Staff Book and Media Recommendations

Jean Longo is a Research & Learning Librarian at the University of Central Oklahoma.

Beautiful Ruins

Jess Walter

Take your mind off your troubles by reading this fun and romantic story. Beautiful Ruins alternate between past and present. Walter introduces us to unforgettable and amusing cast of characters and I fall for them all especially the star struck Italian innkeeper Pasquale Tursi.

The past is the story of the arrival of an American actress, Dee Moray fresh off the film set of “Cleopatra” to a small hotel in Genoa called the “Hotel Adequate View.” The tiny hotel is owned by Pasquale Tursi’s family. We meet Pasquale as he is trying making his village a more attractive tourist destination by turning the rocky coast in front of his hotel into a beach. Dee Moray approaches him as he is standing in the water working on his beach and stops and smiles at him and he is in love with this moment for the rest of his life. After a brief conversation he realizes she has come to stay in his empty hotel. She has been sent here by Cleopatra’s special production agent Michael Dean to recover from a mysterious illness.

The present story jumps ahead fifty years to present day Hollywood where we meet the ambitious Claire Silver the development assistant to the legendary producer Michael Deane. With dreams of making her own movies she has spent three years with Deane Productions while they have made not a single movie. She has heard far too many movie pitches when Shane comes along with a pitch for a movie about the Donner party. Claire is dismayed to see that Deane loves the idea. At this time the tides are turned when Pasquale arrives with Deane business card in hand and asks to get help from Deane to find Dee Moray.

Reviewed November 2013