Three Books I'm Reading Now, 11/2/26 Edition
The Books I'm Reading Now
I'm reading Julie Orringer's story of infidelity, secrets, and the power of a dog, Luna, Phoenix, Queen; I'm listening to Lucy Foley's Miss Marple Mystery, written as an homage to and aimed at being in the style of Agatha Christie, Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel; and I'm listening to Chad Harbach's campus novel, The Brightness.
What are you reading, bookworms?
01 Luna, Phoenix, Queen by Julie Orringer
Dava and her husband Barr were both university professors; she taught English literature, while he taught (and still teaches) fiction writing. But Dava is suffering from early-onset Alzheimer's, and Barr now visits her in a memory-care facility.
Then Barr realizes that the secret writing project Dava worked on for years and carefully hid away was in fact the fantastic heart of a novel--one that also revealed her love for a university colleague and her seeming contempt for Barr.
Barr, a somewhat self-important and now embarrassed spouse, begins to shape Dava's novel--which she has no memory of creating--into a strong story, albeit with a more sympathetic, manly male protagonist and without the passionate sex between the two characters having an affair. Before he knows it, he's passing it off as his own tour de force.
While each spouse's secrets cast shadows across their lives both separate and apart, Barr periodically visits Luna, a horribly burned dog at the shelter, feeling that they can communicate in startling clarity and considering bringing her home for good.
I received a prepublication edition of this novel courtesy of NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
02 Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel: A Miss Marple Mystery by Lucy Foley and Agatha Christie
The fictional Grand Alpine Hotel is located high in the Swiss Alps and can only be accessed by a winding railway. It feels to some like the perfect getaway in 1950, five years following the end of World War II.
So when two nuns, a starlet, a politician and his dutiful wife, a hotheaded friend, a couple of underestimated elderly women, a detail-focused companion, and a hotel full of guests and staff find that a murder has occurred in their midst, everything is thrown into turmoil--and no one can escape it.
Lucy Foley writes in the style of Agatha Christie with this Miss Marple Mystery; she aims to channel the author while inserting elements that are relevant and powerful to modern-day readers.
I'm listening to this novel as an audiobook.
03 The Brightness by Chad Harbach
In this campus-set novel, Harbach explores the messy, tangled lives of best friends Pella and Irma.
Pella is 27 and a recent graduate of Midwestern Westish College. She's engaged to her longtime boyfriend Mike, who seems to have a hard time leaving his party days behind. She's finding some peace after the death of her father, and she's headed to her friend Owen's elaborate wedding weekend.
Irma is in college and is somewhat reluctantly taking part in a politically charged stunt at The Parties that kick off her senior year.
In one weekend, both young women's lives are thrown into disarray, and their futures become anything but certain.
Chad Harbach is also the author of The Art of Fielding.
I received a prepublication audio version of this title courtesy of Hachette Audio and Libro.fm, and I received an electronic version courtesy of NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company.
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