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Kit Raine, an American writer living in Tuscany, is working on a biography of her close friend, a complex woman who continues to cast a shadow on Kit’s own life. Her work is waylaid by the arrival of three women - Julia, Camille, and Susan - all of whom have launched a recent and spontaneous friendship that will uproot them completely and redirect their lives. Susan, the most adventurous of the three, has enticed them to subvert expectations of staid retirement by taking a lease on a big, beautiful house in Tuscany.
In the tradition of M. F. K. Fisher and Peter Mayle, this enchantingly warm and witty memoir follows American-born Katherine Wilson on her adventures abroad, where a three-month rite of passage in Naples turns into a permanent embrace of this boisterous city on the Mediterranean. It is all thanks to a surprising romance, a new passion for food, and a spirited woman who will become her mother-in-law - and teach her to laugh, to seize joy, and to love.
The best-selling author of Italian Neighbors returns with a wry and revealing portrait of Italian life - by riding its trains. In his first Italian travelogue in a decade, he deli0vers a charming and funny portrait of Italian ways by riding its trains from Verona to Milan, Rome to Palermo, and right down to the heel of Italy.
John Hooper's marvelously entertaining and perceptive new book is ideal for anyone seeking to understand contemporary Italy and the unique character of the Italians. Looking at the facts that lie behind and often belie the stereotypes, his revealing book sheds new light on many aspects of Italian life: football and Freemasonry, sex, symbolism, and the reason Italian has twelve words for a coat hanger yet none for a hangover.
Frances Mayes - widely published poet, gourmet cook, and travel writer - opens the door to a wondrous new world when she buys and restores an abandoned villa in the spectacular Tuscan countryside. In sensuous and evocative language, she brings the reader along as she discovers the beauty and simplicity of life in Italy. Also available: Bella Tuscany.
In 1944, British bomber pilot Hugo Langley parachuted from his stricken plane into the verdant fields of German-occupied Tuscany. Badly wounded, he found refuge in a ruined monastery and in the arms of Sofia Bartoli. But the love that kindled between them was shaken by an irreversible betrayal. Nearly 30 years later, Hugo's estranged daughter, Joanna, has returned home to the English countryside to arrange her father's funeral. Among his personal effects is an unopened letter addressed to Sofia. In it is a startling revelation.
Kit Raine, an American writer living in Tuscany, is working on a biography of her close friend, a complex woman who continues to cast a shadow on Kit’s own life. Her work is waylaid by the arrival of three women - Julia, Camille, and Susan - all of whom have launched a recent and spontaneous friendship that will uproot them completely and redirect their lives. Susan, the most adventurous of the three, has enticed them to subvert expectations of staid retirement by taking a lease on a big, beautiful house in Tuscany.
In the tradition of M. F. K. Fisher and Peter Mayle, this enchantingly warm and witty memoir follows American-born Katherine Wilson on her adventures abroad, where a three-month rite of passage in Naples turns into a permanent embrace of this boisterous city on the Mediterranean. It is all thanks to a surprising romance, a new passion for food, and a spirited woman who will become her mother-in-law - and teach her to laugh, to seize joy, and to love.
The best-selling author of Italian Neighbors returns with a wry and revealing portrait of Italian life - by riding its trains. In his first Italian travelogue in a decade, he deli0vers a charming and funny portrait of Italian ways by riding its trains from Verona to Milan, Rome to Palermo, and right down to the heel of Italy.
John Hooper's marvelously entertaining and perceptive new book is ideal for anyone seeking to understand contemporary Italy and the unique character of the Italians. Looking at the facts that lie behind and often belie the stereotypes, his revealing book sheds new light on many aspects of Italian life: football and Freemasonry, sex, symbolism, and the reason Italian has twelve words for a coat hanger yet none for a hangover.
Frances Mayes - widely published poet, gourmet cook, and travel writer - opens the door to a wondrous new world when she buys and restores an abandoned villa in the spectacular Tuscan countryside. In sensuous and evocative language, she brings the reader along as she discovers the beauty and simplicity of life in Italy. Also available: Bella Tuscany.
In 1944, British bomber pilot Hugo Langley parachuted from his stricken plane into the verdant fields of German-occupied Tuscany. Badly wounded, he found refuge in a ruined monastery and in the arms of Sofia Bartoli. But the love that kindled between them was shaken by an irreversible betrayal. Nearly 30 years later, Hugo's estranged daughter, Joanna, has returned home to the English countryside to arrange her father's funeral. Among his personal effects is an unopened letter addressed to Sofia. In it is a startling revelation.
Anthony Doerr has received many awards. Then came the Rome Prize, one of the most prestigious awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and with it a stipend and a writing studio in Rome for a year. Doerr learned of the award the day he and his wife returned from the hospital with newborn twins. Exquisitely observed, Four Seasons in Rome describes Doerr's varied adventures in one of the most enchanting cities in the world.
Filled with recipes from Mayes' Tuscan kitchen and written in the sensuous and evocative prose that has become her hallmark, Bella Tuscany is a celebration of the sweet life in Italy. Mayes writes of her continuing love affair with Italy: her deepening connection to the land, her flourishing friendships with local people, the joys of art, food, and wine, and the rewards and occasional heartbreaks of her villa's ongoing restoration.
Against the background of an age that saw the rebirth of ancient and classical learning, Paul Strathern explores the intensely dramatic rise and fall of the Medici family in Florence as well as the Italian Renaissance, which they did so much to sponsor and encourage. Interwoven into the narrative are the lives of many of the great Renaissance artists with whom the Medici had dealings, including Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Donatello as well as scientists like Galileo and Pico della Mirandola.
A celebration of the language and culture of Italy, La Bella Lingua is the story of how a language shaped a nation, told against the backdrop of one woman's personal quest to speak fluent Italian. For anyone who has been to Italy, the fantasy of living the Italian life is powerfully seductive. But to truly become Italian, one must learn the language. This is how Dianne Hales began her journey. In La Bella Lingua, she brings the story of her decades-long experience with "the world's most loved and lovable language" together with explorations of Italy's history.
Italian Short Stories for Beginners has been written especially for students from beginners to intermediate level. The eight captivating stories are designed to give you a sense of fun while listening, so you can enjoy learning Italian again!
A Year in the World is vintage Frances Mayes, a celebration of the allure of travel, of serendipitous pleasures found in unlikely locales, of memory woven into the present, and of a joyous sense of quest. An ideal travel companion, Frances Mayes brings to the page the curiosity of an intrepid explorer, remarkable insights into the wonder of the everyday, and a compelling narrative style that entertains as it informs.
In this sequel to her New York Times bestsellers Under the Tuscan Sun and Bella Tuscany, the celebrated "bard of Tuscany" ( New York Times) lyrically chronicles her continuing, two decades-long love affair with Tuscany's people, art, cuisine, and lifestyle.
From village feasts and rustic tavernas to ancient piazzas and moonlit balconies, the smells, tastes, sounds, and soul of Umbria come alive in Marlena de Blasi's evocative memoir. By turns romantic and sensual, joyous and celebratory, touching and humorous, Marlena de Blasi's account of moving with her husband, Fernando, to Orvieto, the largest city in Italy's Umbria, will appeal to anyone who delights in travel and shares the fantasy of beginning a new life in a very different place.
Priceless F. Scott Fitzgerald manuscripts stolen in a daring heist; a young woman recruited to recover them, and a beach-resort bookseller who gets more than he bargained for - all in one long summer on Camino Island.
When writer Paul Stewart heads to the idyllic Italian town of Montalcino to finish his already late book, it seems like the perfect escape from stressful city life. Upon landing, however, things quickly take a turn for the worse when he discovers his hired car is nowhere to be found. With no record of any reservation and no other cars available, it looks like Paul is stuck at the airport. That is, until an enterprising stranger offers him an unexpected alternative.
Collins Italian with Paul Noble combines an exciting new, nontraditional approach to language learning with the easy, relaxed appeal of an audio-only product. No books. No rote memorisation. No chance of failure.
It's 1949, and South Philadelphia bursts with opportunity during the postwar boom. The Palazzini Cab Company & Western Union Telegraph Office, owned and operated by Dominic Palazzini and his three sons, is flourishing: Business is good, and they're surrounded by sympathetic wives and daughters-in-law, with grandchildren on the way. But a decades-long feud that split Dominic and his brother, Mike, and their once-close families sets the stage for a rematch.
An adventure of the heart in the mold of literature's classic spiritual journeys.
It began with a girl. Then it was Italian food. After that it was books and discovering that even Mark Twain had fallen for Italy. E. M. Forster was smitten too: :Love and understand the Italians, for the people are more marvelous than the land."
What is it about Italy and Italians?
Italian movies immortalize the mystique. Fellini called it La Dolce Vita. Tornatore's Cinema Paradiso took James Shaw back to the sweet memories of his childhood and the Italian family who operated the hometown theater. And just like in the movie, young James had an Alfredo who, by example, taught him about serving people.
James learned that Italians don't feel they're special. Luigi Barzini, author of The Italians, repeatedly asked, "Why are we the way we are?" and found no conclusive answer.
But James was convinced there was a reason why the Renaissance was born in Tuscany and Italy has given the world Saint Francis, Michelangelo, da Vinci, Galileo, and now Benigni, whose film, Life Is Beautiful, showed the world that the Italian zest for living can even make a heaven of a hell.
And so, after a lifetime of thinking about Italy, James became convinced that the way to find out why Italians are the way they are would be to eat with them at their kitchen tables. Day after day he picked their olives, and the Italians began treating him like family. And James began seeing their unique human quality that attracts people to Italy and keeps pulling them back again and again.
But the story doesn't end in the olive groves of Tuscany. To discover the heart of Italian life, James had to travel back to World War II Italy.
An Italian Journey will inspire you to follow your passions, your enthusiasms, to your own beautiful discoveries.
Bella Scoperta!
Too much preaching and not enough about the country or the people. Would not recommend it. Narration was not good. Was expecting another Under The Tuscan Sun and was very disappointed.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
I am confident that this book has wonderful appeal, as I can concur that Italy is a magnificent destination.
The problem I had was with the 'reader'. He exhibited no particular emotion and, for me, read the text as if he was on a time constraint......he raced through the book and I found his performance listless and uninspiring. I even fell asleep. Really disappointed.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
If you could sum up An Italian Journey in three words, what would they be?
Inspiring! Fascinating! Personal!
What was one of the most memorable moments of An Italian Journey?
Listening to James Ernest Shaw, through audio, was as though he was sitting with me in my living room, sharing his experiences with me, capturing my attention to every word, waiting for his next story.
Which scene was your favorite?
Each chapter, with the inspirational quotes as the lead-in, has given me so much pleasure and insight into Italy - the life, culture, and characteristics of the people and their relationship to their heritage and land with a spiritual connection to life and stewardship of all we are given in life.
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
An Italian Journey - My awakening to the heart of Italy!
Any additional comments?
I can't say enough about James Ernest Shaw and his revelations of his experiences in Italy! The book is my constant companion. As a reader who loves to hold copy in hand, turning every page, I must say I enjoyed the audio version immensely, as it was a "personal" experience with the author, likened to a friend relating their experience to me in friendly conversation. Well read, easily followed, pleasant voice that the listener could be drawn into the experience and feel it was their own! I would love to sit down at "table" and enjoy conversation with Mr. Shaw! I'm sure he has much more he can reveal!
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
I’m not quite sure who encouraged this author to read aloud for the audio version of his novel. It was so difficult to listen to due to the fact he sounded like he needed to clear his throat the entire time. It was also hard to hear the end of his sentences....he would be understandable at the beginning but then run out of breath or something that made him fade away to nothing at the end. So bummed to have spent my money on something I can’t use...ugh!
For not being Italian, the author has a beautiful grasp on the Italian heritage. As a Italian U recommend this book to all people who want a glimpse of Italian life.
This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?
If you've always been curious about Italy but never been, you might have a better shot at enjoying this book. I've been to Italy several times and go back every year experiencing it for myself. I think the author trails off a lot and the narration is hard to get used to. It might be better as a physical read.
What do you think your next listen will be?
The Medici
What didn’t you like about James Ernest Shaw’s performance?
The way he distinguished other characters in the book.
If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from An Italian Journey?
The story about James farting. I understand why he put it in there but it added nothing for me and I stopped listening after that.
Would you try another book from James Ernest Shaw and/or James Ernest Shaw?
No
What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?
This book was simply a platform for him to preach his religious beliefs, which is fine but he should be upfront about that. I was looking for an audible book to paint.a visual picture of Italy for me but the fact that this took place in Italy was secondary to the narrative. Unless you are a Catholic who does not believe in divorce and believes that single mothers {regardless of how they ended up as single mothers} deserve no assistance or compassion, then I would not recommend this book.
Stopped listening after 4 chapters. Hates the narrator his voice was not pleasing. It was too scratchy and grates on the ears. Hated the politics that came into the story so often. I hadn't planned to read a book on international politics Waste of my money and my time.
Wow, what an aggravating, depressing listen this was, I listen to books while commuting and I thought it might be funny, but it ended up being mostly frustrating! I'm planning the journey of my life to Italy, and this book makes me want to stay away! Almost Nothing pleased her, makes Italy seem not worth going to, let alone with a disabled, hard to please mother! Sorry, but can I get my money back??
I loved hearing James tales of his experiences with the Italian people in his own words. He shares stories as well as his faith and I was very inspired by his journey and views. I even listened to some parts twice!!