This October, mark Italian-American Heritage Month by recognizing the contributions and achievements of Italian immigrants and their descendants living in the United States. Over 26 million Americans of Italian descent currently reside in the U.S. — making up America’s seventh largest ethnic group. This ethnic group has made significant contributions to all sectors of the country’s life, including politics, economics, arts, film, science, research, and sports.
Library Program
Our first lecture on October 7 at 7pm entitled Harmonies of the Heart, explores the operatic world of famed Italian composer Giacomo Puccini.
Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, Puccini was descended from a long line of composers, stemming from the late-Baroque era. In 2024, the opera world is observing the 100th Anniversary of his death. It is also the 100th Anniversary of Turandot, his final opera.
Few composers have inspired as deeply controversial reactions as Puccini. For many, Puccini’s operas remain the most beloved and popular. Many consider Turnadot to be the last great Italian opera from which comes the last great opera aria: “Nessun Dorma.” For others, especially many music critics of his ear, Puccini was vehemently dismissed.
La Boheme is still the world’s most performed opera. Puccini was the leading figure of what came to be known as Verismo opera at the end of the 19th into the early 20th centuries. His music has greatly influenced opera, musical theater, and film composers for over 100 years.
The talk by music conductor and lecturer Dr. Robert Butts, will explore Puccini’s life, relationship to other opera composers of his time, and his most popular operas such as La Boheme, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot. Video excerpts from performances of his operas will be included.
Books
Here is a selection of recently published nonfiction and fiction by and about Italy/ Italian Americans or set in Italy, available in the Livingston Library collection.
NonFiction
Burn a Black Candle : An Italian American Grimoire by Dee Norman
The Italian folklore tradition is one of the most ancient unbroken chains of wisdom on earth. Discover the previously unwritten secrets of an Italian American family’s magical tradition passed down from generation to generation. This spellbook provides easy, step-by-step introductions to the basics of authentic Italian American magical practice.
City of Echoes : A New History of Rome, Its Popes, and Its People by Jessica Wanberg
In this authoritative new history, Wärnberg tells the story of Rome’s longest standing figurehead and interlocutor–the pope–revealing how his presence over the centuries has transformed the fate of the city of Rome. As the first-ever account of how the popes’ presence has shaped the history of Rome, it not only illuminates the lives of the remarkable (and unremarkable) men who have sat on the throne of Saint Peter, but also reveals the bold and curious actions of the men, women, and children who have shaped the city with them, from antiquity to today.
In Sardinia : An Unexpected Journey in Italy by Jeff Biggers
After three decades of living and traveling in Italy, Biggers finally crossed over to Sardinia, uncovering a treasury of stories amid major archaeological discoveries rewriting the history of the Mediterranean. Based in the bewitching port of Alghero, guided through the island’s rich and largely untranslated literature, he embarked on a rare journey around the island to experience its famed cuisine, wine, traditional rituals and thriving cultural movements. Beyond its fabled beaches, reconsidering how its unique history and ways have shaped Italy and Europe today, Biggers explores how travelers must first understand Sardinia and its ancient and modern history to truly understand the rest of Italy.
The Italian Squad : The True Story of the Immigrant Cops Who Fought the Rise Of the Mafia by Paul Moses
With blackmail, bombings and kidnappings terrorizing New York, courageous Italian immigrant detectives teamed up as the NYPD’s Italian Squad. This explosive story follows them across the first two decades of the twentieth century as they battle increasingly powerful gangsters and deeply ingrained prejudice against their beloved immigrant community.
Saving Michelangelo’s Dome : How Three Mathematicians and a Pope Sparked an Architectural Revolution by Wayne Kalayjian
In 1742, when the legendary dome atop St. Peter’s Basilica–designed by Michelangelo–cracks and threatens to collapse, Pope Benedict XIV summons three mathematicians whose groundbreaking ideas spark a revolution in the world of architecture.
This is a concise, star-studded retelling of the nation’s past, from Caesar and Augustus to da Vinci and Michelangelo, tracing the story of a country with prodigious global influence.
Fiction
The Curse of Pietro Houdini by Derek B. Miller
August, 1943. Fourteen-year-old Massimo is all alone. Newly orphaned and fleeing from Rome after surviving the American bombing raid that killed his parents, Massimo is attacked by thugs and finds himself bloodied at the base of the Montecassino. It is there in the Benedictine abbey’s shadow that a charismatic and cryptic man calling himself Pietro Houdini, the self-proclaimed “Master Artist and confidante of the Vatican,” rescues Massimo and brings him up the mountain to serve as his assistant in preserving the treasures that lay within the monastery walls. But can Massimo believe what Pietro is saying, particularly when Massimo has secrets too? Who is this extraordinary man? When it becomes evident that Montecassino will soon become the front line in the war, Pietro Houdini and Massimo execute a plan to smuggle three priceless Titian paintings to safety down the mountain. They are joined by a nurse concealing a nefarious past, a café owner turned murderer, a wounded but chipper German soldier, and a pair of lovers along with their injured mule, Ferrari. Together they will lie, cheat, steal, fight, kill, and sin their way through battlefields to survive, all while smuggling the Renaissance masterpieces and the bag full of ancient Greek gold they have rescued from the “safe keeping” of the Germans.
Daughter of Ashes by Ilaria Tuti
Superintendent Teresa Battaglia, a trailblazing criminal detective on the Italian police force, is on sick leave, recovering from her recent brush with death in pursuit of a killer. But none of her colleagues-not even her partner, Inspector Marini-know that her Alzheimer’s is getting worse, and that Teresa is unsure she will ever return to work. Teresa’s plans for retirement are shelved, however, when she is urgently summoned to meet with serial killer Giacomo Mainardi. Refusing to speak with anyone but Teresa, whose investigative work twenty-seven years prior landed him in maximum security prison, Mainardi has disconcerting news: somebody is after him, and only Teresa holds the key to keeping everyone, including herself, safe. To solve the case, Teresa must come face to face with a past she thought she’d buried, back to when Giacomo first began to kill, and Teresa-newly pregnant and married to an abusive man-did everything she could to catch him.
A Daughter of Fair Verona by Christina Dodd
The eldest daughter of Romeo and Juliet rejects the betrothal planned by her parents and tries to find the groom-to-be a more suitable bride.
Every Time We Say Goodbye by Natalie Jenner
In 1955, Vivien Lowry is facing the greatest challenge of her life. Her latest play, the only female-authored play on the London stage that season, has opened in the West End to rapturous applause from the audience. The reviewers, however, are not as impressed as the playgoers and their savage notices not only shut down the play but ruin Lowry’s last chance for a dramatic career. With her future in London not looking bright, at the suggestion of her friend, Peggy Guggenheim, Vivien takes a job as a script doctor on a major film shooting in Rome’s Cinecittà Studios. There she finds a vibrant movie-making scene filled with rising stars, acclaimed directors, and famous actors in a country that is torn between its past and its potentially bright future, between the liberation of the post-war cinema and the restrictions of the Catholic Church that permeates the very soul of Italy. As Vivien tries to forge a new future for herself, she also must face the long-buried truth of the recent World War and the mystery of what really happened to her deceased fiancé.
The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier
In 1486, Orsola Rosso is the eldest daughter in a family of glassblowers in Murano, Italy. As a woman, she is not meant to blow glass-but when her father dies, she teaches herself to make beads in secret, and her work becomes the cornerstone of the Rosso family fortunes. Skipping like a stone through the centuries, we follow Orsola and her family as they live through creative triumph and heartbreaking loss, from a plague rearing its head over Venice to Continental soldiers stripping its palazzos bare, from the domination of Murano and its maestros to the transformation of the city of trade into a city of tourists. In every era, the Rosso women ensure that their work, and their bonds, endure.
The House of Last Resort by Christopher Golden
Across Italy there are many half-empty towns, nearly abandoned by those who migrate to the coast or to cities. The beautiful, crumbling hilltop town of Becchina is among them, but it’s mayor has taken drastic measures to rebuild—selling abandoned homes to anyone in the world for a single Euro, as long as the buyer promises to live there for at least five years. It’s a no-brainer for American couple Tommy and Kate Puglisi. Both work remotely, and Becchina is the home of Tommy’s grandparents, his closest living relatives. It feels like a romantic adventure, an opportunity the young couple would be crazy not to seize. But from the moment they move in, they both feel a shadow has fallen on them. Tommy’s grandmother is furious, even a little frightened, when she realizes which house they’ve bought. There are rooms in an annex at the back of the house that they didn’t know were there. The place makes strange noises at night, locked doors are suddenly open, and when they go to a family gathering, they’re certain people are whispering about them, and about their house, which one neighbor refers to as The House of Last Resort . Soon, they learn that the home was owned for generations by the Church, but the real secret, and the true dread, is unlocked when they finally learn what the priests were doing in this house for all those long years…and how many people died in the strange chapel inside.
The King of Italy by Kent Heckenlively
Betrayed by Mussolini and forced to flee to America, Vincenzo Nicosia, struggling to forget his past and forge a new life, charges his nephew Alex with killing Mussolini and avenging his family during World War II which sweeps Alex into Italian politics where he makes a discovery that could destroy both their lives.
The Little Italian Hotel by Phaedra Patrick
After her husband asks for a divorce on their anniversary, acclaimed radio host Ginny Splinter impulsively invites four heartbroken listeners to join her on her holiday to Italy and, with her newfound friends, embarks on a vacation of healing and second chances.
The Lost Dresses of Italy by M. A. McLaughlin
Verona, 1947. Textile historian Marianne Baxter comes to post-war Italy with one thing on her mind: three pristine Victorian dresses, once owned by the famous poet Christina Rossetti. Hidden away in a trunk for nearly a century, they were recently discovered at the Fondazione Museo Menigatti and Marianne’s expertise is needed before they go on exhibit. Still grieving the loss of her husband, the trip is also a reason for Marianne to start over. But when she arrives, she discovers an unsupportive but handsome museum owner, a superstitious local community, and a mysterious letter with a scribbled warning hidden among the dresses. Verona, 1864. Christina Rossetti returns to her family’s homeland in hopes of leaving her unfulfilled personal life and poetry career in England and beginning a new chapter. After a chance encounter with an old family friend, she finds a gift her father once gave her: a small ornate box with the three Muses carved into the lid. When she stumbles across a secret compartment, Christina finds a letter from her father with an urgent and personal request. The letter, speaking of a pendant and stolen book that must be returned, connects Marianne and Christina-and leaves them both with more questions than answers.
May the Wolf Die by Elizabeth Heider
A gripping mystery set in sun-soaked Italy, following a female detective haunted by her family’s past and tasked with untangling the city’s organized crime and the modern U.S. military presence there. Nikki Serafino is enjoying the sunset from her boat in her beloved port city of Naples, Italy, when she discovers the body of a man in the warm waters of the bay. An investigator working as the liaison between local police and American troops, Nikki is certainly no stranger to violence and organized crime, but this case grows complicated when the victim turns out to be a U.S. Navy captain stationed at the nearby military base-and the autopsy reveals foul play. As she delves into the case, another body is found and Nikki must face connections linking the murders to her own complicated history as a daughter of Naples.
The Sicilian Inheritance by Jo Piazza
Sara Marsala barely knows who she is anymore after the failure of her business and marriage. On top of that, her beloved great-aunt Rosie passes away, leaving Sara bereft with grief. But Aunt Rosie’s death also opens an escape from her life and a window into the past by way of a plane ticket to Sicily, a deed to a possibly valuable plot of land, and a bombshell family secret. Rosie believes Sara’s great-grandmother Serafina, the family matriarch who was left behind while her husband worked in America, didn’t die of illness as family lore has it . . . she was murdered. Thus begins a twist-filled adventure that takes Sara all over the picturesque Italian countryside as she races to solve a mystery and learn the story of Serafina—a feisty and headstrong young woman in the early 1900s thrust into motherhood in her teens, who fought for a better life not just for herself but for all the women of her small village.
Silence of the Choir by Mohamed M. Sarr
Seventy-two men arrive in the middle of the Sicilian countryside. They are “immigrants,” “refugees” or “migrants.” But in Altino, they’re called the ragazzi, the “guys” that the Santa Marta Association have taken responsibility for. In this small Sicilian town, their arrival changes life for everybody. While they wait to know their fate, the ragazzi encounter all kinds of people: a strange vicar who rewrites their pasts, a woman committed to ensuring them asylum, a man determined to fight against it, an older ragazzo who has become an interpreter, and a reclusive poet who no longer writes. Each character in this moving and important saga is forced to reflect on what it means to encounter people they know nothing about.
The Triumph of the Lions by Stefania Auci
A novel that explores the origins of one of Italy’s most powerful and notorious families, men and women whose ruthless ambition and caprice would chart the course of modern Italian history–a tale of grand historical dramas, exotic locales, political intrigue, and heartbreaking romance.
-Archana Chiplunkar, Adult Services & Acquisitions Librarian