Summer is for holidays, relax and reading. With today's post let us introduce Giunti al Punto bookshop in Vicenza to you. We did our research and chose six books, from six different authors, among the various ones we found on the shelves. Take a look at the gallery for an insight to what happened: are you ready to take notes and start our journey?

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, by Murakami Haruki, Einaudi
Murakami's latest novel reflects on themes such as happiness, friendship, and desire. And on the importance of realizing that we start living for real only when we start dying a little.

The Long View, by Elizabeth Jane Howard, Fazi Editore
This novel by the acclaimed British novelist is not just a love story, nor the romantic dream of a middle-aged woman who suddenly finds herself alone; it is, in all honesty, the story of a couple. Harsh and true like a whole life can be. But, above all, it's the story of a woman, beautiful and restless, brave and lost, who isn't afraid to disclose the controversies of her private life without shame.

Stoner, by John Williams, Fazi Editore
First published in 1965, and later in 2006, this novel is a classic of the American literature of the 20th century. Stoner is set in the years between 1910 and 1950 and it's about the life of a man: William Stoner, son of farmers, who breaks free from his back-breaking destiny of a farm worker in the fields, follows his passion for literary studies, and becomes an university professor. He gets married, has a daughter, faces a series of professional and romantic vicissitudes, becomes ill, and eventually dies. He is an everyday hero who gathers from the small things in his life the sense of work, love, and passion that give shape to his existence.

Las Vegans – La rivoluzione in cucina, by Paola Maugeri, Mondadori
Paola Maugeri is one of the prominent figures of Italian television journalism (Italia Uno and La7 amongst others), as well as an historical MTV VJ, and she goes by the nickname Wikipaola because of her vast musical knowledge. This cookbook aims at proving that not only is eating vegan healthy, cruelty-free and respectful of the environment; it can also be tasty. This book is a collection of her favourite vegan meals and you can choose from starters, first courses, second coursers, and desserts, each of them accompanied by a song. It's no coincidence that her other great passion is music.

The Desire to Be Like Everyone Else, by Francesco Piccolo, Einaudi
Everyone has, at a certain point in their lives – more or less knowingly -, felt a part of the whole. This is an intuitive experience in which news coming from the outside, from the newspapers and the TV, gather inside of us and mix with our own being. The emotion that comes from this revelation, from finding out that we belong to something that transcends us, is the leitmotiv of Francesco Piccolo's novel. This discovery, as usual, hides dark and tragic aspects, since being part of something or being excluded from something is never painless and can leave deep marks behind.
This novel won Premio Strega in 2014.

Hollow City: The Second Novel of Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children, by Ransom Riggs, Rizzoli
Who is Jacob Portman? Just a regular boy who happens to live an adventure bigger than himself - or the chosen one, a special being with amazing powers, who is great at investigating in the background and hunting scary monsters? Nobody knows. What is certain is that it's been a while since the mysterious death of his granddad drove him to investigate his past on the island of Cairnholm, Wales. It's in Cairnholm that he meets the bizarre and charming clique of the Peculiar Children: creatures with curious and unique powers, survivors of a mythical descent who, to avoid the persecutions of the Normal World, have to rely on Miss Peregrine, a bird-woman that can manipulate time. But now Miss Peregrine is wounded and and she can't go back to her human shape, so the Peculiar Children and Jacob are alone to fight those who threaten them, and will have to leave the Eternal Present to venture into the real world.


We would like to thank Giunti al Punto bookshop in Vicenza for hosting us, and our photographer Luciano Doria for accompanying our adventures with his passion.

DD