Memoir Monday... The Reluctant Tuscan by Phil Doran

Memoir and part travelogue, The Reluctant Tuscan written by Phil Doran will have you laughing out loud. What happens when the wife of a Hollywood writer buys a house in Tuscany that needs a bit of repair? And what if that house is in a small village filled with eccentric characters such as the neighbor lady that puts "the evil eye" on Phil and his wife Nancy? You get a hilarious slice of life in an Italian village that if you didn't know it were a true story you'd think it was a piece of great fiction!

Nancy is a marble sculptor married to Phil, an aging Hollywood writer. To help her husband escape the rat race and fast paced life in L.A., Nancy buys a run down farmhouse that she thinks will be the answer to their need for a new life. Something that will save both Phil's life and their marriage. What Phil finds as he arrives in Italy, is a crumbling stone house unfit to live in and with no road to even get to it. As Phil and Nancy navigate the ancient & unspoken laws of small town life in Italy, turning neighbors into friends, you will meet some of the most interesting people, imagine the most beautiful landscapes and laugh at the things Phil & Nancy must do to "fit in", part of which will be discovering their "inner Italian". Phil Doran's writing is terrific and I'm glad he turned his pen towards his life in Italy. The book is entertaining, amusing and just plain fun.

If you ever wanted to visit Italy, if you ever thought about renovating a house, and if you ever wanted to know what "extra virgin" olive oil really was, pick up The Reluctant Tuscan. Food, family and a sense of belonging are what you'll walk away with!

Memoir Monday... The Reluctant Tuscan by Phil Doran

Memoir and part travelogue, The Reluctant Tuscan written by Phil Doran will have you laughing out loud. What happens when the wife of a Hollywood writer buys a house in Tuscany that needs a bit of repair? And what if that house is in a small village filled with eccentric characters such as the neighbor lady that puts "the evil eye" on Phil and his wife Nancy? You get a hilarious slice of life in an Italian village that if you didn't know it were a true story you'd think it was a piece of great fiction!

Nancy is a marble sculptor married to Phil, an aging Hollywood writer. To help her husband escape the rat race and fast paced life in L.A., Nancy buys a run down farmhouse that she thinks will be the answer to their need for a new life. Something that will save both Phil's life and their marriage. What Phil finds as he arrives in Italy, is a crumbling stone house unfit to live in and with no road to even get to it. As Phil and Nancy navigate the ancient & unspoken laws of small town life in Italy, turning neighbors into friends, you will meet some of the most interesting people, imagine the most beautiful landscapes and laugh at the things Phil & Nancy must do to "fit in", part of which will be discovering their "inner Italian". Phil Doran's writing is terrific and I'm glad he turned his pen towards his life in Italy. The book is entertaining, amusing and just plain fun.

If you ever wanted to visit Italy, if you ever thought about renovating a house, and if you ever wanted to know what "extra virgin" olive oil really was, pick up The Reluctant Tuscan. Food, family and a sense of belonging are what you'll walk away with!

Memoir Monday... Alone: Orphaned on the Ocean by Richard D. Logan and Tere Duperrault Fassbender

Alone: Orphaned on the Ocean

by Richard D. Logan PhD and Tere Duperrault Fassbender

I saw a brief interview with Tere Duperrault Fassbender on one of the major television networks last week and was fascinated by her story. When Tere Duperrault was 11 years old, Terry's family chartered a sailboat off the coast of Florida. It would be the last family vacation she ever had with her family- they were all murdered at sea. The captain had murdered his wife,Terry's parents and brother & sister. Terry had been asleep down inside the boat when she was awakened by the commotion. The captain shoved her back below, pulled the plugs on the ship and left on the dingy. He assumed Terry would drown as the ship took on water, but Terry found another little raft, jumped overboard with it and survived 4 days before being pulled to safety. The captain of the ship had survived and was telling everyone that the ship had caught on fire and everyone drowned... This is her story, a story of survival... It's been 50 years since that fateful day, and it's taken this long for Tere Duperrault Fassbender to come to terms with what happened. What happened that lead up to this tragedy? How did she survive 4 days alone in the vast waters that she was floating on? And what happened to the captain of the ship? I can't wait to read her story! Richard D. Logan is a nationally recognized expert in the psychology of solitary survival, he helps tell Tere's story...

From the Publisher... This is the first time Terry Jo, now known as Tere Duperrault Fassbender, has been able to fully tell her story. In September 1988 Oprah Winfrey reunited her with the freighter captain who saved her but, even then, she was not healed enough to reveal what it took to survive for four days adrift and alone at sea. Co-authored by psychologist and survival expert Richard Logan, readers delve into the details of how a little girl survived the murder of her family; the gradual collapse of the small cork float she used to keep afloat while guarded by a small pod of whales; and the aftermath and the reclamation of life. ALONE is the ultimate inspirational tale of good.