under the tuscan sun

February 26, 2019

Top Ten Tuesday: Places Mentioned In Books That I’d Like to Visit

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly linkup of book bloggers hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl! This week, we’re talking about places in books that we’d like to visit. We live in a wide world and there’s always more to see of it, so here’s where books have me intrigued to go to!

Hawaii (The Descendants): This novel about a family dealing with loss as the father is also dealing with a court case about land ownership is deeply rooted in its Hawaiian setting and made it sound just incredibly lovely.

The Tuscan countryside (Under the Tuscan Sun): I’ve been to Florence, and it’s gorgeous, but this book really made me want to visit the rural areas in Tuscany!

Athens (Outline): Cusk doesn’t make the city sound all that fantastic in the summer heat, but she does make the ocean sound amazing.

Morocco (Less): Less’ trip through the country may be ill-starred, but the beauty of the desert at night is vivid in Greer’s rendering.

Puget Sound (The Highest Tide): I didn’t love this book, but it did make the Puget Sound tidewaters sound just magical beautiful.

Northern Beaches (Big Little Lies): The contrast of the idyllic-sounding setting against the domestic turbulence of its residents is kind of the point, but also the beachy parts sound gorgeous.

Cambridgeshire (Rebecca): Manderly the house isn’t real, but the area of England where it’s supposed to be is and I want to see it (and the homes that inspired Manderly) for myself.

Crimea (The Romanov Empress): It’s supposed to be a lovely area, and the way it’s depicted in this book as a place for rest and relaxation makes it seem even more appealing.

Delft (Girl With A Pearl Earring): The Netherlands seem like a cool place to visit, and the way this city is described in this book intrigued me!

Swedish islands (The Fly Trap): This memoir of a man who studies flies on a remote Swedish island makes that setting sound actually pretty interesting, even though it’s not someplace I’d ever really thought about before.

May 23, 2017

Top Ten Tuesday: Summer Reads For 2017

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly linkup of book bloggers hosted by The Broke and The Bookish! This week’s theme is summer reading! I’ll freely admit my perception of a beach read is kind of like my perception of a bikini body: while the latter is a body in a bikini, the former is a book on the beach. But I recognize that most people don’t plop down on a towel with Jonathan Franzen or Toni Morrison and want something a little lighter to go with their sun and sand, so here are ten books to throw into your beach bag!

Big Little Lies: Before it was an HBO smash (I still haven’t watched it yet, but hopefully soon!), it was a book. There’s some frothiness and mommy politics, but do be prepared for some darker stuff about domestic and sexual violence. It’s easy to dip in and out of and an enjoyable read.

Chemistry: This book is fairly short and never feels heavy, even though it deals with some pretty heavy themes. An unnamed narrator, a Chinese-American Ph.D. student, drops out of her chemistry doctoral program and tries to move forward with her life while examining her past. There’s a lightness to the prose and structure that makes it perfect for beach reading.

City of Thieves: A journey and adventure…usually something that makes me roll my eyes and reach for the next book, but this one is executed with charm and verve. The setting is a little grim: Leningrad during the siege, in the dead of winter, but the relationship that grows between the two main characters is lively and fun and friendship stories are a beach read basic.

The Girls: The heat of summer is all over this book, about a teenage girl who finds herself involved in a Manson-inspired cult and the ways that experience continues to reverberate throughout her life. You can practically feel the sultry warmth of her days on the ranch.

Under The Tuscan Sun: Frances Mayes’ memoir about renovating a home in Italy is NOT the same as the movie (there’s no real romance element, most importantly), but it is a well-written, pleasant book about something precious few of us will ever do. It’s lightweight stuff, so nothing to keep you from remembering to turn over to even out your tan.

The White Queen: Philippa Gregory’s historical fiction books are kind of like brain Twinkies…it’s not high quality stuff and there’s a lot of fluff, but it goes down easy and tastes good. This is the first in her series about the Wars of the Roses and it’s not great, but is perfect for some easy reading in the sun.

The White Tiger: For those who enjoy their humor on the dark side, we know from the outset that the hero of this novel is a murderer living in India. How he came to be one, and what became of him afterwards, is the interesting part. It’s quick-paced and funny in a twisty way.

The Last One: This was one of my favorite books I read last year, a story about a woman on a Survivor-on-steroids reality show who is in the middle of the wilderness when a catastrophic pandemic strikes. She has no idea and believes the devastation she sees is the result of sadistic producers. It’s great.

The Love Song of Jonny Valentine: This book follows a Bieber-esque 11 year-old pop star on his second nationwide tour and the voice that Teddy Wayne creates for his protagonist is amazing. It made me think harder about the way I perceive child stars, for sure.

David and Goliath: I do love me some non-fiction, and this Malcolm Gladwell book about the ways in which we think about strength and weakness and how and why those ways fail is intriguing. He also has an excellent podcast, Revisionist History, if you’re into him.

March 16, 2017

Book 68: Under The Tuscan Sun

“On my way out, I see a man in a sweater, despite the heat. The trunk of his minuscule Fiat is piled with black grapes that have warmed all morning in the sun. I’m stopped by the winy, musty, violet scents. He offers me one. The hot sweetness breaks open in my mouth. I have never tasted anything so essential in my life as this grape on this morning. They even smell purple.”

Dates read: July 7-12, 2016

Rating: 5/10

I am super fortunate: not only have I been able to travel internationally, but I’ve been to Italy three times. I don’t think there’s any way to say it that doesn’t sound like humblebragging, but my mom has always valued traveling with my sister and I, so she’s been generous enough to take us on family vacations. The first time I went was Florence and Rome, the second was just Florence, and about a year and a half ago we went to Sorrento. Of the places I’ve been, Florence is my favorite. Tuscany is an incredible place and I hope I get to go back someday.

Even if I never do go back, though, I feel incredibly lucky to I’ve been able to go to Tuscany at all. But it’s one level of privilege to be able to visit briefly. It’s a whole other level to be able to buy property over there and actually live there for parts of the year. But what some of us can only dream of, others are able to make happen and Frances Mayes’ Under the Tuscan Sun recounts her experiences buying and renovating a farmhouse in Cortona, Italy, and the first years she spent with it as her Christmas and summer home.

First things first: the movie (which I’ve never seen) is apparently not a strict adaptation of the book. While in both cases Frances’ divorce from an apparently very wealthy man (she mentions it only vaguely in the book) is what enables her to purchase the home, the movie apparently gives her a hot new Italian man to mend her broken heart. In reality/the book, she is already happily remarried by the time she decides to start looking for a summer home in Italy. Let me stress that again: they have the means to start searching for a summer home in ITALY. If rich white people doing home renovation, eating food, and contemplating their navels is not your deal, this book will not be for you. I’ve seen rather a lot of negative reviews focused on the premise that the book is not like the movie and/or annoyed that it’s about nothing more than wealthy people doing construction and eating.

There are reasons I found the book to be a mixed bag (hence the very middle of the road rating), but they don’t have anything to do with either the lack of romance or the privilege. Well, sort of the latter, I guess, because my biggest beef with the book is that there isn’t really any conflict. Story structure has remained remarkably consistent over recorded history, which means there are clearly elements that are naturally appealing to people when they’re taking in a tale. One of the fundamental pieces of a story is conflict: we want to see our protagonists struggle with obstacles. Frances…doesn’t, really. She obliquely mentions that things are expensive, but there’s never any indication she has to scrimp or save or go without in order to afford them. She and her husband do a lot of DIY to fix the place up, but the impression is that they enjoy doing it, and don’t need to do it for money’s sake. It all just seems to roll along…they find the house, they buy it, they do gradual repairs, they start spending a lot of time there, they make new friends, and they’re happy. Which must be lovely to experience, but pretty boring to read about.

What saves it from being a total snooze is the writing. Mayes is a poet, and it shows. It’s beautifully written, and the way she writes lets you see with your mind’s eye the lawn at Bramasole with the bright yellow table she had painted, loaded with fresh and simple but delicious food, looking out on the olive trees and flowers and rolling hills. There’s an enjoyable element of wish fulfillment fantasy…very very few people will ever get to live the kind of dreamy life she shows us (I have no doubt there were and are less wonderful elements behind the scenes, but she doesn’t go into them), so it gives us a window into what seems like an incredible experience. But I had trouble focusing on it because I was honestly mostly bored after about the first 100 pages or so.

Tell me, blog friends…have you ever been to Italy?

One year ago, I was reading: To Die For

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