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This book is listed in the Greedy Reading List Six Captivating Nordic Stories.

This wonderfully creepy lesbian vampire story is largely about female empowerment, but also about love, discovery, reinvention, and revenge. I loved each time period and the evolution of each strong female character. Bury my bones in the midnight soil, plant them shallow and water them deep, and in my place will grow a feral rose, soft red petals hiding sharp white teeth. Schwab's lesbian vampire tale spans centuries, beginning in 1532 Santo Domingo de la Calzada as a young woman named Maria makes choices to shield her from being a man's pawn and vessel for children until her death--then enters into a future she never could have imagined. In 1827 London, naive young Charlotte lives a sheltered, lovely pastoral life, until an indiscretion results in her banishment to London society. There she encounters an intriguing widow with promises of freedom with deep repercussions. And in 2019 Boston, Alice is trying to break out of her shell at college, and a one-night stand feels like a daring start. But the evening leaves her forever changed, and she's bent on finding answers--and revenge. She reaches out and runs her fingers through the ash. Knows she should feel horrified. But as she rises to her feet, all she feels is hungry. I loved that the women of each time insist upon creating situations in which they have autonomy and agency. For some, this means becoming a vampire and escaping men's foolishness, cruelty, or simply male-dominated societal control. Within the female-focused vampirism of the story, women demand even more from their lives, refusing to be limited by other women, by expectations, or by fear. They create their own versions of freedom, however unorthodox they may be. I enjoyed spending time in each time period. The storyline threading the three timelines together is deliciously intriguing, and a character that was initially a wilting flower finds her strength, her purpose, and her desire for vengeance, all of which is satisfying to witness. The pacing didn't flag, and this was a fast 535-page read. More Love for V. E. Schwab Schwab is also the author of The Fragile Threads of Power , Vengeful , and the wonderful Invisible Life of Addie LaRue , as well as the Shades of Magic series. (The first two books in that series are A Darker Shade of Magic  and A Gathering of Shadows , each of which I gave four Bossy stars. You can check out my review of book 3, A Conjuring of Light , here .)

Shirley Jackson wrote six novels, including We Have Always Lived in the Castle, two memoirs, and the

you're interested in immigrant stories, you might want to check out the books on the Greedy Reading List Six

French is the author of six books in the Dublin Murder Squad series: In the Woods, The Likeness (my absolute

You can find my review of Blake Crouch's Recursion (mentioned in the Greedy Reading List Six Riveting

This short novel explores an alternate-history, near-future, post-war San Francisco in which robots come I love a science-fiction story in which elements of humanity are explored, I love an alternate-history

If you're in the mood for more light fiction, you might try the titles on the Greedy Reading List Six

For other light fiction books I've enjoyed, check out the Greedy Reading List Six Lighter Fiction Stories

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading Molly Aitken's historical fiction novel set in 13th-century Ireland 01 Bright I Burn by Molly Aitken Molly Aitken's historical fiction Bright I Burn is based on the true

This book is part of my Greedy Reading List Six Riveting Time-Travel Escapes.

Davies's slim, luminous, heartbreaking novel sets a story of isolation and human connection against the brutal removal of impoverished citizens from the land in mid-19th century Scotland. He found himself wishing he could go back and start again and do everything differently. But time was the worst thing; time, it seemed to him now, was the only thing you couldn't change; whatever you did, it kept coming. Davies sets her slim, stark, beautiful, and heartrending story Clear  against the backdrop of the Scottish Clearances of the 19th century, in which impoverished citizens were driven off their land. John Ferguson, a minister in need of funds for his new church accepts the job (against the advice of his wife) of evicting Ivar, the sole inhabitant of a remote island off the northern coast of Scotland in 1843. A series of events leads from disaster to recovery, to connection and secrets, to a surprising set of revelations. After a terrible fall on the cliffs of the island, John Ferguson wakes to find himself being tended by a gentle giant in Ivar. Specifically, he is knitting red replacement sleeves for John's ruined coat. The men have no common language, and John, at first fearful of his vulnerability, then overtaken with cowardice, does not attempt to explain why he is present on the island. Instead, John attempts to learn and document Ivar's language and to learn about the island, dreading the day the boat returns to pick him up--and, unbeknownst to Ivar, permanently remove him from the only home he has ever known. The men develop a tender, heartwarming friendship separate from class, background, intellect, and societal expectations. John, at a distance from worries about his congregation and the future of Presbyterianism, as well as from his kind wife, sinks into Ivar's daily rhythm of working on the land, caring for animals, and finding wonder in nature. I have the cliffs and the skerries and the birds. I have the white bill and the round bill and the peaked hill. I have the clear spring water and the rich good pasture that covers the tilted top of the island like a blanket. I have the old black cow and the sweet grass that grows between the rocks, I have my great chair and my sturdy house. I have my spinning wheel and I have the teapot and I have Pegi, and now, amazingly, I have John Ferguson too. This is a slim book that is beautifully balanced between the tension of John's secret, Ivar's misplaced trust (and of the looming time when explanations will be forced) and the paused push of the outside world's pressures, as weather and basic human needs take precedence. Time passes as though in a vacuum, and the men's need for human connection overshadows all else. By the time John's wife appears--fresh from a rough sea journey, inspired to travel by a sense that John was in danger--the resolution feels heartbreaking, heartwarming, and utterly surprising in its generosity and departure from societal norms. I listened to Clear as an audiobook. More about Carys Davies Carys Davies is also the author of the novels West  and The Mission House , as well as two collections of short stories,  Some New Ambush  and  The Redemption of Galen Pike .

Are you interested in a historical fiction retelling of the story of King Edward, Lady Jane Grey, and #historicalfiction, #fantasyscifi, #series, #fourstarbookreview

This was also listed in my Greedy Reading List Six Riveting Time-Travel Escapes.

This book is part of my Greedy Reading List Six Fantastic Dystopian and Postapocalyptic Novels.

This book made my Greedy Reading List of My Six Favorite Summer 2020 Reads.

This book is on my Greedy Reading List Six Riveting Time-Travel Escapes.

Both of these books are listed in my Greedy Reading List of Six Fantastic Dystopian and Postapocalyptic

They're from other times in history. protagonist's focus in her work is Commander Graham Gore (a character based upon a real figure from history Their common disjointedness brings them together, and the mashup of personalities and histories was fantastic

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading Go as a River, historical fiction from Shelley Read; I'm listening version of Mary Otis's Burst, a story about a mother and daughter; and I'm reading Mary Sharratt's historical Mary Sharratt offers an exhaustively researched, fascinating historical fiction account of the life of

Henry's Beach Read was one of my favorite books last year, and it made it onto the Greedy Reading List Six

the final book in Black's Folk of the Air trilogy (I mentioned the series in the Greedy Reading List Six

Whitehead, inspired by a real-life reform school that abused and terrorized boys for over a century, shares a tale of racial injustice, abuse and horrors, terrible fear, and the very real threat of death at the hands of openly, willfully cruel white men. We must believe in our souls that we are somebody, that we are significant, that we are worthful, and we must walk the streets of life every day with this sense of dignity and this sense of somebody-ness. Elwood Curtis is a promising young man in 1960s Tallahassee. But when he hitchhikes with the wrong guy to his first day of scholarship university classes, he's unfairly sent to a boys' reform school, The Nickel Academy. The "Nickel Boys" endure endless injustices, abuse, and horrors, including the looming threat of being "disappeared" out back, never to be heard from again. But as naive as it may be, Elwood persists in pursuing justice and clinging to the moral high road just like his idol Martin Luther King, Jr., and he is unwavering in his ideals regardless of the dangers. His best friend Turner is more savvy, careful, and jaded, while loyal to Elwood. If everyone looked the other way, then everybody was in on it. If he looked the other way, he was as implicated as the rest. That's how he saw it, how he'd always seen things. In the midst of becoming pawns in the crooked trading away of the school's supplies to line the pockets of the corrupt men in charge, Elwood and Turner form a friendship that has repercussions for the rest of their lives. The Nickel Academy is based on a real-life reform school that, horrifyingly, abused boys for 111 years. The Nickel Boys doesn't shy away from infuriating, relentless, insidious, damaging, often deadly racial injustice and cruelties. I felt a little manipulated regarding the "twist" Whitehead introduces late in the book, but the living out of an identity and living into an envisioned future is a powerful element. I listened to The Nickel Boys  as an audiobook. For more fiction and nonfiction books about race Colson Whitehead is also the author of The Underground Railroad . For other titles that center around race, please check out the books at this link . For more nonfiction titles that focus on race, please click here .

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading The Goddess of Warsaw, Lisa Barr's dual-timeline historical fiction 01 The Goddess of Warsaw by Lisa Barr In Lisa Barr's newest historical fiction, The Goddess of Warsaw

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading Emma Donoghue's newest historical fiction, Learned by Heart, set series, One of Us Is Back; and I'm listening to Niall Howell's debut, Only Pretty Damned, which is noir historical Pretty Damned by Niall Howell I'm listening to Niall Howell's debut, Only Pretty Damned, which is noir historical

you're interested in memoirs that explore similar themes, check out the books on the Greedy Reading List Six

I mentioned Life After Life in the Greedy Reading List Six Fascinating Second-Chance, Do-Over, Reliving-Life

Wilkerson is exceptional at laying out absurdities, horrors, disturbing historical events, shocking trends Because of the music involved in the story, Mary Jane reminded me of the books on the Greedy Reading List Six

Isola , based upon the story of a real-life sixteenth-century woman, shifts between details of a life of moneyed ease and an abandonment on an unforgiving, uninhabited island after our main protagonist falls in love with the wrong person. Marguerite is heir to a fortune, but after she is orphaned, she grows into a young lady while her guardian Roberval squanders her inheritance. The unfolding of this continued theft and this absurd man's greedy, gratuitous mishandling of funds--which he legally pursues as a male distantly related to her, ugh--was enough to make my blood boil, but things deteriorate much further from there. As Marguerite enters into her early teens, she begins to fear that her cousin views her as a creepy match for himself. At the very least it becomes clear that he will pay no dowry in order to make another match for her. Instead, in a somewhat shocking turn of events, he forces her to sail with him to New France. But on the way, Marguerite falls for her guardian's servant. When their relationship is discovered, Roberval cruelly punishes them by abandoning them on an uninhabited island to perish. Marguerite, once a privileged, protected child of wealth and opportunity, must learn to survive in the wild. Chapters are preceded by tips from Anne of France to her daughter (from Lessons for My Daughter ) urging constant preservation of reputation, exuding modesty, maintaining a paralyzing fear of making errors, and striving for perfection in the form of delicacy and beauty. These prescribed behaviors suggest a goal of women's disappearing into the background, serving as beautiful, silent, ghostlike creatures. The highly controlled, minutiae-filled advice contrasts more and more starkly with Marguerite's desperate situation on the island and her necessary rejection of even the most basic societal expectations for her status (wearing shoes, using utensils, living a life without work, not developing freckles in the sun, and not dirtying her hands, much less killing, skinning, and processing animals) in order to cling to life. Her slowly deteriorating social and financial standing early in the book gives way to a fascinating, unforgiving stretch of life lived on the rocky island in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, bounded in part by Quebec, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and the Labrador Peninsula. As Marguerite taps into her inner strength, she builds a resolve to get home again. But if she is saved and delivered safely back, where will she make her home? How will she secure a future for herself? If her guardian is living, how will she remain safe from him? After a harsh winter, her guardian's ships sail by again, but veer away after spying her. But Marguerite won't give up hope. Now she knows she can see her way through any adversity. I was fascinated by each aspect of this tale, and Goodman transported me into the details and (often infuriating) dynamics of life at the time. Isola  is inspired by the story of the real-life sixteenth-century heroine, Marguerite de la Rocque de Roberval. I'd love to hear your Bossy thoughts about this book! I first read Allegra Goodman's work 25 years ago, when I enjoyed her novel Kaaterskill Falls . Since then she has published many more novels, including Sam . I received a prepublication edition of Isola courtesy of Random House and NetGalley.

Their settlement is on the roof of the American Museum of Natural History, and they hunt and gather in with her parents' researcher friends, her family helps try to save and further the exhibits of human history Nonie and her group carry a book holding precious history, and on their journey they encounter various

There Are Rivers in the Sky weaves together three stories set in three timelines, featuring disparate characters, to explore interconnectedness, the power of water, echoing tragedies, and the timelessness of the written word. Water remembers. It is humans who forget. In 1840 in London, young Arthur lives near the sewage-filled River Thames, desperate to escape poverty and his abusive household. In 2014 Turkey, ten-year-old Narin is living near the Tigris and is affected by a disorder that will cause her to go permanently deaf. And in 2018 London, Zaleekah, a hydrologist, moves into a houseboat on the Thames when she and her husband break up, but she can't shake her thoughts of suicide. There Are Rivers   in the Sky traces the stories of these three disparate characters living alongside rivers in three different times, interconnected by a single drop of water and "the Epic of Gilgamesh," an ancient poem that may have the power to change each of their lives. Later, when the storm has passed, everyone will talk about the destruction it left behind, though no one, not even the king himself, will remember that it all began with a single raindrop. Shafak uses the life-giving--and at times, through flood or pollution, life-taking--waters of the Tigris and the Thames to help shape this story in three timelines. Through Zaleekah's 2018-set story we explore climate change, pollution, and the consequences of abusing natural resources, as well as the questionable morality of private or museum ownership of other cultures' precious artifacts. Yet the river is a backdrop to her reimagined future, her newfound inner strength and search for love, and her renewed hope in life. Narin's story, aside from modern modes of travel and communication, feels like a tragedy pulled from deep in the past--and, in fact, it is said that the Yazidi people have been endlessly beaten down and massacred over and over again since ancient times. In a shockingly speedy escalation of force, Isis brings centuries-old hatred to trap and murder innocent Yazidis, eradicating communities in relentless genocide. And clever Arthur slowly pulls himself out of a London slum by lucking into an apprenticeship at a printing shop with nurturing mentors. His curiosity about antiquities leads him to the British Museum and, eventually, a key role in deciphering tablets, then a formative trip to the Middle East and Nineveh, which will be the source of his one true love and also his undoing. Shafak makes what could have been an unwieldy or disjointed-feeling set of complex situations into a tragically beautiful intertwined novel that shines a light on weighty issues at three points in space and time. I was haunted by this and fascinated as well. I received a prepublication edition of There Are Rivers in the Sky  courtesy of Knopf and NetGalley. I'd love to hear your bossy thoughts about this book. Elif Shafak also wrote the lovely The Island of Missing Trees . Shafak is a British-Turkish author of seventeen books, including eleven novels.

Shirley Jackson wrote six novels, including We Have Always Lived in the Castle, two memoirs, and the

If you like fiction about bands and music, you might like the books on the Greedy Reading List Six Rocking

of Killer Fashion: Poisonous Petticoats, Strangulating Scarves, and Other Deadly Garments Throughout History , She Kills Me: The True Stories of History's Deadliest Women, It Ended Badly: Thirteen of the Worst Breakups in History, and other books.

camper daughter of the owners has disappeared, God of the Woods ; and I'm listening to Joy Callaway's historical 03 What the Mountains Remember by Joy Callaway I love a North-Carolina-set story, and Joy Callaway's historical

Dunlap's debut novel explores early Edinburgh surgical schools, questionable methods of obtaining study subjects, a main protagonist's surprisingly believable entrée into body snatching, a forbidden love, and serial killers, and I was in for it all. I've heard comparisons drawn between A. Rae Dunlap's The Resurrectionist  and Caleb Carr's The Alienist , a suspenseful novel about the evolution of forensic science that I adored reading years ago, and while the books are quite different, I can appreciate the favorable association. Dunlap's debut novel is dark, twisty, gothic, and it's set in 19th-century Scotland as fictionalized versions of real-life serial killers Burke and Hare are terrorizing Edinburgh. James Willoughby is a na ï ve young medical student whose family fortunes have taken a negative turn, leaving him with a passion for studying medicine but no resources to pursue schooling. He becomes drawn into the underworld of body snatching when he seeks paid work to fund his studies--and begins to understand (and assist with) the process of obtaining cadavers for his surgery study. Ultimately, terrifyingly, his activities lead him to run into the cadaver-producing killers Burke and Hare. Dunlap does a wonderful job of bringing a spooky, fascinating underworld of Edinburgh to life, while also exploring the burgeoning surgery and medical school experience, and, against all odds, building the somewhat-reasonable-feeling case for James's horror-turned-acceptance on the subject of mining graveyards for bodies to study. At the center of the story there's a hesitant friendship, then a meaningful, playful, and poignant relationship between James and his "handler" (which is affected by the complication of societal intolerance for gay relationships in this period), plus the mystery of the disappearances of community characters, and an elaborate, amateur, exciting group attempt to catch Burke and Hare. I love Dunlap's writing and the way the author crafted this story. I'm definitely in for reading this author's future books! I'd love to hear your Bossy thoughts about this book! I read this title, published in December, courtesy of NetGalley and Kensington Books. For Bossy reviews of more books set in Scotland, please check out the titles at this link .

Mason's novel isn't simply a historical fiction story linked through timelines. But North Woods isn't a charming historical fiction novel.

01 A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham The summer Chloe Davis was twelve, six girls went missing

book felt clunky to me, bogged down by explanations of how Aaron's imagined world works and the basic history Eventually the story seemed to hit its stride, and the various demons, magical powers, dark histories

Makepeace spy mystery, The Trap ; I'm listening to Miss Morgan's Book Brigade , Janet Skeslien Charles's historical Brigade by Janet Skeslien Charles I love a book about scrappy librarians , and Janet Skeslien Charles's historical

in recent years has been primarily focused on shutting off the outside world, but the demands of a six

If you're into nonfiction, you might like the titles on the Greedy Reading List Six Compelling Nonfiction

friend @angelsmomreads recommended this book to me when I was talking about my Greedy Reading List Six

reclaim versions of their lives using competitive magical tasks, The Book of Love; and I'm listening to a historical Walsh Unsinkable is historical fiction set in two timelines by Jenni L. Walsh.

If you like compelling nonfiction, you might also want to check out the post Six of the Best Nonfiction

tensions and factors that led the town of Tombstone to live on in infamy in this very thorough look at the history At times the retracing of the town's history and the backgrounds of those involved in the climactic ride Reading this book reinforced the fact that my personal taste leans more toward character-driven historical

Safekeep feels claustrophobic, quiet, and hopeless, but unexpected shifts late in the story turn accepted histories relationships and made me question the basis for the story's loyalties and for the accepted family histories

If you like books that play with time, you may like the books on the Greedy Reading List Six Second-Chance

This book is part of my Greedy Reading List Six Riveting Time-Travel Escapes.

I mentioned my love for Hart's book The Last Child in the Greedy Reading List The Six Best Mysteries