{"id":1052,"date":"2009-02-28T22:36:30","date_gmt":"2009-03-01T03:36:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/?p=1052"},"modified":"2010-06-13T00:55:15","modified_gmt":"2010-06-13T04:55:15","slug":"a-good-year-by-peter-mayle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/?p=1052","title":{"rendered":"A Good Year by Peter Mayle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This was my final book for the Lit Flicks Challenge and I only had a few days to get it read.\u00c2\u00a0 I can read some books rather quickly but the way this started didn&#8217;t give me much hope.\u00c2\u00a0 It was an entertaining read, though.<\/p>\n<p>Previously, I&#8217;d read <em>A Year in Provence <\/em>by Mayle and was positively charmed.\u00c2\u00a0 His writing proved the region the tourists experience is not the same as the region inhabited by the locals.\u00c2\u00a0 This was a memoir.<\/p>\n<p><em>A Good Year<\/em> is a fiction novel about an Englishman named Max who quits his job and finds out he&#8217;s inherited the French chateau of his uncle on the same day.\u00c2\u00a0 It appears to be the answer to his money problems &#8211; move to France and own a winery.\u00c2\u00a0 However, a few wrinkles come up that makes fulfilling the plan less straight forward than initially thought.<\/p>\n<p>In the beginning I found the writing regarding actions annoying.\u00c2\u00a0 It was like reading overly detailed directions for a movie script.\u00c2\u00a0 About Chapter Five or Six is when the action flowed more naturally.\u00c2\u00a0 It may be because there were many more characters at this point.\u00c2\u00a0 Or it could be because Max was established as being more at home at the chateau than in London.\u00c2\u00a0 Not long after those chapters is when the winery intrigue picks up.<\/p>\n<p>The movie version was released a few years ago with Russell Crowe in the role of Max.\u00c2\u00a0 I suspect the movie focuses more Max giving up the hustle and bustle of high finance in London and learning to appreciate the slower pace of Provence.\u00c2\u00a0 While I had no interest in seeing the movie I&#8217;m now slightly intrigued.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This was my final book for the Lit Flicks Challenge and I only had a few days to get it read.\u00c2\u00a0 I can read some books rather quickly but the way this started didn&#8217;t give me much hope.\u00c2\u00a0 It was an entertaining read, though. Previously, I&#8217;d read A Year in Provence by Mayle and was&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/?p=1052\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">A Good Year by Peter Mayle<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,3],"tags":[123,125,24,37,124],"class_list":["post-1052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-event","category-review","tag-a-good-year","tag-a-year-in-provence","tag-book","tag-challenge","tag-peter-mayle","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1052"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2551,"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1052\/revisions\/2551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}