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3.53 AVERAGE
3.53 AVERAGE
It was definitely a good read. The movie definitely took liberty with the story line but the elements are all taken from the book (it was fun recognizing some of the best quotes from the movie are direct lines from the book). I didn't realize there would be so much discussion about food - it was a little tedious a third of the way through the book but after that it was a better balance between food and other aspects of life in Tuscany. I like the style of writing, some purple prose scattered throughout but it's not over the top. Paints a very realistic but idyllic picture - overall a good book.
adventurous
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
I loved how it made me feel home even just through the pages of a book.
DNF by page 50, setting aside for another try later, maybe.
I can't really articulate why I couldn't get into this book, but I imagine it was for basically the same reasons all other low rating reviews list.
I can't really articulate why I couldn't get into this book, but I imagine it was for basically the same reasons all other low rating reviews list.
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
I didn't know it was a memoir. My bad. Thought it was the same story as the movie. Didn't realize the movie was just inspired by the book. :D
Look, if you really, really, REALLY love reading descriptions of Italy, and/or just really really love Italy; then this book is for you. The author describes the house, the landscape, the people she knows/met in Cortana, and she and her spouse's adventures in centuries old home restoration & yardwork. Since I pull weeds and clean up shit at home all the time anyway, this book was NOT the business for me. Also if you can believe it, the author was a professor at some college in San Francisco, and dumped her apparent COPIOUS SAVINGS, into a long-neglected stone house in Tuscany. Aside from the fact having that much disposable income is beyond my comprehension(I guess the 90's were kind to her), this book is plausible, and the author documents the thousands of hours of labor the both of them poured into restoring the house, the olive trees, and planting a garden and clearing away the brush.
I first started reading this book on the elliptical at the gym, which I assure you is a mistake. NOTHING HAPPENS IN THIS BOOK. Nothing. It's all descriptions of the land, the house, the life, the heat, the people, the process of hiring Italian contractors to fix the masonry, and SOMETIMES a little plot gets thrown in. Sometimes.
About halfway through this book I went on vacation with friends to have a lazy weekend visiting another friend in Burbank, and then, astonishingly, this book was suddenly relaxing! I really started to ENJOY IT, just sitting on the couch, away from my responsibilities and my chronically irritated mother yelling terrible pro-Trump sentiments at Fox News, and it was like all my synapses collectively let out the breath they were unconsciously holding, un-hunched their shoulders and let down their hair. Guys, it was VERY RELAXING to travel along with the authors voice along the yellow hills of Tuscany, visit the erratically placed Virgin Mary statues, follow along the path to town, visit the shopkeepers and in broken Italian somehow secure the best prosciutto and fresh, fresh produce with flavored beyond what the average mass-produced for maximum-yield produce American Grocery stores are known for. I really really enjoyed the book then.
But that was on vacation. As soon as I got back home, the book became tedium to slog through.
Don't read this book unless you're on vacation. If you're looking for plot, look elsewhere
And just as I was feeling super ungenerous about the book as I came to the end, there was a little after word describing filming the movie in Cortana, and how most of the town citizens were overjoyed their town was going to be the subject for a movie! How could I feel bitter towards a book that made and entire town proud to be there and alive and celebrating? Well I can't. So I read the afterword all smiles at the little stores about some folks in town, excited to be extras in the movie about their town. And of courses I have the biggest shit-eating grin on my face, as the author recounts how Cortana residents pointing out old houses in the landscape, she is now included in that lore as 'The house where the American writer lives.'
NO SPOILERS BECAUSE NOTHING HAPPENS IN THE BOOK!!
I first started reading this book on the elliptical at the gym, which I assure you is a mistake. NOTHING HAPPENS IN THIS BOOK. Nothing. It's all descriptions of the land, the house, the life, the heat, the people, the process of hiring Italian contractors to fix the masonry, and SOMETIMES a little plot gets thrown in. Sometimes.
About halfway through this book I went on vacation with friends to have a lazy weekend visiting another friend in Burbank, and then, astonishingly, this book was suddenly relaxing! I really started to ENJOY IT, just sitting on the couch, away from my responsibilities and my chronically irritated mother yelling terrible pro-Trump sentiments at Fox News, and it was like all my synapses collectively let out the breath they were unconsciously holding, un-hunched their shoulders and let down their hair. Guys, it was VERY RELAXING to travel along with the authors voice along the yellow hills of Tuscany, visit the erratically placed Virgin Mary statues, follow along the path to town, visit the shopkeepers and in broken Italian somehow secure the best prosciutto and fresh, fresh produce with flavored beyond what the average mass-produced for maximum-yield produce American Grocery stores are known for. I really really enjoyed the book then.
But that was on vacation. As soon as I got back home, the book became tedium to slog through.
Don't read this book unless you're on vacation. If you're looking for plot, look elsewhere
And just as I was feeling super ungenerous about the book as I came to the end, there was a little after word describing filming the movie in Cortana, and how most of the town citizens were overjoyed their town was going to be the subject for a movie! How could I feel bitter towards a book that made and entire town proud to be there and alive and celebrating? Well I can't. So I read the afterword all smiles at the little stores about some folks in town, excited to be extras in the movie about their town. And of courses I have the biggest shit-eating grin on my face, as the author recounts how Cortana residents pointing out old houses in the landscape, she is now included in that lore as 'The house where the American writer lives.'
NO SPOILERS BECAUSE NOTHING HAPPENS IN THE BOOK!!
adventurous
inspiring
lighthearted
slow-paced
Леле, толкова харесвам филма, чак не знам как е направен по тази суха, скучна и фактологично изброяваща събития книга. Скука е точната дума - 2 звезди само заради филма.
When an author can truly make you think you are exactly where they are is amazing. Wonderful and I can't wait to try some of the recipes that are in the book.