Only in Naples

During a college internship in 1996, Wilson fell in love with the quirky and wonderful city of Naples, Italy. Wilson, who was raised in Washington, D.C., now resides in Italy with her husband and their two children. Her warm-hearted memoir weaves snippets of her upper-middle-class upbringing into the chronicle of her life in Italy for the past 19 years. During her internship, Wilson was taken under the wing of a Neapolitan family with two children her own age, headed by an irrepressible matron. Wilson began learning the language and customs of everyday life that were not readily found in guidebooks. She slowly grasped how enjoying good food can spill over into the love of life. Wilson explains that she had been a chubby child and struggled with what Italians call "disorganized, messy eating sickness," or binge-eating disorder, while growing up. But Naples and her adopted family showed her a different way to eat and live: "Naples is an anti-binge city. In Neapolitan culture, mealtimes are sacred%E2%80%94food is freshly prepared and consumed in compagnia." Wilson includes special recipes for savoring alongside her sweet and humorous narrative. (Apr.)