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Altared
- A Tale of Renovating a Medieval Church in Tuscany
- Narrated by: Pamela Almand
- Length: 3 hrs and 15 mins
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Publisher's Summary
An invasion of mysterious bugs, the discovery of hundreds of skeletons in the backyard and occasional visitations from a ghost who smoked Marlboro Lights weren't what I had in mind when I dreamed of owning a home in Tuscany. My search for a quaint country house in move-in condition near Florence instead led to the purchase of an abandoned church we fondly referred to as "The Italian Money Pit", and the project took several years to complete.
The New York Times notable author, Dario Castagno, describes Altared: A Tale of Renovating a Medieval Church in Tuscany as "a heartfelt chronicle of an unforeseen connection to a crumbling church and apartment. It's a tongue-in-cheek collection of some of the zaniest local characters - their tics, attitudes, ways, and weaknesses." The church's before and after story entitled "A Classical Epiphany" appeared in an eight-page spread in the March 2010 issue of Architectural Digest. This light-hearted memoir will transport you to Tuscany and proves the challenges were worth the end results. "Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations."
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What listeners say about Altared
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Suzanne Shull
- 05-08-22
Engaging, humorous, informative, and reminiscent
Kyle’s account of her restoration project in Tuscany is candid and fun. It reminded me of some of my most quirky, memorable and scenic experiences traveling in Tuscany. A quick read, I found Pamela Almand’s performance very expressive, as if the experience had been her own. I listened on a trip from Atlanta to Charlotte and will probably give it a second hearing on my way back to Atlanta’
2 people found this helpful
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Performance
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Story
- Kate Pearce
- 07-26-21
Brought many wonderful memories to my mind
Having visited Italy several times over the last 20 years and having had wonderful experiences each time, the story took me back to that wonderful place in my mind. I enjoyed listening to Pamela Almand tell the story with her peaceful voice but wish the book was also available in print as I would like to have a copy of it. I'm one of those crazy people who still likes to turn the pages.
1 person found this helpful
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- ListenClose
- 07-24-21
Reads like a novel
This was fascinating and funny and warm & the narration really made it humorous and personal. It was good that the reader spoke Italian since there was a lot and the author learning Italian was a human side of it. That was an awesome project and I wish I had seen it. Author should write more. I like her style and humor.
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Story
Modern Man is a penetrating psychological portrait of a true genius and constant self-inventor, as well as a sweeping tale filled with exotic locales, sex and celebrity (he was a lover of Josephine Baker), and high-stakes projects. In Flint's telling, Corbusier isn't just the grandfather of modern architecture but a man who sought to remake the world according to his vision, dispelling the Victorian style and replacing it with something never seen before.
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Excellent Bio
- By Greg Manley on 04-28-15
By: Anthony Flint
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House Lessons
- Renovating a Life
- By: Erica Bauermeister
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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In this mesmerizing memoir-in-essays, New York Times best-selling author Erica Bauermeister renovates a trash-filled house in eccentric Port Townsend, Washington, and in the process takes listeners on a journey to discover the ways our spaces subliminally affect us. A personal, accessible, and literary exploration of the psychology of architecture, this book is designed for homeowners, remodelers, and those who are simply curious about how our built environments shape who we become.
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Wonderful book for anyone home shopping
- By ERICK on 09-04-20
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My (Part-Time) Paris Life
- How Running Away Brought Me Home
- By: Lisa Anselmo
- Narrated by: Lisa Anselmo
- Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Lisa Anselmo wraps her entire life around her mother, a strong woman who is a defining force in Lisa's life - maybe too defining. When her mother dies from breast cancer, Lisa realizes she hasn't built a life of her own and struggles to find her purpose. Who is she without her mother - and her mother's expectations? Desperate for answers, she turns to her favorite city - Paris - and impulsively buys a small apartment, refusing to play it safe for the first time.
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Way better than I needed it to be. Loved it! Get it.
- By Christopher on 08-07-17
By: Lisa Anselmo
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99% True
- Almost a National Bestseller
- By: Paul McGowan
- Narrated by: Paul McGowan
- Length: 14 hrs
- Unabridged
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Paul McGowan tells all (and then some) in this riotous tale of misbegotten success that’s 99 percent true in all the best ways. From his not-so-innocent youth growing up in the shadow of Disneyland and summer evenings in the innocent 1950s, to his dope-smoking, snake-eating, draft-dodging, loony-bin misadventure through Europe, to his struggles to build a thriving enterprise from a stack of dusty albums - see how the CEO of a worldwide company took 50 years to become an overnight success.
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Not at all what I was expecting!!! And that’s a good thing.
- By Jeff Hanson on 06-27-19
By: Paul McGowan
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Broken Glass
- Mies van der Rohe, Edith Farnsworth, and the Fight Over a Modernist Masterpiece
- By: Alex Beam
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
- Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1945, Edith Farnsworth asked the German architect Mies van der Rohe, already renowned for his avant-garde buildings, to design a weekend home for her outside of Chicago. Edith was a woman ahead of her time - unmarried, she was a distinguished medical researcher, as well as an accomplished violinist, translator, and poet. The two quickly began spending weekends together, talking philosophy, Catholic mysticism, and, of course, architecture over wine-soaked picnic lunches.
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Tedious and disappointing
- By Deborah McGarr Hutchins on 02-03-23
By: Alex Beam
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Downton Shabby
- One American's Ultimate DIY Adventure Restoring His Family's English Castle
- By: Hopwood DePree
- Narrated by: Graham Halstead
- Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Hollywood producer Hopwood DePree had been told as a boy that an ancestor—who he was named for—had left his family’s English castle in the 1700s to come to America. One night after some wine and a visit to Ancestry.com, Hopwood discovered a photograph of a magnificent English estate with a familiar name: Hopwood Hall, a 60-room, 600-year-old grand manor on 5,000 acres. And with that, Hopwood DePree’s life took an almost fairy-tale turn.
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Opportunities squandered
- By Steve on 07-01-22
By: Hopwood DePree
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Victoria’s Most Haunted
- Ghost Stories from BC’s Historic Capital City
- By: Ian Gibbs
- Narrated by: Brennan Storr
- Length: 3 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Beautiful, charming Victoria is world renowned for its seaside attractions, flourishing gardens, and breathtaking ocean views. But looming behind its picture-perfect façade is a city shrouded in mystery, with restless, disembodied beings that whisper ghastly tales of mystery, violence, and horror.
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Very good!
- By Trkmec on 03-13-22
By: Ian Gibbs
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Death at the Chateau Bremont
- Verlaque and Bonnet Provençal Mystery Series, Book 1
- By: M.L. Longworth
- Narrated by: Christa Lewis
- Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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When local nobleman Étienne de Bremont falls to his death from the family château, it sets the historic town of Aix-en-Provence abuzz with rumors. The once-idyllic town suddenly seems filled with people who could have benefited from Bremont's death - including his playboy brother, François, who's heavily in debt and mixed up with some unsavory characters. But just as the list of suspects is being narrowed down, another death occurs. And this time, there can be no doubt - it's murder.
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A good listen
- By Darcie on 11-05-22
By: M.L. Longworth
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I've Seen the Future and I'm Not Going
- The Art Scene and Downtown New York in the 1980s
- By: Peter McGough
- Narrated by: Peter McGough
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Brilliantly funny, frank, and shattering, this is the bittersweet memoir by Peter McGough of his life with artist David McDermott. Set in New York’s Lower East Side of the 1980s and mid-1990s, it is also a devastatingly candid look at the extreme naiveté and dysfunction that would destroy both their lives.
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Funny, endearing, and soul-baringly frank
- By Client on 10-17-19
By: Peter McGough
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Vintage 1954
- By: Antoine Laurain
- Narrated by: Roger May
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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When Hubert Larnaudie invites some fellow residents of his Parisian apartment building to drink an exceptional bottle of 1954 Beaujolais, he has no idea of its special properties. The following morning, Hubert finds himself waking up in 1950s Paris, as do antique restorer Magalie, mixologist Julien, and Airbnb tenant Bob from Milwaukee, who's on his first trip to Europe. After their initial shock, the city of Edith Piaf and An American in Paris begins to work its charm on them.
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21st century “Twilight Zone” story
- By John on 09-09-19
By: Antoine Laurain
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A Year in Provence
- By: Peter Mayle
- Narrated by: Peter Mayle
- Length: 2 hrs and 52 mins
- Abridged
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Peter Mayle and his wife had been to Provence as tourists. They had dreamed of one day trading the long, grey winters and damp summers of England for the blue skies and sunshine of the coast of southern France. And then they made it happen. They moved into an old farmhouse at the foot of the Luberon mountains and embarked on a wonderful, if at times bewildering, new life.
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Ban abridged versions
- By marlowe on 03-30-15
By: Peter Mayle
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Alone Time
- Four Seasons, Four Cities, and the Pleasures of Solitude
- By: Stephanie Rosenbloom
- Narrated by: Stephanie Rosenbloom
- Length: 7 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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In our increasingly frantic daily lives, many people are genuinely fearful of the prospect of solitude, but time alone can be both rich and restorative, especially when travelling. Through on-the-ground reporting and recounting the experiences of artists, writers, and innovators who cherished solitude, Stephanie Rosenbloom considers how being alone as a traveler - and even in one's own city - is conducive to becoming acutely aware of the sensual details of the world - patterns, textures, colors, tastes, sounds - in ways that are difficult to do in the company of others.
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Good story
- By MC on 01-02-19
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Paris, Paris
- Journey into the City of Light
- By: David Downie
- Narrated by: Max Winter
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Swapping his native San Francisco for the City of Light, travel writer David Downie arrived in Paris in 1986 on a one-way ticket, his head full of romantic notions. Curiosity and the legs of a cross-country runner propelled him daily from an unheated, seventh-floor walk-up garret near the Champs-Élysées to the old Montmartre haunts of the doomed painter Modigliani, the tombs of Père-Lachaise cemetery, the luxuriant alleys of the Luxembourg Gardens, and the aristocratic Île Saint-Louis midstream in the Seine.