Italy Books

The word to describe this novel is "haunting." I might also suggest "aching." The characters are caught in a situation they don't understand, at the mercy of microbes and superstition. The reader wants to cry out a warning to the characters across the centuries, but the nightmare plays out in silence. The new disease of syphilis destroys their bodies, their hopes, and their very lives, and our modern knowledge cannot help them.

The author knows his medicine and his medieval remedies, and he knows the dread history of the venerial diseases that American Indians exported to Europe through the voyages of Columbus. The innocent young prostitute/healer who is the focus of the story has a special curse: she carries the disease and spreads it, but cannot quite find the panacea to save the people she loves.

Trapped in ignorance and supersition. Without quite saying so, author Mosher lets us know that modern society is equally trapped, and equally vulnerable. Does sunburn cause cancer? Does a diet of meat cause heart disease? We think we know, but our medical theories will seem like charms and poultices to our grandchildren.

The cures to our ills will come... but not in time.

This is a powerful book that teaches powerful lessons. It will take a strong reader to face it.

A great read that takes you into the late 15 th century and lets you watch as both a love, a war, and an epidemic unfold. It's historically accurate, and fun to read.

A thoughtful and thought-provoking book, that unfolds as all great stories do, with suspense, adventure, romance and wisdom. It was a great experience to live back in 1493, in the midst of gripping turmoil with these vivid characters, and to be desperately rooting for reason to overcome ignorance and prejudice. The writer's voice is sure and strong and we know we are in good hands from the onset. A great read that I would recommend to all-an opportunity to be totally lost in a story and learn much to ponder for some time to come.

This is a great cookbook. It truly lives up to the claims of its title. The recipes with the lemon herb crepes are wonderful and I've added them to my list of things I serve company. We had the salmon picatta a couple of weeks ago and will definitely make it again. I also like how he suggests ways to tailor the recipes for vegetarians.

Lots of people will try a couple of recipes and then proclaim a cookbook good or bad. Well, I've used this cookbook for almost 5 months, and I've tested a lot of recipes now! My doctor recommended a Mediterranean diet when my blood pressure and weight got out of control. I had picked this cookbook up somewhere but had never used it. After my doctor read me the riot act, I dusted if off and for the last few months have cooked 50% of my meals from it. My husband, for the first time in 10 years, thinks I'm a good cook! I've lost 20 lbs and my BP is now almost in the normal range. Do I sound like a paid endorser; well, I'm not! I mean it's only part of the plan. I also eat properly at all my meals and get exercise. It's not one of those miracle plans you see on TV! But the food is beautiful, delicious, low fat and easy to prepare. What more could you want?! .... If I only owned 2-3 cookbooks this would be one of them. .... I mean it, this is just a very good book! Buy it, but only if you really plan to cook with it!

I'm always looking for new low-fat recipes, especially Italian, and this book is fantastic. After just a week of owning it, I can heartily recommend "Chicken with Balsamic Vinegar", "Chicken Alla Diavola" and "Mashed Potatoes with Sun-dried Tomatoes" (who've thought of that one! )

The recipes were easy to follow, simple to make (depending on your definition of simple) and offered plenty of flavour.

The introduction provides good information on various ingredients in Italian cooking (and low-fat Italian cooking), and the recipes offer antipasti, pasta in its many forms, vegetarian dishes, soups, desserts and more.

Definitely one of the best cookbook buys I've made recently!

For many of us at the turning point of age 60 or 70, the challenge of how to look ahead,at a time when we are often burdened by looking back,becomes central in our daily lives.

" A Hole in the Water" Mae Briskin'slatest novel, tells the story of Anne,age67,recently widowed,as she sets out to find explanations for some troublesome events in her past. The experiences and encounters thar develop, and her reckonings along the way, lead to a dramatic conclusion. It is an engrossing story, bound to challenge the reader's own reckonings.

Anne has been a housewife for decades: now she's an author and talk show host handling social issues and an ongoing concern over a long-missing daughter. She's drawn to girls who may have been her daughter, to a married man who has helped her search, and to a life and world filled with complicated choices. An absorbing story of an examined life.

In "A Hole in the Water," Mae Briskin has written an emotiional and intelligent exploration of a woman on her own. She uses memories and anticipation to fuel our desire to accompany the heroine, Anne, on her journey. And carry us along she does. From the earliest pages, we are intrigued with this woman who is traveling to Italy to search for a lost daughter and a possible lover, and to pay homage to catholics who she knows helped the Jews during World War II.

Anne is seeking "the pleasures of the senses," but she wants moral and ethical behavior to accompany them. We discover that she is witty, wise, angry, fallible, human, loving, and vulnerable. Looking back, she learns. Looking ahead, she is strengthened by every new experience and is optimistic about her own capacities for good.

Briskin treats many disparate themes, ranging from the Pope's conduct during the Nazi era, through the confused fidelity between parents and children, and the vagaries of adultery, with compassion and even humor. We care about Anne and the other characters who inhabit her world, who are all distinctly drawn. The reader is left with much to think about, including the fact that this book is truly a pleasure to read.

I think that Salvatore Robert Froio is a very talented writer and I look forward to reading more of his books.

Excellent story surrounding a benevolent secret society bent of assisting others sharing a common Calabrese heritage. As the founder and managing director of an organization devoted to the Italian region of Calabria, I find this especially interesting. Mr. Froio, of Calabrese ethnicity himself, has spun a great tale--one which begs for a sequel.
Il Circolo Calabrese (http://www.circolocalabrese.org) has placed this book on its list of "Must-reads".
Highly recommended!!

I found The Twenty Horns to be a fascinating read. As the son of an Italian imigrant, my Mother (who lived in Boston when first coming to the US), would talk about the obstacles she and her family faced. I was reminded of this when reading this piece. This story would make a great movie!

This book was fantastically entertaining! The man is as chaotic, eccentric, and strange as you would probably guess but did you know he was funny as well! Of course it is a bizarre sense of humor and some of it very nonsensical but it is interesting nonetheless. I couldn't put it down and since it is not written as an autobiography but snippets of interviews on a variety of topics--you can pick it up and begin reading on any page. I loved this book. A huge book for a huge personality and the pictures are amazing! Black and white rare photos of actors and scenes from his most memorable movies. Many of these are worthy of framing.

This book arrived in perfect condition and I received a very warm e-mail from the seller acknowledging my order and the shipment. Perfect!

This deluxe edition of what renowned Fellini specialist Tullio Kezich describes as the Maestro's "spiritual testament" (in his superb foreword to the book) is bona fide Fellini-esque. Hilarious anecdotes are squeezed in beside a number of very moving meditations on old age, sex, LSD, unemployment, Trivial Pursuit, God, Dante, death and the Hereafter. The newly restored black-and-white photos capturing the Italian director's surreal world are well-served by an excellent English translation. The final entry in the lexicon is a fairy tale titled "Zio Lupo" or "Uncle Wolf" and it pretty much defines Fellini's insatiability. Highly recommended.

This is a wonderful, quick read that brings alive a time gone by with fascinating stories and facts that still have something to teach us today. Other reviewers have done a great job of describing the content, so I won't repeat it here. But if you want to learn more about why and how and what it was like to immigrate to this country as a part of the great wave of immigration that brought the Italians and others, read this book. Because it's geared to kids it doesn't get bogged down with arcane detail, but the kids it aims at are old enough that the language holds an adult's interest too. And if you have a kid who's studying this period in history, or if you want them to have some idea of how his or her own family came to this country, give them this book. The pictures and stories will draw them in.

The Italian Americans is an informative and entertaining exploration of Italian immigrants in the United States and their descendants. Though it's targeted at junior-high students, the book is written in a clear, concise style that will interest adult readers as well.

Petrini examines the reasons why so many Italians left their native land between 1880 and 1920 to start a new life in the United States. She describes their living conditions in their new home, the sometimes arduous jobs that Italian American men, women, and children worked at in order to build their new lives, and the discrimination and exploitation many had to cope with.

The author documents some surprising facts: Did you know that a presidential order curtailed the civil liberties of Italian Americans during World War II, because of an unfounded fear that they might be spies for their native Italy? Thousands were actually incarcerated in camps by the U.S. government. And the biggest mass lynching ever documented in the United States took place in 1891, when an angry mob executed 19 innocent Sicilian-born residents of New Orleans. I didn't know about these injustices; Petrini's book describes these and other instances of discrimination against the new immigrants and their children.

Other chapters describe the Italian Americans' successful efforts to integrate into and contribute to their new society while preserving their own culture in "Little Italy" neighborhoods around the country. The book also discusses more recent contributions by the descendants of the immigrants in business, literature, science, and the arts.

Petrini makes it all come to life with plenty of first-hand accounts and interviews with immigrants and their children, and many wonderful old photographs highlight the text.

As a third-generation Italian American, I can say that this book made me feel prouder of my heritage than I was before -- and more informed about it, as well!

Since September 11, an undercurrent of anti-immigration feeling has targeted new Americans, in particular Arab-Americans. It's as if most of us have forgotten that we wouldn't be here ourselves if our parents, grandparents or greats hadn't emigrated to the United States. So it seemed particularly timely to me when I came across The Italian-Americans, part of a series on Immigrants in America, aimed at children as young as my grandsons (ages 9 and 10) but mainly geared for junior-high level. Until I read the book, I'd been ignorant of the fact -- as are most people -- that it wasn't only Japanese-Americans who were persecuted during WWII. Italian-Americans were also the objects of prejudice and discrimination.

The book doesn't start with WWII though, but goes back to the 19th century to explore the political and economic struggles that resulted in the establishment of Italy as a modern, independent country. It was most interesting to me in its depiction of the hard life of the peasant and manual laborer that drove so many to uproot themselves and make the arduous trip to start new lives in America. This depiction is a compassionate one, in which the author weaves individual stories and interviews into her more general historical account, and further embellishes these accounts with rare vintage photographs of immigrant families. How different my grandsons' lives are from those of the young boys their age who had to spend their days underground as "go-fers" for their fathers and older brothers as they labored in the mines.

The author also tells of the contributions made by Italian Americans that have enriched our national fabric -- not just such well known contributions as pizza, pasta and Frank Sinatra, but the accomplishments of individuals like Gugliemo Marconi, inventor of the radio, Olympic gymnast Mary Lou Retton, TV actress and film director Penny Marshall, and Vincent Palumbo, the late master carver at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC.

For all these reasons, I think the book would make a good supplement to the average history textbook, and it seemed to me that the depth of information might be useful to students well above the age range indicated by the publisher.

I'm not Italian myself, but much of this volume reminded me of stories told by my own immigrant grandfather. And it's a reminder of how much we owe to immigrants of every country. If the rest of the series is up to Petrini's effort, it should be most worthwhile reading.

This is the second of Carol Field's books that I've read (the first one I picked up was "Celebrating Italy") and her hallmarks seem to be meticulous, yet loving, research and a writing style that manages to evoke the sights, sounds, smells, textures, and flavors of Italian cooking to a mouth-watering degree.

"In Nonna's Kitchen" is a cookbook that Field researched by going to Italy and culling time-honored, taste-tested recipes from several authentic Italian grandmothers. I have not yet tried any of the recipes, but reading them feels like good eatin'. I usually dislike cookbooks that don't feature a picture of every recipe. "In Nonna's Kitchen" contains no pictures of food, but the recipes and Field's writing on Italian cuisine and culture make pictures unnecessary.

Ah, yes, culture. It's easy to see Field not so much as a food writer, but as an eager and loving student of Italian culture. She does much honor to the Italian grandmothers who contributed to this book by providing a lengthy, colorful profile of each of them. In these profiles, the "nonne" discuss how they learned to cook, what their lives have been like, how cooking has changed over the courses of their lifetimes, etc. In addition to these formal profiles, Field includes little anecdotes about several of the grandmothers within the recipes they provided.

These are not your stereotypical black-shawled, muttering Italian grandmothers, either. They range in age from 40s-90s, and a good many of them are classically beautiful, stylish women. All of them, however, are quintessentially Italian in that they place great importance on good, simple food made from the freshest local ingredients.

I plan to buy copies of "In Nonna's Kitchen" and "Celebrating Italy" for myself; they're too good not to own. Carol Field now has the distinction of being my favorite food writer!

For lovers of Italian food in particular, but for any lover of cooking and Italy, this is a must have for your collection. Every recipe is preceded by an introduction to the Nonna (Grandmother) whose speciality it is. These Nonnas run the gamut, from sophisticated Roman and Florentine women to women from small villages, still cooking as their own Nonnas did. I've tried several of the recipes and each has been spectacular. I'm buying another copy to take as a gift for a week-long 60th birthday celebration at a villa near Sienna. Ciao!

When my mother gave me this cook book, and I saw the word 'Nonna' in the title, I got a little choked up. I also whispered to myself, "this better be good." Well...'Bravo! Ti hai fatto bene!' You have done well. Yes, the recipes are wonderful, but the mood, the stories, the history of each of these Nonnas made me smile, and made me proud. Just as in my Nonna's cooking, these ladies are the best at turning leftovers into elegance. Wonderful subtle flavors - Crostini, Polpette, the Chocolate Ameretti Pudding...all we need is a deck of cards for Scopa! I made my Nonna write down her sauce recipe for me, because if I didn't, it would have died with her, recipes are verbal traditions handed down for generations...this is cooking history. Thank you. My wife thanks you too...books like this motivate husbands to cook more often.

When you think of chroniclers of love, life and American society during the Gilded Age, you automatically think of Henry James and Edith Wharton.

But while W.D. Howells never quite reached their levels of prominence, his similar works are full of quiet introspection and evocative, vivid prose reminiscent of Wharton at her best. And "Indian Summer" is one of his better works -- a lush, colorful exploration of 19th-century Florence, and a love triangle of Americans who are taking a prolonged vacation there.

After a disastrous career loss, Theodore Colville is vacationing in Florence, and promptly begins a massive midlife crisis. But he perks up after encountering Lina Bowen, a widowed ex-flame of his who is also staying in Florence with her young daughter Effie. And at a party that evening, Lina introduces him to the young, vivacious Imogene Graham.

Soon Colville is squiring Effie and Imogene around Florence, and even taking all three women out to the carnival. Naturally, Imogene develops a crush on the kind, cynical Colville -- but her innocent liking alarms Lina, who still is carrying a flame for him, and Imogene's well-intentioned errors tie her in society's web. Noow Colville must decide what he wants most, and which woman truly loves him.

At heart, "Indian Summer" is basically an exploration of a love triangle between an older man, a slightly younger woman, and a girl young enough to be his daughter. That's a delicate situation at the best of times, but this was also the Gilded Age -- codes of conduct were strict, and feelings were expressed in a dance of words and gestures rather than outward displays.

But to frame the story, Howells creates an elaborate portrait of how wealthy Americans lived and saw Europe. In between parties and meditative conversations, there are vivid looks at the Florence of the time -- he fills it with dusty chapels, quiet hostels, walks in the rain, meditations in cafes, gorgeous old buildings and a wildly indulgent carnival full of masked flirtations.

And all this is painted with a lush, detailed style that walks the fine line between sensuality and propriety. Like Imogene, it's full of passion and beauty, but not enough to get swept away. But also through the book is a sense of autumnal regret about youth's passage and the question of what happens after that.

Most of that midlife crisis angst comes from Colville, who has just suffered a public humiliation and had to sell the paper he once ran. So unsurprisingly he's a bit depressed, and ends up being inadvertently torn between the affections of two women -- one is his equal in every way, and the other makes him feel old, yet he likes her youthful vibrancy. Lina is a fairly solid character, but Imogene's naive delight in Florence and in an older man's friendship is excellent.

"Indian Summer" in Florence is apparently a pretty nice time to be there, unless you are locked in a love triangle of manners and hidden feelings. A lushly-written look back to a much more complicated time.

This excellent novel by Howells is a May-December love story. Middle-aged Theodore Colville falls in love with young and pretty Imogene Graham. The relationship borders on the ridiculous, but it's only when Imogene falls for a younger man that Colville calls it all off. One wonders what took him so long. The dialogue, especially when Colville is involved, crackles with wit. This is Howells's own favorite of his novels. It is extremely entertaining, one of Howells's very best books, and one of the best novels on the American bookshelf, regardless of time period.

An American middle-aged man returns to Florence, Italy - the scene of a heartbreaking romance twenty years earlier. There he meets an old friend from those days, her daughter, and her twenty year old female protege. Slowly a surprising romantic relationship develops; but is it really what both people want? Great dialogue, wonderful character development, and a happy ending.

Yes a must have book if you follow the Iso Rivolta automobiles. Loads of real info in the years of production of the Iso cars. Covers all models built from the "egg" car to the one off Varedo, and gives a peek at what the Rivolta group is doing with boats,city cars, and the Grifo 90. Just buy it to look at the picutes its full of full color prints and text to make it a can't put down book.

Winston Goodfellow provides a tantilizing, well written story of of a family's quest to build beautiful, fast yet reliable automobiles. More than a dry history of an obscure Italian car manufacturer, this book highlights the great GT cars of the late 1950s and 1960s, in addition to giving a cultural snapshot of Italian design heritage.

This could be one of the best automotive books ever written. Mr. Goodfellow does more than just detail the history of the Iso car company, he tells the stories behind all of the personalities that helped build these amazing machines. This book gives the reader a detailed behind the scenes look at the Italian car industry during some of the most interesting years. Lots of technical information too! Can't wait for his next book on Giotto Bizzarrini.

Mike Clarke

Great book well informed on the Italian food scene. Tony has the cooks edge on Italian fare.

I would call this book "Italian Cooking Beyond Pasta" - it is a wonderful compendium of genuine recipes in all categories from every corner of Italy. A delight to browse and to cook from.

`Italian Cuisine (2nd Edition)' by Restaurateur, Tony May ranks as one of the best books on the general subject of Italian cuisine as a whole.

Good books on Italian cooking come in all different flavors. There are the great recipe collections such as Michele Scicolone's `1000 Italian Recipes' and Mario Batali's `Molto Italiano'. There are the studies of regional cuisines such as Lydia Bastianich's book on Istrian cuisine, `La Cucina di Lydia' and Lynne Rosetto Casper's excellent study of Emilia-Romagna, `The Splendid Table'. There are the surveys of all Italian regions, as in the classic Claudia Roden book, `The Food of Italy' and a book of the same name by Waverley Root, not to mention the classic by Elizabeth David. There are analytic books on Italian ingredients such as Erica De Mane's `The Flavors of Southern Italy'. There are treatises on styles of Italian cooking such as Susan Hermann Loomis' `Italian Farmhouse Cooking', Patricia Wells' `Trattoria', and Joyce Goldstein's `Enoteca'. There are books of Italian vegetable cooking such as the excellent volumes by Jack Bishop and Faith Willinger. There are dictionaries, such as Antonio Carluccio's `Complete Italian Food' and Anna Del Conte's `the Concise Gastronomy of Italy'. And, let us not forget the Italian-American books such as John Mariani's `The Italian-American Cookbook'. Not to be excluded are culinary memoirs, such as Vincent Schiavelli's `Many Beautiful Things' and other volumes on Sicilian cooking.

This litany of book subjects and titles is simply to distinguish Mr. May's book from all these others. His volume is neither complete nor regional nor personal nor vegetarian nor encyclopedic nor American nor analytical. Its primary focus is on classic recipes and cooking methods. It is very important to note very early in the book the statement that this book was written for culinary professionals. Thus, although it is packed with interesting tips and techniques, the presentation of the methods do assume you know your way around a kitchen. For example, unlike excellent illustrated instructions on pasta making in books by Lydia Bastianich and Marcella Hazan; the techniques presented here are all done without `visual aids'. This is entirely fair, as the book has declared itself a manual for professionals who already know the basics of mixing dough.

While the book does not make the mistake of saying it is `complete'; it does describe itself as an `essential reference to the riches of the Italian table'. I am convinced that no book on a subject so rich as Italian cuisine can cover everything. Therefore, the best books limit their focus to a particular part of the beast and one hopes they don't make any mistakes.

While I still feel this is an excellent book for serious foodies, I did find several statements that seemed mistaken to me. One was the translation of `antipasto' as `before the meal' rather than `before the pasta course', another was the classification of pine nuts and pistachio nuts as herbs, and another was some misspellings of some really rudimentary words. The most serious mistake may have been his misuse of the term soffrito at least one place (My authority is Marcella Hazan's recent book, `Marcella Says...'. While these mistakes are distracting, none of them lead me to believe that the author's statements about cooking techniques are untrustworthy.

My most satisfying discovery in this book, after reading dozens of books on Italian cooking, is new suggestions on how to make some really basic Italian dishes. My favorite discovery was the recommendation to use an especially wide pan in relation to the number of eggs in a frittata, with the warning that if the frittata is too thick, it will take to long to cook and the center will be too heavy. And, while this is not a book on Italian culinary history, Mr. May does make several interesting and, to my knowledge, correct comments on the history of some major Italian dishes such as when he traces dried pasta to a source much older than the Marco Polo fairy tale about bringing spaghetti back from China. Another interesting comment was to cite a similarity between the origins of paella and risotto, tied together primarily by the use of saffron.

I personally find the book exceptionally well organized for it's purpose, as each chapter is devoted to a basic ingredient, technique, or result. The chapters cover bread, condiments, herbs, spices, antipasto, sauces, cured meats, marinades, flatbreads, savory pies and molds, fried foods, eggs, vegetables and salads, legumes, mushrooms and truffles, soups and broths, pasta and polenta, rice, fish, meat, poultry and game, cheese and desserts. My most interesting discovery here is the general classification of `molds'. While almost everyone has probably seen a timbale either in the movie `First Night' or on an episode of `Mario Eats Italy', no previous discussion of this very elaborate dish lets on to the fact that there is a whole family of Italian dishes based on forming the food in molds.

The most useful quality of this book is that it is an excellent source for most of the most common Italian dishes. Some classics may be missing (I couldn't think of any which were not here), but most, such as saltimbocca alla romana, spaghetti alla puttanesca, pizza Margherita, fettuccine alla carbonara, and carciofi alla Romana are all here.

The bibliography is short, but it is composed almost entirely of original, Italian language sources. There are both English and Italian language indexes, which I welcome, but I find a joint index as you will find in books by Marcella Hazan to be better for the English speaker whose culinary Italian is not up to snuff.

This may not be the best book if you simply want a bunch of good Italian recipes, but if you want a sound grounding in Italian cooking techniques, this book must be in your library!