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#HumbleHarvest Day 28: An interesting #Window in this first restaurant that we went to for dinner while in Bologna last week. We had caprese, carbonara, and Lampedusa.

#HumbleHarvest Day 22: A #RedStack of tomatoes for my caprese when we were in Bologna for my weekend dinner. Naturally paired with a classic from Italia while we are here.

A rich historical portrait of a dying Sicilian aristocracy, hastened by Garibaldi‘s armies sweeping through Italy in the name of national unification. di Lampedusa writes of the dazzling luxuriance of the Salina family and its patriarch, the Prince (based on di Lampedusa‘s own great-grandfather) who is all too aware of the impending forces of change, relegating him and his class to the dusty corners of history. Burt Lancaster; 1963 film version.

#bookspin - I don‘t know if I‘m doing this book a disservice but I just really couldn‘t get into it. And that meant I didn‘t read it properly, so maybe I missed stuff that I would‘ve enjoyed. I‘ve put it down literally less than a minute ago and I don‘t think I could summarise what it was about.. at least #doublespin is a reread that I know I will enjoy!

What a Shakespearean opening: in 19th century Italy on the cusp of a regime change, a Sicilian nobleman with fading influence sides with his favored nephew over his loyalist son. And the tragic action that unfolds? His nephew gets married and...that's about it. I'm being a little unfair, but the writing, which offers imaginative descriptions and an endearing, satirical humor also isn't quite interesting enough to compensate for the lack of a plot.

#readaroundtheworld #italy Catching up on a classic for this month‘s selection. Historical fiction from the 1860‘s that wonderfully captures the thoughts and emotions of a feudal prince who is watching his world collapse under the pressures of capitalism and the unification of the nation/states into one Italy. Although it is a prince whose mind we dwell in, the book also captures the quiet despair of anyone who loves life and yet must give it up

One of my favourite places in Sydney is Abbeys book shop. Since Covid started I have not been to visit🙁. As Sydney is now in lockdown again I am purchasing a few books every few months in way of support! I would hate it if they shut!!
Some books here that I have read about on Litsy or heard about on the ABC bookshow📕📮
Happy reading everyone🌻
#favouritebookshop #literature

#12Booksof2020 @andrew65
Midnight in Sicily is a spectacular analysis of the sociopolitical situation,taking in history,art,music,cinema, literature to weave a compelling narrative.It felt fitting to do a companion read with the elegiac The Leopard that is more subtle,but as powerful to trace the origins of the mafia and the conditions that led to its creation.Among the best books I've ever read,not just in 2020.

1. Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose, demonstrated by Sicilian politics
2. A book! In any form, how would I amuse myself otherwise! Also my husband, but he's not a thing😀
3. 1969, to Woodstock!
#wondrouswednesday

I want to screenshot every sentence in this book.

What a gorgeous sentence. Wonder if Ray read this book before making Jalsaghar.

When I picked this book up from my mothers stack, I only knew that this is a famous book. Nothing more.

Out of curiosity I started it and couldn't stop anymore. It was over way to fast! I lovd the historical details, learning about Italys history, about Sicily. But also the characters really got me.

What a lovely surprise this was!

This wasn‘t a bad book, and I do recognise it‘s an important classic, but it took me over 3/4 to get into it at all and I just couldn‘t connect with what it was saying even tho it was saying it very well. Male members of the gentry having intense feelings about class relations changing and the impermanence of their way of life just isn‘t my vibe, and I may be very uncultured here but I spent most of it thinking ‘go and find something to do‘

My book came in today!! Which makes me extremely happy because this book will be one of the many Italian books I read next year.

I've read parts of this in college for one of my classes and liked what I read then so I'm excited to read the entire book now 💜

I listen to a lot of bookish podcasts while I walk the dogs. Yesterday I was listening to the Vintage Podcast and landed on an episode about Lampedusa's The Leopard. There was a short intro, then an 8- minute excerpt of JO NESBO'S book, including a pretty awful death scene. Not exactly the Italian politics novel I expected. 😳

Starting this tonight! Been really looking forward to this one!

This Italian historical fiction managed to teach us something about Italian history and bore us at the same time. We got pretty giddy in the episode though, so that makes a fun listen. #1001books #soundcloud #googleplay #applepodcasts

#criterion #adaptation

I'll never be able to enjoy rewatching Gone with the Wind so long as I know I could be rewatching it's Italian equivalent.

[10]

I read this book now because it is on the list of #1001books and it is set in Sicily where I am holidaying at the moment. Is is the story of the downfall of the Sicilian aristocracy in the 19th century. Not a subject that I am really interested in. I liked the setting and the historical context but all in all I was not really interested in the Salina family and caught myself skimming the pages more than once.

#backpackEurope @JenP @bookwomM
I have forgotten how to use Litsy, so I hope this is correct. I am not in competition but thought it would be fun to post from my actual trip to Europe. My rule is that I have to post a book I have read from the country I am in. This post show my dragonboat team from Tauranga, New Zealand paddling under the Ponte Vecchio in Florence. We are competing in an international regatta of 130 teams and 4000 paddlers.

#HeatOfJuly
Day 4
@Cinfhen @BarbaraBB
A novel about an aristocratic family, in decline or not, is sure to feature fancy food & fashion.

Italy 1860, monasteries and convents are numerous, Garibaldi's revolutionaries are organizing.
"Soon it would be dark, convents became the despots of the panorama. It was against them that the fires in the mountains were kindled, fanned by men who were entirely like those who lived in convents, equally fanatical, equally closed-minded, just as eager to power, that is to say, as usual, idleness." Wonderful book, reviewed on Goodreads!

#theleopard

I went to my First bookclub Meeting on a teahouse with a little shop and came back with chocolate and a New bag! It says I believe in unicorn 😍😍😍😍

This is so not the kind of book I read! I got It in a blind box brazilian book club and started Reading It because there's going to be a Meeting to discuss It here in Recife, and I am amazed! This is so good, and right now I'm so Sad I read It so fast!

Just received my First #litsypenpals letter with that cute little monkey! I'm in love! Thank you @Robothugs !!!!

Currently Reading this classic.

I love this cover. Great book too!

It's not only about what you read, but where you read it. ☆

Love. Of course, love. Flames for a year, ashes for thirty.

And the Prince, who had found Donnafugeta unchanged, was found very much changed himself, for never before would he have issued so cordial an invitation; and from that moment, invisibly, began the decline of his prestige.

Prizewinning or spans multiple generations? I've got The Vegetarian (Man Booker International prize winner) in my latest library haul, so I'll ignore the fact that The Leopard won the Strega. Must be strategic!

English translation by Archibald Colquhoun was published in 1960, the year I was born. I wouldn't have read this if not for book bingo and I am glad I did!

Unification of Italy in the 19th century, as experienced by a Sicilian prince. Tipping point of cultural & political change. Atmospheric with period details. Understated elegant prose. Smooth audiobook narration by David Horovitch. #translation

"If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change."

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