World War II Uncles

Today, the news is full of the 70th anniversary of D-Day and rich descriptions of beaches that are overlooked by bluffs covered with white crosses.  It's hard for us to imagine that kind of loss of life, but there are many men headed to France who lived through that day. I, of course, am fascinated by all things French, so I love hearing the stories from the anniversary commemoration.
Two of my uncles fought in World War II, but neither of them were at Normandy 70 years ago.
It seems just a few years ago that I sat on an uncomfortable picnic table videotaping my four uncles (on my mom's side) as they described their military service.
Uncle Junior (that's what we always called him, but his name is Luther) was drafted into the army. He was sent to Italy and was wounded three times. Each time, they sent him back into battle.

Here's a picture of my mom with Uncle Junior last year. 

I'm not a history buff, but as Uncle Junior mentioned each battle he was a part of, Earl's eyes would grow wide. He was wounded at one battle, the Battle of Anzio, but recovered enough to be sent to an even worse battle.
"Out of the frying pan, into the fire," he said.
I'll have to revisit those tapes so I can remember more specifically where Uncle Junior fought.
His stories were part of my inspiration to write the character Uncle Martin in my novel The Summer of France. The only thing they really shared though was fighting in Italy and growing up in Kentucky.
My real uncle came home after the war and married a wonderful American woman.
When Uncle Junior got in the war, he wrote home and warned his brothers to enlist rather than get drafted into the army. So Uncle Clarence, the next oldest brother, joined the Navy. As we talked about war experiences that day, he went to the car and pulled out an envelope that had a large laminated certificate that declared he had crossed the international dateline.
Uncle Clarence died a year and a half ago, but Uncle Junior was at the family reunion again this past Sunday. He's thin but cheerful and always loving.
I'm so thrilled that I've gotten to hear my uncle's stories and share in their lives. They gave a lot for the safety of our world and hopefully, they felt they lived the kind of life they wanted in repayment for their service.

First Paragraph, Teaser Tuesday -- Amalfi Blue

Every Tuesday, Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea posts the first paragraph of her current read. Anyone can join in. Go to Diane's website for the image and share the first paragraph of the current book you are reading.
I started reading Amalfi Blue: lost & found in the south of Italy by Lisa Fantino after a positive recommendation by a friend. I'm not too sure about it yet. See what you think. Here's the intro:

Today is Tuesday April 3, 2012. It's my third day here and it's a bit isolating and lonely. The apartment is lovely and I can stare out my window at yards of lemon and orange groves but I don't know a soul except business contacts.

Also this week is Teaser Tuesdays. Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Open to a random page of your current read and share a teaser sentence from somewhere on that page. BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers.
Here's my teaser from page 62 (42%):

The change in our relationship was palpable. I went to grab him and not let him go and although he hugged back, he gave me one of those Italian kisses on two cheeks, bestowed on everyone, including people they don't like.

What do you think?

The Reluctant Tuscan -- Review

I love featuring a book on my blog and hearing from the author. That's what happened a few weeks ago when I included The Reluctant Tuscan on my First Paragraph, Teaser Tuesday blog. The author, Phil Doran, sent me an email. I had commented that I liked the cover of The Reluctant Tuscan because it reminded me of A Year in Provence and he confirmed that the same artist had created both covers. He also said that John Travolta and Kelly Preston optioned the movie rights to his book, so a movie of The Reluctant Tuscan may be on its way. It's always fun to get the inside scoop from an author.
I finished reading The Reluctant Tuscan and truly enjoyed it. My husband is reading it now. Of course, we have a not-so-secret dream of moving to France once the kids are all out of the house, so we consider the book more of a how-to guide than simply a memoir from someone who made the leap.
The book is written with a lot of humor and insight into the upheaval that comes with embracing a new culture. Doran is a Hollywood writer hesitant to admit that younger writers are getting more bites than he is. Doran's wife sees Hollywood tearing him apart and buys a decrepit house in Tuscany, hoping to convince him to move there and begin enjoying life.
Sometimes I get frustrated at the scenarios that allow people to live their lives in other continents, not worried about jobs and health insurance and raising children, but Doran has no qualms about admitting the financial limitations and his attempts to sell his writing while in Italy. Even while learning that life in Italy is more about living than making a living, Doran nurses some hopes that he can make it big as a writer in Hollywood. He gives some interesting insights into that world as well.
The book made me laugh a lot. The couple rented a house where the heat didn't work so they wore layers of clothing. Then when the heat was turned on, you guessed it, a heat wave came in and they walked around sweating. Things like that are harder to get fixed when dealing with a foreign language and foreign culture.
As a straightforward American, I find it hard to believe that so much finagling goes on while trying to get roads built and houses remodeled. At one point, while trying to hide the fact that their old ruin of a house might be covering a more historic shell built by the Etruscans, they invoke the Sopranos as New York relatives to intimidate the builder. I can't imagine being that ballsy.
Mostly though, I enjoyed getting to feel the culture that surrounded Doran as he slowly unwound from the importance of being a success to the importance of enjoying life.

First Paragraph, Tuesday Teaser -- Dolci di Love

Every Tuesday, Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea posts the first paragraph of her current read. Anyone can join in. Go to Diane's website for the image and share the first paragraph of the current book you are reading.
This is kind of cheating because I finished the book already, but I enjoyed it and wanted to share it with you.
Dolci di Love by Sarah-Kate Lynch (was there ever a less Italian-sounding name?) is about a woman who lives in Manahattan and discovers that her husband has another family hidden in Tuscany. So she travels there and her life changes in some surprising ways. Here's the intro.

Daniel's other woman and two bright-eyed beautiful children were sitting under the insole of his left golf shoe when Lily first found them. They were laminated.

 Also this week is Teaser Tuesdays.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers.
Here's a teaser from Dolci di Love on page 49:

It was the babies' fault. Those smiling, pink-cheeked, plump, sweet-smelling babies with whom she had never been blessed. Their absence had just sapped the pant-peeing happiness right out of her. That's where the laughter had gone.

I enjoyed this book a lot as a summer read, even though it deals with relationships, aging, parenting, disappointment, lots of important issue. I mean, it was set in Tuscany, so what was not to like.

Saturday Snapshot -- Windy Venice Memories

To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post on Alyce's blog At Home With Books. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don’t post random photos that you find online.
Five years ago in the spring, we visited Venice. It was just a day long trip while we waited for the night train to take us to the south of France.

The sky was cloudy and the weather chilly. You can see the clouds scuttling across the sky. We visited San Marco Square and ducked in a cafe for some pizza.

One of the biggest arguments in Venice came when I refused to pay for a gondola ride for Tucker. It cost $90 and I told him he would want to come back with a girlfriend or wife. He shouted and moped. Even today he throws it up in my face. I should have paid the 90 bucks for the experience.

The boys pretended to throw each other off the bridges and shoulted out "No paparazzi" to the passing gondolas.
Who knows if we'll ever go back again as a family, but we'll always have that one day in Venice.

Brilliant Idea or Crazy Scheme?

I'm an idea person. I come up with great plans like adding helium to running shoes or making cars out of rubber so they bounce off each other rather than crashing. I have little follow-through on my ideas though.
Sunday morning, Earl, Grace and I sauntered down to Caribou Coffee. As we sat at an outdoor table, we started talking about Grace's future. Would she go back to her college in upstate New York and major in languages? Would she go to college in Florida and major in marine science? Would she just stay home and go to the local community college until she figured out what she wanted to do?
We had ruled out the return to New York, and completing everything for Florida seemed unlikely at this point.
"You can just stay home this fall," I said. "You can already sign up for the classes that you want."
As we started to walk home, I reminded her she'd need to find a job other than lifeguarding since the pools will close.
I was already dreading Tucker's reaction. He takes Grace's room when she leaves for college.
But we hadn't even walked a block when I said, "Or you could go to France and Italy this fall to stay with our friends. Maybe you could even help Roby take care of her baby or work at cousin Cinzia's ski resort."
This idea seemed brilliant to all three of us!
So what do you think? Should I give this gawky 14-year-old a chance to have some more attractive photos taken in front the Arc de Triomphe?
When I went to France fresh out of college, I returned full of the urge to return to grad school, to get more education, to understand the world better.
Maybe a semester abroad would help Grace figure out what she wanted to do.
If she decides to major in languages then living in France and Italy will only help.
The cost to fly to Europe and stay with friends would be a quarter of the cost for a semester of college.
The more we thought about it, the more brilliant it became.
"Just go to college," Tucker proclaimed when we discussed the idea in front of him. "You're supposed to be in college. Just go and finish."
Well, he had a point. This could put her a semester behind, but she had taken some extra classes at the local community college, plus college credit for a biology trip to the Bahamas, so maybe it would even out. Plus, what is the point of going to college when she doesn't know what she wants to do.
The other worry is that Grace was homesick last year 10 hours away from home. She'll be an 8-hour flight away from home if she goes abroad and not able to make it back for a week-long visit.
She feels sure she won't be homesick, but when I went for three months, I was homesick. I wrote long elaborate letters and ran to the mailbox everyday. I wouldn't have traded that time for the world though.
So far, I've sent out emails to two friends in France who sent their kids over here to stay with us, including Marie's family. She spent five weeks with us the summer between Grace's junior and senior year.
One family has responded already. "Of course!"
They have two children studying in Paris and Grace can stay with them, plus holidays at the family home near Bourges, and any time with them in Nantes.
Earl hasn't contacted the cousins in Italy yet, but I thought I should take a moment and ask for some advice from my wise friends.
Is this a crazy scheme or a brilliant idea?
So, what do you think?

Ambivalent Book Review

I managed to read an entire book this summer, what with all of the work and grading papers and preparing for the French visitor. I like the way Adriana Trigiani writes and I've enjoyed her stories set in Appalachia. Very Valentine is set in New York City and the main character takes a trip to the home country, Italy.
The main character Valentine is 33 and she makes custom shoes with her grandmother. Trigiani has some beautiful description of clothes and shoes in this novel. I guess what separates it from Chick Lit is that she doesn't just drop names of designers, but gives some real details about the clothes and shoes. Valentine's a likable character and her family has a number of idiosyncracies for her to deal with.
The twist in the plot here (spoiler alert) is that while debating the merits of two hunky Italian men, the heroine ends up choosing to be alone in the end and focus on her career. I can understand that the author was trying to show that women don't need men to be happy. I agree, but that's another blog post... The ending just fell a little dead, especially since it was left open that she would always love the American Italian guy, but they were both too busy with their careers. And she would see the Italian guy again in the upcoming year.
The heroine, Valentine, also took a lot of crap from the Italian American guy. He cancelled night after night; he said he'd meet her in Capri(that's right, Italy) then didn't show because of work. And one night she walked in the restaurant he owned and found him with a blonde who was interviewing to be a maitre'd. The two were flirting and touching. Problem was that he had said he was having electrical work done, not interviewing a maitre'd. With each snafu she blamed herself for not being "present" enough for him. In retrospect, that really bugs me. Why do woman always have to take the blame if something is going wrong in a relationship? She even managed to tell him she was sorry, and I was left wondering for what. Sorry I interrupted your date with a blonde? I should have called ahead.
So, even though she took a strong stand at the end, it didn't seem true to her character. I would have liked to see her get mad at the way he treated her instead of ending with an "I'll always love him."
What do you think: do women always blame themselves when a relationship fails?