Comic Art of Enrico ET Trentin

At the recently concluded Schio Cosplay festival, Breganze Comics had organised some tables for artists involved in making comic-art, to showcase their art and some of their published books. During the festival, I was able to speak to two of those writer-artists: Enrico Trentin and Marco Rosestolato.

This blogpost is about Enrico ET Trentin and our discussions. I will write another post about Marco Rosestolato. The image below presents some examples of Enrico ET Trentin's art (click on the pics for a bigger view).

Let me start with an introduction to Breganze Comics, the local group in Alto Vicentino area, which brings together the different artists involved in making illustrated books.

Breganze Comics

This is the 50th anniversary year of the Breganze Comics, which brings together and promotes the so called, "ninth art", the art of creating comics. They organise exhibitions, meetings with the authors, comic-art courses in the schools, etc. and support the growth of new artists-authors.

Comic Art or Graphic Art

I feel that there is no right word which defines the work of the persons making comic-art - their work is not limited to making "comics" targeted at teenagers, some of the books are adult fiction. Perhaps that's why some of them prefer calling themselves Graphic artists.

However, many of them are not only artists, they are also the writers of their stories and some of them also publish their books. So a better description for them can be writer-artist-publisher.

Writer-Artist Enrico ET Trentin 

Enrico has an art diploma from the Art Institute of Nove (VI) and has been engaged in making comics since 2001. He prefers making comics on humorous themes.

Important works: He started as an author for a magazine called "Prezzemolo" distributed by the well-known Italian theme-park called Gardaland.

Usually, author-artists of comics remain hidden and people only see their work. However, in May 2004, Enrico started an experimental blog-strip called NestoRe, in which he became visible, as he interacted with the character of his strip, making comments and having a dialogue. This experiment became a big success as the NestoRe comic-strip was reproduced in a large number of magazines, books and anthologies, and his name became familiar. NestoRe has a Facebook page, where you can take a look at some of its illustrations. (image below, the cover of a NestoRe book)

The fame achieved through NestoRe, brought Enrico in contact with a well-known Italian rock-band music group called Elio e Le Storie Tese. He asked the members of the rock-group to design the NestoRe comic strip number one thousand. Later, he also wrote and illustrated a series of books titled, "Storie Tese Illustrate", an authorised biography of the rock-band in 4 volumes between 2013 to 2016. This major creative work of Enrico is spread over 1400 pages and took almost 10 years to do research, write and illustrate. These volumes were sold at the concerts of the rock-band. (Below: the covers of the 4 volumes of Storie Tese Illustrate)

Since, 2021, he is engaged in another series of comics called "Gli Erquloidi" (the title can be loosely translated as the The Herculoids) about a group of tired heroes. He had first started making this comic while he was studying at the art institute in Nove 38 years ago. For this work, he does everything, from writing and designing to page-layouts and publication design. So far 17 comics of this series have been published, with about 650 illustration-panels. He says that he still feels the same enthusiasm for these comics that he used to feel as a sixteen years old in the school. (Left - Enrico with some volumes of Erquloidi)

Becoming a Comic Writer-Artist:  Enrico says that before becoming a writer and artist, he was and continues to be an avid reader, reading different genres of books. From his childhood, he had a special passion for illustrated story books, which stimulated his fantasies and allowed him to explore the imaginary universes. From a passionate reader, it was a natural evolution, in trying to understand how such stories were constructed, designing them and slowly improving his skills.

He Reads:  Enrico started with humorous comics because he loves most reading them, though he reads all the different genres. Among the other comics he likes to read are the super-heroes of Marvel universe, the Japanese Manga comics, the heroes of Bonelli and different French-Belgian authors.

His Evolution As a Comic Writer-Artist: In all these years, he has continued to work with the humorous comics but instead of working on characters created by others (for example, Prezzemolo for Gardaland) to his own comic-strip (NestoRe), to illustration (Storie Tese Illustrate) and now the comic books (Gli Erqucloidi), bringing together the experience from the last 25 years.

Use of Technology in the Comic Art: Enrico says that computers, graphic tablets and programmes can be useful if one does not wish to design and colour on paper. He feels that those who are used to designing on paper with pencils and colours, can easily use the technology, but it does not work the other way round.

He is not hostile to use of technology, after years of designing on paper with the China ink, he started designing NestoRe strips almost entirely in digital format. He mixes his use of traditional artwork with technology, using sometimes paper and pen and sometimes computers. For example, he designs on paper, then scans and uses a graphic programme for page layout and inserting the text.

The Future with AI: Enrico feels that AI and comics are not a good combination. Comics, both for stories and illustrations, should remain with "natural intelligence". The text of the comics should reflect the ideas and personality of the author and not the ideas copied from others. He feels afraid that someone who has been trained on models of work of others, can copy and come out with something similar instead of expressing original ideas.

His ideas about the design are also similar. He would prefer an error in the anatomy or an unbalanced perspective, instead of creating by taking or copying pieces of works and styles of different artists. The comic should continue to be a personal message of its author, and not something prepared by a machine - then what would be the use of us humans and anyway, AI does not have a sense of humour.

You can check Enrico's work on his Instagram page, and Facebook page. 

In The End

I grew up reading the Phantom comics and occasionally, Archies. At that time, I was not aware of serious fiction in the form of graphic novels. While growing up, the general attitude was that comics are not "books", they are only timepass and somehow inferior.

I was introduced to the Manga comics by my son in Italy and I could understand its attraction for young readers. However, it was not until I met some writer-artists and saw the kind of creative work that goes into creating a comic and a graphic novel, that I understood its importance as an art-form.

I feel that persons engaged in writing and illustrating stories need to bring together the different sensibilities and skills of narrative writing, designing, illustrating, directing and shooting films, and to do all this requires a different kind of creativity.

It was a pleasure to meet Enrico ET Trentin and to learn about his experiences as a writer-artist. 

*** 

St. Francis Church in Schio

St. Francis church is one of the older churches of the city. If you are visiting Schio, it is worth visiting it for its history and for the art-works. It is easy to visit, since it near the city centre. The only problem is that it is open for public only on the afternoon of the first Sunday of the month. In the image below, the bell-tower of the church can be seen on the left. (click on images for a bigger view). 

 An asymmetrical building surrounded by green hills, this church from 1424 CE is famous for a beautiful altar piece dedicated to St Catherine, painted by Francesco Verla. However, there is many other things to see in it.

This post is about the history and things to see in St Francis church. Let me start with a little bit of history. 

Historical Overview of St Francis Church 

St Francis church is located at the edge of a hilly forest area of Schio, known as Valletta. The hillocks around the church were originally known as "Monte degli Oliveti" (the Olive trees' Hill), because this area used to have many olive trees.

This area was known for its "lazzaretto", a place for housing the sick and homeless poor. The word "lazzaretto" is related to leprosy and perhaps in the past there were some leprosy affected persons there. However, over the years, such places were often used for keeping sick persons including those with plague and other illnesses such as tuberculosis and mental illness. 

Itinerant Franciscan friars arriving in Schio had built a chapel dedicated to Madonna on the Monte degli Oliveti in 1424. The sandstone statue of Madonna, installed in that first chapel can still be seen inside the church. Twenty years later, in 1446, the Bishop of Vicenza consecrated that chapel, and the event was marked by a plaque, which can still be seen on the wall near the entrance.

The church expanded quickly. By the end of 1400s, a Franciscan monastery was already active next to the church. The church-building had also been expanded and had a central and a lateral naves. Since, the other side of the central nave was already occupied by the monastery, and space on the hillock was limited, the church ended up as an asymmetrical building. A hundred years after the first chapel, by 1520 CE, the church as it looks today, was ready.

Important Artworks in St Francis

St Francis church has many things to see, among which the most important are: 

A Corberelli Altar with Inlaid Stones: The first Chapel in the lateral nave has a beautiful altar (left) made by the master stone artists of the Corberelli family from 17th century. The Corberelli (o Corbarelli) were from Tuscany and were specialised in making inlaid stone artworks.

The altar has an announcing angel on the left and a slightly ruined mosaic of Madonna on the right. The central part has 2 corberelli birds, identified by the pink spot on their breasts, as the legend says that the bird had hurt itself while trying to remove a spine from crucified Jesus' head. The inlaid stone work is very beautiful, made of stones in vivid colours, it looks like a painting.

There is another Corberelli altar in Schio in the San Giacomo church near Duomo, and another, better known one, in Santa Corona church in Vicenza.  

Altar Painting by Francesco Verla: This luminous painting about the spiritual wedding of St Catherine from 1512 CE is in chapel 3 of the lateral nave (right). It is the most famous art-work of this church.

Giorgio Vasari, the renaissance period art-historian, who wrote Le Vite in 1550 about the biographies of well-known artists of his time, called him as Francesco Veruzio, who was from nearby town of Villa Verla ("verla" literally means 'cherries'). His painting style was influenced by Pinturicchio and, especially, Perugino, with whom he had spent some time.

The Pala (artwork for the altar) is composed of a semi-circular top part, a narrow top panel and the main painting, a bottom narrow panel, and a frame. The figures, the composition, the use of light, and especially the figure of God as a man with long beard in the top part of the painting, reminds us of some of the famous works of Pietro Perugino. The "Putti", the baby angels in the top narrow panel are seen as typical figures painted by Verla - they seem like the many baby angels painted by Donatello. The bottom panel, showing the life of St Catherine, seems to show a hill with the castle of Schio, which was demolished a hundred years earlier. (The bottom panel of the altar piece, below - Schio's castle is a little to the left of the centre - click on the image for a bigger view)

The cult of St Catherine has older roots in this area, as shown by the St Catherine church and village on the Summano mountain, that looms over Schio. 

The painting was commissioned by one Mr Giovanni who was married to a woman named Lucia - both of them are represented in the painting as St Lucy on the left and St John Baptist on the right. Behind them are St. Agatha and St Joseph. There is a baby holding on to the leg of St Joseph, whose reference to this painting is not clear. The central figures are Madonna, baby Jesus and St Catherine covered with a rich golden and red brocade.

Verla had also done the frescoes decorating the top parts of the church walls, so do not forget to look up while visiting the church.  

Madonna statue: Chapel 4 in the lateral nave hosts the original Madonna statue from early 15th century - it is made with sandstone from Vicenza. The name of its sculptor has been lost. It has a renaissance like look and is beautiful. Later on it was painted in bright colours, which make it look like a wooden statue.  

Recently, a space was discovered in front of this statue, which held a curtain, which could be opened and closed with a lever. The curtain has a painting with a lever for pulling up a curtain, which was used for covering the statue during some rites and then removing it to show the Madonna. The painted curtain will be kept in the forthcoming Schio museum, which is supposed to open this year (2026).

A Francesco Maffei (1605-1660) Painting Above the Main Altar: This painting is from 1640s and has Madonna with the baby, along with St Francis, St Anthony of Padua,
Bernardino of Sienna and Ludvic of Tolosa. It is more gothic, Madonna seems as a two dimensional figure and not so expressive. 

The hidden Chapel: There is another Chapel (right) with an old San Bernanardino altar, which is now hidden after cloister 2 in a side wall. It was shifted in the past during some restructuring. On the wall near the old altar, there are a couple of coat-of-arms from notable Schio families, including that from the Toaldi family (it has a tree and a dog).

Tombs Inside St Francis 

Since early times, rich persons could ask to be buried inside the church by paying money. Having a tomb inside the church increased families' social status. During the Napoleonic period, many tombs were removed but even today, the cost-of-arms of some important local families can still be seen inside, especially in front of the altars.

For example, in front of the main altar, you can see the De Schio family-tomb with their symbol (left), a two tailed siren; the Marostica family tomb has a cherry tree on it, while Fantinelli family tomb has a baby.

There is a lot of pink sandstone used for the tombs - these rocks were at the bottom of the sea and which rose up when the African tectonic plaque hit Europe, creating Alps and pre-alps.

The Beautiful Chorus Room 

The ligneo (wooden) chorus room is behind the main altar. It is also from early 1500. It was carved wood seats on two levels for the monks. In the centre, it has a big leggio, used for keeping the hymn book.  The leggio can be rotated and has a compartment for keeping the books. A handcrafted and painted codice miniato manuscript was found here which is now kept in the civic library of Schio, not very far from the church.

There are 2 paintings in the chorus room, both are by Francesco Maffei from 17th century (the painting on the back wall has a family connection for me - it carries a plaque with a dedication to "Lino Raddino", my wife's brother-in-law). 

Fossils in the stones near the church 

The geological history of Schio's hills show that in the past, 20-40 million years ago, they were at the bottom of the sea and the movement of the tectonic plates of the earth's crust, had brought them up. The local sand-stones and rocks used in the walls outside the church has many fossils, which testify this geological history.

Guided Tours in St Francis 

You can always visit the church area from the outside, but to visit inside the church, you need to come to Schio on the afternoon of the first Sunday of the month - the church is open to public only on that day, from 3 to 6 PM. On that day, there is usually a guided tour around 4 PM. 

I have been to numerous guided tours to St Francis church and had been promising myself to write a post about it for many years. The last image below, shows the monument to St Bakhita outside St Francis church.

Every guided tour brings out some new aspect about this church. For example, during the last tour, we visited the side-room connected to the chorus room and saw some of the paintings of the Popes in this room that I had not seen before.

In the End

Most people visiting Italy can see the famous cities, such as Rome, Florence and Venice. People who have a passion for history, visit slightly less famous cities like Verona, Bologna, Naples and Padua. To be aware about the histories and treasures of small towns like Schio, is not possible for casual visitors and Italy has hundreds of such places.

So if you are visiting Schio, try to discover as much of its history as possible - visiting St Francis church and its environs can an important part of this discovery!

*** 

History Seen Through Trees & Gardens

History is usually seen through big events like the lives of kings & queens, wars, building castles & forts. The lives of ordinary people are usually missing from the history books, though sometimes we can get glimpses of that, like the recent discovery of graffiti in some Egyptian monuments.

However, we can also look at the history through its trees and gardens. Recently I had such an experience when the Cooperativa TRAMA (Traditions, Resources, Ambience, Museums & Art) organised a special city-walk in Schio (VI) focusing on its trees, forests and gardens. 

 

Origins of Schio & an Historical Overview

Our city walk started in Piazza Rossi, in front of the Duomo church in the city-centre.

The Duomo church is located on a hillock known as "colle del Garzone". First mention of Schio in the documents is from around 990 CE, when the bishop of Vicenza allotted some land for agriculture. Around 1000, there was already a small chapel to San Petri at the top of this hill, surrounded by the oak trees. 

 

Around the first millennium, the area around Schio was subdivided between a noble family and the church, and there were rivalries between the two.

The noble family was called Malatraversi, who were faithful to the emperor, and they were prominent for about 300 years, from around 1000 CE to 1300 CE. They controlled the area on the north-east side of Leogra torrent - Schio, Piane, Sant'Orso. They had built a defensive fort (il Castello) on the Castello hill, not far from the Garzone hillock, which included two concentric walls, as shown in the famous painting by Francesco Verla in the St Francis church in Schio, a couple of centuries later.

The church responded to the Pope and controlled the area on the south-west of the Leogra torrent - Pieve, Magre, Malo. The first mother church, where the bishop stayed, was built in Pieve. However the floods of the Leogra torrent created problems and the Bishop had to take refuge on the Garzone hillock. To control the floods, the Roggia Maestra water-canal was built, which took and diverted the excess water to the farm-houses around the area. This canal passes next to the old mother church in Pieve. The building of this canal also stimulated the development of different economic activities, such as carpenters, saw-mills, flour-mills, etc. 

In 1300s, as the Malatraversi family declined, first the Nogarola family from Verona, and then the Visconti of Milano became more influential in Schio. Around the end of 1300s, Schio became a part of the Republic of Venice, also known as La Serenissima. Venice placed Schio under the jurisdiction of Vicenza.

Schio was unhappy to be under Vicenza, because the two had competing interests.  In 1412, Vicenza dismantled the castello-fort of Schio and its stones were used for other houses and buildings. A competing interest between the was the weaving of refined clothe (panni alti), as both cities wanted to produce it and Vicenza did not give permission to Schio for it (only in 1701, Schio was allowed to make "panni alti" clothes).

In 1797, the republic of Venice was defeated by Napoleon Bonaparte. Under Napoleon, the monasteries and churches were closed, some of their artworks and valuables were hidden, the others were taken away his troops. In 1814, the area of Schio became a part of Austro-Hungarian empire. In 1866, a treaty between Veneto and Austria, finally brought the whole region under the Italian kingdom.

Schio Seen Through the Histories of its Trees and Gardens  

The Oak Forest: Before the city of Schio became an urban centre, there was an oak forest in the Duomo area, which gave the city its name, as such forests were called "schleda" in the local language. That led to its Latin name "Scledum" in the Roman period. Archaeological remains of a Roman garrison have been found near the area which now hosts the Campo Romano mall.

No traces remain today of that oak forest and the constructions of Duomo church completely cover the Garzone hill. However, from the Garzone road, which passes along Duomo, little bits of the grassy hill are still visible.

The Lime Trees of Castello: The hill which hosted the castello-fort of Schio is much bigger, extending back to the Capuchin monastery. The part of the hill where the remains of the old fort are still visible, was known as "Tajara" in the local dialect because it hosted two huge and old Tiglio trees (Lime or Linden tree). These were removed in early 1900s because they were in danger of falling down. The area also included a hundred years old Platano (Plane tree), which was planted in 1912.

To remember them, rows of Lime trees were planted in that area. 

 

Horse-Chestnut trees on the Castello Hill: A row of Ippocastano (Horse-Chestnut trees) was planted along the side of the Castello Hill in 1850. These trees were brought to Italy from Turkey in the 1500s. Their chestnuts are used for making a medicine used in the horses, which gave these trees their name. The popular belief says that keeping a couple of these chestnuts in your pocket will prevent catching common cold.

Exotic Trees of Jaquard gardens: These gardens were built in 1859 opposite the Rossi Wool mills near Schio's centre, by the industrialist Alessandro Rossi. At a time when mill-workers were mostly illiterate, included many children and international travel was restricted to a few persons, these gardens brought the world to Schio. They include a theatre with busts of famous persons of Schio, caves, sculptures of wild animals like crocodilian and panther, and a hanging garden.

The garden was designed by Antonio Caregaro Negrin and included a sun-room for orchids and different tropical trees such as palm and banana trees. Among the trees of this garden, there are - a Mexican Cypress (also called Portuguese Cypress), 3 giant sequioia and a Yew tree to celebrate Italy's flag (it has green leaves, white flowers and red berries - the colours of the Italian flag). It also has many Japanese plants.

 

Personal & Family Memories of Trees

So many of our memories and personal histories are linked with plants and trees. For example, in our old style double-storey house in New Rajendra Nagar in Delhi, we had an oleander tree which used to be full of pink flowers. Two years ago, when I went to visit that house with my sister, and found that a new and bigger house had been built there. I felt sad because I could not see the old oleander tree. 

In our home in Schio, we have a couple of Laurel trees. I can see that same tree in some of the old family pictures, as my wife's family has been living in this house for more than 125 years. About 15 years ago, we had tried cutting them down but were unable to remove the vast network of their roots, and from those roots, two new plants came out (in the image below).

At the corner of the street, where we live, there was a huge old tree. I remember my mother-in-law telling me about it more than forty years ago - she had said that her husband was a child when that tree had been planted. Last year, when that tree was cut down because it was in danger of falling, I felt that a part of our family history had gone with it.

My wife often talks of the Ficus tree in our backyard, where she used to climb as a child. At that time, there were no walls between the backyards of the houses and families could see and talk with neighbours, while sitting in their backyard gardens. Today most of these backyards have concrete floors and high walls.

An old picture from 1950s, of a friend's house in our street, shows a tree, an old washing place and a car. When I shared this picture on Instagram, a man wrote to say that it was his father's car.

Conclusions

Once I started thinking about my memories related to plants and trees, there were so many of them that I was surprised. For example, I have many memories about my grandfather's farmhouse, parts of which lies underneath the "Dwarka Mod" metro station in Delhi. Another memory was of the different Tulsi plants that we had in different homes where we lived. For every city where I have lived, I can remember those days through some trees and plants.

To my readers, trying remembering your own memories about plants and trees - I think that you will find it a rewarding exercise.

*** 

Favourite Books 2025

I try to read every day, but I find it increasingly difficult to find books which interest me. Most of the time, I leave them incomplete. In 2025, it was almost the end of January when I finally finished a book.

Now, my criteria of a good book is that I finish reading it. This post is about the 30 books that I finished reading in 2025. I mainly read crime-mysteries and thrillers, and a wide range of non-fiction books.

This post is subdivided into three parts - Non-Fiction books, Thrillers and Mysteries and Other books. Under each sub-group, the books are presented in the order that I read them. Read till the end of this post, if you want to know the 5 books I really liked most among these 30. (Click on the pictures for a bigger view)

Part 1: Non-Fiction Books I liked in 2025 - 8 Books

Notes from an Island by Tove Jonsson and Tuulikki Pietila: It is a diary of 2 women who went to live on a tiny uninhabited skerry (island) off the coast of Finland during 1960s and lived there for some decades till they were too old to do so. It was first published in 1996.

Tove had a beautiful way of writing. Her words are sharp and essential. Tooti (Tuulikki) is the artist, she has contributed to the book with ink-washouts and etchings of the sea.

A large part of the diary is about their daily life but occasionally the prose goes on a deep dive into emotions. For example, here is a tiny sample where Tove writes about the visitors - "Sometimes they bring their friends, sometimes, the loss of friends ..." 

Things in Nature Merely Grow by Chinese-American author Yiyun Li (2025) is about the suicide of her younger son, James.

Composed of a series of essays, it starts with the difficulty of informing a family about the death of a child, especially through suicide. In it, Yiyun looks from outside-inside perspectives at her own family, her own feelings and her memories of her son.

This book made me cry, and also, deeply uncomfortable. I have also written a separate post about it.

Japanese Psychotherapies: Silence and Body-Mind Interconnectedness in Morita, Naikan and Dohsa-hou by Velizara Chervenkova (2017): We are all familiar with psychotherapy, where people talk to mental health professionals. The idea that one can remain silent and use silence as a therapy does not fit in with that logic.

This book explains Japanese psychotherapy approaches  based on Buddhism and Zen, such as silence, mind-body connectedness and mindfulness. They reminded me of Vipassana practices in India.

I especially liked the discussions about 'Do' approaches - from tea making (chado) to flower arrangements (shado) and martial arts (judo, akaido), where focus, inner calm and harmony need to be cultivated.

Ultra Processed People by Chris van Tulleken (2023): Sometimes the so-called "healthy foods" can be very unhealthy, because they contain strange chemicals for making people eat more. These ultra-processed foods can reset our body mechanisms and biospheres, can make us overweight and promote metabolic disorders leading to heart and mental health problems.

This book, written by a doctor, goes in depth of this argument, talking about new understandings from different scientific studies, and not on "research" conducted by big food-companies. It also provides insights about how doctors and nutritionists are taught about food, and how that teaching needs to change to understand the impact of food multi-nationals on our bodies.

If you are interested in nutrition and want to be aware about all the different chemicals that are added to food, which is then advertised as healthy food, read this book. IMO, it is one of the best written books on this theme. It is especially useful for persons with diabetes, obesity and other health conditions.

New Rules of War - Victory in the Age of Durable Disorder (2019) by Sean McFate: If I had read this book when it had come out, I would have stopped reading it after 10-15 pages because it would have sounded unbelievable and more like a deranged conspiracy-theorist. However, it's descriptions of what the crumbling of a rule-based world-order looks like, seem to be terrifying real in 2025 because of what is happening with President Trump.

McFate looks at the way different wars have been fought over the past century to conclude that the rule-based world-order was coming to a close and soon it will affect America. His another conclusion is that excessive reliance on technology to win future wars is a doomed strategy.

McFate's many predictions in this book made me feel a little anxious, so I skipped some parts.

Dusk, Night, Dawn: On Revival and Courage by Anne Lamott (2021): A tiny book (128 pages on my Kobo reader), it has a series of essays in which Lamott explores the different issues around human frailty based on her life-experiences which include struggles with alcoholism and her uncontrolled sexual linkages while being drunk, difficult relationships with parents, her late-in-life discovery of love with a guy called Neal and her discovery of faith. Lamott is a wonderful writer and she concludes the book with a small essay about the time when everyone called her 'a terrible writer' and where she nearly dies while being drunk.

The book is full of stories about touching rock-bottom, facing challenges, surviving them and finding your feet again, all accompanied by a dispassionate dissection of her own failures and mistakes, many of which touched me deeply. For example, in the first chapter of the book where she talks about her experience of talking to children in the Sunday school about the soul, she writes, "Is the soul damaged by acne, political madness, rigid or unloving parents? I think so, damaged but not mortally so. It becomes callused, barricaded, yet it is always there for the asking, always ready for hope. ... Certain qualities are of soul, and not of mind or culture. Curiosity is one way that we know that our souls are functioning. ..." 

The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel Van Der Kolk (2014): The author is a mental health professional who has worked for many decades with persons who have had terrible experiences of violence, such as war veterans, women and children victims of different kinds of violence.

His experience shows that many persons, who had experienced violence in their childhood, often end up sharing some common symptoms. However, usually these conditions are seen as individual psychiatric illnesses and the global picture is ignored. He explains his ideas in a simple and empathetic language, which is interesting both for professionals and individuals. I found the book very interesting except for the last parts about different therapies.

Breaking Through by Isher Judge Ahluwalia: Isher was a renowned economist in India during 1980s-90s. Breaking Through is her memoir written during the final days of her life in 2019-20, as she was undergoing treatment for a brain tumour. My younger sister had worked with her as a research assistant and in 1986, I had briefly met both Isher and her husband Montek Singh Ahluwalia when they had come to our home for her marriage.

Her memoir is a fascinating and personal look at the days and years that had changed the economic policies in India during early 1990s. I could also relate to her life in Washington DC, as one of my sisters lives there. I found her references to being a devout Sikh and the final parts of the book where she spoke about her cancer, very touching. 

Part 2: Crime, Mysteries & Thrillers - 13 Books

Treasure and Dirt by Chris Hammer (2021) is a police procedural about a murder in an opal mine located in a desert area in north-eastern Australia. The descriptions about the the desert are very vivid and the personalities of the two detectives, Ivan Lucic and Nell Buchanan are very well chiselled out. 

The book is very slow and nothing seems to happen for a very long time except for the two detectives plodding along, trying this and that. However, the writing is wonderful and the descriptions of the desert-life are riveting.

The final chapter of the book where it explains the what, who, why of everything, was a kind of let down. However, overall it was a good read.

Autopsy by Patricia Cornwell (2021) is another police procedural, this time from the point of view of the chief medical officer (CMO), Kay Scarpetta, responsible for autopsies and forensic aspect of crime investigations.

The book has a slow beginning with the discovery of the body of a murdered woman near a railway track. The interest in the first half of the book is sustained by different stories of the other persons in the "Scarpetta world" - her brother-in-law, her niece with her cat and a missing cat-collar, her secretary, her boss and the mystery of astronauts' death in the space.

The ending of this book felt a bit hurried, when most loose ends were tied, but not very neatly.  

Cold Justice by Ant Middleton (2021): An action thriller, it is about Mallory, a war veteran, feeling guilty about his decision in Afghanistan which had led to the death of some of his men. He decides to help the mother of one of his ex-colleagues to search for her missing second son. It is fast paced, some good action scenes and well-written text with a James Bond kind of hero who knows how to get out of tricky situations.

I am not too fond of complicated climax scenes with continuous twists and new villains to overcome and in that sense, the final bits were a little tedious but the last scene with its unexpected final twist left a good after-taste. I found it to be a quick and interesting read.

I Have Something To Tell You by Susan Lewis (2021): It was a kind of two-in-one kind of books with two parallel stories that come together near the last part. One story is about a lawyer Jay and her client Edward, accused of having murdered his wife. The second thread is about the personal lives of Jay and Edward - Jay has problems with her husband Tom, who has been unfaithful, while Edward's wife had gone into self-destructive behaviour after losing her young son in an accident. The first 60% of the book focuses on the murder investigation while the last 40% mixes the personal issues and makes them as the main focus.

It is a very well written book, especially the psychological build-up of different characters. However, it book drags in some parts, it should have been edited and 50 pages less would have been better (now it is almost 400 pages).

Diamond and the Eye by Peter Lovesey (2021): This police procedural has the overweight detective Peter Diamond playing a duet with the street-smart private eye Johnny Getz while they look for a missing antique dealer. The writer uses a third person narrative for the chapters about the police detective and a first person narrative for the chapters about the private eye.

The murder mystery starts with a dead thief's body hidden inside an Egyptian mummy-coffin in the antique shop. The best part of the book is the humour and one-liners, especially in the parts about Johnny Getz.

The writer of this book, Peter Lovesey died in 2025. 

Indigo Ridge by Devney Perry (2021): The book mixes a murder mystery and a romance story, a genre that normally I don't like. However, being on holidays at the seaside probably helped me to overcome my resistance. The murder mystery is about young girls jumping to their deaths from a rocky cliff, while the romantic story has a Marlboro man kind of rancher and the new young woman-chief of the local police.

The romance part has some explicit scenes of red-hot sex, while the murder mystery has the final twist with the unexpected killer, which was kind of difficult to believe in. I finished this one in less than 24 hours (being on a holiday helped in that).

One on One by Michael Brandman (2018): is a police procedural located in a fictional town called Freedom in south California. Buddy Steel, the deputy sheriff is single, emotionally fragile and conflicted about his father Sheriff Burton Steel, who is battling a deadly neurological condition.

The whole premise of the book, about a charming psychopath working in a school, who can convince anyone to have sex with him, including minor school girls, is a kind of unbelievable, because none of the parents suspect that it is a problem or the kind of guy he is.

It has a sub-plot about a street-artist, with a convenient resolution. The book has no great characterisations, but some good one-liners. Still it is readable because it is written well.

Silverview by John Le Carré (2021): I have been a long-time admirer of the spy books of John Le Carré. it is the story of an old Polish-British ex-spy who has decided to pass over to the other side, and the people trying to catch him.

Silverview, his last book, has only around 150 pages that he was unable to complete and was completed after his death by his son Nick Cornwell. In the 'afterword' written by Nick, he explains that the book was almost done and needed only some minor corrections, in fact he was surprised why his father had not completed it.

The book is about British spies, but is not much of a mystery. Rather, it reflects the present times, when even spy services must interrogate themselves and no one is sure of being on and fighting for the right side, because all sides are guilty of playing with blood of innocents. It is written beautifully with wonderful characterisations.

Desert Star by Michael Connelly (2022): The murder mystery and a police procedural has two of the iconic and most loved characters of the Connelly fiction universe, Harry Bosch and Renee Ballard. The book has two serial killers under the cold case unit. I don't know if this is the curtain call for Harry Bosch or if he going to have more books. His part in the book ends with an almost final withdrawal from the police work, though he has already retired a few times and made come-backs.

The book has a strong emotional core and a bit of vigilante justice. I found the final part of the book to be an absolute cracker. Don't miss this one if you like crime-fiction.

If only she knew by Alexandria Clarke (2021): This murder mystery, set in a small mid-west town setting has a sheriff helped by a woman with paranormal skills. She is called Calamity (Cal) James, who can talk to the dead people. I am not very fond of fiction about paranormal

While almost everyone thinks that she is weird and suspect her of being a a murderer, the sheriff believes in her and asks for her to find a missing woman. It is an easy read.

Murder at St Anne's by J. R. Ellis (2021): In a snow-covered winter, a female pastor in a Yorkshire Anglican church is found dead, killed by a heavy blow to her head. Detective Oldroyd is asked to investigate. Oldroyd's sister is also a pastor and was a friend of the dead woman, so the detective has an indirect personal connection to the victim. People say that she was killed by the ghost of a medieval monk but of course, the detective does not believe in it. It is an enjoyable police procedural book, with some interesting discussions about conservatives and liberals in the Anglican church.

Another aspect of the book I found interesting and yet a little jarring is the use of the pronoun 'they' for the assassin, to indicate that it could be a man or a woman - I thought it was too deliberate, it distracted the flow of the book because we don't think in a politically correct way. Instead, using 'he' would have been better. Otherwise, it is very well written.

The Night Shift by Robert Enright (2016): The action thriller with its hero Sam Pope, is in the tradition of action-heroes like Jason Bourne and Jack Reacher. It is full of non-stop action. Pope is much more violent compared to other action heroes and the book has some scenes of gory violence depicted in excruciating detail.

It makes for quick reading like a pack of chips, but it is marred by poor editing with many grammar mistakes and some poorly plotted scenes - probably being the first book, the author himself did the editing. Hopefully, his more recent books are better edited.

Dark Heart by Joan Fallon (2022):  The book is based in Malaga in Spain and has a very Spanish vibe. When I read it, I had thought that it was an English translation of a Spanish book. The book has the detective Jacaranda Dunn (JD) accompanied by her helpers Linda and Nacho, working in collaboration with the Spanish Guardia Civil, to solve the murder mystery of a famous actor during a film festival.

JD has a kind of situation-affair with the chief of the police. Her assistant Linda has to deal with a family emergency. And the murder mystery has the background of the Basque fight for independence. All these elements create the parallel background stories, which are told in an interesting way. I enjoyed it. 

Part 3: Other Genres of Books - 9 Books

The majority of these books were in the category of human relationships, with bits of romance in some in them.

On Fire Island by Jane L. Rosen: This book from 2023 was surprising, because at the end of the first chapter, Julie Morse, the book-editor by profession and the heroine of the story, dies from cancer. The second chapter is about her funeral. So the book written in first person, is a story told by a ghost, telling her experiences of following her grieving recently-widowed husband who comes to spend a few months at their seaside summer home.

The book has some tear-jerker parts but mostly the narrator's voice is playful, occasionally ironic and humorous. There are plenty of stories of other local characters, each of which often goes in some unexpected directions. An easy and interesting read - I read the 300+ pages' book in just over 3 evenings.

Nightingale by Kristin Hannah: The book is about 2 sisters living in a small village in France during the second world war and how their lives change because of the war. Vianne's husband leaves for the war, her close friend is Jewish, and through her, she will help save Jew children, even while she is forced to share her house and bed with a German.

The younger sister, Isabel, fights with the Nazi regime and helps allied pilots, only to end in a concentration camp. 

Based partly on a real-life story, I found parts of the book too intense and melodramatic for my taste, however I did finish it. It was recommended to me by some friends from our Reading Group, who had really loved it. 

Translation State by Ann Leckie (2023): This science-fiction book is part of the Radch empire series, but it is a stand-alone book. It has three main characters - Enae, a noble family woman who has passed her life in looking after her grandmother; Reet, an abandoned child with strange DNA who has been raised by foster parents; and Qven, a hybrid human-bio machine, who is being trained to be a Presger translator. Enae is asked to look for a fugitive who had come from another space-station some two hundred years ago, and her search brings her in contact with Reet and Qven.

The rules for different kinds of beings populating the Radch world are not explained in the book. Therefore, the terms for different humans, aliens, AI beings and hybrids, were not very clear to me. Yet I found the book interesting and mind-expanding. The clever use of language and genders, was both a bit disorienting and intuitively understandable. It has two understated love-stories that can be loosely understood as queer, but since the genders of the different characters are not very clear, the queerness is also not so clear.

After a very long, finally I had found a science fiction book that I liked, so I am very pleased about it. I had even started feeling that something has changed in me and that I won't like SF books ever again.

Brightly Shining by Ingvild Rishoi (2021): This is a tiny book, a novella about Christmas time and the heartbreaking difference between dreams and reality for a little girl called Ronja.

I read the Italian translation (Porta delle Stelle) of this book written originally in Norwegian for my book-reading club. On my own, I don't think that I would have completed reading it, because it is about a family dealing with an alcohol addiction, a theme that I hate since it brings back unpleasant memories of when I was working as a community doctor. In fact, even if it is a tiny book, I read it in small pieces over a week.

Apart from the theme, it is very well-written and it seems that it has been a bestseller in many languages.

Larch Tree Lane by Anna Jacobs (2022): is a pleasant read, partly a cosy mystery, partly a love story about Lucia and Corin. She is running from her stalker-violent ex-husband and he is an architect who has returned to England after a decade of working for non-profits in different developing countries.

Lucia finds refuge in the house of a lonely old woman and Corin buys a group of old cottages nearby. The mystery is about a second world war building and some guys who do not wish him to buy those old houses. The book is first of a series based in a Wiltshire village.

It seems that the ninety years old author Anna Jacobs has written more than a hundred books and probably all that practice contributes towards making this book an easy, though an underwhelming read, I liked her second book (below) much more.

Magnolia Gardens by Anna Jacobs (2024): is also based in the same Wiltshire village. This time, the story has a set of small houses made for hosting people facing difficult situations.

The book is about the lives and challenges of 3 persons who need safe-places to live while they get over a difficult phase of their lives - one is a woman is running from a stalker ex-boyfriend, another is a dyslexic young man coming from a difficult life in foster-care homes and the third is an old widower who has lost his house in a fire.

The stories are connected by a retired woman who works as the warden. Corin from the first book makes a small appearance in this book. It is better plotted and written compared to the first book and makes for a pleasant read - read it if you like books about relationships.

The House Beneath the Cliff by Sharon Gosling (2021): is the story of Anna, searching for her own self-identity, who comes to live in a remote fishing village and about her relationship with villagers.

Anna had been working as a sub-chef while being in a live-in relationship with the head chef, who is an abusive and manipulative ex-boyfriend and a TV personality.

She comes to live in a little house in a tiny fishing village called Crovie hugging a cliff facing the north sea in Scotland. It is a good book if you like reading about human relationships. I was struck by its descriptions of the life in a tiny fishing village, and how it looks picturesque to the tourists but has many challenges for daily living. 

Seven Perfect Things by Catherine Ryan Hyde (2021): The book is about a young teenager who saves seven puppies from drowning and decides to look after them. Through the puppies she meets a man grieving for his wife who has recently died. The two of them find support in each other, and as the man starts helping the teenager to take care of the puppies, he is drawn in her family problems which include a mother who is hoping to run away from home and an alcoholic and controlling companion-father.

It is a pleasant read, though I did skipped some pages in a few parts of this book.

The Aleph by Jorge Luis Borges (1945): This book of short stories by the famous Argentinian writer was part of my book-reading group books. I read it in Italian and thus could imagine and appreciate the lyrical beauty of original writing in Spanish. 

I read large parts of this book aloud and felt hypnotized by the words. Even while appreciating the poetry of his language, it is not an easy book because it is written in a way where it is difficult to remember the storylines about philosophy and fantasy touching on themes such as mythologies, dreams and labyrinths. So though I loved it while reading it, I can't tell you the storyline of any of its stories.

Conclusions

This year I must have opened hundreds of books but finished reading only 30 of them - 8 non-fiction books, 13 books about crime, mysteries and thrillers, and 9 books in other genres including a SF book. 

Since I have thousands of books on my ebook reader and I know that in my remaining lifetime, I am going to read only a tiny proportion of them, so if a book bores me, I simply close it and try a new one. It is very different from my childhood, when I used to find interesting all the books I bought or took on loan from libraries.

My top 5 books from the above 30 books are: 

(1) Ultra Processed People by Chris van Tulleken - I liked it so much that I bought and gifted copies of it to my son and a friend.

(2) Silverview by John Le Carré - for its gentle story-telling of a spy story.

(3) Desert Star by Michael Connelly - for a great crime-thriller.

(4) Translation State by Ann Leckie - for the great science-fiction story set in a new hybrid world. 

(5) Dusk, Night, Dawn by Anne Lamott - for the honesty with which shares the highs and lows of her life as a human being and as an author.

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Favourite Works From Mutations 2025 Art Exhibition

This year, the theme of the contemporary art exhibition Mutazioni (Mutations) was "The Signs".

Mutazioni is an annual art event in our town, Schio (VI) in the north-east of Italy. It is usually organised around the end of autumn and the beginning of winter. 

Since this year's theme was a bit abstract, the exhibits were very different. A distinguishing feature of this years' exhibition was a series of exhibits from different countries of Africa from the personal collection of artist and art-collector Bruno Sandonà.

As always, there was a lot to see and admire in the exhibition. In this post, I want to present some of my favourite art-works from the Mutazioni 2025.

The picture on the left is from an installation created by a group of artists from a cooperative working with marginalised persons and disabled persons called Coop Libra that I had liked very much.

A few exhibits seemed familiar to me, they were similar to those presented in earlier editions of Mutazioni exhibitions. So I have excluded them from this list.

Let me start with a hand-painted dress. You can click on the images for a bigger view. 

Hand-Painted Silk by Daria Tasca and Annamaria Iodice

Daria Tasca from Treviso is known for her art combined with woven materials. This time, she was joined by Annamaria Iodice, a sculptor, painter, designer and performer from Naples.

The two artists took a piece of silk woven in early 1950s, hand-painted it and created a two-piece dress out of it, wrapped around a framework of iron, copper and aluminium. It was inspired by the digital prints of an art-work called "The Earthquake" by Slavia Janeslieva and Teona Milieva.

Last year, in the Mutazioni 2024 exhibition, Daria had joined with a ceramic artist Vania Sartori to create a somewhat similar artwork focusing on ceramics, while this year the focus was on painting. I think that works like this are important to remind ourselves that art may not only be in the exhibits but even be worn by persons.

Ceramic Dresses of Lorenzo Gnesotto

There was another artist in the exhibition focusing on wearables. He had used ceramics for creating "dresses", though his interpretation of this idea was completely different. 

Lorenzo is from Bassano del Grappa. His artworks included 3 quirky ceramic "dresses" made from Terracotta bound by elastic fibres. Through the use of different kinds of clays for making the terracotta pieces, it gave them different colours and designs.

More than dresses, they seemed like body-decorations. They also remind me of the metal nets and armours used by medieval soldiers to protect their bodies.

Origami Sculptures and Sound-Installations by Silvia Tedesco

This artwork was by Silvia from Vicenza and it included three round bases on which origami sculptures covered with resins were placed. At the same time, each sculpture was associated with a specific soundscape. In fact, she describes her art as "Talking Artwork".

One of the sculptures, called "the Soul Dance" had dragonfly-shaped origami, another called "Dream and Bubble Soap" had soap bubbles and the third one called "Carpe-Diem" had the Japanese Kohako-Koi fishes. Click on the image for a bigger view.

Monotype Incision Prints by Manuela Simoncelli

Manuela was born in Australia and has her workshop in Mussolente (VI). For the past few years, she has been experimenting with incisions. Apart from her work as an artist, she is also a Jazz singer.

 She had three monotype prints in the exhibition, they were titled Rhythm 1-2-3. One had the silhouette of a woman reading a book, second with a girl and third, a woman with a mobile phone. She first makes the incisions using soft-wax and dry-point and then uses toner transfer for creating unique monotypes.

Abstract Art by Stefania Righi

Stefania is from Vicenza and she had three paintings in the exhibition. Her art tends towards abstract, using mixed material techniques by using materials like stucco and cementite along the oil and acrylic colours to create textured art-works.

I loved her art. For example, the painted shown above, felt like looking at a Zen garden with its soft colours, and hidden forms and shapes that seemed to come out of and disappear in the fog.

Art Works by Bruno Sandonà

Bruno Sandonà from Pastina is both an artist as well as, an art-collector. In the Mutations 2025 exhibition, there were 3 of his artworks. It also had a whole section dedicated to his collection of the art-objects from Africa.

From his art works, I have chosen one of his paintings for this post (left). It had a raw energy and seemed to be inspired by his collection of African art.

I also liked his ceramic-leg sculpture in the exhibition.  

There was a big collection of art objects from different parts of Africa, especially from the countries of West Africa.

About his art-works collection from Africa, in the images below you can see a sculpture that has a kind of ritual container placed on the legs of the two persons. It is from the Dogon people in Mali.

Abstract Paintings by Davide Piazza

Davide Piazza is the president since 2003 of the well-known art-circle La Soffitta located in Vicenza. Apart from being a well-known artist, he is known as a teacher, as he conducts courses of oil painting.

In the exhibition, there were three of his artworks, all three were in shades of blue and yellow. They reminded me of lakes and sand-dunes, with undefined borders, and seemed to transmit serenity and joy.

Hyper-Realism of Giovanni Meneguzzo

Giovanni Meneguzzo, who presented 3 paintings in this exhibition is originally from Malo and now lives in Olmi di Treviso. Malo had 2 other artists from the Meneguzzo family (Giobatta and Corrado) but I am not sure if Giovanni is related to them.

His three paintings in the exhibition, were in hyper-realism style. One had the autumn leaves, another had a discarded cardboard box  used for a gift and the third had left over stuff along with with an old demijohn wine-bottle. I liked all three of them.

Giovanni started as a teacher in an art school. His passion has been to collect left-over stuff such as old leaves, clay, bottles, etc. and create his artworks based on them or by using them in his art.

Absence-Essence Installation by Francesco Risola

The installation had a tree-stump surrounded by dry and cracked earth, on which shadows of a moving tree-leaves were being projected. Thus, the essence or the echo of the tree that had been there in the past was being evoked in the installation by the projection of the shadows of the tree.

The artist seemed to focus his art to share his emotions about thoughtless and meaningless destruction of the nature.

I liked this installation and its idea of projecting the moving shadows of a tree on the tree-stump & cracked dry earth. I felt that it expressed very well the impermanence of life.

Sara Zilio's Flowing Matter

Sara Zilio is an artist from Schio. She had only one artwork in the exhibition, an acrylic painting that seemed like different colours flowing on a liquid surface, sometimes blurring and sometimes separate, tending towards each other like the extended fingers of man touching the divine in Michaelangelo's fresco in the Sistine chapel.

A friend who was visiting the exhibition with me, didn't like it, he said that it reminded him of snakes. So as you can see, choosing favourite artworks is very subjective and his choice of favourites would have been very different from mine. 

Flavio Pelligrini's Abstract Art

Pellegrini's work in the exhibition was one of the most unusual one for me in this exhibition. Pelligrini likes to work with wood, but not by creating usual wood sculptures. Instead, he uses his passion for information technology (IT) to create very unusual abstract art with the wood.

For example, you can click on it and enlarge the above image of Pellegrini's work to look at how he has created it by mixing together wood and IT. I felt that looking at it can be a transcendental experience, guiding our minds towards a meditation on infinity. 

To Conclude: Metamorphosis by Coop Libra

Let me conclude this post with another installation, which I liked very much.

It was a group work made by different persons from a cooperative based in Romano d'Ezzelino that works with marginalised and disabled persons. They had created it under the guidance of art-therapist Valentina Grotto.  

The installation had a mannequin in the centre, who represented the Butterfly-Goddess that is transforming from the Pupa to the Butterfly, and was covered by plastic bags. The central figure was surrounded by a spiral made from individual art-works on paper and clothes. 

Apart from the idea underlying this installation, I felt that visually it created a stunning impact.

If you liked looking at my favourite works from this years Mutazioni exhibition, perhaps you would like to check similar posts about previous editions of Mutazioni - 2021-22 edition and the 2024 edition 

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