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Tuesday, Dec. 1/On My Nightstand

December 1st, 2009 Kristi Leave a comment Go to comments

 

No photo. I wore the same outfit as yesterday except I pulled on a black cashmere cardigan.
Menu:
breakfast: banana, biscotti, cafe au lait
lunch: cheese and salami
dinner; pasta with sausage; wine
Finances: $0

On my Nightstand

This weekend I finished The Likeness by Tana French. I found myself thinking about the characters so much yesterday and anxious to get back to the book until I remembered I had already finished it. A true sign of a good book.

Also finished Italian for for Beginners by Kristen Harmel, Dreaming in French by Megan McAndrew and The Road by Cormac McCarthy, all good books, though I think Dreaming in French was my favorite.

Now I am about to begin:

Viola in reel life: a novel by Adriana Trigiani, one of my favorite authors. Just picked this up at the library and can’t wait to dig into it!
(If I ever become a published author with a fan base I hope to be just like Adriana. She is so warm and wonderful. She has emailed me several times and called into our bookclub meeting last year. When I answered the phone she said, “Hey baby how’s it going?” Love her. Her publicist contacted me earlier this year and said Adriana wants to send me a copy of her new book when it comes out in January. She doesn’t even know I have a blog — it wasn’t for publicity purposes, it was because she knows my bookclub loves her — so mabye a little bit of publicity purposes … but I adore her. She invited all of us to come be extras in her movie Big Stone Gap, which unfortunately none of us could do).

A Homemade Life: stories and recipes from my kitchen table by Molly Wizenberg. Will also begin this soon.

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  1. Andi
    December 5th, 2009 at 10:55 | #1
    Reply | Quote

    I am going to have to check out Viola in reel life – I too have met some amazing authors and love to support them!

  2. Kristi
    December 5th, 2009 at 12:41 | #2
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    Andi,
    If you are interested in Adriana Trigiani’s books I would recommend starting with Big Stone Gap.
    I also am the opposite of my pack rat husband, but after 18 years together, he is starting to realize how nice it is to be clutter free. I sensed in you that same gypsy spirit I have! I remember reading something on the French Chic Yahoo group about a couple who were saving money to retire and move to Paris to live on a barge — how romantic is that? Anyway, they had something they called the “barge filter” which meant everything they bought they had to consider first whether they would be taking it to Paris with them and would have space on the barge for it! I love this.
    Also, I must tell you I was inspired to start a blog when Eurochic took a hiatus for awhile and i had withdrawals!

    PS When I read your blog I miss the Bay Area so much– I am from Calif. and used to live in Walnut Creek and Oakland … one of my favorite places in the world is North Beach.

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What is it about those Italian women? You know the ones I’m talking about: beautiful, sexy, dressed to the nines just to take the kids to the park. They have a certain something that is indefinable. It is in the way they dress, the way they prepare their meals, the way they spend their leisure time.

It is because they know the importance of la bella figura. Roughly translated from Italian, it means putting you best foot forward in everything you do. It means cutting a beautiful figura. The opposite of la bella figura is la brutta figura, which is what someone might say about the falling down drunken guy at the party or the super tackily dressed woman at church. It means ugly figure.

La bella figura is much more than your appearance. It goes much deeper than that. It is about how you act. It is about how you treat others. It is about how you care for yourself, your home and your family. Living a life in line with la bella figura doesn’t take money. In fact, it is more about how to have class without a lot of money.

Someone who exudes la bella figura will have clean, pressed clothes and be well groomed. They will not be rude or sloppy. Their fingernails will be impeccably groomed. Their hair shiny and clean and their shoes will be polished. They will not have stray threads hanging from their suit hems. They will not be driving a car in need of the car wash.

La bella figura means driving that 15 year old car and meticulously cleaning it and caring for it. It means keeping your belongings in good repair. It means taking time to clean your house and not cluttering it up with meaningless objects.

When you focus all your spare energy, time and money on the things that bring you the most amount of pleasure, then you are truly living a life in line with la bella figura. The best part about it is that you don’t have to be Italian to do so. You just have to think like an Italian.

Italian children are raised to present la bella figura in whatever they do. From the time they are small and are groomed perfectly to attend church or school, they know that appearances count. They count because it is the first thing people judge about you. That first impression does matter. Appearances are also important because when you take the time to look nice, you are showing that you care about yourself. When you care enough to look good, it shows you have good healthy self esteem. Nothing is more attractive than self confidence.

In addition, dressing nice also shows respect for others. If you invite people over for dinner and greet them in flip flops, baggy sweats and a stained shirt, it is really disrespectful to them. The same if you dress sloppy to go to church or even to the market. By dressing nicely and being well groomed, you show respect for everyone in your world.

Having la bella figura means presenting yourself in the best light possible in all your interactions.