DON'T SING AT THE TABLE: BLOG TOUR REVIEW AND GIVEAWAY

GIVEAWAY ENDED
DON'T SING AT THE TABLE
LIFE LESSONS FROM MY GRANDMOTHERS
BY ADRIANA TRIGIANI

ABOUT THE BOOK:

As devoted readers of Adriana Trigiani's New York Times bestselling novels know, this "seemingly effortless storyteller" (Boston Globe) frequently draws inspiration from her own family history, in particular from the lives of her two remarkable grandmothers, who have found their way into all Trigiani's cherished novels. In Don't Sing at the Table, this much-beloved writer has gathered their estimable life lessons, revealing how her grandmothers' simple values have shaped her own life, sharing the experiences, humor, and wisdom of her beloved mentors to delight readers of all ages.

Lucia Spada Bonicelli (Lucy) and Yolanda Perin Trigiani (Viola) lived through the twentieth century from beginning to end as working women who juggled careers and motherhood. From the factory line to the family table, Lucy and Viola, the very definition of modern women, cut a path for their granddaughter by demonstrating moxie and pluck in their fearless approach to life, love, and overcoming obstacles.

Lucy's and Viola's traditions and spiritual fortitude will encourage you to hold on to the values that make life rich and beautiful. Their entrepreneurial spirit will inspire you to take risks and reap the rewards. And their remarkable resilience in the face of tragedy will be a source of strength and comfort.

Trigiani visits the past to seek answers to the essential questions that define the challenges women face today at work and at home. This is a primer, grand-mother to granddaughter, filled with everyday wisdom and life lessons that are truly "tiramisu for the soul" (The Examiner), handed down with care and built to last.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Bestselling author Adriana Trigiani is beloved by millions of readers around the world for her hilarious and heartwarming novels. Adriana was raised in a small coal-mining town in southwest Virginia in a big Italian family. She chose her hometown for the setting and title of her debut novel, the critically acclaimed bestseller Big Stone Gap. The heartwarming story continues in the novel’s sequels Big Cherry Holler, Milk Glass Moon, and Home to Big Stone Gap. Stand-alone novels Lucia, Lucia; The Queen of the Big Time; and Rococo, all topped the bestseller lists, as did Trigiani’s 2009 Very Valentine and its 2010 sequel Brava, Valentine.

Trigiani teamed up with her family for Cooking with My Sisters, a cookbook coauthored by her sister Mary, with contributions from their sisters and mother. The cookbook-memoir features recipes and stories dating back a hundred years from both sides of their Italian-American family.

Adriana's novels have been translated and sold in more than 35 countries around the world. Trigiani's latest blockbuster Brava, Valentine (Very Valentine’s sequel) debuted at number seven on the New York Times bestseller list following its February 2010 debut. Valentine Roncalli juggles her long-distance romance, as she works to better the family’s struggling business. A once-in-a-lifetime business opportunity takes Val from the winding streets of Greenwich Village to the sun-kissed cobblestones of Buenos Aires, where she finds a long-buried secret hidden deep within a family scandal.

Trigiani's first young adult novel, Viola in Reel Life—the first in a series—debuted in September 2009. Fans fell in love with fourteen-year-old filmmaker Viola Chesterton, who moves from Brooklyn to a South Bend, Indiana, boarding school. In Spring 2011, readers will delight in Trigiani’s follow-up novel Viola in the Spotlight, as Viola and friends spend an adventure-filled summer vacation in Brooklyn.

Readers will take a peek into the lives of the women who shaped Adriana, with her November 2010 nonfiction debut: Don’t Sing at the Table: Life Lessons from my Grandmothers. The book makes a lovely gift for family (or yourself!), as Trigiani shares a treasure trove of insight and guidance from her two grandmothers: time-tested common sense advice on the most important aspects of a woman’s life, from childhood to old age.

Fans everywhere will soon see Adriana's work on the big and small screens! She wrote the screenplay for and will direct the big screen version of her novel Big Stone Gap. Adriana has also written the film adaptations of Lucia, Lucia and Very Valentine—which will be made into a Lifetime Original Movie in 2011!

Critics from the Washington Post to the New York Times to People have described Adriana's novels as "tiramisu for the soul," "sophisticated and wise," and "dazzling." They agree that "her characters are so lively they bounce off the page," and that "…her novels are full bodied and elegantly written."

Trigiani’s novels have been chosen for the USA Today Book Club, the Target Bookmarked series, and she's now officially a regular with Barnes & Noble Book Clubs, where she has conducted three online book clubs. Adriana speaks to book clubs from her home three to four nights a week.

Her books are so popular around the world that Lucia, Lucia was selected as the best read of 2004 in England by Richard and Judy.

After graduating from Saint Mary's College in South Bend, Indiana, Adriana moved to New York City to become a playwright. She founded the all-female comedy troupe "The Outcasts," which performed on the cabaret circuit for seven years. She made her off-Broadway debut at the Manhattan Theatre Club and was produced in regional theatres of note around the country.

Among her many television credits, Adriana was a writer/producer on The Cosby Show, A Different World, and executive producer/head writer for City Kids for Jim Henson Productions. Her Lifetime television special, Growing Up Funny, garnered an Emmy Award nomination for Lily Tomlin. In 1996, she wrote and directed the documentary film Queens of the Big Time. It won the Audience Award at the Hamptons Film Festival and toured the international film festival circuit from Hong Kong to London.

Adriana then wrote a screenplay called Big Stone Gap, which became the novel that began the series. Adriana spent a year and a half waking up at three in the morning to write the novel before going into work on a television show.

Adriana is married to Tim Stephenson, the Emmy Award–winning lighting designer of The Late Show with David Letterman. They live in Greenwich Village with their daughter, Lucia.

Perhaps one popular book critic said it best: "Trigiani defies categorization. She is more than a one-hit wonder, more than a Southern writer, more than a woman's novelist. She is an amazing young talent."

MY REVIEW:
As grandmothers to best-selling author AdrianaTrigiani, Lucia (Lucy) Spada Bonicelli and Yolanda (Viola) Perin Trigiani are the inspiration for Trigiani’s newest book, DON’T SING AT THE TABLE-Life Lessons from My Grandmothers.  Viola and Lucy, as they were best known, led by example and provided Trigiani with guidance to build character that was based on kindness and supported by a spirit that was boundless. DON’T SING AT THE TABLE is Adriana’s love letter to her grandmothers for the life-long lessons that they loving instilled in her that have served her well throughout her life. It is her hope that some of their inspiration might also be helpful to those who will enjoy reading this touching story.

Through the lives of these two strong and intelligent women, I was taken back through one of my favorite times in American history as I was able to relate to my parents and grandparents who also were cut from the same cloth. Successful women, well ahead of their time, Lucy and Viola endured immigration, wars, the Great Depression, marriage that resulted in early widowhood, and thrived while surviving as single mothers.

Trigiani shares the history of both her hardworking grandmothers. Viola wound up owning and operating a clothing factory in Pennsylvania. Adriana Trigiani created such vivid mental images for a reader that you can imagine yourself right there among the bolts of fabric, spools of thread, black metal sewing machines, and taking part as a child in the chore of using a magnet to pick up pins on the floorboards, lest they go to waste.

Likewise using that magnet to pick up pins went along with Lucy, who also was in the garment industry as she ran her own business and was a seamstress extraordinaire. A simple life, it would seem, with three dresses in her closet, all the same with navy blue and white polka dots, which Adriana always wondered about when she was growing up. When she questioned her grandmother Lucy about it, she patiently explained, “How many dresses should I have?” and “How many can I wear at one time?”.  Lesson learned: Adriana has a similar navy polka dot dress that she wears for many occasions to this day! I found it easy to find many of the experiences and things that Adriana learned from both these women and their craft woven into her novels such as the shoes made in VERY VALENTINE.

The book is divided into sections of no-nonsense, common sense advice along with the family history. From youth to old age, the most important phases of a woman's life are covered and include some wonderful “Quotes to Live By” as I like to call them, from these two unforgettable, dear grandmothers. Trigiani realized when she became a mother how even more important these life lessons were as she would now pass them on to her daughter. From learning how to dress-”Wear what you like, not what looks good on someone else”, to a woman’s security-”Buy a home”,  from marriage and even sex-“You are your good reputation” as well as “Nobody ends up in the gutter being picky”, to the basics of La Bella Figura, a chapter I could well relate to. Adriana’s book touched me so much because I found my own mother in so many parts of DON‘T SING AT THE TABLE-using Estee Lauder and Arpege, having a deep interest in politics, keeping busy and never being bored because she never retired, I found my mom in this book all the way to the part about dying On Your Own Terms.

I think that Adriana Trigiani can be so proud of this work because she not only has honored her grandmothers, but she has passed on a reminder to so many of us to remember what our elders have meant to us and taught us. I would hope this would be a book to be shared with your children as they grow older so perhaps they will not find themselves regretting that they didn’t write down what Grandma said, or keep that special letter from Momma, or record the stories Papa told. If nothing else, the chapter on raising children, is filled with the most sound and loving advice. Yes, of course, it is the section that includes “Don’t’ Sing at the Table” but surely you didn’t think I was going to tell you about that part, now did you? You’ll find out when you read Adriana Trigiani’s gift to us all, DON”T SING AT THE TABLE-Life Lessons from My Grandmothers.

GIVEAWAY

THANKS TO MARK AND THE FOLKS

AT HARPER COLLINS PUBLISHING, I

HAVE 3 COPIES OF THE AMAZING

ADRIANA TRIGIANI'S WONDERFUL,

NEW BOOK TO GIVE AWAY

--U.S. RESIDENTS ONLY

--NO P. O. BOXES
---INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
IN CASE YOU WIN!
--ALL COMMENTS MUST BE SEPARATE TO
COUNT AS MORE THAN ONE!

HOW TO ENTER:

+1 ENTRY: COMMENT ON SOMETHING YOU FOUND INTERESTING ABOUT DON'T SING AT THE TABLE AND AUTHOR ADRIANA TRIGIANI THAT MAKES YOU WANT TO READ THIS BOOK BY VISITING THE AUTHOR'S WEBSITE HERE. YOU MAY WANT TO COMMENT ON ONE OF ADRIANA'S BOOKS YOU HAVE READ, OR WOULD LIKE TO READ

+1 MORE ENTRY: BLOG OR TWEET ABOUT THIS GIVEAWAY AND LEAVE A LINK I CAN FOLLOW IN THE ENTRY

+1 MORE ENTRY: GO TO HARPER COLLINS WEBSITE HERE AND READ ABOUT SOME "FUN STUFF" ABOUT ADRIANA TRIGIANI AND COMMENT ON SOMETHING YOU READ

+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON HOW YOU FOLLOW MY BLOG. IF YOU FOLLOW MORE THAN ONE WAY, YOU MAY COMMENT MORE THAN ONCE AND EARN EXTRA ENTRIES.

GIVEAWAY ENDS
6 PM, EST, NOVEMBER 27!

FOR MORE STOPS ON THE BLOG TOUR, BE SURE AND VISIT THESE SISTER SITES: 

Booking Mama  Review and personal message 11/9/10

5 Minutes for Books  Review and Giveaway  11/10/10

Bookin' With Bingo   Review and Giveaway  11/11/10

S. Krishna's Books   Review 11/12/10

She Is Too Fond of Books  Review and personal anecdote 11/15/10

BermudaOnion   Review11/16/10

Devourer of Books   Grandmother feature 11/17/10

Presenting Lenore  Q&A 11/18/10

My Friend Amy  Review and Discussion 11/19/10

One Person's Journey Through a World of Books Review and Q&A