My BOOKS
Our Hollywood Tales
Bob and Anita Puglisi’s Our Hollywood Tales is a different type of Hollywood story—it’s Hollywood in the trenches. It tells how two young, ambitious ex-New Yorkers turn their lives around to make careers in the entertainment industry. You’ll read about their successes and failures, their artistic collaborations, friends and mentors, and their favorite things about Hollywood. The setting is the later part of the 20th century when they could still rub elbows with some of Hollywood’s most legendary icons.
Unassisted Living
UNASSISTED LIVING is a tragicomedy with an optimistic view of aging. Mildred Meyers, a feisty, seventy-year-old, takes on the City of New York when it wants to demolish her tenement. Mildred and her cohorts pelt the police with rotten produce. To save her mother from a jail sentence, her daughter takes Mildred back to Los Angeles and finds a home for her at the Star Bright Senior Residence. Mildred, unable to escape conflict, spearheads a protest when the licensing commission and the IRS mysteriously harasses the owner of the house. After an incident in which Mildred betrays the trust of her fellow residents, she decides to move to Hawaii—until something unexpected happens to her daughter that changes Mildred’s plans.
The Hanalei House
The Hanalei House is a sequel to the popular novel, Unassisted Living. Set in 1976 Kauai, longtime activists and ex-New Yorker, seventy-one-year-old, Mildred Meyers moves to Kauai with her fellow senior citizens from the Hollywood Senior Residence. Shortly after settling into their new home, they find out their nemesis developer Calvin Daniels is building an unpopular condominium complex on a neighboring property. Mildred and her cohorts join the Hanalei community in fighting the construction project.
Railway Avenue
Railway Avenue is a riveting story of Vietnam vet, Tommy DiNardo, who returned to Corona, New York, from the war to find his friend, and love of his life since he was five-years-old, in an abusive marriage. Tommy grows up in a neighborhood where neighbors are relatives and friends who depend on each other for support. The characters will live in your mind for weeks after reading the novel.
Midnight Auto Supply
One year after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the Vietnam War continues to escalate and the draft hangs over the heads of young men in Corona, New York. The sounds of doo-wop, the Four Season, Elvis, and Sinatra still play on the juke box at Al’s Bar and Grill where twenty-one-year-old Frankie Russo and his friends hang out. On one of the most important days in young Frankie's life, he has an accident with his brand new 1964 Pontiac Bonneville, and it becomes one of the worst days of his life. The actions he takes following the accident change his life forever.
Almost A Wiseguy
Eighteen-year-old Vince Ciacci’s gritty life story begins in Upstate New York’s Coxsackie Reformatory. It was a badge of honor for him. He wanted to be bad, to be a criminal. He blames his parents because of their lack of love and acceptance. As an adult he becomes a successful hairstylist, but he’s not satisfied; his ambition is to be a made-man in the Mafia but that doesn’t happen. His life consists of three failed marriages, armed robberies, drug dealing, blackouts and near-death experiences. It’s not until the birth of his daughter, his only child, that he comes to grips with the destructive path he has taken. But his road to recover isn’t an easy one.