May Wrap-Up: My Favorite Reads of the Month
- The Bossy Bookworm
- May 29
- 7 min read
Bossy Favorites of the Month
I had a great reading month! Here are my six favorite reads of May. There's some overlap with my overall favorite reads of the spring; you can find that post of ten books here.
Have you read any of these titles? What were some of your favorite reads this month?
01 Wolvers by Taylor Brown
Taylor Brown offers up a suspenseful, adventure-filled story in Wolvers. Trace is an angry young man who sets out on an ill-advised, illegal revenge journey, but he's not the only wolf tracker in the New Mexico forest. He's starting to rethink his mission and be headed toward a fresh start--if he can survive that long.
Trace Temple is a disillusioned, angry young man whose family lost its ranch after hard times. Then Trace, a gifted tracker who knows the woods better than almost anyone around, is hired by a shadowy, powerful militia group to take out One-Eleven, the female leader of the most famous wolf pack in New Mexico, the Dark Canyons.
But One-Eleven is uncannily gifted in eluding human pursuit, and Trace is far from the only outdoorsman in these woods.
And the longer Trace tracks One-Eleven, the more he begins to second-guess everything about his life.
This is an outdoor adventure story that explores tensions between the preservation of nature and development, and between power and vulnerability. But it’s also layered with elements of redemption, love, unlikely loyalties, and character growth.
I'm a huge Taylor Brown fan.
Check out my Bossy reviews of his novels Rednecks, Wingwalkers, The Gods of Howl Mountain, and Fallen Land, a title I loved and included in the Greedy Reading List Six Great Historical Fiction Stories about the Civil War.
Click here for my full review of Wolvers.
02 The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett
The Help author's 656-page Depression-set historical fiction tackles issues of poverty, body autonomy, women's rights, race, and more within two timelines featuring spirited, determined, underestimated females who prove how strong they are.
In Kathryn Stockett's newest novel--her first since her debut 17 years ago--we dive into dual, linked storylines. It's 1933, the peak of the Great Depression, and in Mississippi, everyone is struggling.
We meet two main protagonists: independent young adult Birdie, who travels from her rural hometown to Oxford to beg her socialite, newly married sister for financial assistance for the family; and young Meg, who suffers cruelty in an orphanage after the disappearance and abandonment of her beloved mother. Both are spirited, smart, sassy, and full of personality.
The story is long enough to meander at times; we drift in and out of Birdie's and Meg's lives without hurry, spending some days in which little occurs but scene-setting and a building of the story's tone, all of which I enjoyed. But by the time key matters are resolved, after so much page time, the resolutions feel somewhat abrupt.
I received a prepublication version of this title courtesy of NetGalley and Spiegel & Grau.
For my full review of this book please see The Calamity Club.
03 London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family's Search for Truth by Patrick Radden Keefe
Patrick Radden Keefe took a subject I wasn't initially captivated by and crafted another work of his signature masterful narrative nonfiction. He hooked me with details, then astounded me with the order he was able to impose upon the chaos of secrets, lies, and the still-unknown elements of the story.
London Falling is about the disappearance of a young man, Zac. Zac’s dogged parents won’t give up on finding out the truth of what happened to their son, and when the reactions from London police feel disappointing and lackluster, Zac’s parents approach the media directly. Then Patrick Radden Keefe crafts this nonfiction work that reads like a novel.
The book delves into Zac's astounding, long-held personal secrets; into the implications of the increased presence and power of Russian oligarchs in London; into the pressures and alternate universe of high society and extreme wealth; and into the many sinister tendrils crisscrossing the city’s dark underbelly.
As he always seems to do, Patrick Radden Keefe takes a complex, tangled situation and shapes it into intriguing narrative nonfiction that you can latch onto. There are so many branches of this story, and so many complicated implications of the main players’ actions, lies, and secrets, I can’t imagine anyone but Patrick Radden Keefe successfully imposing this much order on so much chaos and so many unknowns.
There are mysteries at the center of the story, but for me this was a captivating, atmospheric dive into the pressures, pain, and hope within extreme isolation, the power of external forces, and the push to protect each other at all costs. I was intrigued throughout.
Patrick Radden Keefe is also the author of the powerful Empire of Pain and Say Nothing, one of my favorite nonfiction books.
For my full review, please check out this link.
04 Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
The premise, structure, and dark humor of this buzzy spring novel were so intriguing that although I was left a little unsatisfied by the ending and resolution, I was so hooked on the story to that point, it didn't ultimately matter.
Natalie is a fundamentalist Christian who subscribes to male-dominated power structures and “traditional” values. When she is quite young and naïve, she marries the son of a powerful senator. They marry, benefit from his family's wealth and influence in every way, and begin to have children within their privileged bubble of existence.
Eventually Natalie delves so far into trying to achieve (an appearance of) perfection in homemaking and parenting, she becomes a "tradwife" influencer with 8 million followers.
We can see that Natalie believes she is as flawless as her painstakingly curated posts would have others think she is, but we can also see the cracks in her façade. She is smug, self-righteous, and insufferable, and she glosses over anything that doesn't fit the narrative she has created and the fictional perfectionism within which she lives.
Then one day, Natalie wakes up panicked, without her perfectly showcased, support-staff-driven, manicured, and merchandised modern farmhouse. She is living in a true homestead version of her life: she is without electricity, indoor plumbing, heat or air conditioning, or running water. It's terrifying for her, and no one will explain to her what’s going on or where (or when) she is living.
While the ending and explanation of the reality of events didn’t land for me, I thought the premise, the structure, the tone, and the story were so intriguing, I didn't ultimately mind.
I received a prepublication version of this title courtesy of Knopf and NetGalley.
Yesteryear is Caro Claire Burke's debut novel. Please click here for my full review of Yesteryear.
05 All in Her Hands (Nora Beady #3) by Audrey Blake
I love historical fiction about female physicians before this was common; Nora Gibson is a willful, clever woman fighting against prejudice in 1849 London and aiming for better healthcare for women--until cases of cholera emerge and all rules must be reimagined. Blake includes wonderful scientific detail and details of life in that time.
I love how Blake shapes a story in which privileged education comes up against gritty, real-world life experience, and I love how she works in the gaps in knowledge as well as the leaps and bounds that were taking place in science in that era.
Blake also weaves in issues around body autonomy, pregnancy challenges, and societal and professional issues for women who might become mothers.
This is the third book in a series, but it works beautifully as a stand-alone read. I had no idea there were prior books until I finished; this is seamless and fascinating.
I listened to All in Her Hands as an audiobook courtesy of Libro.fm and Recorded Books, Inc. For my full review, please see All in Her Hands.
You might also like these novels that include female physicians.
06 Lady Tremaine by Rachel Hochhauser
This loose retelling of the Cinderella folk story offers the perspective of the "evil" stepmother, who is here actually a savvy, strong woman determined to provide for her household after being widowed in a patriarchal, 1700s-feeling society. I loved Hochhauser's turning the traditional tale on its head, the details, and the twists.
This is my favorite read of the spring so far.
Lady Tremaine is a loose retelling of the damsel-in-distress Cinderella folk tale, here from the perspective of the "evil" stepmother--who is shown to actually be a strong, determined, clever widow stuck in an era where men hold all of the property, power, and freedom.
Lady Tremaine is single-minded about protecting her daughters and trying to secure futures for them in a world where the safety and security of unmarried women is shaky.
A royal ball opens up the opportunity for Lady Tremaine to use the respectability of her deceased husband's title to secure invitations for her daughters (who are not, after all, shallow and greedy horrors of young women, as in the Disney story) and her standoffish but beautiful stepdaughter Elin. Elin is this novel’s version of Cinderella, and here she is a mostly insufferable girl, gloriously and willfully obtuse, dedicated to needlework and pious prayers while the rest of the househould is scrambling, hustling, and exhausting themselves to make ends meet.
There’s some gritty business, there are difficult choices, and there's a surprising shift of loyalties I loved. I adored the details of the late-1700s-feeling setting; the exploration of women’s struggles to carve out lives for themselves in a patriarchal society; and the creativity, strength, and resolve necessary to survive.
The story would have stood on its own for me, but the references to the Cinderella story were a fun added bonus.
I received a prepublication edition of Lady Tremaine courtesy of NetGalley and St. Martin's Press.
Click here for my full review of Lady Tremaine. You might also be interested in Bossy reviews of other retellings.
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