Why am I passionate about this?

I am passionate about the written word and effective communication. My articles and reviews have been published in major newspapers and magazines and for two decades I taught writing on the university level. Travel writing is a subset of my experience as editor of the best-selling In Mind literary anthologies and editor and writer for more than a dozen guidebooks. In addition, I have been “first reader” and editor for prospective authors and shepherded several books to publication, the most recent Red Clay Suzie by first-time novelist Jeffrey Lofton (publication January 2023). 


I wrote

Italy in Mind: An Anthology

By Alice Leccese Powers,

Book cover of Italy in Mind: An Anthology

What is my book about?

Italy in Mind was the first in my “In Mind” literary travel anthologies published by Vintage/Random House. Others in the…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of A Room with a View

Alice Leccese Powers Why did I love this book?

Pick up E.M. Forster’s A Room with a View and cue a Puccini aria. British author Forster wrote a lavishly romantic novel with a transgressive theme. Heroine Lucy Honeychurch struggles against her straitlaced Victorian background until a trip to Florence loosens her inhibitions. Does she marry her fiance, the arrogant Cecil Vyse or the Bohemian socialist George Emerson? Although the ending may be obvious, it is the vicarious trip through early 20th-century Tuscany—complete with a kiss in a field of violets—that is the delight. 

By E.M. Forster,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked A Room with a View as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

When I think of what life is, and how seldom love is answered by love; it is one of the moments for which the world was made.

Lucy Honeychurch travels to Florence, Italy, with her cousin and they were assured they would receive a room with a view of the River Arno, but instead are given a room overlooking a dull courtyard. A one Mr. Emerson and his son George offer their room, which as the desirable view, to the two ladies. From this opening sequence, A Room with a View sets off following young Lucy as she navigates through…


Book cover of A Farewell to Arms

Alice Leccese Powers Why did I love this book?

Italy invites forbidden love. In A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway’s 1929 masterpiece, it is between American ambulance driver Frederic Henry and  British nurse Catherine Barkley. Set during World War I, Henry is wounded and sent to a hospital in Milan, where he and Barkley begin a passionate affair. Henry is, again, called back to the front and then deserts to find Catherine. His plan is that they will escape through the Alps to Switzerland, leaving the horror of war behind. I have been to the north of Italy many times, especially Stresa on Lago Maggiore and often imagine Henry and the pregnant Barkley desperately rowing across the lake at night. The description of Frederic rowing in the rain until his hands were raw is quintessential Hemingway—spare, painful, and perfect.

By Ernest Hemingway,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked A Farewell to Arms as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Ernest Hemingway's classic novel of love during wartime.

Written when Ernest Hemingway was thirty years old and lauded as the best American novel to emerge from World War I, A Farewell to Arms is the unforgettable story of an American ambulance driver on the Italian front and his passion for a beautiful English nurse. Set against the looming horrors of the battlefield, this gripping, semiautobiographical work captures the harsh realities of war and the pain of lovers caught in its inexorable sweep.

Hemingway famously rewrote the ending to A Farewell to Arms thirty-nine times to get the words right. A…


Book cover of Love and War in the Apennines

Alice Leccese Powers Why did I love this book?

Eric Newby Is one of my favorite travel writers. He worked his way into situations that were bizarre, funny, and sometimes dangerous. His wife, Wanda, was often at his side, the sardonic counterpoint to his irrepressible optimism. Love and War in the Apennines is a memoir of the beginning of their love story. During World War II Newby, an escaped British prisoner of war, was kept alive in the Italian mountains by a courageous group of partisan peasants that included the heroic Wanda. Despite ever-present danger, Newby fell in love with Italy and also with the Italians who risked their lives to save his.

By Eric Newby,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Love and War in the Apennines as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Hailed as Newby's 'masterpiece', Love and War in the Apennines is the gripping real-life story of Newby's imprisonment and escape from an Italian prison camp during World War II.

After the Italian Armistice of 1943, Eric Newby escaped from the prison camp in which he'd been held for a year. He evaded the German army by hiding in the caves and forests of Fontanellato, in Italy's Po Valley. Against this picturesque backdrop, he was sheltered for three months by an informal network of Italian peasants, who fed, supported and nursed him, before his eventual recapture.

'Love and War in the…


Book cover of From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home

Alice Leccese Powers Why did I love this book?

If you’ve watched the recent Netflix series about Tembi Locke and her Sicilian chef husband, you only know half the story. Locke’s memoir, beautifully told, concentrates on (spoiler alert) her healing after her husband’s death. Recently widowed, she traveled to her husband’s tiny Sicilian village to inter his ashes. Although in many ways she dreaded going to Sicily (and her mother-in-law’s house) she is drawn to a simpler way of life from the one she has in Los Angeles. For several succeeding summers she and her daughter return to her husband’s hometown in which little has changed for centuries. Except for the local priest from Africa, they are the only people of color. Locke’s journey is one from despair and exasperation to healing and appreciation.

By Tembi Locke,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked From Scratch as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Soon to be a limited Netflix series starring Zoe Saldana!

This Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick and New York Times bestseller is "a captivating story of love lost and found" (Kirkus Reviews) set in the lush Sicilian countryside, where one woman discovers the healing powers of food, family, and unexpected grace in her darkest hours.

It was love at first sight when actress Tembi met professional chef, Saro, on a street in Florence. There was just one problem: Saro's traditional Sicilian family did not approve of his marrying a black American woman. However, the couple, heartbroken but undeterred, forged on.…


Book cover of One Italian Summer

Alice Leccese Powers Why did I love this book?

Rebecca Serle’s One Italian Summer is a heavy dose of romance with a twist of magical realism. Set in Positano, it is another story of a woman who escapes to Italy to heal from a death—this time of her beloved mother. Before Carol’s illness, mother and daughter had planned a trip to Positano on the Amalfi Coast; after Carol’s death, Katy Silver decides to go alone, searching for the Italy that her mother experienced more than thirty years ago. This was an afternoon’s read, a literary side trip to Positano with an unexpected (but strangely satisfying) O’Henry ending.

By Rebecca Serle,

Why should I read it?

6 authors picked One Italian Summer as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“[A] magical trip worth taking.” —Associated Press

“Rebecca Serle is a maestro of love in all its forms.” —Gabrielle Zevin, New York Times bestselling author

The New York Times bestselling author of In Five Years returns with a powerful novel about the transformational love between mothers and daughters set on the breathtaking Amalfi Coast.

When Katy’s mother dies, she is left reeling. Carol wasn’t just Katy’s mom, but her best friend and first phone call. She had all the answers and now, when Katy needs her the most, she is gone. To make matters worse,…


Explore my book 😀

Italy in Mind: An Anthology

By Alice Leccese Powers,

Book cover of Italy in Mind: An Anthology

What is my book about?

Italy in Mind was the first in my “In Mind” literary travel anthologies published by Vintage/Random House. Others in the series include Ireland in Mind, France in Mind, Tuscany in Mind, and Spain in Mind. Comprising short stories, novel excerpts, journal entries, letters, and poetry, Italy in Mind captures all of Italy’s contradictions: enduring tradition and trendy consumerism, ravishing landscapes and urban sprawl, and the unvanquished Italian spirit. Italy in Mind has been a perennial bestseller since its publication—a literary guide for travelers and a literary souvenir for Italophiles. 

Book cover of A Room with a View
Book cover of A Farewell to Arms
Book cover of Love and War in the Apennines

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No Average Day: The 24 Hours of October 24, 1944

By Rona Simmons,

Book cover of No Average Day: The 24 Hours of October 24, 1944

Rona Simmons Author Of No Average Day: The 24 Hours of October 24, 1944

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

I come by my interest in history and the years before, during, and after the Second World War honestly. For one thing, both my father and my father-in-law served as pilots in the war, my father a P-38 pilot in North Africa and my father-in-law a B-17 bomber pilot in England. Their histories connect me with a period I think we can still almost reach with our fingertips and one that has had a momentous impact on our lives today. I have taken that interest and passion to discover and write true life stories of the war—focusing on the untold and unheard stories often of the “Average Joe.”

Rona's book list on World War II featuring the average Joe

What is my book about?

October 24, 1944, is not a day of national remembrance. Yet, more Americans serving in World War II perished on that day than on any other single day of the war.

The narrative of No Average Day proceeds hour by hour and incident by incident while focusing its attention on ordinary individuals—clerks, radio operators, cooks, sailors, machinist mates, riflemen, and pilots and their air crews. All were men who chose to serve their country and soon found themselves in a terrifying and otherworldly place.

No Average Day reveals the vastness of the war as it reaches past the beaches in…

No Average Day: The 24 Hours of October 24, 1944

By Rona Simmons,

What is this book about?

October 24, 1944, is not a day of national remembrance. Yet, more Americans serving in World War II perished on that day than on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, or on June 6, 1944, when the Allies stormed the beaches of Normandy, or on any other single day of the war. In its telling of the events of October 24, No Average Day proceeds hour by hour and incident by incident. The book begins with Army Private First-Class Paul Miller's pre-dawn demise in the Sendai #6B Japanese prisoner of war camp. It concludes with the death…


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