#Gabriella Ghermandi

[williamchasterson]

Forget Ethiopia's Spice Girls - this singer salutes the true queens

Singer Gabriella Ghermandi dismisses suggestions that Ethiopians need to be taught about empowering women. from BBC News https://ift.tt/6C40Bec via IFTTT

[lamilanomagazine]

Bologna, torna la rassegna per la Giornata mondiale del Rifugiato

Bologna, torna la rassegna per la Giornata mondiale del Rifugiato Anche quest'anno la Giornata Mondiale del Rifugiato diventa l'occasione per proporre un programma di eventi organizzati dal Comune di Bologna, nell'ambito del Progetto SAI coordinato da ASP Città di Bologna e da diversi enti impegnati sui temi dell'accoglienza e della migrazione. La Piazza dell'accoglienza è l'evento "ufficiale", organizzato dal Comune di Bologna insieme a BolognaCares!, in programma mercoledì 19 giugno in piazza Lucio Dalla, a partire dalle 17:30 con i laboratori di fumetto per bambini/e e ragazzi/e a cura di Salvatore Giommarresi "Ogni valigia un viaggio" (6-10 anni) e Mirka Ruggeri "Superpoteri che cambiano il mondo" (11-15 anni), seguiti dalla presentazione libro a fumetti 10 storie di accoglienza con firmacopie degli autori (Mirka Ruggeri, Salvatore Giommarresi e Alice Facchini). Dopo i saluti di Erika Capasso, delegata del Sindaco, Stefano Brugnara, amministratore unico di ASP Città di Bologna, e Cristina Francucci, direttrice dell'Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna, è prevista la proiezione del documentario MistArt. Migranti della street art, sul laboratorio rivolto a beneficiari del Progetto SAI condotto dall'Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna. La serata culminerà nel concerto Maqeda, di Gabriella Ghermandi e Atse Tewodros Project unica band italo-etiope esistente. Il calendario completo degli eventi in programma dall'11 al 24 giugno è visibile a questo link. Tra gli appuntamenti segnaliamo: mercoledì 12 giugno (piazza Lucio Dalla), Caro migrante, il Tavolo Migranti dell'Arcidiocesi di Bologna mette a confronto Pif (Pierfrancesco Diliberto) con migranti, operatori e volontari dell'accoglienza, e il Cardinale Matteo Maria Zuppi; lunedì 17 giugno, (Cinema Arlecchino, via delle Lame 59/A) la proiezione di Telling them about us, film realizzato da Rand Beiruty con un gruppo di ragazze arabe, curde e rom in Germania dell'Est (nell'ambito del Biografilm Festival, con Arca di Noè); sabato 22 giugno, la crisi in Medio Oriente sarà al centro della proiezione del film A world not ours, di Mahdi Fleifel (2012), nell'ambito della rassegna "In Barca verso Est" nella sede dell'Associazione Hayat (via Leonardo da Vinci, 2/B Bologna); domenica 23 giugno, al Cinema Bristol (via Toscana 146 Bologna), con il Il secolo è mobile, monologo multimediale scritto e realizzato dal giornalista Gabriele Del Grande (produzione di Zalab), a cura di CIDAS. La Giornata del Rifugiato, istituita il 4 dicembre 2000 dall'Assemblea Generale delle Nazioni Unite in occasione del cinquantennale della Convenzione di Ginevra che nel 1951 definì lo status di rifugiato, è celebrata in tutta Italia. Come l'anno scorso, l'immagine ufficiale della rassegna è stata realizzata nell'ambito del progetto POSTER FOR THE CITY, realizzato in collaborazione con l'Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna. Tra le diverse immagini proposte dalla classe del corso di Design Grafico del prof. Danilo Danisi, è stata selezionata quella di Flavia Badiali, che rimanda al primo dei tanti drammi che vivono le persone rifugiate: lasciare la propria casa. "Anche quest'anno Bologna sceglie di celebrare la Giornata Mondiale del Rifugiato con un cartellone di eventi, frutto della collaborazione tra Comune, Asp Città di Bologna, Comuni dell'Area metropolitana ed enti del terzo settore che partecipano attivamente al nostro Sistema di Accoglienza e Integrazione – sottolinea Luca Rizzo Nervo, assessore welfare e salute – Bologna ha il progetto SAI più grande del nostro paese; un sistema che si fonda sulla scelta di costruire un'accoglienza diffusa, comunitaria, con l'obiettivo ambizioso di promuovere cittadinanza sin dal primo giorno attraverso l'integrazione delle persone migranti e rifugiate sul nostro territorio, grazie anche a un lavoro costante di raccordo e collaborazione interistituzionale e con la comunità territoriale. Le iniziative che ogni anno organizziamo per la Giornata Mondiale del Rifugiato rappresentano un'importante testimonianza di questo impegno, che da sempre portiamo avanti assieme a cittadine e cittadini e a tutti gli attori, che, in ragione delle loro competenze, giocano un ruolo essenziale nel facilitare i percorsi di inclusione dei rifugiati". "In questi giorni si chiude il primo anno del nuovo progetto 2023-2025 del SAI - Sistema Accoglienza Integrazione Area Metropolitana, coordinato da ASP Città di Bologna su delega del Comune - ricorda Stefano Brugnara, amministratore unico di ASP -. I servizi e la governance del SAI sono il frutto di un percorso di co-progettazione che ci vede protagonisti insieme a tutti gli enti partner e alle istituzioni del territorio per offrire oltre 2000 posti di accoglienza nel Sistema metropolitano bolognese. Il ricco programma di eventi per la Giornata Mondiale del Rifugiato 2024 testimonia come i servizi del SAI vanno ben oltre dare un vitto e un alloggio alle persone rifugiate ma siano un'occasione anche per attività culturali che sono fondamentali per favorire l'inclusione e gli scambi. Lo scopo infatti non è solo aprirsi alla cultura di chi viene accolto ma aprire ai rifugiati la cultura di chi accoglie, in un reciproco scambio che arricchisce tutti".  ... #notizie #news #breakingnews #cronaca #politica #eventi #sport #moda Read the full article

[personal-reporter]

Festival delle Nazioni 2023 a Città di Castello

Dal 23 agosto al 7 settembre a Città di Castello e in Valtiberina protagonista della cinquantaseiesima edizione del Festival delle Nazioni sarà l’Italia, come seconda tappa d’un progetto triennale iniziato lo scorso anno e dedicato al rapporto che i tre paesi europei ebbero con i territori in cui hanno lasciato una forte eredità culturale. Il concerto inaugurale del 23 agosto sarà dedicato alla musica del periodo tra Quindicesimo e Sedicesimo secolo, in occasione dei cinquecento anni della morte del Perugino e del Signorelli, che hanno lasciato diverse opere a Città di Castello e nel territorio limitrofo e l’Ensemble Micrologus, uno dei migliori gruppi esperti nella musica di quel periodo, accosterà autori anonimi al sommo Josquin Desprez. È molto attinente al tema del festival Inquietudini ruggenti,  un nuovo spettacolo di parole e musica, che il 24 racconterà gli anni dell’inizio del colonialismo italiano, con testi a cura di Caterina Casini e Fabio Mangolini e musiche composte per l’occasione da Mattia Novelli. Il giorno successivo l’Umbria Ensemble eseguirà musiche strumentali del periodo tra le due guerre mondiali,  tra futurismo e passatismo, con brani notissimi di Puccini e Mascagni, poco noti di Alfredo Casella e rarissimi di Balilla Pratella e Franco Casavola. Il 26 agosto è in programma un concerto in collaborazione con l’Accademia internazionale d’arte lirica di Osimo, che proporrà romanze da camera e canzoni d’autore di quello stesso periodo, alternando grandi musicisti quali Pizzetti, Respighi e Castelnuovo-Tedesco a canzoni dialettali ricche di ironia nei confronti della politica coloniale italiana. Nella sera del 30 si potrà riascoltare la musica leggera italiana degli anni Trenta, Quaranta e Cinquanta nell’interpretazione della Papillon Vintage Swing Band, da Quel motivetto che mi piace tanto  a Nel blu dipinto di blu,  passando per Baciami piccina  e Bellezza in bicicletta. Il concerto dell’1 settembre sarà un omaggio a  Casella nella vita musicale italiana nei primi decenni del Novecento, dove il duo pianistico Alberto Miodini - Pierpaolo Maurizzi eseguirà i suoi Quattro film musicali e la sua trascrizione per pianoforte a quattro mani della Sinfonia n. 7  di Mahler, a testimonianza della precoce intuizione di questo compositore. Il giorno seguente l’Orchestra Filarmonica Italiana diretta da Stefano Seghedoni farà ascoltare alcuni brani sinfonici di Elena Barbara Giuranna, Adriano Lualdi, Guido Pannain e Francesco Santoliquido, inneggianti alle imprese coloniali italiane e il 29 agosto l’Atse Tewodros Project e la scrittrice e performer italiana di origine etiope Gabriella Ghermandi presenteranno brani della musica tradizionale etiope, in stile jazz, includendo canzoni della resistenza etiope contro l’esercito invasore italiano. A chiudere il festival sarà il 7 settembre la prima esecuzione di Ciondolino,  opera da camera di Stefano Garau, su un libretto di Enrico Paci liberamente ispirato al racconto del giornalista ed educatore Luigi Bertelli, noto con lo pseudonimo di Vamba, che coinvolgerà musicisti professionisti ma anche il sistema scolastico musicale di Città di Castello, offrendo ai giovani la possibilità di inserimento in una produzione di teatro musicale. Read the full article

[womenintranslation]

Translated by Giovanna Bellesia-Contuzzi and Victoria Offredi Poletto

[kismet-at-the-library]

A-Z BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS

I’ve seen a few of these lists floating around as per @macrolit‘s idea (you can find their original post here) and obviously I had to spend the past few hours compiling a list of my own. It’s definitely harder than it looks! I was trying to go for some less obvious choices while also paying homage to all the books that have struck a chord with me, but I must admit I had to cheat a little by including a few titles from my TBR pile. In my defense, I have an excellent feeling about all of these – plus, what better motivation to finally get started on reading them? (If only grad school weren’t in the way... but a girl can still dream.)

A - Atonement by Ian McEwan (2001)

A superbly well-written and incredibly touching novel, featuring one of the children characters I’ve related to the most in my reading life. (Yes, I relate to Briony! Not for what she does, of course, but the way she experiences and describes the world is just so so familiar to me.)

B - The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz (2007)

I think I’m still a little heartbroken over this one. It wasn’t always perfect, but it’s stayed with me in a way that other books I’ve read in the past few years haven’t. Plus, I still can’t get over a narrator using footnotes to explain historical details about the Dominican Republic. If you’ve read Díaz before, you’ll definitely fall for Yunior’s voice all over again. And if you haven’t, what are you waiting for?

C - La casa de los espíritus (The House of the Spirits) by Isabel Allende (1982)

I already got one for H (this list was not compiled in alphabetical order) so I’m “cheating” by using the title in the original language (which is also the one I read it in).

D - Du côté de chez Swann (The Way by Swann’s) by Marcel Proust (1913)

...because lately I’ve been mildly (she says) obsessed with Proust and you should be too <3 This is the first volume in the monumental In Search of Lost Time. I went in knowing hardly anything about it other than ~Proust~ and was incredibly surprised by how accessible it was. (If you’re still feeling intimidated, I definitely recommend reading Alain de Botton’s How Proust Can Change Your Life to help break the ice!)

E - Emplumada by Lorna Dee Cervantes (1981)

A poetry collection by the author on whom I wrote my bachelor’s thesis. Lorna Dee Cervantes writes about growing up as a working-class Chicana in the U.S. Southwest. In her poems as in her life, gender, race, and class intersect to make up the experience of a powerful woman and gifted poet who uses incredibly lyrical language.

F - Free Enterprise: A Novel of Mary Ellen Pleasant by Michelle Cliff (1993)

Now, if you want some good, kickass, well-researched alternative historiography featuring Black historical lady figures, then this is the book for you. It’s an account (fictional, yes, but in no way less significant than the ‘authorized’ history) of John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry and the women that took part in it (for non-U.S. readers, John Brown was a white abolitionist who tried to start an armed slave revolt). One of those women was Mary Ellen Pleasant, a black woman and entrepreneur who helped fund John Brown’s raid. So, yep, you should definitely get to this one straight away. It’s not the most accessible kind of writing because it moves across time, space, and characters, but if you pay enough attention you’ll have no problem following it until the end, and you’ll be immensely enriched because of it. <3

G - The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford (1915)

This is the saddest story I have ever heard. That’s the first line of the book, by the way. If you like unreliable narrators and morally-dubious characters, you’ll definitely enjoy this one.

H - Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2006)

Adichie is very well known right now because of her booklet We Should All Be Feminists (and with good reason), but this is the one that made me fall in love with her. I don’t even remember what led me to buying this book when I basically knew nothing about her, but I’m so glad I did. I love historical fiction and this novel about the Biafran War just broke my heart in all the right places. One of my best on-a-whim purchases.

I - If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio (2017)

This is one of the latest books I’ve read but more importantly one I’ve been excited to read for at least two years. The stakes were high but wow, did it deliver. It’s been marketed as a mystery/literary thriller but I get the feeling that this kind of description could turn away readers who are not into mysteries but who would have plenty of other reasons to enjoy this novel. Yes, there is a mystery (and the pacing is excellent!) but the story is really about the characters, who are really well-developed. Rio ( @m-l-rio) has the incredible ability to set a scene with great economy of words and make each of them count. And, oh, that ending was absolutely perfect.

(Special mention: If This Is a Man by Primo Levi.)

J - Jacques the Fatalist and his Master by Denis Diderot (1796)

A novel about subverting the reader’s expectations (and I mean that). I read this one some 6 years ago but I still think about it as one of the funniest novels (or non-novels?) I’ve ever read and I can’t wait to read it again one day. It gets very, very meta and I remember lots of (subtle or not-so-subtle) criticism on the art of the novel as practised by Diderot’s contemporaries.

(Special mention: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. Because, do I even need to explain? <3)

K - To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1960)

Well, this one is a bit obvious. Didn’t have a lot of K-titles to choose from... But also, this was one of the first books I read in English, at a time when my love of literature fully-blossomed, and that makes it even more special.

L - The Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon (1956)

I loved the writing in this novel about the life of West Indian immigrants in London in the 1950s. Such a strong narrative voice. Its only flaw is that it only focuses on the male immigrant experience, but that’s no reason not to love it anyway.

M - Manual of the Warrior of the Light by Paulo Coelho (1997)

The book that made me get into Paulo Coelho quite a few years ago. I’m less into him now, but this is still among my favourites <3 A book one can turn to in times of hardship, always ready to offer much-needed words of wisdom.

N - North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell (1855)

I think @dukeofbookingham once described this as “Pride and Prejudice with a social conscience” and I don’t think I can top that description. If you’re still unsure about this, why not watch the 2004 BBC adaptation with Richard Armitage?

O - Orlando by Virginia Woolf (1928)

Sometimes a bit difficult to get through, but so beautifully written that it makes it totally worth it. Also, such an imaginative read!

P - Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw (1913)

Maaaaan I love this play. My inner linguistic nerd can’t resist Higgins’s endavours to train Eliza to speak like a “proper lady”, and the feminist in me is ever in awe of Eliza’s strength of character. (Don’t trust the ending they gave her in My Fair Lady. Shaw was much smarter than that.)

Q - Regina di fiori e di perle (Queen of Flowers and Pearls) by Gabriella Ghermandi (2011)

Now this is a double cheat because 1) I’m using the translation to make it work, and 2) I took it from my TBR pile, but this is one I’m really excited about, and it’s by an Italo-Ethiopian author, so... <3

R - Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard (1966)

There were plenty of more obvious choices for this one and I’ve actually only ever seen the film adaptation, but I love the idea for this play so much I couldn’t resist. Plus, I’ve been meaning to get my hands on a copy since forever...

S - Sillabari (Abecedary) by Goffredo Parise (1972-1982)

Going again by the title in the original language. Honestly, I keep trying to recommend this wonderful book to my English-speaking friends but it’s so frustrating because only the first part of this (...novel? collection?) has been translated into English. “Collection” doesn’t seem like the right word because there is such a strong thematic unity to this book, but it is certainly made up of vignettes, each of which is meant to describe a human feeling, something that is achieved with great economy of words and often in unexpected and unpredictable ways. Incidentally, this is a particularly fitting title for this list because the vignettes are organized in alphabetical order (Abecedary, anyone?) –the first one is “Amore”, love. If you can read Italian, I cannot recommend this enough!

(Special mention: Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde.)

T - The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (1954)

This doesn’t look like cheating but it feels like cheating. :P There were plenty of other titles to choose from but none that was giving me as strong a feeling. Plus, it feels good to pay homage to one of the books that started it all for me <3 (and I actually first discovered Tumblr by looking for LOTR-related content, so it's even more appropriate.)

U - Chasing Utopia: A Hybrid by Nikki Giovanni (2013)

I was trying to go for something that wasn’t Ulysses (which I haven’t read yet, by the way). Now, I haven’t read this whole collection, but I remember reading some of Nikki Giovanni’s poetry in one of my American literature classes and I definitely liked her work. Plus, I love that title! I had kind of forgotten about this one, so now might be the right time to go and actually check it out from the library.

V - Il visconte dimezzato (The Cloven Viscount) by Italo Calvino (1951)

Wow, was it difficult to find a worthy V-title! (Or one that is not in my TBR pile.) I haven’t read the books in this unconventional ‘trilogy’ in so long, but I still remember liking them a lot (although my favourite was always The Nonexistent Knight).

W - Waiting in the Twilight by Joan Riley (1987)

This is a more obscure title and probably not as easy to get a hold of (AbeBooks would be your best option) but this immigrant story about a Jamaican woman and her dream of building a better life for herself told from the perspective of her disenchanted old self is incredibly powerful and just... my heart breaks for Adella.

X/Y - I got nothing. :(

Z - Zami: A New Spelling of My Name by Audre Lorde (1982)

Another one that I haven’t read (yet), but this is Audre Lorde, so. <3

[shodaw]

15. recommend and review a book. (please)

I’ll go with the first one I put in my top five books because I doubt it’s something many people have read (at least outside of Italy) Queen of Flowers and Pearls by Gabriella Ghermandi. It’s about a young Ethiopian girl who moves to Italy for university and begins collecting stories about the war with Italy and Italian occupation during WWII. Each of the separate stories contribute to building the overall plot and Ghermandi’s prose drags you in and keeps you hooked. She doesn’t shy away from depicting violence and complex emotional situations while avoiding being overly sentimental. (Despite what I just said the book did make me tear up, but that’s because her prose is so elegant and engaging). The book puts African histories at the forefront, correcting European conceptions of war and imperialism and is also a beautifully written page turner. I stayed up until 3am to finish it the first time I read it

[linguenuvolose]

I saw in your posts that you read Italian books, could you recommend some books that you enjoyed? I'm trying to read more books from all around the world, but I don't know which ones to read in Italian. I read a lot of classics for school, but I'd like to read something written after 1980s 🙈

Have a lovely day!

Hi! I’m afraid I’m not the best person to ask for modern books since I’ve mostly read classics hehe but some that I’ve liked are:

Se questo è un uomo by Primo Levi (1959) - a bit older but such a beautiful book. About Levi’s experience in Aushwitz  

Regina di fiori e di perle by Gabriella Ghermandi (2011) - Not my favorite book ever but still nice! Stories from the Italian occupation of Ethiopia inserted into a main narrative about a young girl collecting these stories.

La lunga vita di Marianna Ucrìa by Dacia Maraini (1990) - Historical fiction set in Sicily about a girl who’s deaf but can read people’s thoughts (TW for sexual assault at one point).

L’Arminuta by Donatella Di Pietrantonio (2017) - I honestly don’t really remember the plot of this one but I think this girl goes to live with another family and then her birth mom comes and wants her back? I could be wrong though.

Io non ho paura by Niccolò Ammaniti (2001) - From the point of view of a little boy who realizes the adults of his small city are keeping a big secret. There’s also a film. (I think I liked this one but don’t really remember hehe)

I’d also like to read Italo Calvino and Elena Ferrante some day too but I haven’t gotten around to it yet. Maybe you could look at the recent winners of the Premio Strega (a very (the most?) prestigious Italian literary price), there you’ll probably find some new hip books.

I hope this helped a bit and that you have a lovely day too!

[p2b-ethiopia]

Set Nat Concert

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Italian Cultural Institute will host a special concert titled ‘Set Nat Concert’ led by writer and performer Gabriella Ghermandi on Tuesday 19 April 2022. The concert will feature a fusion of Ethiopian traditional instruments with western ones. Doors will open at 6:30 pm.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[usuallydeepllama]

THE NEIGHBORHOOD PHONE

The author of the story The Neighborhood Phone is Gabriella Ghermandi. This story from Africa is about finding your own true self when you lost it.

Gabriella Ghermandi is an Italo - Ethiopian writer, her literary production focuses on the themes of migration and the fears of the loss of cultural identity of migrants. She's Born in Addis Abeba in 1965 and moved to Italy in 1979. She writes and interprets narrative shows that he represents both in Italy and abroad and she conducts creative writing workshops.

Here is an infographic which contains the story's setting, main character, theme and summary:

We hope that you have learned something from this literary piece with regards to loving your motherland and find yourself!

(Photo credits for the author's picture.)

[theafricantruth-blog]

Italian Fighting Techniques

The Italians were ruthless when they fought. They typically treated civilians as if they were soldiers. This was evident in Queen of Flowers and Pearls through the stories of the Italian occupation that were told to Mahlet. In Kebedech Seyoum’s story, it was stated that, “It was not the corpses of men, women, children, or the elderly that shocked me. Not even the genital mutilations and the organs scattered on the ground. What stabbed my soul like a sharp hook was the sight of pregnant women with their bellies ripped open and the fetuses in plain sight” (Ghermandi, Bellesia-Contuzzi and Poletto 2015, 196). This showed that Italian soldiers were instructed to kill anyone they saw as a threat and make visible examples of what would happen if the resistance continued. The violence with which they fought astounded the Ethiopian resistance and civilians alike.

Ghermandi, Gabriella, Giovanna Bellesia, and Victoria Offredi Poletto. Queen of Flowers and Pearls. 1st ed. New York, NY: Indiana Univ. Press.

Photo Caption: Artillery in Tembien, Public Domain. Above: Italian artillery in Tembien, Ethiopia. Tanks and chemical warfare were also commonly used by the Italians.

[shodaw]

For the book ask top 5 fav books and what's your most disliked popular books?

2. Top 5 books of all time?

This is in no way a definitive list but these are the ones that come to me off the top of my head (not in order, subject to change)

1) Regina di fiori e di perle by Gabriella Ghermandi (translated into English as Queen of Flowers and Pearls)

2) His Dark Materials trilogy by Phillip Pullman (not technically one book but)

3) Sangue giusto by Francesca Melandri (unfortunately has not been translated into English as far as I know)

4) Battle Royale by Koushun Takami (originally in Japanese, idk what the Japanese title is)

5) I’m having a hard time thinking of a fifth one but the one thing sticking in my mind is Tu sei il male by Roberto Costantini, which was translated into English with the title The Deliverance of Evil (I think)

19. Most disliked popular book?

I can only thing of classics off the top of my head…which I suppose are popular. I hated Catcher in the Rye so much

[linguenuvolose]

4, 5, 12?

Thank you for the questions! 🐛

4. Did you discover any new authors that you love this year?

I really liked Ermina Dell'Oro's writing style but I wouldn't say I love her. I'd also like to read more from Gabriella Ghermandi!

5. What genre did you read the most of?

(Italian) historical fiction definitely!

12. Any books that disappointed you?

Didn't have any real expectations but I was not that big a fan of Tempo di uccidere by Ennio Flaiano

[linguenuvolose]

The book I’m currently reading for my literature course (Regina di fiori e di perle by Gabriella Ghermandi) is set in Ethiopia and in the beginning there’s a brief explanation of the Ethiopian calendar which I do appreciate but I realized like halfway in that hmm possibly knowing the month won’t change a lot considering my lack of knowledge about Ethiopian seasons and climate. At one point the narrator says “We were entering into the coldest months of the year, when during the day the temperature doesn’t surpass 28, 29 degrees and during the night it touches on zero” (sorry for my bad translation lmao) and my Swedish ass was like oh... yes the cold months... 

[linguenuvolose]

Heyy hope you're having a good day! Sorry to bother you but I was wondering if you had read/were familiar with the book Le Cittá invisibili by Italo Calvino and so if you knew whether it'd be too hard to read in italian for someone who's still learning the language? Do you have any recs of (interesting) books for non native speakers?? I've already read L'amica geniale and Storia del nuovo cognome, but other than that I'm open (and in desperate need) or recs! (also I used to study italian in uni and reached around a B1 level before I had to stop a couple years ago, so I'm not starting from 0 haha) Thanks in advance and again, sorry for the trouble!

Ciao, I hope you're doing well too! Unfortunately I haven't read Le città invisibili yet but it's on my list! According to wikipedia the style of Calvino's first novel Il sentiero dei nidi di ragno is "molto scorrevole" so maybe you could start out there if you want to try his style? This spring I read Regina di fiori e di perle by Gabriella Ghermandi and Adua by Igiaba Scego and found them both quite easy to read. My first year of uni (so around B1) we read Io non ho paura by Niccolò Ammaniti and L'arminuta by Donatella di Pietrantonio (+ some others but I liked these the most). I started reading La coscienza di Zeno by Italo Svevo but never finished it (didn't have the time) but I've been meaning to read it again, I believe the language was quite easy. In altre parole by Jhumpa Lahiri has been recommended to me a few times.

I hope this gives you some options and if anyone else has any recommendations please add them!

[linguenuvolose]

Books I want to read in 2021

Inspired by @fluencylevelfrench!

I managed to read quite a bit in 2020 which I’m super happy about and I hope I can carry that energy into 2021 and maybe establish a better reading routine.

This year I’m aiming for approximately 3.074 pages in 4 languages, mainly Italian. It feels ambitious, it’s 1.100 more pages than I read this year but like 960 of these pages are for a literature course at uni so I guess I won’t have any other choice than to read them. (I also read like 460 pages in 2019 so nothing is impossible here haha).

I promessi sposi - Alessandro Manzoni (currently on page 437) El principe piçenin - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (currently on page 37) Adua - Igiaba Scego Asmara addio - Erminia Dell’Oro Tempo di uccidere - Ennio Flaiano Regina di fiori e di perle - Gabriella Ghermandi La femme rompue - Simone de Beauvoir La coscienza di Zeno - Italo Svevo Illiaden - Homeros

Here’s to a good reading year!