This month's recommended books:

Hey!! This month's recommended books are:

«1984 by George Orwell» 
  
Nineteen Eighty-Four or simply called 1984, is a dystopian novel by the English novelist George Orwell. Thematically it centres on the consequences of government over-reach, totalitarianism, mass surveillance, and repressive regimentation of people and behaviours within society. Especially the role of truth and facts in politics and how they manipulate people. 
The story is set in an imagined future, when the world has fallen victim of a perpetual war, omnipresent government surveillance, historical negationism, and of course propaganda, with the posters representing the big eye of the Big Brother. The ruling Party, the Big Brother, employed the Thought Police to persecute people who have independent thinking. 
The protagonist, Winston Smith, is a worker and Party member who secretly hates the Party and dreams of rebellion. He then will start a secrete and forbidden relationship with a co-worker, Julia.
The novel is considered as a classic of literature.

✧༺♥༻∞　　∞༺♥༻✧

«Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen»

Sense and Sensibility is a novel by Jane Austen, published anonymously. It tells the story of the Dashwood sisters, Elinor (19 years old) and Marianne (16 years old) as they come of age. They have an older half-brother, John, and a younger sister, Margaret (13 years old).
The novel follows the three Dashwood sisters as they must move with their widowed mother from the estate on which they grew up, Norland Park. Because it passed to John, the product of Mr. Dashwood's first marriage, and his son, the four Dashwood women need to look for a new place to stay. They have the chance to rent a modest home, called Barton Cottage, on the property of a distant relative, Sir John Middleton. Here they will experience love, romance, and also heartbreak. 
 

✧༺♥༻∞　　∞༺♥༻✧

 

«Canne al Vento by Grazia Deledda»

Canne al Vento (Reeds in the Wind) is a novel by the Italian author and Nobel prize winner Grazia Deledda. The title of the book is an allusion to human frailty and sorrow, found in the novel Elias Portolu: "We are human, Elias, as frail as reeds: think carefully. There's a force we can't defeat above us."
The novel tells the story of a noble family, Pintor, that lives in a small village of Sardinia. The head of the family, Don Zame, is a proud and arrogant man. His wife and four daughters are devoted to housework and never allowed to go out. The only rebel one is Lia who flees to the Italian peninsula reaching a town in Lazio. There, she will get married and have a son, but unfortunately she will die too. Don Zame will go mad for the scandal and is then found dad on a bridge at the entrance of the village. These events are the background to the story, revealed from the point in which Giacinto, Lia's son, will come to their house. 
The narration starts years after when the house is almost crumbling, barely managing to survive. Their servant, Efix (from Ephysius, the patron saint of Cagliari, the capital of Sardinia) is attached to them by guilt (that will be explained in the course of the book). He dreams to make the house flourish again and his hope is increased by the arrival of Giacinto, who will bring different emotions among the people of the village.

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

A Little Life

by Hanya Yanagihara

Spoiler alert: A thousand napkins sadly won't be enough.
This story is deep and full of sadness, but also
love and friendship. So you need to be prepared to be
emotionally touched.
 

Hello everyone

Today I'm going to do the review of A Little Life, written by the American novelist Hanya Yanagihara. I've came across this book because my cousin suggested me to read it, and I really loved it. Despite the book is quite long and full of heavy material, it became a best-seller all over the world. The title refers to the poem "The Waste Land" of T.S. Eliot.
The book talks about the relationship between four classmates from a college in Massachusetts that move to New York to start a new life. They are, though, broke and adrift, holding on only because of their friendship and ambition. Willem is kind and attractive, he's an aspiring actor, while JB is a painter trying to make it in the art world. Malcom is a frustrated architect working at a prominent firm. The centre of their gravity is the enigmatic but brilliant Jude, with a sad and dark past that doesn't want to tell about.

As the years passed by, though, their friendships seem to get deeper, but darker as well, because of addiction, success and pride. The greatest challenge is Jude, incredibly talented but also a broken man, with the mind and body scarred by an untold childhood. He's haunted by his trauma that seems to overcome him and define his life forever. 

The book is divided into 7 parts following a chronological order, interrupted by flashbacks. At the beginning of the novel we see as an omniscient narrator is telling the story, while the focus is slowly moving towards Jude, his interactions with the others, his flashbacks and his own experiences. The story is told by an unspecified future version of Harold, the mentor and professor of Jude in university.




The novel deals with different themes, most of them difficult ones. The main themes are: male relationships and homosexuality; trauma, recovery and support; chronic pain, disability and self-harm.

Due to the heavy themes, the book can be really touching, especially if you dealt with these topics, so it's recommended to talk to someone after it, if you feel worse. Otherwise, the story is really interesting, especially their friendships and relationships with other people, as Harold for Jude.