William Alexander (3)Besprekingen

Ca c'est magnifique!

William Alexander is a Francophile who desperately wants to speak (and understand) the language he loves. In mid-life he tries to achieve this goal -- with hilarious (and humbling) results. In this gem of a livre Alexander chronicles his journey through Rosetta Stone, Fluenz, and various web sites that connect native English speakers with native French speakers. After a year of at-home study, the capstone of Alexander's project is a multi-week French immersion program in France with people from all over the world who are trying to achieve proficieny in the language.

This little memoir is filled with laugh-out-loud moments contrasted with remarkably interesting research about aging, our brains, and just what happens when we learn (or at least try to learn) a second language. In short, I loved it.

4.5 stars

Very enjoyable! Kind of like Bill Bryson in a garden.

I'm not the least bit interesting in gardening so it's odd that I would read this book but the title just struck me funny so I picked it up at the library and read it in just a couple of days.

It's well written, funny, and it kind of makes me want to plant some tomatos next summer!

Somewhere around 3.5 stars. It wasn't great but it has funny moments and the writing kept me engaged which is why I gave it 4 stars.

Of course I had to read this. It sounded like the story of my life. This book was so humorous and relatable. I wanted so bad to give it a 5-star, but right smack in the middle of the book, he went off on a historical tangent on how the tomato and potato got to where they are today...4-5 eye-glazing pages long, beginning in the 1500's to present day. Otherwise, very engaging!

I did like this book but it wasn't quite what I was expecting. Don't you hate it when that happens? This year is my first year with a real vegetable garden and it's much harder than I thought it would be. This book basically cemented the belief that it will always just be much harder than I thought. LOL.

Anyway, a good book to give you a peek into the obsessive compulsive nature of growing your own food. It also gave me a bit of insight into what was wrong with my apple tree. Turns out, it's cedar rust. Thank you!

Fascinating book about tomatoes themselves, ketchup, pizza, farming and hybridization/genetics, to name a few subjects. Subtle humor throughout the book. The audio book was really well done.

As a tomato addict, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I currently have 30 tomato plants in my garden, with 18 different varieties. It's going to be quite the year of experimentation!
Alexander offers an in-depth look into everything tomato related. In the first half, the book explores the history and culture of the tomato. The second half dives into the science of tomatoes. The breeding, the growing, and environmental factors.
It's a great companion piece to the author's earlier book, "The $64 Tomato". Together they have pushed my interest (aka: obsession) to new levels.
I will be keeping this book handy for future reviews, especially during the off-season when I can only dream about growing more tomatoes!
Highly recommend to any gardener who loves tomatoes!

Delightful, funny and very interesting. Alexander is an obsessive sort of personality which he has luckily (for us and him) turned into a livelihood. (See his other books!) He is also a very good writer, delicately balancing angst, humor and fascinating facts about the French language.

Tremendously funny book about gardening. Alexander gives us chapters about different events that happen in his garden, from the planning and building to the battles with wildlife to the benefits of the harvest. A must-read for all gardeners. He complains a lot about the problems in his garden but doesn't ever try any of the solutions he thinks of...in part because that's against his credo as an attempting-organic gardener. Still there's much to enjoy here.

One man's journey to create the perfect loaf. Not a recipe book but rather an expression of passion for baking.

I haven't the financial resources but I can relate to this guy and his pursuit of tomatoes. A warm Brandywine with the scent of a tomato plant hovering about is about as close to heaven that exists. I am also a fan of creative non-fiction and fish-out-of-water stories so my biases are inescapable in this review so I apologize in advance. But, there is a lot to love in this love letter to a fruit. The author does a nice job of sprinkling the history, symbolism and fun facts without stumbling over tedium. The pursuit of the perfect tomato/roses/family life are obsessive and create such indelible images (seriously, pollination is much sexier than I ever thought it was) that while it has been nearly a decade since I read it I still giggle every spring when the orchards in Ohio are covered in fluffy apple blossoms. The friction between our hurry-up culture and the measured pace of agriculture are funny and the author milks it for all its worth 🙄😁 (the book is much funnier than I am, ok?) I promise that groundhogs won't just be for Groundhog Day any more.

I just loved this book full of fun, adventure, knowledge, and - dare I say - spiritual enlightenment. Alexander has a penchant for digging deep and he spares no effort from growing his own wheat to travelling abroad for the perfect loaf. His determination is striking and his sense of humour is communicative. The last chapters are nothing less than amazing as he encounters characters as mesmerizing as the author's awakening in a French monastery that he will change forever. It makes one believe in miracles.

SEXISM >:(

Fun & fast reading gardening memoir.

A laugh out loud gardening memoir. I read everything about gardening as I am an aspiring but failed gardener. I realized with this book I could not afford $64 tomatoes, Versailles looking flower beds and gardening would remain my small hobby. I would not become a farmer. Mr. Alexander has a professional designer and her husband put in the garden beds with elements he has great reservations. Problems ensue. Wandering grass, weeds, Superchuck, bugs, deer etc. Go organic or not? Waning family enthusiasim. The consequence of introducing new plants.... Loved the book but it made me realize it is ok to buy produce at the store or farm stand, not buy that tiller but when those seed catalogs start coming

I was first attracted to this book by its title. The idea that a man wants to grow his own wheat, harvest it, grind flour and do everything he can to reproduce an artisanal loaf of bread is intriguing to say the least. As a librarian, I must admit that I was more than a tad put off by the idea that he would begin a backyard wheat field without an ounce of research. He didn't know if he was planting the right kind of wheat for the region in which lived, if it was the right kind for the bread he wanted to make...Really? Hello? Call your local library. Finally on page 41 Mr. Alexander "hopped on to the Internet" and did a LOT of research. Many interesting side trips discuss events such as the pellagra epidemic of the early 1900s which caused hundreds of thousands of deaths until dietary experiments determined that dried yeast could prevent the disease.½

A great book about the quest for perfection, about connection with the past, about obsession, a spiritual journey and, of course, about bread. Funny, educational, and surprisingly moving.

I bought this book at Shakespeare & Company in Paris, and read it throughout my visit there. The book is delightful. (The trip was too.) And while, for me the visit and the read were completely entwined, I have no doubt that the book would have been just as delightful if I was visiting, say... Milwaukee.

While I was expecting a feel good story about a new experience, what I read was a realistic and entertaining book about the issues and experiences of learning a language as an adult. The learning and language theory interspersed with the variety of tactics Alexander used to try to attain his goal made an interesting read.

Ich habe das Buch zum ersten Mal im April 2008 gelesen und damals mit 1a bewertet.
Vom Unterhaltungswert würde ich diese Note immer noch vergeben. Die Ansichten des Autors und seine Vorgehensweise im Garten finde ich mittlerweile teilweise fragwürdig.
Der Autor kauft ein Haus mit dazugehörigem Grund und verwandelt dieses Grundstück in einen Garten, vor allem in einen Nutzgarten. Er schildert auf amüsante und sehr unterhaltsame Weise seinen Kampf gegen Unkraut, Schadinsekten und allerlei Wildtiere. Es ist das einzige Buch des Autors, welches ins Deutsche übersetzt wurde und mittlerweile vergriffen.

I enjoyed this book a lot, perhaps partly because I'm a little bread-obsessed right now, but also because it's entertaining and amusing. It's a little formulaic and predictable, perhaps, but I did learn a thing or two from it. It's well-crafted and witty.

No, he doesn't become fluent in French (after about 900 hours of study, including everything from Rosetta Stone to an immersion class in France), but his cognitive test scores skyrocket, leading him to assert that language study is a kind of fountain of youth for the brain. A really good read, funny and engaging, discouraging and positive.

Too quick, too superficial, for me. Every challenge felt predictable, as if I'd read it in some other gardening memoir or lived it myself. The bit that bothered me most, I think, was that for all the bitching & moaning, they did wind up with enough produce that they did have to buy a winter refrigerator and give peaches to the food pantry and feel guilty about 'dumping' cucumbers etc. on friends and colleagues. Oh poor things - I'd love to have that problem!

Still, it's a charming read for the right audience. Please, if you're interested in reading it, do so - don't be dissuaded by my personal negativity. Who knows, maybe I'm just green w/ envy because I'm living in an apartment in a desert....

Our author bakes a loaf of peasant bread every week for a year. along the way he learns the chemistry of flour, the biology of yeast and the ways ofa moastery in France. It was the monastery where Patrick Leigh Fremour use to stay! Quite good.½

His attempt to make the "perfect" bread was amusing; sometimes even laugh out loud funny. I can't wait to try the levain.