"Open this book and you can taste the tomatoes, hear the arguments, bemoan local politics, and feel the hugs from people you just met. It's a gift."

-Mary Barile. Author, Playwright, and Granddaughter of Brooklyn

"His neighborhood, Brooklyn's Bensonhurst, was full of people not

far from immigrant roots. Joe brilliantly shares how his Bensonhurst boyhood shaped his life's experiences from street stickball to the heights of the American dream."

-DavidCohen. NewYorkCity

Police Department, Deputy Commissioner, Intelligence (retired)

"As you read Joe's stories, you will be brought back-transported to Brooklyn the way it was for those of us who grew up in an Italian- American

or ethnic neighborhood like it."

-Salvatore Primeggia, PhD.

Professor of Sociology, Adelphi University, Specialist in the Italian American Experience