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Sons
of Italy Releases Winter 2007 Book Club Selections
Press
Contact: Kylie Cafiero, (202) 547-2900 kcafiero@osia.org
WASHINGTON,
D.C. - January 22, 2007 Warm up next to the fire this winter with one of the Sons of Italy Winter 2007 Book Club selections.
• Home to Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani. Welcome back to the Blue Ridge Mountain town of Big Stone Gap, Virginia and its heroine, Ave Maria MacChesney in Adriana Trigiani's fourth novel in the series. Life is changing for Ave Maria: her daughter has married an Italian and lives in Italy and her husband, Jack is seriously ill. These woes, along with directing the town play and a rift with a close friend, take Ave on an emotional rollercoaster ride. As always Trigiani has populated her novel with the memorable characters and magic of small-town life fans have come to expect of this series, launched over six years ago.[$25.95; hardcover; 320 pages; Random House]
• The Humble and the Heroic: Wartime Italian Americans by Salvatore J. LaGumina.
Italian Americans have a stellar World War II record: 13 Medal of Honor recipients as well as the heroic Don Gentile, “the highest scoring fighter pilot in American history.” Now historian and author, Salvatore J. LaGumina examines the war’s impact on Italian Americans on the battlefield, at home and especially on those first-generation Americans when the country of their birth declared war on the country of their choice. With this book, we learn how ordinary people did the extraordinary while enduring history’s most devastating war.[$29.95; paperback; 356 pages; Cambria Press]
•
Our Roots are Deep with Passion: Essays by Italian American Writers edited by Lee Gutkind & Joanna Clapps Herman. With a foreword by actor Joe Mantegna, this essay collection showcases 21 authors of Italian heritage writing on subjects ranging from food and wine to religion, immigration and language. Louise DeSalvo recalls that her grandfather always drank wine instead of water because in his native Puglia, water was often home to malaria-carrying mosquitoes. Laura Valeri tackles the mystical side of life with an account of a childhood séance in Sardinia that goes eerily awry, and Stephanie Susnjara charts the history of garlic in society and in her own kitchen. [$15.95; paperback; 288 pages; Other Press]
ALSO
WORTH READING…
• Blue Guide: Sicily
By Ellen Grady
This comprehensive overview of Sicily covers everything from what to see and where to eat to how to appreciate museum artworks. What makes this guide book stand apart from the rest? It includes a short history of each city and town on this island that has been invaded by the Greeks, Romans, Arabs and Normans, who all left their mark on it. Each of Sicily’s nine provinces has a chapter listing where to stay, local transportation and the best restaurants for local cuisine along with color photographs, maps and diagrams [26.95; paperback; 512 pages; W.W. Norton]
• Franca’s Story: Survival in WWII Italy
By Diane Kinman
Biographer Diane Kinman tells the true story of her neighbor, Franca Mercati’s experiences as a fourteen year old girl in war-torn northern Italy from 1937 to 1945. Whether she is rescuing a downed British pilot, visiting the Pope's quarters or risking her life to feed her starving family, Franca shows a streak of courage throughout her ordeal. This award-winning book is available at a $4.00 discount and free shipping if ordered through the website: www.wimerpublishing.com. [$26.95; hardcover; 204 pages; Wimer Publishing Company]
The
Sons of Italy National
Book Club is dedicated
to the works of writers
who focus on Italian
American issues, themes,
experiences and Italian culture.
OSIA chooses three to four
fiction and non-fiction books
each quarter for a total
of 12 to 16 titles a year.
OSIA
encourages its 700+ lodges
as well as other Italian
American organizations, clubs
and individuals to choose
one or more of the books
each quarter to read and
donate copies to their local
schools or public libraries.
Most
book club selections can be bought
on the OSIA Web site (www.osia.org).
Order
all your books, magazines, etc.
through OSIA and Amazon.com.
Just go to www.osia.org, click
on "Sons of Italy Book Club"
and choose either a Book Club
selection or another book or
product. Most orders are shipped
within 24 hours.
As a special bonus, Amazon.com
will donate a percentage of all
sales ordered on our site to
OSIA.
OSIA is the largest and
oldest national organization
in the U.S. for men and women
of Italian heritage in the United
States. It has more than 600,000
members and supporters and a
network of more than 700 chapters
coast to coast. OSIA works at
the community, national and international
levels to promote the heritage
and culture of an estimated 26
million Italian Americans, the
nation's
fifth largest ethnic group, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
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