Book picks similar to
Astoria by Robert Viscusi


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general-fiction
italy
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Drivers


Peter Carroll - 2014
    Revenge, justice, loyalty, lies, love, anger and an identity crisis. Turns out, the new chauffeur is not her only driver...so buckle up and enjoy the ride.

Project for a Revolution in New York


Alain Robbe-Grillet - 1970
    Set in the towers and tunnels of the quintessential American city, Alain Robbe-Grillet's novel turns this urban space into a maze where politics bleeds into perversion, revolution into sadism, activist into criminal, vice into art—and back again. Following the logic of a movie half-glimpsed through a haze of drugs and alcohol, Project for a Revolution in New York is a Sadean reverie that bears an alarming resemblance to the New York, and the United States, that have actually come into being.

Trojan Women


Seneca
    This free and eloquent translation skillfully reproduces the imagery, power, and frequent irony and sarcasm of Seneca's language.

Rodin on Art and Artists


Auguste Rodin - 1971
    Auguste Rodin spoke candidly to his protégé, Paul Gsell, who recorded the master's thoughts not only about the technical secrets of his craft, but also about its aesthetic and philosophical underpinnings.Here is the real Rodin—relaxed, intimate, open, and charming—offering a wealth of observations on the relationship of sculpture to poetry, painting, theater, and music. He also makes perceptive comments on Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Raphael, and other great artists, and he shares revealing anecdotes about Hugo, Balzac, and others who posed for him. Seventy-six superb illustrations of the sculptor's works complement the text, including St John the Baptist Preaching, The Burghers of Calais, The Thinker, and many others, along with a selection of exuberant drawings and prints.

The Mile


Craig Smith - 2013
    Three friends: a nationalist, a unionist and a couldnae-care-lesser meet for a pub crawl down Edinburgh’s historic Royal Mile. Can Ian convince Euan to vote for independence or is he just gambling with all their futures? Will Euan’s defence of the union break Ian’s resolve, or is he just hanging on to another struggling marriage? Does Stuart even care? And how can a travel writer have a fear of flying? And who is the mysterious ninety-five year old man in the red tartan trousers? The Mile is an entertaining alcohol-fuelled stagger down a street that has a lot more to it than tartan rugs and cashmere shops. Join our friends, their hangers-on, and their pursuers, as they take in 300 years of Scottish history. And a skinful of beer and whisky… REVIEW "This is a much-needed injection of booze-soaked banter and comedy into the independence debate. Assured and heartwarming stuff." Doug Johnstone "A witty comedy with a big heart and surprise waiting at every pub stop, The Mile is a whirlwind of laughs, loss and love. If that isn’t enough to get you reading, then you may never find out how Scotland is like a millionaire’s shortcake … " Karyn Dougan, Glasgow Review of Books

American Sfoglino: A Master Class in Handmade Pasta (Pasta Cookbook, Italian Cooking Books, Pasta and Noodle Cooking)


Evan Funke - 2019
    It's bold in its simplicity and focus." — Missy Robbins, chef/owner of Lilia and MISI2020 IACP Awards Finalist - Chefs & Restaurants2020 IACP Awards Finalist - Food Photography & StylingA comprehensive guide to making the best pasta in the world: In this debut cookbook from Evan Funke, he shares classic techniques from his Emilia-Romagna training and provides accessible instructions for making his award-winning sfoglia (sheet pasta) at home. With little more than flour, eggs, and a rolling pin, you too can be a sfoglino (a pasta maker) and create traditional Italian noodles that are perfectly paired with the right sauces.Features recipes for home cooks to recreate 15 classic pasta shapes, spanning simple pappardelle to perfect tortelloni.Beginning with four foundational doughs, American Sfoglino takes readers step by step through recipes for a variety of generous dishes, from essential sauces and broths, like Passata di Pomodoro (Tomato Sauce) and Brodo di Carne (Meat Broth) to luscious Tagliatelle in Bianco con Prosciutto (Tagliatelle with Bacon and Butter) and Lasagna Verde alla Bolognese (Green Bolognese Lasagna).Includes stories from Italy and the kitchen at Felix Trattoria that add the finishing touches to this master class in pasta, while sumptuous photographs and a bold package offer a feast for the eyes.Forget your pasta machine and indulge in the magic of being a sfoglino with the help of the rich imagery and detailed instructions provided by Evan Funke and American Sfoglino.Evan Funke is a master pasta maker and the chef-owner of Felix Trattoria in Venice, California.Katie Parla is a food writer and IACP award-winning author whose work has appeared in numerous outlets, including the New York Times, Food & Wine, and Saveur. Eric Wolfinger is a James Beard Award-winning food photographer.Makes an excellent gift idea for any pasta aficionado or avid Italian cook.

What Happens in Tuscany...


T.A. Williams - 2015
    But when she finds herself on a rainy street, soaked to the bone and with only a cheating boyfriend and a dead-end job keeping her in town, she knows something has to change. Which is what leads her to Iddlescombe Manor, to be companion to Lady Victoria Chalker-Pyne – the only 25 year old Katie’s ever met who hasn’t heard of Twitter, thinks camisoles are de rigueur, and desperately needs an education in the 21st century!…to the Tuscan sun!But it wouldn’t be an education without a summer holiday – and where better than Tuscany? Decamping to Victoria’s family villa, it’s soon clear that the valley really does have it all: sun, sea…and some seriously gorgeous neighbours. The only question is: when the weather’s this hot, the wine is this smooth and the local men are this irresistible…will Katie ever want to make the journey home?

The Invitation


Lucy Foley - 2016
    Rome, 1953: Hal, an itinerant journalist flailing in the post-war darkness, has come to the Eternal City to lose himself and to seek absolution for the thing that haunts him. One evening he finds himself on the steps of a palazzo, walking into a world of privilege and light. Here, on a rooftop above the city, he meets the mysterious Stella. Hal and Stella are from different worlds, but their connection is magnetic. Together, they escape the crowded party and imagine a different life, even if it's just for a night. Yet Stella vanishes all too quickly, and Hal is certain their paths won't cross again. But a year later they are unexpectedly thrown together, after Hal receives an invitation he cannot resist. An Italian Contessa asks him to assist on a trip of a lifetime -- acting as a reporter on a tremendous yacht, skimming its way along the Italian coast toward Cannes film festival, the most famous artists and movie stars of the day gathered to promote a new film. Of all the luminaries aboard -- an Italian ingénue, an American star, a reclusive director -- only one holds Hal in thrall: Stella. And while each has a past that belies the gilded surface, Stella has the most to hide. As Hal's obsession with Stella grows, he becomes determined to bring back the girl she once was, the girl who's been confined to history. An irresistibly entertaining and atmospheric novel set in some of the world's most glamorous locales, The Invitation is a sultry love story about the ways in which the secrets of the past stay with us -- no matter how much we try to escape them.

Inheritance


Natalie Danford - 2007
    The deed is to a house in Urbino, Italy---the hometown he barely spoke of. Intrigued, Olivia travels there. At first she is charmed by the historic city, the relatives she’s not met before, and the young lawyer she’s hired to help her investigate the claim. But when Olivia tries to sort out the deed, she is met with a puzzling silence. Everyone in the town remembers her father, but they are not eager to tell his story. However, Luigi tells his part of the tale directly to the reader as the chapters alternate between Olivia’s search for the truth and Luigi’s account of his history. By the end of this skillfully constructed book, the reader understands both sides of a heartbreaking yet ultimately satisfying love story.

The Only Way to Paradise


G.G. Vandagriff - 2011
    Or, perhaps, it's the ability to connect with the story, tap into that magical "relatability" factor that lingers long after the last page has been read. Any one of these elements is vital to a story, but rarely do we find books that have all of these qualities. However, The Only Way to Paradise is such a book.”–Michele Bell, Best-Selling Romance Author. (Five Stars) What causes picture-perfect suburban Oakwood residents, MacKenzie, Roxie, Sara, and Georgia to desert their therapist and fly off to Florence? Answer: A romantic Italian movie that prompts Roxie to ask: “If Italy is so healing and therapeutic what are we doing in Ohio?” Even Sara, the most duty-bound of the group, finally joins the pact they dub “The Crazy Ladies of Oakwood,” and only a week later, they find themselves in Florence. Embraced by the entire province of Tuscany, each woman becomes entangled in experiences she could never have foretold. Not only do they find the fascinating Italian men that Georgia promised, but new sides to themselves and each other. Against the glittering background of Florence, their dramas play out: MacKenzie returns to her student days as an art historian, discarding her identity as the controlling Oakwood charity patron and society hostess. Renewing her acquaintance with the David, she vows to let herself be sculpted rather than trying to sculpt others. MacKenzie finds not only a new talent, but a new man who appreciates it, just as her husband decides to re-enter her life. Roxie, who has always approached life as a circus, is drawn unwillingly into a passionate romance with a gorgeous Italian professor, Stefano. Her physical response to Stefano taps into lost memories, causing her to literally run from him. Roxie, a quirky and colorful Cubana, senses danger in visions and smells that resurface of a rotting summerhouse behind her Florida home. With his nurturing and passionate love, Stefano helps her to face the “broken piece” inside her. Sara unveils part of her that no one but her instructors know. She is an extraordinarily talented concert violinist. Normally trapped in the demanding life of an ob-gyn (scripted for her by her Vietnamese immigrant parents), she is temporarily freed. She performs for others for the first time, and experiences unprecedented joy. However, the coping mechanism she used to handle the pressure of her job threatens to destroy her new life. Georgia, a grieving widow, processes her life without Ben and without her violin career that ended early because of arthritis. Looking for a new passion in life, she finds that satisfaction comes to her in “giving back” to those around her the lessons and knowledge she has learned through her successes and mistakes in La Dolce Vita. Just as her perspective is changing, she reunites with her first love, Arturo, and must make a decision about the direction of her future life. Though ages have passed since the rebirth called the Renaissance, Florence still inspires change by breathing out its creative mix of energy, beauty, and courage. Where Michelangelo “set free” the David by sculpting a block of marble, each “crazy lady” finds her exterior “Oakwood” self burnished away by new experiences, revealing a new self. This burnishing is not a gentle process, but exuberant Italians help them through it with their all-embracing agape, or unconditional love.

Basket of Deplorables


Tom Rachman - 2017
    Reviews for his second novel, The Rise and Fall of Great Powers, were no less rapturous, with the New York Times calling it "ingenious".Now, in the shadows of a seismic shift in American politics, comes his timely and hilarious new work. Basket of Deplorables takes an incisive and satirical look at the United States in the era of Trump data breaches, liberal self-righteousness, red-hat rancor, Starbucks macchiatos, Ultimate Fighting factories, and Internet sinkholes.Written for Audible and featuring a shifting array of disparate voices, the five intricately linked stories take listeners from an Election Night party in Manhattan to a funeral populated by fake mourners in Lansing, Michigan, to an online date in an era when every email platform in the world has been hacked and, ultimately, to a reality where the impossible, the unthinkable, becomes all too real.In Basket of Deplorables, Rachman has created an urgent and deeply satisfying work that will continue to cement his place among the great literary stylists and cultural observers of our time.

Camille Claudel: A Life


Odile Ayral-Clause - 2002
    After she crumbled under the combined weight of social reproof, deprivations, and art world prejudices, her family had her committed to an asylum, where she died 30 years later. Although Claudel's life has been romanticized in print and on film, a fully researched biography has never been written until this one. The book draws upon much unpublished material, including letters and photographs that confirm the brilliance of her sculpture, clarify her relationship with Rodin (who did not exploit her, but, in fact, supported her work throughout his life), and reveal the true story of her confinement in a mental institution. Claudel's fascinating life touches many aspects of women's issues: creativity, struggle for recognition, conflict with social values, and art world inequities. Illustrated with personal family photographs, this is an intimate and moving tribute to an artist whose life and work have, until now, been misinterpreted and undervalued.

The Psalter


Galen Watson - 2012
    This time, it leads to a medieval manuscript and murder. Was it an ordinary theft gone wrong or something more? The Carabinieri in Rome would like to know.Michael Romano is an American priest working in the Vatican's Secret Archives with a penchant for stepping over the line. Church Inquisitors have noticed -- and they aren’t happy. Nevertheless, Romano is also the Church’s senior paleographer, an expert in ancient manuscripts, and his expertise is needed to examine a ninth-century codex known as a Psalter.Father Romano’s examination leads him into the past as he uncovers an historical narrative of medieval forgeries, Saracen invasions and a legendary fight for the richest kingdom on earth. Yet he has unwittingly become a target for those who will stop at nothing to possess the secret of the Psalter.*Untraditional Christianity Warning

The Missing Half


Brooke Powley - 2013
    It never happened to anyone I knew ... It happened over breakfast, or lunch. It happened to parents who were careless”Alice Winters is not a careless mother. Yet one awful day her two-year-old daughter is taken from her pushchair outside a village shop. Alice’s life becomes every parent’s worst nightmare as she begins questioning everything and everyone she knows, vowing to leave no stone unturned until Grace is found.Now, ten years later, Alice believes that the publication of her book recollecting the events surrounding Grace’s disappearance will be the final needle in the haystack needed to bring her home.Who had taken Grace and why? Will Alice ever be ready to accept the truth, no matter how difficult it is to hear? For fans of Diane Chamberlain, this is a must read.

Munch: The Tale of an Oral Sex Addict


Allison Hobbs - 2014
    After the family housekeeper introduces him to the pleasure of cunnilingus, Munch develops a compulsion to give oral sex to total strangers. His insatiable desire to taste the various flavors of numerous women often leads to heartbreak as Munch confuses sex with love. Compounding his problems, his overbearing stepmother strongly disapproves of his oral obsession, and she dispenses unusual punishments to try and break him out of the habit. As the years progress, Munch’s oral sex addiction intensifies and he often goes on pussy-eating binges. Can Munch find true love with one woman or will he always be on the hunt to satisfy his taste buds?