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Past
Book Club Selections
View Archived Book Club Selections
SPRING 2007 SELECTIONS:
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ITALIAN VOICES: Making Minnesota Our Home
By Mary Ellen Mancina-Batinich
By 1915, an estimated 2 million Italian immigrants had entered the U.S., but
only about 10,000 went to Minnesota to work in its iron ore mines; lumber,
steel and flour mills; and farms where they routinely put in 10-hour days,
six days a week.
The late Mary Ellen Mancina-Batinich spent 20 years interviewing these
Minnesotans about their everyday life in the Italian communities of the Iron
Range, Duluth, and the Twin Cities between 1900 and 1960. Her book offers
their stories in their own words, making it a "must read" for anyone
interested in Italian American history. Foreword by the respected
immigration historian, Rudolph J. Vecoli. [$29.95; hardcover; 336 pages;
Minnesota Historical Society Press]
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THE CIELO: A Novel of Wartime Tuscany
By Paul Salsini
During World War II, the beautiful countryside of Tuscany became a
battlefield as Hitler's troops invaded the region and its terrified
villagers fled to the hills.
The Cielo, (The Heaven,) powerfully describes how the villagers of Sant'
Antonio cope as the war rages around them. While hiding together, they learn
to overcome petty differences, confront a neighbor's betrayal, protect an
escaped prisoner and survive a Nazi raid.
Based on the wartime experiences of the author's relatives, The Cielo is
both a fact-filled history lesson and an inspiring story of the human
spirit. [$19.95; paperback; 324 pages; iUniverse, Inc.]
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THE HOUSE THAT GIACOMO BUILT: History of An Italian Family, 1898-1978
By Donald S. Pitkin
Pitkin, an anthropologist, spent more than 30 years documenting the lives of
the Savo family and how three generations of this Calabrese family overcame
huge obstacles of poverty, illiteracy and class prejudice over nearly a
century.
By turns horrifying in its description of the family's sub-human living
conditions yet inspiring because, no matter what, they stay united, the book
proves graphically that for poor Italian families, "togetherness" is not
just a greeting-card sentiment, but vital for survival. Together they face
many hardships until one day they win some land in a lottery, build their
house and slowly climb out of poverty and into the working class. [$9.95;
paperback; 339 pages; Dowling College Press]
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ALSO WORTH READING:
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AN ITALIAN AMERICAN ODYSSEY: THROUGH ELLIS ISLAND AND BEYOND
By B. Amore
With words and images, author Amore tells the story of the journey
to America across seven generations of one Italian American family, based
on her multimedia exhibit, Lifeline: filo della vita, which has been mounted
at New York's Ellis Island Museum and to sites in Boston, Rome, and Naples.
The
book version, in full color and bilingual in Italian and English, includes
numerous interviews, documents and historic photographs from the Ellis
Island archives. It includes essays by Fred Gardaphè, Edvige Giunta
and Robert Viscusi, who explore Italian Americans' cultural memory, ethnic
identity, issues of gender, race, and generational change. [$45.00;
hardcover; $24.95; paperback; 300 pages; Fordham University Press]
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BRAZZÁ,
A LIFE FOR AFRICA
By Maria Petringa
This is the first English language biography of Pierre Savorgnan de Brazzá,
a late 19th century Italian nobleman who admired Africa and fought to
protect its native populations from the excesses of European colonialism.
Brazzá bought slaves and set them free, collected African tribal art,
documented African plants and animals and recorded for history the daily
life of many African tribes.
As colonial governor of French Equatorial Africa, he tried unsuccessfully to
help Europeans and Africans understand each other. In gratitude, the
Republic of the Congo named the city he founded in his honor. Today the
capital, Brazzaville, remains the only African city named for a European.
[$19.99; paperback; 276 pages; Authorhouse]
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