Beautiful Ruins a "dazzling roller-coaster of a novel."

The cover of the book makes it look like it was published in the 1960s.

Imagine for a minute all kinds of ruins. Many can be very charming and attractive while others are foreboding and threatening. When I think of ruins I always think of old buildings, but in Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter there are many types of ruins: old buildings clinging to the cliffs of the Cinque Terre in Italy; old Hollywood films and the actors and actresses in them; even the simple lives of characters in the stories and literature. Jess Walter says that literature is full of ruins because "storytelling is about the artifacts we leave behind." He also described how much fun he had writing the book because it was an intriguing puzzle how to put together all the stories, forms, styles, and time periods. (From the interview at the end of the audiobook.)

This is what I picture when I hear the word ruins.

In Beautiful Ruins the story begins in 1962 on the coast of Italy. And the story begins again 50 years later in Sand Point, Idaho. Between these two points in time, stories take place all over: from the lavish set of Cleopatra in Rome, the back offices of Hollywood, the streets of Seattle, and even the grimier parts of Edinburgh, Scotland. Walter introduces us to the "tangled lives of a dozen unforgettable characters": a lonely Italian innkeeper, an alcoholic war veteran, a disenchanted and lovely actress, even Richard Burton himself. "Beautiful Ruins is a story of flawed yet fascinating people, navigating the rocky shores of their lives while clinging to their improbable dreams." (All quotes from the book jacket)

As I listened to the audiobook flawlessly performed by Edoardo Bellerini I was transported by the symbolism in the prose. So many images of ruins came to mind. If I was a college writing professor I'd want to teach this book, encouraging my students to explore all the ways that Walter played with the concept of ruins within its pages. Bellerini was the perfect voice actor for the job, too. He obviously knew his Italian but he could read the American voices without a hint of an accent. I am sure that his performance is partially responsible for how much I enjoyed the book.

A home in the Cinque Terre area of Itay

The opening setting is Porto Vergogna, Italy. A tiny (made up) fishing village clinging to the cliffs of the Cinque Terra and a hotel called The Hotel Adequate View.

Homes which seem to cling to the cliffs.

A beautiful actress, Dee Moray, mistakenly finds her way to the hotel to take a few days break from the filming of Cleopatra in Rome starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

Pasquales entertained the unwieldy thought that he'd somehow summoned her, that after years of living in the place, after months of grief and loneliness and waiting for Americans, he'd created this woman from old bits of cinema and books, from the lost artifacts and ruins of his dreams.

Later Dee Moray confides in Pasquale (the innkeeper):

She tossed her hair back. 'Oh no. I've been thinking about how people sit around for years waiting for their lives to begin, right? Like a movie. You know what I mean? ... I think some people wait forever, and only at the end of their lives do they realize that their life has happened while they were waiting for it to start. Do you know what I mean, Pasquale?'

Hollywood, and the phoniness of the people in it, is introduced to the reader by this actress but then these people have their own stories.

Richard Burton as Anthony in Cleopatra.

Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra

[Dick] Cavett's four great interviews with Richard Burton were done in 1980...Burton, fifty-four at the time, and already a beautiful ruin, were mesmerizing. (-"Talk Story" by Louis Menand, The New Yorker, November 22, 2010).

Elizabeth Taylor only makes a cameo appearance in the book but Burton is a character and we meet him through Pasquale's eyes.

Richard Burton had removed his sunglasses and given a wry smile. He was about Pasquale's height, with thick sideburns, tousled brown hair, and a cleft chin. he had the sharpest features Pasquale had ever seen, as if his face had been sculpted in separate pieces and then assembled on-site.

Beautiful Ruins, the title and the theme of the whole book is beautifully summarized here while Pasquale is having to confront his shattered life.

The world was fractured, broken in so many ways that Pasquale could barely conceive which shard to reach for...The pieces of his broken life lay on the ground before him like a mirror that had always stared back, but which had now broken to reveal the life behind it.

Obviously I really liked this book and hope that this review encourages others to read it. I've actually become quite obsessed with the whole concept of ruins and spent many hours this week sifting through many mental images of ruins. Now I challenge you to share with me what pictures are conjured up when you read it.

Disclaimer:All quotes were from Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter, HarperAudio, 2012. Audio CD borrowed from public library.

Anne

Sunday Salon, May 4th

My beautiful niece graduated from college yesterday. Here she is with my parents.
Photo taken by my sister Kathy.

Weather: Raining. Earlier this week we had record-breaking heat, now back to spring rains.

Musical selection of the day: What if the coolest song ever written for the cello was actually written for eight cellos? Yes, it is another PianoGuys selection. Love them!


Yesterday: My eldest daughter, Rita, and I drove down to Portland to attend the graduation of niece/cousin Samantha from George Fox University. Actually, to be more precise, we didn't attend the graduation but did attend the after-party/BBQ. It was wonderful to be with nearly my whole family of origin, just missing my youngest sister. Don't my folks look good, too?

FitBit: This past week I had five days with over 10,000 steps, and I only had to march in place next to the bed to get to 10,00 steps once before hopping in! Ha! Yesterday, however, I didn't even have 3000 steps. Six hours in the car to and from Portland didn't give a lot of time to walk.

Health tip of the week: avoid artificial sweeteners if at all possible, especially aspartame. It is excites nerve cells which can deplete our serotonin levels leading to depression and can cause migraines. It excites the bladder muscles and causes irritable bowel syndrome. There are over 900 published studies showing the detrimental effects of this sweetener, with the most serious being blood-related cancers. Plus, and here is the ironic bit, use of aspartame doesn't help a person lose weight and may actually make the user fatter. Watch the video about it here.

"A Card in Every Hand": last week I told you about a project that the public library started in conjunction with our school district where they issued a public library card to every secondary kid in our district. Well, this past week I went to every English classroom and handed out cards and showed the students some of the ways they could use their cards without even going to the library, things like free on-line homework tutoring, all the databases available to them, and even movie/music downloads. I averaged three classrooms a period, some days I presented the information 18 times for four days straight. I was shocked at how excited most students were to get the card. It was exhausting but very rewarding.

Books read this week:

• Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter. I am obsessed with this book right now. Look for my review later today or tomorrow.

Currently reading:

• The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson. Another tough topic handled by Anderson: PTSD. This is an audiobook selection.
• Secret Son by Laila Lalami. This month's book club selection.

Mock Printz reading list: I am attempting to "divine" which books will be the best-of-the-best in YA for the year by compiling a summer reading list. If you have read any YA titles, published in 2014, that you think are exceptional, please let me know. No YA novel has garnered much praise-worthy attention yet so I am having a hard time building my reading list.

Scripture: Isaiah 52:7

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation,“Your God reigns!”

Poem/song of the day: 

A Place in the Choir 

by Bill Staines (Chorus)

All God's children got a place in the choir, 

Some sing low and some sing higher,

Some sing loud on a telephone wire,

Some just clap their hands, or paws, or anything they got now.

Friday Memes: THE IMPOSSIBLE KNIFE OF MEMORY

Book: The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson

Genre/Type: Realistic YA fiction

Book Beginnings:

      It started in detention. No surprises there, right? Detention was invented by the same idiots who dreamed up the time-out corner.

Friday 56: 

     "Innocent?" I served the ball so hard she squealed and dove for the ground. "He won't leave me alone! Look what he did to my arm! That's assault."
     "Assault with a Sharpie?"

My thoughts: Laurie Halse Anderson is the author of Speak which is still a tremendously popular novel in my library, with good reason. It is such an awesome books kids overlook that it was published over 15 years ago.

Now Halse writes another book on a tough subject--- the topic is PTSD. It is a very timely topic. I am looking forward to this read, er, listen. I picked up the audiobook in the library today.

Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Rose City Reader. The Friday 56 is hosted at Freda's Voice. Check out the links for the rules and for the posts of the participants each week. Participants don't select their favorite, coolest or most intellectual books, they just use the one they are currently reading. I'm reading:

Sunday Salon, April 27

Flowering tree discovered on walk around Green Lake.

Weather: Rain. Sun. Rain. Sun. Wind. Rain. Sun. Rain. (You get the picture.)

Musical Selection: from Sunday Baroque program on public radio (check it out in your area.) Cue the music and listen while reading the blog post.


Last week: I didn't post a Sunday Salon last week because of Easter. We had thirteen people here for dinner after an inspiring church service. It was a lovely day and I enjoyed the socializing so much. Instead of typical Easter fare we served PNW surf and turf which was salmon and flank steak. Others brought asparagus, potatoes, rolls, and a fruit tart for dessert. In keeping with out new root beer obsession we held a blind taste test with three brands. Bulldog Root Beer won.

Seattle University Choirs concert: today is my daughter's last concert with the Seattle University choir as she is a senior. Where has the time gone? We went to the program on Friday with my parents and enjoyed it immensely. Every song had something to do with animals. Today we will go to the Sunday program with Don's dad and his wife. It will be a very bittersweet experience, I am sure. Will she find a way to incorporate music into her life as she moves on to the next phase?

Silly poetry: Several of the songs the choirs performed were from silly poems by Ogden Nash. Here is one I found especially delightful:

The Panther 

by Ogden Nash

The panther is like a leopard,

Except it hasn't been peppered.

Should you behold a panther crouch,

Prepare to say "Ouch."

Better yet, if called by a panther,

Don't anther.

Books read the past two weeks:

• Cress by Marissa Meyer- book three in The Lunar Chronicles. LOVE it! Review here.
• The Shadow of the Wind by Luis Ruiz Zafon- a book within a book. Please read my review here.
• Mansfield Park by Jane Austen-Finished the read-along a week early. I was pleased with the book and find Austen less intimidating if taken in small bite-sized pieces. My last post here.
• A Thousand Mornings by Mary Oliver- a small poetry book for National Poetry month.

Books currently reading:

• Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter- a book about things that are falling apart. This is my audiobook selection.
• 100 Poems to Lift Your Spirits- I am trying to finish this book before the end of the month but am currently stuck in the silly poem section. Must be a theme.

A Card in Every Hand: Our public library has issued a library card to every student who doesn't have one already. This week I deliver them to English classes with a small presentation about on-line resources available to library patrons. It was a bit of a task getting the cards sorted by teacher and class but all that is done now. So far the reception has been very positive.  Isn't it a cool thing they've done?

Wild: my two book clubs discussed the same book this month Wild by Cheryl Strayed. It it the All-Pierce County Reads book of the year. Cheryl walked a portion of the Pacific Crest Trail alone in 1995. She was supremely unprepared for her walk and gained many insights into her life during the very difficult journey. It was lots of fun to discuss the book with others.  If you are looking for a good book club selection I'd recommend it.

Scripture for today: Acts 1:8 "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

Prayers for: the family of Kim. Kim died this week after a bout with lung cancer. She was our daughters' piano teacher and a wonderful person. She will be greatly missed.

From www.ShortPoems.org

Snapshot Saturday...April 26th

Yesterday, while we waited for the Seattle University Choir concert at St. Joseph's Cathedral in Seattle to begin, I ran around taking pictures of the stained glass windows with the sun pouring in. They were so lovely. The concert was excellent, too!

Snapshot Saturday is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.

Friday posts: SECRET SON

Book: Secret Son by Laila Lalami

Book Beginnings:

"The rain came unexpectedly, after nearly three years of drought. In those days, Youssef still lived with his mother in a whitewashed house that huddled with other others like it along a narrow dirt road. The house had one room with no windows, and a roof made of corrugated tin held down by rocks."

Friday 56:

"His mother was sitting cross-legged on the floor, piling couscous into a mound on a large plate..."

My thoughts: This is a book I have to read for book club. Reviews on it are mixed, some love and others hate it. From the first quote to the one I found on page 56,  it sure doesn't seem to be an action-filled tale.  I certainly get it that the boy and his mother are poor, very poor. They live in Casablanca. I've never read a book set in Morocco. For that reason I will try to maintain an open mind as I start the book this week-end.

Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Rose City Reader. The Friday 56 is hosted at Freda's Voice. Check out the links for the rules and for the posts of the participants each week. Participants don't select their favorite, coolest or most intellectual books, they just use the one they are currently reading. I'm reading:

Review: Cress by Marissa Meyer

I just completed the third book in the Lunar Chronicles, Cress by Marissa Meyer. What I'd rather be doing right now than writing this blog post is reading Winter, the fourth book in this fantasy series based on fairy tales, but unfortunately for me Winter hasn't even been published yet. Let's talk about Cress!

I read Cinder, the first book in the Lunar Chronicles, a few months after it was published for two reasons. 1. Marissa lives (lived) in the same area as my school and one of her neighbors, a boy who has I wouldn't identify as a reader, came to the library to talk to me about the book and asked me to buy it. 2. My daughter, who loves any story related to fairy tales, read it and couldn't stop talking about it. As I started the book I was pretty critical of the writing but the plot caught my attention and the ending has this huge cliff hanger, so, of course, I had to read the sequel, Scarlet to find out how things turned out.

I don't always make a point of reading all books in a series, especially if all the books aren't published by the time I start it. Enough time passed between reading Cinder, roughly based on Cinderella, and the publication of Scarlet, that I had to take a refresher course to remember all the characters and the plot-line of the first book before I could enjoy the second. With Scarlet, based on Red Riding Hood, there were more characters to keep track of and yet I enjoyed the writing more and felt myself becoming ensnared in all the plot twists and turns.

My experience with books in a series is often the first book is the best. That is not the case with The Lunar Chronicles. In my estimation Cinder was good, Scarlet was great, and Cress was fantastic. The writing has improved with each book right along with the character development and the exciting plot. With this upward trend, Winter should knock my socks off.

Cress, our title character, is patterned after Rapunzel who is imprisoned in an escape-proof space. She even has super long hair. She is rescued by Thorne, a handsome but unlikely hero. They meet up with Cinder and get tangled up with her plot to stop the wedding between Emperor Kai and Queen Levana. If I counted correctly, there are eight (maybe nine) different narrators with point-of-view chapters. Each character has a unique voice and adds to the unfolding story.

As I said in my opening paragraph, when I closed the book on the last page of Cress I was ready immediately to open up the next book and start reading. In lieu of being able to do that I contemplated rereading Cress from the beginning. I talked to a friend who also read Cress this week-end and she felt the same way. She cried, "A year. We are going to have to wait a year for Winter. How can we wait that long?"

I'm not sure. But wait I must and wait I will because I have fallen in love with a series and I HAVE to know how it all works out in the end.

Disclaimer: I listened to the audiobook version of Cress with Rebecca Soler reading. Soler's pacing and voice inflections were spot on and I enjoyed the experience immensely. I checked the audio CD set out from my public library.

TTT: Top Ten Characters that really irritate me

Today's Top Ten Tuesday topic is to pick characters who really X. I decided to create a list of really irritating characters. Check out the characters I think are really irritating. Do you agree with me? Can you think of others? Please leave a comment below!

1. Bella from Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer...I could barely stomach the first book because Bella was so whiney. I didn't read on in the series, no matter how much everyone loved it, for that very reason.

2. Andi Alpers in Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly. Andi has a lot to be sad about. She also has a lot to be mad about but it just irritates the heck out of me how she takes drugs, swears, and mopes around. Andi is the main character in the story set in both modern France and during the French Revolution, despite this fact I did like the book.

3. Ashley Wilkes in Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. Ashley should have told Scarlett that he didn't love her, that he loved Melanie. What a whimp.

4. Lydia Bennet in Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Everything about this character is irritating. Almost as bad are Mary Bennet and their mother, Mrs. Bennet.

5. Professor Umbridge in Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. Perhaps "irritating" is to mild of a term for Umbridge. There is something despicable about adults who take out their frustrations on children. Ugh.

6. Eustace Scrubb in the Chronicles of Narnia, Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis. At least in the beginning of the book Eustace is like the kid next door that all the kids in the neighborhood try to avoid because he is such a know-it-all. One of the best opening lines in all of literature is about this boy:

“There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.”

7. Abigail and the other hysterical girls in The Crucible by Arthur Miller. Mob mentality. Ugh.

8. Olive Kitteridge in the book by the same name by Elizabeth Strout. This begs the question, can you like a book if you don't like the main character? Oh boy, is Olive irritating but I liked the book a lot.

9. Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. She was so wishy-washy, a girl who did not really care about anyone but herself.

10. Amy Dunn in Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. Amy is a B***h, everything she does is calculating. She is simply AWFUL.

11. The Cat-in-the-Hat by Dr. Seuss. Even as a kid I found this cat irritating. I didn't want him to get the kids in trouble with their mom. Ha!

Mansfield Park Read-along, the last

Edmond finally realizes that he loves Fanny.

The end. I have completed Mansfield Park and now I can say that I have read all of Jane Austen's books. Sigh! I couldn't stop myself at 50 pages this week.

Action: Fanny is at her parent's home in Portsmouth. She sees flaws in both her parents that she didn't realize existed. She is especially disappointed with her mother who is a poor manager of the household. Her only ally is her sister Susan since her older brothers have left for the Navy. She is very homesick for Mansfield Park and recognizes that she now thinks of it as home, not here with her family. Henry shows up for a visit and stays a few days.  He is charming and not too pushy. His motives and actions actually seem to have improved and Fanny softens a bit toward him. When he leaves, he promises that he is a changed person and will wait for her to come around. He is in love and will prove himself. But not long after he leaves, Fanny receives a letter from Mary asking her to ignore all the gossip about Henry and Mariah Rushworth. Then a newspaper article hits Portsmouth that details the affair: Henry and Mariah have run off together, breaking up Mariah's marriage. Not long after letters from Mansfield Park and from London fill her in on the details. These letters include alarming information about Tom's poor health. Poor Fanny is stuck in Portsmouth and cannot help anyone. Eventually Edmond comes to get Fanny. He tells her that he has broken things off with Mary because he realized he had been blinded to her real personality by her charms and looks. Finally, in the course of time, Edmond realizes that he loves Fanny. They wed and live....in the parsonage (you thought I was going to say, "happily ever after.")

Surprises: After Henry leaves Portsmouth, the majority of the action is captured in letters to/from Fanny. Even though she is the heroine of this story, she is on the sidelines for most of the action. In some ways it felt like Austen was trying to finish up the story and just wanted to speed things along. Austen also inserts herself as the author into the narration. For example, when Austen refers to the time period that passes before Edmond realizes that he loves Fanny, she says, "I purposely abstain from dates on this occasion..." It is an interesting literary device that I've noticed Austen uses in several of her books, it gives the feeling of hurrying the plot along. Just when we, the modern reader, think we are getting to the good stuff about Edmond and Fanny's love we are almost dismissed by statements like this:

I only entreat everybody to believe that exactly at the time when it was quite natural that it should be so, and not a week earlier, Edmond did cease to care about Mary Crawford, and became as anxious to marry Fanny as Fanny herself could desire.

Sigh. I wanted a few more lovey-dovey details than that! I knew to expect this rather abrupt ending to Mansfield Park because I had read the ending before I finished the book. Overall, however, the reading experience was very satisfying. It was very Austenesque. For the past few weeks I've been able to live alongside Fanny Price, having been transported back to the Regency time period by one of the world's truly great authors, Jane Austen.

Read-along fun. I want to encourage you, my reader, to consider joining me for my next read-along. It is a fun way to read the classics in small, weekly, bite-sized pieces that make the task quite doable. If you want to join me and want to weigh in on my selection, leave me a note in the comment section or send me an e-mail. I am leaning toward Middlemarch by Eliot or something by Dickens. But I could probably be persuaded to read some other classic if you will join me. Let me know.

If you'd like to book back on my previous updates/installments, follow the links:

• Mansfield Park Read-along begins -- Introduction
• Mansfield Park -- First Installment (50 pages)
• Mansfield Park -Second Installment
• Mansfield Park -- Third Installment
• Mansfield Park -- Half-Way Point
• Mansfield Park -- Fifth Installment
• Mansfield Park Read-Along, the 6th
• Last installment and conclusion -- you are reading it here.

Snapshot Saturday, April 19

Poor Muffy. Our dog has a skin rash that has been difficult to treat. We've tried everything: antibiotics, change in diet, lots of baths. Nothing has worked. Here my daughters decided to lather her in a cream that was supposed to calm down her skin. The directions on the bottle said to put a t-shirt on the pet afterwards to avoid getting it all over the carpet. What you see is a not-very-happy (obviously) Muffy in a camisole. The indignity of it all!

Snapshot Saturday is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.