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.A Season with Verona

by: Tim Parks

March 06, 2003
Wow, I don't think Tim Parks could have chosen a better season to follow Verona. If he hadn't written the book, it would still be a great story to tell. I'm not going to spoil the ending for everyone, but it really is an amazing season which ends spectacularly.

I love the fact that the author actually attends the games as a true spectator instead of press or pundit. He joins in with the chants, the drinking, the travelling - all as a die hard fan and he never hides any of the gory details of Italian football.

There's a few other books like this and this one stands out a mile because you actually know the author is educated with regards to football and is a true fan, as opposed to some other authors who have a blinkered ... Read More:
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Used Price: £3.95

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.Italian Neighbours: An Englishman in Verona

by: Tim Parks

May 03, 2001
This is an incredibly well-written book. Let's state right from the outset that this isn't even remotely a tourist guide, but if you know Italian life off the tourist beat just a little, you'll find yourself recognising characters, situations and attitudes to life you might have come across.

Yes, there are areas that won't appeal to English sensibilities. But it shouldn't come as a surprise to discover that when you cross the Channel, you'll find cultural differences that may disturb or even repel you. And so it is in Italy. The fact that these differences exist and Tim Parks chronicals them without an overlay of sentimentality or sensationalism makes them at the same time more shocking - but also more understandable.

I'm in the process ... Read More:
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Used Price: £0.62

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.An Italian Education

by: Tim Parks

May 03, 2001
An Italian Education is an excellent sequel to Italian Neighbours. The subject matter this time is Parks's young family. Parks's 2 children, who he writes about with great fondness, are his primary source of anecdotes and observations. The writer's daughter, Stefi, is the star character in this book. She is depicted as cute and full of pluck.

Like the first book, this book is funny and perceptive; and the writing is a treat. Parks is an accomplished story-teller and very skilful at writing about characters and situations. He has a rare ability to get to the essence of things with minimal fuss. As I am also a foreigner living in Italy, I could relate very strongly to the stories in this book and my understanding of Italy and the Italians has certainly been ... Read More:
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Used Price: £1.54

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.Numbers in the Dark and Other Stories (Vintage Classics)

by: Italo Calvino

September 05, 1996
This collection of fictions from across Calvino's career makes an stunning testament to his genius. calvino's 'stories' (for want of a better word, because he plays with many forms) range wildly, from the fabular to the faux-political tract to the dazzlingly metaphorical to the frankly recollected. they all convince. their brevity means even the shortest attention span can enjoy. in fact, 'glaciation', perhaps my favourite text in the (translated) english language, is also three pages long.
in a word: revlationary.
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Used Price: £2.00

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.PHP and MySQL Bible

by: Tim Converse, Joyce Park, Clark Morgan

May 11, 2004
First of I would like to say this is a great book and covers ALMOST everything for PHP. However it lacks something and that is continuity. Right from the start the book throughs are you extremely complex examples even for the form handling stuff. Which shows you how to make a newsletter manager.

This is not ideal for a beginner. I suggest you get other books, and use this to expand on points.

It does give you case studys at the end, but I do not feel they are explained enough. Buy other books, and if PHP still interests you get this. Otherwise leave it, you are not going to build interest by reading this book due to it being too complex.
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Used Price: £17.49

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.Cara Massimina

by: Tim Parks

January 30, 1995
Tim Parks's fiction is fun and immensely readable. This thriller occupies some of the same territory as the writer's non-fiction work - it's set in Italy, for example, but the mood is distinctly different.

The mood here switches between humour and violence. This is unsettling at times, but not necessarily unpalatable. It does, however, create an unsympathetic relationship with the anti-hero: we are either laughing at him or being appalled by him.

This thriller is clever and diverting enough: it's a competent piece of work and the writer knows his stuff - especially the geography and language of Italy, but there are better thrillers out there.
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Used Price: £0.01

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.The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony

by: Roberto Calasso

June 30, 1994
Roberto Calasso is probably unreadable and at a certain attempt even this book (his most popular both in the sense of notoriety and accessibility) is. But Roberto Calasso is not a writer a novelist or a poet, he is mainly a publisher, Adelphi, his publishing house, is one of the best in Italy since Aldo Manuzio (!!!). This book is just the second chapter of a long work in progress comprehending The ruins of Kasch, Ka, K and Il Rosa Tiepolo (just published in italian) and supposed to be a giant trait-d'union between all the titles published by Adelphi. It is meant to sollicit a curious mind, to create new links between different approaches to Literatures, to be the starting point of a wider search for an esotheric reader (in the sense of someone who is compulsively searching books ... Read More:
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Used Price: £0.01

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.Italian Neighbours: An Englishman in Verona

by: Tim Parks

May 27, 1993
This is an incredibly well-written book. Let's state right from the outset that this isn't even remotely a tourist guide, but if you know Italian life off the tourist beat just a little, you'll find yourself recognising characters, situations and attitudes to life you might have come across.

Yes, there are areas that won't appeal to English sensibilities. But it shouldn't come as a surprise to discover that when you cross the Channel, you'll find cultural differences that may disturb or even repel you. And so it is in Italy. The fact that these differences exist and Tim Parks chronicals them without an overlay of sentimentality or sensationalism makes them at the same time more shocking - but also more understandable.

I'm in the process of permanently relocating ... Read More:
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Used Price: £0.01

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.Europa

by: Tim Parks

January 01, 1998
Jerry Marlow narrates his thoughts and happenings during a bus journey to Strasbourg by Milan-based foreign lecturers and supporting students to air grievances in the European parliament. Marlow is having a bitter, mid-life crisis after marriage
break-up; difficulties with his teenage daughter, and a further break-up with a female student - who is also on the bus-trip.. The undoubted strength of this work is Tim Parks' prose: extremely long sentences set down the cerebral Marlow's jostling and competing thoughts in a challenging, yet highly readable, 'stream of consciousness' narrative.

Aside from Marlow himself, there are a number of other well-drawn and intriguing characters, most notably the trip-organiser, Indian-Welshman Vikram Griffiths. Along the way, Marlow unleashes his ... Read More:
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Used Price: £0.01

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.The Fighter: Literary Essays

by: Tim Parks

October 04, 2007
Jerry Marlow narrates his thoughts and happenings during a bus journey to Strasbourg by Milan-based foreign lecturers and supporting students to air grievances in the European parliament. Marlow is having a bitter, mid-life crisis after marriage
break-up; difficulties with his teenage daughter, and a further break-up with a female student - who is also on the bus-trip.. The undoubted strength of this work is Tim Parks' prose: extremely long sentences set down the cerebral Marlow's jostling and competing thoughts in a challenging, yet highly readable, 'stream of consciousness' narrative.

Aside from Marlow himself, there are a number of other well-drawn and intriguing characters, most notably the trip-organiser, Indian-Welshman Vikram Griffiths. Along the way, Marlow unleashes his ... Read More:
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Used Price: £1.45