The Buzz...About Books

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

Pasquale Tursi has abandoned his college studies to care for his recently widowed mother. His family owns a small, unsuccessful hotel in a remote village on the Italian coast. Although he tries to attract tourists to the hotel, his attempts have been unsuccessful. He is therefore surprised by the arrival of an American starlet named Dee Moray. She had been filming the movie Cleopatra in Rome but had become ill and was sent to the village to wait for a friend who will take her for cancer treatment. Her friend never arrives. Pasquale, hopelessly in love with Dee, discovers that she is actually pregnant but unaware of it. He goes to Rome to investigate and learns that the cancer story was a ruse to mislead Dee into having an abortion without ever learning of the pregnancy.  Instead Pasquale arranges for her safe journey home but never forgets their time together. 

Fifty years later, Pasquale goes to Hollywood to find the woman who had such an impact on his life. 

This satirical novel critiquing Hollywood culture includes cameo appearances by Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. 

 Available in these formats:
Regular Print
Audiobook
eAudiobook
eBook
Large Print
Talking Book (Restricted to Print Disabled patrons)

Upcoming Books

September

Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
Regular Print
Audiobook
eAudiobook
Talking Book (Restricted to Print Disabled patrons)

A naive young woman marries widower Maxim de Winter but soon realizes that the shadow of the first Mrs. de Winter looms large.

October

All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mostai
Regular Print
Audiobook
eAudiobook
eBook
Large Print
Talking Book (Restricted to Print Disabled patrons)

Tom Barren lives in an idyllic, techno-utopian world but he’s always felt like an outsider. An accident occurs and he finds himself in our messy, complicated world. It seems like a savage hellscape to Tom but it isn’t all bad–he may have found his soulmate. Does he try to put things back to “normal” and risk losing everything or does he learn to live in this version of 2016?

November

The Girls by Emma Cline
Audiobook
eAudiobook
eBook
Large Print
Talking Book (Restricted to Print Disabled patrons)

One summer in the late 1960s, teenager Evie Boyd encounters a group of girls in a park who seem to be everything she is not. She finds herself drawn into a cult with a charismatic leader.