From Tuscany with Love by Lauretta Avina

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

From Tuscany with Love by Lauretta Avina

Thank you for joining me for Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

In the tapestry of my life, there exists a thread of duality, a delicate interplay between the old world and the new, the familiar and the foreign.

-- from From Tuscany with Love by Lauretta Avina. Memoir cookbooks are my favorite! Especially one highlighting Italian food. Yum! 

Lauretta Avina was born in Tuscany and emigrated to the USA when she was a child. Her father wanted to leave the relative poverty of Italy and memories of WWII behind, so moved his family to Gilroy, California in 1972.

In From Tuscany with Love, Avina discusses her childhood and family history in Italy and her challenges as a young immigrant in a time when Italians were still looked down on in America. Her stories are intwined with family recipes aimed at the home chef, as well as many photographs. The book isn't a slick production, but it is warmhearted and engaging. I love it and can't wait to try the recipes.   

See the Publisher's Description below for more details.  

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginnings post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the #bookbeginnings hashtag.

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THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 is a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings. The idea is to share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your featured book. If you are reading an ebook or audiobook, find your teaser from the 56% mark.

Freda at Freda's Voice started and hosted The Friday 56 for a long, long time. She is taking a break and Anne at My Head is Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. Please visit Anne's blog and link to your Friday 56 post.

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from From Tuscany with Love:

Like many other Italian towns during WWII, my hometown in Tuscany was occupied by the Germans. Today, various monuments in my small town and surrounding villages remember those innocent civilians who were murdered by the Nazi Germans.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

From Tuscany with Love is an emotional memoir capturing the heartfelt journey of a scared, little girl from the rolling hills of Lucca to the bustling life in America. Through evocative stories and cherished family recipes, the author pays tribute to the rich culture, love, and flavors that shaped her life. This memoir beautifully blends personal reflections on family, resilience, and the timeless traditions of Tuscan cuisine, offering readers a deeply personal and flavorful look at an immigrant's path to finding a home and a sense of belonging in a new world.

The Secret Place by Tana French -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

The Secret Place by Tana French

Thank you for joining me for Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

She came looking for me.

-- from The Secret Place by Tana French. That's sure an enigmatic opening sentence. It could go about anywhere after that. 

The Secret Place is the fifth of six mystery books in Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series. In a twist from a typical series, there is no one specific protagonist. The main detective in each book is a different detective from the homicide department in Dublin. 

I'm determined to finish the six books. But I admit it has been more of a chore than I anticipated. French's books, and this series in particular, are incredibly popular. They just do not work for me. The first four bothered me because each story was based on an enormous coincidence that were hard to swallow. In three of them, the lead detective had a personal connection to the crime that, inexplicably, he fails to disclose. In one, the female detective is sent in undercover because she looks EXACTLY like the murder victim. They keep the murder quiet and send the detective to live with the victim's former housemates. Yeah, right. 

The fourth one, Broken Harbor, irritated me so much, I almost gave up on the series for good. It is massively long and full of suspense, but the detective never does any detecting. It goes along for over 450 pages without any basic forensic work before the big resolution based on . . . you guessed it . . . basic forensic work! All the time with the lead detective hiding the fact that his sister is involved. 

It's been three years since I read Broken Harbor because I couldn't face another book that made me want to throw it across the room. But I'm a completist and The Secret Place has been hogging space on my TBR shelf for too long. So I am going to read this one and the last one in the series and wrap this up. The good news is The Secret Place does not involve an unbelievable coincidence. The bad news is that it involves teenagers after a murder at a girls' boarding school. Another of my unpopular opinions is that I do not like books about teenagers. I just can't win with Tana French.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginnings post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the #bookbeginnings hashtag.

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THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 is a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings. The idea is to share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your featured book. If you are reading an ebook or audiobook, find your teaser from the 56% mark.

Freda at Freda's Voice started and hosted The Friday 56 for a long, long time. She is taking a break and Anne at My Head is Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. Please visit Anne's blog and link to your Friday 56 post.

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from The Secret Place:

"Basically, there was no reason anyone would want to kill Chris Harper. Good kid, by all accounts."

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

A year ago a boy was found murdered at a girlsʼ boarding school, and the case was never solved. Detective Stephen Moran has been waiting for his chance to join Dublin’s Murder Squad when sixteen-year-old Holly Mackey arrives in his office with a photo of the boy with the caption: “I KNOW WHO KILLED HIM.” Stephen joins with Detective Antoinette Conway to reopen the case—beneath the watchful eye of Holly’s father, fellow detective Frank Mackey. With the clues leading back to Holly’s close-knit group of friends, to their rival clique, and to the tangle of relationships that bound them all to the murdered boy, the private underworld of teenage girls turns out to be more mysterious and more dangerous than the detectives imagined.

Book Beginnings on Fridays

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

I woke up this morning, realizing I forgot to post Book Beginnings! What a dolt!

Thanks to the few of you who might see this Book Beginnings on Fridays posted so late on Saturday. Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

I'll skip this week so I can get this up a smidge faster. Then I'll get to work getting next week's post scheduled! 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginnings post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the #bookbeginnings hashtag.

Mister Linky's Magical Widgets -- Thumb-Linky widget will appear right here!
This preview will disappear when the widget is displayed on your site.
If this widget does not appear, click here to display it.

THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 is a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings. The idea is to share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your featured book. If you are reading an ebook or audiobook, find your teaser from the 56% mark.

Freda at Freda's Voice started and hosted The Friday 56 for a long, long time. She is taking a break and Anne at My Head is Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. Please visit Anne's blog and link to your Friday 56 post.

MY FRIDAY 56

Same! I'll skip and get back to you next week. Thanks for bearing with me. 

Margery Allingham -- FAVORITE AUTHOR, BOOK LIST

FAVORITE AUTHOR, BOOK LIST

Margery Allingham

Marjory Allingham was one of the four Queens of Crime from the Golden Age of mystery fiction, reigning alongside Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Ngaio Marsh. Born in 1904, Allingham wrote dozens of mysteries and other books before her death in 1966. Her most famous body of work is a series featuring Albert Campion, gentleman sleuth.

ALBERT CAMPION BOOKS IN ORDER

• The Crime at Black Dudley (1929) TBR SHELF

• Mystery Mile (1930) TBR SHELF

• Look to the Lady (1931) TBR SHELF

• Police at the Funeral (1931) TBR SHELF

• Sweet Danger (1933) TBR SHELF

• Death of a Ghost (1934) TBR SHELF

• Flowers for the Judge (1936) TBR SHELF

• The Case of the Late Pig (1937) TBR SHELF

• Dancers in Mourning (1937) TBR SHELF

• Mr. Campion: Criminologist (1937) (short stories)

• The Fashion in Shrouds (1938) TBR SHELF

• Mr. Campion and Others (1939) (short stories) TBR SHELF

• Traitor's Purse (1941) TBR SHELF

• Coroner's Pidgin (1945) TBR SHELF

• The Casebook of Mr. Campion (1947) (short stories; I can't find on line)

• More Work for the Undertaker (1948) TBR SHELF

• The Tiger in the Smoke (1952) TBR SHELF

• The Beckoning Lady (1955) TBR SHELF

• Hide My Eyes (1958) TBR SHELF

• The China Governess (1962)

• The Mind Readers (1965) TBR SHELF

• Cargo of Eagles (1968) (completed by her husband)

• The Allingham Casebook (1969) (short stories)

• The Allingham Minibus (1973) (short stories) TBR SHELF

• The Return of Mr. Campion (1989) (short stories)

Allingham's husband, Philip Youngman Carter, finished her last Campion novel, Cargo of Eagles, after her death. He went on to write three more Campion novels under his own name. The last of these was completed after Carter's death by Mike Ripley, who continued the series under his own name. 

Allingham also wrote plays for stage and radio, nonfiction, mysteries without Campion, and other fiction. The mystery and fiction books are:

• Blackkerchief Dick (1923) (historical fiction)

• The White Cottage Mystery (1928)

• Rogues' Holiday (1933) (as Maxwell March)

• The Shadow in the House, aka The Devil and Her Son (1935) (as Maxwell March)

• Black Plumes (1940) TBR SHELF

• The Oaken Heart (1941) (autobiographical fiction) ON LIBBY & SPOTIFY

• Dance of the Years (1943) (autobiographical, historical fiction)

• Wanted: Someone Innocent (1946) (novella and short stories)

• Take Two at Bedtime (1950) (two novellas) TBR SHELF

• No Love Lost (1954) (two novellas) TBR SHELF

• The Darings of the Red Rose (1995) (serialized anonymously in 1930)

• Other Man's Danger, aka The Man of Dangerous Secrets (1931) (as Maxwell March)

My goal is to read all of the Albert Campion novels and short stories. I'm not going to try to read all of her books, although I will read the non-Campion short stories included in the collections I read and the two non-Campion books I already own. 

NOTES

Created on March 19, 2025. 

The e-book editions are available and are usually not very expensive.

Most of the Allingham books I have are part of my collection of vintage, green triband, Penguin Books. I plan to read all my Penguin books and hers come first alphabetically. A good place to start!

WINNER! 2024 European Reading Challenge

 

2024 EUROPEAN READING CHALLENGE

THIS IS THE WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT POST FOR 2024

TO FIND THE 2024 REVIEWS, GO TO THIS PAGE

TO FIND THE 2024 WRAP UP POSTS, GO TO THIS PAGE

THE 2025 EUROPEAN READING CHALLENGE SIGN UP IS AT THIS PAGE

2024 was the 12th year of the European Reading Challenge! The challenge involves reading books set in different European countries or written by authors from different European countries.

My big thanks go to all the participants who joined me for the Grand Tour last year!

JET SETTER GRAND PRIZE WINNER

The 2024 Jet Setter prize goes to Sabine at sabines.literary.world who participated on Instagram. 2024 is the fourth year in a row that this intrepid armchair traveler won the challenge. In 2021, Sabine visited all 50 European states -- TWICE! In 2022, she hit another grand slam, but only one time around the continent. In 2023, she slowed down and "only" visited 35 of the 50 European states. In 2024, she hit her stride again, visited all 50 European states, and reviewed the books she read. Her wrap up post discusses her reading journey. 

Honorary Mention (but no prizes) go to the other nine participants who completed the challenge and posted wrap up posts about the countries they visited and the books they read. Here they are, with the number of different countries visited in parenthesis:

• Alexis Drake on Goodreads (8)

• All About Cosy (10)

• Avid Series Reader (15)

• Cinzia at Quattro passi sulle nuvole (21)

• Maphead's Book Blog (30)

• Mark at Carstairs Considers (4)

• Me, Myself, I Read (and Write) (3)

• Reese at Typings (15)

• Tess at tessreadslibri (6)

My own wrap-up post is here. I read books from 14 different European countries, and four were translations. I didn't even try to review the books I read, which is more than I can handle as long as I am running my own law firm.

Congratulations to all the readers who completed the 2024 challenge!

There is still plenty of time to join us in 2025.

JOIN THE 2025 CHALLENGE! SIGN UP HERE!

The gist: The idea is to read books by European authors or books set in European countries (no matter where the author comes from). The books can be anything – novels, short stories, memoirs, travel guides, cookbooks, biography, poetry, or any other genre. You can participate at different levels, but each book must be by a different author and set in a different country – it's supposed to be a tour.

Sign up HERE for the 2025 Challenge.