Under the Tuscan Sun
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Narrated by:
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Frances Mayes
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By:
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Frances Mayes
About this listen
Number-one New York Times best seller
The beloved memoir of self-discovery set against the spectacular Tuscan countryside that inspired the major motion picture starring Diane Lane - now in a 20th-anniversary edition featuring a new afterword
“This beautifully written memoir about taking chances, living in Italy, loving a house and, always, the pleasures of food, would make a perfect gift for a loved one. But it’s so delicious, read it first yourself.” (USA Today)
For more Frances Mayes, including a tour of her now iconic Cortona home, Bramasole, watch PBS’ Dream of Italy: Tuscan Sun Special!
More than 20 years ago, Frances Mayes - widely published poet, gourmet cook, and travel writer - introduced readers to a wondrous new world when she bought and restored an abandoned Tuscan villa called Bramasole. Under the Tuscan Sun inspired generations to embark on their own journeys - whether that be flying to a foreign country in search of themselves, savoring one of the book’s dozens of delicious seasonal recipes, or simply being transported by Mayes’ signature evocative, sensory language. Now with a new afterword from Frances Mayes, the 20th-anniversary edition of Under the Tuscan Sun revisits the book’s most popular characters.
©1998 Frances Mayes (P)1998 Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, Bantam Doubleday Dell, A Division of Random House Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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"An intense celebration of what [Mayes] calls 'the voluptuousness of Italian life'...appealing and very vivid." (The New York Times Book Review)
"Irresistible...a sensuous book for a sensuous countryside." (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)
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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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Little Heathens
- Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression
- By: Mildred Armstrong Kalish
- Narrated by: Ruth Ann Phimister
- Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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As foreclosure fragments her family, five-year-old Mildred and her three siblings find refuge with her grandparents enjoying a modest retirement. When the "little heathens" flush the seniors and their child-rearing skills out of retirement, the grandparents deploy tough but loving bedtime schedules, Bible and prayer routines, and plenty of character-building chores. Having no electricity or indoor plumbing and with little heat or money on the farm, Mildred learns to find joy in the priceless blessings of life.
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Makes you appreciate today's living
- By Susan on 03-11-11
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Angelina's Bachelors
- A Novel, with Food
- By: Brian O'Reilly
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Far too young to be a widow, Angelina D’Angelo suddenly finds herself facing a life without her beloved husband, Frank. Late one night shortly after the funeral, she makes her way down to the kitchen and pours all of her grief and anger into the only outlet she has left - her passion for cooking.
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A Mouthwatering Comfort Listen
- By Blee Medel on 01-30-12
By: Brian O'Reilly
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Death al Dente
- Food Lovers' Village Mystery Series, Book 1
- By: Leslie Budewitz
- Narrated by: Rebecca Mitchell
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
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The town of Jewel Bay, Montana - known as a Food Lovers' Village - is obsessed with homegrown and homemade Montana fare. So when Erin Murphy takes over her family's century-old general store, she turns it into a boutique market filled with local delicacies. But Erin's freshly booming business might go rotten when a former employee turns up dead.
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Four and a half stars
- By Beatrice on 05-01-17
By: Leslie Budewitz
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At Home in the World
- Reflections on Belonging While Wandering the Globe
- By: Tsh Oxenreider
- Narrated by: Tsh Oxenreider
- Length: 7 hrs and 17 mins
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As Tsh Oxenreider, author of Notes from a Blue Bike, chronicles her family's adventure around the world. Seeing, smelling, and tasting the widely varying cultures along the way, she discovers what it truly means to be at home.
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Having traveled the world as a kid myself.....
- By kmk on 07-31-17
By: Tsh Oxenreider
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Farm City
- The Education of an Urban Farmer
- By: Novella Carpenter
- Narrated by: Karen White
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
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Novella Carpenter loves cities - the culture, the crowds, the energy. At the same time, she can't shake the fact that she is the daughter of two back-to-the-land hippies who taught her to love nature and eat vegetables. Ambivalent about repeating her parents' disastrous mistakes, yet drawn to the idea of backyard self-sufficiency, Carpenter decided that it might be possible to have it both ways.
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Hmmm.
- By THoward on 09-30-09
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The Bucolic Plague
- How Two Manhattanites Became Gentlemen Farmers: An Unconventional Memoir
- By: Josh Kilmer-Purcell
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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A happy series of accidents and a doughnut-laden escape upstate take Josh Kilmer-Purcell and his partner, Brent Ridge, to the doorstep of the magnificent (and fabulously for sale) Beekman Mansion. And so begins their transformation from uptight urbanites into the 200-year-old-mansion-owning Beekman Boys. Suddenly Josh---a full-time New Yorker with a successful advertising career---and Brent find themselves weekend farmers, surrounded by nature's bounty and an eclectic cast.
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Selling your dream and name dropping
- By Mark on 09-13-12
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Recipes for Love and Murder
- A Tannie Maria Mystery
- By: Sally Andrew
- Narrated by: Sandra Prinsloo
- Length: 11 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Tannie Maria (Tannie meaning Auntie, the respectful Afrikaans address for a woman older than you) is a middle-aged widow who likes to cook - and eat. She shares her culinary love as a recipe columnist for the local paper - until The Gazette decides its readers are hungrier for advice on matters of the heart rather than ideas for lunch and dinner. Tannie Maria doesn't like the change but soon discovers she has a knack - and a passion - for helping people.
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Love this series!
- By Heather on 01-02-23
By: Sally Andrew
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Black Dog of Fate
- A Memoir
- By: Peter Balakian
- Narrated by: Peter Balakian
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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The first-born son of his generation, Peter Balakian grew up in a close, extended family, sheltered by 1950s and '60s New Jersey suburbia. He was immersed in an all-American boyhood defined by rock 'n' roll, adolescent pranks, and a passion for the New York Yankees that he shared with his beloved grandmother. But beneath this sunny world lay the dark specter of the trauma his family and ancestors had experienced: the Turkish government's extermination of more than a million Armenians.
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Great book!
- By Lm on 06-27-13
By: Peter Balakian
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Out of Line
- A Life of Playing with Fire
- By: Barbara Lynch
- Narrated by: Christina Delaine
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Out of Line describes Lynch's remarkable process of self-invention, including her encounters with colorful characters of the food world, and vividly evokes the magic of creation in the kitchen. It is also a love letter to South Boston and its vanishing culture, governed by Irish Catholic mothers and its own code of honor. Through her story, Lynch explores how the past - both what we strive to escape from and what we remain true to - can strengthen and expand who we are.
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Hardheaded, arrogant, profane.
- By Minneapolis listener on 10-26-22
By: Barbara Lynch
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A story that is not for our time
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Audiobook version muffled
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An Inner Journey within an External One
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Travelers Guide
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In the 10 years since its electrifying debut, Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love has become a worldwide phenomenon, empowering millions of readers to set out on paths they never thought possible, in search of their own best selves. Here, in this candid and captivating collection, nearly 50 of those readers - people as diverse in their experiences as they are in age and background - share their stories. The journeys they recount are transformative - sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking, but always deeply inspiring.
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Basically Fan Mail with Sharing
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Italy, 1945. "Where am I"? The young man wakes, bewildered. He sees olive trees against a bright blue sky. A soft voice soothes him. "We saw you fall from your plane. The parachute saved you". He remembers nothing of his life, or the war that has torn the world apart...but where does he belong? England, present day. Antique-shop-owner Susannah wipes away a tear as she tidies her grandmother’s belongings. Elsie’s memories are fading, and every day Susannah feels further away from her only remaining family.
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Well told story.
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Summer in Tuscany
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Gemma Jericho is an overworked New York doctor with a handful of a teenaged daughter and a mother who worries that Gemma has no life. So when her mother receives a mysterious letter telling her about an even more mysterious inheritance in Tuscany, Gemma sees her chance. The three of them throw caution and convention to the wind and leave for Italy.
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Don't be fooled.
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Swan
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In her celebrated memoirs of life in Tuscany, Frances Mayes writes masterfully about people in a powerful and shaping place. In Swan, her first novel, she has created an equally intimate world, rich with striking characters and intriguing twists of fate, that hearkens back to her southern roots.
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An easy to read delight. Funny to me because I was raised in a small town,
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A Year in the World
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A Year in the World is vintage Frances Mayes, a celebration of the allure of travel, of serendipitous pleasures found in unlikely locales, of memory woven into the present, and of a joyous sense of quest. An ideal travel companion, Frances Mayes brings to the page the curiosity of an intrepid explorer, remarkable insights into the wonder of the everyday, and a compelling narrative style that entertains as it informs.
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Enjoyable escape (mostly)
- By Sonia on 10-30-06
By: Frances Mayes
What listeners say about Under the Tuscan Sun
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Analee Allport
- 06-05-10
Sadly disappointed
This is a horrible thing to say...
I watched the movie and had an image of Frances Mayes in my head. I loved the movie, I fantasized that it could be my life, I had a romanticized view of her. Then I started to listen to the book and her voice totally ruined it. I imagined a soft, non-accented voice and the voice talking to me was completely not that voice.
Like I said, it's a horrible thing to say, but I decided to buy the paper version of the book and just read it instead
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37 people found this helpful
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- Pearl
- 10-03-16
The Movie was much better
I enjoyed the story in this movie and hoped the book would have additional enjoyable adventures. Unfortunately I found the opposite. The story seemed disconnected and didn't flow as well as the movie. I guess this is the down fall of seeing the movie first.
In any case the most problematic concern was the narrator's voice. Ms. Mayes should have opted for someone else to narrate. Ms. Mayes' soft southern drawl didn't seem natural and was very distracting.
I had to give up on this one, it was too painful to listen to.
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- Kathy A. Minnich
- 03-20-20
Might Have Been Good, but . . .
The narrator's voice was so inappropriate
For this story! Yikes! It might have been a good story if I could have got past thaT SILLY Southern accent.
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- whitney
- 02-22-23
Good story but needs different narrator
I understand she wrote the book, but the author should just stick to writing. Would’ve been a better experience.
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- Amiélle
- 03-16-16
Her Voice
Would you try another book from Frances Mayes and/or Frances Mayes?
I would as the story itself is lovely.
Any additional comments?
The narrators voice is like nails down a chalk board. I love this book but I simple cannot listen to her.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Elizabeth Arndt
- 01-13-20
Pretty Good. Worth it
When I first started listening to this book I almost stopped and didn’t finish it. Honestly the author and narrator’s voice was too much for me. Almost a higher mono tone with no emotion. I thought there is no way I’m going to be able to enjoy the book. Also the beginning just starts. I felt like I missed a chapter or an introduction or something. I even restarted it because of the abruptness if it. But I didn’t
I figured I’d just tough it out and by a few chapters in I got “used to” her voice enough to enjoy the story and catch on for how it started.
Overall the story is really good. There are some parts that I noticed I “spaced out” during as I feel it’s rambling on but it’s definitely 4 star quality.
After finishing the book I watched the movie. There are some similarities but the differences are way more obvious. You could almost mistake them as being not the same. I Rarely ever say this but I liked the movie better than the book. Usually the book out weighs the movie. Not in this case for me.
Still it’s worth the listen.
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- Kathy. S.
- 02-18-19
Living in Italy, not the movie
I had read other reviews so knew this would be Frances Mayes personal experiences of buying a home with her husband in Tuscany. As a lover of Italy, foodie, real estate agent with a contractor husband and having lived outside US I found the book easily listenable and relatable. I loved it but may not be for everyone.
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- BekLynnWest
- 04-29-20
High hopes led to high disappointment
Although the first half of the story, the discovery of the house, the remodeling and the hurdles to the finish line was enjoyable, it was a struggle to finish. The narrator read like she was reading bullet points on a monitor rather than having a flow of reading a story. The second half of the story became like reading the highlights of a travel guide. I was looking forward to hearing the story that inspired one of my favorite movies, but I'm left with feelings of disappointment.
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- danica
- 11-19-18
BAD NARRATION
I was truly excited to hear this book!
I’m from the south, and and a frequenter of audible, and I can tell you this was a TERRIBLE choice to have the author narrate the book. A lot of times it works out- however, she has a southern accent that even I find grating, and she is literally just READING rather than FEELING anything. Reminded me of being in a 5th grade classroom reading aloud.
She should do herself a favor and have someone else narrate this!!!!
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Gina
- 05-14-12
Mayes voice is not "listen" friendly
Would you consider the audio edition of Under the Tuscan Sun to be better than the print version?
no
What did you like best about this story?
food descriptions were romantic and full of life
What didn’t you like about Frances Mayes’s performance?
Mayes voice was not "listen"friendly...I had listened to an audio recording of this book years ago and fully enjoyed the performance. I purchased this version without listening to a clip of the audio. Surprised when I listened to find another person narrating.
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