SELECTED REVIEWS FOR
Home to Big Stone Gap

From Publishers Weekly
The delightful Blue Ridge Mountain town of Big Stone Gap, Va., once again comes to life through the voice of Ave Maria MacChesney in Trigiani's fourth entry in the series. Ave has just returned from an emotional trip to daughter Etta's wedding in Italy with her husband, Jack. As Ave learns to juggle empty-nest freedoms with the ache of loss, Jack's sudden health problems send Ave into a quiet panic. She struggles to be supportive while imagining the worst. Her fears allayed, she ends up directing the town's annual winter musical, a production of The Sound of Music that would send the Von Trapp family heading for the hills. Adding to the mix, Ave's close buddy, Iva Lou, becomes distant when a long-held secret surfaces, threatening their friendship. Thankfully, Theodore Tipton, the town "rock star," returns from New York City for a holiday visit. Memorable characters and smalltown magic (including recipes) continue to have appeal, but unwanted pregnancies, mountain strip-mining, the rearing up of old griefs and a trip to Scotland (given short shrift) have a kitchen-sink feel. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.

SELECTED REVIEWS FOR
Rococo

Kirkus Reviews
Kitschy, quaintly amusing Italian-American saga from Trigiani (Lucia, Lucia, 2003, etc.). The endearing narrator is Batholomeo di Crespi, known as "B," a bachelor decorator in the upscale New Jersey town of Our Lady of Fatima (or OLOF), circa 1970. His exquisite taste in fabrics and decor have made B well respected in OLOF; he's decorated all the important houses, from his divorced older sister's Georgian manor to Aurelia Mandelbaum's mansion. Aurelia's myopic daughter Capri, still living at home at age 40, has been B's unofficial fiancee for 20 years, but this was their mothers' idea, not theirs. B avoids the messiness of romantic relationships, preferring to spend his time making the world elegant: "The rococo period where French design and Italian flair came together make my heart leap for joy." At the moment, he's got his eye trained nostalgically on the restoration of the town's Catholic church. Once he wrests the commission away from a fancy New York firm, B is faced with the scary task of having to turn his vision into reality. Conveniently, he meets a fancy Park Avenue architect and historian, Eydie Von Gunne, who specializes in churches and can recommend expert craftsmen. But first, B soothes his artistic crisis with a trip to England, where he buys Monica Vitti's chandelier, and then to Italy with Capri, who decides to live a little in spite of him. B embarks on the church restoration with the help of Brooklyn's noted fresco painter Rufus McSherry, who urges him to be daring rather than conventional. Resourceful B even saves the day by raising the last-minute money for the church's final stage. Trigiani's story manages to transcend its fluffiness by virtue of her unique andwinning protagonist, the determinedly single B, who loves his family but resists the pressure to make one of his own. Reams of furnishings detail and messy family histrionics.

SELECTED REVIEWS FOR
Cooking with My Sisters

"My mama is from Sicily, my daddy is from Louisiana; Adriana's collection of Southern Style Italian American recipes and stories is as familiar to me as a family album.  In both our families, life experiences are all related to and through the food we shared.  This collection fills the heart as full as the stomach!  Mangia - y'all!"
--Rachael Ray

“Cooking with My Sisters is the best Italian cookbook ever written by women from the American south. Adriana Trigiani and her sisters had the genius to unite a Southern sensibility with Italian cooking, and the stories of the Trigiani family alone are worth the price of admission."
-- Pat Conroy

SELECTED REVIEWS FOR
Big Cherry Holler

The New York Times
"As comforting as a mug of chamomile tea on a rainy Sunday."

People
"Delightfully quirky ... chock-full of engaging, oddball characters and unexpected plot twists, this Gap is meant to be crossed."

SELECTED REVIEWS FO
Big Stone Gap

Publishers Weekly
A wholesome Cinderella story with a winning blend Of '70s nostalgia and Appalachian local color, Trigiani's debut introduces a likable heroine who's smart but obtuse, needy but rejecting, and generous with affection but afraid of love.

Ave Maria Mulligan is the daughter of the late pharmacist of Bit Stone Gap, Va., and an immigrant Italian seamstress. She inherited the pharmacy when her father died, but it's only her mother's recent death that made Ave realize that, at 35, she's the town spinster. Not that she lacks for attention. Handsome Theodore Tipton, the high school band and choral director, is her best friend, and sexy bombshell Iva Lou Wade, who drives tire book mobile that Ave eagerly awaits, is around to offer romantic advice....

Ave's emotional turmoil takes place against a colorfully detailed tour of Big Stone Gap's history and attractions, including its summer drama festival and its designation as the home of Appalachian bluegrass....

What saves the narrative from sentimentality and invests it with charm is Trigiani's witty voice, her tart-tongued but appealing heroine and her ability to recall the cultural details that immerse the reader in the atmosphere of her little mining town.

Booklist
It's 1978, and 35-year-old self-appointed spinster Ave Maria Mulligan is stuck in a rut in Big Stone Gap in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains. And that isn't just a metaphor for her life. As the town pharmacist, she is keeper of some of the town's secrets. But as she herself puts it, "God knows I don't get any pleasure in knowing that the town manager performs self-colonics." Ave Maria is also the drama director and an earnest member of the local rescue squad, but it's really she who needs rescuing from her drab life. She spends much of her time at the bookmobile when it comes through town, gossiping with Iva Lou, who is not your stereotypical librarian. It is through Iva Lou that Ave Maria vicariously experiences any sort of love life. But Ave Maria is soon presented with a big family secret all her own that, with a little help from her, could change her destiny. There are other things happening in Stone Gap, including a mine disaster that prompts Ave Maria to quit the rescue squad. But the Big Thing is that the legendary Elizabeth Taylor is about to visit town with her then office-seeking husband, John Warner. The preparation for the visit and the event itself form the backdrop to Ave Marie's own drama as her secret presents her with new possibilities.
--Marlene Chamberlain