Lizard

I am not very fond of short stories, they generally leave me with a feeling of incompleteness,  but they are very handy when you travel to go to work as you can finish one in the metro.
This was my first approach to Yoshimoto, and I did enjoy the reading. But somehow all the stories have some weird things happening inside, something supernatural and spiritual. I felt a bit like reading Murakami, and at the end you are not quite sure if you liked it or not. Will have to give Yoshimoto another try to decide if I like the writing.

The Housekeeper + The Professor

The Professor is a man who has been suffering from memory loss after a car accident. His short memory lasts 84 minutes, not one second more; whereas, he has a very clear memory of his past before the accident, when he was a Math professor, deeply in love with numbers, in particular prime numbers.
The Housekeeper, as you can guess, is the woman who takes care of him. Well, maybe it is better to say, the last (in chronological order) woman who tries to take care of him. 'Cause, can you imagine to take care of a person that in less than 2 hours doesn't remember who you are and what you are doing in his house?
In this book there are no names, as it is not necessary to spend time on talking about particulars that would be forgotten in 84 mins. Therefore, also the little son of the housekeeper will just have a nickname in the all story: Root, as the Math symbol √
The relationship among these 3 characters is of course made of numbers, and of the beauty that can be hidden behind a date of birth, or a shoes size. But, despite all, there is a true bond among them that is created during the reading. It is a very sweet book, silent, emotional.
 I highly recommend it!

"The Professor never really seemed to care whether we figured out the right answer to a problem. He preferred our wild, desperate guesses to silence, and he was even more delighted when those guesses led to new problems that took us beyond the original one. He had a special feeling for what he called the "correct miscalculation," for he believed that mistakes were often as revealing as the right answers."

Maybe in another life....

Do you remember the "red surprise bag"? Well, the bag itself broke filled with my grocery shopping on the road. I won't be here describing how I had to carry all in my hands till I found a shop to buy a provisional bag. I will, instead, tell you about another book that was in the surprise bag. This:

You are not seeing double, they are really two: one is the book, and the other is the CD that comes with the book. How amazing is this? How many of us read while listening to a particular song or how many of us think of a song that describe what is in the book? Well, me for sure. I like to associate books with nice music (and generally a tea), so for me this book was an amazing discovery.

The story in the book is quiet simple, nothing that won't make you sleep. I read it very quickly between the wait at the airport and the flight itself. But it is a nice reading. Of course what makes it good is the fact that  every chapter has his soundtrack, which I found very clever, even if I didn't have the possibility to listen to the songs while reading.

The book and the CD are both from a composer, a musician, that wanted to give "words" to his music. Here you could watch the video of the song that close the CD and give the title to the book Magari in un'altra vita

Long (but very long) walk to Freedom by Mandela

I have walked a long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom come responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended.


All started with this book "A rainbow in the night" by Lapierre. I read it few years ago and I start growing a pure love for Mandela, better known to friends-and to me- as Madiba. I started loving his courage, his flight for a freedom that is so "normal" for me, for us. I started loving the battle of a country that was wildly conquer from the oppressor.
I had in mind to read Long Walk to Freedom for years, but I have all a particular conception about books: it's them that decided to be read by me. So after his death, that affected me deeply, I realized it was the right time to live again his life, to make him live through his own page. The book is huge, at first you feel you are never going to finish it; but, you then start reading and from the first pages you realise this book is gonna live with you and change you.
The book explore all his life starting from when he was a kid. And from the stories for his youth you already understand that such inspiring people are born like that, and that they decide to carry the weight of this responsibility for their entire life. This make them great!
I love Mandela not only 'cause he carried a battle against the big "enemy", but especially 'cause he carried a battle in the every day life, trying to change things starting from the small problem of segregation and racism around him, and by changing firstly himself and constantly questioning his actions. He carried most of his battle behind the gate of a jail, one of the worst in the world, but his strength for the cause did not diminish, and his fight for the freedom of every citizen of South Africa, of every colour and race was never affected by his personal problems and struggles.
It is important to keep Mandela's teaching in every day life, that we all become permanent freedom fighter, against the injustice of our life.
A very inspiring book that everybody should read it in his life.

Here there is a link to his speech when he was finally realised from prison, without compromising his beliefs and his ideas.

It is from these comrades in the struggle that I learned the meaning of courage. Time and again, I have seen men and women risk and give their life for an idea. I have seen men stand up to attacks and torture without breaking, showing a strength and resilience that defies the imagination. I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. I felt fear myself more times than I can remember, but I hid it behind a mask of boldness. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.

To not forget...

First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.

Martin Niemöller

Three Men in a boat (Jerome K. Jerome)

Despite the big success of this book, I found it a bit boring at times! 
The idea is nice: 3 friends in a boat along the Thames with a dog ( the dog actually is the funniest character). 
Sometime there are very long descriptions, not that interesting, but I must say some stories are very funny and make the book readable.

“I opened the bag and packed the boots in; and then, just as I was going to close it, a horrible idea occurred to me.  Had I packed my tooth-brush?  I don’t know how it is, but I never do know whether I’ve packed my tooth-brush.
My tooth-brush is a thing that haunts me when I’m travelling, and makes my life a misery.  I dream that I haven’t packed it, and wake up in a cold perspiration, and get out of bed and hunt for it.  And, in the morning, I pack it before I have used it, and have to unpack again to get it, and it is always the last thing I turn out of the bag; and then I repack and forget it, and have to rush upstairs for it at the last moment and carry it to the railway station, wrapped up in my pocket-handkerchief.”

week end plan

 Survived to the first week of work after Xmas holidays:

 I am ready to face the week end!!!