Book Giveaway Winner!

Ok, Easter Weekend, curled up in bed,

watching the little birdies sprint

back and forth to the suet feeder.

All the names have been put

into a hat

and the winner of...

The Best Travel Writing 2009...

is Ms. Lucy!!!

Congratulations Ms. Lucy!!

I have to admit that I took a quick peek into the book

while awaiting the big day

and feel I must share

just a few quotes.

From Matthew Gavin Frank's excerpt

"Raw Meat, Barry White and the Brothers"

from his food and wine memoir "Barolo",

these quotes made me

put the book down

and stare out the window

in awed laughter.

"I straighten without thought, my hands grip the table,

and I turn to see the source of heat

as a pea-sized glow of perforated orange light,

winking in a desperate tango.

It is the cherry of Ercole's cigarette,

dangling ashen from his lips.

His hands are on his hips, hands far too large for his arms,

flaring from his wrists

like the persimmons from their branches.

He is barrel-chested and young---early thirties, maybe---

and he has the face of that one small-town boy who has never left home,

but somehow knows everything about the world.

He is plainly intense, eyes squinted,

nose perplexed from countless childhood fights;

he lifts his giant hands to the capped blades of Loredana's shoulders,

mysteriously materializing directly in front of him.

I am both comfortable and uneasy,

as if sleeping in my own bed,

but with a brand new blanket."

"I run my eyes from her hand to her face

and am arrested by her worn beauty...

She has the face of an old house--

the only one in the neighborhood

that survived that fire all those years ago."

"Guiseppe offers his glass to the ceiling shadows.

I hold mine to my nose and:

hay, sawdust, slaughter;

then: truffle, blackberry, pine;

fruitcake baked in a coffin."

To check out his website, purchase his book

or read further excerpts

click here.

Congratulations again Ms. Lucy!

And Happy Easter to all!!