Book picks similar to
Astoria by Robert Viscusi


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general-fiction

Cooking with Nonna: More Than 100 Classic Family Recipes for Your Italian Table


Rossella Rago - 2017
    Rossella grew up cooking with her Nonna Romana every Sunday, learning the traditional recipes of the Italian region of Puglia. And in her popular web TV series, Cooking with Nonna, Rossella takes her trademark style and expands her knowledge of Italian cooking to other regions of Italy, learning the classic dishes and flavors of each region and sharing them with eager fans all over the world.Now you can take a culinary journey with Rossella from Italy to America with her debut cookbook Cooking with Nonna, featuring over 100 classic Italian recipes. Learn to create fabulous Italian dishes for any course, like fresh homemade pasta, delicious meatballs, rich lasagne, and ricotta cookies or tiramisu for dessert! Featuring appetizers, soups, salads, pasta, meats, and desserts just like Nonna used to make, including Zucchine alla Poverella, Baked Ziti, Stuffed Eggplant alla Pugliese, Homemade Orecchiette with BroccoliRabe, and Ricotta Cookies. Modern takes by Rossella on some of the classic dishes of Italian cooking are also included. So if you want to learn how to make Italian food like your nonna used to make, then look no further!

Iconic: The Masters of Italian Fashion


Megan Hess - 2018
    Floral brocades, leopard print and show-stopping red dresses – the masters of Italian fashion know how to make a statement.In Iconic: The masters of Italian fashion, internationally renowned fashion illustrator Megan Hess explores ten of the best known and most loved Italian designers: Versace, Dolce & Gabbana, Fendi, Valentino, Pucci, Prada, Miu Miu, Missoni, Gucci and Armani.Megan takes readers on an unforgettable journey beneath the seams of each designer, learning about their history and significance to Italian – and global – fashion culture. Filled with Megan's stunning illustrations of some of the most well-known and fabulous outfits, from suits to swimwear to haute couture gowns, Iconic is a truly unique celebration of one of the world's most important fashion destinations.

Daughter of Paris: The Diary of Marie Duplessis, France's Most Celebrated Courtesan


A.G. Mogan - 2019
    But in 19th century France, one courtesan created sensation not only through the scandalous deeds that sprung from her lifestyle but also through her death. Yet, what her contemporaries didn’t know was that her fame wasn’t born thanks to her beauty, but from a woman’s utter determination to overcome a childhood of endless torture, abandonment, and mistreatments; from a soul's desperate need to forget her past. The story of Marie Duplessis, the woman behind masterpieces such as Alexandre Dumas Fils' The Lady with the Camellias and Verdi's Traviata, is the story of a peasant girl who surpassed all suppressions her era imposed on its women, to become one of the most famous individuals 19th century Europe had ever known.

Hot Quit


Kathryn Roberts - 2013
    As a major player in the high-stakes world of corporate restructuring, she’s learned how to handle many different people and problems, but one thing she doesn’t know how to handle is a horse. Enter Jackson Morgan, a trainer who specializes in the Western event of cutting, in which a horse and rider work to separate a single cow from the herd. Alexandria hires him to teach her how to ride, so she can curry favor with Everett Covington, a crusty Texan whose trucking business Alexandria desperately needs to purchase in order to pull off a lucrative deal—and whose passion happens to be cutting horses.The consummate city slicker, Alexandria gamely goes about learning the sport of cutting, but things get complicated when she starts to fall for the cowboy who’s teaching her. Soon she discovers that in order to acquire the trucking company she’s been chasing, she’ll have to rein in her emotions.

The Girl Who Would be Queen


Jane Ann McLachlan - 2019
     In January 1342, King Robert the Wise died. Ruler of one of the largest, wealthiest and most sophisticated kingdoms in Europe, he named as his sole heir his sixteen-year-old granddaughter, Joanna, or, if she died without issue, her thirteen-year-old sister Maria. Born in a male-dominated world in the passionate south of Italy, and surrounded by ambitious male cousins with an equal claim to the crown, will these sisters be able to maintain control over their kingdom? With only their wits, beauty, and the love of their people to aid them, Joanna and Maria, bound together by their strong love and fierce rivalry, are prepared to do anything to hold onto their beloved Kingdom. Start reading The Girl Who Would Be Queen by multi-award-winning author Jane Ann McLachlan today.

Michelangelo: His Epic Life


Martin Gayford - 2013
    Few of his works - including the huge frescoes of the Sistine Chapel Ceiling, the marble giant David and the Last Judgment - were small or easy to accomplish. Like a hero of classical mythology - such as Hercules, whose statue he carved in his youth - he was subject to constant trials and labours.In Michelangelo Martin Gayford describes what it felt like to be Michelangelo Buonarroti, and how he transformed forever our notion of what an artist could be.

Cannae


Adrian Goldsworthy - 2002
    In one of the bloodiest battles ever, his outnumbered mercenaries massacred the greater part of Rome's large army. For the Romans, Cannae became the yardstick against which all other defeats were measured; for generals centuries after, it became a perfectly executed model to draw on. Using primary sources and brilliant images, Goldsworthy tells the story of this epic confrontation and its devastating tactics.

Dolce Vita Confidential: Fellini, Loren, Pucci, Paparazzi, and the Swinging High Life of 1950s Rome


Shawn Levy - 2016
    Artists, exiles, and a dazzling array of movie talent rushed to Rome for a chance to thrive in this hotbed of excitement. From the photographers who tailed the stars to the legends who secured their place in cinematic fame, Dolce Vita Confidential resurrects the drama that permeated the streets and screens of Rome.

Nureyev: His Life


Diane Solway - 1998
    We see his difficult relationship with his father, Hamet, and the roots of the defiant spirit that fueled Nureyev's unquenchable desire to dance until his final days.

James, Fabulous Feline: Further Adventures of the Connoisseur Cat


Harriet Hahn - 1993
    But his deductive abilities will be put to the test when he’s called on to detect philatelic forgeries at Thwaites, one of the city’s great auction houses. The recently knighted cat also finds time to coach a croquet team, oversee rehearsals of a sequel to Cats, and help deliver a baby. Not to be outdone by cheesy actors or blundering attorneys, he makes his film debut and testifies in a criminal trial at the Old Bailey. But he has a special place in his heart for St. James’s Palace, the address he longs to call home. This delightful sequel to James the Connoisseur will prove irresistible catnip for feline lovers.

The Villa in Sicily


Elise Darcy - 2020
    Her mother, who never travelled abroad, was going to Sicily without telling a soul. Why was she keeping her trip to Sicily a secret and who is the mysterious woman who wrote the journal? Josie travels to Sicily and follows in the footsteps of two young women in the journal, sisters who visited the Italian island in the nineteen sixties. What secrets will Josie uncover and why does she feel she is being followed at every turn?Josie soon discovers there was more to their trip than a just a holiday. Amongst the stunning sites and scenery of Sicily, an unimaginable tale of love, loss and tragedy unfolds. The tentacles of their story reach down the generations.Josie and Michael, a young American on the tour, soon realise their part in this story is only just beginning…Can they right the wrongs of the past before

The Ruin of Kasch


Roberto Calasso - 1983
    With French statesman Tallyrand serving as the book's master of ceremonies, Calasso persuades us to see our civilization in an entirely new light.

The Great Fire of Rome: The Fall of the Emperor Nero and His City


Stephen Dando-Collins - 2010
    For more than a week the fire spread, engulfing most of the city, nearly burning it to the ground. With its capital in ruins, Rome's powerful empire teetered on the edge of collapse as Nero struggled desperately to save his empire & his skin. In The Great Fire of Rome, Dando-Collins takes readers thru the streets of ancient Rome, where unrest simmers, & into the imperial palace, where political intrigue seethes, relating a pot-boiler story filled with fascinating historical characters who'll determine the course of an empire. It's an unforgettable human drama that brings ancient Rome & the momentous events of 64 AD scorchingly to life.

Antonia of Venice


Ellyn Peirson - 2014
    Antonia of Venice is an unveiling of love, connected souls, music, power and tragedy.The story lures the reader into the beauty and decadence of 18th century Venice, and into the passions that drive and torment its characters. Antonia develops from being Vivaldi’s star pupil into his musical colleague and the pride of Venetian musical conceit. After she falls in love with Orlando Sagredo, master planner of the Palio, Antonia recognizes the emotional bondage she has never questioned.Antonia of Venice is inhabited by brilliant musicians, avaricious politicians and ineffectual rulers of the Republic of Venice. Through it all, the people and music Antonia loves take the reader into the depths of revenge and selflessness.A well researched 18th century romance novel with brilliant descriptions, Antonia of Venice advances the timeless, feminine heroic as a powerful and equal partner to the masculine.

Basquiat


Paolo Parisi - 2019
    Delve into 1980s New York as this vivid graphic novel takes you on Basquiat's journey from street–art legend SAMO to international art–scene darling, up until his sudden death. Told through cinematic scenes, this is Basquiat as seen through the eyes of those who knew him, including his father, Suzanne Mallouk, Larry Gagosian, and, most importantly, the man himself. Basquiat is a moving depiction of a troubled artist's life for those interested in both the art and the man who made it.