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Past
Book Club Selections
View Archived Book Club Selections
FALL
2006 SELECTIONS:
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La Bella Figura: A Field Guide to the Italian Mind
By Beppe Severgnini
Italian newspaper columnist and author of the memoir Ciao,
America! Beppo
Severgnini, delights readers once again with his funny observances on Italy
and her people in this his latest book which roughly translates as “Making a
Good Impression."
Organized as a tour of both Italy and its lifestyle, his "guide" includes
such insights as, "An Italian red light doesn’t warn or order as much as
provide an invitation for reflection."
Ten days, thirty places. From north to south and from food to
politics, Severgnini’s guide will help you understand why Italy "can have
you fuming and then purring all in the space of hundred meters or ten
minutes." [$23.95; hardcover; 240 pages; Broadway]
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Alive on the Andrea Doria! The Greatest Sea Rescue in History
By Pierette Domenica Simpson
It’s been 50 years since Pierette Domenica Simpson was one of 1,660 passengers who survived the wreck of the Andrea Doria. Forty-six were not so lucky the night of July 25, 1956 when the MS Stockholm mysteriously rammed into the Italian luxury liner, which sank 11 hours later.
Simpson, who was 9 at the time, is the first to publish an eyewitness account of the collision and sea rescue. Through interviews with other survivors and nautical experts she reveals who was to blame for the collision of two huge ships on a clear summer night off the shore of Nantucket. [$18.00; paperback; 312 pages; Purple Mountain Press]
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Road to Robes: A Federal Judge Recollects Young Years & Early Times
By Ruggero J. Aldisert
This autobiography tells the fascinating journey through life taken by Federal Judge Ruggero Aldisert. The son of an Italian immigrant who, as a teenager, made his own way to America, Aldisert begins with a first- person account of life as an Italian boy during the 1920’s in Western Pennsylvania.
It is chock-full of must-read chapters, including a childhood experience with the KKK (who would have thought they went after Italian immigrants in Pennsylvania?!). He survives and goes on to law school and a legal career at a time when relatively few Italian Americans even went to college. His narrative includes exciting accounts of criminal trials and insights into high level corporate legal issues. [22.95; paperback; 444 pages; Authorhouse]
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ALSO WORTH READING:
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The Lonesome Cobbler
By Anelio F. Conti
World War II was hard on Italian civilians—especially those in rural Italy.
In this moving novel, we see the wartime struggles of the peasants in
Montelieto, a fictitious town in central Italy. As Mussolini’s Fascist
regime gains control over Italy and their own town, the people turn to both
the local cobbler and parish priest for leadership and survival. [$22.95;
hardcover; 342 pages; Vantage Press]
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In the Gathering Woods
By Adria Bernardi
This prize-winning collection of short stories studies the Italian experience from the Renaissance to the present. It opens in 20th century Italy as a child learns from his grandfather how to pick edible mushrooms and how his family has survived over time. It then skips back to the 15th century to a shepherd who longs to be an artist and then across the ocean to America as it explores how human nature finds the tools to survive life’s challenges—with an Italian flair. [$14.00; paperback; 256 pages; University of Pittsburg Press]
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*Reflects list price. Discounts may apply through
amazon.com.
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