Under the Tuscan Sun

Since I'm talking about stuff that I love this week, I thought I'd throw in Under the Tuscan Sun.

Honestly, I cannot tell you why I decided to read this book.  I can tell you that I read it several years before the movie came out so I probably found it in the "travel books" section at the bookstore.  In any event, I fell in love with it, not so much because she talks about a house in Italy, but because she talks about a house.

A house of my own is all I've ever really wanted in my whole life.  As a little girl, I remember loving it when my Grandma's Good Housekeeping came in the mail because there was always some sort of house tour in it and I loved them.  I would pore over them, studying them, going back to my favorites again and again.  Then, when I was about 10,  my Mom got a subscription to Southern Living and I was in heaven.  All the beautiful houses....

And then I finally got that house.  It wasn't even this house, even though this is the first house that I've owned and God knows that I love it.  My first home was the little townhouse that I rented after the divorce and after I decided to stop waiting for my life to happen and to start building the damn thing myself.  And that little townhouse became my home.  I stayed there for a long time, probably longer than I should have but I felt safe there.  I loved it and I cried and I grieved when I finally did leave it.

So the thing I love about this book is the talk about the house, the work, the furniture, the shopping, the cleaning, the cooking in the kitchen -  the process of taking an old, dilapidated structure and turning it into a home.  Reading it filled me with happiness.

When I moved into my little rental, I read this book and it gave me a goal.   When I was in the process of buying this house I re-read it again and again.  It soothed me.  It encouraged me.  When I envisioned everything that could go wrong, it reminded me to focus on what would happen if everything went exactly right.  And it was glorious. 

If you love houses or Italy or cooking or travel or any or all of these things,  I'd encourage you to pick this book up.  And don't judge the book by the movie.  Two completely different things.