SUMMER IS FOR READING: THE FAULT IN OUR STARS & OTHER LOVE STORIES

I've been reading quite a lot  in these lazy summer days. That's what summer is for,  in my case. I didn't manage to read much in the past year, so it is the perfect time to catch up, to read as much as I can, both in English and in Italian. I'm sure I won't manage to be completely satisfied in the end,  since to hope to go through all my ambitiously endless TBR list is utopian, but, at least,  I'll try to  make my read-in-2014 list a bit longer.

The latest two books I added to the latter are both romance fiction novels in the star-crossed-lovers/ don't-forget-your-tissues section.
Jokes apart, they are both novels I won't easily forget. I  love them.  Both, as different as they are.

The Fault in Our Stars

"The fault, dear Brutus,  is not in our stars but in ourselves, that we are underlings". Probably John Green had this line from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar in his mind while trying to give his beatiful love story a proper title. But more probably, more than Julius Caesar, he had Romeo and Juliet in mind (... A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life/ Whose misadventured piteous overthrows / Doth with their death... ) , while writing the story of Hazel Grace Lancaster and Augustus Waters. Shakespearean influences apart, the author was really inspired while depicting his two young protagonists with black letters on white pages: they are two of the loveliest,  liveliest teenage characters I've ever encountered.

FIERAMENTE IL LIBRO - BOOKS & WRITERS, A LITERARY FESTIVAL IN MY HOMETOWN

Books and writers have always fascinated me since I was a child, as soon as I could  read and write. These days I'm experiencing a full immersion of meetings with writers and discussions  of  books which makes me proud and happy.  The atmosphere is rather familiar and intimate, the location stunning and the people I met interesting or even inspiring. Nothing of the speculation over literature, culture and publishing we see in other literary festivals. 

Fieramente il libro is an event at its second edition in my home town, among the organizers two dear friends of mine, whom I must thank for the energy and the enthusiasm they put in everything they do  and, of course, for inviting me to be part of the event as a member of the reading jury. I've read the 3  books finalists in the Narrative section and tomorrow I'll have to choose the one I liked best.

Yesterday TrainDogs and Fabio Palombo gave start to a weekend of special encounters: beautiful words and awesome music in a show called, Abracadabra. Fabio Palombo read his stories of men and women in little less than 11 lines, which he used to post on facebook at firsr. They are an extraordinary example of how words can do magic.