FLORENCE FOR STUDENTS
Florence for Students
Guide to good reads
Exploring Florence through literature
Florence has long been the muse of many writers
and poets over the centuries, and looking at the city through the eyes of a
writer can help you see things in an entirely different light. Just in time for
the arrival of thousands of …
Book Reviews
A sober look to Italy
Suspense set in Florence
The
Fiddler's Elbow, also known as l'Irish has been frequented by locals in Florence, especially the
English-speaking, for over 20 years. This popular watering hole in
piazza Santa Maria Novella helped inspire CR Lloyd's book, The
Second Shot, a controversial political
thriller set in Florence, which …
Book Reviews
Amid the horror, a man is born
The final chapter in a Tuscan trilogy
A dynamic conclusion to Paul Salsini's Tuscan trilogy of historical
fiction, Dino's Story: A Novel of 1960s Tuscany is a tale of the young
boy, Dino Sporenza, who we watch grow up throughout the series. The trilogy
opens during World War II with The …
Book Reviews
Contemplating Florence
Florence: A Map of Perceptions By Andrea Ponsi
University of Virginia Press, 2010
Andrea Ponsi's Florence: A Map of Perceptions takes an unusual and innovative look at the birthplace of the Renaissance through the eyes of an architect. Ponsi, who has lived both in Florence and in the United States, takes both a personal …
Book Reviews
Singing the female body
Corporea, a collection of contemporary English poetry
Corporea is an Italian edition of a bilingual collection of contemporary English and American poetry. This book features a wide variety of women's voices, including such recognizable names as Lucille Clifton, Margaret Atwood, Adrienne Rich, Sharon Olds, Maxine Kumin, Marge Piercy, …
Book Reviews
Speaking Italian culture
When I was approached about writing a review for a book titled Speak the Culture: Italy, I groaned-loudly. Writing about culture is hard. Writing about national culture in a land where no one feels particularly national about anything is even harder. …
Book Reviews
Medicimuse?
New theory links Mona Lisa to Florence's first family
Josephine Rogers Mariotti
Florence, Edizioni Polistampa, 2009
12 euro
What is it about the Mona Lisa that keeps people talking-and publishing books-500 years after the fact? Is it the ambiguous smile? The mysterious identity? An obsession with all things da Vinci? At a time …
Book Reviews
The first American ambassador living in Florence
The letters of George Perkins Marsh
Many know George
Perkins Marsh as a pioneering environmentalist, statesman, author, lawyer,
architect and linguist, but few know that he was an expatriate in Italy as the first and longest-serving American
ambassador to Italy appointed by Abraham Lincoln in 1861.
Marsh was first
stationed in Turin …
Book Reviews
Celebrating Florence's stylish side
Like any city, Florence has many faces. Barbara Milo Ohrbach's latest book, Dreaming of Florence, celebrates its chicest side. Beginning with a brief history of the city, Dreaming floats into museums, gardens, excursions, restaurants and more. An interesting selection of photographs …
Book Reviews
The weight of consequences
Eloquent beauty from Paolo Giordano
The Solitude of Prime Numbers
by Paolo Giordano
translated by Shaun Whiteside
Doubleday €19,20
It's a terrible thing to say, but I was determined not
to like The Solitude of Prime Numbers, the award-winning book by Italian
author Paolo Giordano. I'd heard several so-so reports from friends, …
Book Reviews
A bleak and hostile place
Christobel Kent's A Time of Mourning
by Helen Glave
Living in Florence in summertime may not be easy but at
least it's colourful and bright. A far cry, then, from the grim November setting
of A Time of Mourning, Christobel Kent's latest novel, which opens on il
giorno dei morti, the day of …
Book Reviews
True Life Drama
A mother's story of addiction and hope
Until I read Stay Close: A mother's story of her son's addiction, the phrase ‘heroin user' conjured scrawny addicts shooting up in back alleys and cheap motel rooms; malnourished models getting their buzz in posh clubs. This book shattered my naïve …
Book Reviews
Cooking & Conspirancy
The book of Unholy Mischief by Elle Newmark
The Book of Unholy Mischief is foodie
heaven. Elle Newmark's historical thriller set in fifteenth-century Venice
simply oozes food and recipes from every page. The story is narrated in
retrospect by its main character, Luciano, who at the start of the book is a
young …
Book Reviews
Creepy-and true
The Monster of Florence
I remember my first Italian boyfriend, who suggested taking his car and ‘going parking' one evening.
I felt like I had suddenly been plunged into an episode of ‘Happy Days' with Ralph Malph trying oh-so-subtly to put his arm around a girl …
Book Reviews
A cautionary tale
Into a dark wood with a young Dante
by Ellen Wert
Be good. Mind your parents. Appreciate the paradise that your home is. Or else you'll end up like the miserable souls in the netherworld. With Dante's Inferno as her guide, Virginia Jewiss has written a cautionary tale for children.
Although there's no …
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Wednesday, May 22, 2013