This Needs To Be Read hosts author Giovanni Ruscitti

This Needs To Be Said...

With the popularity of websites like Ancestry.com and 23andMe.com…more Americans than ever are seeking out their lineage and heritage…providing special relevance for all North and South Americans whose ancestors have migrated from Asia, Europe, and Africa.

And with more immigrants on the move in Europe due to the war in the Ukraine, the parallels between the mass exodus from Europe during WWII and today are real.

Passionate and deeply moving, Giovanni Ruscitti’s memoir debut, Cobblestones, Conversations, and Corks: A Son’s Discovery of His Italian Heritage, explores his complex relationship with his father; a culture, identity, and upbringing rooted in family, food, and wine; and the revelations of his first visit, at age 46, to his ancestral Italian village that his father left behind after World War II.

Ruscitti explores several themes in this multifaceted memoir that everyone can relate to, including:

• Identity. Can you truly be from a place you have never experienced or touched? Ruscitti shares how—without really having appreciated and understood it—he had been shaped by his parents’ town of origin and especially by its proud, ambitious men.
• Fathers and sons. A successful attorney in Colorado, Ruscitti learned many lessons from his father Emiliano, an incredibly skilled carpenter. A common lecture included his saying, “Don’t be afraid. You can do anything.”
• A love affair with food. While other teenagers hung out and played sports, Ruscitti would accompany his dad to his maternal grandfather Panfilo’s wine cellar a few blocks from his house to make wine, prosciutto, cheeses, and dried sausages, just like in the old country.
• Living history. The pages of history books came alive as Ruscitti learned of the unimaginable circumstances faced by his family during World War II and its aftermath, and how they truly were part of “The Greatest Generation.”

The Next Generation. This book touches on the next generation who are trying to reacquaint themselves with ancestry and the homeland.

About the Author: Giovanni Ruscitti, Esq., is a first-generation Italian-American who grew up in Frederick, Colorado, a small coal mining town north of Denver that his parents and grandparents immigrated to beginning in the 1950s. A nationally recognized attorney, arbitrator, and mediator, as well as a frequent speaker at national legal events, Giovanni is the Managing Partner of the national law firm Berg Hill Greenleaf Ruscitti, LLP. He holds a degree in Economics and an MBA from the University of Colorado, as well as a JD from Denver University.

In 2022, he was named as one of the most influential business leaders in Colorado and has served on numerous nonprofit boards. He is currently the Chair of the Executive Committee of the Boulder Economic Council and serves on the Board of Directors of the Boulder Chamber of Commerce. Giovanni and his wife of over thirty years, Aggie Blake-Ruscitti, have three adult children, Dante, Donato, and Izabella. Giovanni and Aggie currently live outside Boulder, Colorado, where they enjoy traveling, biking, hiking, yoga, and Italian wines.

Learn more at https://www.radiusbookgroup.com/authors

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