February 2017 - Storico Italia

I have been thinking very hard about potential themes for February. Although I tried to stay away from the obvious - Valentines Day/Romance, the more I tried not to think of Romance the harder it was to come up with an alternative idea. So, I'm thinking of romance, which leads me to think of famous romantic relationships in history, which leads me to think of Romeo and Juliet, which leads me to thinking of Italy. Italy is number one on my dream holiday destination list. So I think what about "Historical Italy". There would be so many choices. Perfect! So our theme for February is Storico Italia (which means historical Italy as translated by Google).

You could read a book about Gladiators


A Roman mystery


Something set in Mussolini's Italy


There's plenty of series that are set in Italy too.


There's the Borgia's, Caeser, Mark Antony, the Roman legions, the Medicis, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci,Galileo and so many more.

Ideally the book you choose should be mostly set in Italy, or feature Italian characters. I'm looking forward to taking many book bullets in February. Buona lettura!! (Happy Reading!!)

I have a couple of TBRs that will fit. Portrait of a Lady by Diane A. S. Stuckart is a definite fit. It's a historical mystery featuring Leonardo da Vinci and his young assistant. A Dead Man in Trieste may also fit. It's in Italy now, but when the book is set (about 1910) it was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. But it does have some Italian characters.

One other option is A Roman Singer by Francis Marion Crawford.

>2 cbl_tn: I might do a reread of Portrait of a Lady - but Henry James's. It's been quite a number of years.

More of James: The Aspern Papers, his Italian travel essays, Daisy Miller, The Wings of the Dove.

And for a friend of James, there are also a couple of collections of Italian stories by Constance Fenimore Woolson, and I've also got that relatively new biography by Anne Boyd Rioux somewhere in one of many Mount TBRs. There's a definite Venetian connection with her death, falling or jumping out the window.

Speaking of deaths in Venice, there's Death in Venice, and I've been meaning to get around to Mann for ages. And I know exactly where my Norton Critical Edition of that one is.

And Foucault's Pendulum.

As always, I'll be looking for RTT readings that can also satisfy ROOTs.

I have The Midwife of Venice on my shelves. Will have to cue it up for February.

I have a number of books that will fit this theme. I think I will be reading either Great Maria by Cecelia Holland, The Italian Wife by Kate Furnivall or The Book of Unholy Mischief by Elle Newmark.

I've got Emperor: The Death of Kings by Conn Iggulden which I'll try to fit in for this.

sixteen pleasures is one of my favorite books of Florence, and the mud angels during the flood of the 60s. I will have to reread it (gosh darn) for this theme. Also Stones of Florence , Miss Garnet's Angel In the Company of the Courtesan - oh my, so much to choose from!

I'm so happy you are all finding options so easily.
>4 Familyhistorian: I have read and liked The Midwife of Venice. I think I have read the sequel too.
>5 DeltaQueen50:, I've also read The Italian Wife, which I enjoyed. I have liked everything I've read by Kate Furnivall.

>8 Roro8: I picked up The Midwife of Venice after attending a writing session given by Roberta Rich. That was a couple of years ago so I really should read the book.

>9 Familyhistorian:, it does seem like the perfect opportunity.

I thought of joining this theme with The Leopard by Giuseppe Di Lampedusa, a novel I long wanted to read and this seems the prefect opportunity.

I read The Leopard in college and loved it. Maybe I will dig out my copy and do a re-read... So many options for this theme!

>12 katiekrug: - Indeed. Too bad February is such a short month :-)

Great theme!

I have Conn Iggulden's Gates of Rome series on my bookshelf.....maybe?

I also have the next book in Ben Kane's Eagles of Rome trilogy, Hunting the Eagles. That would work too.

I'm reading The Witch of Napoli. Chapter 1 is great!

I read the The Witch of Napoli for the Feb. RTT (Storico Italica). It was very elementarily written and also predictable. The story of Alessandra Poverelli who can leviatate tables and channel the ghost of Savonarola. Everybody is out to discredit Alessandra, even the Church. This novel is loosely based on the controversial Italian medium Eusapia Palladino and pits the church and science against the possibility of an afterlife. Might have been a better story with a better writer/storyteller! 350 pages 2 1/2 stars

>17 Tess_W: Ah, so it didn't live up to the promise of the first chapter then, Tess?

>18 Familyhistorian:, Not, it was "good" until about midway and then seemed to drag.

I have finished my read of The Book of Unholy Mischief by Elle Newmark. The book was set in Venice during the final years of the fifteenth century and although the mystery part of the book didn't really draw me in, the authors' rich descriptions of Venice, along with the many details of cooking and serving food kept me glued to the pages.

I'm half way through Ben Kane's Hunting the Eagles. Its been five years since Arminius' betrayal of Rome, and the Roman legions are out for vengeance.

I'll be reading Garden of the Finzi-Continis. I finally saw the movie and it made me feel like I had to read the book. I'm picking it up at the library today.

I read Blood and Beauty by Sarah Dunant. The Borgia family – the pope and his children – portrayed a bit more generously than usual.

Just finished Thomas Mann's Death in Venice (Norton Critical Edition), 5***** for the superb supplementary material in this Norton Critical.

I couldn't finish Stabat mater, where Cecilia, an orphan at the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice, and a student of Vivaldi, talks to her mother in her head, out of what sounds like a deep depression. I simply couldn't get into her head, the whole concept was too alien.

I read The Secret Book of Grazia dei Rossi ages ago. Think I might need to reread this

I loved The Secret Book of Grazia dei Rossi ages ago. Might be time for a reread. Based on a true story, takes place in Florence during the Rennaissance,. What makes it interesting is the family in question is Jewish, which gives a different perspectve to the time period and place than other books.

I finished The Garden of the Finzi-Continis by Giorgio Bassani. The author does quite a good job of showing us what it was like to live as part of the Jewish community in the town of Ferrara, Italy during the years immediately preceding World War II. The universal experiences of adolescence and young adulthood are set against the particular issues of the time such as attitudes and restrictive laws affecting the Jews of this time and place. This is one of those books that will take time for me to digest, but I'm very glad I took the time to read it. The movie made from this book does follow the book fairly closely. It takes some dramatic license, but not enough to ruin it for me.

I finished Die Nonne von Monza, an episode from Alessandro Manzoni's original version of I promessi sposi which he deleted. A young girl is destined to be a nun by her family and comes to grief. He wrote this in the 19th century and sets his tale in the 17th, and his main theme is how the powerful exploit the poor and the weak. Great reading.

>28 cbfiske: Loved the book; there is a decent movie as well, from 1971.

I'm half way through The Girl With the Painted Face by Gabrielle Kimm. It's about Sophia, a 17 year old girl who joins and acting troupe travelling through Italy. From what I can gather, there is about to be a murder!!!

I also finished Jean Sbogar which I cannot recommend. Time has not been kind to this novel about robbers in the Istrian forests, first published in 1818, when Istria still belonged to Venice.

Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady in Novels: 1881-1886 (Library of America), set partially in England but primarily in Italy (mainly Rome, and also Florence). 5*****

The LoA uses the 1881 edition, the first edition published in book form following the novel's original serialization. LoA's reasoning is that this is the first version over which James had complete editorial control.

I've also got the Norton Critical Edition, which uses James's revised 1908 edition, which for many readers is the preferred text. I'm going to read the Norton Critical supplementary materials and also take a look at some of the 1908 text which particularly differs from the 1881 text – most notably, as I understand it, the closing scene between Isabel and Caspar.

I'm also planning on reading Washington Square and The Bostonians, the other two novels in this LoA edition, neither of which I've ever read. I did read Portrait, but it was back in high school going on a half-century ago, so much of this rereading is really a new reading (although much of the novel also came back to me as I reread it).

I finally finished my book for February's challenge. What can I say, February is too short. The Midwife of Venice was set partially in Venice and partially in Malta. The 16th century was a hard time for Jews. They had their own quarter in Venice and were supposed to stick within their walls. The midwife, Hannah, must decide whether she should break this taboo to attend the wife of a Christian. If she does, she may be able to earn enough to pay for her husband's freedom as he was captured and made a slave on Malta.

Hannah decides to risk working for a Christian but that act has many unforeseen consequences. Events get more and more dire for Hannah and her enslaved husband, Isaac, as the tale unfolds. The reader must read to the end to see if Hannah and Isaac find each other again.

>34 Familyhistorian:, I quite liked that book when I read it.

>35 Roro8: I bought it because I attended a workshop on writing given by Roberta Rich. I will let it sit for a while and then go back and analyse what she did in the novel based on the notes that I took at the workshop. It really does keep the reader turning pages.