The Right Book at the Right Time

Title: Beautiful Ruins: A Novel

Author: Jess Walter

Publisher: Harper, 2012

Review/Summary: A tour de force that crosses decades, continents, and genres. This was one of my favorites from last year. Big dreams, lost loves, a quirky and entertaining tale that skewers the Hollywood scene with many memorable characters. This roller coaster of a novel spans 50 years, opening with a mysterious woman in a boat heading towards an inn on the coast of Italy.  The young innkeeper befriends the dying young starlet. The story fast forwards to modern times, half a world away, when an elderly Italian man shows up on a movie studio back lot-searching for the woman he last saw at his hotel decades earlier. As the plot twists, even a rakish Richard Burton enters the tale! This would make a great beach read-lyrical, heartbreaking, and funny.

Who will like this book?: Those who are looking for an interesting read that will grip them from the very beginning.  Those who want to read about going into the unknown to see what life could be like!

If you like this, try this: If you’re interested in characters who leave on quests to see what may have been, try “Where’d You Go, Bernadette?” by Maria Semple or “Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry” by Rachel Joyce.

If you enjoyed Jess Walter, she has a number of other books including her newest “We Live in Water” or her previous novels, “The Financial Lives of Poets” or “Citizen Vince”.

Recommended by: Cindy B. Children’s Librarian

Are you interested in reading this one?  Visit the Fairfield Public Library catalog to see if it’s available or to place a hold!

Title: The Savage Garden

Author: Mark Mills

Summary: The Savage Garden, written by Mark Mills, is the story of two murders, committed 400 years apart, and the attempt to solve the mystery of both crimes.

It’s 1958 and Adam Strickland, Cambridge undergraduate, has just been dumped by his girlfriend. When he is offered the opportunity to study a Tuscan Renaissance garden for his art history thesis, he accepts the offer. The garden was built in 1577 as a memorial to the villa owner’s wife Flora, who died at a very young age. During his research, Adam begins to see the garden’s statues and inscriptions as clues to Flora’s murder, not as a memorial to her death.

As Adam deciphers the clues in the garden, he begins to suspect that the more recent murder-that of the current villa owner’s son, may not be as clear cut as everyone thinks. Signora Docci’s son, Emilio, was shot and killed by Nazi officers on the third floor of the villa and the area has been sealed off ever since. Though everyone is excited about the revelation of Flora’s murder, Adam finds himself in danger when he begins to question the events surrounding Emilio’s death.

Recommended by: Sue, Circulation Coordinator