I listened to the author recording of this book and my first thought was the author should not be the one reading it. She does not have a good tone or pitch for an audio book in general and no Italian accent (even after so many years in Italy) to make the book somewhat authentic. And it only gets worse from there. The book is not a "story" by any means. It is a collection of thoughts and memories written one sentence at a time that might be delivered better by a tour guide. The only redeeming aspect came from the fact that I have been fortunate enough to have traveled to Italy some years ago and could reflect back to some of the places and scenes. Without that I would not have gotten as far into the book as I did. I could not make myself finish the book and most of my book club did not either.

This book gives you the chance to read something light for the holiday season and, maybe to think twice about your own holiday spirit and what really is important.

Good story - similar to "The Help" but farm southern. Can't believe how the wife just did as told - that there was no discussion on moving. Tense at times but loved the ending.

I loved this book. I thought it started out a bit slow but I realized later that you really had to get to know him and the strict lifestyle he lived to apprecciate what happens.

Very interesting - not sure how I would handle - probably not like she did.

I liked the book but it was confusing at times. Too many stories going on at one time but I really liked Goldie. This is one of a series. Perhaps if I started at the beginning I would get a better feel of how the books flow. I will read another from the series to see.

I loved this little girl! She is everything I want to be when I grow up.

We thought we should throw a classic or two into our reading - this one was a doozy. Too many characters with same or similar names; verbage of the era very confusing especially Joseph; worst of all the overall story! Don’t know what I was expecting - love, hate, more hate, love or like? There was no love, a bit of like and a lot of hate, greed and revenge. Not sure why this book would be a must read for any grade level in school. Really was not worth my time.

This was an awful book. Don't know why they read it in school. Didn't get the point to any of it. Many of the names were the same (skipping a generation) and too many of them were so similar that it was hard to keep track of who was who. I only finished it because I kept thinking it just had to get better. It doesn't - don't waste your time.

This is a wonderful book. I loved the back and forth from present day to the 1920's. Story will pull at your heartstrings, make you laugh and cry and make you thankful for what you have.