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    Don't Sing at the Table: Life Lessons from My Grandmothers
    Unavailable
    Don't Sing at the Table: Life Lessons from My Grandmothers
    Unavailable
    Don't Sing at the Table: Life Lessons from My Grandmothers
    Ebook236 pages3 hours

    Don't Sing at the Table: Life Lessons from My Grandmothers

    By Adriana Trigiani

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Instant New York Times Bestseller

    "No one ever reads just one of Trigiani’s wonderfully quirky tales. Once you pick up the first, you are hooked.” —BookPage

    New York Times bestselling author Adriana 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 the golden years. Seamlessly blending anecdote with life lesson, Don’t Sing at the Table tells the two vibrant women’s real-life stories—how they fell in love, nurtured their marriages, balanced raising children with being savvy businesswomen, and reinvented themselves with each new decade. For readers of Big Stone Gap, Very Valentine, Lucia, Lucia, and Rococo, this loving memoir is the Trigiani family recipe for chicken soup for the soul.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateNov 9, 2010
    ISBN9780062020758
    Unavailable
    Don't Sing at the Table: Life Lessons from My Grandmothers
    Author

    Adriana Trigiani

    Beloved by millions of readers around the world for her ""dazzling"" novels (USA Today), Adriana Trigiani is “a master of palpable and visual detail” (Washington Post) and “a comedy writer with a heart of gold” (New York Times). She is the New York Times bestselling author of twenty books of fiction and nonfiction, including her latest, The Good Left Undone- an instant New York Times best seller, Book of the Month pick and People’s Book of the Week. Her work is published in 38 languages around the world. An award-winning playwright, television writer/producer and filmmaker, Adriana’s screen credits include writer/director of the major motion picture of her debut novel, Big Stone Gap, the adaptation of her novel Very Valentine and director of Then Came You. Adriana grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia where she co-founded The Origin Project, an in-school writing program serving over 1,700 students in Appalachia. She is at work on her next novel for Dutton at Penguin Random House.  Follow Adriana on Facebook and Instagram @AdrianaTrigiani and on TikTok @AdrianaTrigianiAuthor or visit her website: AdrianaTrigiani.com.  Join Adriana’s Facebook LIVE show, Adriana Ink, in conversation with the world’s greatest authors- Tuesdays at 3 PM EST! For more from Adriana’s interviews, you can subscribe to her Meta “Bulletin” column, Adriana Spills the Ink: adrianatrigiani.bulletin.com/subscribe.

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    Reviews for Don't Sing at the Table

    3.5/5

    45 ratings7 reviews

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    • 5/5
      What a treasure of a small book this is. I stayed up into the wee hours of the night because I just couldn't tear myself away from the story of Viola and Lucy and how they operated in the world. To say that Adriana Trigiani benefited from having them as grandmothers is an understatement. I loved that both grandmothers had a strong interest in some area of dressmaking. Viola in the heart and hard work of factory sewing, and then her own blouse-making business; and Lucy in her devotion to clients and perfection when she became a "storefront couturier." Talented and beautiful women, they understood the value and power behind a women dressed well in perfectly fitted, classic clothing. They also understood that keeping up their skin/beauty routine, social standing and family reputations were tantamount to good life, good health and good self-esteem; among other important things. It seems Adriana learned so much from them about integrity and self-respect, there's no doubt about that. But, she also learned the value of manners, of going after what you want, of having a purpose in life, of minding your reputation. The specifics of these lessons are ones you'll be delighted to read. I thought it was delightful and serious at the same time to read Lucy's lessons first on romantic love, then on keeping a marriage strong. Hers is practical wisdom. Her instructions on raising children are some we absolutely could use today. I particularly liked her dictum never to burden a child with adult problems. That lesson alone would change the mental health of so many children in these times. There is so much to this book. It's humorous, it's character building, it's serious and it's a lesson book on how to live a life with wisdom. What a blessing Adriana Trigiani had in these two lovely women. No wonder she's a bestselling author with fragments of these things to share with her readers. Those of us who had grandmothers like Viola and Lucy will enjoy reading about them and, possibly, taking a nostalgic trip back to our own childhoods. Those of you who didn't have grandmothers like them will gain something very special in the reading. 5 perfectly heartwarming stars
    • 3/5
      Trigiani presents an entertaining book about lessons learned from her two Italian grandmothers. I enjoyed the lightness of the lesson and the family photographs. How fortunate to have two strong grandmothers as role models. As an amateur genealogist, I am amazed to see two women who worked outside the home, and still maintained a household. The majority of women in the 1920's through the 1950's were housewives and "stay-at-home" mothers, yet these two women worked outside the home as owners of their own business. The author shows awe, love, and kindness in her presentation of her two grandmothers. These two workingwomen not only provided financial support to their families, but also gave emotional support, and still had time to devote to children and grandchildren. Their simple lessons about love, finance, work, and family seem forgotten today.
    • 5/5
      Fans of Adriana Trigiani's novels will recognize the women in her non-fiction book- her grandmothers Lucy and Viola have appeared in many of the characters in her fiction. Not only does Trigiani do a marvelous job of recounting the fascinating life stories of these women, she uses their lives to write a primer for living your own life. Women like Lucy and Viola are the people who made this country great, and they jump off the pages in this delightful book. They have more than their fair share of troubles, (both of them are widowed), but their sheer will and strength of character will inspire other women to persevere and succeed as they did. Although she is an Italian immigrant, Lucy moves to Minnesota and takes on the stoic characteristics of American midwesterners. She loses her husband at an early age and raises her three children on her own, all while running her own business. Viola was a pistol, running her own clothing factory, raising her family, entertaining friends in her lovely home, traveling. Both women had terrific advice for their granddaughter, and the way that Trigiani structures the book, first telling their life stories, then sharing the how living their lives were examples we could all follow today, makes this book so enjoyable. DON'T SING AT THE TABLE would make a great gift for the women in your life, both those starting out and those whose wisdom should be shared with their own families.
    • 5/5
      We all have people in our lives who leave a mark of some sort. For Adriana Trigiani, her grandmothers Lucy and Viola had a huge impact on her. Don’t Sing at the Table is a moving and even entertaining book full of stories about these two powerhouse women and I enjoyed it immensely.Lucy and Viola are two women who lived very full lives. They loved with all their hearts and gave everything they had to their jobs and families. From their births and childhood in Italy to their trip across the Atlantic and the lives they built once they arrived in the U.S., Trigiani shares her grandmothers with all of us. Don’t Sing at the Table is full of stories about the time she spent with her grandmothers, whether it was cleaning cars (which is a thorough and amusing process if I may say so myself), using a magnet to collect needles off the ground of Viola’s factory or Lucy’s seamstress shop, or simply enjoying a drink and conversation on a beautiful summer afternoon. Trigiani also shares bits of the advice her grandmothers imparted to her over the years on everything from maintaining a home, to love, marriage, and parenting and discusses how her grandmothers affected how she approaches her career and her life.Don’t Sing at the Table wasn’t just a book for me, but an experience. I’m probably biased by the relationship I shared with my grandmother, but I can’t think of a bad word to say about this one. Don’t Sing at the Table is a beautifully written memoir about the everlasting effect two women had on Adriana Trigiani’s life.**I received a copy of this book from the publisher as a part of TLC Book Tours in exchange for an honest review.
    • 3/5
      I heard Adriana speak at two library conferences and enjoyed her stories immensely, but I hadn't read any of her books. Curious to learn more about her and her family, I decided to read this book first. At first I had a hard time getting into the book and relating to her stories, but as I got further into the book I found a few connections. It turns out her one grandmother grew up & lived 20 minutes north of where I grew up. Both my grandmothers were at one time in their lives seamstresses just like her grandmothers. Her grandmothers were very independent (in their own way) and strong women. I can see how Adriana looked up to them and emulates them in her own life.The first three chapters were written in a different style than the rest of the book. So much so that I stopped halfway through and went back to the first couple of chapters and made sure I wasn't dreaming it. I liked the little vignettes around a piece of advice from one of the grandmothers better than just straight prose. I can see how in order to fill in the reader on her grandmothers' upbringing straight prose worked the best. Adriana shared how different philosophies she learned from her grandmothers' applied to her own life. At times I felt the "applications" were forced and didn't flow with the rest of the chapter. I appreciated the family photos throughout the chapters as well.The initial story in the afterword was very touching, but I felt the rest of the afterword again didn't "fit" into the tone of the rest of the book. Maybe I had different expectations for this book. Adriana is a great storyteller, which I knew from the in-person talks I've seen in the past, but I felt the book didn't flow as best as it could have. I would recommend this book to readers that have looked up to their grandmothers and emulated them in their own life.
    • 3/5
      Trigiani has built a following with her contemporary novels, frequently mining her family history for plot lines or colorful characters. Now she turns her writer’s skills to crafting a biography/memoir focusing on her two grandmothers – Yolanda (Viola) Perin Trigiani and Lucia (Lucy) Spada Bonicelli – and the life lessons she learned from them. “Make your own living.” “Loving one good man is enough.” “Take a chance, and when you fail, take another.” “Leave your children your values, not your stuff.” “Be bold. Be direct. Be different.”Her memories of her grandmothers, as well as the background information she gleaned from relatives (or her grandmothers’ diaries/papers), are stitched together into a quilt of love, kindness, strength and tenacity. This is a love letter to two women who left their stamp on their descendants – even those they never met. I enjoyed it but didn’t fall in love with it, though I found myself frequently thinking about my own grandmothers and the lives they led.
    • 3/5
      I thought it was kind of cute and endearing like my grandmother. :)