October Wrap-Up: My Favorite Reads of the Month
Bossy Favorites of the Month
I hope you've had a great reading month as we head into Cozy Reading Season.
I present to you: my six Bossy favorite reads of October, which range from historical fiction centered around an Irish folk heroine; historical fiction based on a little-known medieval woman; a heartwarming story about an obituary writer; a haunting, thought-provoking novel told from an unsympathetic point of view; a darkly funny story about a man with dementia and his planned assisted suicide; and a solid mystery from a favorite author.
Have you read any of these titles? What were some of your favorite reads this month?
01 The Pirate Queen by Ariel Lawhon
I was completely hooked on the imagined details of the life of Irish folk heroine and female pirate Grace O'Malley. I ultimately loved the novel's unusual structure, which tracked back and forth in time and revealed more about the strong female protagonist at each turn.
I fell hard for this slam dunk of a premise: A novel about a female pirate based on the life of Grace O’Malley, an Irish folk heroine who was legendarily willing to risk everything for her people. Yes, yes, and yes.
Lawhon frequently tracks back and forth through time, orienting the reader at the start of each chapter with a "Maiden," "Mother," or "Matriarch" header, the year the chapter's events took place, and Grace's age during that period. I would have imagined that this structure would have been jarring and potentially difficult to dive into, but after the first few sections I was fascinated by finding out pieces of the Grace O'Malley puzzle as Lawson filled in details, context, and increased the reader's understanding of Grace's motivations, impulses, and convictions.
The tone felt perfect to me for the imagined, detailed story of a strong woman who inspired folk devotion, and I loved reading the book.
Ariel Lawhon is also the author of The Frozen River. Her novel Code Name Helène wasn't for me; I didn't finish that one.
Check out these links for more Bossy reads about strong women, female pirates, or ocean voyages.
For my full Bossy review, please check out The Pirate Queen.
02 Royal Witch (Plantaganet and Tudor #1) by Philippa Gregory
The historical fiction-writing gift that is Philippa Gregory entertwines the richly imagined stories of three women in fifteenth century England, offering unapologetic ambition, genius manipulation, revenge plots, dark arts, and drastic comeuppances in this fascinating novel.
It's 1420 and Eleanor Cobham (a real figure, about whom little is known), in a terrific initial scene, willfully misunderstands her dying mother's last wish for her, rejecting the nunnery and heading to the royal court.
She arrives at the court of Henry V hoping to simply marry well despite her common upbringing and lack of dowry. But working in a countess's household, Eleanor learns how to efficiently bend a man to a woman's will, how to manage men's outsized egos, and how to wield power without seeming to pull the strings.
Philippa Gregory builds a richly imagined proposed story for Eleanor, although little is known of Eleanor's actual life details.
Eleanor is unapologetically ambitious, cutthroat, and conniving. She is largely unsympathetic, yet I found myself rooting for a woman to outsmart all of the men who underestimated and aimed to control her. Gregory doesn't force a redemption arc for the singleminded, relentless, ruthless Eleanor, yet after a horror of a reckoning toward the end of the book, she eventually demonstrates valuable reflection that seems plausible.
I received a prepublication audiobook of this title courtesy of Libro.fm and William Morrow. The audiobook was fantastic.
For my full review of this book please see Royal Witch.
03 I See You've Called in Dead by John Kenney
I was charmed by John Kenney's darkly funny, thoughtful novel about an obituary writer hitting rock bottom and reflecting on mortality, leaning on his friends, and finding unorthodox ways to embrace the messiness and wonder of life again.
Awkard, endearing Bud Stanley is an obituary writer who's going through some things. He's gone downhill since his wife divorced him for her prior boyfriend, and now he's all but given up on love; his last blind date involved a woman who brought along her ex and explained that they were back together and she couldn't stay.
I See You've Called in Dead teetered just on the edge of too jokey for me, but Kenney skillfully pulled back from taking it too far by keeping a dark edge to his humor and mixing grief, the sobering reality of facing mortality, and bursts of laughter in one realistically messy and irresistible character arc for Bud. The dialogue is fantastic, and I repeatedly laughed out loud.
I was charmed by this novel. I've been thinking about this story with great affection and considering all the people to whom I'll recommend it.
I listened to an audiobook version of this title through Libby and my public library.
John Kenney is also the author of Truth in Advertising, Talk to Me, Love Poems for People with Children, Love Poems for the Office, Love Poems for Anxious People, and Love Poems for Married People. He is a longtime contributor to The New Yorker magazine’s Shouts & Murmurs section.
If you're interested in more Bossy reads that are darkly funny, check out these books. And for Bossy reads that explore issues around mortality, please check out these titles and book lists.
For my full review, please check out this link.
04 Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix
This slim (122-page) novel builds from a real-life tragedy to a deep, disturbing, fascinating exploration of morality, responsibility, chance, circumstances of birth, and judgment and empathy. I was intrigued by the unsympathetic narrator as well as the thought-provoking, unflinching, pointed questions directed at the reader.
In 2021, an inflatable boat carrying migrants from France to the United Kingdom capsized in the English Channel, and all but two of the 29 people on board died.
The vessel contacted French authorities with desperate pleas for help. They were told they were in British waters and must ask the UK for help--but that was untrue.
Small Boat is told from the fictionalized point of view of the French navy officer who refused the passengers' pleas for help.
In undulating, haunting turns of events, Delecroix forces the reader into the incredibly unsympathetic point of view of the faulted naval officer. Without redeeming her, Delecroix poses uncomfortable questions to the reader about their own culpability, their own empathy's limits, and their own likely willingness to step in and take desperate measures.
I found this disturbing and absolutely fascinating.
Explore these links for more Bossy reads around refugees, morality, and more short books that pack a punch.
Please click here for my full review of this title.
05 Switzy by Emma Cline
Cline crafts a poignant, darkly funny, and uncomfortably, beautifully spot-on-feeling novel about a man with dementia as the clock runs out. He increasingly loses his grasp on the facts but urgently reconnects with pivotal figures from his past and considers his rapidly unraveling, impenetrable reality while revealing to the reader powerful, universal truths.
David is on a private plane headed for Switzerland. His assistant Cody has all of the details in hand for the retired executive who is traveling to his final stop.
David's perspective makes clear that he is having trouble tracking details, recalling past events, and piecing together the entirety of his situation, and that he is headed to Switzerland with a plan to die before he is unable to make that decision due to dementia.
The poignant premise is also darkly funny at times, often absurd, and frequently breathtakingly, messily unfiltered, alternating between rude, sly, touching, heartbreaking, and silly.
I'm fascinated by books that explore mortality--see the link below for more Bossy reads in this vein--and I found Switzy powerful and irresistible.
I received a prepublication audio version of this title courtesy of NetGalley and Random House. I also received a copy of this book through my monthly Books Are Magic subscription.
Emma Cline is also the author of The Girls (a book I rated with four Bossy stars when I read it ten years ago, before this blog existed) and The Guest.
You might also want to check out these Bossy reads that center around mortality.
For my full review, please see Switzy.
06 Secrets We Hide (North Falls #2) by Karin Slaughter
The Secrets We Hide offers what is for me the perfect blend of character development, layered interpersonal issues, and mystery twists and turns that never feel convoluted, plus other favorite Bossy elements: a small-town setting, a family legacy of police work, and a condensed, healthily paced timeline from the story's beginning to end. I was hooked on this novel.
I love a story driven by a female investigator main protagonist, and in book one of this small-town mystery series, We Are All Guilty Here, officer Emmy Clifton came into her own. The situation at hand quickly became dark and twisted, and Slaughter built tension without red herrings or manipulation.
In book two, now-Sheriff Emmy and her sister, ex-federal agent Jude Archer, respond to gunshots nearby and find a tragedy: local former cop Allison Vickery has been shot dead in her kitchen, and Allison's daughter has been shot and left for dead upstairs.
I was hooked on this story. Slaughter offers her signature layered mystery, buoyed by character depth and interpersonal complications. This is the perfect mix of character development and personal lives and non-manipulative mystery twists.
I listened to this novel as an audiobook through Libby and my public library.
The first title in the North Falls series is We Are All Guilty Here.
Please also check out these other Bossy mystery reviews and book lists.
For my full review, please check out Secrets We Hide.
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