Why I Love My Parish

It has wonderful people like this in it:

Pieces of Someday—New Book, a Memoir, Shows Fulfillment Can Be Found in Unexpected Places

When Jan Vallone finds herself unfulfilled, she leaves her prosperous law practice to teach English at a tiny yeshiva—an Orthodox Jewish high school. Her beautiful, award-winning new book, a memoir, will inspire everyone to find meaning in what matters.

New York City, NY (PRWEB) March 9, 2011

Beauty can be found in the least-expected situations. A second-generation Catholic Italian-American found it by leaving her law practice to teach in an Orthodox Jewish high school, and in doing so, she found herself. Join Jan Vallone as she recounts her transformational journey in the poetic and touching new book “Pieces of Someday” (ISBN 9780982102350, Gemelli Press, 2010).

At the age of forty-four, Jan Vallone is everything her Italian-American parents brought her up to be—a lawyer, wife, and mother who owns a vintage home and takes European vacations. But instead of feeling happy and successful, she’s consumed by frustration and anxiety that threaten to shatter her marriage and have dimmed her faith. Discarding prosperity and prestige, Jan, a Catholic, takes a job teaching English at a tiny yeshiva high school. When she opens her heart to her students, they bloom under her tutelage and teach her the meaning of faith and fulfillment.

Set in New York, Seattle, and Italy, “Pieces of Someday” portrays how one woman fuses the facets of her life—family, career, ethnicity, spirituality, and dreams—into a cohesive picture as luminous as stained glass. This memoir recounts Vallone’s lifelong quest for balance between her career and what is most meaningful to her. Vallone ultimately finds fulfillment in the small things in life and in serving other people, which she learns are far more important than money and prestige. Readers come to care about her life, her struggles, and her search for her true self precisely because that search is one everyone hopes to embark on and complete as triumphantly as she.

“Pieces of Someday” has received resounding praise and recognition for its beauty, poetic grace and truth. It has won two Reader Views Reviewers Choice Awards, placing first nationally in the memoir category and first across genres in the Pacific region. Reader Views reviewer Olivera Baumgarten raved:

“[I wished] Ms. Vallone’s ‘Pieces of Someday’ would never end. But end it did, leaving me amazed and joyful, as true beauty always will. This is a book that everybody could relate to, and I would recommend it highly to anybody who takes pleasure in the beauty of a well written sentence—or many of them.”

Gregory Wolfe, editor of “Image” and former National Book Award judge agrees:

“Great memoirs are characterized by the quality of their attention to the universal, quotidian experiences of human life—and the honest, courageous exploration of the self, proverbial warts and all. By this measure, Jan Vallone’s memoir, ‘Pieces of Someday’, is a wonderful addition to the literature. Vallone’s narrative gift—by turns lyrical, funny, and raw—combined with her awareness of grace…renders a life whole and meaningful. Read about her life and gain new insight into yours.”

About the Author

Jan Vallone is the granddaughter of Sicilian immigrants. An insatiable life-long learner, she holds a law degree from New York University School of Law, a Masters in Teaching from Seattle Pacific University, and a Master in Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Goddard College. Jan currently teaches literature and writing at Seattle Pacific University. Her stories have appeared in “Guideposts,” “English Journal,” “Chicken Soup for the Soul,” “Writing it Real,” and “Curriculum in Context.” “Pieces of Someday,” a memoir, is her first full-length book.
“Pieces of Someday” (ISBN 9780982102350, Gemelli Press, 2010) can be purchased through local and online bookstores. For more information, visit http://www.janvallone.com/. Publicity contact: http://www.readerviews.com/. Review copies available upon request.

In keeping with the book’s focus on what truly matters in life, Vallone donates all her proceeds from book sales to charities.