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Summary: Another engaging expatriate memoir
Review: If you're a fan of Peter Mayle, Frances Mayes, and Chris Stewart, add Annie Hawes to your reading list. At first skeptical about the subject ("Not ANOTHER book about moving abroad and fixing up an old house in the country!"), I was immediately enchanted by Hawes's take on it. Her style is closer to Mayle than Mayes, mostly because of her wonderful British wit and turning of a phrase, so Italy is described in a different way; and her rendering of the rural landscape and its inhabitants match Stewart's in detail and affection. Even if you've read a lot of books on Italy and expats living in sunny Mediterranean climes, crack "Extra Virgin". You won't be disappointed!
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Summary: An fun story of peasant Italians and their antiquated ways.
Review: It was a true pleasure to read Hawes, "Extra Virgin." She is capable of clearly describing people of Italian heritage and their ways, which I found surprising not being of Italian descent herself. I felt as though I was in Liguria, her accounts so detailed and clear. A true work of art. A must-read story for those who enjoy creative non-fiction.
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Summary: Deja vu, all over again
Review: It's tough to find much redeeming in another one of these "expat moves to crazy but poetic italy" books.
Hawes is a skilled writer and tale teller but you'd really have to be a fan of the genre to get through almost 400 pages of quirky anedotes by an author who refers to her Italian neighbors as "peasants." Even her considerable wit makes for an "been, there done that" reaction--yet again the Anglo-American expat who never manages to get inside the culture...
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Summary: Fantastic Book
Review: Makes me want to go and live in Italy, the new one is called Ripe for the Picking and is available on Amazon.co.uk.
Rating:
Summary: Charming!
Review: Many excellent reviews have been written for this book and quite frankly I can add little more. But I cannot resist writing a few words after reading and tremendously enjoying this rather charming memoir.The author chronicled her somewhat adventurous settling in the Italian Riviera through (almost impulsively) buying a very old farmhouse - with a few dozen olive trees to go with it, and struggling to make it a home, and herself and her sister part of the community. San Pietro was not exactly known for being hospitable to outsiders, how did this pair of foreign females (extra virgins) manage to get accepted as part of the community - in fact, practically as everyone's darlings? Well, they were friendly, respectful, open-minded, conscientious, and armed with a tremendous sense of humor. Besides learning a good deal about the life style and food fares of the Northern Italian peasantry, the landscape and climate of the place, and the folklores and sentiment of the locals - all through a gracious style of writing, with wit and humor in good measure, I must say I also learn from the author much wisdom for getting to know and live with strangers in a strange place. If you have not read this book, you should not wait any longer.
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Summary: Charming!
Review: Many excellent reviews have been written for this book and quite frankly I can add little more. But I cannot resist writing a few words after reading and tremendously enjoying this rather charming memoir. The author chronicled her somewhat adventurous settling in the Italian Riviera through (almost impulsively) buying a very old farmhouse - with a few dozen olive trees to go with it, and struggling to make it a home, and herself and her sister part of the community. San Pietro was not exactly known for being hospitable to outsiders, how did this pair of foreign females (extra virgins) manage to get accepted as part of the community - in fact, practically as everyone's darlings? Well, they were friendly, respectful, open-minded, conscientious, and armed with a tremendous sense of humor. Besides learning a good deal about the life style and food fares of the Northern Italian peasantry, the landscape and climate of the place, and the folklores and sentiment of the locals - all through a gracious style of writing, with wit and humor in good measure, I must say I also learn from the author much wisdom for getting to know and live with strangers in a strange place. If you have not read this book, you should not wait any longer.
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Summary: A CHARMING, INSOUCIANT READING
Review: Many have extolled the virtues of living in Italy, but few have done so with the insouciance and charm of Annie Hawes. Her story of years in a small Ligurian village is pure delight, as sunny as the oil yielded by dappled groves of olive trees lining the area. Now, an additional delight - the audio version of "Extra Virgin" as read by Miriam Margolyes. This gifted actress has worked with many of Hollywood's top directors, including Martin Scorsese in "The Age Of Innocence." She starred in her own television series, as well as gathering other television credits in various telefilms. Ms. Margolyes also conquered radio with her stunning rendition of a novel in which she played all members of the British Royal Family. Her reading of "Extra Virgin" is one more stellar accomplishment, allowing us to revisit the incomparably beautiful Italian Riviera whenever we wish.
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Summary: Wonderful Affectionate Tale
Review: Over the course of the past couple of years several of my friends have moved to Italy. One is an expat returning to Italy and the other is an american transplant. Annie Hawes story of her time in Liguria is probably one of the most "real" expats in Italy stories I have ever read. She isn't rich and doesn't have 1/2 a million to pour into creating a showpiece. She buys a ramshackle farm house and to this day its still pretty ramshackle (course if this book hits the best seller list who knows?). Anne Hawes is living my dream. She writes of her day to day experiences. Some of the same things that she experiences have happened to my friends. I feel like she is doing just what I would do. I'd go exploring broken down houses. If somebody offered me a smoking deal I'd probably buy it and then try to work out how to live there at least part of the year. Anne Hawes writes with affection and consideration for her friends and neighbors. Her Italy life and her Italy house are built on this foundation of respect and affection. I only hope that when my "Italy life" happens it is half as full as Anne's.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't Let the Title Fool You
Review: Readers might miss this book solely because of its silly title. "Extra Virgin" has really nothing to do with the story except that olive oil is made in the region. And that ridiculous subtitle--"A Young Woman Discovers the Italian Riviera, Where Every Month Is Enchanted"--suggests the kind of soft-centered, caramel-dipped, high-fructose prose found in Harlequin Romances... This is not a gooey romance written by a birdbrain but a consistently engaging tale of a young Brit and her sister who take seasonal work harvesting olives in a little-known peasant village in a lesser-known region of Italy--and end up buying a houdse there. The opening drags a bit. The author struggles with her pose as the bright young thing taking the traditional Brit's view of benighted foreign peasantry. Too pert by half, frankly. But what makes this book work is that the author observes closely, learns, and grows--grows up, too. She began by thinking of her neighbors as jolly but backward folk who just love to feed people--and keep on feeding them. So typically Italian! Well, she gets over this; she begins to understand that these people actually know a thing or two and even know things she doesn't. As a result her prose calms down and her story moves along pretty briskly. There's humor and passion as she and her neighbors come to terms with each other--and as she increasingly becomes not merely a summer visitor but a person who comes to have some standing as a genuine member of her community. The change occurs gradually through innumerable small steps (steps too small to mean much if taken out of context in a review) and one large event that can't be discussed because it would give away far too much. Look at it this way: We've had the sugary stuff of "Enchanted April" and the cold and cynical exploitation of "A Year in Provence." Annie Hawes's story is different; it might even be what would happen to you or me.
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Summary: Extra special
Review: Seeking a change of scenery, author Annie Hawes and her sister travel from London to rural Liguria, Italy, for a temporary job grafting roses. What the author lacks in knowledge of roses she more than makes up for with storytelling skills as she describes how she and her sister began their 20-year relationship with Liguria and its inhabitants. She conveys the mutual bemusement between the tradition-bound villagers and the naive British interlopers, and shows how she learned the hard way to respect their traditions while earning a measure of acceptance herself. Hawes' keen observations, wry sense of humor, and distinctive turn of phrase place this book a cut above the usual travel memoir.
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