what i read on vacation

Holiday periods are always ideal for reading. Now that the holidays are over, I share, like every year, some books that I read recently and that might be of interest.

Arturo Pérez Reverte is one of my favorite writers and his novel “El Italiano” does not disappoint. True to his style, the author investigates historical events and adapts them in a novel form. The subtitle clearly conveys the narrative that will be found: “a story of love, sea and war”. It intertwines real events from World War II, when Axis submarines with Italian divers attacked 14 allied ships in Gibraltar and the Bay of Algeciras in 1942 and 1943, with a fictional love story between one of those Italian divers and a Spanish bookseller. It is an adventure with several edges that catches the reader and one cannot stop reading. I am now preparing to read his latest novel “Revolution.”

On a professional level, I read Ben Bernanke’s latest book “21st Century Monetary Policy”. Although I share the opinion that Bernanke made mistakes at the helm of the Federal Reserve (FED), the work is interesting to understand how complex the position of president of the FED was in times of the global financial crisis of 2008-2009 , the covid and the recession of 2020.

The book is not written with a technical tone or approach, but in accessible language and through the lens of an academic economic historian. At times the book is apologetic for the decisions that Bernanke made, but, in general, it is written with a candor imbued with honesty. It is undoubtedly a valuable historical testimony of a frontline protagonist who was involved in difficult decisions.

Héctor de Mauleón, moving away from his political analysis and his line of investigation on drug trafficking, offers volumes 3 and 4 of his series “The Hidden City, 500 Years of Stories.” Like the previous ones, the content of the stories in these two books can be read skipped depending on one’s interest. But they are all entertaining episodes, some implausible, others funny and funny, others based on legends and still others are events that have been forgotten in the history of our great capital city. I highlight the chapter that talks about the death of María Félix. He reminds us of Mauleón: “Months after being buried, the remains of the actress were exhumed in search of poison or signs of homicide. That exhumation brought new myths, new scandals, new legends. They are light and fascinating reading books.

Now that the series on Netflix about the British royal family “The Crown” and “Harry and Megan” are in fashion, the book “The Palace Papers” by the multi-award-winning writer Tina Brown is a good complement to these series. The reading covers the scandals, the love affairs, the power game and the betrayals that have hit the monarchy during the last 25 years. Beyond the “gossip”, it is a vivid chronicle of an author who for more than 30 years has seriously investigated and studied this royal house.

Twitter: @frubli