Article 2 - REVIEW OF "A Year in the World" DECEMBER 2006 edition of First Church of The Streets

    Go tapas bar hopping in Spain. Eat fresh caught fish in Portugal. Get lost in the labyrinthine roads in Morocco. Look at the sarcophagi in Pompeii. Enjoy the sights of Corfu. Take a Mediterranean cruise. Buy rugs in Turkey. Hear the Sirens call you in Capri. Admire the gardens and castles of Great Britain. And of course, while you are at it, enjoy and savor the wares of France and Italy, wherever your whim may take you, or you are led. Or, have Frances Mayes do it for you, and read "A Year in the World".

    Mayes, famous for the travel book "Under the Tuscan Sun", has put together another book of her travels, disparate journeys which amount to a traveler's year. The good life is something to be savored and sampled in this book, as she takes you through gastronomical feasts and aesthetic wonders throughout eight countries. She acts like a live travel guide, except instead of providing dry details of what and where there are things to do, she brings the places alive with a zesty voice and a hearty attitude, making it seems as though the reader is taking the journey along with her.

    "A Year in the World" is not a book that you want to read when you are hungry. Mayes spends much of her time serving up large feasts of words where the operative word is "Eat! Eat!" Happy days are spent on terraces and in cafes, and wine is served up with a delicious dose. Mayes shows you where the best places are to eat, and how you can make your own kitchen come alive with the spirit that food can bring to it. There are no drive-in fast food restaurants featured in this book.

    In addition, Mayes takes the reader garden hopping and introduces one to the delectable delights of the European garden, featuring many regional delights with as much zest as she serves up the food she eats. Even if one doesn't want to plant a garden of one's own, at the very least, the visits she takes you on can make it more tempting.

    The spirit that Mayes brings to other places, such as museums and carpet shopping, is just as infective as the rest of the narrative. This narrator seems fully present and absorbent of the world around her, taking her mother's directive to "Go". History comes alive and breathes through her very voice, resurrecting dry history books from dustbins and having them walk next to her as companions. And everywhere she goes, the spirit of life seems to follow her, infusing her dialect and transfusing it to the reader, making one want to "go" as well.

    This story is the perfect antidote to a busy world. Mayes' book and the philosophy that goes along with it advises one to slow down and to stop the tunnel vision of a multi-tasking world. Written in the wake of September 11th, this seems like a timely lesson. Most importantly, Mayes reminds one to enjoy life while it is there, and see the world in light of happiness and pleasure rather than fear and distrust.