Books Archives - Report Culture

J. K. Rowling, the well-known author of "Harry Potter", one of the most famous sagas on a world scale, is back on track in children's literature with a new novel entitled "The Christmas Pig". The book will be translated into more than twenty languages and will arrive worldwide on 12 October. As you can guess from the title, the story is set on Christmas Eve and tells of a little boy named Jack, who will do anything to find his favorite toy, a stuffed pig. In the magical Christmas atmosphere, everything becomes possible, for example, toys can come to life. But the lost soft toy does not correspond to the Christmas Pig, since the latter is actually a substitute for the old toy. However, it will be the Christmas Pig who will set up a plan to find Jack's dear stuffed animal. J. K. Row...

BooksCulture

Bookcrossing: books on the road

News DefaultFebruary 8, 20210

We are used to thinking of books as objects destined to take a place in our bookcase and stay there forever, especially if we liked them. They are browsed, smelled, read and then closed probably for decades. Instead, thanks to a well-established initiative called bookcrossing, now books are able to move from house to house, from city to city, becoming something that isn’t destined to be bought and owned by a single individual, but to be donated by a reader to another one in an infinite cycle. In fact, bookcrossing consists in leaving a book in any place, such as a park bench or the steps of a building, and a casual passer-by finds it and decides to take it away with him/her. Once read, the book is not kept by its last reader, but it returns to a new public place, ready to be temporaril...

BooksWriting

Oscar Wilde: l’estetismo e l’edonismo di Dorian Gray

News DefaultDecember 3, 20200

Il ritratto di Dorian Gray è uno dei libri più letti e famosi al mondo ed è, allo stesso tempo, il manifesto di un movimento culturale e letterario come l’estetismo. L’autore, Oscar Wilde, ne è il portavoce, impersonificato nel racconto in Dorian Gray, un giovane molto prestante dal punto di vista estetico, biondo, muscoloso, ricco, ma anche acerbo, superbo ed esuberante. La storia, ambientata nell’epoca vittoriana, racconta del giovane Dorian, che ha accettato di farsi ritrarre da un suo amico pittore, tale Basil Hallward. Il personaggio chiave del romanzo è, però, un amico di entrambi, che assiste al ritratto, ovvero Lord Henry Wotton. È proprio Lord Henry che insegna a Dorian Gray le dottrine dell’estetismo, ovvero la capacità di ricercare sempre nuovi piaceri, avere una personalità...

BooksPublishingWriting

A new J.K. Rowling fairy tale: The Ickabog

News DefaultDecember 1, 20200

"As tall as two horses. Eyes glowing balls of fire. Long, razor-sharp claws. The Ickabog is coming..." Harry Potter author is back with a compelling new story on friendship and the power of hope. It's called The Ickabog and it was released simultaneously worldwide on 10 November. Many say it is a story born during the lockdown, and some of the topics covered really seem to fit perfectly with the situation we are living right now. The truth is that The Ickabog dates back to the days of Harry Potter. “(It) is a story about truth and the abuse of power. To forestall one obvious question: the idea came to me well over a decade ago, so it isn’t intended to be read as a response to anything that’s happening in the world right now" the author warns us. But be car...

BooksPublishing

Personal growth books: 3 of the best according to the New York Times

News DefaultNovember 30, 20200

There are not just novels. For quite a few years now, in the publishing world there has been a boom of the so-called personal growth books. How to be successful at work? What are the rules for a correct and persuasive communication? And the best habits to increase productivity? By now there are so many and they give a helping hand to people for both relatively simple issues such as "how to sleep better" and much more complex and philosophical ones such as "finding happiness". It is not easy to choose the very best ones, but with the help of the New York Times rankings we can find our way towards some of the best-in-class. Atomic Habits by James Clear With more than a million copies sold worldwide, James Clear's book continues to be an all-time favorite, remaining i...

Books

Celebrity book clubs not to miss

News DefaultNovember 26, 20200

A book club is a reading group in which books are chosen in order to be read and discussed with other reading enthusiasts. They are so many and there is one for everyone. In recent years, the phenomenon of celebrity book clubs has spread more and more. Through social networks they have created real virtual book clubs, in which they recommend readings and give space for debate. Here are the most followed ones: Oprah Winfrey She is an authority when it comes to books, not only in the US. When Oprah says a story is worth reading, well, it really is. She founded her book club in 1996 during the American talk show Oprah Winfrey Show. Despite the show was closed, the book club has continued to live through social networks where, every month, she publishes her book of choice. It is al...

BooksPublishingWriting

4 compelling stories about South Pole

News DefaultNovember 24, 20200

We hear a lot about glaciers, poles and the problems afflicting these places. But how many people can actually say they really know what they are talking about when they mention them? There are still those who confuse North Pole and South Pole. These are lands that live mostly in our imagination, or at most, in some National Geographic documentary. However, there are several books telling captivating stories, with real and fictional characters, which will make us think that we have really lived in the coldest lands of the planet. Here are 4 books on Antarctica (the South Pole, to be clear), the one where penguins live. South Pole Station by Ashley Shelby Despite the fact that she was a promising painter, Cooper Gosling finds herself watching her career s...

Books

Il Booker Prize 2020 va allo scozzese Douglas Stuart

News DefaultNovember 23, 20200

Il Booker Prize, il premio letterario inglese più prestigioso, quest’anno è anche stato il più diverso della sua storia. Per la prima volta, infatti, nella cinquina finale è arrivato solo uno scrittore nato nel Regno Unito: gli altri finalisti erano tutti americani, indiani o africani. Da sottolineare, inoltre, diverse esclusioni eccellenti – dai 162 tomi della prima cernita – come quelle di Hilary Mantel (che comunque il Booker l’ha già vinto due volte) e Colum McCann. Tra gli altri elementi di differenziazione rispetto al passato, il fatto che quattro scrittori su cinque fossero al romanzo d’esordio e tutti i nominati non siano attualmente residenti nel Regno Unito. Ha vinto Douglas Stuart, 44 anni, il favorito dei bookmaker grazie alla sua notevole opera prima Shuggie Bain. Un racco...

Books

3 books you need to read before the end of this year

News DefaultNovember 19, 20200

The end of 2020 is approaching and, this time, we hope that it ends for real and that it becomes nothing more than a bad memory. It has been a difficult year, but since we are determined to see the silver lining in everything, one good thing is that many have had more time to dedicate to themselves and their hobbies (at least home-related ones). Far from friends and acquaintances, those who kept us company were mainly the characters of the dozens of books and hundreds of films that we read and saw. Since it is not long before the end of this interminable year and our wish is that we will go back to our normal activities in the coming one, in the meantime we can keep plunging into reading. Here is three novels you absolutely need to read while you wait for January 1st. The Midnight L...

Books

Nicolai Lilin, l’italo-moldavo che non scorda le sue origini

News DefaultNovember 18, 20200

Chi cresce in Transnistria, una riga di terra che separa la Moldova, o Moldavia, dalla Romania, difficilmente dimentica il suo passato, la sua infanzia. Su questo argomento ha creato un vero e proprio immaginario Nicolai Lilin. Trasferitosi in Italia nei primi anni 2000, Nicolai giunge alla notorietà per aver condotto e partecipato alla trasmissione “Mistero”, andata in onda dal 2008 al 2016 su Italia Uno, il lunedì in prima serata. Forse, nessuno era a conoscenza del passato di Lilin e lui ha voluto fare chiarezza: ha scritto tre libri, e dal primo è stato tratto un film, diretto da Gabriele Salvatores, campione d’incassi in Italia. La cosiddetta Trilogia siberiana è composta da: Educazione siberiana, Caduta libera e Il respiro del buio. Nell’ordine cronologico della vita di Nicolai L...