Italian speaking practice and grammar tutoring
Leggiamo insieme is offered four times a year, one per season, so I do my best to select a title that matches the season.
It’s a book about Italian immigration to the United States, and while reading it, I said to myself multiple times: “This book would be a great read if you are an Italian American!“. But it’s a great novel in general, and would appeal to anybody who loves good books, which is why I am writing a post about it.
The books I select for Leggiamo insieme, my Italian book club, must tick some mandatory boxes, which makes the choice quite difficult but also really fun. The process is long, but I like it because it’s an opportunity for me to learn more about contemporary Italian literature, discover new authors, and explore genres I would not always choose for my personal reading.
As you may know, I am a passionate and avid reader. Books are probably my biggest love, which means that I am always reading something. Reading has been really beneficial in my English-learning journey, and I strongly believe that books are a powerful tool for practicing a foreign language, improving comprehension, and enriching vocabulary.
Well, you’re lucky because I have recently launched Leggiamo insieme, my first Italian book club, and the book I picked for the first session is Pista nera by Antonio Manzini.
But sometimes these acts of craziness are rewarded because they change people’s lives, and this is exactly what happened to Alba Donati and her Libreria sopra la penna.
And this is no surprise. First of all, I am an avid reader. I often write about Italian books on this blog, have written graded readers myself, and strongly believe that reading does wonders for improving foreign language skills. Therefore, it’s quite normal that most of my students love reading and look for book recommendations.
In fact, many of my students are avid readers and told me they would like to read in Italian at some point. Being an avid reader myself, I couldn’t be happier because I never say no to an opportunity to read a book!
When I started writing about Italian books here, my number one rule was to focus only on books with an English translation. This, I thought, would make the post more inclusive and useful for people who are interested in Italian literature yet have not masterered the language enough to read in Italian.
It’s a book that reflects on family ties and the power of the past, which sometimes is impossible to escape. There’s also a little bit of a mystery, which makes the novel intriguing, and nature plays a key role in the story, almost acting as a proper character.
