ALMOST FRENCH: LOVE AND A NEW LIFE IN PARIS -- Sarah Turnbull
Entertaining, nonfiction account of a young Australian who falls in love with a Frenchman and France, but not without some major adjustments. Her observations are interesting: French women don't want friendships with other women because they look upon women as rivals; Parisians in particular and the French in general take a long time to warm up to people even as acquaintances (they want to be sure you're here for good before going to the effort of talking to you at a dinner party); in France (or at least Paris) it is obligatory to dress up even when going to the bakery, you owe it others to present a good appearance; and you have to learn how to deal with the French bureaucracy. She loves Paris, however, from the start, and her lover, later husband, helps her through the difficulties of culture shock. She even learns to love the north of France, his home country. Fun reading and helpful if you're planning a trip to France.
Rockport Library
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Thursday, January 6, 2011
TRUE LOVE AND MARRIAGE IN VENICE
A THOUSAND DAYS IN VENICE (AN UNEXPECTED ROMANCE)-Marlena de Blasi
Charming non-fiction account of a middle-aged American divorcee who receives a telephone call from a man at the next table in a Venetian restaurant asking her to coffee. She refuses four days in a row but finally on her last day in Venice agrees to meet him. He tells her he fell in love with her in December when he saw her at a distance on a previous visit of hers to Venice. Unlikely as all this sounds, it is true, and she takes the plunge, not into the canal, but into love. The book records the first year of their falling in love, her leaving St.Louis, Missouri, to live with him in Venice, their wedding, and subsequent new beginnings together. It is romantic but down-to-earth as they face the adjustment from fairy tale romance to actually living together. Venice is a major player in this story - the people, its history, the infuriating bureaucracy of state and church, the different life views of the Italian worker (Work long enough to buy the grappa but not so long as to miss out on drinking the grappa with co-workers during extended lunch hour. What's the rush?). De Blasi is also a professional chef and includes recipes at book's end. Enchanting reading for all of us who have wished to be swept off our feet with good practical lessons as to how to then sustain and cherish love in marriage. She has also written two follow-up books, so if you like this one, you have two more to enjoy.
Non-Fiction. Rockport Public Library
Charming non-fiction account of a middle-aged American divorcee who receives a telephone call from a man at the next table in a Venetian restaurant asking her to coffee. She refuses four days in a row but finally on her last day in Venice agrees to meet him. He tells her he fell in love with her in December when he saw her at a distance on a previous visit of hers to Venice. Unlikely as all this sounds, it is true, and she takes the plunge, not into the canal, but into love. The book records the first year of their falling in love, her leaving St.Louis, Missouri, to live with him in Venice, their wedding, and subsequent new beginnings together. It is romantic but down-to-earth as they face the adjustment from fairy tale romance to actually living together. Venice is a major player in this story - the people, its history, the infuriating bureaucracy of state and church, the different life views of the Italian worker (Work long enough to buy the grappa but not so long as to miss out on drinking the grappa with co-workers during extended lunch hour. What's the rush?). De Blasi is also a professional chef and includes recipes at book's end. Enchanting reading for all of us who have wished to be swept off our feet with good practical lessons as to how to then sustain and cherish love in marriage. She has also written two follow-up books, so if you like this one, you have two more to enjoy.
Non-Fiction. Rockport Public Library
Monday, January 3, 2011
TRAVEL CLASSIC
BETWEEN THE WOODS AND THE WATER - PATRICK LEIGH FERMOR
This is the second book in the account of Fermor's walk from Holland to Constantinople in 1933 at the age of nineteen He wrote the first account A TIME OF GIFTS in 1977 and this one in 1986, the third is still to come. Fermor is now 95 and still writing after living a life full of adventures. Considered a classic of travel writing, the book is dense with descriptions and history making it slow but fascinating reading. Two times -- the time before World War II when he was walking and the post war time when it was written, and in which the reader lives inform the book. I kept wondering what happened especially to the gypsies, the rabbi and rabbinical students,but really to everyone he met along the way. He tells us a few of the afterlives of the people he kept up with, but of the chance acquaintances we can only wonder as to their fates. It is a picture of the world of Hungary, Rumania, and Transylvania, now lost forever.
Available from virtual catalogue. You might want to start with first book A TIME OF GIFTS
This is the second book in the account of Fermor's walk from Holland to Constantinople in 1933 at the age of nineteen He wrote the first account A TIME OF GIFTS in 1977 and this one in 1986, the third is still to come. Fermor is now 95 and still writing after living a life full of adventures. Considered a classic of travel writing, the book is dense with descriptions and history making it slow but fascinating reading. Two times -- the time before World War II when he was walking and the post war time when it was written, and in which the reader lives inform the book. I kept wondering what happened especially to the gypsies, the rabbi and rabbinical students,but really to everyone he met along the way. He tells us a few of the afterlives of the people he kept up with, but of the chance acquaintances we can only wonder as to their fates. It is a picture of the world of Hungary, Rumania, and Transylvania, now lost forever.
Available from virtual catalogue. You might want to start with first book A TIME OF GIFTS
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)