MSI Press Blog

From Tuscany with Love by Lauretta Avina was #1 in immigrant biographies on Amazon for several weeks. Enjoy a preview of the book here:  From Tuscany with Love-Recipes and Remembrances of an Immigrant Child Book Trailer 1.mp4 - OneDrive Book Description: From Tuscany with Love  is an emotional memoir capturing the heartfelt journey of a scared, little girl from the rolling hills of Lucca to the bustling life in America. Through evocative stories and cherished family recipes, the author pays tribute to the rich culture, love, and flavors that shaped her life. This memoir beautifully blends personal reflections on family, resilience, and the timeless traditions of Tuscan cuisine, offering readers a deeply personal and flavorful look at an immigrant's path to finding a home and a sense of belonging in a new world. A Reviewer's Comment: "a cookbook that brought a tear to my eye" I never had a cookbook that brought a tear to my eye, but this one did. [Lauretta's] story...

  The courage to begin again in a new country is rarely just personal—immigrant parents often carry generations of hope tucked inside diaper bags, lunchboxes, and late-night prayers. They arrive believing that this move will gift their children a better future. But no one tells them how much loneliness might accompany that hope. For these parents, helping their children thrive means becoming translators—of language, culture, bureaucracy, and belonging. They decipher school forms they barely understand, navigate health care systems with unfamiliar jargon, and smile politely when corrected for their accent. At home, they try to hold onto ancestral traditions while making room for their children’s adaptation. It’s not assimilation they fear—it’s erasure. Meanwhile, their children are growing up faster than expected, acculturating in ways the parents can’t always follow. The child becomes the cultural broker, the guide through systems, the bridge across family dinners and PTA meetings....

  For many immigrant children, the early years in a new country feel like being caught between languages, customs, and expectations too vast to explain. There’s the sting of being misunderstood, the ache of wanting to blend in while also needing to hold on. These stories—of bullying, exclusion, and the loss of familiar comforts—often remain tucked away, whispered only to those who truly listen. In  From Tuscany with Love , Lauretta Avina unpacks this quiet struggle with grace and clarity. Her memoir traces the unspoken grief and resilience of childhood immigration—from the bustling rhythms of an Italian village to the jarring newness of American classrooms. She writes with tender honesty about the identity confusion, the loneliness, and the silent strength it took to survive being seen as “other.” But the book is not simply a story of hardship—it’s a tribute to reclamation. In the second half, Avina turns to her roots, to the recipes carried across oceans, folded into memory b...