Dons Reerink Boeken

Work's still not completely finished on Bramasole, the Tuscan house that California-based poet and bestselling author Frances Mayes bought a decade ago and has been fixing up every summer since. Nevertheless, in Bella Tuscany, she goes out--in search of Italy and Italian life. The sequel to Under the Tuscan Sun is awash with sensual discovery, from Sicilian markets with "rainbows of shining fish on ice" to the aqueous dream of Venice "shimmering in the diluted sunlight." Wherever she is, Mayes celebrates everyday rituals, such as picking wild asparagus, "dark spears poking out of the dirt ... stalks as thin as yarn" and driving through country rains, as "the green landscape smears across the windshield" for buffalo mozzarella and demijohns of sfuso--bulk wine kept fresh with a slick of olive oil on top. Mayes also ventures into the world of the locals, some "bent as a comma" and others throwing six-hour communion feasts where half a dozen cooks in a barn continually send out heaping platters of pasta with wild boar sauce, roasted lamb, and even the thigh of a giant cow--wrapping up the festivities with honeyed vin santo, grappa, and dancing to the accordion. Capturing the details that enrich the commonplace, in Bella Tuscany Mayes appears less like a visitor and more like someone discovering in Tuscany a real home and a real life. --Melissa Rossi

Het jongetje Bram en het olifantje Modoc worden op dezelfde dag geboren. Samen groeien ze op, te midden van een bonte verzameling artiesten bij een klein circus. Er ontstaat een sterke band tussen de jongen en de olifant terwijl Bram tot olifantentrainer wordt opgeleid en Modoc langzaam de ster van de piste wordt. Binnen korte tijd zijn ze zo op elkaar ingespeeld, dat de stem en de gebaren van Bram voldoende zijn om de grote Modoc haar kunsten te laten vortonen. Dan wordt het circus verkocht en raken Bram en Modoc op drift. Hun omzwervingen voeren hen over de hele wereld en samen beleven ze vele avonturen.