Italian for Beginners: A Review

Italian for Beginners
Author: Kristin Harmel
Paperback: 384 pages

Publisher: 5 Spot (August 13, 2009)

ISBN-10: 0446538302

Cat Connelly is a thirty-four-year-old Manhattan accountant who has always lived a responsible life. She has lived on the safe side, even taking care of her younger sister and father when her mother left the family. But Cat starts to question her life choices while attending her sister's wedding.

When wedding guests ask her about finding the right man and walking down the isle, and when she hears quiet gossip, within earshot, she becomes embarrassed and frustrated. Where is the justice for someone who has, seemingly, done all the right things, but still hasn't found the life she rightfully deserves? She tries to leave the wedding party, but runs into a mysterious man who takes her breath away. Is he single or married, which turns into a major issue.

Cat, feeling confused, and low in spirit, returns to work, where a friend encourages her to take a much needed month's vacation to visit a former boyfriend in Italy. Cat talks to her father, who tells her it is a good idea for her to get away for awhile. She now has to choose between her perceived responsibility at home or a chance at happiness.

Arriving in Italy, Cat finds herself on a virtual "Roman Holiday" as her life becomes very similar to Audrey Hepburn's character in the movie by that name. Although, she finds romance, disappointment, betrayal, and love, she also must face some serious old ghosts that have haunted her in her earlier life. Does she have the courage to live as a stranger in Rome? Will she conquer her demons? Will she find her true self? Will she find the love of her life? These are questions that make the book a pure pleasure to read.

I give this a perfect 5 stars*****

(The author also wrote The Art of French Kissing)

It Happened In Italy - A Review

"It Happened In Italy"

By- Elizabeth Bettina

384 Pages

Publisher- Thomas Nelson

When I think of the Holocaust, I think of torture and death, Dachau and Auschwitz.

Having been born near the end of World War II, I have heard of the horrible Nazi labor camps; the separation of families; the beatings; the starvation; the genocide of millions of Jewish people. But I had not heard of the humane internment camps in Italy.

The book’s author, Elizabeth Bettina, spent many of her childhood summers in Campagna, Italy, but never knew the important story that lay buried within the tiny, intimate community. She had never heard of the dramatic years of the Nazi regime and how it touched the lives of her relatives and friends. As an adult, she finds an intriguing photo of Jewish prisoners who are well-dressed and relativity happy, standing among a group of smiling people, a Catholic Bishop, and a police officer. The picture becomes the catalyst of the book.

This is a surprising and intriguing story that at times gave me “goose bumps” and made me smile. It is a story the author feels she was meant to write, one that had to be told. She has gone to a great effort to document the courage and friendship of the unheralded people of Italy, a people who risk their lives to protect the lives of their fellow man.