The best books about Tuscany

Set amongst the scandal, wealth, and upstairs-downstairs politics of a Roman family, Crystal King’s seminal debut, Feast Of Sorrow, features the man who inspired the world’s oldest cookbook and the ambition that led to his destruction.

On a blistering day in the twenty-sixth year of Augustus Caesar’s reign, a young chef, Thrasius, is acquired for the exorbitant price of twenty thousand denarii. His purchaser is the infamous gourmet Marcus Gavius Apicius, wealthy beyond measure, obsessed with a taste for fine meals from exotic places, and a singular ambition: to serve as culinary advisor to Caesar, an honor that will cement his legacy as Rome's leading epicure.

Savor Susan Van Allen’s entertaining anecdotes and practical details as she takes you up and down the beautiful boot to immerse yourself in Italy’s pleasures. Discover such delights as masterpieces that glorify womanly curves, the palace where Audrey Hepburn lived in Roman Holiday, gardens where courtesans once frolicked, spas for pampering, beaches for relaxing, wine bars and jazz clubs, adventures where you’ll be making tortellini with grandmas, shopping for Italy’s prized ceramics, skiing in the Dolomites, or setting up an easel to paint a Tuscan landscape. No matter your mood, even if you’re simply armchair traveling, Italy awaits. An update of the classic women have been loving for over a decade.

"Susan Van Allen is the best girlfriend you've never met." - Pittsburgh Tribune

Fifty-year-old Toscana Blake has a “nice” husband and a “comfortable” marriage. There’s no magic. When she travels to Italy for Rome’s chocolate festival, she’s startled by visions at the Temple of Vesta and an unexpected meeting with a young history professor, Flynn Harris, who feels strangely familiar. As Flynn helps her unravel the mystery of her visions, Toscana starts to fall for her new friend. And when a psychic tells her she’s been searching for love for many years and is only half-alive, she fears there’s no way back to the world she understood. 

From Atlanta to Rome to Tuscany, Toscana’s emotional journey tests the bonds of love and friendship. Will her sensible side prevent her from accepting her happily ever after?

This collection of papers presents a rich selection of innovative scholarship on the Etruscans, a vibrant, independent people whose distinct civilization flourished in central Italy for most of the first millennium BCE and whose artistic, social, and cultural traditions helped shape the ancient Mediterranean, European, and Classical worlds. The contributing authors counter the claim that the Etruscans were culturally inferior to the Greeks and Romans by emphasizing fields where the Etruscans were either technological or artistic pioneers and by reframing similarities in style and iconography as examples of Etruscan agency and reception rather than as a deficit of local creativity.

The year is 2319. The galactic war with the aliens known as the Serken had finally turned to the favor of the Allied words for the first time in over a decade. Yet it is far from over. Lt. Commander Roy O’Hara leads his squadron of combat space fighters against the enemy’s latest Super Destroyer and is shot down over an unexplored planet. Near death, Roy is found by a beautiful healer named Katreena. Roy finds that both of their fates are intertwined in prophecy and in a secret that the planet holds, which could be the key to winning the war or further destruction.

It’s 1935 in Oklahoma, and lives are determined by the dust. Fourteen-year-old Kathryn Baile is a spitfire born with a severe clubfoot. Once her beloved older sister marries, Kathryn’s only comfort comes from her favorite book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Then Kathryn’s father decides to relocate to Indianapolis, and only the promise of surgery to finally make her “normal” convinces Kathryn to leave Oklahoma behind.

Back in Boise City, Melissa Baile Mayfield is the newest member of the wealthiest family in all of Cimarron County. In spite of her poor, rural upbringing, Melissa has just married the town’s most eligible bachelor and is determined to be everything her husband—and her new social class—expects her to be. Melissa secretly defies her husband, risking her life to follow God’s leading.

Brynna Philips is ready to give up on love. But when her fellow teacher invites her on a camping trip through Sonoma wine country, she’s reminded of her first crush, a young man named Leroy, whose family owned a vineyard down there. Is there any chance she can find him...and one last chance for love? “No one writes clean, contemporary romance like Carlson, who delivers another winner with this novel...Hallmark will be salivating over this script. With plenty of humorous encounters, delightful misunderstandings, and realistic characters, this is one to hand to readers looking for a fun read with a hint of faith.” Library Journal

Kate Snyder is at the top of her game. A former Wolcott University player, the WNBA star and Olympic gold medalist is now a coaching legend at the helm of the #1 college women's basketball team. But the university hires a football coach trying to escape scandal―paying him a lot more than she earns.

Danny McMillan had hoped for a smooth transition at Wolcott, but the fiery Coach Snyder made that impossible. Every time he and Kate are in a room together, snark and sparks fly. Danny gets her frustration, but her pay isn't his problem, right? When Kate and Danny finally see eye to eye, their sparks turn into something even hotter...and they need to figure out if this is more than just a game.

A woman’s adventures, struggles, and abiding love for a most unorthodox man throughout a 37-year partnership. An idealist, romantic, and eccentric astrologer-poet, Heiman’s husband believed there were places in the world, where each of us is most likely to unfold and best nurture our souls. The book follows Joan and Philip in their search for their place on the planet, journeying from dream to dream, country to country, and finally to the untimely and heartbreaking death of this wonderfully impossible and beloved man.

Despite his tragic end, Philip was too loveably quirky for the book to be heavy or depressing. Heiman shares her story with pathos and humor, as well as offering reflections on the complex nature of loving, dying, grieving, and healing.

Fifty-year-old Toscana Blake has a “nice” husband and a “comfortable” marriage. There’s no magic. When she travels to Italy for Rome’s chocolate festival, she’s startled by visions at the Temple of Vesta and an unexpected meeting with a young history professor, Flynn Harris, who feels strangely familiar. As Flynn helps her unravel the mystery of her visions, Toscana starts to fall for her new friend. And when a psychic tells her she’s been searching for love for many years and is only half-alive, she fears there’s no way back to the world she understood. 

From Atlanta to Rome to Tuscany, Toscana’s emotional journey tests the bonds of love and friendship. Will her sensible side prevent her from accepting her happily ever after?