BW9: Follow the Rabbit Trail

Thinking - Davide Restivo

For some reason I have two words stuck in my brain - Twelve and Road.  Maybe it is because I just finished Justin Cronin's The Twelve and the characters spent a lot of time on the road. Who knows.  What do you think of when you hear the word twelve or see the number 12.  What comes to my mind are a jury, apostles, dozen eggs, months, 12 lords a leaping, knights, and time.   Road, well? A journey, travel, trails, highways, a straight line and exploring. 

Decided to check out my stacks and see what popped. In my stacks are two very dusty books,  The Road to Rome which I've just started and The Road to Jerusalem by Jan Guillou.  Obvious choices. Then, A Blind Alley, Moonlight Mile, Don't Turn Around and Invisible Bridge. Number wise, I have Tenth Stone, Twelfth Iman, 13th Tribe by Robert Liparulo.  

When I look up the road on Amazon, the first hits are The Road by Cormac McCarthy,  The Road by Jack London and On the Road by Jack Kerouac.  Of course, twelfth brings up the obvious, Shakespeare.  Wouldn't you know it. Books I wish I had in my stacks. 


Are you ready to follow some rabbit trails?  Your primary mission is to read  a book already in your stacks with a number or the word road in the title.  Your secondary mission is to see if you can find a book with both the number and a reference to a road or synonyms related to road in the title. 

Happy trails! 

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BW8: 13th Century

This month I am delving into the 13th Century which ran from 1201 to 1300.   Since we have been armchair traveling in Italy this month,  let's concentrate on Italian literature for the moment.  In the 13th Century,  the sonnet became the most popular form of poetry and spread from King Frederick's Sicilian court out through Europe.  Up until the 1260's, the sonnets were all about romance and chivalry.  Guido Guinizelli introduced the mystical and philosophical style which Dante used for his La Vita Nuova.  Folk, doctrinal and religious poetry all came into play during the time period as well. 

If you look at Goodread's lists of The Best Books of the 13th Century and  Popular 13th Century literature, besides Sharon Kay Penman and Elizabeth Chadwick, whom I mentioned before, you'll also find Dante's La Vita Nuova, Umberto Eco's Baudolini, Edith Pargetter's Brothers of Gwynedd as well as Dante's Divine Comedy, St. Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theology and Sufi mystic Rumi's Love Poetry.  Quite an assortment to choose from.

For more information on 13th Century literature check out Factbites for interesting tidbits of information that I'm sure will send you on all kinds of rabbit trails.   And for sacred poetry around the world by century, check out Poetry Chaikhana. 

Join me in reading a book set in the 13th Century.

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BW7: Armchair traveling through Italy

Have you started reading Dante's Inferno yet?  Yeah, me neither.  There are 34 cantos, so as of today I plan on reading two a day which should have me finishing it by the end of February.  While the rest of the world's eye is on Sochi in Russia, my eyes are on Italy. We are going to do some armchair traveling through Italy reading books set in or written by Italian authors.  So many places to choose from -  Venice, Verona, Rome.  Plus so much history to explore both fictional and non fictional wise.  All roads seem to start with Rome so we'll start there.  I found some interesting links including Italian Legacy which discusses Italian literature of ancient Rome, the middle ages, troubadours, scholars and poets, the beginnings of authentic Italian literature, the renaissance and more.  Definitely well worth checking out.

According to Book Lust to Go, the best place to start is with the history of Rome.  Nancy recommends for a historical fiction tour of Rome; Colleen McCullough's Master of Rome series or Steven Saylor's Roma Sub Roma Series.

I've currently have in my backpack The Road to Rome by Ben Kane which is the 3rd book in his Forgotten Legion Trilogy based in 48BC.    I read The Forgotten Legion a couple years back which totally blew me away, then The Silver Eagle when it came out.  They aren't the easiest books to read.



 
 

Here's what I said back in 2010 when I first read Forgotten Legion:  

"The Forgotten Legion" is an excellent book, very well written, grabs your attention from the very beginning and doesn't let it go.  I'm usually don't read historical fiction because I find them dull, flat, and boring most of the time.     Ben Kane's epic novel surrounding  the lives of Romulus, Fabiola, Tarquinius and Brennus in ancient Rome changed my mind.    Do you think I like it just a little. :)  I normally don't get effusive over a book, but I really, really enjoyed this one.   Yes, what happens to the characters and following it from their perspective could make you cringe at times.  It was a brutal era.  Plus the  lives of the slaves were just as full of political strife and politics and backstabbing as the upper class.

I think what made the story so enjoyable is I just finished taking a course in Art from the Ancients up the 14th century.  Learning all about the art and architecture of the Roman era, then reading as the characters and their activities took place in the roman forum to pompey to the silk highway to the coliseum where the gladiator fights were held was just fascinating to me.   Made reading the story a much richer experience. 

Also in my backpack are:  Open Mind, Faithful Heart by Pope Francis which are reflections he wrote before becoming pope.   Plus Emberto Uco's The Name of the Rose, and art history mysteries - Daniel Silva's Fallen Angel and Iain Pears Giotti's Hand.

Join me in reading all things Italian this month.

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BW6: Dante's Inferno

Happy February!   This year marks the 700th Anniversary of Dante Alighieri's Inferno, the first cantica of The Divine Comedy.     Inferno is considered one of the great classics in literature and is on Susan Wise Bauer list of Poetry in Well Educated Mind.  I've never read it, so figured now would be the perfect time.  And as long as we are reading Inferno, why not go to Italy. Plus I'll be continuing with my Centuries challenge and exploring the 13th Century this month.  More on Italy and centuries challenge next week. 

Dante was born 1265 in Florence, Italy.    When he was 9, he met and fell in love with Beatrice Portinari who became his muse and central inspiration for all his major poems,  even after her death in 1290.  At the age of 11, he entered into a marriage contract with Gemma Donati and married her in 1285.  Beatrice continued to be his focus  of his poetry as the ideal lady even though she married and eventually died at the age of 24.  Due to his politics, he was exiled from Florence and eventually made his home in Ravenna. Dante died from Malaria at the age of 56 in 1321.

I'll be reading this version of Dante's Inferno translated by Allen Mandalbaum which has the Italian version on the left facing page and the English translation on the opposite right page. 

You can find out more about Dante and read Inferno online here, here or  here.

Join me in reading Dante's Inferno. 

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