Italy Books

This is an exceptional good book. I love Iris Johansen Mystery Novels and thought I would try this one. It is a must read.

Please be aware that this book is a reissue from Iris Johansen's original works which appeared in 1990/1991. That being said, these two novels are of my favorite Johansen writings! The Wind Dancer trilogy was the beginning of Iris Johansen's long career in first romance novels, and recently, stories of mystery. These first two books of the trilogy focus on a statue called the Wind Dancer and it's effects on the lives of those who choose to possess it. The characters are real and the plot development superb. I could not stop turning the pages when I read these books when first released. If you are a fan of Johansen I encourage you to try these two wonderful representatives of her earlier work. I promise the next purchase you make will be Reap the Wind...

This lovely cookbook is also a valuable reference guide for anyone interested in learning more about wine and the art of wine-pairing with food. Italy grows a vast variety of wine grapes and produces many different types of wine, a fact which can be incredibly intimidating and confusing to those unfamiliar with the country's wines beyond the now ubiquitous Chianti and Pinot Grigio. This book takes a look at each of the regions of Italy, the primary wines produced in each, and typical dishes from the region that pair well with these wines.

The writing is easy to follow and the history behind some of these wines quite fascinating. I wish I'd had this book before a recent trip to Florence, as it would have helped me tremendously with deciphering wine lists and making good choices of wine pairings. The recipies range from simple salads to more complex roasts, but should not be too intimidating to most people with some cooking experience.

The only thing that might have been nice to include would have been a breakdown of wine labelling as used on Italian wines, to help the reader understand how to find all the information on what can sometimes be complicated labels--especially for those who do not speak or read Italian.

A passionate home cook that has been honing her cooking skills for the last 25 years, concentrating on Italian cooking for the last 10 years, writes this review. My favorite cookbooks are "The Professional Chef" by the Culinary Institute and "Culinary Artistry". With more than 500 cookbooks in my collection I am usually disappointed in my recent cookbook acquisitions. However, I feel that this book is a nice addition to any cookbook library.

The book is subdivided as follows:
Introduction
.....Italian Wine: The New Renaissance
.....Matching Italian Wine and Food
.....About this Book
.....Glossary of Italian Wine Terms

Italian Wine and Food
.....Northwest: Piedmont, Valle d'Aosta, Liguria, Lombardy
.....Northeast: Veneto, Trentino-Alto Adige, Friuli-Venezia Giulia
.....Central: Tuscany, Umbria, Lazio
.....Adriatic: Emilia-Romagna, Marches, Abruzzo, Molise
.....South: Apulia, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania
.....Islands: Sicily, Sardinia, Lipari, Pantelleria
.....Desserts

Foundations
.....Building Blocks
.....Olive Oil
.....Italian Cheese

If you love Italian wine and good food this is a nice book to add to your library. The information on Italian wine alone is worth the price of the book. I thought that I was very familiar with Italian wine and I learned quite a bit from this book. The book covers all the major Italian wines in reasonable detail. Many of the minor Italian wines are also covered, a few I had not yet discovered.

For each major wine the author spells out the following information:
1. Narrative regarding a history of the wine
2. Typical aromas and Flavors of the wine
3. Tips to Successful Matches for that particular wine.

For each recipe that is included in the book the author offers two wine selections. The recipes are solid, mostly classics but some with a spin. Many of the recipes are simple Italian fare, but some of them have more of a gourmet twist. There are dishes in this book for carnivores and vegetarians a like. There are even a few vegan dishes in the book. The recipe for Polenta, Pesto and Red Pepper Terrine was excellent even without the goat cheese, which I omitted to make the dish vegan. Most of the recipes have a corresponding full color photograph of the finished dish. The recipe directions are clearly written and easy to follow.

If you love Italian wine and good food I think you will enjoy this book, I know I do.

I loved this book, not only for it's inside view into pre-French Revoltionary France and Naples but also for its rich portrait of friendship between a man, a woman and literally two kingdoms, France and Italy. Ample biographical information is inserted between the letters helping us understand the characters and their lives. In particular we follow Madame D'Epinay and her role as a female in the Enlightenment. She had a brilliant mind and a sensitive spirit, only held back by her frail body and the era in which she wrote. The letters end with D'Epinay's death. Galiani states that we do not out survive our true friendships, something of us dies also. During this twenty-five year correspondance we meet other important figures such as Catherine The Great and the young Mozart and Voltaire. If you appreciate the power of letters and their ability to reveal a life and you are interested in the Enlightenment, this book is not to be missed.

This books transports you back to the 50-year span preceding the French Revolution. It reproduces and describes the letters passed between Mme. D'Epinay, a French aristocrat and the Abbe Galiani, a Neapolitan priest diplomat during a twelve year period. But before launching into these letters we are provided with a rich background of the times and lives of these two protagonists. Through it one has the opportunity to experience life as it was lived by the European upper classes of that time. It is startling to be directly exposed to the mindset of such peoples. How natural it was to promote cultural gatherings at one's estate for the sake of diversion and fun. The unmasked and unaffected vanity common and widely accepted within that society. The book provides the reader with the ability to relive relevant and marking events and thoughts that made enormous impact in world history side-by-side with mundane and trivial daily occurrences to one's life. Here and there one is presented with "unpublished" thoughts from Voltaire, Diderot, Grimm, the Neapolitan Prime Minister Tanucci, Rousseau and many other personalities. The absolute brilliance of Mozart, Galiani himself, the greatness of Catherine, Empress of Russia is constantly shared with the reader via anecdotes and dialogues established among these figures. The book is so powerful, so skillfully presented and sequenced to the point of making the reader forget that someone did extensive research, collected thoughts, inserted views and actually wrote it. Francis Steegmuller offers us a delightful reading.

Wow, was this audio guide easy to use. My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed the informative content. By using the audio guide we really understood everything about this world famous piazza. The background music was an added plus that we had not expected. By following the audio guide in conjunction with the provided map we were able to see and understand everything about st. Mark's Square in the time we had available. We will be looking for WhiteHot Productions audio guides every where we go in the future. Kudos to the narrator for making this so enjoyable.

I have toured Venice many times but never with the excellent audio guide provided by WhiteHot Productions. It clearly and logically explains what one sees and allows plenty of time to situate yourself before each stop. The narration is excellent and the musical interludes charming. This audio guide is a must for any thoughtful understanding of the Piazza San Marco.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants to know about the interior life of Padre Pio, this is my third book about Padre Pio. He is probably one of my favorite Saints. In this book you will discover the man behind the mystery. Perhaps people look a saints and they see a glass box around them like if they were untouchable. But when you read about padre pio and his letters to his confessors. You see that he really struggled with doubts and fears, the fear of offending God was the most significant. And how he seemed to never find relief to his sufferings, but he always looked a suffering as his friend. I think of his words they give me strength when days seem dark I think of his life and how he lived it. I realize that I too can imitate his way of searching for GOD and loving him above all else. I hope you too can experience the beauty of discovering such wonderful soul, I'm sure you'll be lead through your stuggles with much joy. GOD BLESS!!
Rosie

The book Words of Light: Inspiration From the Letters of Padre Pio was released at the end of February of this year. This book is edited by Father Raniero Cantalamessa who is also a Franciscan Capuchin lke St. Pio and of course Fr. Cantalamessa continues to be the preacher to the papal household.

Previous editions of this book have been released in Italian and the recent edition is by Paraclete Press. After the very good introduction by Fr. Cantalamessa we get a very brief biography off Padre Pio and his life. The thrust of the book though are his letters and we end up getting a biography of St. Pio's interior life. I had previously heard that during his lifetime at one point he was receiving more letters than anybody else living at that time and it is quite obvious that he wrote quite a large number of letters to people giving spiritual advice.

What Fr. Cantalamessa has done with this book is to select portions of St. Pio's letters and to divide them up by topic into various chapters. By doing this we get a very good idea of the type of advice he gave and about his deep prayer life. The dark night of the soul is quite evident in his letters to his spiritual director and to other priests and when you combine this with the spiritual and physical attacks by Demons you can see just how stark his sufferings were. Like the Curé of Ars, St. John Vianney. who also poured himself out in the confessional and suffered similar attacks we see a life of pure faith. That even as he cries out in suffering he is crying out to the person of Christ, Mary, and the saints.

Many of the segments of letters written in some of the earlier chapters lets you feel to some extent the torments that he suffered. There are many tensions in what he describes. Like St. Paul there is the driving desire to be in Heaven while at the same time to be totally obedient in using his time on earth to save souls. For him Fiat is a continuous living of his live. The love of Christ and love of neighbor is so evident in St. Pio as it is with all saints, but you get to look into his though process on this to a greater extent than we can with most saints. Much of what he has written in his letters reminds me also of the struggles that Blessed Mother Teresa also wen through and I find it rather interesting that so much was made of her dark night of the soul in the press and nothing as far as I am aware of was mentioned about this in regards to St. Pio.

Though there is so much more to this saint than the behind the scenes torment and total faith despite deprivations. I found the letters that referenced Mary to be quite beautiful, for example this one snippet. "May she who entered the world without stain, obtain for us from her Son the grace to leave the world without fault." The chapter on letters in reference to his spiritual direction show the wonderful effects of his deep prayer life and the encouragement he would give others.

So often when we hear of St. Pio it is focused on things like his stigmata and the supernatural events surrounding his life such as bilocation. It is quite moving to see the supernatural movements of grace in his spiritual life that directly lead to him helping so many towards repentance and growing in grace. Fr. Cantalamessa selection of segments of letters helps you to get a much better of St. Pio the person. I certainly recommend this book to anybody interested in Padre Pio.

This was a great little book. Easy, quick read - lays out the questions to ask when considering a vacation rental in Italy. Definitely identified things I had not considered, that I will definitely include when narrowing down our rental.

Sensible and well written, Ms. Jennings' "how-to" for renting a vacation villa in Italy is a great investment for hunting, evaluating and enjoying your vacation. As a vacation rental expert, I found every aspect of her book helpful and clearly explained. I am encouraging my clients to purchase this books for many reasons: it lays out the pros/cons of rentals, helps in choosing location and type of rental, explains the owner's perspective and offers advice on how to share a rental. The general travel advice is solid and helpful. The most useful aspects -- you won't find them anyplace -- are the tutorial and check lists on how to evaluate rental properties remotely. I evaluate many properties and assure you she knows all the secret ways that owners use to disguise problems with their rentals. She also lists trustworthy rental agencies and many helpful resources.

Pat Byrne, Excellent Europe - Vacation Rentals in Italy

I was fortunate to recieve my autographed copy directly from Franco when I lived in Italy. I sat down with it that night & could not stop reading. His life is so simple, yet is of a magnitude that will eventually compare him with the greatest artists of all time. Sit back & read about the worlds greatest divas from his first hand experiences, then be prepared to become truly amazed by this mans contribution to the world of art,opera, design & theatre. Don't wait another minute, get it today!

Zeffirelli's autobiography was truly fascinating. I became ennamored of the man, even though I don't think he is the best movie director of the 20th century, he is surpassed by Antonioni, Pasolini, Fellini and Vitorio Gassman, but I did enjoy the movies he made. His book gives us not only a vision of what was Italy during the WWII, but also what is the world of creating theater, operas and movies. He does not succumb to the temptation of gossiping about famous people who were close to him and treats all of them with a lot of compassion and understanding. It is a very well written book, I read it very fast and was sorry when it was over.

Charles Dickens wrote a detailed log of his trip to America--from the boat in England to his travels on early American trains. His style is very light and entertaining. If you are familiar with his novels about the dark side of London and the social problems that Dickens himself grew up with, this book is quite a contrast. He is writing the book as an Englishman for other Englishmen.

I was expecting to find a lot of satire against Americans. (His comic piece "Martin Chuzzelwit" had this). However, Dickens was very positive toward the social reforms that he saw in America. He also makes some interesting comments on seeing black slaves for the first time.

Unfortunately, he wasn't able to travel far, so his impressions of America are limited. Nonetheless, this is a book that I enjoy reading and re-reading.

For someone who didn't know how the first thing about cooking before, I think I've done amazingly well in that department, with the help of Fran Warde's "30 Minute Cooking: Italian." I was inititally drawn to this wonderful book for its print quality-large font (easy-to-follow while I cook), bright colors, lots of photographs. The recipes call for ingredients that are easy to find at any supermarket. Directions are really simple to follow. I started off with simple pasta, then moved on to risotto, minestrone, and dessert, all in the same week. With all honesty, if I could make delicious meals, following the recipes in this fantastic publication, so can anyone!

My annual stocking stuffer to my wife, We both love it. Pictures of Italy - can't fail to please.