Events
When: Thursday, Nov. 7 – 6:30 p.m.
Where: I AM Books, 124 Salem St, Boston MA (Register Here)
“The Battalion Artist explores the three years, three months, and three days of Nat Bellantoni’s life on the Pacific front in World War II. He had known since childhood that he wanted to be-that he in fact was-an artist. When he packed his seabag and took leave of his family and his sweetheart to go to war, he knew that the best way to manage the narrative of his life and to cope with the ups and downs of his feelings was to create images-visual records that spoke of what he felt, as well as what he saw. In this stunning book filled with authentic World War II images-many in full color-we see and feel the intensity of wartime life through the eyes of a talented young artist who was also a US Navy Seabee. Natale Bellantoni, a young art student from Boston, sailed across the Pacific in 1943-45 and returned home with a sea chest of art and photographs documenting his experiences in New Caledonia, New Guinea, the Admiralty Islands, and Okinawa. His subject matter was his daily life: endless weeks at sea, harbors and ships, men at work, airstrips, the local countryside, and the view of enemy planes overhead at night from his fox hole. Now collected in a lavishly illustrated volume, his watercolors, sketches, and photographs offer a window onto one of the most significant moments in American history. The Battalion Artist explores the World War II experiences of Nat Bellantoni, but it reflects the story of an entire generation”–
When: Saturday, Nov. 16 – 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 speaker series! This month’s featured authors will be Marisa Labozzetta and Kym Ragusa!
When: Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024 – 6:30 p.m.
Where: I AM Books, 124 Salem Street, Boston MA 02113 (Register Here)
*In conversation with I AM Books founder Nicola Orichuia
From the time she first felt called to its gates as a high school student fascinated by Dante and Italian thanks to a life-changing teacher, Rome has been a fixed star around which Alizah Holstein’s life has rotated—despite the fact that she bears no Italian heritage, and has never lived there long enough to call it home.
In this kaleidoscopic yet intimate memoir, her shifting relationship to a vibrant city layered with human history becomes a lens on why we look to the past, on the mysteries of affinity and desire, and on what it means to grow up. Holstein weaves the stories of Romans past and present, and encounters with the city of historical figures from Petrarch to Freud, into the narrative of her evolution from a curious student abuzz with the thrill of discovery, to a lonely researcher in a city to which she feels she belongs despite knowing no one, to an ambitious young historian struggling to find her place in the halls of academia. Following a trail of memories—that first taste of a tartufo cioccolato in Piazza Navona, the ancient walls of the Via Appia blurring from the back of a motorcycle, the smudge of ink on a manuscript left by a scribe’s hand over seven hundred years before—she explores what it means to be romana, Roman—and to find solace and self-knowledge in the presence of the past.
When: Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024 – 1:30 to 2:30 p.m.
Where: I AM Books, 124 Salem Street, Boston MA 02113 (Register Here)
The Magic of Christmas Ravioli, written by Nina Pfister and published/illustrated by Austin Macauley Publishers,is best suited for readers between the ages of 3 and 11. Younger children will enjoy the festive, heartwarming story and vibrant illustrations, while older kids will connect with the deeper themes of family, tradition, and creating lasting memories. It’s a story that grows with the reader, offering something special for different age groups to appreciate.
