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Il Bel Centro
- A Year in the Beautiful Center
- Narrated by: Nicol Zanzarella
- Length: 20 hrs and 4 mins
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Publisher's summary
When Michelle Damiani dreamed of living in Italy, she imagined her family as it was in Virginia - her husband filling every moment with work, her teenage son experimenting with sarcasm, her daughter smiling at the scent of lilacs, her baby-cheeked son methodically clicking Legos together, and herself hovering over the happiness of them all - only surrounded by ancient cobblestone alleys and the sound of ringing Italian. What she didn't know was how Italy would work to change them all.
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A tender gift from far away
- By Barbara on 11-07-07
By: Elif Shafak
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Bonjour, Happiness!
- Secrets to Finding Your Joie de Vivre
- By: Jamie Cat Callan
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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As a young girl, Jamie Cat Callan was fascinated by her French grandmother. Though she had little money, Jamie's grand-mère ate well, dressed well, and took joy in simple, everyday pleasures. As Jamie journeyed through France as an adult, she gained more insight into the differences between French and American women. French women - whether doctors, shop owners, or housewives - don't worry about being thin enough, young enough, or accomplished enough.
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a delight
- By Jan Kovac on 02-28-16
By: Jamie Cat Callan
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Pies and Prejudice
- Charmed Pie Shoppe Mystery Series #1
- By: Ellery Adams
- Narrated by: C. S. E Cooney
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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When the going gets tough, Ella Mae LaFaye bakes pies. So when she catches her husband cheating in New York, she heads back home to Havenwood, Georgia, where she can drown her sorrows in fresh fruit filling and flaky crust. But her pies aren't just delicious. They're having magical effects on the people who eat them, and the public is hungry for more. Discovering her hidden talent for enchantment, Ella Mae makes her own wish come true by opening the Charmed Pie Shoppe.
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A real treat!
- By Christina on 04-08-16
By: Ellery Adams
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Meet Your Baker
- By: Ellie Alexander
- Narrated by: Dina Pearlman
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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After graduating from culinary school, Juliet Capshaw returns to her quaint hometown of Ashland, Oregon, to heal a broken heart and help her mom at the family bakery. The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is bringing in lots of tourists looking for some crumpets to go with their heroic couplets. But when one of Torte's customers turns up dead, there's much ado about murder.
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Fun Culinary Cozy
- By Bookishly on 04-18-18
By: Ellie Alexander
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Notes on a Banana
- A Memoir of Food, Love, and Manic Depression
- By: David Leite
- Narrated by: David Leite
- Length: 11 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Reminiscing about the people and events that shaped him, David looks back at the highs and lows of his life, from his rejection of being gay and his attempt to "turn straight" through Aesthetic Realism, a cult in downtown Manhattan, to becoming a writer, cookbook author, and web publisher, to his 23-year relationship with Alan, known to millions of David's readers and listeners as "The One", which began with (what else?) food.
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Finished it in a day!
- By Kathryn on 08-23-17
By: David Leite
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Bruno's Challenge
- And Other Stories of the French Countryside
- By: Martin Walker
- Narrated by: Robert Ian Mackenzie
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Martin Walker presents his first collection of Bruno stories featuring all the familiar characters from the novels, the glories of the Périgord, and ample helpings of food and wine.
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Outtakes and Ephemera
- By SW Clemens on 03-23-22
By: Martin Walker
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Home Sweet Anywhere
- How We Sold Our House, Created a New Life, and Saw the World
- By: Lynne Martin
- Narrated by: Lynne Martin
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Reunited in love after 35 years and suffering from a serious case of pre-retirement wanderlust, Lynne and Tim Martin made a life-altering decision: They sold their house and possessions and hit the road to live internationally full-time. Now tethered to nothing but their suitcases, each other, and their next exotic location, they've never looked back. From sky-high pyramids in Mexico to monkeys in Marrakech, this delightful, inspiring memoir is a romantic tale of derring-do for grown-ups and a road map for anyone who dreams of turning the idea of life abroad into a reality.
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She makes it sound SO unappealing!
- By Barbara on 05-18-14
By: Lynne Martin
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Language Arts
- By: Stephanie Kallos
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 12 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Charles Marlow is a Seattle English teacher who instructs his students to expand their worlds through language. Lately, however, with one child off to college and the pressure from his ex-wife to make plans for their severely autistic son who's about to age out of the system, he prefers the company of the ghosts he turns up in the storage boxes in his crawl space.
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The beauty of the broken
- By SJ Evans on 04-27-18
By: Stephanie Kallos
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Habibi
- By: Naomi Shihab Nye
- Narrated by: Christina Moore
- Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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For 14-year-old Liyana Abboud, life in St. Louis, Missouri is perfect. She loves shopping in the nearby stores and walking down streets where she knows everyone. Even better, she has just had her first kiss. But her father is moving the family to Jerusalem - the land where he was born. Suddenly Liyana finds herself a stranger in a threatening world.
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Very good Performance
- By Muhammad on 04-07-15
By: Naomi Shihab Nye
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The Lost Carousel of Provence
- By: Juliet Blackwell
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Long, lonely years have passed for the crumbling Château Clement, nestled well beyond the rolling lavender fields and popular tourist attractions of Provence. Once a bustling and dignified ancestral estate, now all that remains is the château's gruff, elderly owner and the softly whispered secrets of generations buried and forgotten. But time has a way of exposing history's dark stains, and when American photographer Cady Drake finds herself drawn to the château and its antique carousel, she longs to explore the relic's shadowy origins.
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Loved It!
- By T Heskett on 09-23-18
By: Juliet Blackwell
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All Four Stars
- All Four Stars, Book 1
- By: Tara Dairman
- Narrated by: Kathleen McInerney
- Length: 6 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Gladys Gatsby has been cooking gourmet dishes since the age of seven, only her fast-food-loving parents have no idea! Now she's 11, and after a crème brûlée accident (just a small fire), Gladys is cut off from the kitchen (and her allowance). She's devastated, but soon finds just the right opportunity to pay her parents back when she's mistakenly contacted to write a restaurant review for one of the largest newspapers in the world.
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Very cute story with great narrator!!
- By TT Mommy on 06-23-23
By: Tara Dairman
What listeners say about Il Bel Centro
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Deb on the Hudson
- 12-18-23
Made me wish for that sort of a life
Interesting enough story, but at some point the endless luscious details and descriptions of food and wine started to overwhelm me. Also, the first 2/3 of the book seem to be the best. The last third of the book seem to veer off frequently into philosophical, theological and introspective discussions that got old pretty quick. I almost didn’t finish the last couple of hours. I would have appreciated and afterword where we might be told how the family adjusted upon their return to the United States. So in that way, it left me unsatisfied.
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- Skerry
- 12-27-21
Fall in love with Spello
As a newly retired woman who has dreamed for decades of moving to Italy, this book cemented encouraged me further. From beginning to end the author seemed to aspire for a real depiction, and not to gloss over the hardships involved. It is obvious that the many rewards of living in Spello far outweighed the obstacles faced to make it happen. How each of the children responded was interesting and heartwarming. I loved that I listened to this book, and didn’t read it, because I learned a bit of beautiful Italian along the way.
I’m seriously considering listening from the beginning once again, and definitely plan to visit Spello on an upcoming trip to Italy. Who knows, we may find a Spello of our own!
Well written, and each day I couldn’t wait to hear more of this sweet family’s adventures.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Melissa L. Thomson
- 04-30-24
Per il sindaco ha parlato: è come pathos.
Sono un’americana che sogna di vívere in Italia ad un certo punto ancora. Mille grazie per la tua onestà nuda. Spello è magico. Proverò coraggiosa con parlare!
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- Old Man Dowler
- 05-11-19
Wonderful book
I loved this book and the narrator did a great job. What a warm and winsome story. I wish I had read/heard this book before we visited Spello.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Debra R. Bush
- 11-26-20
Take me back to Italy
This book caused me to start dreaming again of living in Italy and truly taking my fluency to a higher level
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- Mary Haddox
- 11-21-22
Condescending tone from narrator and author
Would have loved it if it didn’t have so much expat America bashing and annoying end of chapter quips.
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- Lightseeker
- 05-23-23
Unique memoir of a sweet family’s experience abroad
This memoir certainly provides a much appreciated culturally broadening experience through a story shared with vulnerable compassion and much emotion. The author clearly felt she had to push her political stance while leaving out other detail that left the story hanging in parts. The occasional recipe thrown in was fun. Enjoyable read overall.
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- Mark G
- 06-16-20
Extremely light weight on all levels.
Extremely light weight on all levels. Somewhat pleasurable, evoking the silly pretty side of Italy. But, on the whole, pathetic. I could not finish it.
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- Crisitna Tunon
- 11-05-20
Conflicted
Honestly, I’m not sure where I stand with this audio book. I flipped flopped so many times between thinking the writing was bad to thinking it was the narration was the problem. Ultimately, it was probably a little bit of both. I stuck through it because I had never found a autobiography like this where a whole family that moves abroad. Typically, it’s the experience is of a single person or married couple. Overall, her writing is a bit much. She’s repetitive in the description of the food and boy does she love her similes. Some parts were so cheesy that I couldn’t control my eye roll and the not so subtle words that would come out of my mouth. I wouldn’t go out of my way to recommend this to anyone, but I don’t regret sticking it out to the end. It definitely could’ve been like 5 hours shorter, if not more. If you’re feeling like giving it a go, you’ve been warned. It probably won’t be the biggest waste of your time, but also be ready to ask yourself out loud (multiple times) why you’re still listening to it.
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