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    I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti: A Memoir
    I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti: A Memoir
    I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti: A Memoir
    Audiobook7 hours

    I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti: A Memoir

    Written by Giulia Melucci

    Narrated by Giulia Melucci

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    From failure to fusilli, this deliciously hilarious read tells the story of Giulia Melucci's fizzled romances and the mouth-watering recipes she used to seduce her men, smooth over the lumps, and console herself when the relationships flamed out.

    From an affectionate alcoholic, to the classic New York City commitment-phobe, to a hipster aged past his sell date, and not one, but two novelists with Peter Pan complexes, Giulia has cooked for them all. She suffers each disappointment with resolute cheer (after a few tears) and a bowl of pastina (recipe included) and has lived to tell the tale so that other women may go out, hopefully with greater success, and if that's not possible, at least have something good to eat.

    Peppered throughout Giulia's delightful and often poignant remembrances are fond recollections of her mother's cooking, the recipes she learned from her, and many she invented on her own inspired by the men in her life. Readers will howl at Giulia's boyfriend-littered past and swoon over her irresistable culinary creations.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateApr 1, 2009
    ISBN9781423389361
    I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti: A Memoir
    Author

    Giulia Melucci

    Giulia Melucci was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, where she still lives, but in a more fashionable neighborhood. She is the former VP of PR for Harper's Magazine, and previously worked at Spy Magazine, Atlantic Monthly Press, Viking, Dutton, and Scribner.

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    Reviews for I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti

    3.5/5

    113 ratings22 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      Chick Lit with a helping of Roast Chicken. That's what you'll find in I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti by Giulia Melucci. Her memoir focuses on her failed relationships, where the main attraction lays in the meals she cooks and not between her and her lovers. Melucci finds herself drawn to the wrong type of men. They are unwilling to commit, and Melucci mistakenly hangs on, constantly feeding their bellies while they neglect to feed her need to be loved. Interspersed in between her tales are some pretty interesting recipes. They are simple yet sound delicious. The writing, itself, though, left me unsatisfied and wanting more. I wanted to see Melucci reflect on her past dating disasters in a way that would allow her to grow from them. Instead, she seems stuck repeating the same mistakes over and over. In the end, it becomes merely frustrating. It might be forgivable for young girl, but for a woman in her 40s, it just becomes frustrating. I read this book on and off over four days. There were times at the beginning when I really wanted to keep reading so I could find out that the author had finally found true love, but after realizing that it just wasn't going to happen, the novelty wore off. I'll keep the book for the recipes. I'd recommend it for a long flight or a mindless summer read. Chick lit fans might like the light-hearted reading, but I just can't see this book making a serious reader's "favorite" list.
    • 4/5
      pretty damn good. i'd live with her. how difficult can she be. she has an apartment in nyc, a good job AND SHE COOKS. i'd clean.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      a interesting book to read
    • 4/5
      Fun book in which a single woman tells of her relationships with various different men. As noted she loves, loses and makes spaghetti. She tells of the men she has loved and the meals she has cooked them. Also it includes the recipes that she cooked for them. The recipes seem simple enough but I'm not much of a cook. Overall light and entertaining of a single woman looking for love in new York and part cookbook.
    • 4/5
      In this autobiography the author talks about her loves and their connections to food. The first chapter, devoted to her first real boyfriend, felt extremely rushed, and I remember thinking uh oh this is going to kind of suck. But the second chapter, devoted to Giulia's father (and extremely moving) had much better flow and things seriously improved from there. I love the recipes, which all seem relatively simple and easy to follow and can't wait to try some of them out.
    • 4/5
      I loved this book. What single woman doesn't want to read about someone else's dating trials and get great easy recipes at the same time?!
    • 4/5
      I liked this little memoir about failed loves and successful cooking! Melucci keeps a sense of humor throughout her discussion of all the men who have come and gone in her life, and she clearly has a joyful life, with or without a man. I liked that the book ended with her still waiting for Mr. Perfect.I was amazed at how many men the author has actually had serious relationships with, though. I could identify with her late blooming, but once she got started she sure did meet lots of guys. The last one, she just met on a street corner when he asked for directions! Maybe it's life in New York, or maybe it's her career in the publishing industry, but she certainly runs across lots of single straight men her age. That has not been my experience.I also admire Melucci's willingness to try again and again in her search for permanent love. At this point in my life (after a long marriage that failed), I'm almost willing to believe that lifetime love is a myth. This author maintains her faith in love despite her loss, and does a remarkable job of remaining friends with some of her past boyfriends. I wish her the best in eventually finding a true and lasting love.Of course, the other enjoyable part of this book is the discussion of food and cooking. I am going to copy a few of the recipes. Most of them appear to be fairly easy and are quite tempting.
    • 4/5
      I was charmed by this book. I related with her chase of love: instead of considering whether the date/man/relationship is good for you, you think of whether you are making him happy. I hope that she learns from these men and I hope that she considers herself more, at least in the relationship. She has feeding herself and others down. I am going to have to try some of these recipes, although, honestly most seem beyond me. Love, dating, and food in NYC.
    • 4/5
      With a witty way of telling a life story and a book full of great recipes, Melucci's story was not only fun to read, but also yummy to devour! Yes, this is very much a single gals journey through relationships and good food, mainly at the same time. Not one of the men that she dated ever seemed to complain about the fact that she could cook. Really, what human being would ever complain about a really good cook? With her Italian heritage and her appreciation for good products, the meals she created didn't just please her men, but will easily please her readers as well.One recipe I jumped on was her angel hair with asparagus. With a quick saute in olive oil and garlic, the asparagus takes only minutes to cook. Toss in a bit of angel hair, and top with Parmesan, and what could be better? What's not to love? Other recipes in the book included a variety of pasta dishes, breakfast foods, and roasted meats. Intermingled with Melucci's stories of the men she dated, loved, and lost, you come to believe there will be a giant epiphany at the end of the book, but it's not there, and that feels all right. In a surprising sense, there isn't really a great arrival point in the book, but more a series of experiences that came into her life. On the whole, this was a great "journey" story, filled with great food, recipes, and characters who all work together to create an engaging recipe for a book. Now, if only I could find the energy to cook like she does!
    • 4/5
      I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti is 2 parts relationship memoir and 1 part cook book. Giulia gives her reader the rundown on her late blooming love life while associating all of her failures with men to her successes in her kitchen.I got this for my birthday from a friend and was intrigued, as I had never heard of it. Within a few pages she had me sucked into her ever failing love life and my mouth watering with a recipe for amazing blueberry muffins. Giulia Melucci obviously writes from the heart. She is honest about her own downfalls as well as the men she has dated. These men make a colorful cast of characters from your typical commitmentphobe to two novelists with peter pan complexes, an alcoholic and a man twenty years her senior. The concept has been done before, but Melucci's love afair with food gives her story something special. Fellow foodies can relate to her love of fresh ingredients and finding the perfect new kitchen accessory. Her recipes are filled with as much heart as her search for love and leave your mouth watering.I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti may not be for everyone, but for those who do enjoy it will find themselves laughing out loud and heading to the grocery story for pasta.
    • 5/5
      Quick, entertaining read. I found the interspersed recipes more of a distraction than anything, although I probably should have paid more attention to them because the few I read were actually witty.
    • 4/5
      This memoir of a woman's dating life and how it influenced her cooking is like chick lit, but real. You get your relationships, but they really happened. The author and I have the same taste in food and I tried her Salmon with Lemon Terragon Butter last night and it was delicious. It's a cute book.
    • 4/5
      A candid look at the author's love life and her passion for cooking make this an amusing read. Giula Melucci lives in New York and in the pages of this book shares what it is like to be single, meet interesting men, form relationships with them, and cook for them. She also shares her recipes with us--which sound divine, if some of the ingredients might be hard to come by for those of us in out in the sticks. I enjoyed this well enough and as a single woman could identify with some of the author's anguishes and compulsions. The food sounded really good too. It doesn't stand out as the greatest read ever, but it is a nice diversion if you want to read about someone's love life and peruse some interestng recipes.
    • 5/5
      I loved this book so much, I'm anxiously awaiting Giulia to write the next one. This book was fantastic! I really love her style of writing. When she tells a story, its as if she's having a conversation directly to you. I laughed out loud, and that doesn't happen often. I enjoyed the recipes in it too, and have tried a few. A must read for any culinary lover!!!
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this book. It is part New York City single girl memoir and part foodie memoir all rolled up into one. She tells the tales of all of her ex-boyfriends, the meeting, the dating, and the feeding of said boyfriends. Because that is what she does, she feeds her boyfriends, she cooks for them. I have to say the mom in me wanted to sit her down and have a good old-fashioned talk with her. I know that we are in enlightened times, but really you don't always have to be the one inviting them up to your apartment, kissing them first, trying to seduce them...basically doing all the work. Let them do the work, let them try and figure out how to win you. But aside from all the chasing and dating, there is the cooking. Since I listened to this book, I don't have any of the recipes in front of me. But they all sounded wonderful, simple, and delicious. Lots of pasta and lots of simple, real cooking. Cooking from the pantry when you get home late and you're starving.
    • 5/5
      If the quickest way to a man's heart is through his stomach -- perhaps the quickest way to understand love is through love gained and lost. Guilia takes us through a personal journey through her varied relationships and the varied dishes along the way. If you love good food, good writing and some good stories -- this will be an enjoyable read for you.
    • 3/5
      Chick Lit with a helping of Roast Chicken. That's what you'll find in I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti by Giulia Melucci. Her memoir focuses on her failed relationships, where the main attraction lays in the meals she cooks and not between her and her lovers. Melucci finds herself drawn to the wrong type of men. They are unwilling to commit, and Melucci mistakenly hangs on, constantly feeding their bellies while they neglect to feed her need to be loved. Interspersed in between her tales are some pretty interesting recipes. They are simple yet sound delicious. The writing, itself, though, left me unsatisfied and wanting more. I wanted to see Melucci reflect on her past dating disasters in a way that would allow her to grow from them. Instead, she seems stuck repeating the same mistakes over and over. In the end, it becomes merely frustrating. It might be forgivable for young girl, but for a woman in her 40s, it just becomes frustrating. I read this book on and off over four days. There were times at the beginning when I really wanted to keep reading so I could find out that the author had finally found true love, but after realizing that it just wasn't going to happen, the novelty wore off. I'll keep the book for the recipes. I'd recommend it for a long flight or a mindless summer read. Chick lit fans might like the light-hearted reading, but I just can't see this book making a serious reader's "favorite" list.
    • 5/5
      I just finished reading "I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti" by Giulia Melucci. This memoir takes you through the author's failed relationships. We've all had them. We've all felt at one point in our life that we are unloveable. I found myself feeling like Giulia's friend as she told me all about her life. I found myself telling her, "you're too good for him". All the things we try to tell our friends and just end up making them angry at us. With each of Giulia's relationships, they start out great but soon wane. She enjoys cooking and has shared several tasty sounding receipes in her book.I would recommend this book to every female who has ever felt insecure, which is each and every one of us. My only complaint with this book is that it made me extremely hungry!
    • 4/5
      Great book. Not a whiney tale of ex boyfriends. I liked that the recipes were for simple dishes, and they all looked and sounded good. She had cute names for the recipes. I hope Ms. Melucci finds the right man to cook for.
    • 4/5
      This was a candid memoir about a woman's war-like relationships, studded with recipes. The recipes look good and simple, and employ a variety of meats, vegetables and pasta. The author changed the names and identifying details of some of her lovers, which was frustrating because I want to read (or at least flip through) their books! Still, I respect her need to protect their privacy.Sometimes the author came off as neurotic/dysfunctional, as when she hoped that cooking for the men in her life and trying to fulfill their every need would make them love her. I could not tell whether the relationships failed because she was trying too hard or whether she just made terrible choices in mates. Overall, it was an honest and entertaining read.
    • 4/5
      A memoir of Giulia Melucci's fizzled romances... and although that doesn’t sound very enticing, I must say that there are some mouth-watering recipes intertwined with the telling of these romances that will definitely make up for it. Throughout this memoir we go from Giulia’s first boyfriend Kit, to Ethan (the love of her life), Mitch (I didn’t like him much), a couple of writers, a hippie older guy, and eventually Lachlan (a Scot who eventually used her and dumped her). Call me nosey, but I actually like reading about people’s relationships. I liked reading about all the ups and downs of her romances. And although, yes, there was a time or two where I felt frustrated for her, I felt that in the end she learned to love herself as a person and realize that because someone doesn’t love you, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t love yourself.I loved that she had a recipe for all the moments in life. The recipes range from very simple to something I wouldn’t even try (since I don’t cook!) - but they all seemed simple enough. I especially liked the "F*ck You Cupcakes" - that was great!This is a memoir and cookbook all wrapped up in one. So, if you like eating, cooking and have ever been in a bad relationship (who hasn’t?) this is a book you’ll enjoy.
    • 4/5
      Guilia Melucci woos her boyfriends in the kitchen, having taken as her own the old chestnut that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. This is a collection of her failed relationships and the recipes that were inspired by the men in her past. Each chapter is about one significant man in her past (there are a few exceptions that are boyfriend-less) and what happened in the relationship, from start to finish. Sprinkled throughout the chapters are the recipes Melucci cooks or creates for and with her boyfriends.The tone is fairly light throughout this book, making this a very easy read. The recipes sound scrumptious and if I can't have Melucci cook them for me (not only am I married, but I am not male so ineligible for boyfriend status), I suppose I will have to try them myself. The fact that the recipes are scattered smack in the narrative, as soon as they are mentioned, is distracting and interrupts the flow of each relationship, but once the reader adjusts to that (or simply puts the recipe on hold until the chapter has otherwise concluded as I did), the chapters cook along. Clearly writing about what happened in each relationship has helped Melucci gain some perspective on why none of her previous boyfriends was "the one" but this is more than just a therapeutic work. It's entertaining and fun, fluffy and delicious. I don't wish Melucci never finds the man of her dreams but I wouldn't mind reading more of her writings. Perhaps finding lasting love would add a new depth to her next book. This was a cute premise, nicely written, and if the ending is a little unfinished, that is probably because Melucci is still out there cooking and looking for Mr. Right.