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Set between Shanghai and Malaysia, Five Star Billionaire is made up by a series of intersecting stories, the lives of a generation of migrant workers from different social classes. Every character is struggling to be successful. Everyone fails, though often one is left thinking that that's for the best, because the price of success is loosing oneself. The book it's easy to read. It is about the generalised obsession with making money and appear successful, but it doesn't fall into the trap of being patronising, or of dividing the world into idealists and money-thirsty: everyone is caught up in the same system. This is what I appreciated the most about it.

I read this book in just two sessions, which is generally a good sign. It’s the story of the making of a family, its coming apart, and its patching itself back together, however imperfectly. Although at times I found the character a little too one-dimensional, there was something touching about everyone’s frailty and desire to do good by the others (if only we knew what is ‘good’). Especially towards the end, reading felt a little like watching a good American movie: emotionally manipulative, but soothing - I was wallowing in the drama.

Del dirsi addio is a crime story set in Bolzano, where the mystery around the disappearance of a kid is little more than a backdrop to the personal story of the detective investigating the case. Sergio is in love with a younger man, is in the closet, and is trying to patch up his relationship with his dad, and his memories of his deceased mum.In spite of these intricacies, I found the book easy to read, and read it whole on a single plane journey (admittedly a 20 hours one). The characters - including Bolzano, the town where the story is set - are not explored in great depth, but they are alive enough to make for an interesting read. I don't understand why authors so often need to let you know what they have read and learnt, but that's probably just me.

Don't let the two stars fool you: this book is funny, at times even laugh-out-loud funny. If you are an academic, or someone who has had to deal with the absurd rituals of recommendation letters (on either side of the equation), you'll almost definitely laugh. I cannot speak from experience, but I suspect if you are an academic in an American institution, you'll laugh even harder. If you are an academic at a Literature/English department in an American institution, you'll probably cry a little too. In spite of all the laughter, the story is a little too thin to carry the book: after the 25th letter, one gets the gist. I also grew to dislike Prof. Fitger so much, that I became unable to appreciate his sarcasm.

Loved it. The portrait of a woman, Aaliya, and a city, Beirut, nested inside each other. And through these portraits, Alameddine says many insightful things about aging, war, literature, music, love, friendship, mourning, and family. The writing is at times humorous, at times scathing, at times melancholic, always beautiful. My main reserve is that the literary reference and name-dropping are a little intense, though I'll admit they sit well with Aaliya's character.

The book contains a series of short stories linked by recurring characters. While each story could stand on its own, read together they add up, tracing the lives of those characters over several decades: from teenagerhood to success, from success to failure, from failure to recovery, etc. At times it is hard to keep track of the ways in which the stories connect, but in the end it doesn't really matter: you can lose track and still enjoy the book (I did). If one was to look for an overarching theme, without a doubt it would be time passing, and the experience of realizing that time has passed. I weirdly enjoyed the last chapter, set in the future, and especially Egan's guesses about the evolution of language.

I was given the book with the warning that the story were hit and miss, but I was positively surprised. My favourite were: Fat, about a Korean boy who tries to gain weight to avoid the military service; Mrs Dutta writes a letter - perhaps my favourite overall, about an old Indian lady moving in with her son's familty in the States. Walking the Wok, about a cooking school in Kenya (also great)

I love food, and enjoy cooking, and suspect that's why I got given the book. Yet most stories are not about the pleasure of eating/cooking, but about the ways food becomes a battleground between people who love each other.