Review: le forbici

le forbici by Giorgio Cimasoni
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Interesting autobiographical essays about growing up in Ticino (mostly around Bellinzona-Claro and a bit around Lugano lake) in the 1930s-1940s.

Most are interesting reminisces, and then suddenly the chapter Don Angelo discusses a pedophile priest molesting children over night. Since these stories are autobiographical, I assume the people involved are all deceased, but I'm surprirsed this didn't create more of a scandal when it was released.

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Review: Pista nera

Pista nera by Antonio Manzini
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Interesting protagonist. Not bad as a mystery and talking about Aosta.


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Review: The Habsburgs: To Rule the World

The Habsburgs: To Rule the World by Martyn Rady
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Excellent overview (at least for me) of this family, which functioned as a state, or empire, but unlike Germany, France, etc. did not survive World War I. In many ways it was like the Ottoman empire, although one could argue that became Turkey. A fascinating read.





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Review: Akbar: The Great Mughal

Akbar: The Great Mughal by Ira Mukhoty
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I confess I knew next to nothing about Akbar before reading this book, so for me it was perfect. I see many other reviewers complaining how it skipped this or that, or how it is repetitive. Regardless, I found it rather fascinating and, though I'm not sure how much will stick with me, I enjoyed it throughout.


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Review: La corte dei misteri

La corte dei misteri by Mariacristina Pettorini Betti
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I confess I don't understand what the whole sidequest into the 80 year old dead bodies was for. I enjoyed the description and history of Lucca in general, but the murder mystery itself ended up being quite simplistic and repetitive (they literally repeated it all again for the conferenza stampa at the end, which lasted 3 pages).

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Review: Blow-Up and Other Stories

Blow-Up and Other Stories by Julio Cortázar
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Aside from Axolotl, I can't say any of these stories really spoke to me. I feel like I just wasn't in the right mindset, finding myself wanting the stories to finish and finding the intricate prose a bit tedious. I may have to give it another go, but only after a break.



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Review: The Black Swan Mystery

The Black Swan Mystery by Tetsuya Ayukawa
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I have no idea why it would be called the Black Swan Mystery, since the Black Swan is seldom mentioned and doesn't seem to occupy any sort of pivotal spot or anything.

Plus the train schedules and stations just confused me. It probably would've been a lot more interesting if I were more familiar with the trains and stations, or at least with how they were back in 1959.

The ending was somewhat satisfying, with a smart villain.


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Review: Audition

Audition by Katie Kitamura
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I can't really say this book worked for me. I felt lost when the change occurred, but realized quite quickly what the author was doing. And it wrapped up quite predictably and anti-climactically given everything.

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Review: Storie dimenticate. Per una geografia segreta del Ticino

Storie dimenticate. Per una geografia segreta del Ticino by Carlo Silini
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a gem of a book. Having grown up in Ticino, I was still completely ignorant about almost every story in this book, and many of them are quite interesting.

From the village being slowly uncovered in Tremona, to the large quarries in Mendrisiotto, to the story of the Ciani brothers, to the witch trials in Val di Blenio, to the "sculpture town" of Ligornetto, to discovering Faido was all posh during the Belle Epoque, to reading about the various plans Italy had to invade Switzerland, and Switzerland had to invade Italy(!), to learning about that weird castle in Torricella, to learning about gay art in the 1930s, to reading more about the Sanitorium in Agra, to the origin of the Jewish cemetery I would always drive by on the highway there in Lugano Sud.

I do wish they had something about the Castle of Trevano. I'm still wondering what that was about and why they demolished it.

But regardless, 5 stars.



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