Review: The Supreme Macaroni Company

The Supreme Macaroni Company

By Adriana Trigiani

Harper Collins November 2013

338 pages

Received for review from TLC Book Tours and the publisher

Beloved author Adriana Trigiana brings Italy and New York City to vibrant life as she looks in on the Roncalli family again. Valentine is passionate about her family and the family business of making gorgeous shoes out of Italian leather. She is surprised to find that she has passion for their Italian tanner Gianluca Vechiarelli too. As they begin their life together, Valentine finds herself constantly battling between being present for her loved ones and being committed to their business. Can she find room in her heart and in her day for both? 

I have seen countless bloggers gush over the books of Adriana Trigiani so when an offer to join the book tour showed up in my inbox, I had to say yes. This was my first time reading anything by Trigiani. It was difficult to really get into this book at first, which I think might have something to do with this actually being the third book featuring Valentine and her crazy/wonderful Italian family. I wonder if it would have been easier for me to fully commit to the Roncalli family if I knew more of their history. 

The Supreme Macaroni Company shines when Trigiani is detailing the beauty of Italian vistas or a snowy day in New York City. With just a few words, she paints gorgeous scenes that you can clearly visualize even if you have never visited Tuscany. It's also wonderful to read about giant and crazy Italian family gatherings where one is never sure if the drama or the food will win the day. Big families seem to make life complicated - there are lots of people who want to make their opinions known on things like your wedding and your style of raising your kids and there is always someone who is glad to remind you of the moment when you failed. While the Roncalli family exploits will make you laugh, they also make you want to hop in the car and go spend some time with your own family. 

The heart of this story though, is the relationship between Valentine and Gianluca. I found it difficult to read about them because Valentine seemed so clueless and stubborn. For a woman who has a big family and has seen both failed and successful relationships, she seems to have no idea how to be in a relationship. I found myself mostly feeling bad for Gianluca who, although he wasn't blameless, seemed to be trying very hard to uphold their relationship. I wanted Valentine to change, to realize that she had to give some time and attention to her relationship, but she just seems to make the same mistakes over and over.

The Supreme Macaroni Company is an insightful look into the ways that family can strengthen and challenge us as well as the incredible work and artistry that goes into the creation of shoes. The romantic storyline can be hard to take, but readers who love the Roncalli family will want to read this conclusion to their story.

Want to see what other readers thought of The Supreme Macaroni Company? Read some of these other reviews!

Tuesday, May 6th: More Than Just Magic

Wednesday, May 7th: Bibliotica

Thursday, May 8th: nightlyreading

Monday, May 12th: The Infinite Shelf

Tuesday, May 13th: The Bookmark Blog

Thursday, May 15th: Books, Books Everywhere!

Monday, May 19th: Books on the Table

Thursday, May 22nd: Jo-Jo Loves to Read!

Monday, May 26th: Calico Critic

Thursday, May 29th: Peppermint PhD

Monday, June 2nd: Open Book Society

Monday, June 9th: Patricia’s Wisdom

Joining the Classics Club

After seeing so many bloggers participate in The Classics Club, I decided that I would join the fun. The goal is to read 50 classics within five years, so I will be aiming to finish this list by May of 2019.

Are you a part of The Classics Club? Which classic should I start with?

Much Ado About Nothing 

The Winter’s Tale 

Henry IV, Part 1 

Taming of the Shrew 

Richard III 

Emma 

Moby Dick 

The Moonstone 

Middlemarch 

Anna Karenina

The Sun Also Rises

A Movable Feast

Passing

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Rebecca

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

The Big Sleep

Invisible Man

Excellent Women 

Under the Net

Everything That Rises Must Converge

Wide Sargasso Sea

One Hundred Years of Solitude

If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler

Alias Grace

Fahrenheit 451

Tale of Two Cities

Crime and Punishment

North and South

A Prayer for Owen Meaney

East of Eden

The Age of Innocence

Kindred

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Breakfast at Tiffany’s

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

The House of Mirth

We Have Always Lived In the Castle

The Princess and the Goblin

Dr. Zhivago

Vanity Fair

The Picture of Dorian Grey

Stoner 

The Group 

Dracula

Song of Solomon

Death Comes for the Archbishop

Murder on the Orient Express

And Then There Were None

A Murder Is Announced

16/52

A picture of each of the kids, once a week, every week in 2014.

Becca Grace - A beautiful day demands a walk downtown!

David - The first time bowler had a great time!

Review: Something Rotten

Something Rotten

Thursday Next #4

By Jasper Fforde

Viking 2004

383 pages

From the library

Note: This review may contain spoilers for earlier books in the series.

Thursday Next just never seems to catch a break. She is a single mother because the dastardly Goliath Corporation made her husband disappear. She is also in charge of Jurisfiction, where she must maintain the storyline of the books you know and love. Thursday decides to head home to her mother and brother with her son Friday in tow. She hopes to get her beloved husband back by regaining her job with the Literary Detectives. But complications abound when she is also asked to care for the infamous and melancholy prince Hamlet, prevent Danish books from being burned by a power-hungry politician, and ensure that the local (and terrible) croquet team wins the championship.

The Thursday Next series is consistently categorized as fun and this zany cast of characters will leave you chuckling throughout the book. Thursday's young son speaks only in ipsum lorem, the dummy text that is used for the layout of publications. Her father has been erased from time like her husband, but still pops in for the occasional chat. Her mother runs a support group for people whose loved ones have been eradicated and has an ever-revolving group of guests staying in her home. We also encounter an evil space emperor bent on destruction, a familiar Beatrix Potter character, and the cowboys of the Wild West.

This time around, Fforde also jumps into politics and religion. Thursday's nemesis is Yorrick Kane, who has escaped from a book in order to take over England. The politicians engage in a debate during a show called "Evade the Question." The candidates proceed to do just that and are awarded points accordingly. Thursday has returned home just in time to witness the second coming of her hometown's patron saint. While Thomas Zvlkx has an uncanny ability to predict the future, he also seems to have a weakness for cursing and making wagers.

The Thursday Next series is whimsical and clever and downright fun. The story is constantly moving and will give you many opportunities to smile at bad puns or laugh at the ingenious way that Fforde seems to utilize every character, historical event, and idea that you could possibly imagine. If you haven't read this gift to readers, you are missing out!


You can find my reviews of earlier Thursday Next books here.

It's Monday and we're home!

Hello everyone. We are back home from (surprisingly) rainy Florida! We flew down for my brother-in-laws' graduation and I had the chance to see where my hubby grew up. Some lessons learned from this trip: home is awfully nice after a few days away and plane rides are great for reading! 

Read This Week:

Passing 

By Nella Larsen

Invisible City

By Julia Dahl

Maybe One Day

By Melissa Cantor 

The Supreme Macaroni Company

By Adriana Trigiani

Posts from this Past Week

It's Monday

April Wrap-Up

Reviews of Outside In and The Museum of Extraordinary Things

Reading Now:

A Circle of Quiet
By Madeleine L'Engle 

Up Next:

Then Came You
By Jennifer Weiner

What are you reading this week?

Review: The Museum of Extraordinary Things

The Museum of Extraordinary Things

By Alice Hoffman

Scribner February 2014

368 pages

From the library

Two stories come together in a surprising and dazzling fashion in Alice Hoffman's newest novel The Museum of Extraordinary Things. Our heroine is the sheltered Coralie, who is a part of her father's Coney Island museum where the extraordinary and bizarre come out of the shadows. Coralie has webbed fingers and at her father's prompting, has trained herself to swim for extreme distances. She spends her days inside a tank in the museum, billed as a "mermaid." In the heart of New York City, Eddie Coen has escaped from his father and their traditional Orthodox lives to work among the city's thieves and runaways. When he becomes an apprentice to the famed photographer Moses Levy, he finds himself taking photographs of the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire and drawn into a mystery that will change his life forever.

As I started reading this book, my first reaction was that this story was not as good as my favorite Hoffman book The Dovekeepers. And perhaps it's not. But that doesn't mean that you should leave this book by the wayside because it's still a strong story that will effortlessly draw you into 1911 New York City. There is a tension throughout the entire book between fire and water - the inferno that claimed the lives of the girls at the factory and the water where Coralie spends much of her time swimming. At some point in the novel, I found myself quickly flipping pages because Hoffman had made me care about these characters. 

This book achieves the difficult feat of being both too long and too short. There were parts where I thought that the story was really meandering. But I wanted more of the auxiliary characters -  the household servants who love and help Coralie, her dastardly father Professor Sardie, the men and women who are on exhibit at the museum, and the denizens of the underworld where Eddie lives and works. Our protagonists seemed like they were holding the door open so that we could peer into fascinating worlds, but the door was only open for a few brief pages. 

The Museum of Extraordinary Things would not be my suggestion for a reader who is just discovering what Hoffman can do with words and characters and magic. There are other stories that are stronger and more enduring. But this is a good book, one that reminds us of the power of human connection and the talent with which Ms. Hoffman can bring history to vivid and terrible life. 

April Wrap-Up

April was a good and crazy month! We celebrated Easter in typical big family style. I participated in Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon. At the end of the month, I celebrated my birthday. A girl can't complain about all of that celebrating!

Now the hubby and I are starting May off right by jetting down to Florida for a few days. Woohoo!

Books reviewed in April: 8
Pages read: 2,541
Fiction/non-fiction: 7/1
Female authors/male authors: 7/1
My books/library books/books for review: 2/2/4
Most-read April review: The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress 
Favorite April read: Found and The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry


Books reviewed by David: 2
David's favorite April read: The Yoda Chronicles Trilogy 

What was your favorite April read?