Finally here we are with the latest books I’ve read, in November I didn’t publish my reviews simply because in October I didn’t fancy reading and I struggled to finish that awful “Double Goddess”. These kind of traumas need long recovery!
In November, though, I’ve recovered fully and I’ve read something 
The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde – The italian edition has a green dragon on an even greener background, I pick it up and immediately a choir from the librarian and my friend goes like “Ooooh that’s a nice one, you HAVE to read it!!!” Ok.
It actually is a really nice one, lighthearted, easy reading, fun, original, well written, simply put: a good book! This is one of those books that make me reconsider having to write something unconventional every single time, because when you use conventional stuff in a functional way it simply functions
Song of the Quarkbeast by Jasper Fforde – second book of this saga, we’re waiting for the third. There is a little issue with the translation of the title in italian (it simply became “The Challenge of Khazam”) and it has absolutely no meaning. But, title aside, Fforde once again offers a lighthearted, fun and original novel. If you still haven’t, I recommend them highly! Go on, go read them
The Girl With Curious Hair by David Foster Wallace – I had never read anything by this author before, I only heard about him from my ex coworkers (the nice ones) since they always had some of his books around. So I obliged. According to its italian page in Wikipedia “The Girl is considered a sort of poetic and stylistic manifesto for Wallace”. I trust Wikipedia, I read the book, I close the book. In the italian page Wikipedia goes on saing “the prose is frigid but at the same time hyperbolic and abiguous”.
That’s it, spot on, but not in a good way. Oh gosh, if THAT’S Wallace’s manifesto, please don’t make me read anything else of his, I hardly read more than 30 pages and I am still wondering why I’ve wasted my time. The good side of this is that I think he’d fit perfectly in the lightbulb jokes collection. A supposedly fun thing I’ll never do again.
Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie – Luckily it was a short book, I’m not saying this because it wasn’t nice, but because, if you take away the word “blood” here and there, Disney and Holliwood already quoted it entirely, word by word. And Wendy is soooo unlikeable, but I can’t expect much in a pre-teen described by a man from the 19th century. I expected to find mention of Pirates being Lost Boys who survived Peter’s murders since they were growing up. But I was mistaken in trusting random comments on the internet!!!
Particularly Cats by Doris Lessing – On the back my book says that Doris Lessing, in this very books, manages to instill a wanting for a cat even in the most hardcore dog lover. I’m an hardcore cat lover, but this book made me wish of not having cats anymore. Rather than “Particularly Cats” the title should have been “Particularly Unlucky Cats”. And with this one and Peter Pan, here went my to classics of the month.La quarta di copertina dice che Doris Lessing, con questo libro, riesce a far venire voglia di avere un gatto anche al più convinto cinofilo. Io sono una convinta gattara, ma questo libro mi ha messo voglia di non avere più gatti. Più che “Gatti molto speciali” doveva chiamarsi “Gatti molto sfigati”. E con questo e Peter Pan se ne vanno i miei due classici del mese (uno in più per recuperare mancanze passate).
The Night Battles by Carlo Ginzburg – Let’s talk local folklore. Despite everything, I really liked antrhopology back in my University days. And for once reading a book about italian costume written by an italian guy it’s a breath of fresh air! I highly recommend this book to all the folk lovers: he writes beautifully, discusses interesting stuff, and the reading is easy like it was a novel!
I also have books for the next month ready to read, all but the classic of the month I still have to choose. And I’ll also want to read The Hunger Games and have a taste of Terry Pratchett