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3.53 AVERAGE
3.53 AVERAGE
I had heard this book was boring. Clearly my reading tastes differ from that person because I was entranced. I found this poetic and beautiful. It blended renovation, cooking and biography. I loved it.
Good memoire about the Americana author's life in Italy. A very poor plot is balanced by good descriptions of landscape, food and Italian way of living/culture. In the end, I've found a perfect book about Italy that foreigners would love but gives again the usual stereotypes about my country that particularly Americans love that much. I wouldn't recommend it.
I loved reading the author's experience of restoring an old house in the Tuscan countryside, her recipes and absorbing Italian culture.
I think this would have been less enjoyable if I didn’t read most of it in Tuscany. It just got a bit boring and she comes off as a bit of a privileged asshole. Like pay your workers properly babe!!!!!!
slow-paced
I loved this book, what a wonderful read in Wisconsin winter! There were some sections that felt dated and probably would have been edited out if written today, but for the most part this book just shines.
I LOVED visiting Tuscany and can see why someone would pick up everything and move there! Such a lovely look at life in Italy and the joys of restoring an old house!
After the dissolution of her long marriage, Mayes and her new boyfriend decide to buy an Italian villa and restore it to use as a summer/vacation home. She tells about the remodeling process, the history of the Tuscan country-side, and the best peasant dishes she learns to make. I really enjoyed the sensual delights of this book, full of tasty recipes and descriptions of sun-soaked Italian olive terraces while reading it at the start of Michigan's long, cold winter. If you like books that give you insight into life in another country, accompanied by recipes, you might like this book a great deal. Don't judge the book based solely on the movie adaptation, either -- I haven't seen it, but it looks kinda cheesy.
It was all a privileged white woman complaining about how expensive it is to renovate the summer home she purchased in Tuscany and how she suffered because there were scorpions in the house that had been sitting dormant for so long and how she would have to stop taking 10 pairs of Italian leather shoes back to the US with her every year. Insufferable. And that was just the first 35 pages. I gave up after that.
I think this was written at a time when privilege was a thing to flaunt because it was "inspirational." I hated this in the same way I hated Nickel & Dimed and Eat, Pray, Love. If you like books about rich women who travel to find themselves only to learn that the real you has been right there all along inside your heart waiting for you to have wine in Italy before she could be fully realized and then she is forever changed, go for it. Not suggesting travel won't change you. Just suggesting that this story is tired and didn't age well.
I think this was written at a time when privilege was a thing to flaunt because it was "inspirational." I hated this in the same way I hated Nickel & Dimed and Eat, Pray, Love. If you like books about rich women who travel to find themselves only to learn that the real you has been right there all along inside your heart waiting for you to have wine in Italy before she could be fully realized and then she is forever changed, go for it. Not suggesting travel won't change you. Just suggesting that this story is tired and didn't age well.