#BookReview How optimistic or delusional does a 25-yr veteran of publishing have to be to open a tiny bookshop up on a steep hill in an Italian Tuscan village of 180 people? Poet Alba Donati did just that in December 2019 and this is her account of returning to her childhood home and setting up a perfect little gem of a bookshop, and the ups and downs of it all. She's an embracer of life and a people person, and if this book is anything to go by, a force of nature. The diary entries flit back and forth in time, jump from what's happening with the shop to stories about the characters who make up her large family and the villagers. She writes eloquently about the mountainous landscape she loves, and the books she cares passionately about. It's catnip for readers who can't resist a book about books.
In a fascinating article, Andrea Addobbati and Francesca Bregoli use a recently discovered play in French from 1786 to mine into the rapidly shifting place Livornese #Jews had in the Tuscan public sphere, in the context of ransoming captives across the Mediterranean.