Currently Reading
The Foundling by Ann Leary
Inspired by a true story about the author’s grandmother, The Foundling offers a rare look at a shocking chapter of American history. This gripping page-turner will have readers on the edge of their seats right up to the stunning last page…asking themselves, “Did this really happen here?” — from the Publisher
Ann Leary is one of my favorite authors, so when I saw she had a new book, I requested it from NetGalley. The Foundling is set in 1927, in a departure from her other novels, which had contemporary settings. Raised and educated in a Catholic orphanage in Pennsylvania, Mary, the main character, is an intelligent, academically inclined young woman who works for the charismatic and persuasive head of the Nettleton State Village for Feebleminded Women of Childbearing Age; she finds herself with an ethical dilemma and divided loyalties when she starts questioning what she has been told.
Read this interview with the author for more about the real-life inspiration and family connection with the state institution the fictional one is based on.
I haven’t finished The Foundling yet, but I highly recommend it already, and it’s going to make a great book club selection. The pub date is May 31, 2022, and if you haven’t read anything by Ann Leary yet, check out her two earlier novels, The Good House (2013) and The Children (2016).
The Great Man Theory by Teddy Wayne
The Great Man Theory by Teddy Wayne is an ARC from NetGalley. I always meant to read The Loner by this author, but I never did. I like novels about academics and writers and the depressed main character in The Great Man Theory is an adjunct English instructor at a second-string college struggling to write the book he has under contract.
I hope, very much for the author’s sake, that the book is pure fiction, and not drawn from life, unless things turn around for the writer character in the book soon!
Happy Holidays by Craig O’Connor
I’m reading this holiday-themed collection of short horror by a local author, month by month this year. I’m up to Easter!
Recently Read
Our Country Friends by Gary Shteyngart
I forgot I hadn’t finished Our Country Friends before going on a cruise the week before last when I read books set on cruise ships instead, so I finished it this week! I wrote a little bit about this tragicomic novel by the author in a previous “It’s Monday” post, but now that I’ve come to the end, I’ve given it 4 (out of 5) stars on LibraryThing, which means I liked it a lot but didn’t absolutely love it.
Since it deals with the pandemic and I had a COVID scare myself last week, it’s possible that pandemic-fatigue played into my mixed feelings about Our Country Friends. The book is darkly funny with a Chekovian-inspired cast of interesting characters, but the humor may have made it harder to me to feel equally engaged by all of the characters, especially the female ones. It may also be that I don’t know my Chekhov, and so didn’t get all the allusions and homages!
Currently Listening To
Anthem by Noah Hawley
“Hawley taps into our existential anxiety—and transforms it into a hefty page turner that’s equal parts horrific, catastrophic and, at times, strangely entertaining.”— New York Times Book Review
Recently Listened To
Death in Cornwall by G.M. Malliet
I needed a lighter audio to offset Anthem, so I borrowed the most recent St. Just mystery by G.M Malliet, Death in Cornwall, set in a Cornish fishing village. More Christie than cozy, this fourth book in the series turned out to make a lot of references to “the plague time.” So it’s been tough to escape the pandemic this past week, even in fiction!
This post is linked to “It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?” hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date. Check out the link-up party there for more book lists!
I haven’t read any of these books but but they look interesting.. Hope you have a great week of reading this week.
I’m reading Whole Notes (non-fiction) by Ed Ayres; This much is true – a memoir by miriam margolyes and a junior fiction The house at the edge of magic.
That first book looks chilling. More so because of the real world connections. And the pandemic can make for mixed reading, for sure! Like, do we want to read about it???
That St. Just mystery has me wanting to check that out.
Thank you for your comment on my blog. I appreciate that!
These all look good. I hope you enjoy them.
Every time I see a book by Ann Leary I have to do a double-take. That’s my sister-in-law’s name (although she is Anne with an E). Have a great week!
[…] wrote about The Great Man Theory last week. I’m about halfway through it, and am enjoying it. It’s coming out in July from […]