Kelsey first read Pride and Prejudice and Epic Fail immediately afterward.  We went to a special mother-daughter lunch to compare the books and how one reflected on the other.  Interested in nudging a teenager to read a classic?  Pairing these two together, and throwing in a bribe of a special lunch date, is a perfect enticement.

Learn more about Epic Fail by following the blog tour:

Monday, July 25: Sit Here and Read

Tuesday, July 26: Flippin Pages for All Ages

Wednesday, July 27: Books Complete Me

Thursday, July 28: Alison Can Read

Friday, July 29: Mundie Moms

Monday, August 1: CA Marshall

Go Buy the Book Day!  Tuesday, August 2: Alison Can Read

Wednesday, August 3: Only Sexy Books Allowed

Friday, August 5: A Good Addiction

One of my favorite summer reads as a child was Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.  I counted down the summers until Kelsey finished 5th grade, the same age I read Little Women, then bought a beautiful illustrated volume and read one chapter a night to her.  I envisioned a lovely summer full of evenings following the March sisters through their adventures.  The third day in, Kelsey picked up the book and read for two days straight.  She wasn’t about to string out the story.

As I’ve written before, it can be hard for readers to enjoy classics if they are used to fast-paced plot driven books.  Accompanying a classic with an associated current book can ease the transition from one style of writing to another.  I love Little Women for a family book group because there are enjoyable related books which can add to the discussion.

For young adult readers of all ages, The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott by Kelly O’Connor McNees is a fictional love story between Louisa and the local hunk.  The reader cheers for the couple and wishes for Louisa to have it all, a marriage and a writing career.  Unfortunately, that was unheard of in 1855.  Moreover, Alcott family’s destitute life demonstrated what happens in a world where women don’t work for pay and the ‘man of the house’ refuses to provide for his loved ones.  It’s a charming story that reminds us to be grateful for women’s rights.  The Lost Summer could be read either before or after Little Women, but is probably more meaningful if read second.

For the middle reader set, The Mother-Daughter Book Club books entwines a classic with the lives of the four girls that comprise the club and their respective parent.  The first book follows Little Women as the group forms and eventually gels.  These four middle schoolers are vastly different, and some don’t even like others, which adds an element of real life adolescent girlhood.  But they eventually see each other for their true selves, not just their middle school images.  The plot includes humorous and touching moments with an enjoyable fairy tale ending.  This book could easily be read before Little Women and serve as an incentive to read it.

Mix reading Little Women with The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott for adults and young adults or with The Mother-Daughter Book Club for middle age readers.  Set aside a time or two to discuss the books and how they play off of one another.  Make sure to add some treats for munching.   Finish with a summer movie night watching the classic Katherine Hepburn “Little Women” or one of the more modern versions.

A family book group can demonstrate to your kids that reading is actively fun.  Enjoy!

I’m counting the days to this event!

Watch for a seismic shift in the literary landscape of Southern California next month.  No, it won’t be an earthquake, it’s the inaugural Beverly Hills Literary Escape, a unique weekend for literati.  This isn’t another festival where the attendee sits in the audience listening to a panel of authors and a moderator and then line up for a few Q & A, here the goal is for everyone to mingle and have conversations.  The organizers, Julie Robinson and Tyson Cornell, are striving to create an European cafe culture and Algonquin Round Table atmosphere of give-and-take between authors and readers.  Here’s the schedule:

I’m in a terrible choice bind about which events to choose for the lunches and afternoon lectures.  I can tell you this, I’ve never met a woman who hasn’t fallen in love with Lynn Batten after hearing him talk about Jane Austen.  I recommended both Ethan Canin and Susan Straight before and would love to hear them speak, but that could mean downgrading my groupie status with Lynn.   What could be better than having lemon cake with Aimee Bender, yet one of my favorite books this summer was Gin Phillips’ The Well and the Mine (if you liked The Help, run to the store to get The Well and the Mine).  I’ll be wallowing in the torture of deciding for awhile.

Two events are free:  An evening with Colum McCann author of Let the Great World Spin where he will receive the first Medici Book Club Prize (more on that in a future post) and a discussion with Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for Stone. The prices for the remaining events vary and there are passes for multiple events. (Click here to purchase tickets.)  Readers of Bookstore People are entitled to purchase the lowest price passes and tickets for conversations by using the discount code LITERARY. There will be one private VIP event, a coffee with Joseph O’Neill, author of Netherland, on October 15th.  We have one ticket to the O’Neill coffee to giveaway, just leave a comment that you want it by 11:59 October 7th and we will pick the winner.

It looks like a spectacular event, don’t miss it!

Disclosure:  Kim is a Medici Founding Patron

As part of Penguin’s ongoing 75th anniversary celebrations, Penguin Classics named 10 Essential Classics that every well read person should experience.  If someone was to only read ten classics in his or her lifetime, Penguin recommends these:  Inferno, Walden, Oedipus Rex, Metamorphosis, Moby Dick, Hamlet, The Odyssey, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, and Of Mice and Men. There is a video for each selection, complete with an example of what happens on a first date to the man who hasn’t read one of the ten essentials.  How many have you read?  I bought six, I’ve read five, and could probably participate in a conversation about the other five.  In the right situation, I would read them.  If I were to tackle Inferno or The Odyssey, I’d like to join a group or class, I think I would get more out it.

Many are unhappy with Penguin’s selections.  Where’s Tolstoy?  Dostoevsky?  Dickens?  Joyce?  Franzen?  (Okay, I put that in there for humor, he’s not dead enough.)  Penguin is giving all us the chance to choose our own ten essentials.  This isn’t a mad free-for-all though, Penguin provides a list of 100 books (some of which wouldn’t make my top 100 classics, but they didn’t ask me) and everyone gets to choose ten.  No worries, you’ll find enough terrific classics.  Plus, there’s a prize, three people get a tote bag and three Penguin Classic Deluxe Editions.  So, what’s to lose?   Head over and vote for your favorites before November 1st.

Pairing modern books with classics casts a new light on both works.  I thought of this again after reading The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott by Kelly O’Connor McNees. It would be fun to read with Little Woman, it casts the Jo and Laurie story in a new light while also emphasizing the choices Jo, and Louisa had to make.

My favorite recommendation is to read The Great Gatsby, then The Double Bind by Chris Bohjolian and/or Netherland by Joseph O’Neill.  The Double Bind plays with the plot of The Great Gatsby; the main character in Bohjolian’s book meets the Gatsby characters and discusses their post-novel life.  Then, the book ends with a blindsiding kicker.  Netherland is often referred to as the “new” Gatsby because it deals with a similar underlying theme of achieving the American dream, whether it is possible, and at what cost.

Reading a book that updates a classic for a current audience adds meaning to both works.  Philip Roth’s Everyman is a modern re-telling of The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy.  Both books reflect their authors; the scene with the main character flirting with the woman runner on the beach is pure Roth.  Lovers of Tolstoy would pick up on his style within the first few paragraphs of Ivan Ilyich.  The similarities in the views of two aging writers who are, shall we say extremely self-confident, are thought and discussion provoking.  These books can be read in any order, but I found I understood Tolstoy’s book better having read Roth’s first.

Switching to the other end of the age spectrum, Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld gives a 21^st century female take on The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger.  Many readers are familiar with Salinger’s classic since it is on most middle school reading lists, but it felt different reading it as an adult after Prep.  As with many pairings, one of the takeaways is ‘nothing is new under the sun,’ the facts and circumstances change but the themes resonant over the decades.

For the truly ambitious, War and Peace inspired portions of The Emperor’s Children by Claire Messud.  The opening scene in both books is a snapshot of high society.  As a modern novel, Messud doesn’t try to give every perspective of a period in time as Tolstoy attempts, but she still provides a sweeping panorama of New York literary life.  I liked Messud’s book much better after reading War and Peace, I recommend tackling Tolstoy before Messud.

Finally, a four book bonanza: The House on Fortune Street by Margot Livesey boldly declares a literary godparent for each of the four main characters.  As Keats was an observer of life, so Sean watches and reacts to circumstances.  Admiration for Lewis Carroll and Alice in Wonderland helps the reader sympathize with Cameron.  The plot of Jane Eyre is directly quoted in Dara’s life.  Abigail is Estella from Great Expectations.  Reading each of these source books adds tremendous depth to the meaning and style of Fortune Street. I read Great Expectations right before Fortune Street, remembered Alice as I read it, and went back to Keats poetry after finishing the book.  As for Jane Eyre, I’ll re-read it again to better empathize with Dara’s decisions.

These are the Books I Give for Every Baby Shower or Birth

I first heard of Mrs. Nelson’s Toy & Book Shop when it won the Parnell Award last year.  The Parnell Award is given to bookstores that excel in promoting books to young people.  After stopping by last month, it’s clear why they won.  The store is stocked with great books and toys for newborns to YA readers.  I enjoyed walking through the picture book section, it brought back memories of wonderful hours spent reading to my kids. I noticed that since my kids have passed this stage, I tend to gravitate toward the books that were our favorites rather than explore any new books.  So I’ll use this platform to pitch my two favorite children’s books, the ones I give at every baby shower:  Time for Bed by Mem Fox, illustrated by Jane Dyer and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr., John Archambault and Louis Ehlert.

Time for Bed is a story of parent animals lulling their babies to sleep.  The singsong rhyme was perfect for calming down my sleepy, but squirrelly, toddlers.  Although primarily a bedtime book, we read it all through the day.  Each page gave me the opportunity to weave in animal noises for more rousing readings.  Between the stunning illustrations (I bought every book illustrated by Jane Dyer after this one) and the fun rhymes, neither my kids or their incredibly wonderful parents (somebody needs to say it) tired of reading it.

I can still recite most of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. Oddly enough, what I tend to forget is the title.  Several times I have asked a bookseller, do you have “A told B and B told C, I’ll meet you at the top of the coconut tree?” and the bookseller knew exactly what I was looking for.  This rhyme is addictive for reader and listener alike.  I’m not a performer, but with this book, we had all kinds of fun yelling “wheeee” and bopping up and down with the beat.  For over a year, my son wanted this book read to him first thing every morning, even before he wanted out of his crib.

After my walk down memory lane, I noticed the fun toys at Mrs. Nelson’s that were new to me.  Most striking was the Schleich series of figurine animals, castles and imaginary creatures.   The way my husband drooled over the display case, I figured we saved a year of college education remaining ignorant of these lovely toys.

Fantastic YA Section

Since Kelsey was with us, we played ‘stump the bookseller’ to see if she could suggest a YA book Kelsey hadn’t already read.  We found several new choices.  After some mother-daughter negotiations over which books I was willing to pay for and which books Kelsey would have to pay for from her allowance (I don’t pay for the new book in the latest series that has caught her fancy, the most recent ones having to do with female spies), we walked out with a stack of books.  I paid for Anne of Avonlea (always encourage the classics), The Omnivore’s Dilemma – The Young Readers Edition by Michael Pollan (I already quote from the original one that I never read, so maybe reading this one will at least get me part way there) and Fat Cat by Robin Brande.  Fat Cat interested Kelsey after hearing how much the bookseller loved it.  Kelsey checked out from life while she was reading it and awarded it her highest honor “Best Book EVER” (note in the teenage world, best doesn’t imply singular).

I loved how Mrs. Nelson’s is geared toward kids but comfortable for adults – not full of too small chairs and not a mess.  The vibrant author and event schedule is impressive.  If you’re in the area (or if you’re wanting to travel a fun part of historic 66, it’s close by), stop in and enjoy.

Mrs. Nelson’s Toy & Book Shop

1030 Bonita Ave.

LaVerne, CA 91750

T:  909.599.4558

My mother can still recite secctions of Green Eggs and Ham because she read it to me so many times when I was young.  I don’t remember that as much, but the phrase “I don’t like green eggs and ham” was a constant refrain in my childhood. Someone in the family said in response to something unpleasant.  Brussel sprouts comes to mind.  As an adult, attending a fancy dinner party when someone turned up his nose at the latest, fancy food concoction, I reacted with “I don’t like green eggs and ham.”  The response was smile, we all understand Sam-I-am.

A lawyer down the hall from me during my early law associate years collected Dr. Seuss books.  Without having any children of his own, he signed up for the monthly mailing of two new book and had them delivered to the office.  I loved them.  More than once after a long day when it felt like everyone in the world was already home, I snuck into his office, pulled a brightly colored book off of his shelf, and rhymed my way through a personal pity party.  It’s hard to mope when The Cat in the Hat is your companion.

When my son was born, I signed up for the requisite monthly delivery.  I had no idea there were so many Dr. Seuss books!  And who was P.D. Eastman anyway?  When reading to a toddler,The Cat in the Hat is the longest book imaginable.  The whole time I’m wondering why the mother left the kids alone, a thought that never once occurred to me before having my own child.  We spent lots of time with The Foot Book (perfect for playing with babies), Hop on Pop, and One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish (Keith even has the tie), but the family favorite is Go Dog Go. We love the dog party at the end.  Added to our family-isms is “do you like my hat?”  Believe me, now that we have a teenage fashionista in the house, we have lots of opportunities to say it.

Dr. Seuss didn’t leave me in the lurch now that I’m a full fledged adult.  In honor of his 82nd birthday, many years ago, he wrote You’re Only Old Once!, a book to accompany me through and help me laugh at my adult years.

Not too long ago, I would have known today was Dr. Seuss’s birthday far in advance.  My kids’ elementary school would have sent out a notice that today was crazy hat day in honor of Theodore Geisel’s special day.  We’d arrive at school and many of the teachers would be wearing Cat in the Hat hats.  No so much for middle school and high school.  For the next two or three decades, I’ll hear about Dr.  Seuss’s birthday on the likes of twitter and I’ll smile.  But when my kids have kids, I can’t wait to arrive at the hospital with The Foot Book in one hand and my grandchild in another and start the cycle all over again.

Kim gets news before I do.  So she shot me an email a few minutes ago, to tell me that JD Salinger had just died.  I’ve said to her in the past that his Nine Stories is probably my favorite book in the whole world, so she asked me if I wanted to write something about him, and maybe include my reasons for loving that book so much, since she didn’t have the same passion for it.  Salinger isn’t about Catcher in the Rye for me, I should be clear on that.  I read it once, didn’t like it, haven’t reread it.  But Nine Stories . . .

Best. Book. Ever.

How do you tell someone why a book gets to you on some deep emotional level?  It’s something both Kim and I have struggled with, I think, as we’ve written this blog and also tried to persuade each other to read certain books.  She loves Atonement; I couldn’t finish it (not because I didn’t like it, but because it was clearly going to be about someone making a false accusation and ruining someone’s life and I can’t bear that kind of a story.  The writing was beautiful).  Anyway, she tried to convince me to finish that and I never did.  So how can I convey to her how Nine Stories is more than just a collection of words to me?

It’s one of the books that made me want to be a writer, I know that much.  And I know that every time I write a patch of dialogue that feels real to me (not as often as I’d like), I think about JD Salinger and how no one has ever written more realistic dialogue, dialogue which sounds like what people might actually say–but resonates in ways that stay with you for a long time.

And then there’s the Glass family.  Or should I say, first and foremost, there’s the Glass family, who are more real to me than most of the people I know.  Seymour and Buddy and the twins and Franny and Zooey and Boo Boo.  Did I leave anyone out?  Probably.  They weave in and out of Nine Stories, sometimes front and center (“A Perfect Day for Bananafish”) sometimes off to the side but still influential (“Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut”).

Oh, god.   “Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut.”  What woman can read that story and not weep for what she thought her life was going to be as opposed to what it is?  In that story, Eloise remember being in love with Walt Glass (who died during the war) and then looks at her life now, married to a guy who’s nowhere near as sensitive or smart as Walt was.  Miserable, drunk, disgusted with what she’s become, she is suddenly, savagely cruel to her own daughter.  And then she says to her friend, desperately, tragically, “I was a nice girl . . .  wasn’t I?”

Well, now I’m crying.  Salinger has that affect on me.  Seven words, that’s all it took.  Seven words–something someone might actually say–and an entire tragic life is summed up, right there.

Then there’s “For Esme–with Love and Squalor.”  All the horrors of war and how it can destroy a man’s soul–and the redemption a small, intelligent, and loving little girl can offer.  There isn’t a drop of sentimentality in this story.  Just the sense that there’s still something decent in the world, despite all evidence at times to the contrary.  We’re never told who the soldier in the story is.  I suspect it’s Walt Glass.  If anyone knows otherwise, let me know.  I haven’t studied Salinger in school ever, just read him on my own and I’m doing this mostly from memory, so I may have some “facts” wrong.

Not all the nine stories are about the Glass family but (in my opinion) the best ones are.  Why do I love the Glass family so much?  They’re brilliant.  They’re half-Jewish, half-Irish.  They’re a big, loving family and they all talk too much.  They look out for each other, the older ones advising and hectoring the younger ones, but they’re also desperately alone at times.

When I was in high school, my best friend compared my family to the Glass family.  We’re not really like them–they’re twice as large and brilliant.   But I think I did relate to the Glasses on some personal level because I came from a big noisy moderately intellectual family. And when I read Franny and Zooey, the way the big brother abuses, insults, and nurtures his little sister felt so right to me–so much the way my own big brother treated me (and my son now treats his little sister)–that I compulsively read and reread the second half of that book for years.

This passage from “Franny and Zooey” gets to me like nothing else: the little sister has been “playing Camille” as her brother puts it, not eating and compulsively reciting prayers in some sort of twenty-year-old’s search for spirituality.  Their mother (Bessie) is worried about her and has been trying to take care of her.  And her brother makes this speech:

“You don’t even have sense enough to drink when somebody brings you a cup of consecrated chicken soup–which is the only kind of chicken soup Bessie ever brings to anybody around this madhouse.  So just tell me, just tell me, buddy.  Even if you went out and searched the whole world for a master–some guru, some holy man, to tell you how to say your Jesus prayer properly, what good would it do you?  How in hell are you going to recognize a legitimate holy man when you see one if you don’t even know a cup of consecrated chicken soup when it’s right in front of your nose?”

And that’s why I love JD Salinger.

I had something amazing happen in the shop last week….  I found a leather-bound copy of the Collected Works of Thoreau at a thrift store and put it in the window of my shop.  Some guy came in the store and was having coffee when a young woman came in and said she wanted to buy the Thoreau book but didn’t have any money today.  She wanted to know if I would hold it for her until the next day, which was no problem.  After she left, the man came up to the counter with the book in his hands and said he wanted to buy it for the young woman so she would be surprised the next day.  I asked him what I should do if she didn’t come back for it.  He said to give it to the next person who inquired about it.  Well, the young woman didn’t come back, and on the 4th day, I put it back in the window.  A young man came in with a dark cloud over his head, and asked about the Thoreau book.  I told him he was welcome to take it, as it had been bought as a gift by a previous customer.  He was so shocked!  He told me that he’d just gotten back to the States after spending a year in Peru with Patch Adams, painting/repairing some slums in a town along the Amazon River, and when he returned to the States, he was distressed at our wealth and how we seemed not to appreciate it.  And then he was given this book by a complete stranger.  He was so thankful and wrote a note to the man (who remained nameless).  I was so very honored to witness this.  It’s all about community, isn’t it?

Yes it is all about community!

If you have any bookstore stories you’d like to share, please tell us!

Fiction

This year our family vacation was in Italy.  All aspects of the trip were terrific from the anticipation, to the beautiful art everywhere you look, the food, the people, the lifestyle, and the reading.  We all read “Italian” books while we were there.  Idlewild Books helped pick out many of our reads through their Destination Kit service and others I found on my own.  Here’s a snapshot of what we read on the trains, planes, automobiles, and boats:

Portofino:  A Novel, by Frank Schaeffer – A novel from the viewpoint of a tweener son of an evangelistic missionary family about their summers in Portofino.  My 15 year old son thought it was too over the top.  My 12 year old daughter loved it so much she practically has it memorized from re-reading.  (I’ve promised her that I will buy her the other two in the trilogy.)  I rarely laugh so hard reading a book, in fact I mortified my kids in the Rome airport because I couldn’t breathe and almost fell out of my chair laughing about the Witnessing Walnut.  I don’t know if people who aren’t Protestants with a slew of pastors and missionaries in their family will find it so funny.  This book was recommended to me by the owner of Between the Covers in Bend, OR and she was spot on.

Room with a View, by E.M. Forster – The quintessential novel of Florence, some people use it as travel guide.  I read the book right before arriving in Florence and then re-read the Florence part on the way home.  Of course the writing and story is terrific, but it was extra fun visualizing where the characters were walking and visiting.  I’ll always associate Santa Croce with the book and Giotto’s frescoes.

Pompeii, by Robert Harris – A perfect read before a day trip to Pompeii, the major historical facts are present along with enough story line and aqueduct information to make it a fun read.  Both my husband and I enjoyed it.

Imperium, by Robert Harris – A novel of Cicero and ancient Rome.  My husband read this book before we arrived in Rome and was able to tell us some fun facts as we toured the Forum area.

The Agony and the Ecstasy, by Irving Stone – The fictionalized biography of Michelangelo and his struggle to complete the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.  I read this after I returned from Italy twenty years ago, my son read it as we were traveling to Rome.  It’s long, he mentioned that hundreds of times.  He also avidly read it and didn’t complain near as much as I thought he would.  Between my historical knowledge of Michelangelo and his recent reading of The Agony and the Ecstasy, we had a lot of Michelangelo discussions as we viewed his art.

Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio, by Amara Lakhous, Moscardino, by Enrico Pea, and Pinocchio, by Carlo Collodi – All of these books were written in Italian, we’ve talked about them in our Translated Tuesday summer series.  Reading books by authors from Italy gave a closer view of the culture.  I thought of Clash several times in Rome, a villa I visited in the countryside reminded me of the family home in Moscardino and my daughter and I were so glad we read the true Pinocchio when we saw the puppets all over Venice.

Non-Fiction

La Bella Figura, by Beppe Severgnini – A series of essays on the modern Italian.  This was a stretch for my 12 year old daughter, it’s probably her first “adult” read, but she read to me some very funny parts as we sat around waiting (which is always a big part of traveling).  My son loved it and laughed over and over again.  The parts I read were true but funny.  I still don’t understand why having cappuccino after 11AM is such a big deal.

Lives of the Artists, by Giorgio Vasari - The first art history book full of 500 year old gossip that is just as fun to read now as then (although much of it untrue).  I’ll be doing a separate review of the book for the Art History Challenge soon. 

A Journey Into Michelangelo’s Rome, by Angela K. Nickerson - Nice, brief overviews of the Michelangelo’s work in Rome (there’s more than I thought) that I learned about on A Traveler’s Library. I’ll be doing a separate review of this book for the Art History Challenge soon.

The Stones of Florence, by Mary McCarthy – Observations about Florence and it’s history written about 50 years ago.  I enjoyed this book, but the author assumes the reader knows Florence/Medici/Michelangelo history because it isn’t explained, just referenced.  I think it’s a book that should be read while you are there or have just left because it references so many sites and it helps to visualize them.  This is a bit more serious read but is highly worth it.

The Prince, by Niccolo Machiavelli – The Renaissance political theory book.  We heard Machiavelli referenced so many times that finally my son asked for it.  I’m always happy to hunt for a book, even a book in English in an Italian country.  He read it very carefully and agreed that it’s a book that should be re-read multiple times to fully understand.  It’s one of the two books we bought in Italy; books are far more expensive in Italy than the US.

Manifico:  The Brilliant Life and Violent Times of Lorenzo de’ Medici, by Miles J. Unger – A recent biography of Lorenzo that I grew impatient with as a I read, but I think most biographies are too long, but very much appreciated when I was in Florence.  It gives a solid background in Florentine political intrigue (which makes Washington look like childsplay, in Florence they killed their opponents) along with the literature, religion and art of the time.  My first thought when I entered the Duomo was “where was Giuliano killed and through which doors did Lorenzo flee?”  This book gives background to understanding the Medici popes who were so importance to Renaissance Art.

The Secrets of Rome, by Corrado Augias – A series of essays about people, places and events that transformed Rome.  My husband read this book and then shared with us the upshot of each of the essays from Julius Caesar to Caravaggio.  We decided to go see the Caravaggios at Santa Maria del Popolo and asked a cab driver to take us to the church.  He said “oh Angels and Demons!”  We said “no, Carravagio!”  He then proceeded to tell us of the other places to find Caravaggios in Rome.  Romans love their city.  The essays sound fascinating, I’m looking forward to reading them even though we’re home because while I’m glad we’re home, I really miss Italy, a lot.