The Books I'm Reading Now I'm listening to the first in Hafsah Faizal's Blood and Tea series, A Tempest of Tea , in which our main protagonist runs a tea room by day and a vampires' bloodhouse by night--until her livelihood and power are threatened by dark forces; I'm reading Peter Heller's upcoming wilderness adventure, Burn , which is set in Maine against a destructive attempt at secession; and I'm reading Tell Me Everything , Elizabeth Strout's upcoming novel (also set in Maine!) in which a terrible crime brings together beloved Strout characters Lucy Barton, Bob Burgess, and even Olive Kitteridge. What are you reading these days, bookworms? 01 Burn by Peter Heller Jess and Storey are childhood friends who spend their summer adventures exploring striking, remote areas of the U.S. This summer they head to Maine to camp, fish, and hike. Maine, like other states across the country, has been swept by a secession movement, but Jess and Storey assume the conflicts and political upheaval won't touch them out in the wild, and they figure that the charged friction might even die down while they're in the woods. After weeks in the wild, they're shocked to come upon a town that's been blown apart. The bridge has burned, cars along the road are black and smoking, and shells of buildings teeter. The friends soon realize that conflicting political ideologies have led to this horror here and elsewhere in the country--and that they must use their wilderness expertise and dodge armed men (militia or U.S. military; they're unsure) in order to make it out to safety. I'm reading Burn courtesy of Knopf and NetGalley. Heller is also the author of The Last Ranger , The Guide , The River , and The Painter , as well as the stellar novel The Dog Stars . 02 Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout In small town Crosby, Maine, acclaimed writer Lucy Barton and attorney Bob Burgess walk and talk about everything under the sun--their pasts, their missteps, what they wonder about, and their dreams. Bob is defending a man accused of a terrible crime: killing his mother. He and Lucy explore the complexities of a life, revealing more and more about their own inner selves. The story includes a cameo by Olive Kitteridge! I'm reading Tell Me Everything courtesy of Random House and NetGalley. Click here to check out my reviews of Strout's Lucy by the Sea , Anything Is Possible , Olive, Again , My Name Is Lucy Barton , and Oh William!  Elizabeth Strout is also the author of Olive Kitteridge . 03 A Tempest of Tea: Blood and Tea #1 by Hafsah Faizal In the first book of Hafsah Faizal's Blood and Tea series, A Tempest of Tea , Arthie Casimir collects secrets--and by doing so, amasses enough power to become a criminal mastermind, exerting her influence within the city's dark underbelly. Her exclusive tea room becomes a posh hangout for vampires each night, but when her bloodhouse is threatened, she must work with one of her enemies in order to protect her livelihood and power. She helps plot to infiltrate the Athereum, an exclusive vampire society, but complex, dark conspiracies threaten to upend all of her plans, endangering Arthie and everyone aligned with her. I'm listening to A Tempest of Tea as an audiobook. Hafsah Faizal is also the author of We Hunt the Flame .

Lighter Fiction Set in Show Biz I love a peek behind the scenes, and each of the novels here provides a fictionalized version of a movie or TV backdrop for the romance at its center. Whether the stories explore reconciling one's body image, making nice with a costar nemesis, adapting to the shock of a media whirlwind, or another set of complications, each of these novels captivates with its plausible look inside a secret, "glamorous" world--and often a far-from-perfect reality--that's foreign to most of us. Have you read any of these books? Have you read other novels with a TV, movie, or other media backdrop? 01 Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld Sittenfeld's funny and sweet take on an unlikely romance sparked by a longtime SNL -type weekly skit show immediately had me hooked, never felt too easy, and charmed me throughout. I love Curtis Sittenfeld's books, and in Romantic Comedy she offers an outstanding premise: Sally Milz is a sketch writer for a late-night comedy show, and she's sworn off love. That is, until she pokes fun at her fellow writer in a sketch about talented but average-looking men dating gorgeous women...and then gorgeous pop sensation and serial model-dater Noah Brewster hosts the show and turns his attentions on Sally. I was delighted to find that much of the book is focused on the behind-the-scenes making of the SNL -like Saturday night sketch comedy show in the book, The Night Owls , and I was fascinated by this aspect. Romantic Comedy offers lots of funny, funny dialogue that delighted me. This was the right book at the right time for me, and I loved everything about it. Sittenfeld is also the author of American Wife , You Think It, I'll Say It , Prep , Rodham , and Eligible . Click here   for my full review of Romantic Comedy . 02 The Villain Edit by Laurie Devore Laurie Devore's novel goes behind the scenes of a reality dating show, complete with sordid details, manipulation, and manufactured moments, all serving as a backdrop to a fearless contestant's creeping toward destruction--and her struggle to figure out if the love she feels is real. Jac Matthis is a romance novelist whose first book tanked (the main protagonist chose her career over a man, enraging readers who'd been counting on a different happy ever after), leaving little audience for her second published book and nonexistent demand for a third. In an attempt to boost her exposure and thereby resuscitate her writing career, the frank and cynical, unapologetically brutally honest, casual-sex fan Jac is set to appear as a contestant on a Bachelor -type reality TV show in which the ultimate goal is a proposal and marriage. After one last fling, Jac reports to the set--only to find out that her one-night stand is a producer on the show who had been absent during her auditions. Complications abound as the eligible TV bachelor seems to be falling for Jac, she makes enemies of multiple fellow contestants, she struggles with the staged and manipulated nature of every moment--and she realizes that she's being painted as the villain of the show. I found it fairly challenging to connect with Jac. For me, her pretending was frequently difficult to parse from what was real. Yet the cutthroat, often chilling behind-the-scenes dating-show dynamics and logistics seemed plausible and were horrifyingly fascinating. Devore offers a version of happy ever after, and of revenge, that was fun to watch take shape. For my full review, please see The Villain Edit . Laurie Devore is also the author of A Better Bad Idea, Winner Take All , and  How to Break a Boy . 03 Will They or Won't They by Ava Wilder Ava Wilder's rom-com takes us behind the scenes of a hit teen TV show whose lead characters once liked each other in real life but now can't stand each other. This was funny, sweet, steamy, and poignant--a fantastic summer light-fiction read that I loved. Lilah Hunter and Shane McCarthy are the stars of the popular paranormal television show Intangible , and for multiple seasons they've yearned for each other on screen, but their characters have never gotten together. Lilah has dreams of directing and of breaking into movies, but she's back for the sixth and final season of the show, in which her character and Shane's will finally get together. But in real life, Shane and Lilah detest each other. Their secret tryst at the end of season one ended badly, and they've been far from friendly ever since. I LOVED this. The premise sounded like a slam dunk for me, and the reality of the book was a funny, poignant, banter-filled, behind-the-scenes, realistically complicated, wonderful story. There's a ton of steaminess as Lilah and Shane at times can't deny their attraction and act upon it. I smiled a lot, I teared up, and I loved this romantic read! For my full review of this book, check out Will They or Won't They. 04 Better Than the Movies by Lynn Painter I LOVED this young adult book. It's perfectly charming, funny, quirky, and sweet, yet it deals with grief and fear, hope and forgiveness, being true to oneself and growing up, and of course love. Lynn Painter's adorable young adult rom-com Better Than the Movies is about Liz Buxbaum, a fabulously eccentric high schooler coping with the grief of having lost her mom--while navigating the sparkly idea--and messy reality--of romance, with the inspiration of her mom's favorite romantic comedies. Liz is a hopeless romantic who has been waiting her whole high school career to be swept off her feet in quintessential romantic-comedy fashion--with the perfect soundtrack playing in the background. But it looks like she may have to rely on her annoying next-door neighbor Wes to try to gain the attention of dreamy Michael with the perfect hair, who has just moved back to town. Better Than the Movies  is funny funny funny and so lovely and sweet, I adored the whole story, the characters, the growth, the banter, the heartbreaking, heartwarming growth, the fun--this is basically a perfect young adult romantic comedy. For my full review of this book, please see Better Than the Movies . 05 The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren The True Love Experiment is a wonderful, romantic read about forbidden attraction and heartwarming vulnerability, with steamy scenes, will-they/won't-they tensions, funny dialogue, behind-the-scenes televised moments, and loooooooove. I loved T he Soulmate Equation  from the writing team known as Christina Lauren. That book introduced the fantastic best-friend character of Felicity "Fizzy" Chen. The True Love Experiment is Fizzy's story. Fizzy is a straight talker, a sex-positive woman, and a successful romance writer, but she's never been in love, only in lust. Now she's beginning to feel like she's been selling her readers a lie. Connor Prince ( his last name is Prince! ) is a single dad and documentary filmmaker slated by his boss to create a reality TV program about finding love. He's completely out of his comfort zone and the pressure is on--but when he meets Fizzy, he just knows he's found the perfect star for the show. The True Love Experiment  is an irresistible exploration of a spark of feelings, impossible difficulties, terrifying vulnerability, and hard-won joy. The issues keeping the two love interests apart felt powerful and heartbreaking and offered tantalizing tension to the story. The happy ending made me tear up and also made me want to cheer. I loved this. For my full review, check out The True Love Experiment . 06 One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London One to Watch  is engrossing escapism into a world of reality TV, romantic possibilities, and luxurious fashion, where things don't always go according to plan. In Kate Stayman-London's One to Watch , Bea Schumacher is a popular plus-size fashion blogger who has Instagram fame, wonderful friends--and an unhealthy obsession with a male friend who's attached to someone else. After she drunk-blogs scathing comments about the unrealistic body images of the stars of Main Squeeze (a reality TV show in which a single woman dates strangers hand-picked by the producers and aims to marry one of them), Bea is surprised when a show producer reaches out to her with an unexpected question: Would Bea consider starring in a season of Main Squeeze ? Bea finds the proposal laughable, then considers what it might mean for her career, for promoting body positivity, and maybe even for her lackluster romantic life. She decides that she's in--for a fantastic wardrobe, incredibly awkward moments, scripted romance, and a beautiful Malibu backdrop. What could go wrong? I was especially intrigued by how Bea navigated multiple suitors ( Bachelorette -style) and by her attempts to give each his due while simultaneously dating and honestly considering the others. She didn't lose sight of embracing each new experience while reflecting on what she wanted her future to look like after the show, above and beyond what others attempted to script or suggest. For my full review of this book, please see One to Watch .

Wilson overcame tough childhood circumstances before setting her sights on becoming a performer, and her memoir celebrates her self-discovery and her unapologetic enjoyment of her success and privilege. I love to listen to the audiobook version of a memoir (if you haven't yet, you might want to check out the many stand-alone memoir reviews and memoir-focused Greedy Reading Lists  I've posted on Bossy Bookworm). A friend recommended actress Rebel Wilson's memoir Rebel Rising , and I listened to the Australian's account of a challenging youth, familial conflicts, her growing love for performing, her discovery of her sexuality, her desire to have a child, and her struggle with separating issues of good health from issues of weight. Wilson doesn't come across as particularly introspective, but she overcame many tough circumstances before becoming somewhat delightfully, unapologetically privileged and wealthy (she owns two houses in Los Angeles for her own convenience). The sections regarding Wilson's childhood were most engaging to me, as well as her zigzagging path toward understanding, celebrating, and embracing her sexuality and her determination to become a mother. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Rebel Wilson starred in the Pitch Perfect movies as well as in Bridesmaids .

David Nicholls's characters, some of whom are strangers to each other, meander through the English countryside on a days-long jaunt--and along the way allow long-held vulnerabilities to fall away in this beautiful, heartbreaking, heartwarming story. “It’s true I do have time and freedom and I love it, sometimes. But the notion that I should be 'making the most of it,' travelling the world or out every night, there’s a kind of tyranny in that too.... 'You don’t have kids, why can’t you speak Portuguese?' Do I have to have hobbies and projects and lovers? Do I have to excel? Can’t I just be happy, or unhappy, just mess about and read and waste time and be unfulfilled by myself?” In David Nicholls's You Are Here , a small group of Sophie's friends, along with her teenage son, assemble to "walk" (hike) through the hills and moors of northern England for several days. After meeting for the first time, Michael, a recently divorced teacher, studious and thoughtful, and Marnie, a playful copy editor who prefers solitude after her own divorce, fall into a companionable rhythm and, to their surprise, begin to seek out each other's company in an extended hike toward the coast. We see the disconnect between Marnie and Michael's inner selves and their unsure, sometimes awkward acts and words, and it's deliciously heartbreaking to be privy to their insecurities and fears as well as their soaring hopes--and their crushing attempts to reign them in, in case their feelings aren't reciprocated and their fragile hearts can't take another round of loss. I loved this literary fiction--the increasing vulnerability and search for connection after heartache, the vivid descriptions of English countryside, and the small moments that mean everything. Private, intimate, a book was something she could pull around and over herself, like a quilt. I adored every moment I spent with these characters, particularly while witnessing their hesitancy blooming into brave, tiny acts of risk that build and build. I was riveted, reading as Michael and Marnie began to recognize the wonder in each other and delve beneath the protective facades they've built up for so many years. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? David Nicholls is also the author of One Day , Us , Sweet Sorrow , and Starter for Ten . I listened to You Are Here  as an audiobook.

Laurie Devore's novel goes behind the scenes of a reality dating show, complete with sordid details, manipulation, and manufactured moments, all serving as a backdrop to a fearless contestant's creeping toward destruction--and her struggle to figure out if the love she feels is real. "Romances are about the complexities of human beings, about the way we all have a best and worst self, and they both live in the same body, and the most generous person you know can have the most toxic ideas of what a relationship is or how you can so desperately want the worst person to end up with someone perfect for them, can peel back all of their layers." "Is that what you told the producers?" Rikki asks. "Nah," I say. "I told them what they wanted to hear." Jac Matthis is a romance novelist whose first book tanked (the main protagonist chose her career over a man, enraging readers who'd been counting on a different happy ever after), leaving little audience for her second published book and nonexistent demand for a third. In an attempt to boost her exposure and thereby resuscitate her writing career, the frank and cynical, unapologetically brutally honest, casual-sex fan Jac is set to appear as a contestant on a Bachelor -type reality TV show in which the ultimate goal is a proposal and marriage. After one last fling, Jac reports to the set--only to find out that her one-night stand is a producer on the show who had been absent during her auditions. Complications abound as the eligible TV bachelor seems to be falling for Jac, she makes enemies of multiple fellow contestants, she struggles with the staged and manipulated nature of every moment--and she realizes that she's being painted as the villain of the show. I found it fairly challenging to connect with Jac. The show is purportedly about making a love connection, but we know Jac is using it as a publicity stunt. She knows and we know that she's putting on an act, yet she sometimes toys with the idea of really falling for the bachelor. At the same time, Jac is continually fighting against her feelings for the producer--and he is fighting against his feelings for her--with varying degrees of success. For much of the book, her pretending was frequently difficult for me to parse from what was real. The hometown visit and blatant lying to her parents felt particularly uncomfortable and tough to reconcile, although she had worked herself into a fully problematic situation by then. Yet the cutthroat, often chilling behind-the-scenes dating-show dynamics and logistics seemed plausible and were horrifyingly fascinating, and I definitely wanted to read on to find out how Devore reconciled the situation. Devore offers a version of happy ever after, and of revenge, that was fun to watch take shape. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Laurie Devore is also the author of A Better Bad Idea, Winner Take All , and  How to Break a Boy . This book's reality television dating show setting reminded me somewhat of the novel One to Watch .

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby , an art-focused historical fiction mystery in two timelines; I'm reading The Tainted Cup , a fascinating fantasy-science-fiction mystery by Robert Jackson Bennett; and I'm listening to a romantic story with complications that feels sure to have a happy ending, Ready or Not by Cara Bastone. What are you reading these days, bookworms? 01 The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby by Ellery Lloyd In The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby , Ellery Lloyd offers a gorgeously wrought historical fiction mystery in two timelines. In 1938, runaway heiress and aspiring artist Juliette Willoughby gives up her inheritance for love, then disappears into Europe, only to perish in a Parisian apartment fire. Fifty years later, two Cambridge students (who are falling in love) on the hunt for dissertation topics stumble upon a treasure trove of items belonging to Juliette Willoughby--and indications that the fire that ended her life was no accident at all. I'm very much enjoying Lloyd's writing style and structure so far. Ellery Lloyd is also the author of The Club and People Like Her . 02 The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett In Robert Jackson Bennett's novel, The Tainted Cup , he blends a rich, historical fiction-feeling story, a Sherlock Holmes and Watson-type investigatory relationship, and fascinating otherworldly fantasy and steampunk elements into a captivating story. In a mansion in Daretana, an imperial officer lies dead--with a tree growing out of his body. Brilliant, grumpy, extremely high-ranked detective Ana Dolabra and her inexperienced, staid, intuitive apprentice, Dinios Kol, aim to use their magical enhancements to get to the heart of what seems to be a murder--one that might threaten the whole Empire. Robert Jackson Bennett is also the author of the Founders Day trilogy and the Divine Cities trilogy. 03 Ready or Not by Cara Bastone Eve Hatch is an administrative assistant at a wildlife conservation organization who's obsessed with creating a homey, personalized tiny Brooklyn apartment for herself to cozy into. Eve's parents died when she was younger, and her Midwestern brothers are far older. But she's got Willa close by--her friend-like-family best friend since childhood. While Eve's largely letting her life happen to her, Willa and her husband are struggling to conceive a child. But another beloved figure in Eve's life, Willa's older brother Shep, has moved to Brooklyn, and the three of them are ready for some carefree fun. Then a one-night stand with a cute neighborhood bartender leads to an unplanned pregnancy, and suddenly everything changes in Eve's world. You might also like the novels on the Greedy Reading Lists Six Lighter Fiction Stories Perfect for Summer Reading , and you can find other Bossy light fiction reviews here .

My very favorite Bossy July reads! I did a lot of traveling and some great reading last month, but I didn't do a lot of reviewing. My Bossy takes on more great reads are to come--but I do have some fantastic July favorites to share with you here. If you've read any of these titles, I'd love to hear what you think! And I'd also love to hear: what are some of your recent favorite reads? 01 Sandwich by Catherine Newman Sandwich is beautifully wrought story of complications and familial adoration from Catherine Newman, with the unapologetically contradictory and menopausal Rocky at the heart of the messy, wonderful extended family. Rocky's family has been vacationing in Cape Cod for twenty years. She's built years of happy memories in their low-key beach house rental. This year, she's sandwiched between her half-grown children and her aging parents. And the carefree vacations of the past feel light years away, because Rocky's menopausal rage threatens to undo any joy she might gain from spending time in her favorite place. To save their treasured family time together, Rocky may have to share secrets she never intended to reveal. Sandwich made me laugh, twisted my heart, and kept me interested throughout. I just adored all of the heart and humor in Sandwich . Catherine Newman is also the author of other books I love: We All Want Impossible Things , Waiting for Birdy , and How to Be a Person: 65 Hugely Useful, Super-Important Skills to Learn Before You're Grown Up. For my full review of this book, please see Sandwich . 02 All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker Whitaker offers several interconnected storylines, and while each one individually appealed to me, I felt a growing lack of connection to the characters as the tales melded into another: young friendship, serial killer, outlaw search, small-town intrigue, and longtime mysteries revealed. Chris Whitaker's novel All the Colors of the Dark  builds a story of a deep friendship between two young outcasts in small-town Monta Clare, Missouri: Patch, a pirate-playing young man missing one eye, whose mother is unreliable and a substance abuser; and Saint, a tomboy raised by her fearless grandmother. A kidnaper and serial killer intrudes on the quiet community and directly impacts Patch and Saint. The horrifying crimes seems to be motivated by religious fanaticism, and both Patch and Saint's futures are shaped by their ties to the darkly disturbing events. I adored the early building of the deep connection and affection between Saint and Patch. And I was intrigued by the disparate-seeming story that soon emerges, beginning with the premise of a serial killer whose actions haunt our main characters and whose horrifying spectre looms over them. But the storytelling frequently felt scattered to me, with overly dramatic moments, abrupt statements that are seemingly meant to add impact, and what felt like self-conscious attempts to be offbeat. Characters frequently offer grand speeches to each other about how the world works, and these didn't feel genuine or likely to me. Yet the cast of characters is colorful, and I enjoyed the time I spent with them. Click here for my full review of All the Colors of the Dark . Chris Whitaker is also the author of We Begin at the End , a novel I adored. 03 Grey Dog by Elliott Gish Grey Dog  begins as an immersive historical fiction story of a young teacher with a shocking past in 1900s rural England, but it becomes a haunting feminist, magical realism story about taking back power and letting go of restrictive expectations. It's 1901, and Ada Byrd has accepted a teaching position in a rural community following a scandal and abrupt departure from her last post. Her cruel, controlling father is high up in the school board, so while he lords over her this "favor" of allowing her to serve a new role, he also forces her to be a teacher in the first place. Ada boards with a staid, kind, slightly boring couple and also befriends the minister's wife. She's determined not to make any waves. But a young, half-feral female student and a shockingly unorthodox widow both seem to hold mysterious secrets--and both intrigue Ada. Ada begins to learn delicate secrets of those in the community even as she protects her own scandalous past. A haunting power seems to swirl through the small village, both disturbing and intriguing Ada. And the more often she encounters it, the more difficult it becomes for Ada to check her temper, her opinions, her yearning for freedom, and her desire to speak her mind. This is a feminist historical fiction story in which women--long kept quiet and still, supervised to prevent their freedom, and dismissed and condescended to--strike back, lash out, and reject the constraints put on them. Magical realism allows the force that haunts, challenges, and pushes them to take the form of a beast, whose presence only the bravest women embrace and accept. I loved the setting and detail of the historical fiction story, but I became fully hooked as the tale morphed into something wonderfully eerie and unusual. I couldn't wait to find out how it ended. Click here for my full review of Grey Dog . If this book sounds appealing to you, you might also be interested in my Bossy reviews of other historical fiction books set in the 1900s or my Bossy reviews of Gothic stories . 04 Table for Two: Fictions by Amor Towles Amor Towles revisits a character from the wonderful Rules of Civility  and also offers multiple New York-set tales. Towles's evocative stories drew me in, sometimes made me uncomfortable, and illuminated characters' true natures. In Table for Two: Fictions , Amor Towles offers six short stories set in New York City and a novella featuring a beloved Towles character that's set in the Golden Age of Hollywood. In the novella Eve in Hollywood , Towles imagines the events following Rules of Civility , which ends with Evelyn Ross's departure from New York in 1938 and the train journey she extends to Los Angeles. The six New York-set stories all take place around the year 2000, and they consider the impacts of chance encounters, the complications of modern marriages, and more. Towles's writing is so lovely, I'm willing to follow his stories and his characters anywhere. This one took me a while to finish, but I savored each word. Amor Towles is also the author of The Lincoln Highway , A Gentleman in Moscow ,  a book I really liked, and Rules of Civility ,  which I was even more taken with--the old NYC setting was so vivid, it felt like its own character. Please click here for my full review of Table for Two . 05 The Goddess of Warsaw by Lisa Barr Lisa Barr's World War II-set historical fiction follows a Jewish resistance fighter and spy through the Warsaw Ghetto to her second act as a Hollywood movie star, linking the story's two timelines and revealing long-held secrets and mysteries. In Lisa Barr's newest historical fiction, The Goddess of Warsaw , the author tells a story in two timelines. In 1943 Warsaw, socialite Bina Blonski is imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto with her husband and thousands of her fellow Jewish citizens. She becomes a spy and begins to resist against the Nazis--but when she falls for another resistance fighter (her brother-in-law), things get even more complicated. In 2005 Los Angeles, Sienna Hayes is a Hollywood actress looking to direct. When she meets Golden Age movie star Lena Browning, she becomes determined to make a documentary about Lena's life. But Lena is actually Bina--and her life has been far more complex than almost anyone knows. Some moments felt overly dramatic--as with Bina's frequently explored obsession with her brother-in-law Aleksander (and her unwise diary entries concerning her passion for him), as well as when Bina immediately inserts herself into the resistance as a key player--but the issue of these elements, which distracted me, paled against the intrigue of the story. The details of World War II and of resistance to the Nazis are heartstopping, and I was hooked on each of the two timelines in this interconnected story. I loved that brave women that drive the novel in both timelines. Lisa Barr is also the author of Woman on Fire , The Unbreakables , and Fugitive Colors . For my full review, check out The Goddess of Warsaw . 06 In Memoriam by Alice Winn Alice Winn's account of the unrelenting slog of World War I and the beautiful young men set against each other in the trenches serves as a backdrop for a tentatively begun, deep love story born in a British boarding school and blossoming amid the cruelties and horrors of battle. Alice Winn's gorgeous, brutal, captivating historical fiction In Memoriam  is set during World War I. Henry Gaunt, Sydney Ellwood, and their classmates came as young boys to their sometimes claustrophobic, cruel, and lonely English boarding school; now that they're close to the end of their schooling, they are playful, treasuring each other's friendships. But by 1914, World War I is drawing most of these young boys into a swirl of wartime horrors. They trade their hesitant confidences and youthful search for comfort and affection within an unforgiving school environment for the cruelties of battle. Characters struggle with vulnerability and to allow feelings to grow, and all is shaped by the constancy of life-and-death danger and the deep-seated fear of destroying a friendship that both young men cling to more deeply than living itself. In Memoriam is beautiful, frequently painful, and offers a layered, complicated version of happy ever after. I loved this. I listened to In Memoriam  as an audiobook. For my full review, please see In Memoriam . You might also be interested in these Bossy reviews of books set during World War I .

Amor Towles revisits a character from the wonderful Rules of Civility and also offers multiple New York-set tales. Towles's evocative stories drew me in, sometimes made me uncomfortable, and illuminated characters' true natures. [It's] a funny aspect of life, thought Charlie, how a group of grown people can convince themselves to do something that none of them really want to do. They start by talking an idea into existence. Once the idea begins to take shape and dimension, they’ll talk away their hesitations, replacing them with all the supposed benefits, one by one. They’ll talk away their instincts and their second thoughts and their common sense too, until they are moving in lockstep together toward some shared intention that doesn’t appeal to any one of them. In Table for Two: Fictions , Amor Towles offers six short stories set in New York City and a novella featuring a beloved Towles character that's set in the Golden Age of Hollywood. In the novella Eve in Hollywood , Towles imagines the events following Rules of Civility , which ends with Evelyn Ross's departure from New York in 1938 and the train journey she extends to Los Angeles. The six New York-set stories all take place around the year 2000, and they consider the impacts of chance encounters, the complications of modern marriages, and more. Towles's writing is so lovely, I'm willing to follow his stories and his characters anywhere. This one took me a while to finish, but I savored each word. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Amor Towles is also the author of The Lincoln Highway , A Gentleman in Moscow ,  a book I really liked, and Rules of Civility ,  which I was even more taken with--the old NYC setting was so vivid, it felt like its own character.

Grey Dog begins as an immersive historical fiction story of a young teacher with a shocking past in 1900s rural England, but it becomes a haunting feminist, magical realism story about taking back power and letting go of restrictive expectations. A good woman. How odd that the phrase has such a particular meaning. One might say “a good man” and mean anything — there are as many ways of being a good man, it seems, as there are of being a man at all. But there is only one way to be a good woman. It is such a narrow, stunted, blighted way to be that I wonder any woman throughout history has been up to the task. Perhaps none of us ever have. It's 1901, and Ada Byrd has accepted a teaching position in a rural community following a scandal and abrupt departure from her last post. Her cruel, controlling father is high up in the school board, so while he lords over her this "favor" of allowing her to serve a new role, he also forces her to be a teacher in the first place. Ada boards with a staid, kind, slightly boring couple and also befriends the minister's wife. She's determined not to make any waves. But a young, half-feral female student and a shockingly unorthodox widow both seem to hold mysterious secrets--and both intrigue Ada. Ada begins to learn delicate secrets of those in the community even as she protects her own scandalous past. A haunting power seems to swirl through the small village, both disturbing and intriguing Ada. And the more often she encounters it, the more difficult it becomes for Ada to check her temper, her opinions, her yearning for freedom, and her desire to speak her mind. She finds herself shocking others and herself with her frank speech, her rejection of societal norms for women, and her moments of cruelty when others show vulnerability. This is a feminist historical fiction story in which women--long kept quiet and still, supervised to prevent their freedom, and dismissed and condescended to--strike back, lash out, and reject the constraints put on them. Magical realism allows the force that haunts, challenges, and pushes them to take the form of a beast, whose presence only the bravest women embrace and accept. I loved the setting and detail of the historical fiction story, but I became fully hooked as the tale morphed into something wonderfully eerie and unusual. I couldn't wait to find out how it ended. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? You might also like my Bossy reviews of other historical fiction books set in the 1900s .

Alice Winn's account of the unrelenting slog of World War I and the beautiful young men set against each other in the trenches serves as a backdrop for a tentatively begun, deep love story born in a British boarding school and blossoming amid the cruelties and horrors of battle. Alice Winn's gorgeous, brutal, captivating historical fiction In Memoriam  is set during World War I. Henry Gaunt, Sydney Ellwood, and their classmates came as young boys to their sometimes claustrophobic, cruel, and lonely English boarding school; now that they're close to the end of their schooling, they are playful, treasuring each other's friendships. But by 1914, World War I is drawing most of these young boys into a swirl of wartime horrors. They trade their hesitant confidences and youthful search for comfort and affection within an unforgiving school environment for the cruelties of battle. Our bodies were used to stop bullets, thought Ellwood. He could think of nothing else. Tragedy and looming doom are twisted through this story of a hard-fought love story between Gaunt and Ellwood. The wartime mud and trench nightmare, endless slog, relentless death, horrifying gore, and mostly pointless-seeming pushing onward toward mutual destruction--all of this serves as a backdrop for a heartwarming, heartbreaking story of friendship and love. Characters struggle with vulnerability and to allow feelings to grow, and all is shaped by the constancy of life-and-death danger and the deep-seated fear of destroying a friendship that both young men cling to more deeply than living itself. In Memoriam is beautiful, frequently painful, and offers a layered, complicated version of happy ever after. I loved this. I listened to In Memoriam  as an audiobook. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? You might also be interested in these Bossy reviews of books set during World War I .

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading The Villain Edit , a contemporary romance novel about a dating-focused reality TV show by Laurie Devore; I'm listening to You Are Here , a charming story of hiking through northern England and opening up after heartbreak by David Nicholls; and I'm listening to Australian actress Rebel Wilson's memoir, Rebel Rising . What are you reading these days, bookworms? 01 The Villain Edit by Laurie Devore Jac Matthis is a romance novelist whose first book tanked (the main protagonist chose her career over a man, enraging readers who'd been counting on a different happy ever after), leaving little audience for her second published book and nonexistent demand for a third. In an attempt to boost her exposure and thereby resuscitate her writing career, the frank and cynical, unapologetically brutally honest, casual-sex fan Jac is set to appear on a Bachelor -type reality TV show in which the ultimate goal is a proposal and marriage. After one last fling, Jac reports to the set--only to find out that her one-night stand is a producer on the show who had been absent during her auditions. Complications abound as the eligible bachelor seems to be falling for Jac, she makes enemies of multiple fellow contestants, she struggles with the staged and manipulated nature of every moment--and realizes that she's being painted as the villain of the show. Laurie Devore is also the author of A Better Bad Idea, Winner Take All , and How to Break a Boy . 02 You Are Here by David Nicholls “It’s true I do have time and freedom and I love it, sometimes. But the notion that I should be 'making the most of it,' travelling the world or out every night, there’s a kind of tyranny in that too.... 'You don’t have kids, why can’t you speak Portuguese?' Do I have to have hobbies and projects and lovers? Do I have to excel? Can’t I just be happy, or unhappy, just mess about and read and waste time and be unfulfilled by myself?” In David Nicholls's You Are Here , a small group of Sophie's friends, along with her teenage son, assemble to "walk" (hike) through the hills and moors of northern England for several days. After meeting for the first time, Michael, a recently divorced teacher, studious and thoughtful, and Marnie, a playful copy editor who prefers solitude after her own divorce, fall into a companionable rhythm and begin to seek out each other's company in an extended hike toward the coast. This is lovely so far--the increasing vulnerability and search for connection after heartache, the vivid descriptions of English countryside, and the small moments that mean everything. Private, intimate, a book was something she could pull around and over herself, like a quilt. David Nicholls is also the author of One Day . I'm listening to You Are Here as an audiobook. 03 Rebel Rising by Rebel Wilson I love to read a memoir--if you haven't yet, you might want to check out the many stand-alone memoir reviews and memoir-focused Greedy Reading Lists I've posted on Bossy Bookworm. A friend recommended actress Rebel Wilson's memoir Rebel Rising , and I'm listening to the Australian's account of a challenging youth, familial conflicts, her growing love for performing, her discovery of her sexuality, her desire to have a child, and her struggle with separating issues of good health from issues of weight. Rebel Wilson starred in the Pitch Perfect movies as well as in Bridesmaids .

Some Lighter Fiction Favorites What I love about a romantic, rom-com, lighter fiction read is that real, weighty issues can be raised within the satisfyingly sweet story: characters may cope with abuse or alcohol abuse; they may struggle to feel self-respect, a healthy body image, or to establish a true and real sense of self; and they might also find themselves capable of demonstrating strength in difficult circumstances. In a rom-com or lighter fiction story, all of these issues can be explored within a safe space--amid swirling attraction, burgeoning romance, self-discovery, some temporary heartbreak, and, typically, a satisfying ending. I love this balance. I'm due to create another Greedy Reading List of my more recently read light fiction favorites, but meanwhile, you can find other Bossy light fiction reviews here . I'm solidly in love with Christina Lauren's and Emily Henry's books, and I haven't yet read everything by the other authors listed here. What other lighter fiction authors or stories do you love? 01 Head Over Heels by Hannah Orenstein Nineteen-year-old Avery Abrams was set to be the next big gymnastics Olympic champion. She had the training, the talent, and the drive. But during the Olympic Trials, she sustained a career-ending injury. For the next few years she dabbled in college, she partied, she drifted, she dated a professional football player, but she didn't find peace and wasn't able to truly come to terms with her new reality. When she hits a version of rock bottom and moves home, Avery's former teammate and crush Ryan (who did become an Olympic champion) talks her into helping him coach Hallie, a young phenom at the gym where Avery spent much of her youth. With lots of gymnastics details that made the setting come to life, Head Over Heels was the engrossing, light fiction book I needed. Orenstein didn't hit any false notes for me and kept me satisfyingly wrapped up in the elite gymnastics world of the story. For my full review, see Head Over Heels . 02 Dear Emmie Blue by Lia Louis Sometimes in order to delve into a lighter fiction book I find that I have to suspend my disbelief about typical human behavior. But letting go of expectations about realistic cause and effect in order to buy into a romantic setup (see my review of What You Wish For ) is far more difficult for me than suspending my disbelief in order to buy into outlandish or supernatural aspects of a romantic but otherwise truly oddball book (see my review of My Lady Jane ). The premise of Dear Emmie Blue made me wonder if the story would feel too far-fetched. But Lia Louis's characters are appealingly faulted and sometimes selfish and foolish. Unlikely bonds are forged and reforged within the story. And there's a love triangle in this book that I adored. For my full review, please see Dear Emmie Blue . Lia Louis is also the author of Eight Perfect Hours and The Key to My Heart . 03 Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center This book hit the spot for me. Katherine Center's Cassie is a tough-as-nails firefighter who has closed herself off emotionally to protect herself. Her life is orderly and regimented and under control. So clearly everything is about to be upended so that Cassie will be forced to alter her plans and careful schedule and figure out how to come through it all. Although I saw some of the big plot events coming in Things You Save in a Fire , Center makes the journey so enjoyable that I just didn't care. This novel is satisfying escapism, but it's not silly or outlandish. Things You Save in a Fire is a quick read that addresses serious matters—betrayal, loyalty, duty, trust, and love, with a little sleuthing and romance to round out things. I thought it was great. For my full review of this book, please see Things You Save in a Fire . 04 Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating by Christina Lauren Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating totally fits the bill for light-fiction escapism--in this case, with lots of sexy talk and sexy scenes and sexy thoughts and sex. Hazel is a strong personality, and I found myself bristling at her questioning whether she's too much sometimes. Yet the authors clearly care deeply about their characters, the characters care deeply about each other, and I cared that they cared. All of this makes for a heartwarming read in which everyone is trying to love and live and be happy. You can see a satisfying version of happily ever after coming, but I didn't predict the circumstances. For my full review of this book, please see Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating . Click here for my reviews of Lauren's The Unhoneymooners , In a Holidaze , Love and Other Words , The Soulmate Equation (a favorite), and Autoboyography (another favorite and a young adult LGBTQ+ gem). 05 Beach Read by Emily Henry Is it fair for a person (me) with particular requirements for light fiction (ideally: not too outlandish of a hook and premise, characters who follow somewhat logical steps in their lives, inner voices that feel real, human connections that warm my heart, and a little romantic something-something) to continue reading rom-coms and lighter fiction while constantly kind of expecting disappointment? Yes. Yes, it is. Because I suspected that Emily Henry's Beach Read might be a major gem on my light fiction-escapism-pandemic-era reading list and a book that might bring me fully into the bosom of this genre. And fortunately, I was correct. The initial scene-setting didn't feel as authentic to me as the rest of the book. But after that, Beach Read met all of my criteria above and more; it's sweet and funny, it's about writing and books, there are wonderfully faulted love-crossed main protagonists with a shared history, and they share a sexy-playful-obsession that might lead to heartbreak or might lead to love. For my full review of this book, see Beach Read . And click here for my review of Emily Henry's People We Meet on Vacation . Stay tuned for my upcoming review of her newest, Book Lovers . 06 One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London In Kate Stayman-London's One to Watch , Bea Schumacher is a popular plus-size fashion blogger who has Instagram fame, wonderful friends--and an unhealthy obsession with a male friend who's attached to someone else. After she drunk-blogs scathing comments about the unrealistic body images of the stars of Main Squeeze (a reality TV show in which a single woman dates strangers hand-picked by the producers and aims to marry one of them), Bea is surprised when a show producer reaches out to her with an unexpected question: Would Bea consider starring in a season of Main Squeeze ? Bea finds the proposal laughable, then considers what it might mean for her career, for promoting body positivity, and maybe even for her lackluster romantic life. She decides that she's in--for a fantastic wardrobe, incredibly awkward moments, scripted romance, and a beautiful Malibu backdrop. What could go wrong? I was especially intrigued by how Bea navigated multiple suitors ( Bachelorette -style) and by her attempts to give each his due while simultaneously dating and honestly considering the others. She didn't lose sight of embracing each new experience while reflecting on what she wanted her future to look like after the show, above and beyond what others attempted to script or suggest. For my full review of this book, please see One to Watch .

Lisa Barr's World War II-set historical fiction follows a Jewish resistance fighter and spy through the Warsaw Ghetto to her second act as a Hollywood movie star, linking the story's two timelines and revealing long-held secrets and mysteries. Survival is about secrets, about extraordinary measures taken to stay alive. If you survived, it means others did not. The trauma of a second chance at life, a second act, is at once miraculous and unendurable. In Lisa Barr's newest historical fiction, The Goddess of Warsaw , the author tells a story in two timelines. In 1943 Warsaw, socialite Bina Blonski is imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto with her husband and thousands of her fellow Jewish citizens. She becomes a spy and begins to resist against the Nazis--but when she falls for another resistance fighter (her brother-in-law), things get even more complicated. In 2005 Los Angeles, Sienna Hayes is a Hollywood actress looking to direct. When she meets Golden Age movie star Lena Browning, she becomes determined to make a documentary about Lena's life. But Lena is actually Bina--and her life has been far more complex than almost anyone knows. Some moments felt overly dramatic--as with Bina's frequently explored obsession with her brother-in-law Aleksander (and her unwise diary entries concerning her passion for him), as well as when Bina immediately inserts herself into the resistance as a key player--but these elements paled against the intrigue of the story. The details of World War II and of resistance to the Nazis are heartstopping, and I was hooked on each of the two timelines in this interconnected story. I loved that brave women that drive the novel in both timelines. I received a prepublication edition of this title courtesy of Harper Perrenial and NetGalley. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Lisa Barr is also the author of Woman on Fire , The Unbreakables , and Fugitive Colors .

Sandwich is another case of beautifully wrought complications and mutual adoration from Catherine Newman, with unapologetically contradictory and menopausal Rocky at the heart of the messy, wonderful extended family. Rocky's family has been vacationing in Cape Cod for twenty years. She's built years of happy memories in their low-key beach house rental. This year, she's sandwiched between her half-grown children and her aging parents. And the carefree vacations of the past feel light years away, because Rocky's menopausal rage threatens to undo any joy she might gain from spending time in her favorite place. To save their treasured family time together, Rocky may have to share secrets she never intended to reveal. I love Catherine Newman! She writes characters that are so funny, so poignant, so beautifully oddball, and so wonderfully open about their deep adoration of their complex loved ones--and the frustrations and challenges that make up a perfectly imperfect life. Rocky is menopausal and adjusting to her own shifts--in thinking, in physicality, in mood, and all--as she struggles to remember the joy of the past and accept the beauty in the present with her aging parents and her growing young-adult children. Sandwich made me laugh, twisted my heart, and kept me interested throughout. I just adored all of the heart and humor in Sandwich . I received a prepublication edition of this title courtesy of Harper and NetGalley. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Catherine Newman is also the author of other books I love: We All Want Impossible Things , Waiting for Birdy , and How to Be a Person: 65 Hugely Useful, Super-Important Skills to Learn Before You're Grown Up.

Whitaker offers several interconnected storylines, and while each one individually appealed to me, I felt a growing lack of connection to the characters as the tales melded into another: young friendship, serial killer, outlaw search, small-town intrigue, and longtime mysteries revealed. Chris Whitaker's novel All the Colors of the Dark  builds a story of a deep friendship between two young outcasts in small-town Monta Clare, Missouri: Patch, a pirate-playing young man missing one eye, whose mother is unreliable and a substance abuser; and Saint, a tomboy raised by her fearless grandmother. A kidnaper and serial killer intrudes on the quiet community and directly impacts Patch and Saint. The horrifying crimes seems to be motivated by religious fanaticism, and both Patch and Saint's futures are shaped by their ties to the darkly disturbing events. I adored the early building of the deep connection and affection between Saint and Patch. And I was intrigued by the disparate-seeming story that soon emerges, beginning with the premise of a serial killer whose actions haunt our main characters and whose horrifying spectre looms over them. There's yet another somewhat separate-feeling story of an outlaw, and a study on prison life, as well as an extended look at a life spend in law enforcement and seeking justice. There are deep betrayals, long-term mysteries, and, finally, many revealed truths (some of which you may anticipate, including the biggies). Each of these storylines would be one I'm interested in, and Whitaker offers a fascinating interconnectedness between them. But the storytelling frequently felt scattered to me, with overly dramatic moments, abrupt statements that are seemingly meant to add impact, and what felt like self-conscious attempts to be offbeat. Characters frequently offer grand speeches to each other about how the world works, and these didn't feel genuine or likely to me. A key character gives up everything to relentlessly seek out a dreamlike possibility of something that might be real, and this didn't sit comfortably with me after the early devotion illustrated between our main protagonists and the character growth evidenced in the meantime. This character's youthful romantic relationship, whose impact becomes pivotal in some ways, also didn't feel real to me. Yet the cast of characters is colorful, and I enjoyed the time I spent with them. I received a prepublication edition of this title, which was published June 25, courtesy of NetGalley and Crown Publishing. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Chris Whitaker is also the author of We Begin at the End , a novel I adored.

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading All the Colors of the Dark , the newest novel by Chris Whitaker ( We Begin at the End ); I'm listening to In Memoriam , a historical fiction LGBTQ love story set in World War I from Alice Winn; and I'm reading Elliott Gish's fascinating gothic horror feminist historical fiction, Grey Dog . What are you reading these days, bookworms? 01 All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker Chris Whitaker's novel All the Colors of the Dark builds a story of a deep friendship between two young outcasts in small-town Monta Clare, Missouri: Patch, a pirate-playing young man missing one eye, whose mother is unreliable and a substance abuser; and Saint, a tomboy raised by her fearless grandmother. A kidnaper and serial killer intrudes on the quiet community and directly impacts Patch and Saint. The horrifying crimes seems to be motivated by religious fanaticism, and both Patch and Saint's futures are shaped by their ties to the darkly disturbing events. I received a prepublication edition of this title, which was published June 25, courtesy of NetGalley and Crown Publishing. Chris Whitaker is also the author of We Begin at the End , a novel I adored. 02 In Memoriam by Alice Winn Alice Winn's gorgeous, brutal, captivating historical fiction In Memoriam is set during World War I. Henry Gaunt, Sydney Ellwood, and their classmates came as young boys to their sometimes claustrophobic, cruel, and lonely English boarding school; now that they're close to the end of their schooling, they are playful, treasuring each other's friendships. But by 1914, World War I is drawing most of these young boys into a swirl of wartime horrors. Tragedy and looming doom are twisted through this story of a hard-fought love story between Gaunt and Ellwood. The wartime mud, endless slog, relentless death, and mostly pointless-seeming pushing onward toward mutual destruction--all of this serves as a backdrop for a heartwarming, heartbreaking story of friendship and love. You might also be interested in these Bossy reviews of books set during World War I . I'm listening to In Memoriam as an audiobook. 03 Grey Dog by Elliott Gish It's 1901, and Ada Byrd has accepted a teaching position in a rural community following a scandal and abrupt departure from her last post. Her cruel, controlling father is high up in the school board, so while he lords over her this "favor" of a new role, he also forces her to be a teacher in the first place. Ada boards with a staid, kind, slightly boring couple and befriends the minister's wife. She's determined not to make any waves. But a young, half-feral female student and a shockingly unorthodox widow both seem to hold mysterious secrets--and both intrigue Ada. A haunting power seems to swirl through the small village, both disturbing and intriguing Ada. And the more often she encounters it, the more difficult it becomes for Ada to check her temper, her opinions, her yearning for freedom, and her desire to speak her mind.

I hope you're having a wonderful summer, bookworms! I'm going to take an unprecedented Bossy break to spend time with family, but I hope to be reading a lot while I'm offline. Check out the books pictured above for some of the titles I'm hoping to read this month. Wherever you are and whatever you're up to, I hope you're able to take a break and read some great books. I look forward to hearing about your favorite summer reads once I'm back to the blog! xoxo, Amy

My very favorite Bossy June reads! Here are the six books I most loved reading this past month. If you've read any of these titles, I'd love to hear what you think! And I'd also love to hear: what are some of your recent favorite reads? 01 Rednecks by Taylor Brown In this mix of fictional and fascinating historical elements, Brown crafts a character-driven story of the shocking, widespread, deadly West Virginia Mine Wars and thousands-strong labor uprising that took place in 1920 and 1921. In Rednecks , Taylor Brown presents a historical novel centering around the real-life events of the 1920 and 1921 West Virginia Mine Wars. Ranging from the Matewan Massacre through the Battle of Blair Mountain, which pitted 10,000 desperate, fed-up miners against greedy, ruthless coal operators, state militia, and the U.S. government. What brings the book to life are versions of the real-life figures of Mother Jones (the elderly woman once called The Most Dangerous Woman in America) and the sharpshooter Sid Hatfield; and characters like Doc "Moo," a Lebanese-American doctor (inspired by Taylor Brown's great-grandfather); Big Frank, a black World War I veteran fed up with fear and intimidation; and Frank's feisty grandmother Beulah. The true events that inspired the book are shocking and often read like fiction--the cutthroat, sometimes deadly efforts of coal-company enforcers to subdue rebellion; the years of suffering for thousands of vulnerable mining families; and the hopeless trudge forward in a cycle of poor health, hunger, too-little pay and carefully orchestrated poverty, extremely dangerous work, and, often, death. By the time the uproar and intensive violence that shook West Virginia begin to take shape, Brown has laid the groundwork for the uprising. For my full review of this book, please see Rednecks . 02 Bride by Ali Hazelwood Ali Hazelwood brings her wonderful banter and an intriguing mystery to this steamy interspecies romance that has lots of heart and kept me hooked throughout. Misery Lark is the only daughter of the most powerful Vampyre in the region, and she'd prefer to literally and figuratively stay in the shadows--but she's been called to take part in the building of a peacekeeping alliance between the Vampyres and the Weres--in the form of an arranged marriage between Misery and a Were. Lowe Moreland is the Alpha of the Weres, and he's as unpredictable, volatile, and unforgiving as any Were stereotype Misery has ever heard. As a child, Misery was given up by her family and community as collateral to keep the peace. But Misery has her own reasons for willingly entering into this marriage--her best friend's safety may be on the line--and she's willing to do anything to get her questions answered. I forgot how steamy Hazelwood's books are, and Bride and its interspecies love is no exception. I listened to Bride  as an audiobook. Ali Hazelwood is also the author of Love, Theoretically  and other books. Click here for my full review of Bride . 03 The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard The Other Valley  is literary fiction with a captivating setup: three adjacent valleys, each of which is a different timeline of the same world--and the complicated repercussions if interactions occur between them. Duty, love, redemption--I loved this. In Scott Alexander Howard's The Other Valley , teenaged Odile lives in an isolated community that's bordered by two worlds: one in which her same community is living in the past and one in which it's living in the future. Quiet Odile and her classmates are readying to apply for apprenticeships, and as she considers applying for the powerful Conseil, which makes decisions about who is allowed to anonymously travel between the worlds to observe loved ones from a distance, she accidentally sees and identifies visitors to her own world--and they're the parents of her young love. The Other Valley  builds from a captivating premise and kept me hooked--through despair, love, duty, and resignation--with quiet power until the slightly twisty ending, which I loved. Howard's literary speculative fiction explores fate, free will, changing the past and implications for the future, and other fascinating issues. Click here for my full review of The Other Valley . 04 The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center Katherine Center offers a writing-focused story in which forced proximity, past secrets, complicated life circumstances, and a fear of vulnerability complicate the professional and personal lives of an unlikely writing duo. Emma Wheeler writes romantic comedies, and she longs to be a screenwriter. But her life in Texas is complicated: her father requires a full-time caregiver, and Emma is it. When, due to her promising talent and her best friend from high school (who's now a high-powered agent), Emma gets the chance to rework a script by the famous screenwriter Charlie Yates (whose works and quotes are posted all over her room), she bends over backward to make it happen. Her sister steps in to help with their dad at home, and Emma moves to Los Angeles for six weeks of inspiring, career-building, lucrative, and life-changing work. Only, the last thing Charlie Yates wants is someone changing his (terrible) script. He doesn't even believe in love, and he's quite certain that Emma is not a solution to any of his problems. As in all good rom-coms, there's a conflict keeping the potential couple apart, and I appreciated the nuances of this one. Center doesn't rely on a miscommunication trope (my very least favorite), and I could see where both sides were coming from emotionally within their prolonged heartbreak of having to be apart. Please click here for my full review of The Rom-Commers . 05 Grief Is for People by Sloane Crosley Crosley's memoir traces a treasured friendship and the gutting loss of that dear friend. She's vulnerable enough to allow the reader in on her messy, sometimes fantastical, often poignant search for answers, meaning, and hope in the future. In Sloane Crosley's memoir Grief Is for People , she explores life after the loss of her closest friend. A month before that horrible loss, her New York City apartment is burgled, and at that time, all of her tenuous physical links to her past and family members--mixed though her emotions may be concerning some of them--are suddenly gone. She obsesses over trying to track down the robber, can't let go of the fear that he might have targeted her specifically, and feels as though solving the mystery of who stole from her and why could resolve other, larger problems in her life. Crosley mentally links the theft to the gutting death of her beloved friend, retracing the path of their friendship, her struggle to understand her friend's reasoning and unknown despair, and her deep, dark sense of loss. I was intrigued by Crosley's mindset and the dark humor, devastating grief, and powerful memories she shares here. I listened to Grief Is for People  as an audiobook. For my full review, check out Grief Is for People . 06 Wellness by Nathan Hill Flawed main characters Jack and Elizabeth try to find their way back to an emotional connection in this literary fiction work. Wellness is wry and poignant, and the absurdities of modern life that Hill explores sometimes feel disconcertingly on point. Jack and Elizabeth are strangers living across an alley in a gritty artists' area of 1990s Chicago, and they're immediately and powerfully drawn to each other. As they grow older, their mutual rejection of societal expectations begins to soften. They marry, have a baby, and aim to own a house. But somewhere along the way, they lose sight of each other--and of themselves. Nathan Hill pokes fun at the absurd extremes of the search for modern wellness and the manipulative power of social media and the order of internet searches. We learn about Elizabeth and Jack's histories and motivations, their stunted emotional statuses and the deep hurts inflicted upon them. They must dive into their own secrets, trauma, career weaknesses, faulted parents, and fractured families if they have any hope of salvaging their own marriage. Wellness is darkly funny, intriguing, and, at times, poignant. I was frequently uncomfortable reading the grim truths about our world that Hill lays bare, but I smiled at the wry humor here as well. I listened to Wellness  as an audiobook. For my full review, please see Wellness .

ICYMI: Daniel Mason's atmospheric, mysterious, languorous story is of a shy piano tuner's trip to Burma to get the piano of an eccentric army surgeon up and working. A good piano tuner must have knowledge not only of his instrument but of “Physics, Philosophy, and Poetics,” so that Edgar, although he never attended university, reached his twentieth birthday with more education than many who had. In 1886 England, middle-aged, shy piano tuner Edgar Drake is asked to do something unusual for the British War Office: travel to the jungles of Burma. There, Edgar is asked to repair a temperamental piano owned by an eccentric surgeon who has become essential to the war effort. The Piano Tuner is a strange, slowly paced adventure story but also an anti-imperialist, pro-music take on the world. The story's jungle setting and music focus mean that the languorous and sultry tone feels just right. Motivations aren't always clear, and characters seem enigmatic to Edgar and therefore to the reader. It would be lovely to read the book while listening to a playlist of the works mentioned throughout. This isn't my absolute favorite Mason book, and I didn't connect to the characters as I did in The Winter Soldier, but the author's writing is gorgeous as always. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Daniel Mason is also the author of The Winter Soldier and North Woods.

This love story about an emotionally sensitive NFL player and his quirky, irresistible female agent is a sweet second-chance romance perfect for light summer reading. I've been reading more rom-coms lately--which always seems like a good idea during the summer--and my latest read is Sarah Adams's The Rule Book. Nora Mackenzie is a sports agent who's constantly fighting against misogyny and double standards as one of few women in the field. She's young and hungry--and thrilled that she's about to get her first really big client. But Nora and the client, NFL tight end Derek Pender, were college sweethearts, and Nora abruptly broke things off years ago. They haven't seen each other since. Derek is determined to make Nora so miserable, she'll quit her position as his agent, but Nora's never given up on anything in her life--except her youthful relationship with Derek. She's determined to look out for her career above all else. When the two realize that their feelings for each other never fizzled, one thing leads to another (drunken Vegas wedding, anyone?) until they're faced with increasingly complicated life challenges as they try to balance their careers with making space for each other. I love Nora's passion for her career and the single-mindedness that has led to her success. In concept, I also love her quirkiness and refusal to bend to societal pressures--whether by behaving in a more tough manner because she's a woman in a career where fewer women exist, or by using her femininity as a tool in that career. But her silly language and childlike manner grated on me, and I found it distractingly corny. I loved the fake marriage, the push and pull of career and love, and the second-chance romance. The football players felt extraordinarily emotionally sensitive and sentimental. It is possible that professional football players are this involved in each other's lives, in exploring each other's passions and dreams, and in creating outlandishly precious celebrations of such. But I kept feeling like it was too far from any likely reality to be believed, and while it was sweet, it repeatedly stopped me as I read. The tone throughout is cheerfully reassuring, and there's no edge here. Despite the plot hiccups in our main characters' work and love lives, there's no question that everything is going to turn out the most happily here, with plenty of swooning and unrelenting vulnerability and maximum adoration and complete fulfillment along the way. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? I listened to The Rule Book as an audiobook. Sarah Adams is also the author of The Cheat Sheet and Practice Makes Perfect.

Katherine Center offers a writing-focused story in which forced proximity, past secrets, complicated life circumstances, and a fear of vulnerability complicate the professional and personal lives of an unlikely writing duo. Emma Wheeler writes romantic comedies, and she longs to be a screenwriter. But her life in Texas is complicated: her father requires a full-time caregiver, and Emma is it. When, due to her promising talent and her best friend from high school (who's now a high-powered agent), Emma gets the chance to rework a script by the famous screenwriter Charlie Yates (whose works and quotes are posted all over her room), she bends over backward to make it happen. Her sister steps in to help with their dad at home, and Emma moves to Los Angeles for six weeks of inspiring, career-building, lucrative, and life-changing work. Only, the last thing Charlie Yates wants is someone changing his (terrible) script. He doesn't even believe in love, and he's quite certain that Emma is not a solution to any of his problems. In fact, he seems determined to undermine any potential progress on the script, which puts Emma in a terrible position. Oh, and because of several (ahem, rom-com-type) issues, Emma is living in Charles's house for the duration of the project. And Charles's documentary-filmmaker ex-wife is showing up unannounced, seemingly protective of Charles. Can Emma make Charles believe in true love long enough for them to create something wonderful? Or will the growing obstacles in their path keep them not only from building a great script, but from each other? As in all good rom-coms, there's a conflict keeping the potential couple apart, and I appreciated the nuances of this one. Center doesn't rely on a miscommunication trope (my very least favorite), and I could see where both sides were coming from emotionally within their prolonged heartbreak of having to be apart. There's a romantic gesture centering around a script, and it didn't quite sit right with me (regarding who wrote it, who is credited, etc.). But I loved the book's focus on writing, the peek at L.A. life and the movie industry, and that Emma and Charles are both fish out of water who only find peace and success both professionally and personally when they are true to themselves. I listened to The Rom-Commers as an audiobook courtesy of NetGalley and Macmillan Audio. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Katherine Center is also the author of Hello Stranger, What You Wish For, Things You Save in a Fire, The Bodyguard, How to Walk Away, Happiness for Beginners, and other books.

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading The Glassmaker, the newest historical fiction from Tracy Chevalier (Girl with a Pearl Earring); I'm reading Bear, the newest literary fiction from Julia Phillips (Disappearing Earth); and I'm listening to Sarah Adams's rom-com, The Rule Book. What are you reading these days, bookworms? 01 The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier I'm so excited about this new historical fiction from Tracy Chevalier (Girl with a Pearl Earring). In fifteenth-century Venice, a family of glassmakers is living a charmed life on the island of Murano. Eldest daughter Orsola Rosso is forbidden from working with glass because she's a woman. But she has an inspired, innate, hidden talent for the craft, and when her father passes away, Orsola secretly begins to make glass beads, supporting her family with her efforts. Tracking the family for six centuries, from Renaissance Italy to the present day, Chevalier's story skips through deadly plague, war, and the transformation of Venice from a city based on trade to a city that thrives because it teems with tourists. I received a prepublication edition of this title, which was published June 18, courtesy of NetGalley and Penguin Group Viking. Tracy Chevalier is the author of Girl with a Pearl Earring and nine other novels. 02 Bear by Julia Phillips I loved Julia Phillips's book Disappearing Earth, and I can't wait to read her newest novel, Bear. Along with their mother, sisters Sam and Elena struggle to get by on an island off the coast of Washington. Frustrated by the challenge of supporting themselves on Sam's pay from driving the tourist ferry and Elena's job bartending, the sisters dream of escaping to somewhere new. But when Sam spots a bear swimming alongside the ferry--a bear that then shows up near their home--she is terrified. Meanwhile Elena chooses to see the bear as a sign of something positive, and she begins to abandon the long-held plan of leaving with Sam. I mentioned Julia Phillips's fascinating novel Disappearing Earth in the Greedy Reading List Six Chilly Books to Read in the Heat of Summer. I received a prepublication edition of this title, which is scheduled for publication June 25, courtesy of NetGalley and Random House. 03 The Rule Book by Sarah Adams I've been reading more rom-coms lately, which always seems like a good idea for the summer, and my latest read is Sarah Adams's The Rule Book. Nora Mackenzie is a sports agent who's constantly fighting against misogyny and double standards as one of few women in the field. She's young and hungry--and thrilled that she's about to get her first really big client. But the client, NFL tight end Derek Pender, and Nora were college sweethearts, and Nora abruptly broke things off years ago. They haven't seen each other since. Derek is determined to make Nora so miserable, she'll quit her position as his agent, but Nora's never given up on anything in her life--except her youthful relationship with Derek. She's determined to look out for her career above all else. When the two realize their feelings for each other never fizzled, and one thing leads to another (drunken Vegas wedding, anyone?), they're faced with one challenge after another as they try to balance their careers with making space for each other. I'm listening to The Rule Book as an audiobook. Sarah Adams is also the author of The Cheat Sheet and Practice Makes Perfect.

Funny and Sweet Light Fiction Is it really summer without some great rom-com reads teed up and ready to go by the pool, on the porch, at the beach, or anywhere you're soaking in a little bit of warm weather and (hopefully) a looser schedule? I'm working on a new list for this summer, but meanwhile I hope you'll enjoy some of these Bossy favorites from last summer. And if you're into lighter fiction with some romance and laughs, you might also like the books on the Greedy Reading Lists Six Great Light Fiction Stories Perfect for Summer Reading and Six More Great Light Fiction Stories. Are there any stories you've loved recently that fall under the romantic comedy category? 01 Meet Me at the Lake by Carley Fortune Summertime is the backdrop to Fortune's Meet Me at the Lake, light fiction with an anchor in deeper issues, some steamy scenes, conflicting feelings surrounding coming home again, shifting dreams, and a satisfyingly layered resolution. Thirty-two-year-old Fern Brookbanks has pinned most of her romantic dreams on Will Baxter--despite the fact that they spent only 24 hours together in their twenties. A chance encounter blossomed into a glorious connection and a pact to meet up one year later at her family resort...but while Fern showed up to their romantic meet-up, Will did not. Fern has moved on. Now she's coping with a tragedy--and guess who shows up to meet Fern, nine years late? Within the book's summertime setting Fortune explores heavy issues related to mental illness, sudden death, unplanned pregnancy, substance abuse--and also the complicated joy of having friends like family, facing responsibility and challenge, and acknowledging when long-held dreams have changed. The banter is fun, there are some steamy scenes, and I believed in the relationship and its ups and downs. Click here for my full review of Meet Me at the Lake. Carley Fortune is also the author of Every Summer After. 02 Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld Sittenfeld's funny and sweet take on an unlikely romance sparked by a longtime SNL-type weekly skit show immediately had me hooked, never felt too easy, and charmed me throughout. I love Curtis Sittenfeld's books, and in Romantic Comedy she offers an outstanding premise: Sally Milz is a sketch writer for a late-night comedy show, and she's sworn off love. That is, until she pokes fun at her fellow writer in a sketch about talented but average-looking men dating gorgeous women...and then gorgeous pop sensation and serial model-dater Noah Brewster hosts the show and turns his attentions on Sally. I was delighted to find that much of the book is focused on the behind-the-scenes making of the SNL-like Saturday night sketch comedy show in the book, The Night Owls, and I was fascinated by this aspect. Romantic Comedy offers lots of funny, funny dialogue that delighted me. This was the right book at the right time for me, and I loved everything about it. Sittenfeld is also the author of American Wife, You Think It, I'll Say It, Prep, Rodham, and Eligible. Click here for my full review of Romantic Comedy. 03 This Time It's Real by Ann Liang I was hooked by Liang's fake-dating, famous-everyday relationship duo setup, fantastically funny dialogue, and wonderfully imperfect characters with their hard-fought vulnerability and heartbreaking missteps. I devoured this in a rainy afternoon. In Ann Liang's young adult rom-com This Time It's Real, when seventeen-year-old Eliza's class essay about young love goes viral, it leads to the offer of a competitive internship and soaring popularity at her new school. She should be on cloud nine. The only problem is, she made it all up. She's never been in love. But the whirlwind around her pretend relationship is taking on a life of its own. So Eliza makes a desperate deal with a famous actor in her class: if he plays the role of her fake boyfriend at school, she'll help him write his college applications. He's already seen how convincing her writing can be, after all--she's got everyone fooled. When the line between acting and reality becomes blurred, will Eliza's grand plans end up in her own heartbreak? I love a fake-dating premise and a famous-everyday dating premise, and here they are combined. Ann Liang's funny dialogue, characters' various interpersonal challenges and victories, and messy family dynamics had me swooning. Yes to all of this! For my full review, please check out This Time It's Real. 04 Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez Jimenez's rom-com frequently had me laughing, made me tear up a little, and kept me hooked on the fake-dating, will-they-won't-they tension while also digging into some deep themes. Briana Ortiz's divorce from her cheater husband is about to be finalized, her brother Benny's health is failing, and she's living in her childhood home, complete with its original flowered couches and shabby carpet. At least she can pour energy into her work. She's busy as an ER doctor and is poised to become the next Chief. But when a new doctor relocates to the hospital, Bri's promotion is in jeopardy. She's set to detest this interloper--but then he sends her a letter that changes everything. Jimenez layers her characters with complex back stories, significant and interesting emotional baggage, and trauma from relationship disasters, all of which complicate their ability to be vulnerable. There's a health crisis and solution that involves the two main characters in key ways and which complicates things. There's a fake-dating situation that's designed to save the feelings of loved ones. And there's a professional environment to navigate within. It's not unusual for me to feel frustrated by a drawn-out will-they/won't-they tension, or by a fake-dating setup between two characters who should obviously be together. But this novel had me eating out of Jimenez's hand. For my full review of this book, check out Wrong Place, Wrong Time. 05 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. Technically, a ghost-focused story might typically be considered perfect for reading in the fall, but as someone who likes to spend a portion of the summer reading stories set in frigid temperatures (check out the books on the Greedy Reading List Six Chilly Books to Read in the Heat of Summer), I stand by this book's presence on this list. 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 new editor might just be the inspiration she needs. Then Florence's beloved father dies, and she returns to her hometown for the first time in many years. In town, she'll always be known as The Girl Who Solved a Murder Mystery by Talking to Ghosts, with all the fascination and suspicion one might expect. Oh, and Florence's family runs the local mortuary business. And Florence really can communicate with ghosts. Oh, and then her cute editor shows up in town...as a ghost. I loved the playful tone, the ghost angle within this light fiction, romantic story, and the focus on writing and books. For my full review of this book, please see The Dead Romantics. 06 Happy Place by Emily Henry Six longtime friends gather for one last Maine vacation--but each of them has been keeping secrets that impact their relationships. I was impatient with the prolonged lack of communication but loved the main characters' interactions once they began. Harriet and Win were attracted to each other from the start, but they spent ages trying to deny it for fear of upending their close-knit friend group if things didn't work out. Now they've been engaged for six years, they're desperately in love, and they've been dating long-distance while Harriet pursues her residency and Win, a furniture repair person, helps his sick mother at home in Montana. For years they've taken annual trips to their friend Sabrina's cottage in Maine with the rest of their group, building traditions, strengthening their friendships, and enjoying their happy place. So this year, when their friends surprise Harriet upon her arrival with the fact that Win was able to come after all, it should be a good--no, a great--thing. Except, Harriet and Win broke up months ago...and haven't told anyone yet. The grown-up friends' ability to move past the evolutions of their relationships was a highlight. Happy Place involves steamy scenes and will-they/won't-they tensions. Win and Harriet's interactions, when they do begin communicating, are lovely and sweet and funny and heartbreaking. For my full review of this book, please check out Happy Place.

ICYMI: Towles's closed-door tale of a Russian aristocrat under house arrest in a grand Moscow hotel manages to be at times playful, poignant, and wonderfully subversive. Let us concede that the early thirties in Russia were unkind. It's 1922, and Count Alexander Rostov has been placed under house arrest by the Bolsheviks. He is to remain in a grand hotel across from the Kremlin called the Metropol, where he will live out the rest of his days. An aristocrat used to spending his life at leisure or bustling about for his own pleasure, he now lives in an attic room, able only to peer out at the upheaval taking place throughout Moscow and witness events from a distance. Thus, it is the opinion of this committee that you should be returned to that hotel of which you are so fond. But make no mistake: should you ever set foot outside of the Metropol again, you will be shot. Next matter. The time structure of the story is interesting; Towles moves the reader in time from the starting day of Rostov's confinement to one day later, then two days later, and four days later in a doubling pattern that ends sixteen years later, then presents events in halved time periods (eight years, four years, two years, and so on) until the end of the book. The gifted storyteller Towles manages to craft a tale of  a political prisoner's decades spent under house arrest in a bustling Moscow hotel without its' feeling claustrophobic, but instead, delightfully playful, richly wrought, and wonderfully subversive. Do you have any Bossy thoughts abou tthis book? Towles is also the author of Rules of Civility and The Lincoln Highway.

ICYMI: The post-Depression-era city of New York is such a powerful presence in this story, it feels like a main character. I was taken by this Amor Towles story and blatantly neglected my responsibilities in order to read it. Which is just to say, be careful when choosing what you’re proud of—because the world has every intention of using it against you. I recently began reading Table for Two by Amor Towles, and I was reminded that I haven't posted Bossy reviews of my first two Towles reads, A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules of Civility. In Rules of Civility, 25-year-old Katey is in a Greenwich Village jazz bar in post-Depression New York when she meets a successful banker. The chance encounter leads to a surprising turn of fortune in which Katey finds herself immersed in the highest social circles of New York. I couldn't stop reading this--and admit to neglecting various duties in order to get back to it. I loved the old-New York setting, which was so vivid, the city felt like a main character. The various "let me teach you about" types of asides regarding art and social constructs of the time, etc., were interesting but also extremely jarring; they didn't make sense to me when coming from the main protagonist. And sometimes the "main protagonist is inexplicably well read and savvy" types of moments made me pause. I was completely hooked and kept thinking about this story after I'd finished it. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Amor Towles is also the author of A Gentleman in Moscow and The Lincoln Highway.

Grant's thriller is set in the wilds of Idaho, with a wilderness expert of a main character who has fought to trust others and be vulnerable--and who may find herself deeply betrayed again. In Kimi Cunningham Grant's newest thriller, The Nature of Disappearing, Emlyn is a wilderness guide who very deliberately tries not to think about the past--her fractured best-friendship, her failed love, and the vulnerability that allowed her heart to break. But when her estranged old friend Janessa goes missing under suspicious circumstances, Emlyn must team up with the man who broke her heart in order to try to find social media icon Janessa and, hopefully, bring her home, safe and sound. I love a book set in the wild (Peter Heller's novels The River and The Guide come to mind as favorites), and I loved the outdoorsy element here. Much of the story takes place in an Idaho forest, and it made me reminisce about my college summer spent in that beautiful state. The story is more of a thriller than a mystery; after a time we aren't wondering what happened, rather wondering if those who seem untrustworthy are in fact bad seeds. I loved the focus on repairing a friendship, and how Emlyn has difficulty trusting and being vulnerable but works to do so. I wasn't surprised by the final denouements but felt satisfied that we are left with the promise of a fulfilling future for some characters at the end of the book. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? I listened to The Nature of Disappearing as an audiobook, courtesy of NetGalley and Macmillan Audio. Kimi Cunningham Grant is also the author of Fallen Mountains, Silver Like Dust, and These Silent Woods.

The Books I'm Reading Now First of all, I obviously only read books with tall, blocky title fonts now. I'm reading Sandwich, the wonderful Catherine Newman's newest family story about a summer spent struggling between meeting the needs of aging parents, adjusting to growing-up children, and figuring out where she fits in; I'm listening to The Rom-Commers, Katherine Center's newest romantic comedy about an eager, aspiring screenwriter and a jaded, successful screenwriter who reluctantly team up to save a script; and I'm listening to Kimi Cunningham Grant's newest thriller, which is set in the wilderness and concerns old lovers thrown together in hopes of finding a mysteriously missing mutual friend, The Nature of Disappearing. What are you reading these days, bookworms? 01 Sandwich by Catherine Newman Rocky's family has been vacationing in Cape Cod for twenty years. She's built years of happy memories in their low-key beach house rental. This year, she's sandwiched between her half-grown children and her aging parents. And the carefree vacations of the past feel light years away, because Rocky's menopausal rage threatens to undo any joy she might gain from spending time in her favorite place. To save their treasured family time together, Rocky may have to share secrets she never intended to reveal. I received a prepublication edition of this title courtesy of Harper and NetGalley. Catherine Newman is also the author of other books I love: We All Want Impossible Things, Waiting for Birdy, and How to Be a Person: 65 Hugely Useful, Super-Important Skills to Learn Before You're Grown Up. 02 The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center Emma Wheeler writes romantic comedies, but she longs to be a screenwriter. But her life is complicated: her father requires a full-time caregiver, and Emma is it. But when she gets the chance to rework a script by the famous screenwriter Charlie Yates, she bends over backward to make it happen. Her sister steps in to help with their dad, and Emma moves to Los Angeles for six weeks of inspiring, career-building, life-changing work. Only, the last thing Charlie Yates wants is someone changing his (terrible) script. He doesn't even believe in love, and he's quite certain that Emma is not a solution to any of his problems. Can Emma make Charles believe in true love long enough to create something wonderful? I'm listening to The Rom-Commers as an audiobook courtesy of NetGalley and Macmillan Audio. 03 The Nature of Disappearing by Kimi Cunningham Grant In Kimi Cunningham Grant's newest thriller, The Nature of Disappearing, Emlyn is a wilderness guide who very deliberately tries not to think about the past--her fractured best-friendship, her failed love, and the vulnerability that allowed her heart to break. But when her estranged old friend Janessa goes missing under suspicious circumstances, Emlyn must team up with the man who broke her heart in order to try to find social media icon Janessa and, hopefully, bring her home safe. I'm listening to The Nature of Disappearing as an audiobook, courtesy of NetGalley and Macmillan Audio. Kimi Cunningham Grant is also the author of Fallen Mountains, Silver Like Dust, and These Silent Woods.

Tales of Brave World War II Women Other titles I considered listing here were the Bossy five-star read All the Light We Cannot See; The Women in the Castle, which includes a complicated sort of bravery; and the fantastic book for young readers, The War That Saved My Life, as well as its wonderful sequel, The War I Finally Won. Are there any others you would include on a list of World War II heroines? You might also like the books on the Greedy Reading Lists Six Great Books about Brave Female Spies and Six More Books about Brave Female Spies. 01 The Skylark's Secret by Fiona Valpy The Skylark's Secret has a dual timeline; the story is set in rural Scotland during World War II and decades later in the same village. Valpy's detailed setting and character development are wonderful, and I was equally invested in and engaged by both of the interconnected timelines. There's a low-key mystery Lexie is set on unraveling (key players are keeping secrets about events from decades past), and she's making initially hesitant attempts to reclaim love, the joy of music, independence, community, and general fulfillment. Not everything turns out happily in both timelines, but Valpy leaves the reader with a reassuringly satisfying ending. Different types of women's courage are shown in the World War II-era story as well as in the more modern timeline of the tale. For my full review of The Skylark's Secret, please click here. 02 The Light After the War by Anita Abriel Author Anita Abriel has said that this story is so fully inspired by her grandmother's story that she didn't even change the main characters' names. Abriel's grandmother Vera lived with the author's family when Abriel was growing up, and she was immersed in her grandmother's tales of life in Caracas, of Edith, of heartbreak, and of hope. Abriel offers a vivid account of the fear and dread—intermixed with sparks of hope—that sustained Vera and Edith during the war; their wonderfully brave, practical, creative routes to survival as single young women along with jarring adjustments to post-war floods of food, fashion, and joy; the evolutions of their careers; and each of their attempts to find a second chapter of love. Vera and Edith are such a complementary partnership, and I loved spending time with these strong young women. They're living through wartime challenges but weren't wartime spies or deeply involved in war efforts. I was taken by how remarkable the story was of the women's lives during this time of turmoil. Please click here for my full review of The Light After the War. 03 The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman The world is unraveling on the cusp of World War II, and three strong women will be tested beyond anything they imagined before the end of the war. The World That We Knew features the strong, gruff Hanni with a heart of gold; young Ettie, who is idealistic, tough as nails, and capable of deep love; and a heartbreakingly loyal and satisfyingly powerful golem, Ava. This was a beautiful book. The golem and heron and other ethereal elements could have been distracting, but they worked to add a dreamlike layer--and intriguing depth--to Hoffman's unusual World War II-set story. I was most struck by the character-driven World War II sections, which were haunting and lovely. Hoffman made me feel anchored to the characters so that the emotions, concerns, and life-and-death decisions the women grappled with in 1941 felt immediate and relevant. For my full review of this book, please see The World That We Knew. 04 Everyone Brave Is Forgiven by Chris Cleave After the war of course it will be like the start of spring, which is always so brilliantly sudden. The leaves will burst back onto the trees and close the gaps between the branches and we shall be startled--shan't we?--as we are startled at the end of every winter. We shall think: oh, I had quite forgotten.... In Everyone Brave Is Forgiven, Cleave tells the story of Mary, a young British socialite who shocks her family by volunteering for the war effort. She teaches the children evacuated from London, children society has rejected because of race, impairment, or other perceived faults. Tom is Mary's employer, and he's upset when his best friend Alastair enlists. The two men and Mary end up in a heartbreaking wartime love triangle. Set during the bleak years of 1939-1942 in London and on the strategic island of Malta, Everyone Brave Is Forgiven illustrates how everyday triumphs, failures, and concerns come together to shape lives, even during a momentous sequence of surrounding events such as World War II. The language and pacing is lovely, the World War II settings are exquisitely laid out, and the dialogue is darkly funny. I loved this! 05 Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum Most of us are drawn to this time period thinking it was a war of absolute good versus absolute evil—qualities rarely found in their purest form—and that’s true. But don’t forget that history isn’t just a study in black and white. Human behavior is comprised of ulterior motives, of gray shades. I was fascinated by the two points of view (mother and daughter) and the two time periods (World War II and the late 1990s) that Blum explores in Those Who Save Us. Blum's characters are far from perfect and are not all blameless and noble. In terms of illustrating women's bravery during the war, this book is unlike the others on this list. Anna is haunted by her wartime experiences and compromises, and she is fearful of Trudy's potential reaction to the heartbreaking truths of her mother's past. I was riveted by Those Who Save Us (and I love the multiple potential implications of the book's title). I had trouble with the convenience of the ending, but the story was so darn good, the weight of the ending mattered less to me than it otherwise might have. 06 The Ship of Brides by Jojo Moyes The multiple points of view and jumps backward in time felt choppy for a while, then Moyes laid the groundwork for a set of lives that evolve dramatically and intriguingly over the course of an ocean voyage, and I was hooked. Within the microcosm of a ship full of hundreds of women--and even more naval officers at the end of their wartime duty--Moyes captures end-of-war excitement and reflection; the women's limited options/roles/escapes from past mistakes; as well as male power; lack of free will for women; the tensions of the young men exhilarated to be alive; and the hesitant, excited, young brides living together in close quarters for weeks. There is some teasing manipulation that made me impatient, but I was fascinated by the factual basis for the story: the transport of over 600 brides from Australia to England in 1946, after World War II, to be reunified with their wartime husbands. Moyes's grandmother mentioned her own voyage on the HMS Victorious to the author, which inspired the framework for the book. I'd like to read more about the facts of that time and of voyages like this.

Ali Hazelwood brings her wonderful banter and an intriguing mystery to this steamy interspecies romance that has lots of heart and kept me hooked throughout. In Ali Hazelwood's Bride, an alliance between a Vampyre and an Alpha Werewolf builds into a paranormal loooove story. Misery Lark is the only daughter of the most powerful Vampyre in the region, and she'd prefer to literally and figuratively stay in the shadows--but she's been called to take part in the building of a peacekeeping alliance between the Vampyres and the Weres--in the form of an arranged marriage between Misery and a Were. Lowe Moreland is the Alpha of the Weres, and he's as unpredictable, volatile, and unforgiving as any Were stereotype Misery has ever heard. As a child, Misery was given up by her family and community as collateral to keep the peace. But Misery has her own reasons for willingly entering into this marriage--her best friend's safety may be on the line--and she's willing to do anything to get her questions answered. I forgot how steamy Hazelwood's books are, and Bride and its interspecies love is no exception. For me, there was a little bit of excessive detail in some of the racy moments, and the copious page time spent on sex scenes --which eventually seemed to take on a life of their own--meant that we lost some of the focus on wonderfully witty banter and the intriguing plot that hooked me so strongly in the first half of the book. I listened to Bride as an audiobook. Ali Hazelwood is also the author of Love, Theoretically and other books. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? If you like books about interspecies romance (yes, I just typed that sentence!), check out Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate series, which includes Soulless and Changeless.

In this mix of fictional and fascinating historical elements, Brown crafts a character-driven story of the shocking, widespread, deadly West Virginia Mine Wars and thousands-strong labor uprising that took place in 1920 and 1921. In Rednecks, Taylor Brown presents a historical novel centering around the real-life events of the 1920 and 1921 West Virginia Mine Wars. Ranging from the Matewan Massacre through the Battle of Blair Mountain, which pitted 10,000 desperate, fed-up miners against greedy, ruthless coal operators, state militia, and the U.S. government. Rednecks offers a mix of fictional and real characters in this riveting tale of rebellion and oppressive control--a story of the largest labor uprising in United States history. Brown unfailingly offers a character-driven tale set in a lushly built setting, with large-scale life-and-death, good-and-evil struggles that he brings to life through rich figures that fascinate and sometimes break your heart. What brings the book to life are versions of the real-life figures of Mother Jones (the elderly woman once called The Most Dangerous Woman in America) and the sharpshooter Sid Hatfield; and characters like Doc "Moo," a Lebanese-American doctor (inspired by Taylor Brown's great-grandfather); Big Frank, a black World War I veteran fed up with fear and intimidation; and Frank's feisty grandmother Beulah. The true events that inspired the book are shocking and often read like fiction--the cutthroat, sometimes deadly efforts of coal-company enforcers to subdue rebellion; the years of suffering for thousands of vulnerable mining families; and the hopeless trudge forward in a cycle of poor health, hunger, too-little pay and carefully orchestrated poverty, extremely dangerous work, and, often, death. By the time the uproar and intensive violence that shook West Virginia begin to take shape, Brown has laid the groundwork for the uprising. Much of Rednecks focuses on the brutal battles that defined the violence of the time, particularly the pivotal Battle of Blair Mountain. Minor note: Brown explores the origin of the term "rednecks," one that surprised me. I received a prepublication edition of this book courtesy of NetGalley and St. Martin's Press. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Taylor Brown is also the author of 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, plus other novels.

Flawed main characters Jack and Elizabeth try to find their way back to an emotional connection in this literary fiction work. Wellness is wry and poignant, and the absurdities of modern life that Hill explores sometimes feel disconcertingly on point. Jack and Elizabeth are strangers living across an alley in a gritty artists' area of 1990s Chicago, and they're immediately and powerfully drawn to each other. As they grow older, their mutual rejection of societal expectations begins to soften. They marry, have a baby, and aim to own a house. But somewhere along the way, they lose sight of each other--and of themselves. Nathan Hill pokes fun at the absurd extremes of the search for modern wellness and the manipulative power of social media and the order of internet searches. We learn about Elizabeth and Jack's histories and motivations, their stunted emotional statuses and the deep hurts inflicted upon them. They must dive into their own secrets, trauma, career weaknesses, faulted parents, and fractured families if they have any hope of salvaging their own marriage. In Wellness, Hill considers partners' sometimes unique views of fulfillment and whether two people can come together in a marriage--changing, growing, and staying happy without subsuming their individual dreams and desires. Wellness is darkly funny, intriguing, and, at times, poignant. I was frequently uncomfortable reading the grim truths about our world that Hill lays bare, but I smiled at the wry humor here as well. I listened to Wellness as an audiobook. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Nathan Hill is also the author of The Nix.

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading The Goddess of Warsaw, Lisa Barr's dual-timeline historical fiction set in 1943 Warsaw and 2005 Los Angeles; I'm listening to Wellness, Nathan Hill's darkly funny, poignant exploration of modern marriage and present-day obsession with fitness and happiness; and I'm listening to Ali Hazelwood's paranormal romance, Bride. What are you reading these days, bookworms? 01 The Goddess of Warsaw by Lisa Barr In Lisa Barr's newest historical fiction, The Goddess of Warsaw, the author tells a story in two timelines. In 1943 Warsaw, socialite Bina Blonski is imprisoned in the ghetto with her husband and thousands of her fellow Jewish citizens. She becomes a spy and begins to resist against the Nazis--but when she falls for another resistance fighter (her brother-in-law), things get even more complicated. In 2005 Los Angeles, Sienna Hayes is a Hollywood actress looking to direct. When she meets Golden Age movie star Lena Browning, she becomes determined to make a documentary about Lena's life. But Lena is actually Bina--and her life has been far more complex than almost anyone knows. I received a prepublication edition of this title courtesy of Harper Perrenial and Paperbacks and NetGalley. 02 Wellness by Nathan Hill Jack and Elizabeth are strangers living across an alley in a gritty artists' area of 1990s Chicago, and they're immediately and powerfully drawn to each other. As they grow older, their mutual rejection of societal expectations begins to soften. They marry, have a baby, and aim to own a house. But somewhere along the way, they lose sight of each other--and of themselves. Nathan Hill pokes fun at the absurd extremes of the search for modern wellness while considering individuals' views of fulfillment and whether two people can come together in a marriage, change, grow, and stay happy without subsuming their dreams and desires. So far Wellness is darkly funny, intriguing, and, at times, poignant. I'm listening to Wellness as an audiobook. 03 Bride by Ali Hazelwood In Ali Hazelwood's Bride, an alliance between a Vampyre and an Alpha Werewolf builds into a paranormal loooove story. Misery Lark is the only daughter of the most powerful Vampyre in the region, and she'd prefer to literally and figuratively stay in the shadows--but she's been called to take part in the building of a peacekeeping alliance between the Vampyres and the Weres--in the form of an arranged marriage between Misery and a Were. Lowe Moreland is the Alpha of the Weres, and he's as unpredictable, volatile, and unforgiving as any Were stereotype Misery has ever heard. But Misery has her reasons for willingly entering into this marriage--and she's willing to do anything to reach her secret goals. I'm listening to Bride as an audiobook. Ali Hazelwood is also the author of Love, Theoretically and other books.

Musicians' Must-Read Memoirs I'm a biiiig memoir fan, and I love behind-the-scenes peeks. These six memoirs from musicians offer stories about the authors' lives, loves, and work, and they each kept me hooked. For more more more memoirs I've loved that you might want to try, check out some of these Greedy Reading Lists: Six Fascinating Memoirs to Explore Six More Fascinating Memoirs to Explore Six Illuminating Memoirs to Dive Into Six Illuminating Memoirs I've Read This Year Six More Illuminating Memoirs to Lose Yourself In Six Foodie Memoirs to Whet Your Appetite Six Powerful Memoirs about Facing Mortality And feel free to search the blog for even more! 01 Songteller: My Life in Lyrics by Dolly Parton Parton shares the background and context for 175 of her songs, frankly discussing her inspiration, life, and the formerly untouchable topics she dove into headfirst through songs. What's better than listening to Dolly talk about her inspirations, her artistic journey, her joys and her silliness, those who have influenced her, and her motivations--along with short musical snippets? Nothing. This is a fast-paced book, as Dolly talks about various thoughts as related to 175 of her songs, while country music author Robert K. Oermann intersperses short introductions to add structure and background. I adored listening to Dolly laugh and ponder and reminisce and reflect. Through decades of straight-talking song lyrics, she has instinctively and repeatedly offered sympathetic points of view of the persecuted, disrespected, and dismissed: prostitutes, the poor, unwed teenage mothers, and more. Dolly's offhanded mentions of endless projects, ideas, collaborations, and plans make clear she's one of the hardest working women in show business. For my full review, please see Songteller. 02 Blood by Allison Moorer "I'm still trying not to be the daughter of a murderer. I'm still trying to redeem [my parents]. I carry the structure of their bones around my insides...and try to tell the world, '...They were more than that.'" Allison Moorer is a Grammy- and Academy Award- nominated singer-songwriter whose father killed her mother when Allison and her sister, recording artist Shelby Lynne, were young. A longtime musical storyteller, Moorer examines her parents, her youth, and that pivotal tragedy, considering how it has shaped her into her adult self and how much of her identity is (and how much can be) separate from that horrifying event and its endless repercussions. There's a lot of pain here. But Blood doesn't read as though Moorer is flogging her significant sorrow and anger or highlighting dramatic events for memoir or record sales. I felt like I was witnessing her step-by-step movement toward something that more closely resembles peace. Moorer's love of music (including her passion to write, sing, and harmonize) links many of these memories and pages. I listened to Lynne and Moorer's joint album, Not Dark Yet, while reading this book, and it was a beautiful backdrop. For my full review, please see Blood. 03 Broken Horses by Brandi Carlisle In Broken Horses, Brandi Carlile shares a beautifully open, poignant, tough, rich, gorgeous account of her life and career so far. The audiobook includes over thirty songs, and I highly recommend it. I often feel torn when I read celebrity memoirs, because while I understand that people must keep some of themselves for themselves, I often find myself greedily wanting more more more vulnerability, detailed experiences, specific inspirations, an exhaustive exhuming of pivotal moments--and also a panoramic view of a person and a career. If I'm getting a peek at a person, I also want it all, however unreasonable that may be. In Broken Horses, Brandi Carlile shares a beautifully open, poignant, tough, rich, gorgeous account of her life and career so far. She is thoughtful, humble, and so gracefully fluid and curious, I treasured each moment she shared here. I listened to Broken Horses as an audiobook. Carlile intersperses songs with stories about their impact on her or the influences that led her to write and create them. The songs are all included again at the very end of the book, by which point the listener understands their import. They felt incredibly powerful as a closure to her story. For my full review of this book, please see Broken Horses. 04 Open Book by Jessica Simpson Open Book is a mostly guileless look at stardom, motherhood, alcohol abuse, and finding herself. In Open Book, Jessica Simpson--who I don't know from her musical career, but from her life-on-display during early reality television days--explores her life, her ups and downs, her drinking-related missteps, and her failed loves. Interestingly, she spends far more page time on her relationship with John Mayer than on her life and reality television adventure with ex-husband Nick Lachey. (She also offers what ultimately amounts to a take down of Mayer that explores his extensive emotional manipulation, his elaborate interview accounts of his sexual escapades with her and others, and, incredibly, his use of the N-word during an interview). Simpson tracks her scrappy and determined rise to stardom, her religious faith, her reliance on and love for her friends, her deep familial attachments and conflicts, and her path to therapy, sobriety, and a happy marriage and parenthood. For my full review, check out Open Book. 05 The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music by Dave Grohl Grohl is funny, self-deprecating, and irresistibly tender-hearted as he recounts his musical influences, the twists and turns of his life, and his enthusiasm for music and musicians. I listened to Dave Grohl's memoir, in which he tracks his youth in Springfield, Virginia; through his stint in the band Scream; his incredible rise to fame as the drummer for Nirvana; through his grief and losses; to the incarnation and growth of his band Foo Fighters and beyond. His funny, self-effacing, thoughtful, sensitive, music-obsessed tone makes for captivating listening, and he recaptures his encounters--many feel to him like lucky flukes--with many of his musical idols in a way that feels genuine and appealing. He relates with starry-eyed enthusiasm his brushes with countless musicians he admires--and his collaborations with many of them. His excitement is contagious, and his many superlative descriptions of big events, pivotal moments, and people are endearing. For my full review, check out The Storyteller. 06 Never Broken: Songs Are Only Half the Story by Jewel Never Broken traces Jewel's origins, inspirations, struggles, and all she hopes for from her life in an emotionally open memoir I really enjoyed. I'm a longtime fan of the television show Alaska: The Last Frontier, which is about the Kilcher family--of which Jewel is a part. She only occasionally appears on the show, but she comes on occasionally to yodel (her grandparents came to Alaska from Switzerland around World War II) with her extended family, which I love to see. Anyhoo, in this memoir, the singer-songwriter traces her Alaskan origins, her first singing performances (at age 3 alongside her parents), how she began to write songs to express herself, and the now-famous story of a DJ airing her bootleg song and beginning her rise to fame when she was 18 and homeless, living out of her car. In Never Broken, Jewel shows really lovely extensive introspection and a detailed account of the fascinating-disturbing story of her youth. She shares her ongoing, active commitment to personal and emotional growth, bettering the world, being true to herself, and evolving through hardships. She seems like a good egg, and I really liked spending time with her through this memoir.

The Other Valley is literary fiction with a captivating setup: three adjacent valleys, each of which is a different timeline of the same world--and the complicated repercussions if interactions occur between them. Duty, love, redemption--I loved this. In Scott Alexander Howard's The Other Valley, teenaged Odile lives in an isolated community that's bordered by two worlds: one in which her same community is living in the past and one in which it's living in the future. Quiet Odile and her classmates are readying to apply for apprenticeships, and as she considers applying for the powerful Conseil, which makes decisions about who is allowed to anonymously travel between the worlds to observe loved ones from a distance, she accidentally sees and identifies visitors to her own world--and they're the parents of her young love. The Other Valley builds from a captivating premise and kept me hooked--through despair, love, duty, and resignation--with quiet power until the slightly twisty ending, which I loved. Howard's literary speculative fiction explores fate, free will, changing the past and implications for the future, and other fascinating issues. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? You might also like the books on my Greedy Reading Lists Six Riveting Time-Travel Stories to Explore, Six More Time-Travel Stories to Dive Into, and Six More Riveting Time-Travel Stories to Explore.

Just for the Summer is another Jimenez story with wonderful banter and a romantic connection that's anchored in and shaped by incredibly complicated life circumstances. Abby Jimenez is wonderful at crafting a satisfying romance that's anchored in serious issues, and in Just for the Summer, she offers up an irresistible rom-com premise with weighty, messy, real-life-imperfect conflicts galore. Justin and Emma are strangers, but they both seem to have the same curse: after they break up with someone, the next person that person dates ends up being their soulmate. A Reddit thread and unlikely coincidences bring Justin and Emma into contact, and their initial spark is undeniable. But Justin's family is going through an incredibly complicated and fraught time, and he's caring for his three younger siblings. Meanwhile Emma's unbalanced, often-absent mother is the reason she ended up in foster care over and over--and she's also the reason Emma can't settle down for more than a couple of months at a time. When Justin's situation keeps getting more stressful and Emma's mother shows up, will the potentially serious feelings between them stand a chance against the push of real-life troubles? Jimenez doesn't pull punches in crafting a heavy base of complicated, life-altering issues. Both main characters' mothers are faulted, far from perfect, and have made decisions that upend Justin and Emma's lives. In one case, it seems that grief and trauma are the cause of poor judgment; in the other, mental illness and narcissism seem to be the roots of destruction and harm. There aren't magical solutions or outlandish developments; Emma and Justin must live with the consequences, and they are significant. The conflicts that repeatedly keep Emma and Justin from their happy-ever-after feel plausibly limiting, yet their affection and banter are adorable, and their inability to overcome the obstacles in their way is heartbreaking. The best-friendships are fantastic. Characters from other Jimenez books appear, although it took me time to figure out that Alexis, Daniel, and Neil were from Part of Your World. I think Emma's best friend Maddy probably needs her own book (a la Christina Lauren's fantastic True Love Experiment spinoff for best friend Fizzy). I listened to Just for the Summer as an audiobook. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Jimenez is also the author of Part of Your World, Yours Truly, The Friend Zone, and The Happy-Ever-After Playlist.

Crosley's memoir traces a treasured friendship and the gutting loss of that dear friend. She's vulnerable enough to allow the reader in on her messy, sometimes fantastical, often poignant search for answers, meaning, and hope in the future. In Sloane Crosley's memoir Grief Is for People, she explores life after the loss of her closest friend. A month before that horrible loss, her New York City apartment is burgled, and at that time, all of her tenuous physical links to her past and family members--mixed though her emotions may be concerning some of them--are suddenly gone. She obsesses over trying to track down the robber, can't let go of the fear that he might have targeted her specifically, and feels as though solving the mystery of who stole from her and why could resolve other, larger problems in her life. Crosley mentally links the theft to the gutting death of her beloved friend, retracing the path of their friendship, her struggle to understand her friend's reasoning and unknown despair, and her deep, dark sense of loss. The author allows the reader into her mind as she follows a messy, everchanging, zigzagging route toward trying to find answers, toward trying to craft resolutions to open-ended loss, and to trying to somehow move forward. I was intrigued by Crosley's mindset and the dark humor, devastating grief, and powerful memories she shares here. I listened to Grief Is for People as an audiobook. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Sloane Crosley is also the author of Cult Classic, I Was Told There’d Be Cake, The Clasp, Look Alive Out There, and How Did You Get This Number.

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading The Other Valley, Scott Alexander Howard's literary speculative fiction about the implications of traveling back and forth through time; I'm listening to Abby Jimenez's newest story, another of her rom-coms with weighty issues at its core, Just for the Summer; and I'm listening to Sloane Crosley's memoir about the loss of her best friend, Grief Is for People. What are you reading these days, bookworms? 01 The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard In Scott Alexander Howard's The Other Valley, teenaged Odile lives in an isolated community that's bordered by two worlds: one in which her same community is living in the past and one in which it's living in the future. Quiet Odile and her classmates are readying to apply for apprenticeships, and as she considers applying for the powerful Conseil, which makes decisions about who is allowed to anonymously travel between the worlds to observe loved ones from a distance, she accidentally sees and identifies visitors to her own world--and they're the parents of her young love. Howard's literary speculative fiction explores fate, free will, changing the past and implications for the future, and other fascinating issues. 02 Just for the Summer (Part of Your World #3) by Abby Jimenez Abby Jimenez is wonderful at crafting a satisfying romance that's anchored in serious issues, and in Just for the Summer, she offers up an irresistible rom-com premise with weighty, messy, real-life-imperfect conflicts galore. Justin and Emma are strangers, but they both seem to have the same curse: after they break up with someone, the next person that person dates ends up being their soulmate. A Reddit thread and unlikely coincidences bring Justin and Emma into contact, and their initial spark is undeniable. But Justin's family is going through an incredibly complicated and fraught time, and he's caring for his three younger siblings. Meanwhile Emma's unbalanced, often-absent mother is the reason she ended up in foster care multiple times--and the reason she can't settle down for more than a couple of months at a time. When Justin's situation keeps getting more stressful and Emma's mother shows up, will the potentially serious feelings between them stand a chance against the push of real-life troubles? I'm listening to Just for the Summer as an audiobook. Jimenez is also the author of Part of Your World, Yours Truly, The Friend Zone, and The Happy-Ever-After Playlist. You might also like the books on my Greedy Reading Lists Six Great Light Fiction Stories Perfect for Summer Reading and Six More Great Light Fiction Stories. 03 Grief Is for People by Sloane Crosley In Sloane Crosley's memoir Grief Is for People, she explores life after the loss of her closest friend. But a month earlier, her New York City apartment is burgled, and all of her tenuous physical links to her past and family members--mixed though her emotions may be concerning some of them--are suddenly gone. Crosley links the theft to the gutting death of her beloved friend, and she allows the reader into her mind as she follows a messy, everchanging, zigzagging route toward trying to find answers, toward trying to craft resolutions to open-ended loss, and to trying to somehow move forward. I'm listening to Grief Is for People as an audiobook.

My very favorite Bossy May reads! Here are the six books I most loved reading this past month. If you've read any of these titles, I'd love to hear what you think! And I'd also love to hear: what are some of your recent favorite reads? 01 The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak Elif Shafak's The Island of Missing Trees explores past Turkish-Greek conflicts in a small island community while illustrating the interconnectedness of grief, love, community, and nature in this heartwarming literary fiction story. Since her mother Defne went into a coma and never woke up, young loner Ada Kazantzakis has continued to live in London with her distracted botanist father Kostas, who has little brain space for anything but his plants. A fig tree with its own voice and point of view--I loved that there was no explanation, just a plunge into this omniscient, sometimes prickly, often opinionated view--witnessed Kostas's young love with Defne. The fig tree shares the story of the young lovers and while exploring the conflicts between Turkish and Greek characters in the book, also emphasizes the interconnectedness of nature and of humans over the centuries through her ecologically-centered vision of life. The ending section is lovely, with heartwarming promise, hope, resolution, and a fig-tree-related revelation that I loved. I listened to The Island of Missing Trees as an audiobook. For my full review of this book, please see The Island of Missing Trees. 02 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 even love in the face of despair. As Lauren Grodstein's We Must Not Think of Ourselves begins, it's November 1940, and Adam Paskow is one of the thousands of Jews newly imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto. He teaches English to children and adjusts to the shock of living in a flat with many other people--and understanding that this is his new reality. The heart of this story was inspired by the real-life project aimed at preserving the testimonies of Jews in the Ghetto, code named Oneg Shabbat. Stories of various characters are interwoven through the historical fiction novel and add depth to the story. Adam finds love in unlikely places, recalls his life, and finds ways to try to make a difference in the face of despair. Grodstein presents this incredibly difficult situation through various characters' attempts to accept impending doom, their wavering hope, and the incredibly powerful bonds they build to each other. I listened to We Must Not Think of Ourselves as an audiobook. Click here for my full review of We Must Not Think of Ourselves. 03 Baby X by Kira Peikoff Baby X explores the complex issues around an imagined future with genetically chosen embryos; Peikoff also digs into origin stories and sense of identity, duty, trust, and vulnerability in the various storylines of this intriguing book. In an imagined United States of the near future, any cell can be transformed into an egg or sperm. The process of creating embryos has been revolutionized, and parents can use Selection to analyze and choose an embryo based upon certain traits they desire in their offspring. But anyone with nefarious intent can theoretically create an embryo with the DNA of anyone with whom they've come into contact and obtained cells from. This means that sought-after DNA specimen sources such as celebrities are in potential danger of having their DNA stolen while going about their daily lives--and ultimately having biological children that they're unaware of. I was happily intrigued by how all of the pieces of this story fit together, and the revelations that came late in the book kept me hooked. Meanwhile Baby X explored interesting, complex, sometimes moral and ethical issues, including those around choosing qualities in a baby, balancing various dangers and promising traits. Peikoff also touches on the importance of origin stories and identity, and her characters fight to trust, to show vulnerability, and to do the right--sometimes difficult--thing. Click here for my full review of Baby X. 04 Betting on You by Lynn Painter Lynn Painter delivers funny, charming banter and an opposites-attract tension in this heartwarming rom-com about divorce, trust, blended families, and vulnerability. In Lynn Painter's rom-com Betting on You, rule-following seventeen-year-old Bailey and sarcastic, joking Charlie meet at a fraught moment--they're both leaving Alaska and coping with their parents' divorces. They're polar opposites, and they drive each other crazy. Now they're living in the same hometown again, and, coincidentally, they're about to be working together at a bizarre hotel fun park. When Bailey and Charlie fake date in order to try to thwart the new relationship between Bailey's mom and her always-around boyfriend, Bailey realizes she's got feelings for Charlie. And Charlie's emotionally immature, but he's never let his guard down the way he does with Bailey. Painter delivers charming and funny banter, emotional growth, deep friendship, plausible missteps that keep the couple apart, heart-wrenching moments of vulnerability, and heartwarming looooove. Please click here for my full review of Betting on You. 05 The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year by Margaret Renkl This gorgeously written set of fifty-two love letters to nature encourage reflection and urge the reader to pause to honor even the less glamorous wonders of wilderness. In The Comfort of Crows, Margaret Renkl offers a literary, nature-focused devotional of 52 chapters, each meditating on an element inspired by her close examination of the goings-on in her backyard. Renkl's beautiful, striking observations range from a New Year's Day sighting of a crow and her exploration of crows' senses of community and cleverness, which she hopes set a tone for the year to come; to a grief-stricken examination of deadly fads such as the desire to have a vibrant green yard, free of weeds, and the widespread impacts of the poisonous chemicals required to achieve such a thing. Renkl weaves in stories of her pivotal childhood encounters with nature, and for me the book really shone when she included her family's current shifts and changes in poignant passages she linked to her observations of nature. I adored this element--possibly because with a senior in high school, I am also facing enormous pending alterations to the makeup of our household. I listened to The Comfort of Crows as an audiobook, but I think this one would have been even better read as a physical book for easier pausing and pondering. For my full review, check out The Comfort of Crows. 06 The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley This captivating story involves time travel, but it's primarily about deep human connections, complete with fantastic, funny banter; awkward adjustments to the time period; and love and deep heartbreak. The ending is wonderful. In a world of the near future, a young (unnamed) woman is one of several civil servants offered a mysterious job: she'll be a handler for expats--and paid very handsomely for her work. But the expats the government is gathering aren't necessarily from another country. They're from other times in history. The main protagonist's focus in her work is Commander Graham Gore (a character based upon a real figure from history), who has been whisked from a desperately failed expedition in 1847 to the book's future setting. In order to be a "bridge" for Gore between his past and the present, she'll have to explain why she's showing so much skin, why it's not healthy to smoke all day, and what a washing machine is. But the bridge and her client are building bonds deeper than either could have imagined; the love story between the bridge and Gore is strange, heartwarming, steamy, fraught, and just lovely. For my full review, please see The Ministry of Time.

Sarah Grunder Ruiz serves up an irresistible rom-com with great banter and with interesting and difficult, complex issues of loss, grief, and responsibility at its heart. Jo Walker is a yacht stewardess. She fell into the job years ago while trying to find herself--after a youth in which her father died, her mother fell apart, her older sister Beth became pregnant by (and married) her beloved high school sweetheart--and after Jo moved in with the young married couple while she finished high school. But none of Jo's losses or disappointments or life experiences could have prepared her for the horrific, shocking loss of her young nephew Samson, Beth's youngest child (and Jo's birthday twin), in a biking accident. Months later, Jo's grieving sister sends her two living children, Kitty and Mia, to stay with Jo for the summer. Jo has been set on achieving a zany bucket list of items before her thirtieth birthday--and the girls are set on helping her any way she can. But the girls' emotional pain naturally creeps through, and it's bringing up uncomfortable feelings in Jo--who vividly remembers the loss of her beloved father when she was young and who adored Samson. She has always pushed down her grief, but she wants the girls to be able to lean on her. Meanwhile, Jo keeps crossing paths with a handsome, charming man new to town. But she's sworn off of relationships since her last boyfriend cheated on her, so she supposes they'll have to just be friends. Or is she reconsidering her stance on love after all? I enjoy a rom-com with a solid center of complex issues, and Love, Lists and Fancy Ships (side note: I really want to add a serial comma into this title) serves up depth: grief and loss, fractured futures, clinging to familial relationships, fearing change, the sadness of moving forward, and the heartbreaking reckoning with perceived responsibility for events leading to loss. The tension that keeps Jo and Alex apart feels plausible, and I accepted the difficulties each faces when considering a commitment to the other. I loved the best-friendship with Nina, the messy path of grief, and the imperfect characters all doing their best. I welcomed with open arms the happy ending served up by Sarah Grunder Ruiz. I listened to Love, Lists and Fancy Ships as an audiobook. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? You might also like the books on my Greedy Reading Lists Six Rom-Coms Perfect for Summer Reading and Six More Great Rom-Coms Perfect for Summer Reading.

Lynn Painter delivers funny, charming banter and an opposites-attract tension in this heartwarming rom-com about divorce, trust, blended families, and vulnerability. In Lynn Painter's rom-com Betting on You, rule-following seventeen-year-old Bailey and sarcastic, joking Charlie meet at a fraught moment--they're both leaving Alaska and coping with their parents' divorces. They're polar opposites, and they drive each other crazy. Now they're living in the same hometown again, and, coincidentally, they're about to be working together at a bizarre hotel fun park. But now that they're letting down their guards, commiserating about their complicated home lives, and speculating about the imagined private lives of the hotel guests, Bailey thinks Charlie is actually pretty fun, and she looks forward to her work shifts. Charlie is starting to see the appeal in Bailey's honesty and frank approach to communicating. When Bailey and Charlie fake date in order to try to thwart the new relationship between Bailey's mom and her always-around boyfriend, Bailey realizes she's got feelings for Charlie. And Charlie's emotionally immature, but he's never let his guard down the way he does with Bailey. But the hotel guests' romantic futures aren't the only ones Charlie has placed a bet on. When Bailey finds out that Charlie offhandedly asserted he could get her to fall for him, it threatens to doom any potential relationship between Charlie and Bailey before it can even start. Painter delivers charming and funny banter, emotional growth, deep friendship, plausible missteps that keep the couple apart, heart-wrenching moments of vulnerability, and heartwarming looooove. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Lynn Painter is the author of another rom-com I adored, Better Than the Movies, as well as Happily Never After, Accidentally Amy, Mr. Wrong Number, and other books I haven't yet read.

Elif Shafak's The Island of Missing Trees explores past Turkish-Greek conflicts in a small island community while illustrating the interconnectedness of grief, love, community, and nature in this heartwarming literary fiction story. My friend James and I were recently sharing book recommendations, and he mentioned this author and this book in particular, so I added it to the top of my to-read list. Since her mother Defne went into a coma and never woke up, young loner Ada Kazantzakis has continued to live in London with her distracted botanist father Kostas, who has little brain space for anything but his plants. A fig tree with its own voice and point of view--I loved that there was no explanation, just a plunge into this omniscient, sometimes prickly, often opinionated view--witnessed Kostas's young love with Defne. The fig tree shares the story of the young lovers and while exploring the conflicts between Turkish and Greek characters in the book, also emphasizes the interconnectedness of nature and of humans over the centuries through her ecologically-centered vision of life. Ada is seeking a meaningful link to her past, meanwhile her stranger of an aunt emerges, and with her, the possibility of filling in missing pages of Ada's parents' story--and therefore Ada's own. The fig tree offers the reader much of the material that fills in the blanks: what really occurred between Ada's parents over the years; which factors drove them apart and brought them back together; and the mysteries that swirled around pivotal moments of the past. The ending section is lovely, with heartwarming promise, hope, resolution, and a fig-tree-related revelation that I loved. I listened to The Island of Missing Trees as an audiobook. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Elif Shafak is also the author of There Are Rivers in the Sky, Three Daughters of Eve, The Forty Rules of Love, The Bastard of Istanbul, The Architect's Apprentice, and many other novels.

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading Amor Towles's collection of short stories and a novella, Table for Two; I'm listening to Sarah Grunder Ruiz's Love, Lists and Fancy Ships, about a yacht stewardess who is caring for her grieving nieces while also trying to a check off an ambitious list of bucket list items before she turns 30; and I'm reading Steven Rowley's sequel to The Guncle, The Guncle Abroad, in which Uncle Patrick tries to support Maisie and Grant five years after the death of their mother--as Patrick's brother Greg prepares to remarry in Italy. What are you reading these days, bookworms? 01 Table for Two: Fictions by Amor Towles In Table for Two: Fictions, Amor Towles offers six short stories set in New York City and a novella featuring a beloved Towles character that's set in the Golden Age of Hollywood. In the novella Eve in Hollywood, Towles imagines the events following Rules of Civility, which ends with Evelyn Ross's departure from New York in 1938 and the train journey she extends to Los Angeles. The six New York-set stories all take place around the year 2000, and they consider the impacts of chance encounters, the complications of modern marriages, and more. Amor Towles is also the author of The Lincoln Highway, A Gentleman in Moscow, a book I really liked, and Rules of Civility, which I was even more taken with--the old NYC setting was so vivid, it felt like its own character. 02 Love, Lists and Fancy Ships by Sarah Grunder Ruiz Jo Walker is a yacht stewardess. She fell into the job years ago while trying to find herself--after a youth in which her father died, her mother fell apart, her older sister Beth became pregnant by (and married) her beloved high school sweetheart, and after Jo moved in with the young married couple while she finished high school. But none of Jo's losses or disappointments or life experiences could have prepared her for the horrific, shocking loss of her young nephew Samson, Beth's son and Jo's birthday twin, in a biking accident. Months later, Jo's grieving sister sends her two living children, Kitty and Mia, to stay with Jo for the summer. Jo has been set on achieving a zany bucket list of items before her thirtieth birthday--and the girls are set on helping her any way she can. But the girls' emotional pain naturally creeps through from time to time, and it's bringing up uncomfortable feelings in Jo--who vividly remembers the loss of her beloved father when she was young and who adored Samson--who has always pushed down her grief. Meanwhile, Jo keeps crossing paths with a handsome, charming man new to town. But she's sworn off of relationships since her last disappointing boyfriend cheated on her, so she supposes they'll have to just be friends. Or is she reconsidering her stance on love? I'm listening to Love, Lists and Fancy Ships as an audiobook. 03 The Guncle Abroad by Steven Rowley It's been five years since Patrick O'Hara served as a caregiver for his niece Maisie and nephew Grant the summer after their mother died. Patrick's acting career has taken off, and he's wrapping his second successful TV series. His own love life is stagnant, but his brother Greg has announced plans to get remarried--in Italy. Maisie and Grant are not fans of their dad's plan, and Patrick steps in to try to support them--but he also has other concerns: Greg seems to have cold feet, and the upcoming wedding is causing multiple layers of mayhem within the extended family and beyond. But how can Patrick try to teach Grant and Maisie about loving again when he's cut himself off from relationships? Could he ever be open to a new love? I received a prepublication edition of this title courtesy of NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam. Steven Rowley is also the author of The Guncle and The Celebrants. He is married to Byron Lane, the author of A Star Is Bored, a book I loved.

Do you enjoy a character-driven Western? I appreciate an unflinching reflection of the atrocities visited upon the indigenous peoples of our continent because white people explored and settled in the West. I'm also fascinated by the optimistic explorer spirit--and I love reading about strong female characters in a time when the world around them didn't typically support women's strength and determination. If you're interested in books like those listed here, you might also like the titles on my Greedy Reading List Six Great Historical Fiction Stories Set in the American West. And for great historical fiction of all types, look at: Six Historical Fiction Books I Loved in the Past Year and Six Historical Fiction Books I Loved This Year. Happy reading, bookworms! 01 Inland by Téa Obreht Much of Téa Obreht's Inland is centered around Nora, an impulsive, hot-tempered, strong woman fighting for a hardscrabble life for her family in a remote town during a devastating drought. The other plotline concerns Lurie, a man who has adventures and challenges with his surprising, loyal, exotic companion. The two disparate stories intersect in an unlikely way in 1890s Arizona Territory, and fantastical elements throughout make even the most jaded characters believe in the odd and implausible in this remarkable book. I read this story as an e-book and was therefore robbed of gazing at this gorgeous cover. I adore it. Random House Publishing Group provided me with a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. For my full review of Inland, please click here. 02 Whiskey When We're Dry by John Larison In 1885, Jessilyn Harney finds herself orphaned and alone on the homestead. Seventeen-year-old girls aren't safe on their own, so Jess cuts her hair, binds her chest, and saddles up for a trip across the mountains in search of her lawless brother Noah. Jess is such a good shot, she ends up working for the mean-as-a-snake governor of the territory--and finds that the governor's armed forces are hunting for Noah and intend to capture him, dead or alive. “What started the war, Pa?" His eyes settled on me. "Stories, Jessilyn. We tell ourselves the wrong stories.” I love love love a character-driven western. Jess's voice was fantastic. She grapples with the stories she's been told as compared to the reality she experiences as she makes her way. Whiskey When We're Dry is a rough, heart-wrenching, wonderful story from John Larison. 03 Only Killers and Thieves by Paul Howarth Surprise! This book is not set in the American West. But to my mind, the atmospheric setting and the tone of the story places it firmly in good company among the other books on this list, so I Bossily included it. Set in the Australian outback at the end of the 19th century, Only Killers and Thieves centers around one family’s conflicts with others and with each other. One poor judgment leads to another, foolish choices end in bloodshed, one brother makes justifications and feels no remorse while the other feels crushed by it all. Toward the end we see messy second chances take shape, a little retribution, and an attempt at a changed existence—but the haunting memories of the past creep in relentlessly. This is an often brutal book to read, but it was beautifully written, in a style that felt perfectly suited for the stark setting. I thought about this one long after I finished it. Disturbing and a mind churner. For my full review of this book, please see Only Killers and Thieves. Howarth has published a sequel, Dust Off the Bones, which I have not yet read. 04 Doc by Mary Doria Russell Surprise again! Doc is nonfiction, but it reads like historical fiction (as opposed to a heavier nonfiction title like Tom Clavin's Tombstone, which also includes lots of Doc Holliday information), so I'm Bossily including it. I love Mary Doria Russell’s character-driven books, and this Western, set in Dodge City, Kansas, in the late nineteenth century, is a slow build rather than a dramatic, gun-slinging action story. Doc doesn’t focus on the Tombstone shootout, but instead on Doc Holliday’s life, his brotherlike friendship with the Earps, and his longtime relationship with a Hungarian noblewoman-turned-prostitute, Kate. Mary Doria Russell also interestingly explores Holliday's career as a dentist (at a time when the dental profession was tainted by traveling butchers and thieves), and his gallant, grumpy, well-read, mischievous, and generous-to-a-fault personality. The author also wrote The Sparrow, which I adored and gave five stars. She's such a gorgeous writer, I'd read anything she tried her hand at writing. 05 Into the Savage Country by Shannon Burke Into the Savage Country is a serenely told story of a band of fur traders--some wild, some considered gentlemen, some one of these but striving to be the other--striking out into the West in the first half of the 1800s. The writing style involves a lot of telling, which seemingly intentionally slows the pacing--and which I usually don't love, but here it gives a fittingly old-fashioned quality to the writing that feels as though it suits the time, the main protagonist, and the tale itself. The group encounters friendly and hostile Native Americans; copes with antagonized and antagonistic British trappers; is threatened with imprisonment; experiences cruel and potentially fatal betrayal by one of their own; faces the wild and its many dangers; suffers grave wounds; and saves each other's skin countless times--including after foolish situations (which seem as though they would have been easily avoided) such as literally waking a sleeping bear and baiting an injured bull. Yet because of the pacing, I didn't necessarily feel on the edge of my seat while I read about all of it. There is a deeper, quiet, surprisingly affecting story beneath the Western adventure, which is about trust, loyalty, sometimes begrudging but deeply felt affection, discovery of self-worth, celebrating differences, and love. And it's the pacing and tone of the story that allows for all of those elements to feel real. 06 News of the World by Paulette Jiles Captain Kidd has fought in three wars, and after the Civil War's end, he serves as a traveling news reader, providing eager listeners along his route with news from the world. Kidd somewhat reluctantly ends up agreeing to transport a young, recently rescued Kiowa captive 400 miles to her extended family. They'll have to pass through lawless lands to get to San Antonio, and Johanna isn't a willing participant in this venture, having become more culturally Kiowa over the years than white and unfamiliar with her remaining blood relatives. Not all of the members of my book club felt as strongly about this one as I did, but I adored every bit of this--Captain Kidd's reluctant but gentlemanly involvement and his voice, the character of Johanna, the Texas setting, the fits and starts of adventure, the noble heart of the story, the humor, and the heartbreak. I loved loved loved it. Jiles also wrote Simon the Fiddler and the glorious The Color of Lightning. Click here for my full review of The News of the World. (Who's seen the movie adaptation of this book, and if you have, what did you think?)

Barbara Brown Taylor is one of my favorite authors, but this slim, early book of hers didn't offer the candid, thought-provoking, wise voice I've loved in some of her other books. As Joseph Campbell once asked, what if the universe is not merely the product of God but also the manifestation of God.... Barbara Brown Taylor is an Episcopal priest who left a position as a church pastor and is now a college professor. I link below to my rave reviews of her books An Altar in the World (in which "Taylor explores the ways she grounds herself in everyday life while connecting with deeper meaning") and Holy Envy (which I described as "a thought-provoking, accessible look at world religions"). The Luminous Web, published in 2000, is a slim (74-page) book, quite different from either of those titles. The proposed exploration of the intersection of science and religion within The Luminous Web was an irresistible premise. I just didn't feel as though the book ever delivered depth on the topic. The book contains many (for me, it feels like too many) quotes from scientists and religious thinkers. Understandably, because the interplay between science and religion is complex, centuries old, and ongoing, the author doesn't assert earth-shattering revelations that resolve the challenges of reconciling science and religion, nor does she resolve the layered push and pull between reason and faith. I appreciated Barbara Brown Taylor's aim to close the gap between the sacred and secular, and I respected how she leant deeply into the unknowing wonder at the heart of faith. But when I finished the book, I found myself with as many, if not more, questions as I had when I began. Because I find BBT so illuminating, so candid, so thought-provoking, and so fully presented in her own voice in her other books, I was left feeling dissatisfied here. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Barbara Brown Taylor is also the author of An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith, Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others, Learning to Walk in the Dark, and Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith.

This captivating story involves time travel, but it's primarily about deep human connections, complete with fantastic, funny banter; awkward adjustments to the time period; and love and deep heartbreak. The ending is wonderful. In a world of the near future, a young (unnamed) woman is one of several civil servants offered a mysterious job: she'll be a handler for expats--and paid very handsomely for her work. But the expats the government is gathering aren't necessarily from another country. They're from other times in history. The main protagonist's focus in her work is Commander Graham Gore (a character based upon a real figure from history), who has been whisked from a desperately failed expedition in 1847 to the book's future setting. In order to be a "bridge" for Gore between his past and the present, she'll have to explain why she's showing so much skin, why it's not healthy to smoke all day, and what a washing machine is. But the bridge and her client are building bonds deeper than either could have imagined; the love story between the bridge and Gore is strange, heartwarming, steamy, fraught, and just lovely. I was obsessed with the various expats' awkward, funny, sometimes poignant adjustments to their new time, social expectations, technology, slang, and more. Their common disjointedness brings them together, and the mashup of personalities and histories was fantastic. This starts out witty and fun, grows dark and ominous, with suspect motives, corruption, deadly danger, and foreshadowing of heartbreak and endings. There are twists I didn't see coming, which I was willing to suspend my disbelief regarding; and my mind was bent around trying to follow some of the later strings of time and timelines. The ending is gorgeous and I just loved it. I received a prepublication edition of this book courtesy of NetGalley and Avid Reader Press, Simon and Schuster. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? To read about other books I've reviewed that play with time, please check out this link.

Quinn and Chang share an adventure- and danger-laden story of women artists, women of color, and women of various social classes in San Francisco just before the Great 1906 Earthquake--as well as their determination to find justice. In 1906 San Francisco, two very different women seek new beginnings: Gemma is a gifted soprano whose career is in need of an overhaul, while Suling is an embroideress in Chinatown who is set against entering into the marriage that's been arranged for her. Henry Thornton is a wealthy railroad magnate and owner of the mysterious Phoenix Crown, an artifact legendary because of its origins in Beijing's Summer Palace. Thornton draws both Suling and Gemma into his world by offering to be their patron. But Thornton isn't a selfless, kind benefactor--he's a cruel, cutthroat, flighty villain holding deadly secrets. When San Francisco is devastated by an earthquake and the widespread destruction of its aftermath, Thornton disappears--and the Phoenix Crown with him. Those he's left behind are traumatized, reeling from cruelties, close calls, and haunted by the deaths Thornton exacted on others. Five years later, the crown reappears--spurring more mystery and questions than answers. When the authorities require too much time and evidence to take control, the varied women he's left in his wake, far from cowed, become determined to take down Thornton themselves. At times the story felt as though it was shifting into overly dramatic soap-opera territory for me, and while I understood the buildup to the earthquake, I didn't enjoy the interjections of multiple omniscient countdowns to the event. Yet I loved the rich early-1900s San Francisco setting, the focus on the arts, the strong women characters, and the varied representation of classes and circumstances, so I was willing to go wherever Quinn and Chang were taking me. It's evident that the authors exhaustively researched the era, prominent figures, and circumstances within San Francisco for women, artists, people of color, and others. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Kate Quinn is the author of the fantastic titles The Diamond Eye, The Huntress, The Rose Code, and The Alice Network.

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading Taylor Brown's newest historical novel, Rednecks, which centers around the riveting battles and rebellion against oppression surrounding the West Virginia Mine Wars of 1920 and 1921; I'm reading Fiona McPhillips's upcoming debut, a suspense novel about a working-class student in a prestigious Dublin private school and the deadly secrets she attempts to uncover; and I'm listening to The Island of Missing Trees, Elif Shafak's magical novel about a young girl in London yearning for a connection to her extended family; her distracted widower father, a botanist; and a fig tree with a lot of opinions that witnessed her parents' love affair. What are you reading these days, bookworms? 01 Rednecks by Taylor Brown Taylor Brown is a must-read author for me, and I can't wait to dig into his newest book. In Rednecks, Brown presents a historical novel centering around the events of the 1920 and 1921 West Virginia Mine Wars. Ranging from the Matewan Massacre through the Battle of Blair Mountain, Rednecks offers a mix of fictional and real characters in this riveting story of rebellion and oppressive control. Brown unfailingly offers a character-driven tale set in a lushly built setting, with large-scale life-and-death, good-and-evil struggles that he brings to life through rich figures that fascinate and sometimes break your heart. I can't wait to dig into Rednecks. Taylor Brown is also the author of Wingwalkers, The Gods of Howl Mountain, Fallen Land, a title I loved and included in the Greedy Reading List Six Great Historical Fiction Stories about the Civil War, and other novels. I received a prepublication edition of this book courtesy of NetGalley and St. Martin's Press. 02 When We Were Silent Fiona McPhillips Louise Manson is new to Dublin's most exclusive private school, Highfield Manor. She's from a working-class family, and this sets her apart from the other students at Highfield. When Lou tries to bring a dark Highfield secret to light, she realizes that speaking out might be deadly. Three decades after her Highfield days, Lou receives a surprising phone call. A high-powered lawyer is assisting with a lawsuit against Highfield, and Lou could help piece together recent and long-hidden secrets, if she'd only be willing to relive the past. I'm reading When We Were Silent, scheduled for publication May 21, courtesy of NetGalley and Flatiron Books. This is the author's debut novel. 03 The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak My friend James and I were recently sharing book recommendations, and he mentioned this author and this book in particular, so I added it to the top of my to-read list. Since her mother Defne went into a coma and never woke up, young loner Ada Kazantzakis lives in London with her distracted botanist father Kostas, who has little brain space for anything but his plants. A fig tree with its own voice and point of view witnessed Kostas's young love with Defne and illustrates the interconnectedness of nature and humans through the centuries. Ada is seeking a meaningful link to her past and extended family; could a tree possibly be the answer? I'm listening to The Island of Missing Trees as an audiobook.

Do you love reading memoirs like I do? I love digging into the story of someone's life--notable because of chance, circumstance, or choice--and escaping into an eye-opening and fascinating memoir. If you love memoirs, you might also like the titles I listed on these Greedy Reading Lists: Six Fascinating Memoirs to Explore Six More Fascinating Memoirs to Explore Six Musicians' Memoirs that Sing Six Illuminating Memoirs I've Read This Year Six More Illuminating Memoirs to Lose Yourself In Six Foodie Memoirs to Whet Your Appetite Six Powerful Memoirs about Facing Mortality Six of My Favorite Memoir Reads Last Year I'd love to hear: What are some of your favorite memoir reads? 01 Here For It by R. Eric Thomas In Here for It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America, R. Eric Thomas, the creator of Elle's sassy and smart daily column "Eric Reads the News," shares his thoughts, experiences, and reflections about life and the world around us with honesty and humor. In essays that are sometimes heartbreaking, often inspiring, and that frequently made me laugh out loud, Thomas explores his sheltered youth, his growing realizations that he was different than most of the people he knew, his shame and fear about living as his authentic self, and his meandering path toward his current satisfying life circumstances. I listened to this as an audiobook, and I adored hearing Thomas's voice take me through his essays. His voice and delivery are fabulous. Here For It is refreshing and playful yet thoughtful. I loved spending time with the uproariously funny Thomas as he recounts how he's navigated situations large and small in his life. Thomas is also a host of The Moth storytelling podcast in D.C. and Philadelphia--and he certainly knows how to craft a compelling and full story out of a momentous moment. For my full review of this book, see Here For It. 02 Notes on a Silencing by Lacy Crawford Crawford thought the trauma of her assault at St. Paul's boarding school decades earlier was behind her. It had shaped who she was in many senses, but now she was a grown woman with a full life, and she was not regularly reliving the crushing weight of it as a vivid horror any longer. But when evidence of extensive sexual assault and new allegations at St. Paul's School came to light, she added her voice to the throng of the attacked and abused, opening her own long-closed (and hitherto unknown to her) file and seeing for the first time the brutal facts of her own attack, as well as the ensuing, elaborate efforts to keep secret the events surrounding her situation. Crawford's memoir lays bare systemic lies, gross injustices, horrifying abuses of privilege and power, and longstanding patterns of unprosecuted assaults at elite St. Paul's boarding school--as well as the persistent tragic, infuriating, shaming treatment of assault victims. The topic is crushing, but Crawford's writing is wonderful in its honest and unflinching reflections on society, her own experiences, the horrifying power of privilege, and the abhorrent treatment of assault victims. She tries to imagine the points of view of everyone involved, and she treats her young self with empathy. For my full review of this book, see Notes on a Silencing. 03 In Pieces by Sally Field Here's the list's celebrity memoir! I found Sally Field's discussion of her "craft" and how she grew and changed as an actor to be the most compelling aspect of the book--along with the politics of getting roles and how she finally began listening to her inner voice in all aspects of her life. Therapy (and acting, which also served as a sort of therapy) eventually allowed Field to come into her fully realized adult self, and this journey is satisfying to watch after living through the page time of her languishing and struggling for so long. I listened to this as an audiobook, and I loved hearing Field tell her story. I appreciate when a celebrity provides brutal honesty, and I also admit to sometimes becoming impatient with the navel-gazing necessary to create a memoir. Aaaand I realize that this is unfair since I chose to read this person's life story. For my full review of this book, see In Pieces. 04 Blood by Allison Moorer "I'm still trying not to be the daughter of a murderer. I'm still trying to redeem [my parents]. I carry the structure of their bones around my insides...and try to tell the world, '...They were more than that.'" Allison Moorer is a Grammy- and Academy Award-nominated singer-songwriter whose father killed her mother when Allison and her sister were young. A longtime musical storyteller, Moorer examines her parents, her youth, and that pivotal tragedy, considering how it has shaped her into her adult self and how much of her identity is separate from that horrifying event and its endless repercussions. There's a lot of pain here. But Blood doesn't read as though Moorer is flogging her significant sorrow and anger or highlighting dramatic events for memoir or record sales. I felt like I was following her on her honest, zigzagging, messy journey toward gaining more of an understanding of the people her parents were and the forces that shaped their lives (and their daughters' lives)--as though I was witnessing her step-by-step movement toward something that more closely resembles peace. The foreword was written by Allison's sister, singer and songwriter Shelby Lynne. Regarding their talking through their past together, Moorer says: "So many memories we share and purposely keep well-oiled. We keep them alive even if they hurt us and suck up all the air in the room. They are all we have of our folks and the family we were." For my full review of this book, please see Blood. 05 Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come by Jessica Pan Jessica Pan was an introvert out of a job. Her closest friends had moved away, and she found herself lonely, living in another country, and feeling too reliant on her husband for her entire social life. Pan decided to deliberately put herself into extremely uncomfortable social situations for a year, and she fully commits. She does improv, approaches strangers on the Tube, goes on friend dates, attends networking events, takes a vacation alone (to a destination she doesn't learn until she's at the airport), and more. She regrets her one-year plan almost instantly but feels compelled to continue her terrifying exercises. Her interviews and experiences with others who mentor her journey in different ways could have felt disruptive or jarring but didn't; they added a layer to her story that I found interesting and often revelatory. Pan is wonderfully honest, appealingly thoughtful, and often so so funny. I was so happy spending time in her point of view throughout this book. I loved it and I'd read another book by her in a second. For my full review of this book, please see Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come. 06 Wild Life by Keena Roberts Keena Roberts grew up splitting her time between a primate research camp in Botswana, where she felt at home, and an elite Philadelphia girls' school, where she did not. Wild Life's subtitle, Dispatches from a Childhood of Baboons and Button-Downs, felt whimsical and light. But Roberts's memoir doesn't merely explore her culture shock, as interesting as that is. She reflects upon her identity in a raw and genuine way that I found gripping. Her disparate life experiences ultimately led her to think deeply about her place in the world, her responsibility to humans and animals, and how she might better the lives of others. This memoir was more than I'd hoped for. I love a peek at wildlife and living in the wild. I adored reading Roberts's account of her journey, from acting in a supporting role for her parents' research to discovering her own challenging, meaningful, and important career and calling. For my full review of this book, please see Wild Life.

ICYMI: A death-row inmate's desperate need for escapism leads to an elaborate world of magical thinking and fantastical scenes in this brutal, beautiful novel. After a time, it seemed that the world inside the books became my world. So when I thought of my childhood, it was dandelion wine and ice cream on a summer porch, like Ray Bradbury, and catching catfish with Huck Finn. My own memories receded and the book memories became the real memories, far more than the outside, far more even than in here. Yesterday I reviewed Rene Denfeld's newest novel, Sleeping Giants, and it reminded me that my read and review of the author's book The Enchanted in 2014 predated this blog. The Enchanted brings us into the constricted world of a death-row inmate living in his "dungeon cell." He imagines a rich imaginary world full of fantastical visions, and these thoughts sustain him through his dark days. The only outsiders he encounters are limited visitors admitted to the prison; in his case, a former priest and the Lady--an investigator searching for information in the convicts' past histories that might exonerate them. When the Lady digs into complicated pasts, she finds large swaths of gray within the assignments that have been made of black and white truth, finding a mix of honorable acts and devilish motivations and disturbing, shocking secrets. The tone of The Enchanted is sometimes gorgeously, darkly ethereal and other times so grim and alluding to such graphic violence that I had to put down the book and take a break from reading. The books brought brilliance to my life, and they brought an understanding: Life is a story. Everything that has happened and will happen to me is all part of the story of this enchanted place--all the dreams and visions and understandings that come to me in my dungeon cell. The books helped me see the truth is not in the touch of the stone but in what the stone tells you. The moments of salvation (or at least dim hope) are that much more affecting because of the weight of the situation and the powerful way Denfeld presents the inmate's inner world and complicated past. It's been a decade since I read it, and I still think about this one. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Rene Denfeld is also the author of The Child Finder,  Sleeping Giants, and The Butterfly Girl.

I was taken with the main characters of the past storyline here: a young boy at a children's home and his unlikely best friend. When his sister tries to solve the mystery of his death, she and her own unlikely companion unravel secrets and danger. Almost thirty years ago, Dennis, a young boy from a children's home, washed away in the rough waves of an Oregon beach, and his body was never found. Now his sister Amanda, a young adult who first learned of Dennis while researching her birth mother, is trying to find out how Dennis escaped the children's home and what happened leading up to her brother's death. She and Larry, a new local friend--a recent widower and a former police officer--begin trying to find out the truth, but they meet with dead ends everywhere they turn. They believe that Dennis had an unorthodox friendship with a custodian at the boys' home, but can find out little else about Dennis's short life. Disturbing facts begin to emerge regarding the horrifying behavioral modification methods used at the home--and those who enacted them. Amanda and Larry are closer than ever to uncovering the whole, heartbreaking truth. I loved this premise At times, particularly in the middle of the story, things felt disjointed to me and jumped around in a way that I found jarring. While I enjoyed the trip to Alaska (I love an Alaska storyline) and the polar bear-focused parts of the story, it felt far afield from the main plot. I didn't suspect that Amanda was coping with cognitive challenges until late in the book when multiple mentions were made regarding this; maybe I simple missed the earlier clues? Things wrap up in quite neat fashion at the close of the story, but I didn't mind because of the justice being served and the mysteries' resolution. I'm haunted by Denfeld's author's note about the real-life--and recent--use of abusive confinement methods in some therapy. I mentioned Rene Denfeld's great book The Child Finder in the Greedy Reading List Six Chilly Books to Read in the Heat of Summer. Side note: I've read and reviewed another book called Sleeping Giants; that one was a science fiction story by Sylvain Neuvel. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Rene Denfeld is also the author of The Enchanted, The Child Finder, and The Butterfly Girl.