Quello Che Ti Nascondevo by Marina di Guardo

Due to work and summer-related reasons, my reading slowed down the last weeks, and will keep this pace until the end of August probably. I am operating right now at a bare minimum level, covering mostly my spots of the book tours while spending the rest of my summer days out in the sun - most probably reading and thinking about new projects.

But I still have projects to work on, and one of them is improving my Italian at a highly professional level. A mission partly accomplished this year, with an increasing number of books in Italian that I had the chance to read. 

My latest one was a women-centered thriller, writen by Marina di Guardo, the mother of the famous Italian infuencers Chiara and Valetina Ferragni, herself an active user and consumer of social media: Quello Che Ti Nascodevo/What I was hiding from you.  

One year after the death of his beloved Allegra, in an accident in the mountains, Giacomo uses to listen to her old audio messages. But as he catches the voice of a man calling her ´baby´, his life is shuttered. The more he dives into his wife´s past, the more shocking the revelation of her infidelity. But no matter how disturbing the revelations, he doesn´t stop trying to find him. And as some of the women he dated - as a married man, with a Tinder profile - are also found dead, he is on a mission trying to solve the mystery of their murder.

The reading is suspenseful although some coincidences - too many to count - are weakening the plot. I was caught by the beginning and shocked by the ending. Although the main storyteller is a man, Giacomo, the women do play the most important role in the story: their betrayal, expectations and the violence they often are submitted to. The childhood trauma is alongside the topic of the violence against women are very important topic framed in the story, reflected not only into the history of the characters but strongly motivating their acts. 

From the point of view of the vocabulary, I´ve learned a lot of new slang words, mostly relevant for Milano area where the action is taking part. There may be better thrillers around, but this one resonated with me for the women-focus and modern takes on couple and relationships.

My Italian journey continues.

Rating: 3 stars

Compusive Readers Blogtours: The Kill Switch by Robert Peston

 

As Stela Barnsbury, UK´s (fictional) prime minister suddenly dies during a podcast with famous (fictional) political journalist Gil Peck, he is on a mission to find out the culprit as well as the cause of her death. But as usual in such cases, an easy answer is rarely the right answer, therefore, the journey will take Peck and us, the readers, alongside a race against time that may touch upon very sensitive parts of the political and business underworld.

Maybe we can read something about our future in this case, as the case may involve also some unexpected AI-generated details. Few years ago, this would have been a serious reason to categorize this book as beloging to the science fiction genre. Nowadays though, it is more realistic than ever. 

The reading was thrilling, largely surprising thanks to the very detailed plot. The relatable political layer adds political depth to the narrative. Like the author himself, Peck is a secular Jew, trying to understand the current state of affairs and eventually figure out the next new important society challenge - from pandemics to corporate crime and Artificial Intelligence.

For me, it was the first encounter with Peston´s work. The book is part of a trilogy featuring Peck, and although it can be read without necessarily reading all the books in the row, I am very much tempted to read the other two books as well. 

Rating: 5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own 

Rachel´s Random Resources: Escape to the Turquoise Seas by Carrie Walker

I love the feeling of summer, and books set during those - short but intense, for Europe - month are automatically included on my reading list - which is getting huge by the day.

Two rival PR agencies, two pitches, but only one has to succeed. Two enemies that cannot figure out their lives outside their fancy work. A secure work that may be endangered if the pitch is missed. Escape to the Turquoise Seas by Carrie Walker, an author I´ve featured on my blog before, introduces us to two lovely corporate characters, Kat and Leo. Each other´s nemesis caught in a professional fight while cruising Azores, Lisbon and Madeira. And the rest may be just history.

What a lovely place to fight for your pitch...And what funny characters to engage with (although in real life, if they would have our immortal lives, they may have think differently, especially about each other). The reading is engaging, and belongs to a professional world I always love to keep a foot in: highly competitional, glamorous at times, but involving a lot of hard and sustained work.

As for the travel part, I was just taking notes...as my summer plans are always work in process.

A recommended read for a cute rom-com, written with passion in a charming surrounding.

Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Rachel´s Random Resources: Mandarin Road by Ann Bennett

I am very careful in picking up historical fiction novels, but once I am falling for an author, I may just keep following up with all of their titles. As for now, I´ve read already two novels by Ann Bennett, and couldn´t miss discovering her newest one, Mandarin Road. 

Bennett remains in the Asian realm, with a stand alone novel with a dual timeline. Set between North Carolina and Vietnam, with Nicole embarked on a journey to meet her long-lost sister. Following the death of her beloved father, she tried to reveal the secret life of his father, during his dispatch in South Vietnam.

As in the case of the other books by Bennett I had the chance to read, the historical timeline allows the presence of individual characters. The impressive historical background is not intimidating, but rather allows the characters to develop and tell their own stories. They influence and shape, without dominating. 

It was an enjoyable well-written book about a very emotional topic handled with care and empathy.

Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Random Things Tours: A Death in the Gym by Patrick Hardy

Josh, a part-time personal trainer, part-time private detective, is tasked to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a young lady, 20 years prior. But it seems the crime stories are following him as at the same time a crime was committed at the gym where he is training. As his discrete investigations unfolds, there are way too many signs coming to close from home. Would Josh succeed to properly interprete the messages?

A Death in the Gym by Patrick Hardy (himself also a certified personal trainer, in addition to being a qualified lawyer) is nothing close to a cosy crime. Although at the beginning there are separate stories, ordered chronologically, shared by characters that may have no connection to each other, in fact there are so many fragments matching each other.

I may confess that I was not sure what to expect from this novel, but it was clearly worth giving a try. The plot is eventful and the twists are carefully placed, exactly when you expected them less. The fact thaat we, as readers, have no idea where the story is heading to is a very welcomed feeling for a crime mystery and in my case it worked very well by keeping me interested in the next 

A recommended read for a long summer evening. I´ve read it in one sitting and I didn´t regret it.

Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Random Things Tours: The Colour of Home by Tammye Huf

The history of race in the USA raises so many questions and paradoxes. I keep wondering how was it possible to maintain the segregation politics for such a long time. Black Americans fought for the USA during WWII, however, their dedication and sacrifice did not challenged automatically the overall politics of discriminations against them.

This topic appears in the well-written The Colour of Home by Tammye Huf. The book starts in 1941 in a segregated Florida, where three Black boys enlisted to fight in the war. Faced with those circumstances, Cora will marry fast, but her heart will always long for the man who loves - other than the one who marries. Four years after, they return back home, changed by the experience of the war. They are changed, and their new grasp on life - and death - are about to change Cora´s life as well, in ways there is no point of return any more.

The writing is of an exquisite beauty, with an extraordinary finesse of describing places and feelings, human beliefs and challenges. As a reader, you belong to the story and what happens to the characters cannot leave you indifferent: you connect with them, you want to be their friend or to warn them. It is such a magic ambiance created by Huf´s writing that I rarely encounter in books published lately.

At the same time, the historical and social context is also reflecting through the different perspectives of the characters, a technique also relevant for the story and characters complexity.

The Colour of Home was an exceptional literary surprise from an author I hope to have the chance to read more soonn.

The cover deserves a special mention as well, for the nostalgic tones and atmospheric outlook.

Rating: 5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own.

The Healing Season of Pottery by Yeon Somin translated by Claire Richards

 

Feel-good stories may differ from one language to another because such feelings are usually culturally defined. I am reading and reviewing many books belonging to this genre, however the authors and stories do belong to the European/North American realm. This week though, I decided to make a difference by discovering a raising star of the Korean literature Yeon Somin, whose local bestseller The Healing Season of Pottery was translated into English by Claire Richards. 

After an extended amount of time - count months - of inactivity following her unemployment, the scriptwriter Jungmin discovers accidentaly Soyo Studio, a pottery workshop. Intrigued, she is starting a year-long experience of learning to use clay and build her own pottery, while reconnecting with and revisiting episodes from her professional and personal past life.

Jungmin is often ´basking in her loneliness´ and and the healing - hers but also of other participants - is slow, as slow as the process of learning to properly use the clay. The reactions between the characters, and how their small community is building is by far the most important part of the story, as it opens up to a very different dynamics compared to what I am used with. 

My knowledge about the innner and social life in South Korea - was confirmed again after reading this book - is extremely limited hence my difficulties in grasping some interactions, including of Romantic interest - between characters. 

From the point of view of the book construction, I had the feeling more than once that the characters are lacking any complexity. It is understandable that they were limited by the choice of location - the pottery workshop - and their own loneliness, but did not see any reason why they are lacking any depth as humans.

Clearly I need more information and contacts with the Korean culture, and the feel-good novels may be a direct way to get to know the people and their wishes. I will be back hopefully with more topics soon and The Healing Season of Pottery, despite its shortcomings, opened up an interesting door for me.

Rating: 3.5 stars