Under the Tuscan Sun: A Book Review



You will rarely hear these words from me, but I actually prefer the glamorized and more fictional movie of this book over the book.  Yes, it's true. 

I bought this book years ago and then let it go from my bookshelves.  I had somewhat forgotten the book and was excited to be able to review it once more.  As much as I want to enjoy the book, I don't.  I find the author's style of writing is very choppy and almost incoherent at times.  I'd like to have known more about the history of the house.  I'd like to have had a better idea of the Tuscan countryside through her story of the renovation of the house.  Instead, there are bits of this and bits of that and never enough of any one thing to give you a complete picture of the house.  I soon remembered why I let the initial copy of the book go so easily from my shelves.  It was not a wrench to part with it.

I did read the follow up book and found it much easier going and more pleasurable reading than I found this initial book to be. 

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Terri!
Thanks for this review as I've been debating reading that book AND watching the movie. Now, thanks to your review I think I'll skip the book and just enjoy the movie on Netflix some quiet evening! We just cut the cord on our satellite and bought Roku sticks for watching our Netflix and Amazon Prime videos. I can't tell you what a relief it is to not have that $160+ bill each month. We only kept it for Mike to watch sports but he is able to now watch sports via the Roku with a monthly subscription to CBS All Access and Sling. All of these add up to under sixty dollars per month and as there are no contracts if we find we aren't using them we can cancel at any time! A Roku stick cost us $29.99 from Amazon and we were able to receive another Roku stick free as a bonus when we subscribed to Sling (we needed to pay for three months in advance to qualify for the free Roku). The only caveat is that you must have a high speed internet connection to avoid buffering problems (we have a 100mbps 5G wifi which is actually wonderful, even with three of us using it to watch movies etc. at the same time). It is $44 per month, and we were paying that anyway (along with the Direct TV...which I rarely watched). I'm amazed to say that I've watched more television in the past few months than the past year combined! I'm absolutely addicted to the Agatha Christie Poirot series on Netflix and am currently enjoying a BBC mystery series called Bletchley Circle. I reward myself after a busy day with one of these and am a happy camper haha!
Love,
Tracey
xox

susie @ persimmon moon cottage said...

I much preferred the movie to the book also. The movie brought things very much more to life for me. Usually my imagination brings books as much or more to life for me than movies do.

It takes forever for me to clear books out of the house. I get distracted by the need to read through them just one more time to see if there may be some reason I still need to keep the book. My shelves are overflowing.

Dawn said...

I kept debating about reading the book since I loved the movie. You made my decision for me.

Tracey, we have been had Netflix and Amazon prime video for six years. I do not miss the satellite subscription or bill at all. I love the Poirot series too. Death in Paradise is another favorite.

Anonymous said...

I felt the same way about The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough )?) I LOVED the movie, but the book didn't thrill me. That doesn't happen often.

Never saw or read the Tuscan Sun.

Debby in KS

Lana said...

Tracey, Doc Martin is another great series to check out on Netflix.

Anonymous said...

Hi Dawn...so funny that you mention it as I almost watched the Death in Paradise series last night...it is now next on my list! Thank you so much for the recommendation!

Lana, I had forgotten about Doc Martin! We used to watch it on PBS San Diego when visiting with my Dad and we were all so disappointed when they stopped showing it down there! I really appreciate the reminder as we still have several seasons that we haven't seen yet. Thank you! (Now I'm inspired to buy a Roku for my Dad's house so we can watch it together.)

Warmly,
Tracey