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Living in a Foreign Language: A Memoir of Food, Wine, and Love in Italy
The actor Michael Tucker and his wife, the actress Jill Eikenberry, having sent their last child off to college, were vacationing in Italy when they happened upon a small cottage nestled in the Umbrian countryside. The three-hundred-and-fifty-year-old Rustico sat perched on a hill in the verdant Spoleto valley amid an olive grove and fruit trees of every kind. For the Tuck...more
ebook, 272 pages
Published
June 16th 2008
by Grove Press
(first published 2007)
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Reads like diary entries from a very lucky person: "Today we met more fabulous talented fun people who took an instant liking to us as well, and we all got drunk and danced around the kitchen. Today our best friend (did we mention in the last 5 pages that she's Korean?) said we were the most fun people she'd ever met. Today we bought the cutest house (they weren't even going to sell it at all, but of course once they met us they fell in love with us and are now our best friends). Today we almost...more
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Sep 03, 2007
Tisha.temple
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
EVERYONE!!
I literally didn't have time to list this book as "currently reading." I started it yesterday and finished it today. It is hilarious, touching, motivating, exciting, etc. I started reading it because it talked about the food of Italy, but continued because it was just a great read. It really makes me wish that it was me living in Italy, cooking pizza in my own 400 year old outdoor oven, buying fresh EVERYTHING, living well and slowly not running around trying to get everything done immediately,...more
This book was fantastic. Having spent time in Italy, I found that Tucker painted a wonderfully fleshed-out picture of living there. I cannot even count how many people I recommended this book to, who also loved it.
I loved Tucker's humor and his take on living in Italy and the way he related to his wife and friends. I want to be their friend!!!!!
Highly recommended--- and I want to read more. I wish he kept a blog. As soon as I closed the book, I started to miss this couple.
I loved Tucker's humor and his take on living in Italy and the way he related to his wife and friends. I want to be their friend!!!!!
Highly recommended--- and I want to read more. I wish he kept a blog. As soon as I closed the book, I started to miss this couple.
Read this and other reviews at: http://flashlightcommentary.blogspot....
When I read the title “Living in a Foreign Language: A memoir of food, wine and love in Italy” I envisioned the journey of a couple wholly immersing themselves in another culture. Let’s just say my expectations were a little off target. This is the story of a snobbish individual who loves food, an uninspiring self-congratulatory foray into the life of Michael Tucker.
The book rubbed me the wrong way from the beginning. “The...more
When I read the title “Living in a Foreign Language: A memoir of food, wine and love in Italy” I envisioned the journey of a couple wholly immersing themselves in another culture. Let’s just say my expectations were a little off target. This is the story of a snobbish individual who loves food, an uninspiring self-congratulatory foray into the life of Michael Tucker.
The book rubbed me the wrong way from the beginning. “The...more
3 likes · like · see review
A lovely and delightfully written mini-memoir by actor Michael Tucker (remember him from L.A. LAW?) about his impulsive purchase of a 350 year old worker's cottage in Umbria and the year that followed. Fortunately, this is not one of those stories that bog down in the details of construction, coping with ancient plumbing, and finding the perfect iron gate. Instead, it focuses on Tucker's affinity for the place more or less as it is, his appreciation of its history, and his newcomer's delight in...more
There is really nothing wrong with this book. It was a fine, easy weekend read. It is squarely in the Californians (in this case, Michael Tucker and Jill Eichenberry of LA Law fame) move to Italy (Umbria instead of Tuscany), buy a house, renovate/add-on to house, travel all over, mention the house keeper and gardener in passing, eat and drink anything and everything and spend the whole time complaining about how broke they are. Anyone who doesn't consider a couple hundred grand a year to be mini...more
Maybe it was because I just read Doran's "The Reluctant Tuscan," and maybe the book was just not that good, but I never got a sense of Italy - only Hollywood and people who need a LOT of maintenance. Tucker and his wife spend nearly all their time glued to an expat community in Umbria. Sure the other ex-pats have discovered great butchers and the like, but hearing about being introduced to someone - and finding a place on one's own is altogether different. It was as if there was a curtain betwee...more
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Years ago I read Michael Tucker's first book "I Never Forget a Meal: An Indulgent Reminiscence" and remembered enjoying it. Our lives had some parallels growing up on the East Coast and attending the same college studying theater.
All this spurred me to read his first novel "After Annie", about imagined lives based on his relationship with his wife, Jill Eikenberry. And if that wasn't enough, I requested from my local library "Living in a Foreign Language: A Memoir of Food, Wine, and Love in Ital...more
All this spurred me to read his first novel "After Annie", about imagined lives based on his relationship with his wife, Jill Eikenberry. And if that wasn't enough, I requested from my local library "Living in a Foreign Language: A Memoir of Food, Wine, and Love in Ital...more
Oct 07, 2008
Ket Lamb
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Anyone who loves Italy.
"L.A. Law" veterans, Michael Tucker and Jill Eikenberry, buy a rustico in Umbria, where they discover the best kept culinary secrets of the area. Learn what makes one butcher's prosciutto delectable and to sample those mouth-watering sandwiches at a rosdside porchetta. Just don't read this book on a diet!
If you enjoyed "Under The Tuscan Sun" you will enjoy this read. Your mouth will water at each chapter as he describes the preparation and enjoyment of each meal in Italy. Living in another country is not for everyone but Michael gives you a real taste of how evolved for them. Great vacation read.
Reading this book makes you want to follow in their footsteps and take it one step further to become expats. What a wonderful description of the Umbria region of Italy as well as a descriptive collection of the regional food they enjoyed.
Michael Tucker's book was a delightful read! His humor, his appreciation for "the good life," and his love of everything Italian, make this so much more than a travel diary. The only thing better than reading this book is BEING THERE. Reading this book makes doing that seem very possible!
1 like · like · see review
I picked this up at the library just because it was set in Italy, but frankly didn't expect much. I enjoyed it, though, found the writing natural and sometimes funny and I learned some quirky things about Italy. It was a good vacation read.
This was a fun book to read .. and made me wish I had tons of money to buy a restored farmhouse in Italy
I enjoyed living through Michael Tucker while reading this book. I have never been to Italy and it has been high up on my "must do" list, but I felt like I was seeing their home and the dinners they made as if I was a guest.
Fun book. But don't read it if you are hungry. Best enjoyed with a jug of wine & a loaf of bread. Thou is optional.
If ever a book could make you want to travel somewhere just to eat the food this would be that book.
If ever a book could make you want to travel somewhere just to eat the food this would be that book.
Truly light reading but great fun especially if you have spent time in Italy. Tucker is touching in his descriptions of his life with Jill...Would love to visit their little stone house in Umbria!
Written by the former LA Law star, he purchased a home with his wife in Umbria. I wanted to eat the food I was reading about and wished I had the money to live there too.
This memoir by the actor Michael Tucker is a memoir about love - love for his wife, for good food and wine, and for Italy. Definitely worth reading, even if you never cook.
I grabbed this book b/c it's what I want to do - live in a foreign language. It's a picture perfect story written by a successful actor (i.e. well off enough to buy and renovate a splendid 1600s stone cottage with olive trees etc etc) but is at the same time down-to-earth. So though it read so perfectly, it was palatable (vs oh give me a break). Besides THAT, he's completely in love with his actress wife... The guy loves good food and enjoyed describing each meal, truly it sounded divine. No gre...more
This is another memoir about an American moving to Italy. It's written by the actor Michael Tucker. He's good.
Fun little romp with Michael Tucker in Umbria. Descriptions of food and drink were mouthwatering.
Delightful story of two Americans learning to live and eat in a foreign country!
Cute Book! Anyone who loves to eat and travel will like this book.
This book is funny and irreverant and I loved it.
A fun book about living and eating in Umbria.
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“The tiny stone house sits tucked into the side of the hill so that our bedroom window isn’t exposed to the early rays of the sun, but that morning I was up with the first soft light in the sky. I had slept the sleep of the sated. Perhaps the three glasses of grappa at the end of dinner had helped a bit with that. Along with the bottomless pitcher of the local red wine that went down so easily with the wood-grilled lamb and the fried potatoes. God, those potatoes. Maybe it was all a dream; I n...more
I am planning a trip to Italy in May with 3 girl friends and this book put me over the top with its descriptions of the beauty and the cuisine of the Umbria area. I can't wait to try the truffles and anything made with fresh tomatoes. The book reminds me of Under the Tuscan Sun because the author and his wife fall in love with Italy and buy a rustico for their new life. The author and his wife are already in love with each other. I didn't watch Michal Tucker's TV drama but enjoy his easy writing...more
You might remember the author Michael Tucker from his stint on LA Law (well, those of you who are old enough to remember LA Law, that is.) He played the lovable, vertically-challenged tax lawyer Stuart Markowitz, who was married to his elegant legal partner, Ann Kelsey (portrayed by Tucker's real-life spouse, Jill Eikenberry.)
Cut to 20 years later. Neither are working much. Their nest is empty. Never keen on the LA lifestyle, and having relocated to the relative peace of Northern California for...more
Cut to 20 years later. Neither are working much. Their nest is empty. Never keen on the LA lifestyle, and having relocated to the relative peace of Northern California for...more
Delightful and funny travel/expat memoir. Makes you want to pack your bags and move to Italy.
One complaint: Some of Tucker's comments about their friend Caroline being their little orphan friend got annoying and at times downright offensive, but I'm going to give him a break and chalk it up to what is probably an inside joke between himself and Caroline. I mean, yeah, my adoptee friends and I often joke about being adopted and make off-color jokes, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt here.
One complaint: Some of Tucker's comments about their friend Caroline being their little orphan friend got annoying and at times downright offensive, but I'm going to give him a break and chalk it up to what is probably an inside joke between himself and Caroline. I mean, yeah, my adoptee friends and I often joke about being adopted and make off-color jokes, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt here.
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