Customer Reviews

The Dolce Vita Diaries: Stories From an Olive Grove

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I can't believe this book has just 2 reviews. This is the best "moved to a foreign country to start a new life" book I've read. In fact, despite that I love anything that lets me escape to Europe, I didn't like (or even get very far) in books like Under the Tuscan Sun and that genre. This book is different. I read books continuously but rarely find a book I would buy copies of to hand out to friends with a "you must read this" note. There is a lot of wit and warmth in the writing, all the while telling a story of what seems like very hard work to start a new and different life, and a perspective on real Italian life. I loved reading about the reasons for a 5 course lunch, and I'm definitely in the tourist camp of looking for lunch long past the appropriate lunch hour despite a lifetime of trips to Europe and knowing better.

My husband bought this book for my birthday along with adopting and olive tree, and it was one of the best gifts he has given me in that nothing is better than someone else finding a good book for you so you don't have to (who has time?).

Speaking of time, I'm tempted to continue rhapsodizing about the qualities that make this a really fine, memorable, recommendable read, but I need to run. Suffice it to say, this is the first amazon review I've written, I felt compelled to write it to encourage people to read this book.

I bought this book and the tree adoption together as a gift for someone else. It made an excellent gift, and the recipient was very happy and enjoyed both the book and the oil.

She liked the book so much that I bought a Kindle copy for myself. I enjoyed the book, but was disappointed that it didn't have more about the olive trees in it. I was expecting it to be more of a garden memoir -- I wanted to know more about how one rehabs an old olive grove, and what kind of care olive trees require. I'm a big of a gardening geek. However, the parts about adapting to life in Italy were very interesting, and I enjoyed the author's voice. Overall, I rate the book itself in the 3-4 star range.

I read this book on my Kindle 3, and the formatting was very bad. Up to 40%, it was fine, but from that point on, the entire text of the book was centered. This made it distracting to read. Also, there were several typos that seemed like OCR errors. The Kindle formatting is in the 1-2 star range.

I have bought my mom the olive oil these writers sell through adopting an olive tree in Italy. I gave her this book on Mother's Day and she really likes it. I would recommend the tree adoption and this book for any cook who is hard to buy for.