Classics: “The Odyssey”

I was nine when I first read the Odyssey. A very clean version, obviously, very illustrated and much shorter. But even then Odysseus and I embarked together on the ship to Ithaca, and we met mermaids and sorceresses, and cyclops and kings, in an adventure that made me fly with the immagination.

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«Ahimè, sempre gli uomini accusano gli dei: dicono che da noi provengono le sventure, mentre è per i loro errori che patiscono e soffrono oltre misura.»

How much truth, dear Zeus, how many times do we blame the deities for the misfortunes. But I must say that with Ulysses you cannot deny that you are really ruthless! His indisputable thirst for knowledge, his cunning and courage, combined with his love for his homeland, have always made me cheer for our Homeric hero. The propensity to betray, the know-it-all attitude, on the other hand, led me to hope that I would strike him once and for all.

But at the time of the Odyssey it was still not customary to let the main character die and therefore island after island, vicissitude after vicissitude, our traveling hero faces what seems to the students an interminable journey[1]and which for me was…

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“A Jurassic Journey”

The idea of ​​the writer is brilliant, we are not alone in front of an entertainment book, as reflections are raised and some issues are treated that make it even more interesting and profound and the message of the writer who warns us is very clear. on man’s unconsciousness in the face of money and power, while never taking sides against science, on the contrary, it simply warns us of a possible “dark side” in the search for progress.

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“God creates dinosaurs, God kills dinosaurs, God creates man, man kills God, man brings back dinosaurs.”
― Michael Crichton, Jurassic Park

1993, the doors of Jurassic Park are opened, a film that pushes adults and children into theaters, and which is still cited today as one of the undisputed masterpieces of director Steven Spielberg.

Crowds of spectators went to the cinema then, and crowds of spectators are looking for it in streaming to be able to savor it today.

But how many of these enthusiasts know that the true genius, the one who created the park, the characters and above all the fabulous and mammoth dinosaurs is a writer?

And not a stranger, but the famous and brilliant Michael Crichton, also author of The terminal man, Timeline – At the edge of time and Next, to name a few, as well as the author and co-writer of one of my…

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“BONES: a very SPECIAL doctor”

[2] Fun Fact: Kathy Reichs appears in a cameo in the eleventh episode of the second season, The Double Face of Faith, as Professor Constance Wright, a forensic anthropologist on Zack Addy’s graduation committee. [10] In the fifteenth episode of the second season, Murder by Murder, it is revealed that the protagonist of the Temperance Brennan books is Kathy Reichs.

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Cold borsch *
(the revisited version of the classic Ukrainian beetroot soup: a soup that has ancient origins in Ashkenazi cuisine) and broken fingers **,

* Cold borch

(I took the idea from the Expo 2015 recipe book)

Ingredients (for 4 people):

-1 kilo of Beets
– 2 liters of vegetable broth
– 1 Onions
– 1 Carrots
– 1 tablespoon of brown sugar
– 40 milligrams of lemon juice
– 100 milliliters of sour cream
– 1 pinch of Thyme
– 1 pinch of parsley

Method

We boil the peeled beets in the broth with the onion and carrot until they are well cooked and soft. (If the beets are already boiled, they must be seasoned in a saucepan cut into small pieces, with the carrot and onion and half of the broth).
Drain the vegetables and keep the broth, blend the beets with the other vegetables, adding the…

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“A good glass of wine in one hand and a good story in the other!”

And perhaps for this reason it is read more by women than by men. Because we feel more involved, more empathetic with Minù, the aristocratic but unfortunate protagonist.

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“It was raining the night my father changed the course of my life“[1]

And it was raining the night my mother handed me this book one autumn evening eight years ago. This book was recommended to her in turn by a friend, to whom her mother had given it as a gift, who had read a good review: the writer Benedetta Cibrario [2] was awarded the Campiello Prize in 2008 – and so on …

From woman to woman, this novel has come to me. I think it is a coincidence that no possessor of the Y chromosome has been mentioned, since it is a novel with no pretense of ending up in the “pink” category. A category, among other things, that I don’t particularly appreciate.

And then why pink ? Couldn’t they have been orange novels? Blue or emerald?

Bah.

I take some Rossovermiglio from the cellar…

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“The Nothomb style”

During a conversation at the home of mutual acquaintances, a man tells the protagonist Baptiste Bordave a kind of macabre anecdote, and advises him to pretend, in case someone dies accidentally in his house, that he was missing during the transport to the hospital, to avoid legal complications. . The next day a stranger shows up at his house and asks him for permission to call because the car stopped due to a breakdown; but suddenly dies while on the phone. Struck by the coincidence with the conversation of the previous day, Baptiste does not ask for help, indeed from the documents of the dead man he discovers that his name is Olaf Sildur, he is Swedish and lives in Versailles. He takes possession of his Jaguar and reaches a luxury villa that gives him the idea of ​​abandoning his insignificant life and assuming the identity of the deceased. The house is inhabited by Sildur’s wife, who gradually turns out to be a Frenchwoman whom the man saved from drug addiction. The wedding seems to be the cover for a job of welcoming guests passing through, probably secret agents, who alternate between one mission and another. Baptiste soon falls in love with the beautiful woman, who lives in an artificial intoxication caused by the large reserves of champagne in the villa. But Baptiste’s curiosity drives him to try to identify to whom Olaf Sildur made the last call from his home, attracting the attention of someone who perhaps wanted the landlord dead.

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There she is, staring at me. Mocks me. “You are a reader of a hundred novels a year and yet you have never opened a book of mine”. I hear her whisper. And maybe someone could take me for crazy but I have always talked to books with books. I always thought that as they passed them they would call me to them. And often this is how I choose them.

Since I started working in the bookstore, imagine how many items …

Before you call a shrink and send me to recovery, know that books are my only addiction, so be cute and cuddly and indulge me.

Nothomb’s books have been changed shelves several times since I’ve been in the bookstore, one of my bosses suggested me over and over again to get one, but when I walked past I didn’t feel the right vibrations.

Until two days ago.

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“A Blanket, Churros, and New Words”

The protagonist of “Apex Hides the Hurt” is a terminology consultant. If someone needs the right name for his or her new product – whether it’s a car or an antidepressive, a snack or a spoon -, he’s the one.

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Winter. High-necked sweaters, steaming mugs, hearty plates and duvets. Fireplace. The snow. Chat with friends in front of board games away from attics and cellars.

“All he felt now was envy. These people had expectations. Of the world, of the future, it didn’t matter–expectation was such an innovative concept to him that he couldn’t help but be a bit moved by what they were saying. Whatever that was.”
― Colson Whitehead, Apex Hides the Hurt

I always imagined that when I went to live on my own, I would spend the winter like that. I don’t know if I thought I’d become a millionaire all of a sudden to buy a chalet complete with a fireplace and rooms for each visitor, or just as a good screenwriter I let myself be carried away by fiction, because I live there alone, winter is coming, but not only I don’t have a fireplace…

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Classics: “The Great Gatsby”

Twenties atmospheres, the age of jazz, prohibition[1], lights, parties, beautiful cars and cocktail dresses. How not to be fascinated? One immediately thinks of jewels, make-up, sets. To wealth!

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Twenties atmospheres, the age of jazz, prohibition[1], lights, parties, beautiful cars and cocktail dresses. How not to be fascinated? One immediately thinks of jewels, make-up, sets. To wealth!

Probably those who lived these years would not really agree with the imagery that was created around the magical twenties, since struck by lights and colors, it is easy to forget that that decade is right between the two world wars, and that all that exaggeration, display of power, money and happiness served to cover a majority of the population in misery and depression.

The manifesto of the decade, at least of the American one, we know well how different lives were in Europe !, is undoubtedly THE GREAT GATSBY, issued in 1925 by the skilled hands of Francis Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1900). The novel, for those few who did not know it, is based on the indecipherable and ambiguous figure…

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“To Stay or to Go: this is the Dilemma”

Going, looking for prosperity outside, perhaps abroad, totally changing your life and prospects. Or stay, try to change things in your Country, in your home.

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I am not used to love stories, I think I have repeated it many times, but the fact is that they continue to give them to me, and I, as an avid reader, cannot watch them end up on a shelf collecting dust: I have to read them. Often at the end of reading I regret it, bored to death by the banality of the story, of the characters, of the plots that already reveal the ending in the second line. But sometimes there are some exceptions, a few pearls in the pile of empty shells!

Obviously, those who gave it to me know me best, or maybe it’s simply a coincidence … who knows. The fact is that when my longtime friend gave me Silvia Avallone’s “Marina Bellezza[1]” I was really very skeptical, but three weeks later I changed my mind. Despite being a Christmas present…

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