A Beautiful Bucket of Bones

By M. Luci

Book Overview

If a moment can be everything, then how can a life be nothing?

It was the end of summer in 2006, five years after the best and worst week of Cara Dolorina's life. Her tour of Italy was confirmed; it would take her to some of the most exquisite regions in the world and introduce her to fifty men and women between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five. The price was a nonrefundable six thousand dollars, about four months worth of tips from her family's North Beach restaurant. Though scared and sentimental, Cara knew she had no choice but to seek a new way to live. She needed to take a vacation. She needed to make a friend. She needed to find a meaning for her beloved little pain. But first she had to fly from San Francisco to Rome, a journey far more terrifying than the years she spent in solitude. The trip would be a trial, a puzzle for her faith. With courage, wisdom and determination, she would pass and be rewarded with fate and a fresh beginning. With fear, she would fail and endure a tragic death.

In the hideous and the horrifying, somehow there is beauty.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0595696287
• ISBN13: 9780595696284
• Release Date: June 2007
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.97 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Read this first, then buy the book...

I read an interview in a magazine with the author of this book, "M. Luci". Then I picked up the book and read it. Having read the interview before reading the book, I realize just how brilliant this piece of literature really is. For example, "M. Luci" is the penname of an author who has published (and won awards for) several other books. He/she chose to use this penname solely for this book because it ties into the story (hint: look up the meaning of the word Luci in the Italian dictionary). Also, he/she published it via the small market and did not do any advertising. It is all a "test" of sorts, to get the book to the people who really "need it the most." I thought that was pretty cool. Also, pay attention to colors and numbers in the story. They are very significant and, like in a dream, mean something to the overall theme. Even the title, the three "B's" represent something. Even the total word count means something. If you have time, count them. They total seventy three thousand something, which, again, you will realize means something when you read the book to completion. Anyway, I could go on and on, but I wanted to make sure people knew about these little details because, for me, they made the book all the more special. I felt like I was part of a secret society and I really enjoyed myself. Not to mention this is just one really sweet story.

a wonderful feeling

This book is soooo romantic. There is no sex, or vulgarity, or violence, just pure, complete, innocent beauty and romance. I was so easily able to identify with Cara, and I fell in love with Jesse and Aiden. All of them are just so sweet, and I really started to have real feelings for these characters. This book is very descriptive and poetic. Actually, it does almost read like one really long poem. I will tell everyone to read a beautiful bucket of bones.

I love this book

A friend of a friend told me to read this book, and I am so happy now that I did. The best way to describe it is "touching". There are sad parts, ugly parts, happy parts, and pretty parts, but all the while it is "touching" and the story is enjoyable because it makes you feel something. I cried a lot during the first chapter, then became really excited and hopeful during the second chapter. Then I cried again in the end (although this time because I was happy). I suggest that you read this book. I don't think you will regret it.

A book that will instantly break your heart and then slowly start to repair it. Grade: A

Author M. Luci has played the perfect tune with A Beautiful Bucket of Bones. The story about love, rebirth, hope and fear takes so many turns and asks so many questions that it is difficult for a reviewer to even attempt to explain the simple complexity of this novel. Will Cara Dolorina take the trip to Italy? She has every reason not to: Grandma is sick, Dad is burdened, Sis is expecting a baby. But it is a trip five years in the making, the one last crystal of romantic love left from the jewels of her pre-tragedy life. She has been emotionally locked away, chained to a memory and living in fantasy. Dreaming about love is enough for Cara. Remembering excitement is almost the same as feeling it. But something IS missing. Her family knows it, the fates know it, and deep down even she knows it. Surely, the answer to the riddles of her life will not be solved in one twelve-day trip, but will she discover the key to the door that will show her a new life, or will she exhaust herself to the point where she no longer has the desire to try? Mysterious, romantic, funny and witty, A Beautiful Bucket of Bones is an eloquent and delightful story that will enrapture readers for its 200+ pages and then stay with them for many years to come. Worthy of the highest grade, and a must read among the summer 2007 new releases.

Simply Beautiful--Must Read Book for 2007

A Beautiful Bucket of Bones is a poetic dream. Like all works of art, it has some flaws, but really too few to mention. The protagonist, Cara, is thirty years old. She lost the love of her life five years earlier. He is never coming back. To replace him, she fills her time with reading, learning, teaching her cousin's baby, and waiting, waiting, waiting. She is faithful. She prays every night and attends church every week. She is grateful, knowing that the love she lost was special and she was lucky for ever having had it. She is quiet and quit disinclined to try to find such love again. Out of obligation, loyalty, and haunting curiosity, she plans a trip to Italy. Overflowing with rich, cute, passionate, sweet, mean, silly and interesting characters, the words in A Beautiful Bucket of Bones cling to each other so naturally that the book almost seems like ballet. The descriptions of the cities--San Francisco, Verona, Venice, Rome, Pescara, Pisa, Cinque Terre, Milan, Sorrento, Pompeii, and more--are so breathtaking that they transport the reader to a stage set for romance. As an independently-published novel without the hefty advertising budget, this novel is indeed a treasure worth finding.