I spent my first seven years in Spain and Italy, devouring books and Italian food and still speak (or try!) my childhood languages. The Italian language and culture are precious to meâan integral part of my life. Our visits back to Italy, speaking Italian with friends, cooking Italian meals, writing for the Italian Language Foundation's website, and enjoying our community's Italian movie nights maintain my Italian experience. Sadly, I can't be in Italy all the time, but have found some fabulous books that take me right back! Il cuore e italianoâmy heart is Italian.
If you love Italyâand if you don't love it now, you definitely willâafter reading this engaging, vibrant tribute to Italy! Knighted by the President of Italy for her writing about Italy, author Dianne Hales describes the native, inherent passion of Italiansâla passione italianaâ as the source and nurturer of our civilization's love for art, music, architecture, cars, ceramics, sculpture, design, literature, film, food, and wine. Bursting with talent and passion, the legacy of Italian passion for life in our culture is ubiquitous and all-encompassing. Italy and its passion itself have taken hold of our imaginations, and your imagination will take you directly to la bella Italia, as it did for me, while reading this engaging book.
A jubilant celebration of Italyâs outsize impact on culture, from literature to art, music to movies, that âmasterfully examines the multitude of reasons why so many people fall in love with Italy and the Italian lifestyleâ (Forbes)
Can you imagine painting without Leonardo, opera without Verdi, fashion without Armani, food without the signature tastes of pasta, gelato, and pizza? The first universities, first banks, first public libraries? All Italian.
New York Times bestselling author Dianne Hales attributes these landmark achievements to la passione italiana, a primal force that stems from an insatiable hunger to discover and create; to love andâŚ
This is the first of Leon's epic mysteries set in Venice, centered around the urbane, clever and engaging, vice-commissario of police, Guido Brunetti. Maestro Helmut Wellauer, a world-renowned conductor dies painfully from cyanide poisoning during an intermission at La Fenice, the world-renowned opera house. Brunetti uses his acumen and wit to discover the perpetrator, all the while introducing the reader to the enthralling culture of Venice, its people, history, and cuisine. I felt as if I were there, at Brunetti's elbow, enjoying a wonderful visit to Venice! And the mealsâche meravigliso!
'A splendid series . . . with a backdrop of the city so vivid you can almost smell it.' The Sunday Telegraph
Winner of the Suntory Mystery Fiction Grand Prize __________________________________
The twisted maze of Venice's canals has always been shrouded in mystery. Even the celebrated opera house, La Fenice, has seen its share of death ... but none so horrific and violent as that of world-famous conductor, Maestro Helmut Wellauer, who was poisoned during a performance of La Traviata. Even Commissario of Police, Guido Brunetti, used to the labyrinthine corruptions of the city, is shocked at the number ofâŚ
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to runâŚ
Elena Ferrante shot to the top of the bestseller lists with this incredible book and remained there for months, deservedly so. Reading it plunged me right into my childhood spent in Napoliâsounds, sights, smells, the messy, lovely life I led. Ferrante's plot is wicked smart, and her descriptions of Italy and its culture are a perfect way to visit Italy from your chair. This is the first of her series of four Neapolitan novels, so more pleasure and intrigue await!
OVER 14 MILLION COPIES OF THE NEAPOLITAN QUARTET SOLD WORLDWIDE
NOW A MAJOR TV SERIES
GUARDIAN 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21st CENTURY
58 WEEKS ON THE BOOKSELLER'S TOP 20 ORIGINAL FICTION BESTSELLERS LIST
SHORTLISTED FOR WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2015
43 INTERNATIONAL RIGHTS DEALS
Now in B-format Paperback
From one of Italy's most acclaimed authors, comes this ravishing and generous-hearted novel about a friendship that lasts a lifetime. The story of Elena and Lila begins in the 1950s in a poor butâŚ
Another blockbuster book about Italy, this memoir introduces the reader to the ins and outs of daily living in Italy from the viewpoint of an American. The insights into the Italian people and their wonderful culture are truly enjoyable and written with wit and understanding. Her observations are spot-on and welcome the reader into her adventure. Reading this memoir about the villa she bought in Tuscan will make you want to book a trip to Italy and buy your own villa to renovate!
Discover the New York Times bestseller that inspired the film. The perfect read for anyone seeking an escape to the Italian countryside.
When Frances Mayes - poet, gourmet cook and travel writer - buys an abandoned villa in Tuscany, she has no idea of the scale of the project she is embarking on.
In this enchanting memoir she takes the reader on a journey to restore a crumbling villa and build a new life in the Italian countryside, navigating hilarious cultural misunderstandings, legal frustrations and the challenges of renovating a house that seems determined to remain a ruin.
âRowdyâ Randy Cox, a woman staring down the barrel of retirement, is a curmudgeonly blue-collar butch lesbian who has been single for twenty years and is trying to date again.
At the end of a long, exhausting shift, Randy finds her supervisor, Bryant, pinned and near death at the warehouseâŚ
This delightful mystery set in Florence not only intrigues the reader with its clever, twist-filled plot but also with its insights into daily life and culture in Italy. The characters are enjoyable and show many humorous and unique facts of Italian life. Nabb knows her Florence and her Italians, and her ability to describe both make a reader wish to accompany her on her next trip!
Introducing Marshal Salvatore Guarnaccia of the Florentine carabinieri, a Sicilian stationed far from home. He wants to go south for Christmas to spend the holiday with his family, but he is laid up with the 'flu. At this awkward moment, the death of a retired Englishman is reported. A most inconvenient time for a murder case. Who has shot Mr Langley-Smythe in the back? And why has Scotland Yard felt it appropriate to send two detectives, one of whom speaks no Italian, to 'help' the marshal and his colleagues with their investigation? Most importantly for the marshal, ever the Italian,âŚ
In this celebration of Italian life and culture, seventeen-year-old Alessandra returns for the summer to Italy, where she grew up. Pressured by her parents into babysitting a rebellious twelve-year-oldâruining holiday plans with newfound American friendsâAlessandra resigns herself to a tedious summer in Positano. Her babysitting gig, however, turns out to be anything but boring! Not only does Alessandra fall for the handsome son of the Bertolucci family, renowned limoncello producers, but when a body mysteriously turns up on the beach, the influence of organized crime in Positano becomes frighteningly real.
As Alessandra is drawn further into a conspiracy, she risks everything to protect herself, her family, and those that she lovesâand in the process, she finds herselfâand her Italian heart.
It began with a dying husband, and it ended in a dynasty.
It took away her husbandâs pain on his deathbed, kept her from losing the family farm, gave her the power to build a thriving business, but itâs illegal to grow in every state in the country in 1978.âŚ
Cleo Cooper is living the dream with ocean-dipping weekends, a good job, good friends, fair boyfriend, and a good dog. But, paradise is shaken when the body of a young woman is dragged onto a university research vessel during a class outing in Hilo Bay.
