Download or read book Ciao America written by Beppe Severgnini and published by Crown. This book was released on 2003-05-13 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the wry but affectionate tradition of Bill Bryson, Ciao, America! is a delightful look at America through the eyes of a fiercely funny guest—one of Italy’s favorite authors who spent a year in Washington, D.C. When Beppe Severgnini and his wife rented a creaky house in Georgetown they were determined to see if they could adapt to a full four seasons in a country obsessed with ice cubes, air-conditioning, recliner chairs, and, of all things, after-dinner cappuccinos. From their first encounters with cryptic rental listings to their back-to-Europe yard sale twelve months later, Beppe explores this foreign land with the self-described patience of a mildly inappropriate beachcomber, holding up a mirror to America’s signature manners and mores. Succumbing to his surroundings day by day, he and his wife find themselves developing a taste for Klondike bars and Samuel Adams beer, and even that most peculiar of American institutions—the pancake house. The realtor who waves a perfect bye-bye, the overzealous mattress salesman who bounces from bed to bed, and the plumber named Marx who deals in illegally powerful showerheads are just a few of the better-than-fiction characters the Severgninis encounter while foraging for clues to the real America. A trip to the computer store proves just as revealing as D.C.’s Fourth of July celebration, as do boisterous waiters angling for tips and no-parking signs crammed with a dozen lines of fine print. By the end of his visit, Severgnini has come to grips with life in these United States—and written a charming, laugh-out-loud tribute.

Download or read book La Bella Figura written by Beppe Severgnini and published by Crown. This book was released on 2008-11-12 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Join the bestselling author of Ciao, America! on a lively tour of modern Italy that takes you behind the seductive face it puts on for visitors—la bella figura—and highlights its maddening, paradoxical true self You won’t need luggage for this hypothetical and hilarious trip into the hearts and minds of Beppe Severgnini’s fellow Italians. In fact, Beppe would prefer if you left behind the baggage his crafty and elegant countrymen have smuggled into your subconscious. To get to his Italia, you’ll need to forget about your idealized notions of Italy. Although La Bella Figura will take you to legendary cities and scenic regions, your real destinations are the places where Italians are at their best, worst, and most authentic: The highway: in America, a red light has only one possible interpretation—Stop! An Italian red light doesn’t warn or order you as much as provide an invitation for reflection. The airport: where Italians prove that one of their virtues (an appreciation for beauty) is really a vice. Who cares if the beautiful girls hawking cell phones in airport kiosks stick you with an outdated model? That’s the price of gazing upon perfection. The small town: which demonstrates the Italian genius for pleasant living: “a congenial barber . . . a well-stocked newsstand . . . professionally made coffee and a proper pizza; bell towers we can recognize in the distance, and people with a kind word and a smile for everyone.” The chaos of the roads, the anarchy of the office, the theatrical spirit of the hypermarkets, and garrulous train journeys; the sensory reassurance of a church and the importance of the beach; the solitude of the soccer stadium and the crowded Italian bedroom; the vertical fixations of the apartment building and the horizontal democracy of the eat-in kitchen. As you venture to these and many other locations rooted in the Italian psyche, you realize that Beppe has become your Dante and shown you a country that “has too much style to be hell” but is “too disorderly to be heaven.” Ten days, thirty places. From north to south. From food to politics. From saintliness to sexuality. This ironic, methodical, and sentimental examination will help you understand why Italy—as Beppe says—“can have you fuming and then purring in the space of a hundred meters or ten minutes.”

Download or read book America Through Foreign Eyes written by Jorge G. Castañeda and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2020 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Foreigners have been writing about the United States ever since its foundation. Now it is my turn. But please don't hold this against me: the United States itself is at fault. Like a great many people on earth, I've long been fascinated by this remarkable phenomenon which calls itself America. My fate -or perhaps good fortune- has been that of a foreigner who for half a century lived the American experience-as a child, as a student, as an author, as a recurrent visitor and as a university professor. Being Mexican places me in a special category: having lost half its territory to the United States in the 19th century, having found itself caught up in the maelstrom of America's current identity crisis, Mexico can never ignore what happens north of the border. Further, while serving as Mexico's Foreign Minister from 2000 to 2003, I had the privilege of peeping inside the machinery of power that makes this great nation tick. That said, this book is not written from a Mexican perspective but rather from that of a sympathetic foreign critic who has seen the United States from both inside and outside. And its hope is to contribute something to how Americans view themselves and are viewed by the world. Before embarking on this journey, I naturally looked back at some of my forebears, earlier foreigners who were drawn to visit or live in the United States and who then went on to offer their version of America to their home readers. Some like the French traveler Alexis de Tocqueville, author of the early 19th century classic, Democracy in America, felt European nations had much to learn from the American democratic experiment. Others like Charles Dickens left dismayed by what he considered to be the country's singular obsession with money. But they are just two of dozens who have tried-and continue to try- to find a magic key that unlocks the complexities and contradictions of American society. Indeed, it is as if the United States seeks to challenge foreign writers to explain it, confident they will fail. And in taking it on, these outsiders have variously experienced frustration, hope, anger, excitement, disappointment and enlightenment- but never indifference"--

Download or read book The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America written by Andrew Smith and published by . This book was released on 2013-01-31 with total page 2556 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Home cooks and gourmets, chefs and restaurateurs, epicures, and simple food lovers of all stripes will delight in this smorgasbord of the history and culture of food and drink. Professor of Culinary History Andrew Smith and nearly 200 authors bring together in 770 entries the scholarship on wide-ranging topics from airline and funeral food to fad diets and fast food; drinks like lemonade, Kool-Aid, and Tang; foodstuffs like Jell-O, Twinkies, and Spam; and Dagwood, hoagie, and Sloppy Joe sandwiches.

Download or read book Icons of American Cooking written by Elizabeth S. Demers Ph.D. and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2011-03-08 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discover how these contemporary food icons changed the way Americans eat through the fascinating biographical profiles in this book. Before 1946 and the advent of the first television cooking show, James Beard's I Love to Eat, not many Americans were familiar with the finer aspects of French cuisine. Today, food in the United States has experienced multiple revolutions, having received—and embraced—influences from not only Europe, but cultures ranging from the Far East to Latin America. This expansion of America's appreciation for food is largely the result of a number of well-known food enthusiasts who forever changed how we eat. Icons of American Cooking examines the giants of American food, cooking, and cuisine through 24 biographical profiles of contemporary figures, covering all regions, cooking styles, and ethnic origins. This book fills a gap by providing behind-the-scenes insights into the biggest names in American food, past and present.

Download or read book Metroburbia USA written by Paul L Knox and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2008-06-19 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Decades of economic prosperity in the United States have redefined the American dream. Paul Knox explores how extreme versions of this dream have changed the American landscape. Increased wealth has led America's metropolitan areas to develop into vast sprawling regions of "metroburbia"ùfragmented mixtures of employment and residential settings, combining urban and suburban characteristics. Upper-middle-class Americans are moving into larger homes in greater numbers, which leads Knox to explore the relationship between built form and material culture in contemporary society. He covers changes in home design, real estate, the work of developers, and the changing wishes of consumers. Knox shows that contemporary suburban landscapes are a product of consumer demand, combined with the logic of real estate development, mediated by design and policy professionals and institutions of governance. Suburban landscapes not only echo the fortunes of successive generations of inhabitants, Knox argues, they also reflect the country's changing core values. Knox addresses key areas of concern and importance to today's urban planners and suburban residents including McMansions, traffic disasters, house design, homeowner's associations, exclusionary politics, and big box stores. Through the inclusion of examples and photos, Metroburbia, USA creates an accessible portrait of today's suburbs supported by data, anecdotes, and social theory. It is a broad interpretation of the American metropolitan form that looks carefully at the different influences that contribute to where and how we live today.

Download or read book Indomitable Will written by Charles Kupfer and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2012-04-05 with total page 457 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Some of the worst military disasters in U.S. history occurred between Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 and the Battle of Midway in June 1942. During this period, the American people faced a barrage of bad news and accounts of defeats and retreats. Yet if they were shocked and dismayed, they showed little panic. Indomitable Will resurrects the legacy of this first half-year of American combat during WWII -a legacy of pain, but not of woe. Historian Charles Kupfer recounts the story of the war's early defeats: Bataan, Corregidor, Wake Island, and the Java Sea. Some of these battles remain evocative today; others are obscure; all were catastrophes for American arms. Kupfer asserts, however, that later victories were made inevitable by the steeling effect of those initial disasters. Weaving together military, journalistic, political, and cultural histories, this engaging book shows that by setting their collective will on victory, Americans in and out of uniform gained strength from their setbacks. Indomitable Will spells out how the nation turned early defeat into ultimate victory.

Download or read book Italian Lessons written by Beppe Severgnini and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2022-05-03 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One-of-a-kind timeless lessons for handling challenges and living with joy, the Italian way—“with unparalleled insight and brilliant wit, Severgnini’s book not only transports us to Italy but deep into the Italian mind and spirit" (Stanley Tucci, host of Searching for Italy). Is there an Italian way to deal with life? Can we all learn something from the Italians? Italy often arouses in Americans a unique mix of attraction and bafflement, moderate disapproval and incredible allure. From the Italians' love of poetry to an innate desire to socialize to the regional differences between the north and the south, Beppe Severgnini, who has dedicated his career to the meticulous observation of his compatriots, embarks on an enthralling quest to identify a core Italian identity and explore how that identity has evolved since the global pandemic. Told with the warmth and humor of a longtime friend, Severgnini touches upon patience, endurance, and wisdom, and offers a one-of-a-kind set of timeless lessons for overcoming trials, the Italian way.

Download or read book Kissing in America written by Margo Rabb and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2015-05-26 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A must-read for fans of Jenny Han! Acclaimed writer Margo Rabb’s Kissing in America is “a wonderful novel about friendship, love, travel, life, hope, poetry, intelligence, and the inner lives of girls,” raves internationally bestselling author Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love). In the two years since her father died, sixteen-year-old Eva has found comfort in reading romance novels—118 of them, to be exact—to dull the pain of her loss that’s still so present. Her romantic fantasies become a reality when she meets Will, who can relate to Eva’s grief. Unfortunately, after Eva falls head-over-heels for him, he picks up and moves to California with barely any warning. Not wanting to lose the only person who has been able to pull her out of sadness—and, perhaps, her first shot at real love—Eva and her best friend, Annie, concoct a plan to travel to the west coast. As they road trip across America, Eva and Annie confront the complex truth about love. In this honest and emotional journey that National Book Award Finalist Sara Zarr calls “gorgeous, funny, and joyous,” readers will experience the highs of infatuation and the lows of heartache as Eva contends with love in all of its forms. Since publication, this novel received 4 starred reviews and has been named: A Chicago Public Library Best Teen Book of the Year A New York Public Library Best Book for Teens A Miami Herald Best Book of the Year A Spirit of Texas selection A TAYSHAS High School Reading List Selection An Oprah Summer Reading List selection A Junior Library Guild selection An Amazon Best Book of the Month A Publisher’s Lunch Buzz Book for Young Adults

Download or read book Ciao Tuscany written by Damian Mandola and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Damian and Johnny return with a colorful volume of hearty fare of Tuscan derivation. From the antipasti to dolci, these chefs offer intensely flavored dishes from that fabled west-central Italian region crowned by Florence.

Download or read book World Film Locations Florence written by Alberto Zambenedetti and published by Intellect Books. This book was released on 2014-09-15 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Florence, with its rich history, privileged place in the canon of Western art, and long-standing relationship with the moving image, is a cinematic city equal to Venice or Rome. World Film Locations: Florence explores the city as it is manifested in the minds of filmmakers and filmgoers. Contributors to the collection consider a wide range of topics, including the tourist’s perception of Florence, representations of art and artists on screen, the camera-friendly Tuscan countryside and mouthwatering local cuisine and filmic adaptations of canonical Italian literature. Through scene reviews of films, including Bobby Deerfield, A Room with a View, Tea with Mussolini and Under the Tuscan Sun, World Film Locations: Florence delves deeper into the makeup of the city, looking at both familiar and unfamiliar locations through the lens of such filmmakers as Roberto Rossellini, Mario Monicelli, Brian DePalma and Ridley Scott.

Download or read book The James Beard Foundation s Best of the Best written by Kit Wohl and published by Chronicle Books. This book was released on 2012-02-24 with total page 687 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A look back at the recipients of the James Beard Foundation’s Outstanding Chef Award from 1991 to 2010, featuring profiles, recipes, and photos. An inspiration for a generation of chefs, James Beard set the standard through his cooking, teaching, consulting, writing, and media appearances. In honor of Beard’s unrivaled legacy as the father of the gourmet movement, the James Beard Foundation established the annual James Beard Awards, which recognize excellence in food, beverage, and other culinary industries. As the James Beard Foundation celebrates their 25th anniversary, this lush volume compiles the recipients of the prestigious Outstanding Chef Award, featuring a profile of each winner, along with sumptuous recipes and stunning photography. From Wolfgang Puck to Tom Colicchio, discover the culinary philosophy and passion behind each prizewinner’s path to the kitchen, all contained in a beautiful collector’s piece.

Download or read book The Readers Advisory Guide to Nonfiction written by Neal Wyatt and published by American Library Association. This book was released on 2007-05-14 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Navigating what at she calls the " extravagantly rich world of nonfiction," renowned readers' advisor (RA) Wyatt builds readers' advisory bridges from fiction to compelling and increasingly popular nonfiction to encompass the library's entire collection. She focuses on eight popular categories: history, true crime, true adventure, science, memoir, food/cooking, travel, and sports. Within each, she explains the scope, popularity, style, major authors and works, and the subject's position in readers' advisory interviews. Wyatt addresses who is reading nonfiction and why, while providing RAs with the tools and language to incorporate nonfiction into discussions that point readers to what to read next. In easy-to-follow steps, Wyatt Explains the hows and whys of offering fiction and nonfiction suggestions together Illustrates ways to get up to speed fast in nonfiction Shows how to lead readers to a variety of books using her "read-around" and "reading map" strategies Provides tools to build nonfiction subject guides for the collection This hands-on guide includes nonfiction bibliography, key authors, benchmark books with annotations, and core collections. It is destined to become the nonfiction 'bible' for readers' advisory and collection development, helping librarians, library workers, and patrons select great reading from the entire library collection!

Download or read book Reading Between the Signs Workbook written by Anna Mindess and published by Nicholas Brealey. This book was released on 2004-11-03 with total page 139 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This helpful workbook functions as a companion and supplement to Anna Mindess's earlier book, Reading Between the Signs: A Cultural Guide for Sign Language Interpreters, a recognized classic text for sign language interpreters and ASL students. It is arranged to correspond with the theory presented in the book and expands its focus to the relativity of politeness and the distinction between direct and indirect communication styles, both of which are important elements in comparing Deaf and mainstream cultures. Hands-on exercises allow students to better comprehend the sometimes-puzzling differences of culturally appropriate behavior. The book also helps students explore their own culture as well as the American Deaf culture in ways that reveal the differences between the two. Role play, discussion topics and critical incidents increase first-hand understanding of the relationship between the Deaf and Hearing communities.

Download or read book Weather Matters written by Bernard Mergen and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A kaleidoscopic book that illuminates our obsession with weather--as both physical reality and evocative metaphor--focusing on the ways in which it is perceived, feared, embraced, managed, and even marketed.

Download or read book Off the Rails written by Beppe Severgnini and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2019-02-12 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this witty and entertaining collection of travel tales, an acclaimed journalist explores his obsession with trains--and what his rail journeys have taught him about culture and identity. "I've gone around the world in installments. Every trip has been a revelation. I've watched regions, nations, and continents change moods and I've met more people on trains than in forty years of airplane flights. Every train trip has been a spectacle. Trains are stages, cafés, bazaars. The only talk show that will never go off the air..." Beppe Severgnini has spent his life traveling the world, and not just because he's a journalist; he's a passionate, unflagging train buff. Off the Rails recounts some of his favorite trips across Europe, Australia, Asia, and the United States, each journey bringing readers not only to a different place but to a different time, from his honeymoon on the Trans-Siberian Express (in a four-person compartment!), to a winding journey from Russia to Turkey during the last summer of communism, to a recent coast-to-coast trip with his son from Washington, D.C., to Washington State. Off the Rails is the perfect getaway for anyone with a touch of wanderlust, who dreams of escape or just likes to laugh. Filled with memorable characters and perceptive observations, it demonstrates--hilariously--what unites us. With the world in chaos and life in perpetual fast-forward, it's always the right time to hop on board with Beppe Severgnini and meet your charming, hapless, quarrelsome, romantic, shifty, quirky, endearing neighbors.

Download or read book The Upper Room Disciplines 2018 written by Rita Collett and published by Upper Room Books. This book was released on 2017-09-01 with total page 549 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Faithful users appreciate this best-selling devotional guide as an insightful, grounding, and must-read devotional for spending daily time with God. Fifty-three writers from diverse Christian backgrounds invite you to immerse yourself in scripture and apply its truths to your daily life. Each daily reading offers a selected Bible reading drawn from the Revised Common Lectionary a thoughtful reflection on the scripture passage a prayer or suggestion for reflection In addition to a weekly overview of scriptures and questions for small-group or individual reflection, Disciplines contains an appendix of the lectionary readings for 2018 as well as morning, midday, and evening prayers. Writers for 2018 include Junius Dotson (Foreword), Mary Lou Redding, Willie James Jennings, Amy Oden, Jan Richardson, Hannah and Andy Dreitcer, Anne Broyles, Safiyah Fosua, Jim Melchiorre, Max O. Vincent, Pam Hawkins, and Marshall Jenkins.