Buone Feste!

The end of the academic semester and the holiday season is a busy time. With that in mind, this blog is taking a holiday hiatus until January 2013. I look forward to seeing you then.

In the meanwhile, here is some celebratory Italian vocabulary for you. You can also send Italian e-cards (Christmas, New Year or Befana).

Happy Holidays: Buone Feste!

Merry Christmas: Buon Natale!

Happy New Year: Buon Anno!

Happy birthday: Buon Compleanno!

Italian-American Literary Web Resources

I’m glad to have attended the IASA (Italian American Studies Association) conference and learned about some great Italian-American literary web resources:  

Bordighera Press: Contemporary Italian American Writing. The same site has a great list of related web resources.

Gradiva: International Journal of Italian Poetry

Italian American Review

Italian American Studies Association

Italian American Writer's Association

Italian Americana: A cultural and historical review dedicated to the Italian American experience in the new world

What else would you add to the list?

Recommended Italian Language Books

Are you planning a trip to Italy this winter or spring? Start learning a few words and phrases early. Last week I recommended some online Italian language resources. Here are some great books (and stocking stuffers for your favorite traveler):

Travel:

Italy for the GourmetTraveler, Fred Plotkin

Grammar: 

Barron’s 501 ItalianVerbs

Italian: ASelf-Teaching Guide by Edoardo Lebano

Means’ Language books

Schaum’s Outlines in both Italian Grammar and Italian Vocabulary are very thorough. The answers are in the back and they can take the place of a more expensive college textbook.

Living Language has some strong series of CDs. I recommend DriveTime Italian which has 4 hours of lessons on 4 CDs.

Linea diretta: Corso di italiano per principianti is an immersion text that is hard to find, but if you google it, some online sellers have it. It comes with a CD and uses complete immersion technique for language acquisition.

For more recommendations, check out my Amazon store (and help support this blog!)