Archive for the ‘books’ Category
Deeply Rooted in Faith & Family by Ginda Ayd Simpson
This engaging, vivid tale paints perfectly the emotions of all of us who have traveled back to our ancestral Italian home–those who haven’t yet taken this journey will find the courage and inspiration to continue the search.
Read on...Finding Ravioli and Other Book Recommendations
Last week I received an awesome surprise in the mail from one of my very favorite artists and bloggers, Karen Cole of Artsortments (and I’m not just saying that because her self-portrait from her college days could’ve been done of P’s sister Pina):
That’s a copy of Laura Schenone’s The Lost Ravioli Recipes of Hoboken: A Search for Food and Family underneath Karen’s card, which shows one of her assemblage sculptures she made while in Cortona in 2006. Isn’t it gorgeous?
FYI, I’m loving the book so far; I’m only a couple chapters in, but I’m relating to so much of what Schenone went through in her search for family heritage vis à vis Genovese ravioli–from the basic lack of interest on the part of her American family to her pilgrimage to the Old Country.
Grazie mille Karen!
I’m also reading two other books that were sent to me by She Who Blogs blogging buddies:
from Karina of Candid Karina and Creative Karina
and
from Qualcosa di Bello of Piacere, Write Away, Dog Blog, and Snap 366.
These books are both *fantastic* reads (as are those blogs–check ’em out!). It’s taking me a while to get through all these books just for lack of spare time, but I’m truly savoring every stolen moment I have with them.
I can’t thank my book fairies enough–as I’ve mentioned a few times, English-language books are just not easy to come by around here.
But I even have an Italian-language book fairy! Back for my birthday Shelley of At Home in Rome sent me the Italian version of Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist (L’Alchimista), which I finished last week.
Ya’ll I read the WHOLE thing. In Italian! And it took me well under a year! Woohoo!
Plus? I *loved* it. I can’t wait to read the English version now too.
Have you read any of these books? What did you think?
And what are you reading now?
Come on! This is as close as I get to browsing through a bookstore these days.
Six-Word Memoirs
SMITH Magazine, self-described as “a home for storytelling,” challenged readers to write six-word memoirs inspired by Ernest Hemingway, who, when asked to write a six-word novel, came up with “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”
Genius, right?
To get the words rolling, SMITH teased with six-word memoirs written by author of Eat, Pray, Love Elizabeth Gilbert (“Me see world! Me write stories!”) and Chef Mario Batali (“Brought it to a boil, often”).
Some of my favorites are:
Secret of life: Marry an Italian. (Nora Ephron)
Wasn’t born a redhead; fixed that. (Andie Grace)
Found true love, married someone else. (Bjorn Stromberg)
Must remember: people, gadgets. That order. (Brian Lam)
One tooth, one cavity, life’s cruel. (John Bettencourt)
You can read more in Not Quite What I was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure by Larry Smith and Rachel Fershleiser, but you know I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to write mine:
In search of heritage, found self.
Read more about six-word memoirs in the L.A. Times Op-Ed Short on words, deep in meaning and send yours in to SMITH Magazine here. But first, do share:
What is your six-word memoir?
Buon weekend!
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[tags] SMITH Magazine, six-word memoirs, books[/tags]
Persian Girls by Nahid Rachlin
Persian Girls delivers on all accounts and has made me want to learn more not only about this intriguing woman but also about Iranian history and culture in general.
Read on...La Befana: The Italian Epiphany Witch
Today marks the end of the holidays in Italy as La Befana arrived last night. You don’t know La Befana? Read more about her here in my post from last year at this time.
As always, I’m sad to have to take down all the Christmas decorations; the house just feels a bit more empty, a bit more somber.
I suppose that’s not such a bad thing as it’s time to get down to the business of starting this new year and focus is always a good thing.
Friends, I *have* been focusing. Although it is the Italian tradition to return to work tomorrow, I’ve been quite busy the past few days–and perhaps that’s making you feel a bit neglected here.
One of the main things I’ve been working on, though, is a brand new look and home for this here blog, and I think you’re going to like what I’ve come up with.
But you’ll have to wait just a bit longer.
In the meantime I’ve had tons of positive energy from the blogosphere to keep me going, and I’ll tell you all about it soon.
Hope you’re having a lovely weekend!
Michelle Kaminsky is an American attorney-turned-freelance writer who lived in her family's ancestral village in Calabria, Italy for 15 years. This blog is now archived.
Calabria Guidebook
Recipes
