Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter Four Stars

I read this on my Kindle and rated it 4 stars.





Goodreads Synopsis:

The story begins in 1962. On a rocky patch of the sun-drenched Italian coastline, a young innkeeper, chest-deep in daydreams, looks out over the incandescent waters of the Ligurian Sea and spies an apparition: a tall, thin woman, a vision in white, approaching him on a boat. She is an actress, he soon learns, an American starlet, and she is dying.

And the story begins again today, half a world away, when an elderly Italian man shows up on a movie studio's back lot—searching for the mysterious woman he last saw at his hotel decades earlier.

What unfolds is a dazzling, yet deeply human, roller coaster of a novel, spanning fifty years and nearly as many lives. From the lavish set of Cleopatra to the shabby revelry of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Walter introduces us to the tangled lives of a dozen unforgettable characters: the starstruck Italian innkeeper and his long-lost love; the heroically preserved producer who once brought them together and his idealistic young assistant; the army veteran turned fledgling novelist and the rakish Richard Burton himself, whose appetites set the whole story in motion—along with the husbands and wives, lovers and dreamers, superstars and losers, who populate their world in the decades that follow.

Gloriously inventive, constantly surprising, Beautiful Ruins is a story of flawed yet fascinating people, navigating the rocky shores of their lives while clinging to their improbable dreams.


My thoughts:

I fell in love with the Italian coast part of the story. I have heard so much about this part of Italy, it makes me want to visit someday. The idealistic inn-keeper, Pasquale and the family and friends he supported. The ailing young starlet, he is smitten by, seems to have an attraction to all she meets. All the main characters are pretty well developed. I felt like I knew them well, with the exception of Michael, who I did not like at all. A user and abuser of others. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes to indulge in looking into people's lives. It is a love story, yes, but a story about the people with maybe unattainable dreams that keep them focused on being their best selves.

I will be linking this review to

hosted by Sarah at Workaday Reads. I signed up to read 25 ebooks, this is number 13. I am afraid I will fail this challenge.

Until Next Time

Stay Busy and Stay Happy 

Wondrous Words Wednesday 10-22-14

Wondrous Words Wednesday is hosted by Kathy at Bermuda Onion's Weblog, It is a place to share new words you have encountered or to spotlight words you love. If you would like to join us, then hop on over to Kathy's blog and add your URL to the Linky.


from The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

"Or rather, it was a productive and fructifying pain.

intransitive verb

: to bear fruit fructify

transitive verb

: to make fruitful or productive


from Merriam Webster Dictionary

"The fire seemed to live, go down or die according to it's own schemata.


noun

pl. schemata 

: an outline, diagram, plan, or preliminary draft 

: PSYCHOL. a mental image produced in response to a stimulus, that becomes a framework or basis for analyzing or responding to other related stimuli

from Your Dictionary  (the one embedded in my browser)

"Their voices blended into a threnody of nostalgia about pain

noun
: a song or poem that expresses sorrow for someone who is dead
plural thren·o·dies

: a song of lamentation for the dead


from Merriam Webster Dictionary

I found these and other in The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, some others in Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls, and some in Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter.  I'll share the others in the coming weeks. 

This morning we get a chance to watch our great grandson. His mom has a dentist appointment. So no reading or even blogging will be done while he is here. He is soon to be 14 months old and a very busy little boy. 

Until next time

Stay Busy and Stay Happy

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros - Letter to My Daughter

Every Tuesday, Diane at Bibliophile By The Sea shares with us the first paragraph or a few a book she is currently reading or planning to read soon. Join her and the rest of us, and share the first chapter, first paragraph of you next reading experience. 

Letter to My Daughter

Maya Angelou

2008 -Random House

Dear Daughter,

This letter has taken an extraordinary time getting itself together. I have know all along that I wanted to tell you  directly of some of the lessons I learned and under what circumstances I have learned them.  

This is a book I have been longing to read since I first heard of it's publication. I checked it out from our public library and by the feel of the book, the way the pages turn, I think I may be the first one to check it out. That makes me sad.

On the back cover is this blub: " I gave birth to one child, a son, but I have thousands of daughters. You are Black and White, Jewish and Muslim, Asian, Spanish-speaking, Native American and Aleut. You are fat and thin and pretty and plain, gay and straight, educated and unlettered, and I am speaking to you all. Here is my offering to you."  

Have you read any of Ms. Angelou's other books?  Would you read this one?



Until next time,
Stay Busy and Stay Happy

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 10-20-14

This meme is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. Come join the fun of visiting other blogs to see what everyone is reading. As Sheila says, "Fair warning...this meme tends to add to your reading list!" :)




This week I will finish up

and then I will link up a reveiw with 2014 E Book Challenge. 

I hope to have a review of The Bluest Eye and Half Broke Horses too. 

I hope to start The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap: A Memoir of Friendship, Community and the Uncommon Pleasure of a Good Book 

It is the November selection of my local F2F bookclub.

And if I am unable to get my hands on this one, I will start Letter to My Daughter by Maya Angelou.

We have had unusually warm weather for October. Today it was 78 degrees. Sunny and not even windy. Very unusual. I am not complaining, any day that puts snow and cold wind farther away is fine with me!




Until next time
Stay Busy and Stay Happy

Review : The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

The Bluest Eye
Toni Morrison
Originally published in 1970
5 of 5 Stars




    This is the first Toni Morrison book I have read. It is her first novel, I don't know why I never read it in the past. The story is told by narrator, Claudia, a young black girl living in Lorain, Ohio in 1941. Lorain OH is the girlhood hometown of the author. Claudia tells the story of eleven year-old   Pecola Breedlove.

    Pecola knows that she is ugly. She knows this because her peers at school tell her. She knows because her family tells her. She know because the world around her tells her so. She longs to be beautiful and beloved like the blond and blue-eyed little girls who live in the big white houses in the other part of town. The houses like the one where her mother, Mrs Breedlove works. She prays and longs for a miracle to change her eyes to blue. The bluest of blue. 

   In that late summer of 1941, when the marigolds in the Breedlove's garden do not bloom, and indeed the marigolds in the whole town do not bloom, Pecola's life changes in a devastating and painful way. 

In Toni Morrison's afterword, she tells of how she first started the story and how it developed into a book. In early 1960, the black community was going through great social upheaval. They were developing the thought that "Black is Beautiful", but there were struggles toward that end. As Ms. Morrison exposed the aggression that could cause a child to literally fall apart, she struggled with the voices of Pecola, Claudia and Pecola's family. She struggled not to dehumanize the characters that tore at Pecola and ultimately caused her collapse. She tried to give voice to the mother, who thought she was doing all the right things, she struggled to understand a father who had no self-worth, and she struggled to give voice to a brother who rather than face his future, just disappeared. In the author's words she was not pleased with the voices that she heard. I however, think she did a courageous and wonderful job of allowing us to hear them.  I was moved, I was touched. I want to read more.   

I gave this book 5 stars.  The story is not a beautiful one, but the language used to tell the story is beautiful.  I will read more Toni Morrison.



Until next time
Stay Busy and Stay Happy

Saturday Snapshots 10/18/14

 Join us at Melinda's blog, West Metro Mommy Reads to share your photos. There are only a few rules. They must by taken by you or a family member, not a random internet picture and they must be suitable for all eyes. So please join us.

Last Monday my DH brought me this small bouquet of fall leaves he picked up while walking the dog. In Wyoming we don't have lots of trees, or lots of colorful leaves, but he heard me say how I like the dark red or purple leaves. When you have been married 50 years, your "love language" changes. So I take these small gestures as proof that he listens to me, and he thinks of me. That may sound a bit "schmaltzy" but it is important to make note of your partner's way of showing the he/she cares.

Also, I think I shared this photo last year about this time. But it makes me smile, and 'tis the season.

So Drop In For A Spell and share your photos taken recently or not so recently.


Until next time
Stay Busy and Stay Happy

Wondrous Words Wednesday - 10/15/14

Kathy at Bermuda Onion hosts this Wednesday meme. It is a place to share words we have come across in our reading or to highlight words we like. Join us at Bermudaonion's Weblog and see the words we find.


These two words are from Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L.James


"He seems kind, reliable and loyal. He has a avuncular appeal to me.

      adjective   The definition of avuncular is acting in a manner similar to the way       a person’s uncle would act, specifically with kindness and indulgence.

When I looked this word up, I realized I had at some point looked it up before. I did not remember the meaning though, so once again I consulted My Dictionary.


"I spy the green baize of the billiard table. "


         noun   a thick woolen cloth made to resemble felt and often dyed green,             used to cover billiard tables, etc.

I knew what this word was, given the use in the sentence, but I had never heard it before. I asked my husband, a guy who hung out in the pool halls in his younger day, and he did not know it either. 

The following word I found in Dream New Dreams by Jai Pausch. I thought I knew this one, but it didn't fit in the sentence. I was completely wrong. I had it confused with energized.


He didn't look exhausted or enervated, as he had been just an hour earlier.


       adjective   lacking physical, mental or moral vigor


I have missed participating in Wondrous Words Wednesday the last few weeks. I'm glad to be back here. I did pop in a read all the posts last week, but did not get a post up for myself. 



Until next time
Stay Busy and Stay Happy