To learn more on the subject of writers and how the place where they are writing informs their writing, you need to read this book. How Doerr manages to take the romance out of writing in Rome is quite spectacular. Perhaps having twin babies and a deadline will take the some of the romance out of any location!

I spoke about this book in my blog. See entry for Feb 21, 2008 at http://karenvanuska.livejournal.com/ ( )

This is another NPR book, but unfortunately one that makes for a better interview than read. It's about an American couple living for a year in Rome with 6-month old twins. That's about all there is to it. It's fairly sweet and charming, but never really rises about the level of an edited journal. ( )

Yet another vacation read! Of course, being a mom of twins I was hooked when I saw that the book dealt with someone traveling abroad with newborn twins. However, I found it to get a bit too "cootchie-cootchie" cutsie on the parenting side of things, at least for me. Some of Doerr's views on living in Rome presented a neat cross-cultural perspective, which I did appreciate. Otherwise, the book was ok. ( )

http://ffedor.blogspot.com/2007/07/pl... ( )