Bookish: Gadfly Registration (4#) -

Feisty Sicilians, Pensive Pakistanis & Barry Hannah . . .

Beppo Grillo and other
Italian Bloggers are under fire by their Parliament,
according to a recent Maisonneuve report.

They're being targeted for "crimes of opinion."

A bill is in the works which would force Italian ISPs to shut down Blogs as a danger supposedly threatening the Italian State. The chief sponsor of this provision is the Sicilian Senator Gianpiero D’Alia, Darren Thompson reveals in his article: The Blogfathers.

# International Mysteries, which are very popular these days, include some notable Italian detectives. Police Inspector Montalbano is the focus of reviewer Charles Taylor's attention this week. The Wings of the Sphinx is the 11th in the Sicilian mystery series by Andrea Camilleri.

# From author and writing teacher Barry Hannah who died recently: some notes on writing which Hannah provided for one of his students.

# The story of three young Pakistani men in NYC who live in the shadow cast by the 9/11 World Trade Center Bombing, Home Boy by Husain Naqvi is written in a contemporary style fusing hip hop, Yiddish, and local colloquial expressions.

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