- Oct 31, 2022
Three Books I'm Reading Now, 10/31/22 Edition
The Books I'm Reading Now Happy Halloween, bookworms! I'm reading The Marriage Portrait, Maggie O'Farrell's newest historical fiction, about a young duchess in Renaissance Italy; I'm listening to Nora Goes Off Script, Annabel Monaghan's light fiction about a divorced scriptwriter and mom who starts a relationship with a bona fide movie star; and I'm reading Kate Manning's Gilded Mountain (to be published tomorrow), historical fiction about a strong young woman and her mining
- Oct 28, 2022
October Wrap-Up: My Favorite Reads of the Month
My very favorite October reads! Here are my six favorite reads of the past month: a bitingly funny, poignant book of essays; a candid memoir of abuse and inner strength; two fascinating historical fiction stories; an unorthodox friendship story about the meaning of life; and nonfiction about how to do the right thing by the creator of The Good Place. If you've read any of these, I'd love to hear what you think! And I'd also love to hear: what are some of your recent favorite
- Oct 27, 2022
Review of Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
Marcellus the octopus is the very deserving star of the show here, and being able to predict much of where the story was headed didn't affect my enjoyment of this big-hearted tale. Shelby Van Pelt's Remarkably Bright Creatures centers around a widow who makes an unlikely friend. After Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the night shift at her local aquarium as a custodian. She's always felt that keeping busy helps her cope--she tried the same approach when her son
- Oct 26, 2022
Review of How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question by Michael Schur
Filled with sometimes playful, often weighty questions, scenarios, and ideas, How to Be Perfect makes considering ethics and morality fun, and Michael Schur's tone is self-deprecating and thoughtful. The best thing about Aristotle’s “constant learning, constant trying, constant searching” is what results from it: a mature yet still pliable person, brimming with experiences both old and new, who doesn’t rely solely on familiar routines or dated information about how the world
- Oct 25, 2022
Review of The Fire and the Ore by Olivia Hawker
Hawker offers irresistible details of daily life and historical elements that add vivid layers to this story of Utah Territory, Mormonism, and strong women in the mid-nineteenth century. If she still felt any shame, then shame was a distant thing. It was hung far above, among the stars, and Tamar had no use for it now. In The Fire and the Ore by Olivia Hawker, the author tells a tale of the interconnected lives of three women in Utah Territory in 1857 and of the burgeoning Mo
- Oct 24, 2022
Three Books I'm Reading Now, 10/24/22 Edition
The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading A Restless Truth, the second book in Freya Marske's historical fiction fantasy mystery duology; I'm reading Remarkably Bright Creatures, Shelby Van Pelt's novel about a widow's unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus; and I'm listening to How to Be Perfect by Michael Schur (creator of The Good Place), nonfiction that explores how to be a "good" human being and what duty to our fellow persons might look like in various situations.
- Oct 21, 2022
Six Spooky, Gothic Tales
The Gothic Undercurrents It's the perfect time of year to read some spooky, dark, gothic tales. Desolate settings, mysterious deaths, darkness, hauntings--Halloween, here we come! Here are six stories with gothic undercurrents that I really liked. What are some of your favorite spooky or gothic reads? 01 Fingersmith by Sarah Waters In this gothic Victorian tale, Waters offers a slow build to heartbreak, twists and double twists, hesitant attempts at love, and, finally, clarit
- Oct 20, 2022
Review of The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston
This romantic light fiction story includes sibling conflicts, loss, betrayal, a love that seems impossible...and a ghostwriter who's literally haunted by ghosts. In Ashley Poston's The Dead Romantics, Florence Day is a ghostwriter for a famous reclusive romance writer. But she's gone through a breakup because of her partner's betrayal, and she's having a hard time getting her mojo back to write about flowery love and happy endings. She's starting to think that her handsome ne
- Oct 19, 2022
Review of Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese
Hester is richly imagined historical fiction with connections to themes and characters from The Scarlet Letter. It's magical and intriguing, and I loved it. They say witch, but what do they mean?... Witch is a reason to kill you; witch might be someone to heal you; witch can be the Devil, or witch can be a woman so beautiful she makes you lose your sense. They've got so many ways of calling you a witch, they just change it to how it suits them. In Hester: A Novel, Laurie Lico
- Oct 18, 2022
Review of Happy-Go-Lucky by David Sedaris
In and among Sedaris's oddball, incisive, skewering observations are poignant, funny, heartfelt, complicated moments from his personal life that add heart to the dark humor in this collection of essays. I like to listen to my David Sedaris books, and I listened to his newest, Happy-Go-Lucky--his first book of new essays since Calypso--as an audiobook as well. Here, Sedaris shares offbeat moments from living in Paris and Sussex, reflects on living in New York City during the h
- Oct 17, 2022
Three Books I'm Reading Now, 10/17/22 Edition
The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading Horse, the newest historical fiction novel by Geraldine Brooks; I'm listening to Happy-Go-Lucky, the newest book of essays from the oddball, poignant, darkly funny David Sedaris; and I'm reading The Dead Romantics, Ashley Poston's adult debut about a romance ghostwriter who is haunted by ghosts as she copes with loss and tries to open her heart again. What are you reading these days, bookworms? 01 Horse by Geraldine Brooks In Geraldine Br
- Oct 14, 2022
Six Historical Fiction Backlist Favorites
Historical Fiction Story Love If you're into historical fiction, you might also like to take a look at the books I listed on the Greedy Reading Lists Six Great Historical Fiction Stories Set in the American West, Six Historical Fiction Favorites, Six Historical Fiction Mysteries Sure to Intrigue You, and Six Great Historical Fiction Stories about the Civil War. You can also search by category under the Bossy Book Reviews menu to find other historical fiction books I've liked
- Oct 13, 2022
Review of The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
ICYMI: I loved being along for the ride with Moyes's five strong women characters as they traveled through the wilds of Kentucky in Depression-era America bearing the magic of books. There is always a way out of a situation. Might be ugly. Might leave you feeling like the earth had gone and shifted under your feet. But there is always a way around. In Jojo Moyes's The Giver of Stars, it's Depression-era America, and a call has gone out for librarians who can deliver books for
- Oct 12, 2022
Review of In the Serpent's Wake (Tess of the Road #2) by Rachel Hartman
I wished for more of a focus on the character of Tess and her personal story--and less on political strategies, power plays, and the many other broad issues Hartman explores over the course of this almost-500-page sequel to Tess of the Road. In Rachel Hartman's Tess of the Road, we followed irresistible, hardheaded, wonderfully faulted Tess as she broke from rigid medieval gender roles in favor of adventure and discovery. That book was captivating, sometimes weighty, and ofte
- Oct 11, 2022
Review of I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
Former child actress McCurdy's account of her mother's narcissistic, harmful, abusive behavior and how it has shaped the author's life is disturbing, yet McCurdy's tone is wry and appealing in its brutal honesty. I had her up on a pedestal.... That pedestal kept me stuck, emotionally stunted, living in fear, dependent, in a near constant state of emotional pain and without the tools to even identify that pain, let alone deal with it. My mom didn't deserve her pedestal. She wa
- Oct 10, 2022
Three Books I'm Reading Now, 10/10/22 Edition
The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading The Fire and the Ore, the newest historical fiction novel (to be published tomorrow!) from Olivia Hawker; I'm listening to I'm Glad My Mom Died, the memoir from actress Jennette McCurdy about being raised by a manipulative, emotionally unstable mother; and I'm reading The Other Side of Night (also to be published tomorrow!), Adam Hamdy's twisty mystery about interconnected characters. What are you reading these days, bookworms? 01 The Fir
- Oct 7, 2022
Six More Wonderfully Witchy Stories to Charm You
Witchy Book Love It's the perfect time of year to read a spooky book full of magic! If you haven't already, I hope you'll check out the books on the Greedy Reading List Six Wonderfully Witchy Stories to Charm You. Because I love a witchy book, I'm back with more more more witchy titles here, and I'm working on a third list. What are your favorite witchy stories? 01 Hour of the Witch by Chris Bohjalian Hour of the Witch is a thoroughly researched, witchy, historical thriller w
- Oct 6, 2022
Review of Harrow the Ninth (Locked Tomb #2) by Tamsyn Muir
Harrow the Ninth, the sequel to Tamsyn Muir's Gideon the Ninth, is a complex, fascinating, gruesome story full of action and shifts in reality as well as endless bad language, wicked barbs, and dark-as-night humor. At the start of Harrow the Ninth, Harrowhark Nonagesimus, the last necromancer of the Ninth House, wakes disoriented and without her full powers on the Emperor's space station. She's haunted by a beautiful apparition she begins to think of as The Body, and to her s
- Oct 5, 2022
Review of A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk and Robot #1) by Becky Chambers
Chambers's slim book explores a man's search for meaning--and how a robot's simple questions about maintaining the status quo might open up a world of new possibilities. You keep asking why your work is not enough, and I don’t know how to answer that, because it is enough to exist in the world and marvel at it. You don’t need to justify that, or earn it. You are allowed to just live. That is all most animals do. The robots vanished from Panga centuries ago, and accounts of a
- Oct 4, 2022
Review of The Frederick Sisters Are Living the Dream by Jeannie Zusy
Zusy's Frederick sisters navigate a complicated, stressful situation and drastic changes with plenty of mistakes, forgiveness, and persistent love that sees them through. When Maggie gets a call that her older sister Ginny--diabetic but a sugar lover, with intellectual disabilities--needs more help than she's getting living on her own, she brings Ginny and her occasionally vicious dog to live nearby in upstate New York. But Maggie already has a maxed-out life: she's separated