bravery | The Bossy Bookworm

Apr 30

Review of We Must Not Think of Ourselves by Lauren Grodstein

Grodstein tells a poignant, powerful story of the Warsaw Ghetto--of making a life within its prison walls and of finding resistance and...

Apr 24

Review of This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel

ICYMI: Frankel's storyline is powerful, important, and poignant, and the deep love, support, and acceptance within the family in This Is...

Dec 7, 2023

Review of The Winter Soldier by Daniel Mason

ICYMI: The Winter Soldier is a World War I tale full of medical details and lovely, unlikely bonds. This is a five-star read from the...

Feb 9, 2023

Review of Gregor the Overlander (The Underland Chronicles #1) by Suzanne Collins

If you can focus on the good qualities of the prominent (and giant...and talking) creepy-crawlies in this middle-grade novel, you'll find...

Feb 7, 2023

Review of Solito: A Memoir by Javier Zamora

Zamora's memoir of his grueling journey from El Salvador to the United States without family at age nine keeps the reader within each...

Apr 5, 2022

Review of What Happened to the Bennetts by Lisa Scottoline

Scottoline's suspenseful mystery offers surprising depth in exploring grief while the main protagonist takes justice into his own hands...

Feb 11, 2022

Review of Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Andy Weir offers the fascinating story of a desperate space mission, creative innovation, and enduring optimism, with an enormous amount...

Jan 28, 2022

Six Short Story Collections to Wow You

Bossy Short Story Love Some of my fellow readers have told me in the past that they don't gravitate toward short stories, whether because...

Jan 27, 2022

Review of The Last Green Valley by Mark Sullivan

Mark Sullivan explores a gripping, detailed, life-and-death period in the life of an ethnically German family at the end of World War II...

Oct 7, 2021

Review of Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

Doerr's Cloud Cuckoo Land was a complex, heartbreaking, hope-filled, surprising, fascinating read. Forgetting, he is learning, is how the...

Sep 13, 2021

Review of Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig

Haig is vulnerable and specific in his short memoir about his own experiences with mental illness and depression--and he shares the small...

Sep 6, 2021

Review of What Doesn't Kill You by Tessa Miller

Miller outlines many of the frightening, difficult, relentless aspects of coping with a chronic illness. She lays a journalistic view...

Jun 3, 2021

Review of A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor (The Carls #2) by Hank Green

This ending to Green's duology has tremendous heart without ever flirting with sappiness, deep meaning without being pedantic, and it...

May 21, 2021

Review of Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian

There's enough strength, redemption, and beauty amid the World War II suffering to give you warm fuzzies. After recently pulling together...

May 14, 2021

Six Great Historical Fiction Stories about the Civil War

The Civil War Books This painful, terrible time in our nation's history makes for some poignant, brutal, often beautiful storytelling....

May 13, 2021

Review of The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Coates took his time building the story, and I felt as though he deliberately kept us in a plodding pace to emphasize the unwavering,...

Apr 13, 2021

Review of When the Stars Go Dark by Paula McLain

McLain had me hooked on the vivid Northern California setting, imperfect Anna's rich and rocky history--and her messy road toward a...

Apr 6, 2021

Review of What Beauty There Is by Cory Anderson

Cory Anderson's debut is a story about darkness, desperation, unlikely loyalty, and, ultimately, brave young characters in tough spots...

Apr 5, 2021

Review of Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley

Boulley weaves fantastically fluid and frequent details of indigenous tradition into Daunis's everyday life, pivotal moments, and her...

Mar 23, 2021

Review of The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black

In this satisfying final book in the trilogy, Black's characters show darkly funny humor and trade biting remarks, and creatures of all...

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