Italian-American Heritage and Culture Month (October) is celebrated by proclamation of the President and Congress in the United States to honor the achievements and contributions of Italian immigrants and their descendants living in the United States, particularly in the arts, science, and culture.
To commemorate this occasion, here is a selection of fiction and nonfiction by and about noteworthy Italian Americans and of course, some mouth watering Italian cuisine cookbooks, all available in the Livingston Library collection.
Big Flavors from Italian America: Family-style Favorites from Coast to Coast
Dig into the best of Italian American cooking with recipes that would make any nonna proud. Bubbling lasagna and drop meatballs are hard to resist, but save room for Braciole and Chicken Scarpariello. Then go on the road to discover dishes from humble delis and hole-in-the-wall restaurants, like Philadelphia Pork Sandwiches, Eggplant Pecorino, and Utica Greens. Learn the tricks behind pizzas from Detroit, Chicago, and St. Louis. Finally, bring home the bakery (and street fair) with garlic knots and zeppole.
Cooking with Nonna: Celebrate Food & Family with Over 100 Classic Recipes from Italian Grandmothers by Rossella Rago
Take a culinary journey through Italy with Rossella and her debut cookbook, featuring over 100 classic Italian recipes, along with advice and stories from 25 beloved Italian grandmothers. Learn to make fresh homemade pasta, handcrafted spaghetti with meatballs, and decadent four-cheese lasagna that will have everyone coming back for seconds!
Francis Ford Coppola: A Filmmaker’s Life by Michael Schumacher
This is the first complete picture of the flawed cinematic genius who directed the Godfather trilogy, Apocalypse Now, The Conversation, and other distinctive films–some wildly successful, some disastrous. The entire story of his career is covered from his apprenticeship under Roger Corman to his winning a Director’s Guild Lifetime Achievement Award. Along the way, we learn how he turned a pulp Mafia novel into a cinematic classic, how he almost literally killed himself during the filming of Apocalypse Now, and how he confirmed Hollywood’s predictions about him, with various flops and follies along the way.
The Fortunate Pilgrim by Mariio Puzo
Puzo’s classic story about the loves, crimes and struggles confronted by one family of New York City immigrants living in Hell’s Kitchen. Fresh from the farms in Italy, Lucia Santa (based on Puzo’s mother) struggles to hold her family together in a strange land. At turns poignant, comic and violent, this is Italian-American fiction at its very best.
The Italian Americans: A History by Maria Laurino
This richly researched, beautifully illustrated volume illuminates an important, overlooked part of American history. From extensive archival materials and interviews with well-known Italian Americans, Laurino strips away stereotypes and nostalgia to tell the complicated, centuries-long story of the true Italian-American experience.
Laura in the Kitchen: Favorite Italian-American Recipes Made Easy by Laura Vitale
When Laura Vitale moved from Naples to the United States at age twelve, she cured her homesickness by cooking up endless pots of her nonna’s sauce. She went on to work in her father’s pizzeria, but when his restaurant suddenly closed, she knew she had to find her way back into the kitchen. Together with her husband, she launched her Internet cooking show, Laura in the Kitchen, where her enthusiasm, charm, and irresistible recipes have won her millions of fans. In her debut cookbook, Laura focuses on simple recipes that anyone can achieve–whether they have just a little time to spend in the kitchen or want to create an impressive feast.
Little Boy: a novel by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
From the famed publisher and poet, author of the million-copy-selling collection A Coney Island of the Mind, his literary last will and testament—part autobiography, part philosophical treatise, part Beat-inflected torrent of language and feeling Paying tribute to the classic writers whose careers Ferlinghetti championed, Little Boy is a magical font of literary lore, a final repository of hard-earned and durable wisdom, a compositional high-wire act without a net (or all that much punctuation), and just a gas and an inspiration to read.
Pelosi by Molly Ball
She’s the iconic leader who puts Donald Trump in his place, the woman with the toughness to take on a lawless president and defend American democracy. Ever since the Democrats took back the House in the 2018 midterm elections, Nancy Pelosi has led the opposition with strategic mastery and inimitable elan. How did an Italian grandmother in four-inch heels become the greatest legislator since LBJ? Ball’s nuanced, page-turning portrait takes readers inside the life and times of this historic and underappreciated figure. Based on exclusive interviews with the Speaker and deep background reporting, Ball shows Pelosi through a thoroughly modern lens to explain how this extraordinary woman has met her moment.
The Pope of Physics: Enrico Fermi and the Birth of the Atomic Age by Gino Segrè and Bettina Hoerlin
This first major biography of Fermi (the Nobel Prize-winning physicist and one of the fathers of the atomic age), in English, brings this scientific visionary to life. An examination of the human dramas that touched Fermi’s life as well as a thrilling history of scientific innovation in the twentieth century–including the birth of one of its most controversial disciplines, nuclear physics–this is the comprehensive biography that Fermi deserves.
Scalia Speaks: Reflections on Law, Faith, and Life Well Lived by Antonin Scalia
This definitive collection of beloved Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s finest speeches covers topics as varied as the law, faith, virtue, pastimes, and his heroes and friends. Featuring a foreword by longtime friend Ruth Bader Ginsburg and an intimate introduction by his youngest son, this volume includes dozens of speeches, some deeply personal, that have never before been published.
Sinatra: the Chairman by James Kaplan
The sequel to the New York Times best-selling Frank,
here is the concluding volume of the definitive biography of “The Entertainer of the Century.It is the story of Frank Sinatra’s second act, riding high after an Oscar victory—and firmly reestablished as the top recording artist of his day. Following Sinatra from the mid-1950s to his death in 1998, Kaplan uncovers the man behind the myth, revealing by turns the peerless singer, the (sometimes) powerful actor, the business mogul, the tireless lover, and—of course—the close associate of the powerful and infamous.
The Volunteer: a novel by Salvatore Scibona
The epic story of a restless young man who is captured during the Vietnam War and pressed into service for a clandestine branch of the United States government. An odyssey of loss and salvation ranging across four generations of fathers and sons, this is a triumph in the grandest traditions of American storytelling.
Zero K by Don DeLillo
An emotionally resonant novel that weighs the darkness of the world—terrorism, floods, fires, famine, death—against the beauty of everyday life; love, awe, “the intimate touch of earth and sun.” Brilliantly observed and infused with humor, this is an acute observation by one of the great American novelists of our time about the fragility and meaning of life, about embracing our family, this world, our language, and our humanity.
-Archana, Adult Services & Acquisitions Librarian