blaise's book feast

 Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

This is a jewel of a book that casts an emerald net between 1960s Italy and current day Hollywood.  Among the cast are Hollywood legends who refuse to fall completely into oblivion, a poor but hardworking Italian boy, a gorgeous young American actress with an invasive illness, an alcoholic author, a nearly obscure producer who gets thrust into the limelight again, and fresh screen starlets with breasts and no brains.  An ages-old love story of incendiary attraction, deep love, and loss is what brings these motley characters together through the tides of time and space.