Gah, I am so dumb, after finishing one book about grieving, I picked up another – From Scratch – about the same topic. I saw it recommended on Reese Witherspoon’s book club and that it’s a memoir and HEY I LIKE MEMOIRS!!! so I requested it from the library. Maybe read the book synopsis next time, Kim, or, even ALL of the Instagram description, so you aren’t reading about the same topic back-to-back?
But actually, I really enjoyed this book, and wasn’t worn out from it being a similar topic. It’s by Tembi Locke, a black actress (I don’t think I’ve seen anything she’s in?!) from Texas, who meets and falls in love with a Sicilian man while living in Florence. The story jumps back and forth from them meeting, her caring for him while he fought cancer for ten years, the birth of their daughter, and most of all, their, then her, relationship with his family in Sicily. His family did NOT approve of him marrying a black woman, and didn’t even go to their wedding. But over time things are mended, and she develops a deep bond with them, especially after her husband dies, and she continues the tradition of spending a month in Sicily with his family in the summer, without him.
This book is also about food and has recipes included. I really want to try to make the vegan pesto, but I am not sure where to buy five cups of basil? Hmm.
A few people I told about this book thought it might be too sad to read, since it’s about her husband’s death. It i sad, but the parts that moved me to tears where when she talks about the birth of her daughter, and how close she is becoming with her mother-in-law, who used to refuse to even talk to her. So… don’t be scared away, it’s about so much more than death.
I’ve been comparing this so much to the last book I read, Running Home. Both are about loss and about motherhood. For whatever reason, I related to this book much more.
I especially loved reading about Italy since I lived there for a while! Some of the stories had me reminiscing about goofy bureaucratic stuff in Italy. Like how much fun it was to get my Permesso di Soggirono (my residency permit – see Feb 14 & 15 posts – gosh, my writing then… eek). Ahh, memories.
Me in Sicily February 2006
I never visited the town her husband was from in Sicily, but I did go to Sicily and visit Palermo, Monreale, and Mondello (see February 18 & 19 posts). Ha, the things you do in college. Apparently I got on a train at 8:55 pm on a Friday night and rode it for TWELVE hours to get to Palermo. And how does a train cross the water? It leaves the tracks and gets on a boat with other trains, then connects back to the tracks on the Sicilian island. Craziness.
Reading this made me feel pretty hungry and really want to go back to Italy. Someday!
And now I am reading another memoir, obviously!
I am requesting this from the library now. I also love books about Italy since I also studied there. And I also wonder at the things I did while there- like sleeping in train stations instead of paying for a hostel. When I need a lot of basil I buy the plants they sell at the grocery store. You get way more than the pre cut packages and then you can plant it after and get more!
Awesome! Where did you study again? I know we’ve talked about this but I can’t recall!
And then when we did stay at hostels, WHOA, whoa. Right? Ha ha ha.
Do you think I can get that much off a plant?!
I was in Siena in Tuscany. How far I’ve come since the days when a hostel seemed luxurious. I got a huge basil plant at trader Joe’s and it had a enough basil for pesto. I also sometimes do half basil and half spinach.
Ahh, Siena! What’s the big thing they do on the piazza there? I can’t recall!
I will check that out! 5 cups just seemed like so much!
My grandfather came to America from Sicily (Cefalu). This may be something I would like. It sounds really good. I like reading your book reviews.
Oh cool! Locke talks about that town! Let me know if you read it!
Thanks 🙂
This books sounds interesting. I’m actually going to Sicily in September so maybe I should read it before I go!
It would be interesting to read before you go and see if your perception of Sicilian culture is the same as hers! Unless you want to go with an untainted mindset on how it will be, then I’d read it after!
This really does sound like a downer of a book from the basic description. I’m glad it had uplifting parts and things that you connected with.
You weren’t vegan last time you were in Italy, right? Do you think it would make it more difficult now? (That picture of you! “Baby” Kim!)
I told you my friend Kate’s story about having a vacuum in Italy, right?
Right, I was not vegan when I was there! I don’t think it’s hard to eat vegan there – I knew a lot of vegans when I was there before. But I might go vegetarian for that trip so I could enjoy gelato and creamy pasta. Ha.
No! Or I don’t recall! Tell me again!
Such a cute picture! I checked with my mom and she has this book, so I’ll be able to read it when I visit her. She hasn’t read it yet herself.
Awesome!
Does your mom buy a lot of books? I was just thinking about how I used to, but once we packed them up to sell our townhome I never unpacked them – they aren’t even in our house!
She was in “Eureka” if you ever watched that.
I haven’t! I will have to look up what that is.
I wasn’t convinced to read it even after Reese recommended it because I thought it would be sad, but you’ve convinced me to give it a try!
You’re on a memoir roll! You should make July, Memoir July! 😉
It really did not make me feel super sad! I am not sure why! Maybe I am soulless.
Ha! I should! I just saved some Buzzfeed article about top 20 memoirs 😉
FIVE CUPS of basil! Holy cow! I had a basil plant last year, and while I did get one batch of pesto out of it, I don’t think I got five cups of basil off it. It also looked pretty pathetic after I harvested all the leaves I needed, but it grew back (since, you know, that’s what plants do. Ha.)
The book does sound very emotional! I’m surprised I haven’t heard of it – guess I haven’t been keeping up with what’s what on Libby these days.
Right, so was that a typo?! I should compare it to another pesto recipe. It said it serves 6. That is a lot of basil!
Does Libby recommend new reads to you? What are you reading?
It does, though I don’t think it’s based on my past reads so much as it is based on whatever the library thinks would be interesting to highlight (or maybe what Libby thinks would be interesting to highlight?) Like right now it’s highlighting books that have been featured on NPR, Beach Reads, Immigrant Stories, Vegetarian Cookbooks – all sorts of things! I’m still working my way through The Golden Compass (which I started, like…a month and a half ago. Oops), though it just occurred to me that I could listen to the audiobook on my drive home from work today! I never listened to audiobooks (or anything) on the CTA because I didn’t like having headphones in on public transportation from an awareness-of-my-surroundings standpoint, but since I’ll be driving within the suburbs today I could totally listen instead! Then I’ll maybe actually make some progress on it for a change, haha.
That’s cool! Now that I think about it, GoodReads gives me recs based on what I said my interests are; I should broaden it so I see more new stuff!
That would be awesome to listen to audiobooks while you drive! Especially if it helps you finish that. Why do you think it’s taking so long?