26 Nov 2012

Review: Who Could That Be At This Hour?

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Who Could That Be At This Hour? (All The Wrong Questions, #1)Who Could That Be At This Hour? by Lemony Snicket

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is not-exactly-a-prequel to Snicket’s previous A series of unfortunate events, narrated in first person by Snicket himself and set in his formative years as an apprentice to a secretive organization which we can only presume to be VFD.

Who could it be at this hour? presents itself as an ordinary mystery/detective novel, but followers of the Baudelaires’s misadventures will not be surprised … (Read more)

29 Oct 2012

Review: Un polpo alla gola

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Un polpo alla golaUn polpo alla gola by Zerocalcare

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Prima storia lunga per Calcare dopo il precedente libro ‘a episodi’. Come sempre ben fatto, e risuona particolarmente bene con la generazione di cui fa parte e per cui scrive, ma alla fine della fiera mi sembra che manchi un qualcosa in più. Sarà che alcuni dei temi erano stati già trattati in precedenza, sarà il finale da ‘dietro le quinte’ a cui forse avrei preferito il mistero … (Read more)

12 Oct 2012

Review: Shada

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Doctor Who: ShadaDoctor Who: Shada by Gareth Roberts

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Three stars veering towards a fourth.

This book is a late novelization of a six-parter story that Douglas Adams wrote for Doctor Who, but which never got fully filmed because of a strike. Since then Shada has had a troubled history and nearly as many incarnations as the Doctor: bits of it were used in The five Doctors, Adams himself recycled some of his own ideas in Dirk … (Read more)

15 Sep 2012

Review: Titus Awakes

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Titus Awakes: The Lost Book of Gormenghast (Gormenghast, #4)Titus Awakes: The Lost Book of Gormenghast by Maeve Gilmore

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I think Maeve Gilmore did a wonderful job with this book. While it certainly lacks Peake’s sense for the grotesque (which anyway felt more at home in Gormenghast than outside of it) it certainly does read like a Gormenghast book and, in particular, is an excellent counterpoint and closure to the part of Titus’ life that started in Titus Alone.
The story of Titus … (Read more)

17 Aug 2012

Review: Titus Alone

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Titus Alone (Gormenghast Trilogy, #3)Titus Alone by Mervyn Peake

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Titus Alone turns the whole world introduced in Gormenghast on its head: gone is the aloof gothic castle with its quasi-fantasy atmosphere and its days punctuated by rites and tradition, and in its place is a country of squallor and modernity, Bond-like contraptions and sentient machinery, sleek airplanes and smelly cars, menageries of animals and factories populated by identical drones. The only constant is Titus, wandering lost and alone, … (Read more)

12 Aug 2012

Review: Witch Week

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Witch Week (Chrestomanci, #3)Witch Week by Diana Wynne Jones

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the first Chrestomanci book I read and I feel it’s a great introduction to the series. Set in a boarding house in a world similar but not quite like our own, where witches are real but illegal and burned to the stake, the story starts with a bang when an anonymous note accuses someone in the class of being a witch. But if there only is … (Read more)

12 Aug 2012

Review: Lud-in-the-Mist

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Lud-in-the-MistLud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This a wonderful book that, in a way, could be called a fantasy of manners. The story is about a small city bordering with Fairyland, something which the citizens pretend doesn’t exist since the merchants too control of the country. The tranquillity of the town gets turned upside down when some people are found partaking of fairy fruit, and odd happenings start popping up all around Lud. It will take … (Read more)

19 Jul 2012

Review: The Long Earth

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The Long EarthThe Long Earth by Terry Pratchett

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

While the idea of infinite parallel worlds is not a new one, Pratchett and Baxter manage to give it a new spin, touching not only on the adventurous explorations and dangers that these new world represent, but also on the very real social, economical and political effects that such a discovery would have on our own world. The exploration thread follows mostly Joshua and Lobsang, a man with … (Read more)

23 Jun 2012

Review: Glamour in Glass

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Glamour in Glass (Glamourist Histories, #2)Glamour in Glass by Mary Robinette Kowal

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Glamour in Glass follows the turbulent honeymoon of Jane and David as they travel to a small town in Belgium right during Napoleon’s return from exile.
This is a good book and I enjoyed reading it but I think it’s not as compelling as the first in the series. First of all, Shades of milk and honey was a straight-up Austen with magic, while Glamour in Glass … (Read more)

“Lenta conversazione” a Montechiarugolo
10 Jun 2012

“Lenta conversazione” a Montechiarugolo

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“Lenta conversazione” è il progetto fotografico di quattro diversi fotografi: Stefano Anceschi, Gabriella Becchi, Ian Gazzotti e Barbara Leoni.

Le 30 immagini esposte nelle sale del palazzo Civico di Montechiarugolo dal 23 giugno al 29 luglio 2012 presentano una particolarità: sono state scattate insieme, nello stesso posto (l’onirico scenario dei boschi di Carrega) e alla stessa data. Sono poi state scelte e stampate insieme.

Non si tratta quindi di una collettiva di lavori diversi, ma di un lavoro … (Read more)

29 Apr 2012

Review: The Hunger Games

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Hunger Games (Hunger Games, #1)Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

After so much hype and positive reviews I admit I was expecting something more out of this book.
I liked the characterization of Katniss, and the first person narrator is definitely one of the strengths of the book: the actual Games manage to convey the sense of thrill and danger, even though the plot is often too linear and predictable, because we’re seeing them through the lens of Katniss’ … (Read more)

22 Mar 2012

Review: Titus Groan

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Titus Groan (Gormenghast, #1)Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I don’t think there are enough words to describe the genius that Mervyn Peake put into creating the world within a world that is Gormenghast. Living in a dimension all of its own between the historical, the fantastical and the grotesque there is a land and a castle whose inhabitants’ lives are punctuated by century-old rituals. Every one in Gormenghast is peculiar – the Countess, surrounded by white cats; … (Read more)

12 Mar 2012

Review: Shades of Milk and Honey

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Shades of Milk and Honey (Glamourist Histories, #1)Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A quick and easy read in the style of Jane Austen, set in a world where magic exists in the shape of glamour, complicated sensory illusions, and is considered one of the arts a proper girl must know in order to fetch a good marriage. The story follows Jane Ellsworth, a gifted glamourist but unlucky in love, as she accidentally stumbles into a series of … (Read more)

3 Jan 2012

Review: The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making

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The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (Fairyland, #1)The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’ve just finished re-reading this story (this time in book format) and it’s once again as wonderful as the first time. Born as a book within a book, Fairyland grew into the story of September, a young girl who is whisked into Fairyland and ends up having Adventures, meeting a Wiverary (part wyvern, part library) and several other … (Read more)

17 Nov 2011

Review: The Folded World

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The Folded World (A Dirge for Prester John, #2)The Folded World by Catherynne M. Valente

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow. I am slain.

I didn’t start the second part of this tale with the best of auspices. I admit that, while I loved The Habitation of the Blessed, I found it often hard to move through, as if I too were John struggling with a new world.
But this book. I don’t know what his book is.
The second part of a trilogy is usually … (Read more)