Events
When: Saturday, Jan. 18 – 6 to 8 p.m.
Where: I AM Books, 124 Salem St, Boston MA (Register Here)
The Italian American Writers Association-Boston returns to I AM Books for its monthly open mic and author series! this month’s featured authors and poets are Deborah Leipziger and Mary Lou Buschi!
When: Thursday, Jan. 23 – 6:30 p.m.
Where: I AM Books, 124 Salem St., Boston MA 02113 (Register Here)
An ordinary life, forever altered by extraordinary circumstances.
In 1968, Peter P. Mahoney’s world was turned upside down when he joined the Army, became an infantry lieutenant, and was deployed to Vietnam. Upon his return, he found himself embroiled in the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) movement and indicted for conspiracy to incite a riot at the 1972 Republican Convention-the so-called Gainesville Eight case-where his friend surfaced as an FBI informer testifying against him.
In the early eighties, Mahoney played a pivotal role in establishing the New York Vietnam Veterans Memorial and later joined a delegation of veterans to meet with Soviet counterparts from their Afghanistan War. He fell in love with a Russian woman, married her, and spent nine years raising a family in a world vastly different from the suburban middle-class life he had left behind.
Now, he shares the extraordinary stories from that finite period that forever changed the trajectory of his ordinary existence.
When: Thursday, Feb. 6 – 6:30 p.m.
Where: I AM Books, 124 Salem St., Boston MA 02113 (Register Here)
With her new B&B in the gorgeous Italian village of Positano proving a success, young widow Bria Bartolucci is enjoying her new life in paradise. But when a celebrity chef filming nearby suddenly dies, Bria has her hands full with a most unsavory murder . . .
Though she still misses her late husband, Carlo, Bria couldn’t be happier that their dream bed and breakfast, Bella Bella, is humming along nicely. Of course, even on the stunning Amalfi Coast, things seldom run smoothly. Like Bria’s mother and mother-in-law dueling over a suitable communion site for Bria’s eight-year-old son Marco. Bria’s also juggling the demands of the famous Chef Lugo, his producer, Massimo, and Pippa, a member of the production crew who is staying at Bella Bella for a nice, long-term stay . . . Until Lugo mysteriously dies on-camera, a victim of apparent murder. But finding out who wanted him gone is no stroll on the beach. Bria soon learns that Chef Lugo’s multi-media empire is at a make-or-break tipping point, and Lugo himself had racked up any number of enemies–financial, professional . . . and very personal.
Now to save her friend’s café from a ruined reputation, Bria must delve into the glittering surface of false alibis, pretty lies, and not-so-glamourous hidden identities to catch a murderer determined to serve up another victim . . .
When: Thursday, Feb. 20 – 6:30 p.m.
Where: I AM Books, 124 Salem St., Boston MA 02113 (Register Here)
Italy, 1948
Julia Lombardi is a mystery even to herself. The beautiful model can’t remember where she’s from, where she’s been or how she came to live in Rome. When she receives an offer to accompany celebrated eccentric artist Salvador Dalí to the Sacro Bosco–Italy’s Garden of Monsters–as his muse, she’s strangely compelled to accept. It could be a chance to unlock the truth about her past…
Shrouded in shadow, the garden full of giant statues that sometimes seem alive is far from welcoming. Still, from the moment of their arrival at the palazzo, Julia is inexplicably drawn to their darkly enigmatic host, Ignazio. He’s alluring yet terrifying–and he seems to know her.
Posing for Dalí as the goddess Persephone, Julia finds the work to be perplexing, particularly as Dalí descends deeper into his fanaticism. To him, she isPersephone, and he insists she must eat pomegranate seeds to rejoin her king.
Between Dalí’s fevered persistence, Ignazio’s uncanny familiarity and the agonizing whispered warnings that echo through the garden, Julia is soon on the verge of unraveling. And she begins to wonder if she’s truly the mythical queen of the Underworld…
