April Reading, On the Move

Time for me to write up and post my April reading…a more challenging task than it usually is because I left my reading journal at home (wincing as I put it back in the desk drawer, but really, leaving home behind is part of the point of travel, surely). Also challenging because, as I mentioned last post, we don’t have Wifi here. But I am managing to use my phone to provide an Internet connection for my laptop, which makes the word-processing much easier — unfortunately, even the phone connection drops to one bar regularly, and I have to re-connect. Better than nothing, though, and the old dog has learned a new trick, so here we go. . . Two posts from Palermo in one week — Brava per me!

To encourage myself to gather my list and post some titles, I’ve begun with photos taken in the magnificent theological library—Biblioteca Alagoniana—we visited in Ortigia (Siracusa), included in the price of our admission to the Duomo there. As sumptuous and enveloping and calming and ordered as it looks, I can assure you it smells just as you’d expect. Old wood, regularly dusted and polished for decades, centuries even (18th-century shelving was moved to this new location in the early 1950s). That hint of vanilla, the notes of leather…

The visual pleasures and reassurances proffered by geometrical regularity in the shelves…and virtuosity, even play, in that inlaid desktop.

And then some glorious curves thrown in so that righteous rectilinearity doesn’t make Jack and his fellow scholars into dull boys. Heaven forbid!

But I’m getting silly. Time to get to the books. . .

Truth is, I’ve read less than usual this month, because we’re out and doing almost every day and often too tired even to read before I fall asleep. And also because I’ve been reading two books that take longer to process. . . Mary Beard’s history of Rome, not yet finished but read while we were in that city. . . and also Jamie McKay’s The Invention of Sicily: a Mediterranean History. . . I will finish these two over the next month or two, as I mull over our travels back home.

As usual, these are numbered as in my handwritten Reading Journal for 2022 — and the first entry, #22, was transcribed from a handwritten entry before we left Vancouver, almost a month ago. For the rest, just a few notes of what I can remember. Without my journal, I didn’t take any notes at all. Thought I’d jot a few down in my Travel Journal, but that didn’t happen — I’m not even sure I’ve managed to remember all the titles. But Palermo waits, so without further ado. . .

22. Klara and the Sun. Kazuo Ishiguro. Literary Fiction; Speculative Fiction; Artificial Intelligence; Coming-of-Age.

Set in a near-future, vague enough to be an extension of many contemporary societies or countries, but a few specific references that suggest it takes place in the US.

Klara is a thoughtful (whatever that can mean in A.I.) and observant AF — Artificial Friend — chosen by Julie as a companion. She soon realizes that Julie is ill, and that there are many elements beyond her understanding. Julie is on the brink of being “lifted,” which will allow her access to a better life among the elite. Her best friend and boyfriend, Rick, is not going to be lifted, however. This has something to do with his mother’s condition and her choices for him. Julie doesn’t seem comfortable — nor authentically herself –in the company of other young people on the same social path. And she apparently had a sister who didn’t survive whatever the process entailed.

As she puts together the data she collects through observation, Klara tries to understand something about love, and also about loneliness, about longing and belonging.

A rich perspective — and a disturbing one — on contemporary society, the meaning of humanity in this relationship with Smart machines and Artificial Intelligence. All made even more engaging and satisfying by how much we respond to our AF, Klara.

Recommended.

23. The Sicilian Wife. Caterina Edwards. Literary fiction. Mystery/thriller. Police Procedural, Female Detective, Armchair Travel, Set in Sicily.

A taut and convincing mystery/thriller by one of our community here at the blog, this book moves between rural and urban Sicily and then between Sicily and . . . could there be more of a contrast? . . . Edmonton, Canada. And even travelling that far might not have provided enough distance for a woman who has wanted to escape the reach of her family’s role in the Mafia, who has wanted to find new possibilities for herself as an educated and creative woman. Walking through the Piazza della Memoria the other evening, thinking of all the justice-system representatives killed by the Mafia, I remembered passages from this book, although I will write no “spoilers” here.

Woven through are literary references as well as allusions to Sicilian folk tales, expressions, and rituals. There’s romance as well, and also a compelling focus on gender but also on generational relationships . . . and a hope that women’s roles are changing, although grappling with the patriarchy is still an issue.

Recommended, especially if you’re planning a trip!

24. The Maid. Nina Prose. Mystery. Endearing female protagonist, perhaps “on the spectrum.”

Honestly, I wasn’t sure, the first chapter or so, what I thought about the twist that makes this whodunit so delightful. The young woman who narrates it perceives and processes the world differently than most of those she works with, taking much of what she observes at face value, and too often interpreting what she’s told too literally. She’s been raised by her grandmother, whose old-school values, expressions, and formal lexicon she’s adopted to the amusement (or scorn, or annoyance) of those she encounters. . . but her attention to detail makes her excellent at her work as a maid in a large hotel. Work of which she is very proud, although she’s aware that it’s often not valued, that she’s invisible to many.

And then she finds one of the hotel clients deceased in one of the rooms she cleans. . . and her idiosyncrasies leave her vulnerable to suspicion and accusations. I won’t say more because this is such a clever and charming novel that you will want to read it yourself and watch the complications unfold. Suffice it to say that “the maid” lets the world know that she is so much more than that . . . and she discovers that she has more admirers than she ever knew. Very satisfying. Perfect for reading on a plane, a train, or in the comfort of your own armchair — or, soon, if we’re lucky, your own hammock in the shade.

25. Pista Nera. Antonio Manzini. Read in Italian (available in English as Black Run). Set in Valle d’Aosta. Armchair Travel, Murder Mystery, Police Procedural, Rocco Schiavone series.

We’ve been reading this in my Italian class, so I brought along an e-copy and finished reading it here, boosting my Italian vocabulary along the way. Although I’d have to be pretty careful adopting much of Rocco Schiavone’s vocabulary — let’s just say it’s pretty salty!. Rocco is a vice-questore — a very good detective so far as solving crimes goes, but with a tendency to take shortcuts, to ignore the law himself. This tendency — and perhaps, we begin to suspect, an involvement in something more nefarious, some kind of ill-gotten gain — has landed him in Valle d’Aosta, in ski country, far too cold and remote for Roman Rocco.

Rude, misogynist, impatient, Rocco nonetheless gradually reveals another side through the passages in which author Manzini has him speaking to his beloved wife who, we come to understand, is deceased. I’m intrigued enough that I’ve bought the next title in the series, La Costola di Adamo. I had hoped to watch some of the TV series while we’re here, but the lack of Wifi has scotched that plan. Have some of you seen it? Read the books? If not, and you’re looking for a new detective series that will take you travelling, I recommend Vice-Questore Rocco Schiavone.

That’s it for a shorter list than usual. Thanks to the lack of Wifi, though, I’ve already finished two (light) books in May and begun Maggie Shipstead’s The Great Circle. So I’m all set with reading for my (relatively short) train trip tomorrow — finally heading to my Sketching Workshop in a fabulous location. More on that later. For now, I’m going to cross my fingers and see if I can post this before I lose my temperamental internet connection. I look forward to your comments and will respond as I’m able. Let me know what you’ve read, what you’re reading, or just wave in this direction.

xo,

frances