Extra Virgin: A Young Woman Discovers the Italian Riviera, Where Every Month Is Enchanted by Annie Hawes

Extra Virgin: A Young Woman Discovers The Italian Riviera, Where Every Month is Enchanted by Annie Hawes
Published by HarperCollins Publishers in January 2001
Source: my mom via my aunt

Publisher's Summary:
Here is the delightful story of two painfully pale sisters from England who find themselves reveling in their newfound lives among the pungent vineyards and earthy inhabitants of a small Italian village. Hired to work for 10 weeks to graft roses along the Italian Riviera, board and lodging included, little does either of them know that their brief stay will stretch into years. Resonating with an irresistible voice and humor, Extra Virgin dishes up a sumptuous sampling of Italian life.


My Thoughts:

A question - why in the world does this book not only have two different covers but two different titles as well? The copy above is the edition I read but the copy to the right is titled Extra Virgin: Amongst The Olive Groves of Liguria. Both are perfectly apt titles. Which one cover/title would you be most likely to pick up?

My aunt first read this book (she of Italian descent) and passed it along to my mom who enjoyed it enough to pass it along to me. I think it's been on my Fall Feasting list of books for the past three years but it finally took the Nonfiction Challenge for me to make time to read it.

Hawes and her sister (who will, throughout the book be known as nothing more than "the sister") went to the Ligurian area of Italy in 1983 to work as rose grafters. They didn't work for long at the job but fell in love with the area and bought a derelict "house" amongst the olive tree terraces. Hawes' account spans decades as the sisters slowly make their property a home, bring the land around them back to life, and learn the culture of their Ligurian neighbors, all of which takes a tremendous amount of help from their neighbors and not a little humiliation along the way. The sisters' neighbors really are a full cast of characters. I regretted that I had not, early on, made a list of the area's population, along with their quirks.

In 1983, the world had not yet discovered the glories and benefits of olive oil and the people of the area largely considered the olive groves a burden, useful only for producing enough olive oil for their own use each year (albeit oil that they revered). There was no electricity in the homes, no gas, no running water. Despite being wonderfully close to the sea, the sisters were discouraged from going in the water except during a very brief period of time and then the area was so overwhelmed by tourists that the beaches were unusable for the locals. Food, of course, plays a big part in the locals lives and Hawes definitely will make your mouth water when she takes about the local foods but that is only a small part of this memoir. It's much more about becoming so immersed in a culture that the natives come to consider you one of them. Even if they do still, occasionally, tell stories about the mad Englishwoman who lives in the area!

Reading in 2016

When I started blogging I was thrilled beyond words that authors and publishers wanted to give me books to read for free. I'm just a little more aware these days that, even though no money exchanges hands, there is a cost to those books. It's an obligation to read them sooner rather than later, often by a specific date. It's an obligation to be honest but with the awareness that a publisher and an author will be looking to see what you've written about the book. Feelings are involved and I hate to hurt anyone's feelings. More and more, it turns out, I'm not all that thrilled about the obligation of having to read books on someone else's timetable.

Andi, of Estella's Revenge, has been talking for years about reading her own books. In 2016, she's taken it one step further and set herself up some goals to really push her way through her own books It's not a challenge (having decided she didn't want to follow anyone else's rules), just some guidelines to read by.

Which is right in line with what I'd like to do heading into 2016. There are too many great books languishing on my bookshelves; to many books I'd really love to have time for sooner rather than later. Andi's effort allows anyone who wants to join in to make up their own rules. For me those will be:

1. Work to satisfy prior obligations (a.k.a. read the review books I accepted prior to 2016).

2. Read 20 of the books on my Classics Club list (all of which I already own). I can't believer there's only 15 months left to read the rest of the 50 books I originally designated to read in five years!

3. No more than 2 new books can come into my house in a month - that includes review books and those irresistible great deals that come into my mailbox every single day.

4. Read at least half of the books that others have previously loaned me. They might actually want them back and I need that guilt off my shoulders.

5. Any challenge I sign up for has to be one that will help me stick to my goals.

6. Don't forget the ereaders!

To that end the Clean Your Reader 2016 Challenge, hosted by Kerry of Entomology of A Bookworm is perfect. Because, somehow, there are sixty books on just my Nook. Even given that I've picked up most of those for only a couple of bucks, I figure to have spent at least a couple of hundred dollars on them in total. And there they sit, unnoticed. And there are some great books there! I'll really be looking knock out half a dozen nonfiction titles off of that (including those on my winter reading list) and at least a half dozen fiction titles including The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian, The Princess Bride by William Goldman, and Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight.

I'm not one for making resolutions at the beginning of a new calendar year - I've never been good at sticking to them. On the other hand, there's no time like the present to start making changes to make life better. That being said, Joy's New Year's Resolution Reading Challenge is just the thing to help me find the tools to do that. I'm fairly certain that this will revolve around Gretchen Ruben's work, including getting caught up on her Happier podcast. In fact, if I were to choose a word for myself for 2016 it might just be "happier."

As for other challenges, we'll see. I'll certainly join in if The Introverted Reader again hosts the Nonfiction Reading Challenge. But I want to make sure I have flexibility to join in readalongs, Readers Imbibing Peril in October, Diversiverse and other blogging events.

To my non-blogging readers, does it ever occur to you to make a reading plan for a coming year? For bloggers, what are you looking forward to reading in 2016?

Kafka On The Shore by Haruki Murakami

Kafka On The Shore by Haruki Murakami
Published by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group in January 2006
Source: bought it

Publisher's Summary:
Kafka on the Shore is powered by two remarkable characters: a teenage boy, Kafka Tamura, who runs away from home either to escape a gruesome oedipal prophecy or to search for his long-missing mother and sister; and an aging simpleton called Nakata, who never recovered from a wartime affliction and now is drawn toward Kafka for reasons that, like the most basic activities of daily life, he cannot fathom.

As their paths converge, and the reasons for that convergence become clear, Haruki Murakami enfolds readers in a world where cats talk, fish fall from the sky, and spirits slip out of their bodies to make love or commit murder.

My Thoughts: 
I read this one with Ti of Book Chatter, an avid Murakami fan who first introduced me to Murakami in 2013 when we read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle as part of a readalong. It was such twisty fun that I couldn't resist asking Ti if I could read along with her when she said she was going to reread Kafka On The Shore.

Oh, Murakami - you really do such marvelously strange things to my mind. I doubt there's another author who could get me to read a scene about mutilating and killing cats and have me not throwing the book out the window. Come to think of it, you would have had a hard time convincing me that I would enjoy a book that included talking cats, falling eels, men making love to their mothers. But I did, I really did enjoy it. That's the magic of Haruki Murakami.

Woven into all of that craziness is a realistic story about a young man desperate for love and a simple old man who suddenly finds the world he's known turned upside down. Sure there is a village straight out of "Brigadoon," but there are also marvelous friendships and fragile characters. Maybe it turns out that I actually like fantasy. But I think my fondness for Murakami lies in his ability to make me forget I'm reading a literary novel that just happens to have fantasy elements...like spirits that move at will.

Life: It Goes On - December 27

Hope those of you who celebrate have all had a wonderful Christmas! Ours was busy, as always, but we've finished it off today with just the five of us which I always love as a way to end the holiday. We missed some of the family who couldn't be with us but loved spending time with both sides of our family. Way too much food, perhaps a bit too much alcohol, an abundance of gifts, a wealth of love - it was a good last few days.

This Week I'm:

Listening To: Only Christmas music this week, including Silent Night sung in German by a small girl and her mother during the living Nativity scene at our Christmas Eve service.

Watching: A lot of episodes of "Fixer-Upper;" football, including the Huskers bowl game victory; and a last few Christmas shows. Sadly, I never did catch "Love Actually" this year - guess I'll just have to look for it on Netflix!

Reading:  Faithful Place when I have had time for reading.

Making: Ham, chili, enchiladas, cheesy hash brown potatoes, cranberries, cheese balls, cream cheese breakfast pastry, green chili egg casserole, taco soup - all of the calories!

Planning: I'm just going to bask in the afterglow of Christmas as I try to put my house back in order this week.

Grateful for: See above!

Enjoying: A good laugh. Remember this post from the other day? Guess what I got from my boys?! To be fair, I actually did need a new vacuum. And The Big Guy was smart enough to balance it out with a new book.

Feeling: Blessed. Again, see above.

Looking forward to: New Year's Eve with friends. What I am NOT looking forward to is the enormous snowstorm forecast for tomorrow. We've hardly had winter this year and then we got 8" of snow on Christmas Eve and 6-11+ are forecast for tomorrow. How many more days until spring?

What was your favorite memory from the past week?

Merry Christmas!

Wishing all who celebrate it, a very Merry Christmas

 and 

hope you are able to spend time with those you love!