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Under The Tuscan Sun: At Home In Italy
Frances Mayer- 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 evocation language, she brings the reader along as she discovers the beauty and simplicity of life in Italy. An accomplished cook and food writer, Mayes also create...more
Mass Market Paperback, 352 pages
Published
by Broadway Books
(first published September 1st 1996)
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At 66 pages in, I'm throwing in the towel.
Somewhere around the age of 22 or 23, I decided I was done with library books. Now, don't get me wrong, I love and appreciate libraries. I became a reader because of access to wonderful libraries. But, as an adult, I'm OCD enough not to enjoy the concept of library books. Wondering how many people read them while on the toilet, encountering books that smelled like ash trays, finding potato chip crumbs wedged between pages 32 and 33, encountering a sticky...more
Somewhere around the age of 22 or 23, I decided I was done with library books. Now, don't get me wrong, I love and appreciate libraries. I became a reader because of access to wonderful libraries. But, as an adult, I'm OCD enough not to enjoy the concept of library books. Wondering how many people read them while on the toilet, encountering books that smelled like ash trays, finding potato chip crumbs wedged between pages 32 and 33, encountering a sticky...more
Sep 18, 2012
Leftbanker
rated it
1 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
fanny pack owners
Shelves:
travel
I had some friends come to visit me here in Spain and one of them was reading this book. I had read it before and thought very little of it. As I am now in the middle of editing my own travel book about Spain I practically yanked this away from them to reread. I have to say that my first impression of Under the Tuscan Sun was accurate. As I edit my book about life in Spain I am a little worried about what I feel to be a lack of structure and focus in what I have written. After rereading this boo...more
I didn't finish it. And, frankly, that's not like me at all. The book is well reviewed, and well written. And yet, somehow, I just really didn't like it. The author can truly write, and the topics were of great interest to me, but I felt the entire time like she was untouchable. She was encased in her own experience and at no point did I feel welcomed or able to understand her. Her life path never really found a commonality with my own, nor did she make me love her. In the end, I did myself the...more
Jan 30, 2008
Ali
rated it
1 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
japanreads,
wouldntrecommend
WARNING: THIS BOOK IS THE MEANDERING INCOMPLETE THOUGHTS OF A MIDDLE-AGEd WOMAN THAT EATS LIKE A ITALIAN SUMO WRESTLER AND BOUGHT A DISASTER OF A HOUSE THAT NEEDED A HUGE AMOUNT OF REPAIR. THAT'S ALL THERE IS TO THIS BOOK. Perfect if you are practicing speed reading. You could skip every other sentence and still understand that she actually enjoys fixing up this crappy house in Italy. Absolutely nothing like the movie. Disappointing.
Wanting to learn about all things Italian was the reason I picked this book. I started it as an audio book. But even as a listen while being a prisoner on the highway, I had to stop after the first CD. Her out of touch with reality pinings about her problems encountered when buying a home in Italy (who in the world can afford this in the first place!) grated. Hearing that one of the primary joys of her Italy travels was buying shoes, was a major clue that this was not a book for me. Then when sh...more
I first heard about this story when the film version was being hyped. For some reason I never bothered to view it, perhaps because it appeared amidst other seemingly trite films that did not interest me. However I found this copy in the used library bookstore and from the inside cover description I realized that it's subject matter greatly interested me. Frances Mayes' Under the Tuscan Sun, At Home in Italy is her personal account of a life shifting and settling in the landscape of the Italian c...more
Plot: Author summers in Tuscany, buys an old farmhouse, refurbishes it, travels through Italy, and cooks constantly.
Review: Open up a "Sunset" or a "National Geographic Traveler" magazine, and imagine reading a beautifully descriptive & evocative 6-page essay on what it's like to live & work & cook in Italy. Then, when you finish it, flip the pages back and start the article again. But substitute the Zuppa Toscana with Porcini Risotto. The Pesto Crostini for the Fontina Bruschetta. A...more
Review: Open up a "Sunset" or a "National Geographic Traveler" magazine, and imagine reading a beautifully descriptive & evocative 6-page essay on what it's like to live & work & cook in Italy. Then, when you finish it, flip the pages back and start the article again. But substitute the Zuppa Toscana with Porcini Risotto. The Pesto Crostini for the Fontina Bruschetta. A...more
This was a re-read, and I loved it again. I know there's plenty here who
don't think much of this book, but it totally appeals to my utterly romantic
notions of running away to live in Europe someday....sigh.... ;-) Haven't
been to Italy yet, but this book *was* largely responsible for my subsequent
trips to France, Spain, and Turkey. And my list (TBV list - "to be
visited" - tee hee) has been growing ever since.
This was also my first PalmPilot read, and I was pleasantly surprised to
find that I compl...more
don't think much of this book, but it totally appeals to my utterly romantic
notions of running away to live in Europe someday....sigh.... ;-) Haven't
been to Italy yet, but this book *was* largely responsible for my subsequent
trips to France, Spain, and Turkey. And my list (TBV list - "to be
visited" - tee hee) has been growing ever since.
This was also my first PalmPilot read, and I was pleasantly surprised to
find that I compl...more
While i thoroughly enjoyed the book, i WILL say that its not what i expected since i had seen and enjoyed the movie first. most of the story is completely different than the movie.....but what bothered me is that there was no real story plot here besides the fixing up of the house over time. as she fixes the house, she fixes her life, and in the end "turns italian" and finds where she belongs (not that she seemed out of place at the beginning). I guess i was slightly disappointed in 2 things: 1)...more
Frances Mayes wrote this book based on her experience of buying and restoring a villa in Tuscany. I read it summer 2001 while I was visiting Meredith in St. Croix and left it for her to read. The descriptions of life, light, food and wine made me want to move to Italy. I remember a lot of the recipes contained pine nuts, which I didn't think I liked at the time.
Frances Mayes used to teach at UGA, and John knows her. I told my brother to read this book; he told me it changed his life.
The movie i...more
Frances Mayes used to teach at UGA, and John knows her. I told my brother to read this book; he told me it changed his life.
The movie i...more
I saw the movie first and didn't realize it was based on a book.
So first of all, this is not a novel. It's a woman's journal of the purchase and clean up of an old house in Tuscany. It includes recipes, gardening directions, weather reports, menus, etc. And if that's what you were expecting, it's actually very good. However, I unfortunately saw the movie when it came out, in complete ignorance that it was a book first.
And. . . I'm still confused about how *this* book got made into *that* movie....more
So first of all, this is not a novel. It's a woman's journal of the purchase and clean up of an old house in Tuscany. It includes recipes, gardening directions, weather reports, menus, etc. And if that's what you were expecting, it's actually very good. However, I unfortunately saw the movie when it came out, in complete ignorance that it was a book first.
And. . . I'm still confused about how *this* book got made into *that* movie....more
I'd never heard of this book until the autumn of 1999, a few days after I arrived in Cortona, the town/subject of this book. Every time I turned around, all these baby boomers were asking me if I knew where Francis Mayes lived. I had know idea who she was. I soon learned, however, that she was the author of this very book, which was about her experience rehabbing a home on the other side of the hill from Cortona.
My experience in Cortona was life changing. When I returned to the states, I was sa...more
My experience in Cortona was life changing. When I returned to the states, I was sa...more
Mayes uses her poetic descriptions to tell the story of how she and her husband purchased an abandoned villa in Tuscany and turned it into a home. I would imagine for those who have been to Tuscany this book bringing the reader right back. For readers (like myself) that have never been to Italy the book began as an exploration but ended with a comfortable feeling as though I have been there myself. In most instances Mayes explains Italian words or concepts, but there were times that I had to put...more
This month’s book club pick was Frances Mayes’ Under the Tuscan Sun, which natch made me want to go to Italy hasta pronto.
I was a tad skeptical, having seen bits and pieces of the movie and being severely underwhelmed. I wanted to like it; I enjoy Diane Lane as an actress, and how could I not also love a movie set in Italy, with all the food and scenery and handsome Italians in its favor?! However … it was not meant to be.
Thankfully, my initial inclinations about the book were unfounded. I hones...more
I was a tad skeptical, having seen bits and pieces of the movie and being severely underwhelmed. I wanted to like it; I enjoy Diane Lane as an actress, and how could I not also love a movie set in Italy, with all the food and scenery and handsome Italians in its favor?! However … it was not meant to be.
Thankfully, my initial inclinations about the book were unfounded. I hones...more
Cores, sabores e texturas
As descrições de Mayes nos faz querer conhecer Cortona, uma cidade medieval no alto de uma colina em plena Toscana. Um lugar onde passado e presente coexistem harmoniosamente.
Um livro cheio de cores, sabores, texturas, estradas romanas, muros etruscos e história. Um livro que fala sobre Bramasole ("a casa que anseia pelo sol"), sua reforma e descobertas infinitas desde a compra até o colher de azeitonas para experimentar seu próprio azeite. É inacreditavelmente mágico!
E...more
As descrições de Mayes nos faz querer conhecer Cortona, uma cidade medieval no alto de uma colina em plena Toscana. Um lugar onde passado e presente coexistem harmoniosamente.
Um livro cheio de cores, sabores, texturas, estradas romanas, muros etruscos e história. Um livro que fala sobre Bramasole ("a casa que anseia pelo sol"), sua reforma e descobertas infinitas desde a compra até o colher de azeitonas para experimentar seu próprio azeite. É inacreditavelmente mágico!
E...more
I enjoyed this book, at least most of it. It’s a memoir of how Mayes and her husband buy and restore an abandoned villa, along with its gardens and orchards, on the hill outside a beautiful town in Tuscany. For the first two thirds of the book, they navigate the sometimes frustrating, sometimes lovely, but nearly always (to their American sensibilities) strange Italian ways as they settle into their new part-time lives in Tuscany. (For nine months of the year, they still live in San Francisco.)...more
On the evidence of ''Under the Tuscan Sun,'' Frances Mayes' memoir of buying, renovating and settling into an abandoned villa on the outskirts of Cortona, Italy, she's what the novelist Laurie Colwin used to call a domestic sensualist. Ms. Mayes will tell you all about making olive oil and rebuilding an Etruscan wall, but you'll never confuse her with Martha Stewart. (One of the things she likes about Italy is that it's ''the only place in the world I've ever taken a nap at nine in the morning.'...more
ISBN 0767900383 - As a fan of lists, I'm always curious about books that make bestseller lists. I rarely read them, but I'm always curious. This was the case with Under the Tuscan Sun until a rather beat-up, unsellable copy fell into my hands. My curiosity, but little else, has been satisfied.
A recap of the plotline is usually the second paragraph for me. The trouble here is that this book doesn't actually have a plotline. The author and her boyfriend bought a house in Tuscany, living there duri...more
A recap of the plotline is usually the second paragraph for me. The trouble here is that this book doesn't actually have a plotline. The author and her boyfriend bought a house in Tuscany, living there duri...more
An edited version of this article was first published as Book Review: Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes on Blogcritics.org.
I have to say, I am not a non-fiction reader. My purpose in reading for pleasure is to escape reality for a moment, as there is already plenty of opportunities given my day job to read non-fiction. Thus, whenever there is the rare event that I pick up a book that happens to be non-fiction, most of the time, I hate it. This time, that is still the case. The last non-ficti...more
I have to say, I am not a non-fiction reader. My purpose in reading for pleasure is to escape reality for a moment, as there is already plenty of opportunities given my day job to read non-fiction. Thus, whenever there is the rare event that I pick up a book that happens to be non-fiction, most of the time, I hate it. This time, that is still the case. The last non-ficti...more
This is the perfect book for the summer, when you can lie lazily outside and pretend to be in Italy, or in January, when you can burrow under your blankets and wish to be in Italy. Either way, it's a wonderful thing to have on hand to allay boredom or, if you have a lunch date but you've already eaten, get hungry all over again.
The beginning sequence is a little slow, and I have to admit I got a little tired of her endless rhapsodizing over, say, cutting vines away from a stone wall inhabited by...more
The beginning sequence is a little slow, and I have to admit I got a little tired of her endless rhapsodizing over, say, cutting vines away from a stone wall inhabited by...more
I so rarely stop reading mid-book, but I found this one to be so rambling and uninteresting and I'm at a point in life where I feel no obligation to push through such an experience, even (or especially) to please someone who thought for sure they knew what I'd like.
The prospect of buying a shambles of a house, no matter where, and restoring it, is a subject that is of tremendous interest to me. Although I'm not "traveled," I can well image that the effort of obtaining a passport, packing, and f...more
The prospect of buying a shambles of a house, no matter where, and restoring it, is a subject that is of tremendous interest to me. Although I'm not "traveled," I can well image that the effort of obtaining a passport, packing, and f...more
Before finishing this book, I’d queued up a posting for my blog, Talking Story, about how books can come to you more than just once, and that there is at least a twice: One you decide to buy — what were the reasons? And two, you finally read it completely at the time you were probably supposed to. It’s this divine providence that books seem to have; they just do. Such was the case for me with this book, feeling I’d read it now at the right time, for I’ve had several false starts with it. I’ve lo...more
Here's the thing. I loved this book when I first read it (was I 20? maybe 22...). Because I was young, and hadn't learned how to resent those people who gallivant around the globe with too much money on their hands telling us how charmed their lives are while describing the picturesque landscape. That being said, the book is well-written and the descriptions of Tuscan life are, of course, deeply seductive. Because that's the point: a life where you worry whether your wrought-iron gate is cast in...more
Sorry for my english but I am french and I love F. Mayes'book. I might have ridden her 3 books , under the tuscany, Bella Italia, and around the world ( saveurs vagabondes in french) that I am still reading for the 3rd times ! I offered those books many times to my friend. We must travel to Spain next september and I love so much Italia , I read " around the world " to find some pleasure to go there with the same eyes than Frances Mayes. She has such glance to the beauty of simple life, read her...more
I hear a lot of crap about how this book is silly, fluffy, boring, slow, unstructured, unserious. I've had three people now (all men =p) tell me it's "chicklit." First of all, is that supposed to be an insult? Second: What? Perhaps this all has something to do with how popular the book was and continues to be. Regardless, don't let the naysayers dissuade you from giving it a try.
The writing is poetically beautiful, illuminating a place that is equally so. Plenty of "place writing" does a disser...more
The writing is poetically beautiful, illuminating a place that is equally so. Plenty of "place writing" does a disser...more
This is an inspirational book written by a woman who is going through a transition in her life. While visiting Tuscany, she decides to take a leap of faith and to begin a brand new life. Even though she can't afford the home which she wants to buy, the owner realizes that how much the author values the home and that it should be hers. Consequently the owner accepts the author's modest offer. That was spiritual! I especially appreciated this aspect since I am the author of a spiritually-themed bo...more
“ It’s not fair that some people get to live like this!” she said, throwing the book down on her unwashed, non- authentic linoleum floor. “ A wonderful companion that willing does chores, looks good without his shirt, never argues, likes to travel; cash to buy and then renovate a villa in Tuscany where you live every summer and at Christmas and bottle your own olive oil from your own trees; have tons of flowers, fruit trees and terraces with lounge chairs; find Etruscan stones in your back yard;...more
I've had this book probably since it was first published in the mid-Nineties but I never had the urge to read it until now. I've seen the movie that was ever-so-loosely based on it and I have to admit that the movie didn't fill me with enthusiasm to read the book. The other day I had this urge to read it, so I curled up in bed with it. Honestly, it was like I was there. There isn't a great deal to say about this book. It's memoir, it's travel-writing, it's lush and beautiful. There doesn't need...more
Reading this memoir of an American woman who buys and renovates a three-story Italian Villa with her husband, I can understand why so many love and so many others hate the book. I feel mixed myself. To understand how readers feel, let me quote you her description of their new Summer residence, just an hour away from Florence:
A dignified house near a Roman road, an Etruscan (Etruscan!) wall looming at the at the top of the hillside, a Medici fortress in sight, a view toward Monte Amiata, a passag...more
A dignified house near a Roman road, an Etruscan (Etruscan!) wall looming at the at the top of the hillside, a Medici fortress in sight, a view toward Monte Amiata, a passag...more
I liked this book, but I actually read it because I liked the movie and so I was (unpleasantly) distracted by the differences. The movie was SO different that I don't think they should have used the "based on" phrasing. They probably should have said "inspired by actual events" because the truth of Frances Mayes' journey is much, much different. That being said, I like the book as well. However, I did find it difficult to get through in parts. The tempo was a little plodding at times.
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Couldn't finish | 48 | 270 | Apr 11, 2013 12:13pm | |
| Weston County Lib...: * August 2012 | 2 | 5 | Aug 07, 2012 01:11pm | |
| The Chennai Book ...: Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes - Giveaway or Resale | 4 | 34 | Jun 25, 2012 05:46am | |
| Under the Tuscan Sun | 4 | 50 | Jul 31, 2011 01:07am |
Frances Mayes's book,
Every Day in Tuscany
, the third volumne in her bestselling Tuscany memoir series, was published March 9, 2010, from Broadway Books.
In addition to her Tuscany memoirs, Under the Tuscan Sun and Bella Tuscany , Frances Mayes is the author of the travel memoir A Year in the World; the illustrated books In Tuscany and Bringing Tuscany Home; Swan, a novel; The Discovery of Poe...more
More about Frances Mayes...
In addition to her Tuscany memoirs, Under the Tuscan Sun and Bella Tuscany , Frances Mayes is the author of the travel memoir A Year in the World; the illustrated books In Tuscany and Bringing Tuscany Home; Swan, a novel; The Discovery of Poe...more
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“Life offers you a thousand chances... all you have to do is take one.”
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80 people liked it
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Now, are we going to measure or are we going to cook?”
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Now, are we going to measure or are we going to cook?”
Go buy yourself some crisp, clean, and pristine books--those library books should be...more
Apr 23, 2013 06:53am
Apr 23, 2013 08:48am