Wild by Cheryl Strayed

A woman (Cheryl), after her mother's death and the resulting series of unhappy turns her life will take, decides to start a long solo hiking over the Pacific Crest Trail to find a new dimension and a new strength. Cheryl has no experience, no training for such an adventure and this would clearly be a big problem on the hiking, but her strong will and motivation, will help her to eventually keep on hiking, step by step.
Will she find herself? Will she find the inner strength to get her life back?

An engaging memoir that flows quite well, however nothing wowing.

I decided to start to read this book in a week I knew I would travel quite much, to feel a bit more the experience. So the book has been with me in 3 countries, on plane, bus, train and by walk, from 6 degrees to 20, with rain, wind and sun: I did my personal "hiking" as well.

An adaptation of the book has become a movie.

The extraordinary journey of the fakir who got trapped in an Ikea wardrobe by Romain Puertolas

I bought this book caught by the title, a clear reminder to The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared.
If you need a nice, quick reading, this might be the book for you.

Ajatashatru the fakir lands in Paris with a specific mission: to buy a new bed of nails from Ikea. So when he asks the taxi driver at the airport to bring him directly to Ikea, the shock of the driver would be ours: Ikea? Really? You are in f***ing Paris and the first thing you want to visit is Ikea?

Oh well, like the driver, we would think that after all it is not our business, and indeed it is not, so let's bring him to Ikea.
Filled with curiosity we will just follow him to see what he is up to (the taxi driver will leave for the moment, at least till he realises that the fakir had tricked him).


We will discover that the fakir is planning to sleep in Ikea, where, to avoid to get caught, he gets trapped in a wardrobe: it will then start his funny, absurd, definitely-atypical trip around Europe and more, that would put his life in danger but would also bring a personal growth and maturity.

The book reads very fast, it is funny, at times sparkling and it also carries a very serious and sad meaning, although not so original, as it recalls, a lot, ‎Jonas Jonasson's books.

Geisha of Gion by Mineko Iwasaki

Last week was the "World Book Day" and there was this tag going on on the networks #Ireadbecause. I don't think I would be able to describe this in one sentence, but I can tell you that one of the reason I read is 'cause it makes me travel without moving from my chair.
And it is not that I don' t travel, I do, a lot, but travelling with a book is like being hosted by a local who shows you around, the secret corners, the little spots.
This book will definitely make you travel, of course to Japan, but in particular to Gion Kobu, the Geisha homeland.
You will be sent first class to the life of Mineko, and her "struggle" to become the perfect and most influent Geisha. In this memoir we will discover the reason for this "choice", and all the efforts and giving up that this will bring to her life.

I found the book quite sad, as if you are waiting all the time for the next bad thing to happen, but despite that this book is full of courage and lots, but lots, of passion and dedication.

I got so interested and fascinated by the life of Geisha that started surfing for a bit more. I actually discovered that the famous book "Memoir of a Geisha" by Arthur Golden was inspired by the life of Mineko but that Golden apparently had told a lot of lies about the life of Geisha. This is why Mineko finally decided to write her own memoir, to tell the truth about Geisha and, especially about her life. You can understand more in this interview.

Here you can find a traditional dance of a Geisha and here a traditional Geisha's make up.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

Has a book ever changed your life? People think I am crazy when I say this!

Well, I had  read this book the first time 15 years ago and I felt like I was not the same afterwards.
And this is exactly why I couldn't read it again for so long: I was scared to change the "memories", to overcome the feelings...how wrong I was!

Macondo, the imaginary place where the book is set, is a magic place, where feelings and emotions do not have boundaries, where everything is exaggerated in one sense or in the other. A place where love, guilt and passion are faces of the same coins.
No, I am not gonna tell you what is the book about, this you could easily find everywhere, I will just tell you to go to Macondo and try to stay there the longest you can, its loneliness will fill your days, the smell of banana trees will be with you for long, you will look at chestnut trees with sorrow and joy.
Macondo is the place where your emotions will sit under the shadow of a tree, while waiting for the next train, or the next plane to catch, but will you really dare and want to get it?

Remembering Márquez 

(Aracataca, 6 marzo 1927 – Città del Messico, 17 aprile 2014)

The Voice of the Violin: The Inspector Montalbano Mysteries by Andrea Camilleri

Have you have watched the (TV series): The Inspector Montalbano? It is a thriller series inspired by Camilleri's book. It is very nice, sharp and addicting. Said that, I had never read the book that inspired it, maybe 'cause I read so many thriller book when I was a teenager that I got saturated by them, but seriously, why had I not?

This book is so intense, addicting, full of suspense and, yes, also funny. Montalbano is not a normal inspector, he is "incazzuso" as we would say in slang, which cannot be really translated but means something like "prone to get pissed and annoyed". Every character in the book has his own distinct personality, that create growing interest in the book.

I recommend both the TV series and the book series!!!

The Gospel According to Jesus Christ by José Saramago

It is a bit difficult to review this book, my last intention is to talk about faith, religion and beliefs, but I think I cannot avoid it.

This is the "biography" of Jesus Christ, so forget the apostles, the priests and so on, and just concentrate on the version that probably Jesus would have liked to give of his life.
Think about that: one day the Holy Mary discover to be pregnant of a boy that is suppose to be the Son of God. As much faith as she can have, I think every person would have question the situation and be a bit scared. The boy, called Jesus, has an apparent normal life, till he discover he has some form of "powers", that people call miracles, but why? Why is he so special? And why has God chosen him to be his son?
In a book that face religion and beliefs you will find yourself wondering if the Good and the Bad aren't just two faces of the same coins, if faith can justify million of wrong things in this world and most of all if Jesus was happy of the life he was chosen for.
All of this with the distinct sarcastic style of Saramago, never disappointing.


I don't deny that having grown up in a catholic contest at times the book was a bit too pushy, describing intercourse between Mary and Joseph and also Jesus, and guess who?
 Nevertheless, I think such a book could bring more followers than the Gospel itself, 'cause it makes everyone more human and less divine.

Saramago, as usual, THANKS!

The Overcoat and the Nose by Nikolaj Gogol

How could I not read Gogol for so long? How, how, how?

Dostoevskij said "We are all born under Gogol's overcoat", and after reading him I can fully understand what he meant. Most of the writers were inspired by him, by his sarcasm, by his talking to the reader.
Maybe in this sense it was good I read him "later", so I could still appreciate the writers he inspired.

The strong idea of reading Gogol came after watching a great movie: The Namesake, adapted from a great book by Jhumpa Lahiri, in which the main character is called Gogol after the writer, for a circumstance that you should discover by reading the book or watching the movie. So after that I had a strong desire to read Gogol and understand why there was such a feeling toward this writer.

The writing is so sharp and somehow funny, a must read in everyone life!