Ripe for the Picking by Annie Hawes

SUMMARY (by goodreads): Annie Hawes is an Englishwoman who has lived in a tumbledown cottage in the Ligurian hills in Italy for about a decade. In Ripe for the Picking she picks up the story of her book Extra Virgin to recount more of her adventures among the locals.

MY OPINION:

In Ripe for the Picking, Annie Hawes does not just pick up the story from where she finished Extra Virgin, but also its style, language and tone, altogether functioning very refreshingly. Again, she adds somewhat educational insight into coexistence of two cultures. This time it is about family life, love, relationships and repairs.

Describing her settling into the Ligurian lifestyle and the troubles, misunderstandings and twists it brings, Hawes retains the objectivity she established in Extra Virgin. Despite so much similarity with Extra Virgin, its sequel is not familiarly boring as someone might fear, but familiarly interesting. Although there is nothing very new, the story flows nicely and steadily captures the readers’ attention throughout the book, mainly because of the strong main storyline.

Basically, there is not much more to say about Ripe for the Picking that I have not yet said about Extra Virgin. Yet, Ripe for the Picking still offers some more of the same and it is probably what a reader might expect and also enjoy.  

RECOMMENDATION: Anyone who liked Extra Virgin and wants some more of the same relaxation type of atmosphere reading is bound to like Ripe for the Picking, too.

Extra Virgin by Annie Hawes

SUMMARY (by the publisher): A small stone house deep among the olive groves of Liguria, going for the price of a dodgy second-hand car. Annie Hawes and her sister, on the spot by chance, have no plans whatsoever to move to the Italian Riviera but find naturally that it's an offer they can't refuse. The laugh is on the Foreign Females who discover that here amongst the hardcore olive farming folk their incompetence is positively alarming. Not to worry: the thrifty villagers of Diano San Pietro are on the case, and soon plying the Pallid Sisters with advice, ridicule, tall tales and copious hillside refreshments...

MY OPINION:

What I liked about this book the most was that, even though Annie Hawes writes about her own experience, her writing is very objective. She does not give in to the temptation of many memoirs’ or travelogues’ writers to only describe themselves and their own culture as the norm and everything else as strange or ridiculous. In her writing about Ligurian life and customs, Hawes includes just the right amount of self-criticism, often accompanied by sarcasm, altogether functioning funny and refreshing.

Thus, Extra Virgin is not just an entertaining book about Hawes’s experience, but also a documentary about a clash of two very different cultures and a proof that differences can complement and enrich people. At first, Hawes and her sister find Ligurians strange and visa versa, and both sides have difficulties understanding one another. Yet, through many funny social mistakes and misunderstandings they get to know each other, and each new resolved mystery about the others’ crazy behaviour brings them closer. 

Generally, Hawes’s writing is a testimony about coexistence of two cultures, both benefitting from it. Two modern English girls learn a lot about farming and get plentiful skills in self-sufficiency and survival, meanwhile they are the first signs of modernization which improves the farmers’ lives, but does not enslave them. 

Overall, Hawes joins modern and traditional, urban and rural, fast and slow rhythm of life into a living the readers can grow fond of and maybe even wish to experience by themselves. I know I do.

RECOMMENDATION: Would you like a short recess in the warm Italian sun? Reading Extra Virgin is the closest thing to it. 

Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron

SUMMARY (From Publisher’s Weekly): One frigid Midwestern winter night in 1988, a ginger kitten was shoved into the after-hours book-return slot at the public library in Spencer, Iowa. And in this tender story, Myron, the library director, tells of the impact the cat, named DeweyReadmore Books, had on the library and its patrons, and on Myron herself.

MY OPINION:

The story about Dewey is not just a story about an ordinary cat. I am a cat person. If we asked Dewey he would probably say he was a people cat. We learn that and much more form the heart-warming writing of Dewey’s – no, not owner – care-taker rather, Vicki Myron.

Her story about Dewey is nice, touching, sometimes emotional, but foremost realistic. Dewey is not an ordinary cat but he is not a supercat either. He is a smart, sociable cat, confident, regal, moody, and picky about the food. Dewey can enlighten people’s lives, but he has his own habits and whims, he is cat-like naughty, he has health problems, he is a real living creature. Consequently, Myron’s story about Dewey is not only about him, but also about the real world he lives in.

Therefore, Myron writes about Iowa: its history from the settlement on, its landscape and people and their economic and social situation through time. She also writes about herself and her life, her own personal battles and achievements. Dewey is a strong, bright spark in everything. Thus, as I was reading Myron’s book, I felt just as if I had been there and knew Dewey and experience the life she describes.

The greatest value of the story about Dewey is a testimony about how the little things, such as an abandoned kitten can make a very big difference in people’s lives, even if just for a moment. It is a story about bright and dark sides of life and about how people can make it through difficulties a bit more easily if they stick together than on their own. The book in an inspiration to everyone to lookout for something small which can make your day a little bit better.

RECOMMENDATION: Tissues needed for cat lovers.