The Books I'm Reading Now I'm listening to Christopher Buehlman's horrifying medieval-set novel Between Two Fires; I'm reading Sophie Chen Keller's love story to music and the bonds between mothers and sons, Little Wonder; and I'm listening to Sally Hepworth's mystery featuring an octogenarian main protagonist, Mad Mabel. What are you reading, bookworms? 01 Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman It's 1348, and Thomas, formerly a knight but now fallen in with brigands, enco

Book club love! My OG book club has been together in some form for almost twenty years, meeting monthly to talk about life and--particularly if we are split or generally dislike a title--talking about a book, and for a good while I've been lucky enough to (surprise!) be the Bossy Final Decider of the books on our annual book list. I ask for book suggestions from my fellow book clubbers, add my own ideas, make sure early reviews look solid enough for us, establish when an intr

Kline takes what might be a voyeuristic-feeling story of two North Carolina sisters (distant relations of hers) who married the world-famous conjoined twins from Siam, Chang and Eng, and builds a suitably complicated set of dynamics; a layered story of hope, emotion, and tragedy; and enough details of the time to bring it all to life. Here's the truth: even the most extraordinary life feels ordinary when you're living it. In The Foursome, Kline offers the imagined day-to-day

Mason plays with the tone of his newest literary fiction, offering vast rural expanses, claustrophobic woods, childlike wonder, growing paranoia, sudden danger, haunting beasts, and the comfort of everyday familial patterns as a backdrop to characters' struggles to grow, adapt, and, in some cases, reimagine their paths. The world trembled in his nostrils. Some of this was new, and some familiar. Closing his eyes, he took it in, all in, and then he pricked his ears and stared

Cronin's heartwarming, charming novel about nonagenarian Eddie and his new, younger best friend offers hope after grief and loss and the possibility of redemption in second chances. Eddie Winston is a 90-year-old gentleman who has loved but somehow has never been kissed. He spends his days working at a charity shop, a benevolent recipient of others' unwanted items, sometimes garbage-level junk, and, often, beloved items with associations so painful, they must be removed from

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm back from a fanstastic Bossy break at the beach, and I've been reading some great books. I'm reading The Foursome, the newest historical fiction from a favorite author of mine, Christina Baker Kline, which is based on the real story of her distant relatives, in which rural North Carolina sisters marry famous conjoined twins; I'm reading light summer romantic fiction for one of my book clubs, Into the Blue by Emma Brodie, about teenage friends who