, currently-reading
review:

]]> Cloud Cuckoo Land 56783258 When everything is lost, it’s our stories that survive.

How do we weather the end of things? Cloud Cuckoo Land brings together an unforgettable cast of dreamers and outsiders from past, present and future to offer a vision of survival against all odds.

Constantinople, 1453:
An orphaned seamstress and a cursed boy with a love for animals risk everything on opposite sides of a city wall to protect the people they love.

Idaho, 2020:
An impoverished, idealistic kid seeks revenge on a world that’s crumbling around him. Can he go through with it when a gentle old man stands between him and his plans?

Unknown, Sometime in the Future:
With her tiny community in peril, Konstance is the last hope for the human race. To find a way forward, she must look to the oldest stories of all for guidance.

Bound together by a single ancient text, these tales interweave to form a tapestry of solace and resilience and a celebration of storytelling itself. Like its predecessor All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr’s new novel is a tale of hope and of profound human connection.]]> 626 Anthony Doerr 1982168439 Elanna 0 to-read 4.24 2021 Cloud Cuckoo Land
author: Anthony Doerr
name: Elanna
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> All the Light We Cannot See 28685601 Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, a New York Times Book Review Top Ten Book, National Book Award finalist, more than two and a half years on the New York Times bestseller list


A blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. Marie-Laure lives in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where her father works as the master of the locks (there are thousands of locks in the museum). Open your eyes, and see what you can with them before they close forever. Marie-Laure has been blind since the age of six. Her father builds a perfect miniature of their Paris neighbourhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate the real streets with her feet and cane. When she is twelve, the German Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo on the Brittany coast, where Marie-Laure’s agoraphobic reclusive great-uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel.

In a mining town in Germany, the orphan Werner Pfennig grows up with his younger sister, Jutta, both enchanted by a crude radio they find that brings them news and stories from places they have never seen or imagined. Werner becomes an master at building and fixing these crucial new radios, a talent that wins him a place at an elite and brutal military academy and, ultimately, makes him a highly specialized tracker of the Resistance. More and more aware of the human cost of his intelligence, Werner travels through the heart of Hitler Youth to the far-flung outskirts of Russia, and finally into Saint-Malo, where his path converges with Marie-Laure. The story Illuminates the ways, against all odds, that people try to be good to one another.

At the same time, far away in a walled city by the sea, an old man discovers new worlds without ever setting foot outside his home. But all around him, impending danger closes in.

Ten years in the writing, a National Book Award finalist, All the Light We Cannot See is a magnificent, deeply moving novel from a writer “whose sentences never fail to thrill� (Los Angeles Times).]]> 544 Anthony Doerr 0008172420 Elanna 0 to-read 4.26 2014 All the Light We Cannot See
author: Anthony Doerr
name: Elanna
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Cartographers 55004093 What is the purpose of a map?

Nell Young’s whole life and greatest passion is cartography. Her father, Dr. Daniel Young, is a legend in the field and Nell’s personal hero. But she hasn’t seen or spoken to him ever since he cruelly fired her and destroyed her reputation after an argument over an old, cheap gas station highway map.

But when Dr. Young is found dead in his office at the New York Public Library, with the very same seemingly worthless map hidden in his desk, Nell can’t resist investigating. To her surprise, she soon discovers that the map is incredibly valuable and exceedingly rare. In fact, she may now have the only copy left in existence... because a mysterious collector has been hunting down and destroying every last one—along with anyone who gets in the way.

But why?

To answer that question, Nell embarks on a dangerous journey to reveal a dark family secret and discovers the true power that lies in maps...

From the critically acclaimed author of The Book of M, a highly imaginative thriller about a young woman who discovers that a strange map in her deceased father’s belongings holds an incredible, deadly secret—one that will lead her on an extraordinary adventure and to the truth about her family’s dark history.]]> 392 Peng Shepherd 0062910698 Elanna 0 to-read 3.62 2022 The Cartographers
author: Peng Shepherd
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Unmaking of June Farrow 66087062 A woman risks everything to end her family’s centuries-old curse, solve her mother’s disappearance, and find love in this mesmerizing novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Spells for Forgetting.

In the small mountain town of Jasper, North Carolina, June Farrow is waiting for fate to find her. The Farrow women are known for their thriving flower farm—and the mysterious curse that has plagued their family line. The whole town remembers the madness that led to Susanna Farrow’s disappearance, leaving June to be raised by her grandmother and haunted by rumors.

It’s been a year since June started seeing and hearing things that weren’t there. Faint wind chimes, a voice calling her name, and a mysterious door appearing out of nowhere—the signs of what June always knew was coming. But June is determined to end the curse once and for all, even if she must sacrifice finding love and having a family of her own.

After her grandmother’s death, June discovers a series of cryptic clues regarding her mother’s decades-old disappearance, except they only lead to more questions. But could the door she once assumed was a hallucination be the answer she’s been searching for? The next time it appears, June realizes she can touch it and walk past the threshold. And when she does, she embarks on a journey that will not only change both the past and the future, but also uncover the lingering mysteries of her small town and entangle her heart in an epic star-crossed love.

With The Unmaking of June Farrow, Adrienne Young delivers a brilliant novel of romance, mystery, and a touch of the impossible—a story you will never forget.]]> 320 Adrienne Young 0593598679 Elanna 0 to-read 4.13 2023 The Unmaking of June Farrow
author: Adrienne Young
name: Elanna
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Remarkably Bright Creatures 58733693 Remarkably Bright Creatures, an exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope, tracing a widow's unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus.

After Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she's been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.

Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn't dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors--until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.

Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova's son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it's too late.

Shelby Van Pelt's debut novel is a gentle reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible.]]> 368 Shelby Van Pelt 0063204150 Elanna 0 to-read 4.35 2022 Remarkably Bright Creatures
author: Shelby Van Pelt
name: Elanna
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Here One Moment 208516656 If you knew your future, would you try to fight fate?

Aside from a delay, there will be no problems. The flight will be smooth, it will land safely. Everyone who gets on the plane will get off. But almost all of them will be forever changed.

Because on this ordinary, short, domestic flight, something extraordinary happens. People learn how and when they are going to die. For some, their death is far in the future—age 103!—and they laugh. But for six passengers, their predicted deaths are not far away at all.

How do they know this? There were ostensibly more interesting people on the flight (the bride and groom, the jittery, possibly famous woman, the giant Hemsworth-esque guy who looks like an off-duty superhero, the frazzled, gorgeous flight attendant) but none would become as famous as “The Death Lady.�

Not a single passenger or crew member will later recall noticing her board the plane. She wasn’t exceptionally old or young, rude or polite. She wasn’t drunk or nervous or pregnant. Her appearance and demeanor were unremarkable. But what she did on that flight was truly remarkable.

A few months later, one passenger dies exactly as she predicted. Then two more passengers die, again, as she said they would. Soon no one is thinking this is simply an entertaining story at a cocktail party.

If you were told you only had a certain amount of time left to live, would you do things differently? Would you try to dodge your destiny?

Liane Moriarty’s Here One Moment is a brilliantly constructed tale that looks at free will and destiny, grief and love, and the endless struggle to maintain certainty and control in an uncertain world. A modern-day Jane Austen who humorously skewers social mores while spinning a web of mystery, Moriarty asks profound questions in her newest I-can’t-wait-to-find-out-what-happens novel.]]> 512 Liane Moriarty 0593798600 Elanna 3
Considering I was expecting some thriller-ish brain chewingum, this was a surprisingly well-written novel, with likeable characters and an original premise.
Some platitudes in character creation and development prevent me from giving it 4 stars, but I really WANT to. Maybe part of the charm are the two astoundingly capable audiobook narrators, maybe it's a merit of the book itself, maybe it's the eandearing love the author shows to her characters; be it as it may, anyway this novel goes straight into my favourites' shelf.
One needs some feel-good reading once in a while.]]> 3.99 2024 Here One Moment
author: Liane Moriarty
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/11
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: audio-books, australia, brain-chewingum, checked, favourites, library, novels
review:
3.75 stars

Considering I was expecting some thriller-ish brain chewingum, this was a surprisingly well-written novel, with likeable characters and an original premise.
Some platitudes in character creation and development prevent me from giving it 4 stars, but I really WANT to. Maybe part of the charm are the two astoundingly capable audiobook narrators, maybe it's a merit of the book itself, maybe it's the eandearing love the author shows to her characters; be it as it may, anyway this novel goes straight into my favourites' shelf.
One needs some feel-good reading once in a while.
]]> <![CDATA[A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster]]> 6444492 A startling investigation of what people do in disasters and why it matters

Why is it that in the aftermath of a disaster--whether manmade or natural--people suddenly become altruistic, resourceful, and brave? What makes the newfound communities and purpose many find in the ruins and crises after disaster so joyous? And what does this joy reveal about ordinarily unmet social desires and possibilities?

In A Paradise Built in Hell, award-winning author Rebecca Solnit explores these phenomena, looking at major calamities from the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco through the 1917 explosion that tore up Halifax, Nova Scotia, the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, 9/11, and Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. She examines how disaster throws people into a temporary utopia of changed states of mind and social possibilities, as well as looking at the cost of the widespread myths and rarer real cases of social deterioration during crisis. This is a timely and important book from an acclaimed author whose work consistently locates unseen patterns and meanings in broad cultural histories.]]> 353 Rebecca Solnit 0670021075 Elanna 0 to-read 3.94 2009 A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster
author: Rebecca Solnit
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Mrs. Dalloway 14942 194 Virginia Woolf 0151009988 Elanna 0 3.80 1925 Mrs. Dalloway
author: Virginia Woolf
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.80
book published: 1925
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: abandoned, 1001-libri, checked, england, modernism-and-postmodernism, novels, sorry-not-sorry, unlikeable-protagonists
review:

]]> La peste 770754 - J'attends le résultat des analyses.
- Moi, je le sais. Et je n'ai pas besoin d'analyses. J'ai fait une partie de ma carrière en Chine, et j'ai vu quelques cas à Paris, il y a une vingtaine d'années. Seulement, on n'a pas osé leur donner un nom, sur le moment... Et puis, comme disait un confrère : "C'est impossible, tout le monde sait qu'elle a disparu de l'Occident." Oui, tout le monde le savait, sauf les morts. Allons, Rieux, vous savez aussi bien que moi ce que c'est...
- Oui, Castel, dit-il, c'est à peine croyable. Mais il semble bien que ce soit la peste. "]]> 279 Albert Camus Elanna 0 modernism-and-postmodernism 3.96 1947 La peste
author: Albert Camus
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1947
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: modernism-and-postmodernism
review:

]]> Lo Straniero 21856627 94 Albert Camus Elanna 5 3.97 1942 Lo Straniero
author: Albert Camus
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1942
rating: 5
read at: 1993/01/01
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: 1001-libri, checked, classics, france, novels, favourites, barrea-bookshelf, modernism-and-postmodernism
review:

]]> The Great Gatsby 4671 The only edition of the beloved classic that is authorized by Fitzgerald’s family and from his lifelong publisher.

This edition is the enduring original text, updated with the author’s own revisions, a foreword by his granddaughter, and with a new introduction by National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward.

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s third book, stands as the supreme achievement of his career. First published by Scribner in 1925, this quintessential novel of the Jazz Age has been acclaimed by generations of readers. The story of the mysteriously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s.]]> 180 F. Scott Fitzgerald 0743273567 Elanna 5 3.93 1925 The Great Gatsby
author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1925
rating: 5
read at: 2013/01/01
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: 1001-libri, audio-books, checked, classici-da-leggere, classics, united-states, novels, favourites, should-be-read-in-schools, modernism-and-postmodernism
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Prologhi con un prologo ai prologhi]]> 9780169 capace di andare all’anima delle cose, facendo così echeggiare di volta in volta «il fumo e il fuoco di Carlyle, padre del nazismo, le narrazioni di un Cervantes che non aveva ancora smesso di sognare il secondo Don Chisciotte, il mito geniale di Facundo, la vasta voce continentale di Walt Whitman, i deliziosi artifici di Valéry, la scacchiera onirica di Lewis Carroll, i rimandi eleatici di Kafka, i concreti cieli di Swedenborg, il suono e la furia di Macbeth, la sorridente mistica di Macedonio Fernández e la disperata mistica di Almafuerte». Ma capace anche di assumere la forma più adatta all’oggetto: la «biografia sintetica», ad esempio, dove si concentra un’intera opera e aleggia una deliziosa ironia; o il ritratto alla Boswell (indimenticabile quello di Macedonio Fernández); o ancora l’identikit di figure sfuggenti come il gaucho e il fuorilegge. E non importa se di fronte ad alcuni degli autori qui presentati ci sentiremo in territorio ignoto: scoprendo ciascuno di loro scopriremo un’intera costellazione � oltre che qualcosa di Borges e della «letteratura secondo Borges».]]> 252 Jorge Luis Borges 8845920259 Elanna 0 3.83 1975 Prologhi con un prologo ai prologhi
author: Jorge Luis Borges
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1975
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: to-read, non-fiction, litcrit, south-america, essays, tesseracts, argentina, checked, classics, modernism-and-postmodernism
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Il manoscritto di Brodie (Italian Edition)]]> 31191166 La prima edizione del "Manoscritto di Brodie" risale al 1970.]]> 99 Jorge Luis Borges 8845978095 Elanna 3 3.71 1970 Il manoscritto di Brodie (Italian Edition)
author: Jorge Luis Borges
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.71
book published: 1970
rating: 3
read at: 2017/01/03
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: argentina, checked, ebooks, short-stories, sfida-hard-disk-impallato, magic-realism, modernism-and-postmodernism
review:

]]> Altre inquisizioni 2751027 Fervor de Buenos Aires - in cui traccia un'immagine emblematica e mitizzata della città - fu accusato di diserzione dai suoi zelanti compagni di fede, che avvertivano nella sua lirica un eccesso di sentimento. Corrono trent'anni tra Fervor de Buenos Aires e Altre inquisizioni, che è del '52. Trent'anni che hanno fatto di Borges un classico dei nostri tempi e un nome essenziale nella cultura che esprime lo spirito occidentale. Altre inquisizioni dà la misura di un'arte votata al culto del raro e dell'immagine bella e simbolica, ai giochi metafisici, alle preziose e sottili divagazioni sul destino, sul sogno, sull'enigma della creazione e della persona umana, elevato a categoria, più ancora, ad articolo unico di una fede tutta negativa ma costantemente riscattata e contraddetta dalla fantasia lirica e dal libero e appassionato movimento dell'intelligenza. Siamo introdotti, da questo libro, nei sapienti labirinti tesi da una cultura ironica e paradossale, che nessuna presunta verità intimidisce, ma pronta a inchinarsi alla dignità essenziale e dolorosa dell'uomo sulla terra. Questo, tuttavia, è essenzialmente un libro di saggi letterari, e implicitamente un indice dei gusti del suo autore, il quale ha saputo formare, con scrittori famosissimi, una galleria di ritratti in qualche modo inediti.]]> 187 Jorge Luis Borges 8807806746 Elanna 4 4.26 1952 Altre inquisizioni
author: Jorge Luis Borges
name: Elanna
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1952
rating: 4
read at: 2005/01/01
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: non-fiction, litcrit, philosophy, south-america, miscellaneous, essays, checked, favourites, barrea-bookshelf, modernism-and-postmodernism
review:

]]> Lolita 9216051 The most famous and controversial novel from one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century tells the story of Humbert Humbert’s obsessive, devouring, and doomed passion for the nymphet Dolores Haze."The conjunction of a sense of humor with a sense of horror [results in] satire of a very special kind." �The New YorkerAwe and exhilaration—along with heartbreak and mordant wit—abound in Lolita, which tells the story of the aging Humbert Humbert's obsession for the nymphet Dolores Haze. Lolita is also the story of a hypercivilized European colliding with the cheerful barbarism of postwar America. Most of all, it is a meditation on love—love as outrage and hallucination, madness and transformation.]]> 376 Vladimir Nabokov Elanna 0 modernism-and-postmodernism 3.86 1955 Lolita
author: Vladimir Nabokov
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1955
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: modernism-and-postmodernism
review:

]]> The Third Policeman 587369 The Third Policeman is Flann O'Brien's brilliantly dark comic novel about the nature of time, death, and existence. Told by a narrator who has committed a botched robbery and brutal murder, the novel follows him and his adventures in a two-dimensional police station where, through the theories of the scientist/philosopher de Selby, he is introduced to "Atomic Theory" and its relation to bicycles, the existence of eternity (which turns out to be just down the road), and de Selby's view that the earth is not round but "sausage-shaped." With the help of his newly found soul named "Joe," he grapples with the riddles and
contradictions that three eccentric policeman present to him.
The last of O'Brien's novels to be published, The Third Policeman joins O'Brien's other fiction (At Swim-Two-Birds, The Poor Mouth, The Hard Life, The Best of Myles, The Dalkey Archive) to ensure his place, along with James Joyce and Samuel Beckett, as one of Ireland's great comic geniuses.]]> 206 Flann O'Brien 0007247176 Elanna 5 3.78 1967 The Third Policeman
author: Flann O'Brien
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1967
rating: 5
read at: 2015/01/25
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: checked, ireland, novels, fantastic, humour-satire, tesseracts, favourites, galway-bookshelf, 1001-libri, magic-realism, modernism-and-postmodernism
review:

]]> La vergine e lo zingaro 12607765
Set in a small village in the English countryside, this is the story of a secluded, sensitive rector's daughter who yearns for meaning beyond the life to which she seems doomed. When she meets a handsome young gipsy whose life appears different from hers in every way, she is immediately smitten and yet still paralyzed by her own fear and social convention. Not until a natural catastrophe suddenly, miraculously sweeps away the world as she knew it does a new world of passion open for her. Lawrence's spirit is infused by all his tenderness, passion, and knowledge of the human soul.]]> 100 D.H. Lawrence 8879833537 Elanna 3 3.44 1930 La vergine e lo zingaro
author: D.H. Lawrence
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.44
book published: 1930
rating: 3
read at: 2000/01/01
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: novels, checked, barrea-bookshelf, england, modernism-and-postmodernism
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade: A Duty Dance with Death]]> 786269 Slaughterhouse-Five introduces us to Billy Pilgrim, a man who becomes unstuck in time after he is abducted by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore. In a plot-scrambling display of virtuosity, we follow Pilgrim simultaneously through all phases of his life, concentrating on his (and Vonnegut's) shattering experience as an American prisoner of war who witnesses the firebombing of Dresden.

Slaughterhouse-Five is not only Vonnegut's most powerful book, it is as important as any written since 1945. Like Catch- 22, it fashions the author's experiences in the Second World War into an eloquent and deeply funny plea against butchery in the service of authority. Slaughterhouse-Five boasts the same imagination, humanity, and gleeful appreciation of the absurd found in Vonnegut's other works, but the book's basis in rock-hard, tragic fact gives it a unique poignancy--and humor.

]]> 0 Kurt Vonnegut Jr. 0060573775 Elanna 5 3.82 1969 Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade: A Duty Dance with Death
author: Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1969
rating: 5
read at: 2013/03/07
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: audio-books, checked, classics, history, humour-satire, united-states, novels, politics, science-fiction, favourites, should-be-read-in-schools, philosophical-sci-fi, 1001-libri, magic-realism, modernism-and-postmodernism
review:

]]> La colazione dei campioni 9940313 276 Kurt Vonnegut Jr. 8807016893 Elanna 4 3.79 1973 La colazione dei campioni
author: Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1973
rating: 4
read at: 2009/07/25
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: novels, united-states, 1001-libri, checked, barrea-bookshelf, magic-realism, modernism-and-postmodernism
review:

]]> To the Lighthouse 578539 To the Lighthouse is at once a vivid impressionist depiction of a family holiday, and a meditation on a marriage, on parenthood and childhood, on grief, tyranny and bitterness. Its use of stream of consciousness, reminiscence and shifting perspectives, gives the novel an intimate, poetic essence, and at the time of publication in 1927 it represented an utter rejection of Victorian and Edwardian literary values.
Virginia Woolf saw the novel as an elegy to her own parents, and in her diary she wrote: 'I used to think of him (father) and mother daily; but writing The Lighthouse laid them in my mind'.]]> 268 Virginia Woolf Elanna 2 3.84 1927 To the Lighthouse
author: Virginia Woolf
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1927
rating: 2
read at: 2001/01/01
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: classics, novels, checked, barrea-bookshelf, england, sorry-not-sorry, 1001-libri, modernism-and-postmodernism
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Waiting for Godot - En attendant Godot]]> 592950 192 Samuel Beckett 0571229107 Elanna 4 4.10 1952 Waiting for Godot - En attendant Godot
author: Samuel Beckett
name: Elanna
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1952
rating: 4
read at: 2013/02/24
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: theatre, ireland, checked, classics, ebooks, favourites, should-be-read-in-schools, modernism-and-postmodernism
review:

]]> La morte a Venezia 14059081 Uma paixão que se arrasta pelo Lido e depois pelas ruas de uma Veneza ameaçada e através da qual se questiona a situação moral do artista.
Trata­-se de uma novela em que Thomas Mann, sob a influência filosófica de Platão, aborda a relação com o belo e fala da nostalgia e das suas emoções.

«E entre palavras delicadas e graças espirituosas, Sócrates ensinava a Fedro o desejo e a virtude. Falou­-lhe do temor ardente que acomete o homem sensível quando os seus olhos vislumbram uma semelhança do belo eterno: falou­-lhe da avidez do homem ímpio e vil, incapaz de pensar o belo ao ver a sua imagem, incapaz de veneração; falou do medo sagrado que invade o homem nobre quando contempla uma face divina, um corpo perfeito � como então estremece e sai fora de si, mal ousando olhar, e como venera aquele que é belo, sim, como se ofereceria em sacrifício a este ídolo, se não receasse parecer ridículo aos olhos dos homens.»]]> 96 Thomas Mann 8879830872 Elanna 4 3.70 1911 La morte a Venezia
author: Thomas Mann
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.70
book published: 1911
rating: 4
read at: 1993/01/01
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: novels, 1001-libri, checked, classici-da-leggere, classics, germany, favourites, barrea-bookshelf, modernism-and-postmodernism
review:

]]> The Magic Mountain 88077
The Magic Mountain is a monumental work of erudition and irony, sexual tension and intellectual ferment, a book that pulses with life in the midst of death.]]> 706 Thomas Mann Elanna 4 4.12 1924 The Magic Mountain
author: Thomas Mann
name: Elanna
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1924
rating: 4
read at: 2021/12/26
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: audible, audio-books, checked, classics, coming-of-age, germany, novels, 1001-libri, modernism-and-postmodernism
review:

]]> Il fu Mattia Pascal 11364953
An explorer of identity and its mysteries, a connoisseur of black humor, Nobel Prize winner Luigi Pirandello is among the most teasing and profound of modern masters. The Late Mattia Pascal, here rendered into English by the outstanding translator William Weaver, offers an irresistible introduction to this great writer's work]]> 240 Luigi Pirandello Elanna 4 3.93 1904 Il fu Mattia Pascal
author: Luigi Pirandello
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1904
rating: 4
read at: 1994/01/01
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: checked, classics, italy, novels, modernism-and-postmodernism
review:

]]> La strada di Swann 17734641 458 Marcel Proust Elanna 5 4.29 1913 La strada di Swann
author: Marcel Proust
name: Elanna
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1913
rating: 5
read at: 2011/01/01
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: checked, classics, france, novels, favourites, coming-of-age, galway-bookshelf, 1001-libri, modernism-and-postmodernism
review:

]]> <![CDATA[All'ombra delle fanciulle in fiore]]> 22444777 561 Marcel Proust Elanna 5 5.00 1919 All'ombra delle fanciulle in fiore
author: Marcel Proust
name: Elanna
average rating: 5.00
book published: 1919
rating: 5
read at: 2012/01/01
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: checked, classics, france, novels, favourites, coming-of-age, galway-bookshelf, 1001-libri, modernism-and-postmodernism
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Alla ricerca del tempo perduto]]> 9726696
Alla ricerca del tempo perduto è uno dei grandi capolavori della letteratura del Novecento. Attraverso le pagine di quest’opera monumentale, articolata in sette romanzi (Dalla parte di Swann, All’ombra delle fanciulle in fiore, I Guermantes, Sodoma e Gomorra, La Prigioniera, Albertine scomparsa e Il Tempo ritrovato), ci viene rivelata un’intera società, nell’arco di tempo che va dal 1880 al 1920. Protagonista assoluta è l’aristocrazia, colta nel momento in cui si conclude la sua splendida parabola. Tutti i personaggi sono sostanzialmente dei vinti, a ognuno il tempo ha sottratto qualcosa. Soltanto la memoria sembra sopravvivere alla sua tirannia e solo nell’arte è possibile trovare un compenso al disordine del mondo.]]> 2608 Marcel Proust 8854116343 Elanna 5 4.33 1913 Alla ricerca del tempo perduto
author: Marcel Proust
name: Elanna
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1913
rating: 5
read at: 2014/04/07
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: checked, classics, ebooks, novels, france, favourites, coming-of-age, 1001-libri, modernism-and-postmodernism
review:

]]> Racconti fantastici 9717870 127 Ryūnosuke Akutagawa 8831761609 Elanna 4 3.87 Racconti fantastici
author: Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.87
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2016/01/26
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: classics, japan, short-stories, fantastic, checked, 1001-libri, favourites, galway-bookshelf, modernism-and-postmodernism
review:

]]> Amerika 22911 Amerika tells the story of the young immigrant Karl Rossmann who, after an embarrassing sexual misadventure, finds himself "packed off to America" by his parents. Expected to redeem himself in this magical land of opportunity, young Karl is swept up instead in a whirlwind of dizzying reversals, strange escapades, and picaresque adventures.

Although Kafka never visited America, images of its vast landscape, dangers, and opportunities inspired this saga of the "golden land." Here is a startlingly modern, fantastic and visionary tale of America "as a place no one has yet seen, in a historical period that can't be identified," writes E. L. Doctorow in his new foreword. "Kafka made his novel from his own mind's mythic elements," Doctorow explains, "and the research data that caught his eye were bent like rays in a field of gravity."]]> 336 Franz Kafka 0805210644 Elanna 0 modernism-and-postmodernism 3.77 1927 Amerika
author: Franz Kafka
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1927
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: modernism-and-postmodernism
review:

]]> The Trial 17690 The Trial is the terrifying tale of Josef K., a respectable bank officer who is suddenly and inexplicably arrested and must defend himself against a charge about which he can get no information. Whether read as an existential tale, a parable, or a prophecy of the excesses of modern bureaucracy wedded to the madness of totalitarianism, The Trial has resonated with chilling truth for generations of readers.]]> 255 Franz Kafka Elanna 0 modernism-and-postmodernism 4.00 1925 The Trial
author: Franz Kafka
name: Elanna
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1925
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: modernism-and-postmodernism
review:

]]> The Metamorphosis 485894 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 0553213695 / 9780553213690

"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. He was laying on his hard, as it were armor-plated, back and when he lifted his head a little he could see his domelike brown belly divided into stiff arched segments on top of which the bed quilt could hardly keep in position and was about to slide off completely. His numerous legs, which were pitifully thin compared to the rest of his bulk, waved helplessly before his eyes."

With it's startling, bizarre, yet surprisingly funny first opening, Kafka begins his masterpiece, The Metamorphosis. It is the story of a young man who, transformed overnight into a giant beetle-like insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man. A harrowing—though absurdly comic—meditation on human feelings of inadequacy, guilt, and isolation, The Metamorphosis has taken its place as one of the most widely read and influential works of twentieth-century fiction. As W.H. Auden wrote, "Kafka is important to us because his predicament is the predicament of modern man."]]> 201 Franz Kafka 0553213695 Elanna 0 3.90 1915 The Metamorphosis
author: Franz Kafka
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1915
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: 1001-libri, modernism-and-postmodernism
review:

]]> Il fu Mattia Pascal 3919273 Il fu Mattia Pascal, il più famoso dei romanzi di Pirandello, riveste un'importanza fondamentale nella letteratura italiana del Novecento. Grottesco antieroe pirandelliano, Mattia Pascal è un uomo senza certezze e senza vocazioni. Creduto morto dopo una fuga da casa, pensa di approfittarne per cambiare vita, ma il desiderio di spezzare le catene delle convenzioni sociali, lo slancio verso la conquista di un'originaria purezza e autenticità falliscono: perché la vita deve comunque darsi una forma e la fatica che bisogna affrontare per crearne una nuova e sostenerne i compromessi è talora così grande, che costringe a rientrare precipitosamente nella vecchia. La quale, pur con i suoi originari limiti e le sue falsità, rende possibile l'esistenza, allontanando il rischio della disgregazione, impedendo di essere altro da sè stessi, condannando a una realtà fittizia, ma inalienabile.]]> 240 Luigi Pirandello 8804307668 Elanna 0 modernism-and-postmodernism 3.97 1904 Il fu Mattia Pascal
author: Luigi Pirandello
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1904
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: modernism-and-postmodernism
review:

]]> Il viaggio dell'elefante 22304647 202 José Saramago 8806204939 Elanna 3 3.52 2008 Il viaggio dell'elefante
author: José Saramago
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 2012/11/06
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: checked, novels, portugal, favourites, barrea-bookshelf, magic-realism
review:

]]> V for Vendetta 18078485 "Remember, remember the fifth of November..."

A frightening and powerful tale of the loss of freedom and identity in a chillingly believable totalitarian world, V for Vendetta stands as one of the highest achievements of the comics medium and a defining work for creators Alan Moore and David Lloyd.

Set in an imagined future England that has given itself over to fascism, this groundbreaking story captures both the suffocating nature of life in an authoritarian police state and the redemptive power of the human spirit which rebels against it. Crafted with sterling clarity and intelligence, V for Vendetta brings an unequaled depth of characterization and verisimilitude to its unflinching account of oppression and resistance.]]> 288 Alan Moore 8887006040 Elanna 3 4.46 1990 V for Vendetta
author: Alan Moore
name: Elanna
average rating: 4.46
book published: 1990
rating: 3
read at: 2007/01/01
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: checked, comics, novels, politics, society, england, graphic-novels
review:

]]> Ulysses 10545 Ulysses has survived bowderlization, legal action and bitter controversy. An undisputed modernist classic, its ceaseless verbal inventiveness and astonishingly wide-ranging allusions confirm its standing as an imperishable monument to the human condition. Declan Kiberd says in his introduction Ulysses is 'An endlessly open book of utopian epiphanies. It holds a mirror up to the colonial capital that was Dublin on 16 June 1904, but it also offers redemptive glimpses of a future world which might be made over in terms of those utopian moments.'

This edition is the standard Random House/Bodley Head text that first appeared in 1960.

(*) New cover existing, same ISBN:
See it as ISBN13 9780141182803 / ISBN10 0141182806]]> 933 James Joyce Elanna 5 3.88 1922 Ulysses
author: James Joyce
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1922
rating: 5
read at: 2011/08/01
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: ireland, novels, checked, classics, favourites, galway-bookshelf, 1001-libri, modernism-and-postmodernism
review:

]]> Ulysses 6957527
Initially deemed obscene in England and the USA. this richly-allusive novel, revolutionary in its modernistic experimentalism, was hailed as a work of genius by W. B. Yeats, T. S. Eliot, and Ernest Hemingway.

Scandalously frank, witty, erudite, mereurially eloquent, resourcefully comic and generously humane, Ulysses offers the reader a life-changing experience.]]> 682 James Joyce 1840226358 Elanna 5 Will Leopold Bloom reconquer his nuptial talamus, his lost paternity and the heart of his unfaithful yet trustworthy wife?
Will he make it home after a day's adventure up and down the streets of 1904 Dublin?
Will the two men succeed in fortuitously meeting each other?
More than anything else, what does Molly Bloom think of all this?

Find it out through 682 pages of fun, spelling puns & plays on words, literary criticism, stage play, nursery rhymes, many deaths plus one birth, cathechism, interior monologues, journalistic scandals, ghostly apparitions, sex, drugs and light opera music, brothels and brawls, and meet the Dubliners (nearly all of them, indeed)!


This time, I read the Italian translation at the same time, and The Bloomsday Book. Much satisfaction!
I won't add my unrequested farty opinion to the flood of words written on the subject.
Let me just share my experienced Bloomer's tips: stop thinking about how descouraging Ulysses is, and try to enjoy. If (when) you don't understand, seek for help by a companion book. If you get the idea that there is more it than you can actually understand at the moment, well, you are probably right. It simply means that, one day, you will read it again after some research. Or maybe not.

And, yes, it's forbiddingly difficult at moments. It's literature, baby, and there's nothing you can do about it.]]> 3.57 1922 Ulysses
author: James Joyce
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.57
book published: 1922
rating: 5
read at: 2015/07/12
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: checked, classics, ireland, novels, tesseracts, 1001-libri, galway-bookshelf, favourites, modernism-and-postmodernism
review:
Will Stephen Dedalus find his inspiration, his public, his lost spiritual father, his peace of mind?
Will Leopold Bloom reconquer his nuptial talamus, his lost paternity and the heart of his unfaithful yet trustworthy wife?
Will he make it home after a day's adventure up and down the streets of 1904 Dublin?
Will the two men succeed in fortuitously meeting each other?
More than anything else, what does Molly Bloom think of all this?

Find it out through 682 pages of fun, spelling puns & plays on words, literary criticism, stage play, nursery rhymes, many deaths plus one birth, cathechism, interior monologues, journalistic scandals, ghostly apparitions, sex, drugs and light opera music, brothels and brawls, and meet the Dubliners (nearly all of them, indeed)!


This time, I read the Italian translation at the same time, and The Bloomsday Book. Much satisfaction!
I won't add my unrequested farty opinion to the flood of words written on the subject.
Let me just share my experienced Bloomer's tips: stop thinking about how descouraging Ulysses is, and try to enjoy. If (when) you don't understand, seek for help by a companion book. If you get the idea that there is more it than you can actually understand at the moment, well, you are probably right. It simply means that, one day, you will read it again after some research. Or maybe not.

And, yes, it's forbiddingly difficult at moments. It's literature, baby, and there's nothing you can do about it.
]]> Ultime notizie dalla famiglia 3413130 Signor Malussène a teatro, un esilarante monologo sulla paternità, e Cristianos y moros, un racconto che fa luce sul Piccolo, sulla sua caparbia volontà di conoscere l'identità del padre naturale. A saga conclusa, insomma, Pennac riapre le pagine dei suoi romanzi per evocare nuove figure, nuovi umori, nuove situaioni, perridare la parola al coro della sua balzana famiglia e rispondere con la sua saggezza discreta al caos abissale del nostro tempo.]]> 132 Daniel Pennac 8807814080 Elanna 4 3.69 1996 Ultime notizie dalla famiglia
author: Daniel Pennac
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.69
book published: 1996
rating: 4
read at: 1999/01/01
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: novels, france, miscellaneous, checked, classici-da-leggere, barrea-bookshelf, magic-realism
review:

]]> Ulisse 13422662 864 James Joyce 885413595X Elanna 5 4.21 1922 Ulisse
author: James Joyce
name: Elanna
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1922
rating: 5
read at: 2015/07/12
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: 1001-libri, checked, classics, ebooks, ireland, novels, tesseracts, south-africa, favourites, modernism-and-postmodernism
review:

]]> Ulisse 18392670 1025 James Joyce Elanna 5 Riuscirà Leopold Bloom a riconquistare il talamo nuziale, la paternità perduta e il cuore della propria infedele, eppur saggia, moglie?
Riuscirà il nostro Leopold almeno a tornare a casa dopo una giornata di avventure per le strade della Dublino di inizio secolo?
Riusciranno i due uomini ad incontrarsi fortuitamente?
Soprattutto, cosa ne pensa Molly Bloom?

SCOPROLO!]]> 5.00 1922 Ulisse
author: James Joyce
name: Elanna
average rating: 5.00
book published: 1922
rating: 5
read at: 2015/07/12
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: 1001-libri, checked, classics, ireland, novels, tesseracts, favourites, should-be-read-in-schools, galway-bookshelf, modernism-and-postmodernism
review:
Riuscirà Stephen Dedalus a trovare l'ispirazione, il proprio pubblico, una figura paterna e un po' di pace spirituale?
Riuscirà Leopold Bloom a riconquistare il talamo nuziale, la paternità perduta e il cuore della propria infedele, eppur saggia, moglie?
Riuscirà il nostro Leopold almeno a tornare a casa dopo una giornata di avventure per le strade della Dublino di inizio secolo?
Riusciranno i due uomini ad incontrarsi fortuitamente?
Soprattutto, cosa ne pensa Molly Bloom?

SCOPROLO!
]]> Tutti i nomi 9663036 252 José Saramago 8806159879 Elanna 5 4.03 1997 Tutti i nomi
author: José Saramago
name: Elanna
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1997
rating: 5
read at: 2009/01/01
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: novels, checked, classics, portugal, favourites, barrea-bookshelf, magic-realism
review:

]]> Tsugumi 6705831 Tsugumi è un romanzo che parla di questo. Di un'estate di un gruppo di ragazzi che non tornerà mai più. Del mare e del primo amore..." Così Banana Yoshimoto parla del suo romanzo tutto dedicato all'adolescenza. Uscito a puntate nell'edizione giapponese di "Marie Claire" e apparso in volume nel 1989, Tsugumi è sicuramente il più grande successo di Banana Yoshimoto, superando i 2 milioni di copie vendute: questa è la prima edizione in lingua occidentale.
Maria e Tsugumi sono amiche fin dall'infanzia anche se sono due ragazzine molto diverse. Maria, l'io narrante, è dolce e buona: ha lasciato il piccolo paesino in cui era nata e cresciuta per iscriversi all'università a Tokio. Tsugumi è bellissima ma dotata di un carattere infernale: affabile e dolce con gli estranei, nel privato è un tiranno, parla come un maschio ed è viziata all'inverosimile. Non può spostarsi dalla tranquilla penisola di Izu perché le sue condizioni di salute non glielo permettono. Il suo destino pare segnato... Ma quando due amiche si ritrovano, e se questo accade d'estate, e se è il mare a cullare le rispettive solitudini, allora la magia scaturita dall'attimo può creare sensazionali cambiamenti del mondo reale.]]> 159 Banana Yoshimoto 8807812940 Elanna 3 3.51 1989 Tsugumi
author: Banana Yoshimoto
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.51
book published: 1989
rating: 3
read at: 2002/05/01
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: japan, novels, checked, coming-of-age, barrea-bookshelf, magic-realism
review:

]]> Storie di ordinaria follia 244408 340 Charles Bukowski 8807808161 Elanna 4 3.48 1983 Storie di ordinaria follia
author: Charles Bukowski
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.48
book published: 1983
rating: 4
read at: 1994/01/01
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: united-states, short-stories, checked, classici-da-leggere, favourites, barrea-bookshelf, magic-realism
review:

]]> Stagioni diverse 6984257 588 Stephen King Elanna 3 4.26 1982 Stagioni diverse
author: Stephen King
name: Elanna
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1982
rating: 3
read at: 2012/10/18
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: united-states, checked, short-stories, favourites, barrea-bookshelf, magic-realism
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Sotto la foresta di ciliegi in fiore e altri racconti]]> 9698454 156 Ango Sakaguchi 8831759485 Elanna 5 3.68 1947 Sotto la foresta di ciliegi in fiore e altri racconti
author: Ango Sakaguchi
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.68
book published: 1947
rating: 5
read at: 2001/01/01
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: classics, japan, short-stories, checked, fantastic, favourites, galway-bookshelf, magic-realism
review:

]]> Sonno profondo 1938243 Con Sonno profondo, Banana Yoshimoto indaga nel cuore di tre giovanni donne e ne trae ombre plastiche, insinuanti, che echeggiano il vuoto della notte e la paura della solitudine. Vicina al germogliare segreto delle emozioni, la scrittice disegna con le parole un mondo sfuggente e tuttavia concreto, che accompagna il lettore in un'avventura dell'anima di straordinaria incisività.]]> 139 Banana Yoshimoto 8807813327 Elanna 3 3.54 1989 Sonno profondo
author: Banana Yoshimoto
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.54
book published: 1989
rating: 3
read at: 2002/01/01
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: japan, novels, checked, barrea-bookshelf, magic-realism
review:

]]> Solomon Gursky è stato qui 8678892 596 Mordecai Richler 8845921794 Elanna 4 3.84 1989 Solomon Gursky è stato qui
author: Mordecai Richler
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1989
rating: 4
read at: 2010/10/17
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: novels, canada, checked, favourites, magic-realism
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Signor Malaussène (Malaussène #4)]]> 2366894 444 Daniel Pennac 8807700727 Elanna 4 4.04 1995 Signor Malaussène (Malaussène #4)
author: Daniel Pennac
name: Elanna
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1995
rating: 4
read at: 1995/11/01
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: france, novels, favourites, checked, barrea-bookshelf, magic-realism
review:

]]> A Shorter Finnegans Wake 31132039
It took Joyce 17 years to create this extraordinary book (and his final work), written in Paris after the publication of Ulysses. It is written not so much in English as in a language which combines, very often as puns, English with several other languages.

Burgess was a huge admirer of Joyce's work and a great interpreter. His introduction to the shortened version throws a massive light on the structure and meaning of the work and perhaps, most importantly, its position in the literary canon as a great comic book.]]> 278 James Joyce Elanna 5 5.00 1966 A Shorter Finnegans Wake
author: James Joyce
name: Elanna
average rating: 5.00
book published: 1966
rating: 5
read at: 2017/07/07
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: checked, classics, ireland, tesseracts, galway-bookshelf, 1001-libri, favourites, modernism-and-postmodernism
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore]]> 7332517 355 Italo Calvino 8804390298 Elanna 4 4.21 1979 Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore
author: Italo Calvino
name: Elanna
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1979
rating: 4
read at: 1995/01/01
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: checked, italy, novels, tesseracts, 1001-libri, favourites, barrea-bookshelf, magic-realism
review:

]]> Saltatempo 3399960
Lo incontriamo da ragazzino mentre una mattina di fine inverno "scarpagna" verso le Bisacconi (le scuole elementari del paese, un cubo giallo vomito dentro un giardino di erbacce barbare). Canticchia "Se mi vuoi lasciare dimmi almeno perché". Sono gli anni cinquanta e mentre ruba in una vigna un grappolo di schizzozibibbo, Lupetto, così lo chiamano, vede un uomo, alto come una nuvola, con una barba immensa e un cane vecchio al suo fianco. Un dio?Una divinità pagana grande e sozza come un letamaio che gli regala, per tutta la vita, una facoltà meravigliosa: un orologio interno, anzi un orobilogio che gli consentirà di correre avanti nel tempo, di vedere quello che accadrà nel mondo e insieme di vivere il suo tempo, tra premonizioni e rivelazioni. Così Lupetto diventa Saltatempo, cresce bislacco e combattivo, mentre il paese dove vive si va trasformando e l'orobilogio con i suoi giri improvvisi e vorticosi prospetta il tempo che verrà. Dalla guerra partigiana al Sessantotto, dalla nascita della televisione al tempo eroico del rock, dal primo amore al primo amico perduto, sotto la profezia di un delitto che forse si compirà: è il tempo dell'Italia che cambia, dei paesi che perdono la loro identità per diventare svincoli autostradali, del nascere e crescere dell'avidità e dei nuovi padroni, il tempo del consumismo che avanza, della trasformazione della politica e del mondo.]]> 272 Stefano Benni 8807817489 Elanna 4 4.13 2001 Saltatempo
author: Stefano Benni
name: Elanna
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at: 2002/01/01
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: italy, novels, politics, checked, humour-satire, favourites, should-be-read-in-schools, coming-of-age, galway-bookshelf, magic-realism
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana]]> 3473246 275 Carlo Emilio Gadda 8811666422 Elanna 5 3.59 1957 Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana
author: Carlo Emilio Gadda
name: Elanna
average rating: 3.59
book published: 1957
rating: 5
read at: 1999/01/01
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: checked, classics, classici-da-leggere, detective-stories, ebooks, italy, novels, favourites, should-be-read-in-schools, barrea-bookshelf, modernism-and-postmodernism
review:

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