"I think being a woman is like being Irish." — Iris Murdoch

... which means The Golden Compass.  Nelson has never read it, never heard it of before the movie came out.  I was just searching for it in Italian on the internet, found it (with shipping) for seventeen euro.

Philip Pullman is one of my favorite authors.  He's written a lot of books for children that I loved reading to Emma:  The Scarecrow and His Servant and The Firework Maker's Daughter in particular.  There are some others for older girls that I'm waiting to read...