1. ISBN13: 9780061804090
2. Condition: NEW
3. Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Customer Review :

Incredibly informative book

For anyone interested in China and the changes that are occurring there, this book is incredible. Written by a young (thirty-five-ish) American, who has lived in China as a journalist for about 14 years as I count it, the insights are fascinating. You get to see the changes through the eyes of an American, yet one who is fluent in Chinese, which is a tremendous advantage, and who has a droll sense of humor as well.

It's three stories: First his exploration of the wild west of China, following the Great Wall, second his life in his country home in a little village north of Beijing, and his relationship with a family in the village, and his description of the changes which occurred during five or six years, with development, and thirdly, his following another large town in the south as the highway arrived, development zones sprang up, etc. It's tremendously interesting. He talks with people everywhere. In the development zone for instance, he talks with the entrepreneurs setting up a factory, with the employees, with members of a little traveling show which comes to entertain them, etc etc. You get to actually meet everyone.

As I'm writing this, all the reviewer ratings are five star. It's not often you'll see a book with all five star ratings. This one deserves it.

Rating :

Thoroughly enjoyable! Wonderfully informative! Hessler does it again!

How lucky we are to learn about China in a book so well written. Peter Hessler, an American who lived in China and speaks Chinese, gives lots of facts from his personal experience and his interviews with various Chinese people, all in a most enjoyable way. I can't wait for his next book.

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How rapidly-changing China is changing the world from an American's Perspective

1st I have to say I am a huge fan of Peter Hessler, I have all of his three books and I have read the 1st two for a number of times, especially the 1st one River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze (P.S.).

I had pre-ordered this new book well before it was released, the long wait was excruciating but well worth it. Unlike the 1st book "river town", which is more about a young American who was new to China and trying to adapt himself by gradually learning its culture and language. This new book is more focused on how fast-changing China is changing its own people and at the same time having an huge impact on the rest of the world. I won't spend too much time talking about what the book is about, you gotta read it by yourself.

Shortly after the book was released, I was fortunate enough to be able to attend a seminar where Peter Hessler had a Q&A session with a professor at UCI. After the talk, I waited in line and got my new book signed by him. I was thrilled.

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Country Driving

I am enjoying the book. If you have lived in China, you will have a better understanding of the book.

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A road trip through the racing heart of China

The first section of New Yorker writer Hessler's engrossing three-part portrait of China's headlong rush to the future is peppered with questions from the Chinese driving test:

"223. If you come to a road that has been flooded, you should
a) accelerate so the motor doesn't flood.
b) stop, examine the water to make sure it's shallow, and drive across slowly.
c) Find a pedestrian and make him cross ahead of you."

Hessler came to China in 1996 with the Peace Corp and stayed for 10 years. He got his license in 2001, as roads and drivers were proliferating, and planned a cross-country trip. Development was intense in coastal regions but the north and west were still remote, many roads unlabeled.

"352. If another motorist stops you to ask directions, you should
a) not tell him.
b) reply patiently and accurately.
c) tell him the wrong way."

He decided to follow the Great Wall, which is actually a series of fortifications built of various materials in various states of ruin. It was harvest time and the farmers laid their produce on the edges of the road for sorting and drying and threw grain into the middle for threshing.

"Initially I found it hard to drive over food. On the first day of my journey, I screeched to a halt before every pile, rolling down the window. `Is it OK for me to go through?' The farmers shouted back impatiently `Go, go, go!' And so I went - millet, sorghum, and wheat cracking beneath me. By the second day I no longer asked; by the third day I learned to accelerate at the sight of grain."

He meets amateur historians and government tree planters, picks up hitchhiking young people coming from factory towns to visit family, and camps in the desert to avoid officialdom (Hessler's favorite Chinese motto is "it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission.")

His prose meanders organically, exploring the China of the past and the present, from the Ming dynasty and the route of Genghis Khan to the roller-coaster excitement of road-testing the newest Chinese car.

He also proves his credentials here as a fearless adventurer. Few things can be more dangerous than driving in China, where driving lessons are laugh-out-loud bizarre, seat belts and turn signals are superfluous and traffic fatalities are twice as high as in the US, with one fifth the number of vehicles.

In Book II Hessler homes in on the traditional village, renting a house in mountainous, rural Sancha about two hours drive from Beijing (maps orient the reader at the start of each section - would there were pictures too!). There is only one child in the village (the young have migrated to the cities) and Hessler becomes friendly with Wei Jia's parents, Wei Ziqi and Cao Chunmei.

Handicapped by his lack of education (typical in the country), Wei Ziqi tried factory work, but returned to his village to farm. Smart and ambitious, he had tried and failed at leech farming and was now turning to tourism, which was following the better roads and increased prosperity.

Hessler limns the family's fortunes as Wei Ziqi builds a restaurant, and takes up the two essentials for doing business - smoking and drinking. As the friendship grows Hessler drives Wei Jia to boarding school kindergarten and witnesses Cao Chunmei's growing unhappiness and isolation. China remains a man's world and there's no place where that's more evident than the countryside.

Through his connection to the family, Hessler explores village gossip and politics, and takes part in the walnut harvest. In a harrowing section (which was a New Yorker article) Hessler encounters the Chinese medical system first-hand when Wei Jia becomes suddenly ill and it's Hessler, with his car and U.S. connections, who tracks down treatment.

Hessler's American sensibilities often illuminate the cultural contrasts. When the Weis grow rich enough to have a TV and Wei Jia comes home from school, the formerly tough and wiry boy grows soft in front of the TV eating junk food all day. Hessler frets about this, but to Cao Chunmei there's no point in having a TV if you don't watch it and few pleasures greater than watching a child eat.

The final section explores the burgeoning factory towns popping up along new expressways, each with a specialization - buttons, playing cards, umbrellas. "Datang produces one-third of the socks on earth."

Hessler chooses Lishui for his focus, a town that is about to have an expressway exit, and already has an Economic Development Zone. He gets in on the ground floor, approaching a city-dressed man outside a half-built factory and follows the fortunes of the place from factory design, which takes an hour and a half, to production (bra-strap loops), rocky times, success and reorganization.

Again, individuals provide the narrative impetus. The owners let Hessler hang around for good times and bad. Job interviews are a rough and tumble affair. The best incentives are lots of overtime and no vacations, since there's really nothing else to do.

Hessler finds another fascinating group to follow when, on the basis of outsize personality and persistence, a teenager gets jobs for her whole resourceful family, who also run a side business providing goods to workers.

There's tension in the beginning when the expensive machinery doesn't work, tension when the orders don't come in like they should, tension when their most crucial worker wants to visit his pregnant wife (code, maybe, for abandoning the sinking factory).

Contrasts and contradictions abound. The group dynamic is so strong one complaint can spark a sea of grumbling, but self-help books urge workers to lie and think solely of themselves. A precious baby's 50th-day celebration takes place in a cigarette-smoke filled restaurant amid spatters of hot oil.

Hessler engages the reader with his own affection and fascination for an ancient culture in overdrive. Endlessly curious, fluent in the language, willing to go anywhere, and talk to anyone, his graceful prose carries us along, into the mountains, the dusty deserts, the mud-walled village huts and concrete factories, but most of all into the lives of the people he meets.

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1. ISBN13: 9781598802870
2. Condition: NEW
3. Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
4. Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Editorial Review :

Customer Review :

Poorly organized, the worst of Steve's guides

If you know Paris well, Steve's "Paris" might be useful. Might. Only "might" because his recommendations are sorted by neighborhoods. Worse yet, some "neighborhoods," like the centrally located Opéra, are given short shrift. The entertainment/nightlife section/s are also skimpy. For once the "F" gides -- Fodor, Frommer -- and others are far better than Steve's; and such on-line guides as Virtual Tourist and Trip Advisor are also more informative and reliable. Steves's Paris is virtually worthless.

Rating :

Don't Leave Home Without It

Would never consider taking a European trip without consulting Rick Steves. Great look at all aspects of the trip from his unique - Back Door - approach. Coupled with Zagat's Restaurant Guide, this is all you need for a spectacular Paris experience. Walk and Metro are the key ways to see this city.

Rating :

Excellent travel guide

This is a great book with great information for people who aren't likely to go on guided tours but still want to get the benefit of the information. I also downloaded the Rick Steeves' podcasts from iTunes.

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Happy with my first Rick Steves guidebook purchase!

Although I use Amazon reviews for most of my buying research, this is one of the handful of times I feel compelled to put in my 10 cents. My friend and I went to Paris a couple months ago - my first time, her second time. Our edition, purchased in December 2009, had no publishing mistakes. Despite being tempted to buy the full-color Fodor's Paris 2010 guide, I eventually decided to give Rick Steves' hand-drawn maps and self-guided museum tours a shot.

My friend and I are very glad I did. We dragged this book all over Paris with us in a small backpack purse. We were able to find almost everything we needed in the book, no matter where we were, whether it be checking on hours/maps for a museum or looking for restaurant recommendations while walking down Rue Mouffetard/around Versailles. We liked the doing-as-the-French-do approach to the guidebook, e.g. Metro etiquette (pp. 30-31) and Parisian cuisine explanations (pp. 387-397). Back at our hotel, while one of us was napping or in the shower, the other was often chuckling over Rick Steves' commentary - learning more about things we'd seen the day before or preparing for the day to come. We used the book so much that my friend has decided to buy a copy (and a small backpack purse to carry it in) for her next trip to Paris!

A few tips:
1) On "What the Paris Museum Pass Covers" (p. 43), it is not mentioned that the pass does NOT include the Versailles audioguide. (There's a brief blurb in the Versailles Day Trip chapter, but we didn't see it until we were already on the train there. Also, not sure if the increase in audioguide price from 6 to 7 euros is recent or seasonal.) Be sure to download the free audioguide from Rick Steves' website. Aside from the continued savings, our iPods would have been easier to wear than the clunky things we rented at the Chateau.

2) A bit light on restaurant recs, so you may want to research on [...]paris, [...], or other favorite chow review website, but for our needs, it was nice to have some direction than no direction at all.

3) I don't know how the lodging recs are since we were traveling on my friend's hotel points, but someone we ran into while at the Eiffel said that there are some lovely, affordable B&B's in the area which Rick Steves doesn't seem to have any advice on (just hotels, hostels, and apartments), so maybe worth researching elsewhere?

By the way, a funny thing happened on the way back to our hotel one night. While crossing the Place de la Concorde, we passed someone looking through HIS copy of Rick Steves' guide. Maybe other people had their guidebooks in their warm jackets, but that was the only one we saw actually IN USE by someone other than us!

I can't wait to return to Paris some day to check out the rest of the book I didn't get to visit this trip!

Rating :

You Still Need Another Book

My wife and I bought two books to Paris with us. Rick Steves book and the Travelling Professor's Guide to Paris.

Rick Steves book has EVERYTHING in it. So, if you need to know about the Rocky Horror Picture Show (page 448) or staying in a Youth Hostel (I am 54 years old) or even where to find a public urinal (page 300) and you want to carry around a 617 page book with you, Rick Steves Paris is what you should buy.

However, the other book we used easily fit in my wife's purse and it had everything we needed to know in a book that was about 1/4 of the size of Rick Steves book.

My assessment: Rick Steves book is good but it has way too much useless stuff in it.

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Editorial Review :

The Definitive Disney Handbook

On the heels of capturing eight national book awards, the best-selling Complete Walt Disney World series returns with The Complete Walt Disney World 2010. Now with more than 500 full-color photographs, this show-and-tell extravaganza rates and reviews nearly 700 attractions, restaurants, shops and hotels and offers hundreds of helpful tips.

New attraction coverage includes the refurbished Space Mountain, the revamped Hall of Presidents and the all-new American Idol Experience. As for planning your trip, illustrated articles make it easy to choose the right theme-park tickets, understand the Disney Dining Plan and save a lot of time and money. Young families in particular will find the book helpful, as the abundance of photos give children a way to read it with their parents. Eye-catching images show attractions, hotels, restaurants and more.

Award-Winning Advice

The only independent Disney guide ever honored by the Walt Disney Company, The Complete Walt Disney World is the winner of Disney's iParenting Media Award for Outstanding Family Product. Other honors include Travel Guide of the Year and Nonfiction Book of the Year.

Ten Features Found Only in The Complete Walt Disney World 2010:

1. What's New Learn everything that's new or different at Disney with a handy summary right at the front of the book.
2. Plan Perfect Theme Park Days New Planning Your Day sections let you learn the best days of the week to visit each park, the best rides for your unique children, and how long the lines will probably be at each attraction for every hour of the day.
3. Character Locators Love Tinker Bell? Cinderella? The Mad Hatter? These lists show exactly where to meet dozens of Disney stars at every theme park.
4. Become the Ultimate Disney World Gamer Insider tips help you rack up incredible scores at Disney's ride-through shooting arcades, including the new 3-D Toy Story Mania.
5. Lions, Tigers, Giraffes... Oh My! All-new Animal Kingdom wildlife guides feature fab photos and fascinating facts. Habitat maps make it easy to spot your favorite exotic creatures.
6. Dude Looks Like a Lady Interesting backstories, histories, science secrets, Fun Finds, Fun Facts (Tinker Bell is sometimes a man?) and Hidden Mickeys help make every attraction interesting for everyone in your group.
7. New Photo-Filled Shopping Guides See unique souvenirs sold at each theme park, know what they cost and where to find them. Learn which stores offer the best items for you.
8. Totally Awesome Water Park Tips Learn how to catch major air on Disney's water slides and win its downhill races. Helpful details about every pool, river and slide let you decide which ones are too wild--or mild--for your family.
9. See Your Room Before You Book It Don't just read about the Disney resort hotels, see what they look like! Over a hundred new hotel photos include landscapes, swimming pools and best of all, rooms. Expanded reviews include pool features such as slides and waterfalls and children's activities such as pirate-themed scavenger hunts. Comprehensive specs include when each hotel was last renovated and how far it is from each theme park. Learn about the three new Disney Vacation Club timeshares as well as non-Disney hotels such as the huge new Hilton next door and the rebuilt Holiday Inn at Downtown Disney.
10. Who Ya Gonna Call? Conveniently located on the book's last page, an expanded Walt Disney World telephone directory lists over 90 rarely published numbers, including those for medical and dental emergencies, Lost and Found, even Special Occasion Cakes.

Authors Julie and Mike Neal have been to Walt Disney World more than 1,400 times, and visit weekly. They live on Sanibel Island, Fla.

Customer Review :

Accurate, detailed, clear... and fun to read

I was born and raised here in Central Florida, so I've been to Walt Disney World more than a few times, and can tell a good travel guide from a bad one. This book is the best one of all. The advice is very helpful, the information is way more up to date and it is written in a clean and well organized way. Covers it all, does it well. A bonus: In my experience, children love to look through it with you.

-- John, Orlando

Rating :

Quite a good guide but some omissions

I have traveled to WDW often and have always bought the "official" guide. I bought this based on online reviews and overall am very happy with the guide's information. I felt this book gave more detailed info on the specific changes the parks are undergoing or will be undergoing this year. The "official" guide seems to omit this completely. The pictures are nice but not totally necessary for the repeat traveler. I would have liked more info on the restaurants and the dinner shows. How about a small chapter on Non-Disney attractions? I still felt I needed the info the "official" guide gave me but find that the information in this guide on the wait times and popularity of the attractions at each park will be invaluable for planning my days.

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The best of the Disney World guides - bar none!

I grew up in Orlando and was a Disney Cast Member for more than two years, so I know Disney, and I've read every guide book there is. I can tell you that this is by far the best book out there for planning a trip to WDW, whether you are a first timer, a family, or traveling with a flock of teenagers.

This book is brilliantly illustrated with photographs of nearly every attraction. The authors have thought of every key detail needed to create an easy to use guide book. Color coded borders at the top of every page make finding the section you're looking for simple. The book itself isn't too bulky and will easily stash away in any backpack. Average wait times are listed for every attraction, by the hour.

The reviews are honestly written (Country Bear Jamboree is "way past its prime"), comprehensive, and packed with trivia. I was blown away with the number of "fun facts" that I didn't even know. Hidden Mickeys are detailed throughout the book as well.

If there's any point of criticism, it's that the book occasionally reveals its authors' ages. Two full pages are devoted to the Hall of Presidents, the stereotypical Disney snooze fest. The movie in Epcot's France Pavilion gets four stars - I challenge you to find anyone under the age of 30 who would agree. But these are the most minor of infractions.

Every Disney World visitor who reads this book cover to cover will have a fantastic trip!

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Always the best Disney guide

This book always has a lot of good stuff in it, but this 2010 edition is better than ever. I will be using it a lot, not just for my family but for all the relatives who always seem to "drop in." A common thing here in Orlando! The descriptions of the rides and shows start off with a very handy list of specifications, such as the length of the ride and how scary it is for children. My sister says she wished she had looked at it before she took my niece on the Tower of Terror! I also liked the list of character locations they include for each theme park. So handy, especially when you have a child who MUST meet Lilo! Now I know where she is! Well to sum up you should know I have bought many Disney World guides over the years, but there isn't anything that compares to this new Complete Guide for helping you have fun and enjoy your visit. Better than ever this year, with new stuff like photos of the rooms at the Disney resorts and a great guide to the animals at Disney's Animal Kingdom.

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So glad we have this for our Easter trip!

We're headed down to Disney World this Easter so I bought this book. So glad I did! It is PER-FECT!!! It has exactly this information I was hoping it would have about Springtime at Disney. For example, it has photos and descriptions of the special Easter events, like the Trail Maids at Magic Kingdom. It has OUTSTANDING tips on how to use Disney's Fastpass system, and hour-by-hour wait times for every ride and show... things that are very important to us since we will be there during a very busy period. And it has the best hotel room information I have ever seen! I've learned Disney Resort rooms can be tough to come by during the spring, so you really need to know what the differences are. This book lays it all out, with details and especially photographs that make what would be a headache of a chore relatively easy.

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1. ISBN13: 9780061724886
2. Condition: NEW
3. Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Editorial Review :

Food Network star Guy Fieri takes you on a tour of America's most colorful diners, drive-ins, and dives in this tie-in to his enormously popular television show, complete with recipes, photos, and memorabilia.

Packed with Guy's iconic personality, Diners, Drive-ins and Dives follows his hot-rod trips around the country, mapping out the best places most of us have never heard of. From digging in at legendary burger joint the Squeeze Inn in Sacramento, California, baking Peanut Pie from Virginia Diner in Wakefield, Virginia, or kicking back with Pete's "Rubbed and Almost Fried" Turkey Sandwich from Panini Pete's in Fairhope, Alabama, Guy showcases the amazing personalities, fascinating stories, and outrageously good food offered by these American treasures.

Customer Review :

Diners, Drive-ins and Dives: An All-American Road Trip...with Recipes

We were amazed how fast we received the book and it was in excellent condition.

Rating :

Diners, Drive-ins and Dives

I love Guy Fieri and want to go to all the restaurants he visits. The book gives you an up close and personal view of Guy and his crew as they travel around the country, as well as great recipes from the places they visit.

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A Better Road Trip

My wife and I are currently on a road trip from Delaware to Florida,ahead of the storm. As we did not have the featured book, we did very well by going to Guy's web site and printing a list of all the states we would be visiting, all along I95.
So far we are doing quite well considering the limits we have placed on ourselves.
All the states we have traversed have at least 6 places and Florida, the most, at 16 "joints".
The one place we found at our destination has been our place to go 5 times since the first of February.



Rating :

yummy

Got this book for my Dad as a gift because he wants to go to the places on the show. He really liked it - as did my Mom, my daughter and me. It's helping Mom and Dad pick out some places to eat when they go away on vacation this spring. And my daughter and I are borrowing it to plan where to eat on a day trip this spring. Great book for fams of the show!

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he is a good riot.

I AM A GREAT FAN OF TRIPPLE D'S.BOUGHT HIS DVDS FRM TARGET N AM CLOLLECTING HIS BOOKS TOO.HE GOT JOKES N THAT IS WHY HE IS SO ENTERTAINING.

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Editorial Review :

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.
 
Frances Mayes offers her readers a deeply personal memoir of her present-day life in Tuscany, encompassing both the changes she has experienced since Under the Tuscan Sun and Bella Tuscany appeared, and sensuous, evocative reflections on the timeless beauty and vivid pleasures of Italian life. Among the themes Mayes explores are how her experience of Tuscany dramatically expanded when she renovated and became a part-time resident of a 13th century house with a stone roof in the mountains above Cortona, how life in the mountains introduced her to a "wilder" side of Tuscany--and with it a lively  engagement with Tuscany's mountain people. Throughout, she reveals the concrete joys of life in her adopted hill town, with particular attention to life in the piazza, the art of Luca Signorelli (Renaissance painter from Cortona), and the pastoral pleasures of feasting from her garden.  Moving always toward a deeper engagement, Mayes writes of Tuscan icons that have become for her storehouses of memory, of crucible moments from which bigger ideas emerged, and of the writing life she has enjoyed in the room where Under the Tuscan Sun began.
 
With more on the pleasures of life at Bramasole, the delights and challenges of living in Italy day-to-day and favorite recipes, Every Day in Tuscany is a passionate and inviting account of the richness and complexity of Italian life.

Customer Review :

Lovely addition to the Tuscany collection by Frances Mayes

Frances Mayes, author of a series of books on her life in Tuscany, has penned another volume in the series. The newest, "Every Day in Tuscany: Seasons of an Italian Life," is a charming account of her present-day life in Tuscany and her travels through Italy.

Mayes' home in Tuscany, Bramasole, was an abandoned thirteenth-century farmhouse in the mountains near Cortona that she renovated. She chronicles the seasons she and her husband spend in Italy, early spring through summer, ending with her return to her home in the U.S. in the late fall.

In this book, she and her husband branch out to explore Umbria and the Marche. She is on a quest for works of art by Luca Signorelli and his teacher, Piero della Francesca. Along the way, she meets the residents of the regions and manages to eat her way through the menus she encounters.

One of the delights repeated in this book is a series of recipes from the areas she visits. They sound so good that you are torn whether to continue read to read the book, or put it on the kitchen counter and cook the latest recipe she offers.

Whichever you decide to do, you will enjoy the fruits of this latest volume in Mayes' saga of Tuscany and its environs. It is a delight and a welcome diversion from the harsh realitites of life today.

Rating :

a meander thru a year in Italy

Loosely organized around the seasons, this book follows the author as works by favorite painters are visited, guests arrive, friends in town are met, festivals held, and the comforts of her adopted town of Cortona visited. Without giving the plot away, I can say that in one moving chapter Mayes fears for her acceptance in Cortona but discovers (or perhaps emerges) secure in the knowledge she is part of the town fabric. Instead of a focus on the project of buying and restoring a house, this book is more about conveying the experience of the author's life.

That all said, this wasn't a book I really enjoyed. In the best of expat books the pages melt away and I almost feel I am there looking over the authors' shoulder as the experiences unfold. But the sentence style in this book kept me from feeling immersed in her world. Adjectives must have been on sale when Mayes was writing, because almost every sentence was so liberally salted that they made the thought difficult to follow. Here is a typical sentence: "The cold iron clapper hitting the frozen bell produces clear, shocked, hard gongs that reverberate in the heads of us frozen ones in the piazza, ringing in our skulls and down to our heels, striking the paving stones." After a few pages of this *my* head was ringing.

Rating :

Tuscany Continued

Every Day in Tuscany continues the chronicles of Frances Mayes experiences surrounding Bramasole, the home in Cortona, Italy she acquired and has been restoring over the past twenty years.

If you enjoyed her book Under the Tuscan Sun you will find probably find this one a pleasure to read.

The book is often like a personal journal or diary, recording her thoughts about the people, plants, food and events of daily life in Tuscany.

A lot of the book is devoted to excursions to locate and view the art works of Luca Signorelli. She spends a lot of time describing the paintings, the subject matter and the location of his works. If you have a particular interest in Signorelli and his art work, then this book may provide some additional insight into his works. It does give you a good guide to the locations of many of his paintings.

Mayes shares some interesting stories about her life and her interaction with friends in and around her home. Food is such an important part of life for the Italians and she goes into great detail describing various meals. There are quite a few recipes in the book.

At times the book is a little disjointed. But if you would like to get an inside look at life in and around Tuscany, this will give you that. It captures her thoughts and feelings and she does a good job of painting a picture of life in Tuscany.




Rating :

Another year in Tuscany

I really enjoyed her first books so was expecting more of the same with this. Unfortunately this one is a bit different. The form of the book is just not the same.

There are loads and loads of recipes so that this is almost a cookbook rather than an expat experience book. Some of them sound quite tasty. There are also chapters of travelogue detailing the things you can see in a certain small town, which might be handy if one were passing through but the descriptions aren't totally interesting to read about since there aren't any pictures. This book would definitely be improved by pictures to go with the recipes and the icons and paintings and buildings which are described.

Anyone who is visiting Italy might enjoy it for ideas about things to see and dishes to eat. Those who have lived there might like it for the memories. It is a bit harder to get into for those of us who don't fall into either of those categories.


Rating :

Is it time yet?

Does an author write another book just because it's time? That is the impression I got from this new book by Frances Mayes. As with most people, I loved her first book, Under the Tuscan Sun. There was a real story there with a doubtful outcome. In reading this book, it felt as if some editor said to Mayes, "It's time to update your story and come out with a new book." More of the same basically. Yes, most of us would love to live the life of the author, spending part of the year in Tuscany and the rest here in the US. More scenes with good food, old friends, older buildings and scenery. I felt as if this was more of a travelogue, not a real book with a real plot. If you just want to bask in the scenery and the Italian way of life, then check out this book.

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