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These are tough lines for me to write, because I idolize Tolkien, and this book just isn’t his equal. The tale of Beren and Lúthien is one of the most moving and most important of Tolkien’s Legendarium, but this book, in its effort to trace the linguistic and narrative evolution of the story, is too fragmented to be a coherent narration, and not thorough enough to be a literary essay. Granted, Tolkien’s prose (somewhat less his poetry) is always a pleasure to read, even in its earliest and less refined stages, but this book doesn’t offer much else. // Per me è difficile scrivere queste righe, perché idolatro Tolkien, e questo libro, molto semplicemente, non è alla sua altezza. La storia di Beren and Lúthien è una delle più commoventi e più importanti dell’intero Legendarium Tolkieniano, ma questo libro, che tenta di ripercorrerne l’evoluzione linguistica e narrativa, risulta troppo frammentato per essere una narrazione coerente, e non abbastanza approfondito per ...

I am extremely wary of books that offer easy interpretations of the world's complexity, and easy solutions to its problems. This one promises neither, but delivers something much more honest, and probably much more useful: a way of looking at the world based, as much as possible, on facts; and a different way of looking at ourselves and at our biases. The facts tells us that the world is, usually, a much better place than we think, and it keeps getting better; our biases, while deeply rooted in every one of us, can be overcome, or at least recognised and taken into account when we pass judgements. Factfulness is optimistic without being naive, eye-opening without being preachy: one of the best non-fiction books I’ve read in a long time. // Sono molto diffidente verso i libri che offrono facili interpretazioni della complessità del mondo, e facili soluzioni ai suoi problemi. Factfulness non fa promesse del genere, ma fornisce qualcosa di molto più onesto, ...

Nota: doppia mini-recensione per Elevation , romanzo (molto) breve uscito il 30 ottobre e per Laurie , racconto scaricabile gratuitamente dal sito ufficiale di King dal 17 maggio. Elevation One of the things I hate most when reading fiction is the author shoehorning his political or social views in the tale, even if they are views I share. King, in this short novel ( extremely short, for his standards), comes dangerously close to doing just that, and only his mastery of the craft of writing saves him. That said, Elevation is an uplifting (pun definitely intended) story of change and acceptance, not really horror, but definitely supernatural, with one of the most bittersweet ending I have ever read. (A personal aside: as a very, very amateur runner, I really enjoyed all the Turkey Trot sequence, and if it wasn't for his 71 years and his 1999 accident, I'd bet Uncle Steve is a runner too.) // Una delle cose che odio di più quando leggo fiction, è l'auto...