Posts Tagged ‘books’
Have library card, will travel
I’m always thrilled to return to New York, and one of the (many) advantages of my time in New York is whipping out my library card and having the chance to choose between 53 million books spread out across 92 New York Public Libraries across the five burroughs. My husband is an historian, and he’s…
Read MoreLet the 2025 Beach Reading Season officially begin!
The season actually initiated a while ago – I’ve already been for two bouts of beach reading seaside. But the opening of beach reading season is always a cause for celebration. I kicked off my 2025 beach reading season with a day in my favorite beach day get-away, Sperlonga. While at this wonderful beach spot…
Read MoreNew stash of books
Not living in an English-speaking country, I tend to get excited by book stores when I return home to the US or visit other English-speaking countries. Yes, we have English-language bookstores in Rome, but they tend to have narrow selections. And ordering online isn’t the same as browsing bookstores. I was only back in the…
Read MoreA shout-out to Czech literature
Whenever I live in a country, I enjoy learning more about its culture by doing a deep dive into its literature. This was also the case when I lived in Prague, Czech Republic many years ago. The Czechs have a lot of great literature, and I was happy to explore all of it: Vaclav Havel,…
Read MoreMy new stash of books
On my summer holidays back in New York, I picked up lots of great novels. My autumn and winter reading is secured… Lots of great novels I’ve had in my sights for some time, and I look forward to reading these. While I do buy online sometimes, I much prefer browsing and buying directly in…
Read MoreHitting the Little Free Libraries to drop off my novels
I’m a big fan of Little Free Libraries. Whenever I return for holidays in the US, I always bring along a few copies of my paperbacks to drop them off. This lovely trend didn’t exist when I was growing up … but I’m so glad it’s taken off! I would have been a major consumer,…
Read MoreMy 2022 in books
I always love the Goodreads end-of-year round-up. It’s always so much fun to look back at your year in reading. I overshot my 2022 Goodreads Challenge by quite a bit, pledging to read 45 and instead reading 59. And I read a whopping 18,835 pages. You can see My 2022 Year in Books here. As…
Read MoreBook review: All the Lonely People
I so enjoyed reading my first Mike Gayle novel, Half A World Away, earlier this year that I decided to also read his newest, All the Lonely People. It didn’t disappoint. This story opens as we observe a grumpy, old man, Hubert Bird, speaking from his London home with his daughter who works in Australia.…
Read MoreA good writer should be able to fool his readers
“What is important is to invent a story and to make the spectators believe it.” —Tahar Ben Jelloun I like this quote from contemporary Moroccan author Tahar Ben Jelloun. This is exactly how an author creates a successful novel – by creating characters, a story and an environment that draws us in immediately and has…
Read MoreAuthor Mark Tedesco’s love affair with Rome
As an unabashed Italophile myself, one who is lucky enough to have called Rome home for over 20 years, I was bound to be fascinated by a newly released book entitled She Seduced Me: A Love Affair with Rome, written by American author Mark Tedesco. Here’s a bit of background about the book: “I resisted,…
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