The Goomba's Book of Love


Book Description

Move over Miss Lonelyhearts . . . Steven R. Schirripa, author of the runaway bestseller A Goomba’s Guide to Life, is back with more life lessons from the neighborhood. Recalling stories of his own colorful journey from the streets of Bensonhurst to the bright lights of Las Vegas and stardom as Bobby “Bacala” Baccalieri in the HBO hit series The Sopranos, Schirripa observes the finer points of amore in all its forms—love for his mother and her Sunday sauce, his wife and kids, his friends, his goomar on the side, even for his car (and he better not catch you eating in it, if you know what’s good for you). Alternately touching, telling, and laugh-out-loud funny, The Goomba’s Book of Love proves that no one loves as fiercely (or as frequently) as a goomba.




The Goomba's Book of Love


Book Description

Move over, Miss Lonelyhearts . . . Steven R. Schirripa, author of the runaway bestsellerA Goomba’s Guide to Life, is back with more life lessons from the neighborhood, and this time the subject is love. Now, your average goomba may be better known for his penchant for gold chains and macaroni, but Steve Schirripa knows there is one driving force in a goomba’s life and that’s love—love for his mother and her Sunday sauce, his wife and kids, his friends, his goomar on the side, even for his car (and he better not catch you eating in it, if you know what’s good for you). In other words, the goomba is full of love, capice? Recalling stories of his own colorful journey from the streets of Bensonhurst to the bright lights of Las Vegas and stardom as Bobby “Bacala” Baccilieri in HBO’s hit series The Sopranos, Schirripa observes the finer points of amore in all its forms. Take, for instance, the boundaries of brotherly love: It’s okay, he explains, to go to a Mets game with your buddy but definitely not to a yoga class. Then there’s the tough love of la famiglia. Every goomba is a family man, after all. So you want him to tell the truth? Ask him to swear on the heads of his children. Steve also waxes poetic about romantic love, complete with goomba dating tips (“Do steal a kiss; don’t steal her purse”), what to look for in a real goomba broad (“Her? She’d go to the chair for me”), and a list of tender goomba movies (The Way We Was). Alternately touching, telling, and laugh-out-loud funny,The Goomba’s Book of Loveproves that no one loves as fiercely (or as frequently) as a goomba.




A Goomba's Guide to Life


Book Description

Attention would-be paesans: Can’t distinguish “gabagool” from “pasta fazool”? Not sure how to properly accessorize your track suit with gold chains? Does the phrase “go to the mattresses” make you sleepy? Now Steven R. Schirripa, The Sopranos’ own Bobby Bacala, exposes the inner mysteries of this unique Italian-American hybrid in A Goomba’s Guide to Life so that anyone can walk, talk, and live like a guy “from the neighborhood.” Über-goomba Steve Schirripa shows how being a goomba made him what he is today, offering lessons learned on his own journey from Bensonhurst to Vegas, and to his current gig as Bobby Bacala on one of TV’s most popular shows. Along the way, he shares secrets that will help you get in touch with your own inner goomba. You’ll learn what music to enjoy (Sinatra, yes; Snoop Dogg, no), what movies to watch (Raging Bull, yes; Titanic, never), which sports to follow (baseball is good; golf and tennis, fuhgeddaboudit), and even tips on goomba etiquette. Ever wonder how a real goomba gets the best seat in the house? (Hint: It involves tipping, jewelry, and intimidation.) Schirripa even includes goomba do’s and don’ts (never, ever criticize a goomba’s mother or her gravy; always wear more jewelry than you think you need). With knockout photographs of Schirripa and his compares, and insider information on how to think goomba, speak goomba, cook and eat goomba, and even how to behave at goomba weddings and funerals, A Goomba’s Guide to Life will show any wiseguy wannabe how to sing like a Soprano.




The Goomba Diet


Book Description

Presents a plan for living and enjoying all that life has to offer--from food and drink to the company of good friends.




Muzzled


Book Description




The Ivory Coast


Book Description

It is 1955 in Las Vegas. Sammy and Satchmo are headlining the big hotels - where the casino operators and the color bar say a black man can't buy a drink or a meal or a room. Until now. The Chicago mob man Mo Weiner is bankrolling ex-boxer Worthless Worthington Lee and the city's first all-black hotel-casino. The Ivory Coast is rising up from the dust, on the wrong side of town. And out of the shadows steps Deacon, a white horn player with a dark past and a genius for jazz. Mo mistakes him for a hitman. Worthless takes him for a friend. Anita, the mixed-race beauty he falls for, wants him for herself. And Haney, the corrupt and racist copy who runs this hot desert oasis of sin and sand, wants him rubbed out. Deacon is holding a dangerous hand, and a dangerous secret, spun inside a deadly web of deceit and double-crosses. The Ivory Coast is coming, rushing this sprawling drama toward the last Sunday in May, when the whole town will be black and white and blood-red all over... A suspenseful first novel of remarkable imagination, scope and energy, The Ivory Coast is impossible to ignore and, once begun, impossible to resist.




Martin Scorsese


Book Description

Martin Scorsese's current position in the international film community is unrivaled, and his name has become synonymous with the highest standards of filmmaking excellence. He is widely considered America's best living film director, and his Taxi Driver and Raging Bull appear frequently on worldwide surveys of the best films of all time. Here, in the first biographical account of this artist's life, Vincent LoBrutto traces Scorsese's Italian-American heritage, his strict Catholic upbringing, the continuing role of religion in his life and art, his obsessive love of cinema history, and the powerful impact that the streets of New York City had on his personal life and his professional career. Meanwhile, the filmmaker's humble, soft-spoken public persona tells only part of the story, and LoBrutto will delve into the other side of a complex and often tortured personality. Scorsese's intense passion, his private relationships, his stormy marriages, and his battles with drugs and depression are all chronicled here, and, in many cases, for the first time. In addition, the book includes an interview with the director, as well as filmographies cataloging his work as a director, producer, actor, and presenter. As his Best Director award at the 2007 Oscars clearly demonstrated, Scorsese has become something like Hollywood royalty in recent years, finally enjoying the insider status and favor that eluded him for most of his career. But these recent developments aside, Scorsese is also notable as a distinctly American type of artist, one whose work-created in a medium largely controlled by commercialism and marketing-has always been unmistakably his own, and who thus remains a touchstone of artistic integrity in American cinema. In Martin Scorsese: A Biography, readers can examine not only the work of one of the form's genuine artists, but also the forces that have propelled the man behind it.




Nicky Deuce: Home for the Holidays


Book Description

If you ask Nicholas Borelli II--better known as Nicky Deuce--winter in New Jersey is awfully boring compared to summertime in Brooklyn, where he had the best two weeks of his life. Now it's cold out, he's back in school, and he has to live without Grandma Tutti's home cooked Italian meals and Uncle Franklie's funny tough-guy attitude. But not for long! Nicky's father is throwing a New Year's Eve party and the whole family is going to stay at their house and the gang from Brooklyn is coming to visit. By Christmas, Nicky's home is brimming with Brooklyn accents. Grandma Tutti wastes no time taking over the kitchen while Uncle Frankie charms the neighbors and cousin Tommy beats up Dirk Van Allen, the biggest jer in the neighborhood. Suddenly Tommy becomes a local hero but he and Nicky also become the prime target of a bully's revenge. Nicky Deuce is about to find out that winter in New Jersey is anything but boring.




Nicky Deuce: Welcome to the Family


Book Description

It’s July, and Nicholas Borelli II’s parents are scheduled to spend two weeks on a cruise. Nicholas will spend those two weeks, as he does every summer, at Camp Wannameka. The night before he’s to leave, however, there’s a phone call: thanks to an explosion in the septic system, camp is canceled. The only place for Nicholas to go instead is to his grandmother’s house in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York. Nicholas’s father grew up in Brooklyn, but you’d hardly know it. An Italian dinner at Nicholas’s house in the suburbs is whole wheat pasta, organic tomato sauce, and, if he’s lucky, a tofu meatball. And Brooklyn? Well, Brooklyn is the place his father left and never talks about. Nicholas has never been there, and he doesn’t want to go now. But when Nicholas tastes his grandma Tutti’s meatballs for the first time, gets a nickname from his uncle Frankie, and makes a friend in the neighborhood, his feelings about Brooklyn–and family–begin to change.




A Guy's Guide to Being a Man's Man


Book Description

These days, it’s harder than ever to know how to act like a real man. We’re not talking about the touchy-feely, ultra-sensitive, emotion-sharing, not-afraid-to-cry version of manhood that Oprah and Dr. Phil have been spouting for years. We’re talking about the though, smart, confident, charming, classy, all-around good fella that upholds the true ideal of what is known as “a man’s man.” Now, renowned actor and true-life man’s man Frank Vincent, famed for his unforgettable tough-guy roles in such classic films as Raging Bull, Goodfellas and HBO’s The Sopranos, is going to show how any man can be all that he can be in love, work, play, and life. Everything you need to know is covered here, including, getting the best women by being the best man, dressing like a champ and taking on the world, winning big money and big respect in Las Vegas, selecting, smoking, and savoring a great cigar, and much more. If you want to learn how to be a man’s man, you gotta learn from a man’s man. And with the great Frank Vincent vouching for you, you’ll be on your way to getting everything you ever wanted outta life.