Welcome to Litsy!

Not a lucky pick for #foodandlit
What a drag...nothing happens, there is no coherent story or theme, the number of names and characters is completely insane and all of this is normal for someone's diary, but why would anyone publish this and expect anyone else to be able to follow.
Not everything a poet writes is poetry. It really feels like a grab for money and saving on editing if any was done at all.
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

#wordoftheday

“The bride‘s grandmother was absolutely delighted, the groom‘s mother less so. Anna Colonna, who had avoided for nearly a decade marrying a blue-blooded child of hers to a parvenu Pamphili, looked on the marriage as a degradation and a necessary evil. Having Olimpia in her family would be a daily martyrdom for the haughty princess. ⬇️

This book was a lot of fun! I enjoyed the humor, the setting, and the mystery. It was fun how the MC broke the fourth wall and made jokes throughout the book. It had me chuckling many times. All the places from Italy had me wishing I was back there again, and the mystery kept going back and forth between the characters wondering who was the bad guy. I hope the second book is as much fun as well!

#foodandlit2025 #Italy @Texreader

The writing for this was pretty good, and it was easy to read. But I can‘t say I really enjoyed it?
I didn‘t like Elio or Oliver. It was the obsession, shame, and very weird “intimacy” that seemed to be the over-riding theme throughout. I‘m not sure I would say it was romance between them…

Also much prefer when books have regular natural stopping points like chapters rather than parts or continual flow 🤣

This was my #FoodAndLit pick for #Italy

A second #wordoftheday

“Olimpia begged the pope to replace Cardinal Chigi as secretary of state with that bright, handsome, young Cardinal Azzolini. But here she was stymied. Cardinal Pallavicino noted, “Those who were intimately informed were aware that the pope did not want to lose Cardinal Chigi; with his sterling reputation he could not be removed without great vituperation, and without great justification.””

#wordoftheday

“Camillo performed comedies with his servants almost every evening. … Camillo “takes the lead of the young lover,” Giacinto Gigli wrote with disdain. This was seen as ridiculous in a thirty-one-year-old. It is likely that Camillo‘s wife and mother finally agreed on one thing—that Camillo was adept at making a fool of himself.”

#wordoftheday

“When the pope encouraged Chigi to be nicer to Olimpia, the cardinal would duly “visit her on rare occasions which the law of common etiquette required…and then talk to her with serious words, and leave after a short time without having discussed any state business with her, and without giving a single instance of adulation to that idol of the court.

⬇️

Started out promising as a wealthy girl from the United States moves to Italy for a summer job. She falls in love with an Italian boy and decides to stay. This follows her journey. It was interesting learning about a new culture, but after awhile the book starts to get repetitive. It was hard to relate to Katherine because she had no money problems and a big trust fund. She also married into another family that was wealthy. This is a soft pick.

This one has been at the bottom of my tbr pile so long, I can‘t remember how I acquired it.

So, it‘s next for #currentlyreading

In honor of #FoodAndLit #Italy I made spumoni cookies. I am in love with them- they will definitely go in my every year rotation. Definitely worth the effort to make the 3 separate doughs. https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/spumoni-cookies/