This review is for the audio version of this book. As a public service announcement, I recommend that you check in with your local library to see if they support OneClickdigital or other apps that let you download audiobooks to your smartphone via library membership. I have listened to a lot of hot bestsellers this way for free! Free! The Little Paris Book Shop is about a lot of things: the love of books, the art of living, courage, delicious food, loyal friends, and second […]
This Brilliant Novel
Have you ever had a friend who seemed effortlessly brilliant, talented and successful in every endeavor, an attention magnet who intimidates just about everyone? I had a friend like this a number of years ago, and perhaps that’s why I loved this book so much and look forward to the next two volumes. Set in a small town outside Naples in the 1950s, My Brilliant Friend is narrated by Elena Greco, friend to the fearless Lila Cerullo. The story begins in current time, with Lila’s […]
Little Known Story of Italian-Jewish Resistance in WWII
This amazing novel tells the story of ordinary men and women—farmers, soldiers, priests and nuns, housewives, doctors, stonemasons—who took a stance against the Nazi juggernaut in Italy and waged a near hopeless war of resistance not only in defense of their homeland but in defense of Jews from throughout Europe who had fled across the Alps into an Italy which had broken with Germany, thinking to find a refuge from the genocide, only to discover that the Germans were occupying Italy and prepared to escalate […]
Incest, murder and martyrdom in Italy–or is it?
Another in the series with young Roman cop Nic Costa, this one deals with the fall to his death of a man whose teenaged daughter is obsessed with an ancient Italian story from the 16th century, in which Beatrice Cenci, a girl sexually abused by her father, ends up murdering him, only to be beheaded by the Vatican as punishment. Mina Gabriel, along with her brother and mother, has a secret to hide, and it is Costa’s job to figure it out. Although the family […]