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The other one🙊

Delia returs to Napels, her nativevtown, after her mother's misterious death. She wanders around Napels and tries to find out what happened to her mother. The search brings out different emotions, family secreets, problematic relationships... This is Ferrante's first novel. Remarquable storytelling!

New month, new books:) Just started these two which will fit prompts for #Booked2020 nicely.

Troubling Love for ‘Think Pink‘ & The Martian on audio for ‘Makes you LOL‘. I just listened to the first chapters of the latter, and I already laughed, so I‘m off to a good start 😅

#1001books #Reading1001

This is an intense and well written short novel. But it‘s not particularly pleasant. A woman fresh from her mother‘s funeral, dealing with her past and the dynamics of her family. Happy New Year everyone. Here‘s to some fab books in 2020 #literaryfiction #lastbookoftheyear 🤗

A bit of pre night shift reading with coffee to keep me awake😬 About to start Elena Ferrante‘s first novel Troubling Love. I‘ve enjoyed her Neapolitan novels. Happy weekend reading 😍

A psychological mystery slowly stitched together with prose that adds a gritty accent to the setting- Naples. Heartbreak associated with the slow boil of Mother-Daughter turmoil -where tears cease to exist & in its place...a feeling of deep heaviness. ❤️Ferrante‘s writing

Huge platter of heirloom tomatoes + burrata. Steak on the way. Birthday book from Santa Cruz Book Shop on the horizon! Happy Tuesday 😍.

Weird af but engrossing

I can certainly see the potential and appeal of “Troubling Love” to some but this just wasn‘t my thing at all. Full of uncomfortable and necessary details that seem to have no purpose whatsoever, I felt there wasn‘t really a story to tell. The characters were not likeable, the story was not interesting and I was generally confused. I‘m giving Elena Ferrante‘s first novel 1 star.

My full review is up on my blog as usual! 📚

So. Reading this book by Elena Ferrante felt like an endless chore and I am pretty sure I won't be reading other books by her anytime soon.

About a third of the way into this novel. It has a dark brooding mood to it, well written and lyrical, the intricacies and shadows of family life ....

#ferrantefever continues...

I thought I would read this book in one or two sittings. Instead, it kept putting me to sleep. It was like pulling teeth.
It‘s sad that this is the last of Ferrante‘s work for me to read. So, if you are compulsive enough to need to read everything, don‘t save this for last.

A visit to lovely Barter books in Alnwick Northumberland .... good picks from their second hand fiction department 📚📚😊

Story with potential (very complicated relationship between mother and daughter), but this novella is so odd and confusing ... and I don't mean that in a good way.

I saw review(by Emily)of this book on Goodreads and I have to share this part here: ‘...we basically read about a woman on her period, running around Naples with a bag of her mother‘s underwear.‘

I was excited when I learned the Neapolitan Novels weren't Ferrante's only works translated into English, but I fear I admire this one far more than I like it. It's a tense, uncomfortable dive into one woman's revelatory tour of Naples following her mother's death. I never sunk into the story, even though it revolves around the sort of madness I usually nod along to, and had no trouble leaving it unlistened-to for days on end.

Tumultuous violence on the train. Obsessive rage. Memories pouring forth like unexpected hale against glass windows.

How well do we truly know our mothers?
Seems fitting that I am pairing this book with binagol, a sweet and tasty delicacy found only in my mother's province.
"And the seasons they go round and round.
And the painted ponies go up and down
We're captive on the carousel of time
We can't return we can only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game."
Joni Mitchell seemed particularly apt.

Super late night/ early morning flight again to the Philippines - this time to attend my father-in-law's internment/funeral services in the province. Gearing myself up for two airplanes and a six hour road trip to the middle of nowhere. Meanwhile, Elena Ferrante shall take me somewhere farther away.

Someone tagged this novel as being 'filthy'. I totally agree, it is exactly the right word to describe this book, along with the word 'hysterical'. Needless to say I didn't like it at all. #1001books

Ferrante's first novel, while different in style from the Neopolitan Novels, has the same voice and feel. If you've only read this, I would definitely recommend the 4 novels in that series. Troubling Love is much more quickly paced and urgent. Overall, I prefer the Neopolitan Novels, but this is a great read, too.

First up in my #litsypartyofone 😊

@stacybmartin Thanks so very much for my great #cupidgoespostal package. The bag, the bookplates, the chocolates (which I dived into right away) and the books are perfect. Looking forward to reading the Gillian Flynn first and doing some coloring this weekend! Thank you, thank you! @BookishMarginalia

First 2 of my vacation book stack for next week. Thought I would get started at lunch!

This book was hard for me to get into and I sometimes found my mind wandering. The characters were well developed with very troubling and heartbreaking pasts revealed slowly throughout the book. Still trying to analyze the significance of the underwear so frequently mentioned throughout 🤔... I will definitely read more of Ferrante, especially her Neopolitan series.

Yesterday's haul! I've been hearing a lot about Elena Ferrante recently so I picked up a couple of her books. Does anyone have any feedback on either of these?

My last Elena Ferrante. I lost this for quite a few months on my own bookshelf (I thought it had fallen through the portal behind my bed) and have started to page through it again. I'm thinking of other ways to sabotage the read, at least until I know she's publishing another.

Not my favorite Elena Ferrante, though Leah seems to like it! :p. In her first book, she starts exploring her themes of violence, identity and family. It feels a little less well fleshed out because the main character is dealing with ghosts and repressed memories. But I love the way that women's clothing is used to inhabit their lives, from sophisticated to tawdry. Ferrante's lurid physical descriptions meld seamlessly into emotional realities.

I was identical to her and yet I suffered because of the incompleteness of that identity. We succeeded in being "I" only in the game now, and I knew it.

A dark story of a middle-aged daughter's identity unraveling while investigating her mother's last days. Ferrante has such a command of language and pace--you'll spend so much more time on this little book than expected.

Ferrante truly has a handle on the emotionally dark and twisty natures people possess.

I am in love with Elena Ferrante's books. I just want to read some of her sentences over and over again to appreciate their utter brilliance!

Not an easy read ( in Italian) but intriguing enough to make me want to read more. I'd honestly recommend the Neapolitan Quartet over this one

My first foray into Ferrante did not disappoint.