- 2 days ago
Six More Four-Star (and Up) Historical Fiction Reads I Loved in the Past Year
Six More Four-Star (and Up) Bossy Historical Fiction Reads Historical fiction is one of my very favorite genres, and I loved my historical fiction reads in 2022. I posted last month about Six Four-Star Historical Fiction Reads I Loved Last Year, but I had six more favorites to share...and here they are! And four historical fiction books were on my overall favorites list for last year: The Last Bookshop in London, Wingwalkers, The Rose Code, and Our Woman in Moscow. You might
- 3 days ago
Review of The Levee by William Kent Krueger
William Kent Krueger's writing is beautiful, and J.D. Jackson reads the audiobook wonderfully, but I felt impatient with the focus on logistics and the bullheaded man who ignored the coming flood and endangered the lives of countless others. In William Kent Krueger's audio novella The Levee, four men in a rowboat struggle to rescue a family trapped by the rising waters of the Mississippi after a storm. The river balloons to 80 feet wide, and three convicts and their leader ar
- 4 days ago
Review of Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
Ann Napolitano's Hello Beautiful explores family bonds, broken connections, forging through pain, allowing for unconventional routes to happiness, and finding forgiveness. William grew up in a family broken by tragedy, the darkness and trauma of which shaped his childhood and overshadowed everything. He is emotionally closed off and only reliant upon himself. When he meets driven, plan-focused Julia in his freshman year of college, she pulls him into her high-spirited, joy-fi
- 5 days ago
Review of Foster by Claire Keegan
Keegan offers a gorgeously wrought Irish story of childhood, hope, love, and loss that is spare, lovely, heartbreaking, and that brought me to tears. “You don’t ever have to say anything," he says. "Always remember that as a thing you need never do. Many’s the man lost much just because he missed a perfect opportunity to say nothing.” In Claire Keegan's slim novel Foster, a young girl in Ireland is taken by her unreliable, frequently drunk gambler of a father to spend the hot
- 6 days ago
Three Books I'm Reading Now, 3/20/23 Edition
The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading Jane Harper's newest Australian-set Aaron Falk mystery, Exiles; I'm listening to a Libro.fm audiobook of The Dream Builders, Oindrila Mukherjee's story of the intersection of old and new India; and I'm reading a prepublication edition of American Mermaid, Julia Langbein's story of an English teacher who moves to Los Angeles to adapt her surprise feminist bestseller into a movie--without losing her integrity or being derailed by mysterious
- Mar 17
Six More Science Fiction Reads I Loved in the Past Year
Six More Great Bossy Science Fiction Reads The Obsessive Wrap-Up of Favorite Reads continues! A while back I posted about Six Four-Star (and Up) Science Fiction Reads I Loved Last Year, and here are six more of my favorite science fiction reads from the past year. I've posted roundups of favorites each Friday in 2023--check them out! And you can click here for My Very Favorite Bossy 2022 Reads. If you've read any of these, I'd love to hear what you think! You can click here f
- Mar 16
Review of The Golden Enclaves (Scholomance #3) by Naomi Novik
The more somber tone of book three and the focus on logistics feel appropriate as the recent graduates of the Scholomance desperately try to save everyone, friends and foes alike. A Deadly Education is the first in Novik's Scholomance series, which begins the story of a magical high school with two routes out: a grueling path to graduation and beyond or, just as likely, death. Danger and darkness lurk around every corner for grumpy, powerful El and her classmates. The second
- Mar 15
Review of Weyward by Emilia Hart
Emilia Hart's debut novel links women in three timelines through blood and a powerful connection to the natural world as they resist male dominance and cruelty in various witchy ways. In Weyward, Emilia Hart's story of witchcraft and the natural world, she explores three timelines of women connected through the ages by power and by society's historical suspicion of strong women. In 1619, Altha is awaiting her trial for the murder of a local farmer, and she'll need to use all
- Mar 14
Review of This Other Eden by Paul Harding
Harding bases his slim historical fiction novel This Other Eden on a real-life, racially integrated island off the coast of Maine, tipping his eccentric characters farther and farther toward tragedy as mainland men motivated by greed aim to destroy the community. Back in 1792, a formerly enslaved man Benjamin Honey and his Irish wife found a safe haven on an island off the coast of Maine. A century later, the Honeys' descendants and their diverse neighbors--some have escaped
- Mar 13
Three Books I'm Reading Now, 3/13/23 Edition
The Books I'm Reading Now I'm listening to William Kent Krueger's historical fiction novella set on the banks of the overflowing Mississippi, The Levee; I'm reading a witchy tale set in 1762 Brittany, The Great Witch of Brittany by Louisa Morgan (author of A Secret History of Witches); and I'm reading the upcoming Hello Beautiful, fiction about trying to overcome past trauma and tragedy by Dear Edward author Ann Napolitano. What are you reading these days, bookworms? 01 The L
- Mar 10
Six More of My Favorite Fiction Reads from the Past Year
Six More Favorite Fiction Reads I listed Six of My Favorite Fiction Reads from Last Year in this Greedy Reading List. In today's post I highlight six more of my favorite fiction reads from last year. I read and loved so many books in the past year, I can't resist more more more roundups of my favorites. At this point you might be asking: Will I spend a whole year of Fridays reliving the glory days of my past year of reading? Well, maybe! I also recently posted about: Six Four
- Mar 9
Review of August Kitko and the Mechas from Space (The Starmetal Symphony #1) by Alex White
White's first Starmetal Symphony installment offers deadly deep-space robots, showcases the power of music, and illustrates how love can persist even in the face of imminent demise. I loved the main characters' fashion, banter, and stubbornness. In the first book in Alex White's Starmetal Symphony space opera series, Gus is a jazz pianist whose biggest hope for the pending end of the world was to play at the most epic goodbye party of all time. After all, the Vanguards, giant
- Mar 8
Review of The Night Ship by Jess Kidd
Kidd's dual-timeline historical fiction, based on actual events, shines in its vivid settings, richly imagined characters, sea voyage details, and magical realism elements. The Night Ship is historical fiction with a magical realism undercurrent that's told in two timelines. I didn't realize up front that this is based upon a true story, and now I'm even more deeply haunted. The Night Ship centers around the dilemmas, conflicts, and discoveries of two characters separated by
- Mar 7
Review of Uprooted by Naomi Novik
ICYMI: Uprooted is a thoughtful, satisfying, grown-up fairy tale with gloriously imagined details. I ate it up and gave it four Bossy stars. Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band
- Mar 6
Three Books I'm Reading Now, 3/6/23 Edition
The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading Inciting Joy, Ross Gay's newest collection of essays about finding and spreading happiness; I'm reading the third in Naomi Novik's dark, wonderful Scholomance series, the fantasy novel The Golden Enclaves; and I'm listening to Weyward, Emilia Hart's debut novel, about witchcraft and strong women linked across three timelines. What are you reading these days, bookworms? 01 Inciting Joy: Essays by Ross Gay In poet and essayist Ross Gay's In
- Mar 3
Six of My Favorite Memoir Reads Last Year
Six Favorite Memoir Reads The Bossy memoir love continues! I've been posting roundups of my favorite reads from last year by genre. I recently posted about Six of My Favorite Fiction Reads Last Year, Six Four-Star Mystery Reads I Loved Last Year, Six More Four-Star Mysteries I Loved Last Year, Six Four-Star Historical Fiction Reads I Loved Last Year, and Six Four-Star (And Up) Science Fiction Reads I Loved Last Year. You can check out My Very Favorite Bossy 2022 Reads for my
- Mar 2
Review of Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
ICYMI: This five-star retelling of the story of Rumpelstiltskin offers kickass female protagonists, haunting twists and turns, wonderful, signature Novik oddities, and unexpected heart. I'm getting ready to begin reading the third installment in Naomi Novik's Scholomance series and I realized I haven't posted a stand-alone review of some of Novik's other standout fantasy novels, including this Bossy five-star read. In Spinning Silver, Miryem comes from a family of moneylender
- Mar 1
Review of I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai
Makkai's boarding school-set mystery offers depth as it exposes age-old power mismatches; offers young characters agency; explores systemic violence against women; and serves up true-crime fascination while its middle-aged protagonist makes mistakes, seeks justice, and fights for closure. I listened to the audiobook of Rebecca Makkai's I Have Some Questions for You, wonderfully narrated by Julia Whelan and JD Jackson. Bodie Kane is a professor and podcaster, and she has left