Welcome to the monthly half hour in which we become typing book clubbers to share our recommendations.
Please share with the group anything you’ve enjoyed, providing it is either:
something you’ve encountered over the past month
OR:
something Italian.
I’m delighted to be welcoming the wonderful Daniela Petracco from Italian publishing house Europa Editions, as an expert special guest this month. I’m excited to discover her hot tips on all things Italian.
So let’s get typing! Tell me, what do you recommend to your fellow walking book clubbers?
I’m beginning with this magnificent film, which ticks both boxes:
Windswept why women walk by Annabel Abbs was absolutely wonderful and informative She walks on the walks taken by Freda Lawrence Georia O Keefe, Daphne du Maurier and others , all the time musing on why we need to walk It resonated so much with my need to walk and is so apt for a walking bookclub. It is just the best read.
I have been on a reread path and loved Elizabeth Bowen Death of The Heart, Penelope Fitzgerald The beginning of Spring , A House for Mr Biswis by Naipaul.I also really liked the latest Eleanor Catton Birnam Wood She writes so beautifully and it was gripping and relevant. I am about to start The House of Doors by Tan Twang Lee His Garden of Evening Mists was so poignant and exquisite I have read the Somerset Maughan short story The Letter on which the new book is based. I also really loved The Tokyo Express by Matsumoto. It was wonderful. I love detective novels as palate cleansers between books. I also believe you can learn so much about a country through its crime novels.
The Land Where Lemons Grow by Helena Attlee is about citrus fruit, their amazing history and how to cook with them but is also the most transporting book about Italy
Yes! My husband read and loved this. Isn’t there some bonkers fact in it about blood oranges actually being the same as normal oranges just grown in a different climate? Or something like that… anyway, I should read it too! Thanks for sharing.
Yes!! "This distinctive colouring is due to the blood-coloured pigments called anthocyanins that are also found in red, purple and blue ‘super fruits’ such as blueberries. The development of anthocyanin pigments in oranges is only triggered by a difference of at least ten degrees Celsius between day- and night-time temperatures while the fruit is ripening in the autumn and winter. In the shadow of Mount Etna it can be twenty degrees Celsius on a winter’s day, but at night there is always a sharp drop in temperature. So it’s cold, not warmth, that sets blood oranges on fire on the Etna plain."
I just finished reading Abraham Verghese’s big book, “The Covenant of Water.” It was great! Set in Kerala, India, it is a family saga with elements of medicine, superstition, a family curse, and wonderful characters I fell in love with. If you liked “Cutting for Stone” you’ll love this book as well.
While trying to aviod a shameless plug, I would like to recommend a lovely book by my friend Bruno Noble... I am also his publisher... That aside it is a genuinely enjoyable story set in the beautiful Italian village of Colletta. The Colletta Cassettes.
On a more practical note, I've just had the best lunch sandwich from Caffe' Italia, newly opened on Westbourne Grove. Ciabatta with mortadella, burrata and pistachio nuts sauce. Divine
Well, if it doesn't have to be Italian, I would love to recommend 'Drive your plough over the bones of dead people' by the Nobel prize winner Olga Tokarczuk.
It's quite quirky and maybe not for everyone but I think the message in it is very important and so deftly delivered!
On our walk, Pam recommended Christ Stopped at Eboli, a classic non-fiction book by Carlo Levi about his time in exile in the Italian south. It ties in nicely with Natalia Ginzburg's Winter in the Abruzzi essay, and was another extremely popular early walking book club pick.
Ciao! I would highly recommend any books by Dacia Maraini--many of her books are translated into English. I recently read Train to Budapest, which I loved. I discovered this author whilst researching past inhabitants of my house in Wales and it transpires that her grandmother, a writer and traveller known as "Yoï " once lived in it.
The Silent Duchess was shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize (now International Booker) 10+ years ago. It's a wonderful historical novel.
Many of you will remember Donatella Di Pietrantonio's A Girl Returned (incidentally, one of my late mother's favourite novels. She grew up not far from the Abruzzo region that is the novel's setting, at a time when cases of informal adoption were not unusual). We published the follow up earlier this year: A Sister's Story.
Yes - A Girl Returned was one of our most popular walking book club picks! Highly recommend it. The follow up is on my 'TBR' pile. I say pile... it's more of a landslide.
For your list of Italian (here Sicily) books consider adding: The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa in which a character says: “If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.”
I'm in Scotland so everything a bit later. Wisteria still in bud but, as I type, I'm looking at my lovely lilac tree. I'm sorry I have nothing Italian to contribute except to say I had a lovely stay last September in Trento. I'm always intending to read A Room With A View. Perhaps that should be my next read.
I returned to Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day again, third time I think It bears multiple readings, I get something new every time. His masterpiece I think. Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwen, another reread. Dipped a bit in the middle but enjoyable. Grace Notes by Bernard MacLaverty, might be a good walking club book.
Italy: I don't recommend the musical 'Glory Ride' at Charing Cross Theatre (a vanity project by a wealthy and completely unmusical American father-daughter team) but it was interesting to learn about Gino Bartali, an Italian star cyclist who smuggled dozens of Jewish children out of Mussolini's Italy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gino_Bartali
Capri was very rainy but it is always great to be there. I go there a few times a year and love to go on long, challenging walks on the island. I also read many books while I am there. Short flight from Heathrow to Naples, then an hour ferry to the island.
General: I very much enjoyed The Circle by Somerset Maugham at the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond (until 17 June) - an excellent example of a drawing-room comedy that also has emotional impact with a great cast, direction and costumes. The Comedy of Errors is one of the best productions I've seen at the Globe, with fabulous Elizabethan costumes. I'd been looking forward to the film version of Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret ever since I heard it was in the works and it's a delight. There's a lot of gorgeous stuff in the Berthe Morisot exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery. I'm currently reading The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers which is beautiful.
Re are you there god? ... I am ashamed to say I've never read any Judy Blume. Somehow my childhood reading didn't include her. But my husband is very keen to read Blubber - after watching a documentary about her. Have you read any of her other books? Is Are you there God the best one to start with?
I am longing to get to the Berthe Morisot - somehow it's harder to get to Dulwich from me than Paris (!) where I saw some of her extraordinary work back in March.
I realise this is an exceptionally North London commnent.
That might be the most North London comment I've ever heard (*inserts laughing emoji*). I took the Overground from Haggerston to Peckham Rye and there was bit of a wait for the connection but it is doable!
A Silence Shared, by Lalla Romano, is a story of a group of people hiding in a remote village through a hard winter during the German Occupation of Northern Italy. Matches the Winter essay of Ginzburg perfectly.
Next is London Diary, by Lorenza Mazzatti. This matches Ginzburg’s London essays really well as it’s a diary of Mazzatti’s time here in London after the war. It’s a great book.
First is Forbidden Notebook, by Alba de Céspedes. I loved this. I think it’s a masterpiece and as I’m sure you know only just available in English. For fans of Ginzburg and Ferrante this is a must. It’s brilliant.
And if you have already read all of Ferrante, I'd recommend Domenico Starnone's novels
For those who prefer short works, Ties, Trick, and Trust form a trilogy on the pitfalls of close family relationships. If a more expansive read is more your thing, Starnone's autobiographical novel The House on Via Gemito is out next month.
Happy sunny friday everyone! I know we are in May, but the beautiful weather and the abundant wisteria everywhere makes me think of one of my favourite books about Brits in Italy: The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim. It's also a lovely film!
I too adored 'The Girl Returned'. Oh, the pleasures of a short book!
This also from Enid:
Windswept why women walk by Annabel Abbs was absolutely wonderful and informative She walks on the walks taken by Freda Lawrence Georia O Keefe, Daphne du Maurier and others , all the time musing on why we need to walk It resonated so much with my need to walk and is so apt for a walking bookclub. It is just the best read.
Enid shared by email:
I have been on a reread path and loved Elizabeth Bowen Death of The Heart, Penelope Fitzgerald The beginning of Spring , A House for Mr Biswis by Naipaul.I also really liked the latest Eleanor Catton Birnam Wood She writes so beautifully and it was gripping and relevant. I am about to start The House of Doors by Tan Twang Lee His Garden of Evening Mists was so poignant and exquisite I have read the Somerset Maughan short story The Letter on which the new book is based. I also really loved The Tokyo Express by Matsumoto. It was wonderful. I love detective novels as palate cleansers between books. I also believe you can learn so much about a country through its crime novels.
The Land Where Lemons Grow by Helena Attlee is about citrus fruit, their amazing history and how to cook with them but is also the most transporting book about Italy
Yes! My husband read and loved this. Isn’t there some bonkers fact in it about blood oranges actually being the same as normal oranges just grown in a different climate? Or something like that… anyway, I should read it too! Thanks for sharing.
Yes!! "This distinctive colouring is due to the blood-coloured pigments called anthocyanins that are also found in red, purple and blue ‘super fruits’ such as blueberries. The development of anthocyanin pigments in oranges is only triggered by a difference of at least ten degrees Celsius between day- and night-time temperatures while the fruit is ripening in the autumn and winter. In the shadow of Mount Etna it can be twenty degrees Celsius on a winter’s day, but at night there is always a sharp drop in temperature. So it’s cold, not warmth, that sets blood oranges on fire on the Etna plain."
Thanks so much for refreshing my memory!! Amazing fact.
Not an Italian book but an absolute favourite about Italy …… Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim
YES! See my opening comment! I love this book, so glad to have found a fellow fan.
I just finished reading Abraham Verghese’s big book, “The Covenant of Water.” It was great! Set in Kerala, India, it is a family saga with elements of medicine, superstition, a family curse, and wonderful characters I fell in love with. If you liked “Cutting for Stone” you’ll love this book as well.
Thanks so much for the tip, Ellen - great to hear.
While trying to aviod a shameless plug, I would like to recommend a lovely book by my friend Bruno Noble... I am also his publisher... That aside it is a genuinely enjoyable story set in the beautiful Italian village of Colletta. The Colletta Cassettes.
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/60465150
I'm more than happy to provide a few free copies to anyone attending Stoke Newington Literary Festival as penance for the plug :)
Damien (Mosley
Hello Damien - thanks so much for sharing!
Thank you Emily and everyone.
I enjoyed chatting to you all, thank you Emily and everyone for having me.
Hope to see some of you for our Isherwood walk, and also, announcing here, ahead of monday's email:
I'm excited to be doing a special Frankenstein walk in Clissold Park as part of the Stoke Newington Literary Festival next Sunday 4th June:
https://www.stokenewingtonliteraryfestival.com/the-programme/
Our next On Our Reading Radar will be on Friday 30th June, 1.30-2pm, with the theme of gay love.
Gomorrah!
best TV series ever
WOW!
the book is not half bad either ;)
Thanks a million for all these great recommendations.
Anyone late to the thread - please feel free to add to the comments anytime!
Daniela - extra thanks to you for your expertise. So kind of you to share it.
Walkers / typers - thank you so much for joining me today!
People might like looking at this list of great Italian films:
https://mubi.com/lists/50-greatest-italian-films
Highly recommend the various Fellinis and also The Bicycle Thieves on this list...
I love Italian restaurant Sale e Pepe in Knightsbridge and authentic Neapolitan pizza at L’oro di Napoli in Ealing.
oooh thanks!
And one of my fave Italian restaurants is Trullo, on St Paul's Road.
https://www.trullorestaurant.com/
I love my local Italian deli Da Giovanna on Essex Road, Islington: https://www.instagram.com/dagiovannadeli/?hl=en
Daniela - where do Italians find the best Italian food in London?
for pizza, O'ver near Borough Market.
They use sea water for the dough, like they do in Naples.
amazing knowledge!
On a more practical note, I've just had the best lunch sandwich from Caffe' Italia, newly opened on Westbourne Grove. Ciabatta with mortadella, burrata and pistachio nuts sauce. Divine
yum
er, in my kitchen!
HAHA! We are waiting for our collective invitation....
Five more minutes on this action-packed thread!
Well, if it doesn't have to be Italian, I would love to recommend 'Drive your plough over the bones of dead people' by the Nobel prize winner Olga Tokarczuk.
It's quite quirky and maybe not for everyone but I think the message in it is very important and so deftly delivered!
Ah thanks!
I went to see the Complicite adaptation recently. I feel like the book is maybe more powerful, but the adaptation was certainly impressive.
My daughter and husband took their sons, 11 and 13 to see it. One loved and the other fell asleep!
Classic!
NOT Italian, but of great interest to walking book clubbers as we feature in it:
I recommend Ben Aitken's brand new book, Here Comes the Fun:
https://iconbooks.com/ib-title/here-comes-the-fun/
You might have met him on our Ginzburg walk, or the one featured in his book - Childhood by Tove Ditlevsen.
On our Zoom, Stina strongly recommended the film La Quatro Volte
On our walk, Pam recommended Christ Stopped at Eboli, a classic non-fiction book by Carlo Levi about his time in exile in the Italian south. It ties in nicely with Natalia Ginzburg's Winter in the Abruzzi essay, and was another extremely popular early walking book club pick.
I tried so many times to come to the walk and for a strange string of coincidences I never managed.
I will soon.
Also, Family Lexicon by Natalia Ginsburg is interesting
For sure! On both counts. Lovely to have you on the thread in any case.
Ciao! I would highly recommend any books by Dacia Maraini--many of her books are translated into English. I recently read Train to Budapest, which I loved. I discovered this author whilst researching past inhabitants of my house in Wales and it transpires that her grandmother, a writer and traveller known as "Yoï " once lived in it.
The Silent Duchess was shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize (now International Booker) 10+ years ago. It's a wonderful historical novel.
Lovely to have your recommendations here - I've not heard of Dacia Maraini and looking forward to discovering her.
Amazing to have that connection with your home!
Ciao Nina! Thanks for joining.
Many of you will remember Donatella Di Pietrantonio's A Girl Returned (incidentally, one of my late mother's favourite novels. She grew up not far from the Abruzzo region that is the novel's setting, at a time when cases of informal adoption were not unusual). We published the follow up earlier this year: A Sister's Story.
Yes - A Girl Returned was one of our most popular walking book club picks! Highly recommend it. The follow up is on my 'TBR' pile. I say pile... it's more of a landslide.
Hi Emily,
yes it is and it is really well written and poignant. It was a sensation in Italy when it came out
My reading list is growing by the second...
Tom emailed to say:
For your list of Italian (here Sicily) books consider adding: The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa in which a character says: “If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.”
I love The Leopard. And one of my lasting memories of it is all the incredible food!
Daniela - what else Italian would you like to share with the group? Any other books published not by Europa? Any great films?
One of my favourite Italian films is Pranzo di Ferragosto
not sure if or where it can be streamed, here's some more info https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1277728/
it is wryly funny, wonderfully understated, and takes place entirely within the flat where Vittorio and his aged mother live.
Mid-august Lunch - one to bear in mind for the summer!
The book 'Le otto montagne' is really beautiful.
Film really a good adaptation, for once!
I didn't know it was a book first!!!! How did I not know that!?
I'm in Scotland so everything a bit later. Wisteria still in bud but, as I type, I'm looking at my lovely lilac tree. I'm sorry I have nothing Italian to contribute except to say I had a lovely stay last September in Trento. I'm always intending to read A Room With A View. Perhaps that should be my next read.
Anything else you've enjoyed reading / watching over recent weeks? No need for them to be Italian. Enjoy your lilac tree.
I returned to Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day again, third time I think It bears multiple readings, I get something new every time. His masterpiece I think. Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwen, another reread. Dipped a bit in the middle but enjoyable. Grace Notes by Bernard MacLaverty, might be a good walking club book.
Ah thanks for these Claire!
I also love The Remains of the Day (previous walking book club pick) and agree about the multiple readings...
Great to have your other tips too - will note them down.
The OUP blog has had a piece on Grace Notes quite recently. Very informative.
will check it out thanks
Ah yes do read it next!!
Italy: I don't recommend the musical 'Glory Ride' at Charing Cross Theatre (a vanity project by a wealthy and completely unmusical American father-daughter team) but it was interesting to learn about Gino Bartali, an Italian star cyclist who smuggled dozens of Jewish children out of Mussolini's Italy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gino_Bartali
Thanks Julia!
Hello! Glad I am able to join today. I missed the May waking book club because I was on vacation in Capri, Italy. I enjoyed The Little Virtues.
how was Capri? Any hot tips you'd like to share? Or any other good Italian experiences?
Capri was very rainy but it is always great to be there. I go there a few times a year and love to go on long, challenging walks on the island. I also read many books while I am there. Short flight from Heathrow to Naples, then an hour ferry to the island.
Lovely to hear! Maybe one day a walking book club destination!
Hello Colleen - lovely to see you here!
Perfect Italian excuse to miss our walk!
General: I very much enjoyed The Circle by Somerset Maugham at the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond (until 17 June) - an excellent example of a drawing-room comedy that also has emotional impact with a great cast, direction and costumes. The Comedy of Errors is one of the best productions I've seen at the Globe, with fabulous Elizabethan costumes. I'd been looking forward to the film version of Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret ever since I heard it was in the works and it's a delight. There's a lot of gorgeous stuff in the Berthe Morisot exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery. I'm currently reading The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers which is beautiful.
And thanks for wonderful theatre tips as always !
Re are you there god? ... I am ashamed to say I've never read any Judy Blume. Somehow my childhood reading didn't include her. But my husband is very keen to read Blubber - after watching a documentary about her. Have you read any of her other books? Is Are you there God the best one to start with?
Yes, I think Margaret is the perfect place to start. Blubber is quite disturbing but scarily accurate.
Thanks!
And I love that Carson McCullers - I actually did a walking book club special hen party discussing it!
I am longing to get to the Berthe Morisot - somehow it's harder to get to Dulwich from me than Paris (!) where I saw some of her extraordinary work back in March.
I realise this is an exceptionally North London commnent.
That might be the most North London comment I've ever heard (*inserts laughing emoji*). I took the Overground from Haggerston to Peckham Rye and there was bit of a wait for the connection but it is doable!
phew. OK. Citymapper to the rescue...
Hello Julia lovely to see you here!
I have a load of brilliant recommendations from Simon, who came on the walk. Going to attempt to list them as replies to this comment:
Thanks Simon for these great tips! I'm ashamed to say that I've not read ANY of them!! Must rectify this!
Then they’re the classic Arturo’s Island, by Elsa Morante which I’m sure everyone knows but I thought I’d add it.
I've never even heard of it! Or any of these intriguing-sound suggestions.
A Silence Shared, by Lalla Romano, is a story of a group of people hiding in a remote village through a hard winter during the German Occupation of Northern Italy. Matches the Winter essay of Ginzburg perfectly.
Next is London Diary, by Lorenza Mazzatti. This matches Ginzburg’s London essays really well as it’s a diary of Mazzatti’s time here in London after the war. It’s a great book.
First is Forbidden Notebook, by Alba de Céspedes. I loved this. I think it’s a masterpiece and as I’m sure you know only just available in English. For fans of Ginzburg and Ferrante this is a must. It’s brilliant.
Seconded!
Daniela - would you like to share a few of your favourite Italian novels published by Europa?
And if you have already read all of Ferrante, I'd recommend Domenico Starnone's novels
For those who prefer short works, Ties, Trick, and Trust form a trilogy on the pitfalls of close family relationships. If a more expansive read is more your thing, Starnone's autobiographical novel The House on Via Gemito is out next month.
Thank you - these feel like gold dust tips!
well anything by Elena Ferrante has to come first, she was my one of my favourite authors long before I joined Europa!
I love it that Europa has brought her to so many readers!
hello walking book clubbers, lovely to join you!
Hello Daniela!
Hello, I think I'm in!
Hello Claire!
Happy sunny friday everyone! I know we are in May, but the beautiful weather and the abundant wisteria everywhere makes me think of one of my favourite books about Brits in Italy: The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim. It's also a lovely film!
Other great books that explore the exhilaration of Italy on the Brits are of course Forster's A Room with a View and Where Angels Fear to Tread.
I've also just read a proof of Amanda Craig's great new novel, The Three Graces, which shows Brits (mostly) descending upon Tuscany.