Book Description:
Dreaming Sophia is a
magical look into Italy, language, art, and culture. It is a story about
turning dreams into reality and learning to walk the fine line between fact and
fantasy. When tragedy strikes, Sophia finds herself alone in the world, without
direction and fearful of loving again. With only her vivid imagination to guide
her, she begins a journey that will take her from the vineyards in Sonoma,
California to a grad school in Philadelphia and, eventually, to Italy:
Florence, Lucca, Rome, Verona, Venice, and Val d’Orcia.
Through dreamlike
encounters, Sophia meets Italian personalities—princes, poets, duchesses,
artists, and film stars— who give her advice to help put her life back
together. Following a path that takes her from grief to joy, she discovers the
source of her creativity and learns to love again, turning her dreams into
reality.
Buy the Book:
Author's Bio:
Melissa Muldoon is the
Studentessa Matta-the crazy linguist! In Italian, "matta" means
"crazy" or "impassioned". Melissa has a B.A. in fine arts,
art history and European history from Knox College, a liberal arts college in
Galesburg, Illinois, as well as a master's degree in art history from the
University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. She has also studied painting and
art history in Florence.
Melissa promotes the
study of Italian language and culture through her dual-language blog,
Studentessa Matta (studentessamatta.com).
Melissa began the Matta blog to improve her command of the language and to
connect with other language learners. It has since grown to include a podcast,
"Tutti Matti per l'Italiano" and the Studentessa Matta YouTube
channel. Melissa also created Matta Italian Language Immersion Tours, which she
co-leads with Italian partners in Italy.
Dreaming Sophia is
Melissa's first novel. It is a fanciful look at art history and Italian
language and culture, but it is also the culmination of personal stories and insights
resulting from her experiences living in Italy, as well as her involvement and
familiarity with the Italian language, painting, and art history.
As a student, Melissa
lived in Florence with an Italian family. She studied art history and painting and
took beginner Italian classes. When she returned home, she threw away her
Italian dictionary, assuming she'd never need it again but after launching a
successful design career and starting a family, she realized something was
missing in her life. That "thing" was the connection she had made
with Italy and the friends who live there. Living in Florence was indeed a
life-changing event! Wanting to reconnect with Italy, she decided to start
learning the language again from scratch. As if indeed possessed by an Italian
muse, she bought a new Italian dictionary and began her journey to fluency-a
path that has led her back to Italy many times and enriched her life in
countless ways.
Now, many dictionaries
and grammar books later, she dedicates her time to promoting Italian language
studies, further travels in Italy, and sharing her stories and insights about
Italy with others. When Melissa is not traveling in Italy, she lives in the San
Francisco Bay Area. She is married and has three boys and two beagles.
Melissa designed and
illustrated the cover art for Dreaming Sophia. She also designed the Dreaming
Sophia website and created the character illustrations that can be found in the
book and on the Dreaming Sophia websites.
Connect with the Author:
Spotlight Tour
Schedule:
Sounds like a great book, thanks for the giveaway!
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