I recently broke a reading drought with Beautiful Ruins, a remarkable and transporting novel that swept me away not only to a remove village in Italy on the coast but also to Hollywood.  It goes back and forth in time to tell the full story of a group of people whose lives intermingle. There's a famous film producer, his assistant, a once known actress, the real Richard Burton during the time he broke up Elizabeth Taylor's marriage, an Italian fisherman and his family and a struggling screen writer. It doesn't take long for the reader to figure … [Read more...]