More anticipation...

Life has gotten in the way of falling into a book over the last couple of weeks, but fortunately (or frustratingly?) the TBR list keeps growing!  The first one seems especially irresistible, and though I've only read one or two of her novels, I'm also interested in Willa Cather through her connections with other authors. And I love reading literary letters.

'The Astor Orphan by Alexandra Aldrich (Ecco) - In a sparklingly mischievous debut, Aldrich peers into the intimate collapse of a once great Hudson River house—the “funny farm” of her Astor/Livingston/Chanler relatives. Spiraling way down from a long line of enterprising early Americans, financiers, socialites, and artists with illustriously entangled names, author Aldrich, whose great-grandfather was the famous music critic Richard Aldrich, reconstructs her early years growing up at the ancestral homestead of Rokeby, a 43-room mansion.'

'The Selected Letters of Willa Cather edited by Andrew Jewell and Janis Stout (Knopf) - By all rights, this excellent volume of Willa Cather’s letters should not be: in her will, the celebrated American writer specified that none of her correspondence was to be published, ever. Fortunately for general readers and scholars alike, that demand has not been heeded. The letters in this collection have been gathered from the 3,000 that survive in nearly 75 archives across the country.'

{Synopses from Publishers Weekly.}