Bella Tuscany

Rating:
Summary: How to Finance an Italian Villa
Review: at the expense of the reading public, would be a more appropriate title. How did this silly book get such good reviews. Who are these people? I'll trust the Amazon rating public before I ever trust the "pros" again. This book is weak, annoying, and just plain foolish. And I adore cooking, gardening and wine. Wish I'd thought of this idea first ... I'd be writing from Italy.

Rating:
Summary: Author's petty comments spice up otherwise boring book
Review: Author's very unhospitable comments about houseguests, especially the vicious gang bashing during the expats dinner, and her superior attitude and degrading comments about other people's bad Italian make you cringe for those who will recognize themselves. These things reveal far more about the author than anything else in the book. Obviously none of the good things about Tuscany have rubbed off on the author.

Rating:
Summary: Does anyone care what Frances Mayes thinks?
Review: I'm proud of myself for finishing this giant yawn of a book. I really enjoyed UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN. Yes, it was over-fawning sometimes, as well as preachy and judgmental, but it was about something: renovating a tuscan villa. I loved it for the vicarious thrill of remodeling a house, gardening, cooking, and getting to know the neighbors in Tuscany. So, I presume, did everyone else. This book, however, skimps on everything I liked in the first book and splurges on everything I hated. Three or four chapters (at most) mention the villa, the garden, and the food. That's all. The rest (i.e. most) of the book is Frances Mayes preaching about life , art, politics, and people. We get endless pages on paintings. Does she like this one? Does Ed? Should we? And just when you think you can't take any more, you get whopped with a chapter called "Breathing Art". Yes, "Breathing Art". Beyond belief, isn't it. We also get her uninformed tourist's take on Sicily and the mafia, as well as her beginning Italian speaker's take on the difference speaking Italian makes to one's world view. Then, there is Ed's poetry.... I guess that in the success of her first book, Frances Mayes forgot who she really is: a two-bit lit prof from a two-bit California college who spends a few weeks each year in Italy. Nothing else could possibly explain this book.

Rating:
Summary: Listening to her drone on made me lethargic;
Review: not recommended when you are driving. Having read Under the Tuscan Sun and refering it to my book review club where we seriously disect a book, not gloss over it, I could hardly wait to read Bella Tuscany. Better yet, I thought, I would listen to it instead. What drivel! Whereas I was ready to return to Tuscany myself, having been there about a dozen times, drive by Bramasole en route to finding a good wine, I'd rather go elsewheres now. Anywhere. Her soft Southern voice is enough to put the most rambunctous of children to sleep. Her overuse of metaphors and similies becomes more like a labor of necessity than love in this book. It's almost as though she felt she was compelled to write a sequel but had run out of things to share. Cook up the recipes in her first book and enjoy delightful meals as you read or listen to something, anything else but Bella Tuscany

Rating:
Summary: Pretty prose, but very little content.
Review: Now that her vacation get-away in Tuscany has been renovated, the olives planted ... Frances Mayes has run out of things to say. There are only so many pages of people eating and gardening and lounging in their lemonarias that one can stand. The vignettes of Italian life that made "Under the Tuscan Sun" so delightful are all but absent here. Frances Mayes and her husband appear to be spoiled academics with too much money and time on their hands. It is difficult to sympathize with their minor construction problems as if they are life tragedies.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing after under the Tuscan Sun
Review: I *loved* Under the Tuscan Sun. I read and re-read it and loaned it to several friends. When I saw the new book I was so excited, but after reading it I was very disappointed. I think this is more a reflection of me than the author however. What I loved about Under the Tuscan Sun was the struggle and the passion and the frustration. I empathized with their hopes and dreams and vicariously shared their fears. Bella Tuscany is boring...but so is every day life.

Rating:
Summary: pleasant, but
Review: an ok read, (helps a lot if you like gardening) but pretty thin; leaves you wanting to find another book with a lot more substance; although parts make you crave Tuscany. Preferred Mates Hills of Tuscany. Finished reading it thinking they wrote it to finance house renovation - it read passionless.

Rating:
Summary: Bit of everything in Bella Tuscany
Review: I have visited Italy many times and never really understood what keeps drawing me back until I read Ms. Mayes's "Under the Tuscan Sun". I found the same enjoyment reading her "Bella Tuscany", which was more like having the priviledge of reading a friends private journal. I admire Ms. Mayes, her unself-conciousness in sharing her inner most thoughts, her honesty is refreshing, her warmth and love of life with Ed the love of her life, made for very happy reading. I highly reccommend this book, women will probably enjoy it more than men, men generally want a beginning and end and I hope Ms. Mayes never ends her Tuscan saga.

Rating:
Summary: Sequel Slump
Review: I enjoyed Under the Tuscan Sun but Mayes turned me off at the beginning of this book with her discussion of the Mafia. Her feeling the oppression of the Sicilian people was extremely pretentious. She should stick to describing the renovations of her home and descriptions of daily life in Tuscany. Spare us the insights about social problems and paranoia about the Mafia.

Rating:
Summary: Buy On Persephone's Island instead
Review: Another disappointment. This dribble has little to do with Italy and no plot. This best part of the book is the picture of the house. The chapter on Sicily appears to be plagerized from On Persephone's Island by Mary Taylor Simeti who has lived in Sicily for years, speaks the language and in contrast to Ms. Mayes really knows the people (published 1986). it is disgusting to see a writer mention her sadness about prostitution in Italy and then move on to discuss hiring full time garderners and choosing between tile or marble for the bathrooms. Also, it is suprising for a woman who claims to love teaching to portray the students she has as "uh like idiots".