Ode to an Italian American bookseller
A tribute to Barnes & Noble founder, Leonard Riggio
I hope you all will indulge my slight deviation from a post focused on Italians in the Pacific Northwest but I wanted to pause today and share my heartfelt condolences to all who knew Len Riggio, the founder of Barnes & Noble, who passed away Aug. 28th.
I did not write a tribute for I did not know him, but Adriana Trigiani knew him well. Adriana did such a great job (it had me in tears) that I wanted my readers to read her beautiful words and learn what Len meant to her as well as to many other authors, including several Italian American ones.
Here’s the link to the Len Riggio tribute on Adriana’s her own Substack column.
I’m especially grateful to Barnes & Noble for being such an enthusiastic, early supporter of my book, Italians in the Pacific Northwest. They picked it up before Amazon did!
I’m also grateful that their store in Bellingham, which rarely carries independently published books, will be hosting me for a signing event for my second novel . . . Murder & Matrimony in the Castello.
Stay tuned for more pre-order news and Nov/Dec launch events featuring my book about an 1899 Christmas Eve wedding in a northern Italian castle gone awry.
Visit my website, www.tessafloreano.com, or sign up for my newsletter for book news, recipes, and other Italian stories.
Rest in power, Len. Thank you for building such a strong community for authors and readers at Barnes & Noble.