Selected for the Barnes and Noble Discover New Writers Series

"Rita Ciresi's beautifully written, bittersweet first novel examines love and marriage with unflinching honesty. The ending, with its moving, explicit sense of loss, resonates long after the book is closed." (Elle)

"There is a sure hand and a keen eye reporting from the two ethnic camps. . . . Despite their faults and excesses. . . the characters. . . are funny and sympathetic in their misery." (New York Times)

"This is honest, earthy, warm, and funny--as well as heartbreaking. Highly recommended." (Library Journal)

"There is real substance in this tragicomic story of two people with smart mouths and starved hearts groping their way towards a love they don't get much chance to enjoy." (Publisher's Weekly)

"A remarkably accomplished debut." (Booklist)

Sometimes I Dream in Italian

Book Sense 76 Pick
Finalist for the Paterson Fiction Prize

“Poignant ... an old-fashioned tale about girls with old-fashioned dreams ... Angel and Lina will charm the reader.” (USA Today)

“Simultaneously blunt and artful ... Ciresi has a lovely ear for dialogue and the ability to nail the details in descriptions that are both funny and painfully accurate.” (The New York Times Book Review)

“Rita Ciresi has done it again. She’s written a book of fiction that wraps hopes and fears and lonesomeness and togetherness and gladness into one funny story after another.” (Tampa Tribune-Times)

“Precisely crafted and compelling ... honest and witty.” (St. Petersburg Times)

Pink Slip

Winner of the Pirate's Alley Faulkner Prize for the Novel

“Wit and humor are the keys to this lively novel.” (Mademoiselle)

“It’s refreshing to find a female narrator with an authentically lusty voice.” (New York Times)

“A moving love story.” (Redbook)

“Ciresi mixes the tragic and the comic aspects of love in hilarious fashion.” (Tampa Tribune-Times)

“Bright characters and sharp dialogue make this witty romantic comedy a worthy sequel to the author’s admirable Blue Italian.” (Dallas Morning News)

“Pink Slip amuses from start to finish.” (Penn Stater)

Remind Me Again Why I Married You

"Ciresi's depiction of post-singleton life is clever and surprisingly honest. Grade: A" (Entertainment Weekly)

"A cutting commentary on the lasting implications of 'til death do us part.'" (Hartford Courant)

"A straight shootingly honest and winsome but giddy tale about a sharp dressed gal who fooled around, fell in love and makes a go in the suburbs." (Around Philly)

"Each [narrator] has a self-deprecating sense of humor that turns their silly spats and patches of boredom into refreshing, wry takes on long-term partnerships." (Chicago Tribune)

"[Ciresi] tells the unvarnished truth about the hilarity, humanity, and sweetness in the best of relationships." (The Southern Scribe)

Mother Rocket

Winner of the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction and finalist for the Los Angeles Times' Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction

“Ms. Ciresi’s characters…are artfully balanced, charged with currents of despair, but never lugubrious and often funny. What jolts the reader through these pieces is the consistent blasts of vitality in the author’s prose.” (The New York Times Book Review)

“Sharp-eyed, gently humorous fiction whose characters linger in the mind.” (Kirkus Reviews)

“Elegant works of fiction.” (Booklist)