Scan barcode
emdavis4's review against another edition
This book just never pulled me in, and it continues to sit on my shelf partially read.
lorees_reading_nook's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.25
“You've understood nothing. Abundance is perilous.”
Those of you who have been reading my book thoughts for a while will know that I love a memoir by Marlena de Blasi. Her books are comfort reads for me. They take me on gentle journeys to remote villages in Italy where traditions are still honoured as if time has stood still. It could be that the author paints an idyllic picture of life as it once was and it is very possible that since this book was written, between 2004 and 2008, change has made its way to these hilltop Umbrian villages too. But, deep down, I want to believe that what we call progress is still taking its time to drag itself up the steep slopes on which these places are perched.
I've seen several negative reviews complaining that nothing much happens in this book. I find this to be true but not in a bad way. Within the pages of TUTNSC are the memoirs of four women: Miranda, Ninuccia, Paolina and Gilda. A few of these women lived their whole lives within an 8km radius of the town where they were born. So don't expect wild escapades and daring adventures. What I got from this book was a heartwarming feeling of the formidable power and sincerity of female friendships; about lives lived frugally but fully; about the joy and importance of cooking and feeding others with the freshest and most seasonal local produce available. More than anything, this book is about connections. Lifelong connections born out of a shared past, fleeting memories that, as we age, become more and more precious.
This is not a faultless book. It comes across as too wordy in places and the construction of the sentences sometimes felt very Italian (which is fine but native English readers may find them a bit awkward) but I loved it. In a convoluted way that only I will understand, it took me back to my childhood, to a time when connections were real and friendships were forever.
“A family is made of love. Only sometimes is it also made of blood.”
Those of you who have been reading my book thoughts for a while will know that I love a memoir by Marlena de Blasi. Her books are comfort reads for me. They take me on gentle journeys to remote villages in Italy where traditions are still honoured as if time has stood still. It could be that the author paints an idyllic picture of life as it once was and it is very possible that since this book was written, between 2004 and 2008, change has made its way to these hilltop Umbrian villages too. But, deep down, I want to believe that what we call progress is still taking its time to drag itself up the steep slopes on which these places are perched.
I've seen several negative reviews complaining that nothing much happens in this book. I find this to be true but not in a bad way. Within the pages of TUTNSC are the memoirs of four women: Miranda, Ninuccia, Paolina and Gilda. A few of these women lived their whole lives within an 8km radius of the town where they were born. So don't expect wild escapades and daring adventures. What I got from this book was a heartwarming feeling of the formidable power and sincerity of female friendships; about lives lived frugally but fully; about the joy and importance of cooking and feeding others with the freshest and most seasonal local produce available. More than anything, this book is about connections. Lifelong connections born out of a shared past, fleeting memories that, as we age, become more and more precious.
This is not a faultless book. It comes across as too wordy in places and the construction of the sentences sometimes felt very Italian (which is fine but native English readers may find them a bit awkward) but I loved it. In a convoluted way that only I will understand, it took me back to my childhood, to a time when connections were real and friendships were forever.
“A family is made of love. Only sometimes is it also made of blood.”
kris45's review against another edition
5.0
Marlena de Blasi is a lovely writer, and her books are both inspiration and comfort reading to me.
Nothing better after a stressful day than to pour a glass of wine and escape to her world, her friends, her loves and her cooking – and Italy.
Nothing better after a stressful day than to pour a glass of wine and escape to her world, her friends, her loves and her cooking – and Italy.
mndyreads's review against another edition
3.0
I just don’t love non fiction so I can’t rate it more than 3. But I’m glad I read it and would recommend
shelleyrae's review
4.0
"A good supper...restores to us the small delights that the day ransacks. Through crisis and catastrophe, and rare moments of uninterrupted joy, it's the round, clean and imperishable wisdom that sustains them: cook well, eat well and talk well with people who are significant to your life."
Every Thursday night for decades a small group of Umbrian women, occasionally accompanied by the their husbands or lovers, have met in an old stone house belonging to Miranda to share their supper. Under sheaves of dried olive branches, seated on plank benches, they have laughed, cried, cooked and eaten together.
Befriended by Miranda, Marlena De Blasi, an American chef, journalist and food critic who has made her home in rural Orvieto, was invited to join the women, taking a place at the table every Thursday, delighting in both the food, and the stories each woman has to tell.
In The Umbrian Supper Club, Marlena shares what she learned of the lives of the four women members - Miranda, Ninuccia, Paolina and Gilda, as she joined with each in preparing Thursday night suppers over a period of four years.
The women's stories are moving and fascinating, aged between 52 and 80 something, they have lived full lives. They have variously been wives, mothers, daughters, sisters and lovers, they have endured heartache, loss, poverty and celebrated love, friends, and food. They speak, as the gather, prepare and cook their supper of childhood, family, aging, sexuality, of the evil eye, the Mafia, religion, of life and death.
"'I wish life could end all even, like a supper when there's that last little roasted potato with a single needle of rosemary clinging to its crust and the end of a sausage, charred to a crunch, a heel of bread, the last long pull of wine. Even. Everything in harmony. I have always preferred that last bit of my supper to the first, the beginning being fraught with hunger, the last with serenity. As life should be. Every supper can be a whole life'"
Full of mouthwatering descriptions of food preparation and feasting, The Umbrian Supper Club will delight any foodie. Crusty bread freshly baked in a woodfire oven is dipped in oil pressed by a donkey driven mill, pasta is simmered in litres of local red wine, thyme leaves are stripped from their branches to flavour scored duck breasts.
Several full recipes of traditional Umbrian dishes, such as Zucca Arrostita and La Crostata di Pere e Pecorino adapted for the modern cook, are included, but plenty of cooking advice is informally dispensed through the pages.
"In a basket on the worktable there are perhaps a dozen heads of garlic, the purple colour of the cloves bright beneath papery skins. Slapping head after head with the flat of the cleaver, she scrapes the smashed, unpeeled cloves into a five-litre jug of new oil in which she's earlier stuffed leaves of wild sage, wild fennel flowers, rosemary,a fistful of crushed, very hot chillies. She is building one of her famous potions. Violence, she calls it. She uses it to gloss vegetables before tumbling them into the roasting pan, to massage into loins of pork and the breasts and thighs of her own fat chickens, to drizzle over burning hot charcoaled beef and veal."
The Umbrian Supper Club is a delightful true story of family, friendship and food.
hannahmayreads's review
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
Another foreigner in Italy; this book easily follows that grand tradition. This one though is very much about the food. Each woman comes to life through a dish, an ingredient, a way of cooking. I liked the way their narratives were split out - focused on - rather than jumbled together. The women and interesting and complex, but it is the food that swept me away. I read this book with my stomach. At times I felt I could smell the herbs and spices, taste the pancetta, hear the glug of wine being poured. It makes for delicious reading.
After the myth of security, the second greatest myth ever inflicted on humans is the myth that we were meant to triumph. How wonderful it is to be content with holding hands around this mangled old table, with some nice bread, some wine, a candle and a fire, a blessed sleep waiting.
louisekf's review against another edition
1.0
Gave up on this one very quickly. My book club chose it and at first I didn't realize it was a memoir, but that was ok. The writing turned me off immediately.
maddiehansen's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
Dialogue was occasionally hard to follow. Loved the oral traditions, the in-depth and complex character development, the food and recipes, and the strong women.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Alcohol
anunande's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
I'd mistaken this for fiction but was still pulled in by this slice-of-life travel memoir and the varied women with their own stories that make up this club. I did have quibbles with it (the descriptions of the cooking and recipes got in the way of the narration many times), but I enjoyed my time in Umbria and a glimpse into a new culture and place.
aishaal's review against another edition
5.0
This book is like a warm cup of tea. Comforting and a fairly passive read, the story (or stories) just fall into your lap without much effort. This book is definitely one to reread. Each part of the book focuses on a different woman at the Suppers, this means that as the book progresses you understand more and more about each character and understand the nature of conversation with each one. This book feels like a wise aunt telling their story, passing down what they've learnt about their lives. The description of food in this book is like nothing I've ever read. There are paragraphs and pages dedicated to the method behind the dish or the flavours and you begin to appreciate that food is at the heart of it all. Within each story I felt there was a significant dish, or that the act of cooking was in some way important to each character.