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Do love a map (even one that looks like it needs a chapter of context to be understood....)

Perspective(s), by Laurent Binet (2023, transl. 2025)
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Premise: An epistolary mystery set in the midst of the political, social, artistic, and religious upheavals of Renaissance Florence.

Review: An ‘entertaining‘ and accessible Binet novel is still smarter and stranger than most literary fiction. ⬇️

An epistolary novel? A mystery? Art? Italian history? How could I not read this?

#DoubleSpin @TheAromaofBooks

I admit that I confused this family with the Borgia family. They were very similar, in fact, so I don't feel too foolish. They started as bankers in Florence. It seemed to me that every other generation was patrons to the arts, while the other generations were lazy and/or violent. The family was often fighting the papacy except when they had a son or nephew as a pope. I'm glad I read it. I learned more about Italy's history before unification.

I couldn't finish it. Too many characters to remember. The narration was at times fluid: Dante Alighieri's adventures occasionally stopped for explanations, descriptions of the places, the landscapes that surrounded him, the customs and traditions. After that the story returned to Dante Alighieri and I was so lost with all those useless explanations, that every time I had to go back several pages to understand where I had left off.

#Read2025 #Wardens2025

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There is no proof that I didn't need this book.

Pretty good.

We're all enjoying a quiet morning of reading before I have to get ready for work. Almost finished with this #historicalfiction that I read for my LIS course this week.

#medici #arthistory #class #scandal #thievery #Italy #florence

I enjoyed this crime novel about a serial killer in Florence. The police aspects feel authentic (the author draws from his own experience) and I liked the Florence setting & some of the characters. The theme of homophobia troubled me although I read it as a reflection of society rather than the author‘s own views. His wife was one-dimensional. So it lacked the interest & banter that enrich Donna Leon‘s or Louise Penny‘s books for example.