Celebrating Italian and Polish American Heritage Month

October 10, 2023 Reading Suggestions

This month we're celebrating Italian-Americans and Polish-Americans, their contributions and stories. In the Adult Services Department, you'll find a display of cookbooks, fiction written by Italian and Polish authors, films starring actors of Italian and Polish descent, music performed by Italian and Polish artists.  We're also highlighting biographies and memoirs of notable people of Italian and Polish descent.

Stop in and browse the display, and if you're a native speaker of Polish or Italian, stop at the reference desk to ask about books published in both languages. We're happy to help you find what you're looking for!

 

Biographies of famous Polish-Americans

Book cover of Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man. Head and shoulders photo of Paul Newman, with one hand covering half his face.The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man by Paul Newman - The raw, candid, unvarnished memoir of an American icon. The greatest movie star of the past 75 years covers everything: his traumatic childhood, his career, his drinking, his thoughts on Marlon Brando, James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, John Huston, his greatest roles, acting, his intimate life with Joanne Woodward, his innermost fears and passions and joys. With thoughts/comments throughout from Joanne Woodward, George Roy Hill, Tom Cruise, Elia Kazan and many others. A Time Magazine "Best Book of the Year."

 

 

 

 

 

Cover of Between A Heart and A Rock Place. 1980s photo of Pat Benatar, wearing a black and white striped t-shirt.Between A Heart and a Rock Place by Pat Benatar - For more than thirty years, Pat Benatar has been one of the most iconic women in rock music, with songs like "Heartbreaker," "Hit Me with Your Best Shot," and "Love Is a Battlefield" becoming anthems for multiple generations of fans. Now, in this intimate and uncompromising memoir, one of the bestselling female rock artists of all time shares the story of her extraordinary career, telling the truth about her life, her struggles, and how she won things—her way.

 

 

 

 

 

Cover of Face The Music: A Life Exposed. Photo of Paul Stanley wearing black and white KISS make-up, with a large black star over his left eye.Face The Music: A Life Exposed by Paul Stanley - Stanley, the co-founder and famous “Starchild” frontman of KISS, reveals for the first time the incredible highs and equally incredible lows in his life both inside and outside the band. Face the Music is the shocking, funny, smart, inspirational story of one of rock’s most enduring icons and the group he helped create, define, and immortalize.

Biographies of Famous Italian-Americans

Cover of Frank: The Voice. A young, smiling Frank Sinatra, wearing a black fedora.Frank: The Voice by James Kaplan - Frank Sinatra was the best-known entertainer of the twenti­eth century—infinitely charismatic, lionized and notori­ous in equal measure. But despite his mammoth fame, Sinatra the man has remained an enigma. As Bob Spitz did with the Beatles, Tina Brown for Diana, and Peter Guralnick for Elvis, James Kaplan goes behind the legend and hype to bring alive a force that changed popular culture in fundamental ways.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cover of Taste: My Life Through Food. Photo of Stanley Tucci that shows the top half of his face. A red band with the book's title covers the bottom half of his face.Taste: My Life in Food by Stanley Tucci  - From award-winning actor and food obsessive Stanley Tucci comes an intimate and charming memoir of life in and out of the kitchen. Before Stanley Tucci became a household name with The Devil Wears Prada, The Hunger Games, and the perfect Negroni, he grew up in an Italian American family that spent every night around the table. He shared the magic of  those meals with us in The Tucci Cookbook and The Tucci Table, and now he takes us beyond the recipes and into the stories behind them.

 

 

 

 

 

Cover of What Can I Do? Photo of Jane Fonda amid a group of protesters, all in red coats, with the nation's capital in the background.What Can I Do? My Path from Climate Despair to Action by Jane Fonda - A call to action from Jane Fonda, one of the most inspiring activists of our time, urging us to wake up to the looming disaster of climate change and equipping us with the tools we need to join her in protest