Archive for the ‘puppy love’ Category
Book Review & Giveaway: Marcus of Umbria by Justine van der Leun
Booklovers, do I have an August planned for you!
Every Monday in August I’ll be giving away an Italian-themed book (and there will be other special surprises as well)– so be sure to come back regularly. Remember if you want to be sure you’re not missing anything, you can always subscribe to the blog via RSS or email and also keep up on Facebook and on Twitter.
Now, to our first book:
Marcus of Umbria: What an Italian Dog Taught an American Girl About Love by Justine van der Leun is about a young American woman who moves to a small, rural village in Italy on a whim and ends up falling in love with a dog.
Does it surprise you that I really, really enjoyed this book?
After becoming smitten with a local Italian ragazzo on vacation, the author packs up her New York City life and transplants herself to Collelungo in Umbria, the Green Heart of Italy. She immediately becomes part of the family, and she is expected to contribute as such. I think it’s safe to say this is her first of many culture shocks detailed throughout the book.
As we learn more about Justine’s new surroundings and the people playing prominent roles in her daily life, we also get to know the author through how she handles new, challenging situations. The picture isn’t always pretty, but it certainly seems honest. Being able to trust the author of a memoir is always a huge plus.
Justine’s time in the village wasn’t full of leisurely days sipping wine under the Umbrian sun and raucous family gatherings by night, and she pulls no punches on this anti-Under the Tuscan Sun lifestyle she adopts. Her fidanzato isn’t the most attentive (although he seems like a good enough guy), his brother has a cruel streak to say the least, and common methods of keeping and training animals are heart-wrenching to animal lovers.
Justine manages to present these tidbits and others in a very matter-of-fact way though, without judgment. It is what it is, if you will, and in many instances, it’s been that way for centuries in Collelungo (and other small towns throughout Italy). I can’t speak for what the people of Collelungo might think about Justine’s perceptions as related in the book, but from my perspective in what seems to be a similar village, they rang fairly accurate.
But through all the ups and downs of life in Collelungo, Justine’s growing love for Marcus, an English pointer she rescues, keeps her grounded — in fact, literally, as she is reluctant to leave town even after her love affair has soured, not knowing what will happen to her beloved pooch. Indeed, the only issue I had with the book is that I would have liked more Marcus!
Witty, descriptive, well-crafted, and just plain entertaining, this book gets four and a half espresso cups out of five; more Marcus would’ve had my cup runneth-ing over. Marcus of Umbria is more about Justine’s year living in rural Italy than simply a girl meets dog tale, but what it does, it does well — so I highly recommend it.
Now, the contest. This is open only to those of you with a U.S. shipping address, but there will be international giveaways throughout the month, I promise:
For your chance to win a copy of Marcus of Umbria, please comment below by 11:59 p.m. (Italy time) Sunday, August 8, 2010 with a response to the following question:
If you could chuck it all and run away somewhere where would you choose to go and why?
Justine van der Leun will be picking her favorite response as the winner, so be creative!
Best of luck!
P.S. You can also “like” Marcus of Umbria on Facebook and follow Justine @justinevdl on Twitter.
Heating a House in Italy: Meet Our New Stufa
Lest anyone try to convince you that Calabria has a tropical climate, let me assure you–it’s gets *cold* here in the winter, especially the further you go up into the mountains (duh). And I know Cherrye is with me on this.
Seriously, I’ve seen people on message boards claim the temps never fall into the 40s. Please. We have *skiing* here for goodness’ sake!
The temps may not always be low like what I was getting used to in Pennsylvania, but there’s usually a good bit of humidity in the air and once that enters these old stone walls, tile floors, and *your bones*, well, you get the point, right?
Central heating here is rare, and indeed, quite expensive as electricity costs are outrageous. People turn to various solutions for heat: gas stoves, pellet stoves, old-fashioned fireplaces, and my favorite, the wood-burning stove.
This is our first winter in this house, which used to have an old fireplace that did precisely nothing for heating the place (P grew up in the house); it was one of the first things we gutted, in fact. So we’ve been making do with small electric space heaters only when we *absolutely* needed them. Still, I’m not looking forward to my next electric bill.
Even then, wearing several layers of clothes inside the house was normal, and in fact, necessary. I know this may seem strange to those of you who walk around in t-shirts in your house when it’s 30 degrees Fahrenheit outside, but trust me, that isn’t a common scene in Italy even *with* heat.
But then, just this past week, we joined the ranks of the “heated.” P had scouted out wood stoves while I was in America, and neither of us were thrilled with the selection or prices. So when I got back, I took to the Internet. We found something perfect, for a good price (including delivery), and it arrived within a week! I know!
P and his friend left the village in the morning to get the pipes and everything to go with it and had it installed within an hour.
Meet Sammy Stufa and her new best friend, Stella:
I seriously couldn’t love this thing more.
Not only does it heat up the entire top floor of the house, I can even melt my Nutella on top of it so it’s spreadable again! At some point, we’ll put ducts through the house to *really* circulate heat through the place, but as they say in Italy, “pian piano….”
(Hey, don’t forget World Nutella Day is coming up!)
Buon weekend! Stay warm!
Coming Back Soon…
Are you getting ready for more Bleeding Espresso? I sure hope so, because I’ll be back very shortly with new posts, new contests, interviews, an exciting foodie event, and more!
Which, I suppose, means no more of this:
Oh well. Just to be clear, I will *not* be sorry to see August go. Stinking heat and a village full of tourists gets old pretty fast to this peace-and-quiet-loving gal.
In the meantime, since Bleeding Espresso will be going through some changes (including design!), please take a moment to let me know what you’d like to see more and less of here at the blog.
For those who have already done so via Twitter and Facebook, your input is *molto* appreciated! And to everyone else, please do add your two beans!
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