Tag: Italy

Book Group, Books, Reading Events

Book 149: The Talented Mr. Ripley – Patricia Highsmith

Geoff W

I have to say I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected to. It was an easy read and even though it felt like nothing happened, and I remember the movie being very slow because of this, the book went by quickly. I’m still not sure I fully understand the purpose or premise of the story. I guess it’s somewhere between a murder mystery/thriller, told from the murders point of view, and a comedy of errors.

I have never read anything by Patricia Highsmith, but her writing was easy to follow and her descriptions were, I felt, better than her action sequences. I do know there are three additional novels in the Ripley series, but I don’t think I will go out of my way to read them. This first one was enough for me, but if Highsmith’s writing had had more of an impact and not left me just sort of blase at the end of the book I would definitely want to check them out. Surprisingly I had more of a desire to find out more about Ripley after the end of the film, which is distinctly different unless it’s blending in parts from another book. (Anyone know?!)

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Books

Book 81: Little Women – Louisa May Alcott

Geoff W

There are few books that I finish reading and truly regret not having read them earlier in life, and this is one of them. However, I’m also glad I haven’t read it previously as I truly doubt I would’ve appreciated the story or the characters as much as I did.

I expected the reading to take longer than the last few books I read, but it didn’t. I discovered Alcott’s editors specifically requested a book for young women and this so she wrote Little Women.

I identified most with Jo, as I feel most people do but I could be wrong. Perhaps it is her often times uncouth and startlingly simple view of the world, of right and wrong, of black and white, but her character provides a great antithesis to all of the other sisters. And although she changes and has her own faults, to me, she shows the most humanness. And Alcott summed this up saying, “But, you see, Jo wasn’t a heroine, she was only a struggling human girl like hundreds of others, and she just acted out her nature, being sad, cross, listless or energetic, as the mood suggested” (loc 5977).

Click here to continue reading and to see the recommendation and quotes from the novel.

Updates

Lunch Break Interlude I

Geoff W

We interrupt your regularly scheduled…— “Regularly scheduled,” what’s that?

I’ve done this once before, “way back” in August, and thought it was time for another quick one as I had so much new info to share that I didn’t want to wait until the next monthly update. Aside from my lack of humor, I’ve been busy with Thanksgiving and work, but I wanted to give a quick update with a few notables. (This may end up being my December update, if I’m too busy/lazy to actually post one).

  • The blog has gone through yet another re-design (as in I clicked the change theme button – and it was hard work), partially because I wanted to create a banner at the top – so check out the main page: www.geoffwhaley.com.
  • I started a photoblog: The Journal of the Movement of the World. It was inspired by all the 365 Photo a Day challenges, plus the title comes from another book! I’m probably most excited about the archives page because of the collective look at all the photos over time. [Update 01.27.12 – temporarily suspended until I can actually put some time into it. More than one blog was overwhelming.]
  • Last week I attended the Somerville Public Library book group Books into Movies and it was interesting. We read Friday Night Lights and I’ll have a review posted by Wednesday at the latest. (I haven’t quite finished reading it yet.) Next month is Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which I’m excited about re-reading especially before the Hollywood version of the film comes out.
  • I splurged on books again this past Saturday, but don’t feel too guilty as I was supporting a local business on Small Business Saturday. I’ll have that list in the December monthly update.

And to close this brief interlude of your day, my friend Alie (not a blogger yet) went on a trip to Italy over Thanksgiving and brought back this awesome photo to the left. It is of the Italian promotional sign for Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance. I particularly like the other book signs in the back which show it’s definitely not in an English-speaking country, in case you missed the yellow strip across the top.

I love seeing international covers and foreign language editions of novels I’ve read. I actually have versions of Harry Potter in French and Spanish as well as complete British and American collections of the seven novels and the Tales of Beedle the Bard. At one point I had a British copy of one of the Dan Brown novels because I was stuck in the airport long enough to need a new book, but no idea where that went.

Books

Book 66: The English Patient – Michael Ondaatje

Geoff W

I could be predictable and say the story is about the English patient, as the title suggests, or any of the main characters, but it’s not. It’s not even about living through World War II. To me this novel is about survival.

It is about surviving the inner demons that haunt each of us. Although the brutal acts of the war make appearances, and the heinous acts against humanity in the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki provide a hauntingly severe backdrop to the novel’s conclusion, the story focuses more on the internal struggle of the four characters. And to this effect, there is a quote in From Boys to Men that sums up my thoughts on this book: “I always remind myself: stories haunt you, and memories. Not people.” (252)

Click here to continue reading and for quotes from the novel.

Books

Book 9: Bella Tuscany – Frances Mayes

Geoff W

You can’t help but love the way Frances Mayes writes her books. You can tell she has a background in literature, but truly loves writing. Her rich descriptions and colorful asides take her beautiful memoirs from just being books to being journeys. Having read Under the Tuscan Sun and A Year in the World, when I found out Ms. Mayes was speaking as part of the Lowell Lecture Series at the Boston Public Library I had to go and listen. I had a brief opportunity to speak with her after the lecture about A Year in the World and her growing up in the South, however it is her time and writings in Tuscany which brought her into the public eye and to Boston in particular.

In Bella Tuscany we once again join Ms. Mayes and her partner Ed and their various friends, acquaintances and neighbors in Tuscany. We are immediately reintroduced to Bramasole, their house, which is almost a character in its own right with a unique and quirky personality. Although it has been a few years since I read Under the Tuscan Sun, the similarities in the beautiful writing style and the ill temperament of Bramasole remain. There are a couple of sad portions of the memoir, but the ebb and flow of life in San Francisco and Cortona, Italy show that with sadness comes change and the future.

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