Currently Reading
Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane
“Small Mercies is a jaw-dropping thriller, set in the fury of Boston’s 1974 school-desegregation crisis, and propelled by a hell-bent woman who’s impossible to ignore. Thought-provoking and heart-thumping, it’s a resonant, unflinching story written by a novelist who is simply one of the best around.” — Gillian Flynn
This is the first book by Dennis Lehane that I’ve read, I think, except for Gone Baby, Gone, which I read a long time ago with a mystery book club. The subject matter – the violent racism of South Boston at the time of school desegregation in the ’70s – makes Small Mercies hard to read, but the writing and the fully developed characters make it easy to see why Dennis Lehane is considered “a novelist who is simply one of the best around” by Gillian Flynn.
Nobody’s Fool by Richard Russo
It’s quite possible that I read Nobody’s Fool by Richard Russo thirty years ago in 1993, but I that year I had three children under five, so it’s also quite possible that I took it out from the library and never read it!
Reading it now, there are parts that seem familiar, so probably did read it at some point in the ’90s. But I know I haven’t read Everybody’s Fool which came out in 2016, an.d now the third book in the North Bath trilogy is out — Somebody’s Fool – so I decided to start from the beginning again, anyway.
Tremor by Teju Cole
“A masterful novel by one of America’s finest writers . . . Cole is not just offering us a novel about art, migration, or marginalisation, rather a new politics of seeing, reading and thinking.”—The Daily Telegraph
I went from not knowing what I was going to read next after finishing the review copy of The Fragile Threads of Power, to starting three books at the same time. Tremor by Teju Cole is from my NetGalley review copies. It looks to be short but powerful.
I just noticed a theme in my reading this week – all are set in New England states – either Maine, New Hampshire, or Massachusetts.
Recently Read
The Fragile Threads of Power by V. E. Schwab
From #1 New York Times bestselling author V. E. Schwab comes a new adventure set in a beloved world—where old friends and foes alike are faced with a dangerous new threat.
Currently Listening To
The Dead Zone by Stephen King
The Dead Zone by Stephen King fits two of the reading challenges I’m doing. As dark fiction, it’s good for the Reading in Peril (RIP) challenge, of course, but it also fits for the Massachusetts Center for the Book Reading Challenge for October – to read a book published in the year you turned 18. I’ll let you do the math! 😉
Check out the AudioFile review of the audiobook read by James Franco, that I’m listening to, published by Simon & Schuster Audio in 2017.
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!
Interesting assortment of books. I hope you enjoy the ones still on the stack. Come see my week here. Happy reading!
I remember loving both Nobody’s Fool and Everybody’s Fool! Now I’m hoping I remember them well enough to read (or probably listen to) Somebody’s Fool!
I’m reading ‘Reading Lolita in Teheran”, by Azar Nafisi.
I feel as if I read several Richard Russo books when I was a young mother in the 1990s but with my children running around every which way at my feet at the time, I was lucky to write down the title of what I was reading.
I thought Small Mercies was really good and dealt with so much.
I don’t think your link for this week has posted yet.