The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading The Heiress, Rachel Hawkins's upcoming (January 9) gothic suspense novel, set in North Carolina and centering around a notorious socialite with a checkered past; I'm listening to The Stolen Heir, the first in Holly Black's Stolen Heir duology, which revisits characters and places from her Folk of the Air trilogy; and I'm reading the upcoming (January 9) young adult rom-com Dungeons and Drama, about a young woman with Broadway aspirations and the nerdy game store clerk she's fake dating in an elaborate attempt to rebirth her high school's spring musical. What are you reading these days, bookworms? 01 The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins When Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore dies, she's North Carolina's richest woman--and its most infamous. Ruby was the victim of a childhood kidnapping that turned the community of Tavistock on its head, and since then her power has grown--as has her list of dead husbands (four). But high in the Blue Ridge Mountains, on her lavish estate, her adopted son Camden is determined to reject his sizeable inheritance, the McTavish family, and anything to do with Ruby. Strange murmurings about Ruby's past begin to surface, and Camden is forced to face questions about inheritance, legacy, and family ties that reach beyond the grave. Hawkins is also the author of The Villa, Reckless Girls, and The Wife Upstairs. I received a prepublication edition of this book, scheduled for publication on January 9, courtesy of NetGalley and St. Martin's Press. 02 The Stolen Heir: A Novel of Elfhame (Stolen Heir #1) by Holly Black In The Stolen Heir, the first of Holly Black's Stolen Heir duology, Suren (Wren), changeling child queen of the Court of Teeth, is forced to band together with the charming, untrustworthy Oak (fae brother of Jude), to try to save Madoc from Lady Nore's Ice Needle Citadel. Wren and Oak were once betrothed, and Wren isn't sure how much of Oak's appealing vulnerability and honesty is real--or if she's being played for a fool. But Wren isn't content to let her fate be shaped by a beautiful, magical prince. She's going to wrest control of her own destiny. This book returns to the world of Elfhame, and I think it's important to first read the Folk of the Air trilogy (see link below) in order to understand the plot and character development. I'm listening to this as an audiobook. Click here for my review of Black's The Queen of Nothing; I mentioned the Folk of the Air trilogy in the Greedy Reading List Six Royally Magical Young Adult Series. 03 Dungeons and Drama by Kristy Boyce Riley wants to bring back her school's spring musical, and it's all part of a grand plan to set herself up to be a Broadway director. But when she borrows her mom's car without permission and gets grounded, she suddenly has to spend afternoons working at her father's game store instead. Determined not to give up on the musical, Riley convinces a nerdy teen coworker, Nathan, to cover her shifts, and in return she promises to make his gamer crush jealous by doing some convincing flirting with him. But role-playing in Nathan's Dungeons & Dragons game turns out to be...fun. And liking Nathan is starting to feel like less of an act than simply a reality. I received a prepublication edition of this book, scheduled for publication on January 9, courtesy of NetGalley and Random House Children's, Delacorte Press.

In what's possibly my favorite book yet of the seven in the Cormoran Strike series, we see some emotional growth, potentially game-changing revelations and resolutions, and a fascinating plot that revolves around taking down a cult from the inside. "It’s dangerous to make a cult of your own unhappiness. Hard to get out, once you’ve been in there too long. You forget how." I listened to The Running Grave, the newest in the mystery series by Robert Galbraith (J. K. Rowling's pen name, which she uses for the Cormoran Strike books). In the newest doorstop of a book (960 pages; the audiobook is 34 hours and 14 minutes) in the series, Cormoran Strike is cursorily on a health kick, he and Robin remain drawn to each other but continue to keep up emotional barriers to a deeper connection, and the agency is focused on trying to take down the fictional religious cult Universal Humanitarian Church (UHC)--from the inside. So here stood Cormoran Strike, slimmer, fitter, clearer of lung, alone in his attic, poking broccoli angrily with a wooden spoon, thinking about not thinking about Robin Ellacott. It's satisfying that Robin gets the majority of page time as she bravely infiltrates the UHC and works to uncover the truth of rumored brainwashing, cruel punishments, sexual abuse, and suspicious deaths. Robin and cop Ryan Murphy are testing out a new relationship. She shows more and more chutzpah and becomes more clear about what she does and doesn't want in her personal and professional life--particularly concerning eliminating others' say in her activities. "...you didn’t put me anywhere. I’m not a bloody pot plant, I wanted the job, I volunteered for the job, and I seem to remember getting there by minibus, not being carried there by you." We see that Robin and Strike have differing recollections of the pivotal almost-kiss from a prior book, and each willfully believes that the other is disinterested in romantic notions regarding the other--despite almost-reveals by Ilsa and other clues. Strike hasn't magically matured emotionally, but he does become somewhat more thoughtful and deliberate in his life choices as the book progresses, ultimately (briefly) showing a potentially game-changing vulnerability that I loved. I found the witness and suspect interviews and Strike and Robin's methods of extracting information particularly interesting. The side plot of a rival detective agency and the links between the UHC and Strike's personal past were intriguing. Certain elements of Strike's past, his family history, and his volatile relationships are resolved in The Running Grave. This was quite possibly my favorite Cormoran Strike novel so far. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? You can click here to check out my reviews of Cormoran Strike books 1 through 4, book 5, and book 6.

My very favorite Bossy December reads! I hope every Bossy reader who celebrates had a wonderful Christmas this week! I scheduled a little Bossy break from posting until today so I could have lots of family time, but instead, I got the worst Christmas gift: the flu. I'm just starting to feel like myself again--and to feel like reading again. After the 2023 Thanksgiving Stomach Bug Debacle, I'm ready for a healthy and fun New Year's and 2024! Anyway, here are the six books I most loved reading this past month: a heartbreaking, lovely, epistolary Western; a fantasy story with war at the forefront and fantasy in the background; a collection of three short stories by a favorite author; a vulnerable celebrity memoir; the latest loooong installment in a favorite mystery series; and a cozy fantasy story--and love letter to coffee. If you've read any of these titles, I'd love to hear what you think! I hope you've stayed healthy and had a happy break! And I'd also love to hear: what are some of your recent favorite reads? 01 The Madstone by Elizabeth Crook The Madstone begins as an against-the-odds attempt to evade evil and develops into a beautiful heartbreaker of a story about duty, family, and love in Civil War-era Texas. I will tell you, if there is a thing harder than facing danger, it's knowing it's headed your way. It's 1868 in Texas, and a stagecoach that's off track and in trouble (with a fortune tucked away inside) turns out to also hold unexpected passengers: pregnant Nell and her four-year-old son, Tot, who are fleeing from Nell's abusive husband and his vindictive, terrifying "Swamp Fox" family. When nineteen-year-old orphan and frontier carpenter Benjamin Shreve encounters Nell, he determines to shepherd her and Tot to safety. But their trip to the Gulf of Mexico is fraught with danger--and Nell's husband and his murderous brothers may be hot on their tail. The book is fully epistolary, as the story is told in a book-long letter from Benjamin to Tot. It started off a little slowly for me because Benjamin shared so many details of thoughts and in setting the scene, but I ended up loving the delivery of the story as Benjamin shares understated, thoughtful reflections and begins to express burgeoning emotions and vulnerability. I loved the Old West setting, the relationships, the unlikely allies, the high threat level, the danger and chases, the few quiet moments--all of this. If you're interested in this book, you might also like the titles on my Greedy Reading List Six Great Historical Fiction Stories Set in the American West and Six More Great Historical Fiction Stories Set in the American West. For my full review of this book, please see The Madstone. 02 Divine Rivals (Letters of Enchantment #1) by Rebecca Ross I liked Divine Rivals and the gutsy characters facing wartime struggles and challenges, but I was surprised that the book's fantasy elements felt so fully in the background. In Divine Rivals, Iris and Roman, two journalists, are competing for a permanent position as a newspaper columnist. The two are constantly at odds with each other, and each has erected emotional armor around a devastating loss. Iris's beloved brother is missing in action in the war among the gods, and sending letters through a magical wardrobe is the only way she can reach him. But the person receiving these missives is not Forest, but Iris's work nemesis, Roman. He keeps his knowledge secret, yet becomes more and more drawn to Iris. I really liked this, but I was surprised by how light it felt on fantasy elements. The gods' war provides the structure for the book's main conflict, but the story feels primarily focused on everyday, regular-human wartime concerns--with an unlikely-feeling god-war and magical letter-sending method mixed in. Click here for my full review of Divine Rivals. 03 So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men by Claire Keegan Claire Keegan is one of my favorite writers; in these three stories, she builds layered situations--and then turns them on their heads, in fascinating fashion. Down on the lawns, some people were out sunbathing and there were children, and beds plump with flowers; so much of life carrying smoothly on, despite the tangle of human upsets and the knowledge of how everything must end. In the brilliant, Irish-born Claire Keegan's newest slim story collection, she explores gender dynamics and defied expectations, and she considers what might be or might have been between the sexes. Three disparate stories showcase Keegan's perfectly spare, captivating storytelling; her writing feels to me like long-form poetry in its striking, unexpected, yet precise language and its evocative power. Each of Keegan's three stories builds a layered situation and then turns it on its head; a wisp of a moment, a careless remark, or a premeditated change sets the course of a day or a life on a dramatically different trajectory, and it's fascinating to read as various unravelings begin and build momentum. Click here to read my rave reviews of Claire Keegan's novels Foster and Small Things Like These and her short story collection Antarctica. You might also want to check out the short story collections listed in my Greedy Reading Lists Six Short Story Collections to Wow You and Six More Short Story Collections I Loved. Click here for my full review of So Late in the Day. 04 The Woman in Me by Britney Spears Spears's slim memoir offers vulnerability, the shocking details of her now-infamous 13-year conservatorship, self-reflection, and her view of the future. "...this industry… I can see now that you have to be smart enough, vicious enough, deliberate enough to play the game, and I did not know the game." In her memoir The Woman in Me, Britney Spears offers the story of her life to date: select events of her youth, complicated family dynamics, the growth of her explosive fame--and the shocking loss of freedom and rights she suffered for years while her parents abused their control over her person, her estate, her finances, and her business decisions in the now-infamous conservatorship that lasted over 13 years. The tone feels carefully crafted, and the book reveals disturbing, ongoing abuse and frightening misuse of power while positioning Britney as a strong young woman with regret--but without expressed bitterness--about the intensely dark turn her life took for over a decade. This is a slim book, but in The Woman in Me, Spears opens up and feels vulnerable, shares her perspectives on matters you likely remember from the tabloids, and considers the possibilities of her future in a thoughtful way. I listened to this title as an audiobook, which was read wonderfully by Michelle Williams. Please click here for my full review of The Woman in Me. 05 The Running Grave (Cormoran Strike #7) by Robert Galbraith In what's possibly my favorite book yet of the seven in the Cormoran Strike series, we see some emotional growth, potentially game-changing revelations and resolutions, and a fascinating plot that revolves around taking down a cult from the inside. "It’s dangerous to make a cult of your own unhappiness. Hard to get out, once you’ve been in there too long. You forget how." In the newest doorstop of a series installment (960 pages; the audiobook is 34 hours and 14 minutes), Cormoran Strike is cursorily on a health kick, he and Robin remain drawn to each other but continue to keep up emotional barriers to a deeper connection, and the agency is focused on trying to take down the fictional religious cult Universal Humanitarian Church (UHC)--from the inside. It's satisfying that Robin gets the majority of page time as she bravely infiltrates the UHC and works to uncover the truth of rumored brainwashing, cruel punishments, sexual abuse, and suspicious deaths. Strike hasn't magically matured emotionally, but he does become somewhat more thoughtful and deliberate in his life choices as the book progresses, ultimately (briefly) showing a potentially game-changing vulnerability that I loved. I found the witness and suspect interviews and Strike and Robin's methods of extracting information particularly interesting. The side plot of a rival detective agency and the links between the UHC and Strike's personal past were intriguing. For my full review, check out The Running Grave. You can click here to check out my reviews of Cormoran Strike books 1 through 4, book 5, and book 6. 06 Legends & Lattes (Legends & Lattes #1) by Travis Baldree The first in the Legends & Lattes series is a cozy fantasy story about new beginnings, the transformative power of coffee, and vulnerability and unexpected love. After twenty-two years of adventuring, Viv had reached her limit of blood and mud and bullshit. An orc’s life was strength and violence and a sudden, sharp end—but she’d be damned if she’d let hers finish that way. It was time for something new. I've had this book on my list for ages, and recently both my friend Jamie and my nephew Jamie sang its praises, so I finally listened to Legends & Lattes. Viv has spent years hunting down creatures for bounties, wielding her sword, and doing anything ruthless needed to bag her prey. But Viv has discovered the wonder of coffee and has determined to make a new start: she's headed to the city of Thune to settle down and open its first coffee shop. This is a sweet, cozy fantasy story that feels like a big hug; it's a love letter to coffee, to the beauty of diversity, to unexpected and special connections, and to the joy and satisfaction in a settled life surrounded by loyal friends and found family. For my full review, please see Legends & Lattes.

I liked Divine Rivals and the gutsy characters facing wartime struggles and challenges, but I was surprised that the book's fantasy elements felt so fully in the background. In Divine Rivals, Iris and Roman, two journalists, are competing for a permanent position as a newspaper columnist. The two are constantly at odds with each other, and each has erected emotional armor around a devastating loss. Iris's beloved brother is missing in action in the war among the gods, and sending letters through a magical wardrobe is the only way she can reach him. But the person receiving these missives is not Forest, but Iris's work nemesis, Roman. He keeps his knowledge secret, yet becomes more and more drawn to Iris. I really liked this, but I was surprised by how light it felt on fantasy elements. The gods' war provides the structure for the book's main conflict, but the story feels primarily focused on everyday, regular-human wartime concerns--with an unlikely-feeling god-war and magical letter-sending method mixed in. When one main character becomes a war correspondent and the other comes to the front, they create a deep bond that shapes the trajectories of both of their lives. Then an unexpected arrival and violent event rip apart everything Iris and Roman had been building. I'm imagining that book two will offers glimpses into the gods' war? I listened to this as an audiobook. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Rebecca Ross has also written two other series, Elements of Cadence and The Queen's Rising, as well as two standalone novels: Dreams Lie Beneath and Sisters of Sword & Song.

The first in the Legends & Lattes series is a cozy fantasy story about new beginnings, the transformative power of coffee, and vulnerability and unexpected love. After twenty-two years of adventuring, Viv had reached her limit of blood and mud and bullshit. An orc’s life was strength and violence and a sudden, sharp end—but she’d be damned if she’d let hers finish that way. It was time for something new. I've had this book on my list for ages, and recently both my friend Jamie and my nephew Jamie sang its praises, so I finally listened to Legends & Lattes. Viv has spent years hunting down creatures for bounties, wielding her sword, and doing anything ruthless needed to bag her prey. But Viv has discovered the wonder of coffee and has determined to make a new start: she's headed to the city of Thune to settle down and open its first coffee shop. “People just sat around drinking it from these little ceramic cups, and I had to try it, and...it was like drinking the feeling of being peaceful. Being peaceful in your mind. Well, not if you have too much, then it's something else.” She must rely on an unlikely, ragtag group of new collaborators and friends--creatures of all types, some of whom seem to expect rejection but who find acceptance with Viv--to make her business a success. And she'll have to finally let down her guard if she's going to build the friendships and find the love she's realizing she so desperately wants. This is a sweet, cozy fantasy story that feels like a big hug; it's a love letter to coffee, to the beauty of diversity, to unexpected and special connections, and to the joy and satisfaction in a settled life surrounded by loyal friends and found family. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Bookshops & Bonedust is the prequel to Legends & Lattes. The short story "Pages to Fill" (also a prequel) is included at the end of Legends & Lattes.

Cookbook Book Gift Ideas Here are the 2023 cookbooks (with the exception of The National Parks Cookbook, which was published in fall 2022) of all kinds that I'm most excited to give as gifts this holiday season. (Last year's cookbook gift picks can be found here.) Another 2023 cookbook I was tempted to include here was Dan Pelosi's Let's Eat. Other previously published contenders for this list were The Tucci Cookbook (I love Tucci!) and Curate, recipes from the wonderful Asheville, North Carolina restaurant. I'm sharing my annual Bossy book gift ideas leading up to the holidays, and I hope you'll find a book or two in these lists to delight someone you love--or to give to yourself! Don't forget to check my past Bossy idea lists for quirky books, perennial classics, modern favorites, nonfiction must-haves, or other new-to-you titles that might be perfect for the people on your holiday gift list! 2020 Bossy Book Gift Guides Shhh! Books I'm Giving as Gifts This Holiday Shhh! More Book Gift Ideas for the Holidays Shhh! Book Gifts for Kids and Teens Shhh! More Book Gifts for Kids and Teens 2021 Bossy Book Gift Guides Shhh! Book Gift Ideas for the Holidays Shhh! Six More Book Gift Ideas for the Holidays Shhh! Nonfiction and Hobby Book Gift Ideas for the Holidays Shhh! Kid and Teen Book Gift Ideas for the Holidays 2022 Bossy Book Gift Guides Shhh! Holiday Cookbook Gift Ideas Shhh! Coffee Table Bossy Book Gift Ideas Shhh! Science and Nature Bossy Book Gift Ideas Shhh! Bossy Nonfiction Book Gift Ideas 2023 Bossy Book Gift Guides Shhh! Bossy Book Gift Ideas: Science and the Natural World Shhh! Bossy Book Gift Ideas: Sports Nonfiction Shhh! Bossy Book Gift Ideas: Books about Media, Movies, and Music Bossy Independent Bookstore Love A Bossy book-buying note: If you're buying books this holiday season, please support your local independent bookstore. They need and appreciate our business! (The book covers on this site link you to Bookshop, a site that supports the beloved indies that keep us swimming in thoughtful book recommendations and excellent customer service all year round.) I love my local independent bookstore here in Charlotte, Park Road Books. They have a fantastic selection of titles, staff members offer spot-on recommendations (and sparkling personalities!), and they can order almost anything they don't have in stock. 01 Milk Street: Simple by Christopher Kimball I love me some Milk Street--shhh, I'm giving my parents more Milk Street foodstuffs for Christmas--and I own Milk Street Tuesday Nights and Milk Street Fast and Slow. The newest Milk Street cookbook is Milk Street Simple, with 200 tasty, clever recipes that are "genius in their simplicity" and perfect for home cooks with high expectations. "The keys are high-impact ingredients, transformative techniques, powerful flavor combinations, and layers of texture." With recipes from flatbreads and sandwiches to one-pan dinners; from roasts and traybakes to pasta and go-to grains, all built around the idea that "simple is something so perfectly constructed that every component is essential and in balance." 02 Veg-Table: Recipes, Techniques, and Plant Science for Big-Flavored, Vegetable-Focused Meals by Nik Sharma Veg-Table is an exploration of over 50 vegetables, with gorgeous photography, fascinating research, and creative recipes for meals that showcase vegetables, whether plant-based or involving meat. With innovative yet accessible, rigorously tested recipes like Pasta with Broccoli Miso Sauce or Shallot and Spicy Mushroom Pasta, as well as plant-and-animal-protein combinations like Chicken Katsu with Poppy Seed Coleslaw and Crispy Salmon with Green Curry Spinach, Veg-Table sets out a wide array of tantalizing offerings. Nik Sharma is a blogger at A Brown Table, a Serious Eats columnist, and a bestselling cookbook author (Season; The Flavor Equation). 03 The World Central Kitchen Cookbook: Feeding Humanity, Feeding Hope by José Andrés The World Central Kitchen Cookbook offers stories and recipes from chefs, celebrity friends, and renowned cooks who are friends with José Andrés, head of the nonprofit World Central Kitchen, which feeds populations after natural disasters and humanitarian crises--with a foreword by Stephen Colbert. From Lahmajoun Flatbread prepared after a Beirut explosion in 2020 to Ukrainian Borsch offered to families living through a brutal invasion to Chicken Chili Verde served to California firefighters. Famous WCK supporters share recipes too: Breakfast Tacos from Michelle Obama and a Lemon Olive Oil Cake from Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex. 04 The National Parks Cookbook: The Best Recipes from (and Inspired By) America's National Parks by Linda Ly The National Parks Cookbook was actually published in late fall 2022 but wasn't on my radar last year, and I couldn't resist including it for the first time in this year's list--if only for my friend Sally, who is a huge National Parks explorer and fan. From the famously fluffy Acadia popovers to Zion's lauded and loaded tacos, from Shenandoah's mile-high blackberry ice-cream pie to the Grand Teton's Huckleberry Margaritas, these recipes will transport you back to favorite National Parks trips--and maybe even inspire you to plan future explorations. With gorgeous National Parks photography and fascinating National Parks history, this is perfect for the adventurer on your gift list. 05 Big Heart Little Stove: Bringing Home Meals & Moments from the Lost Kitchen by Erin French Erin French is the owner and chef of The Lost Kitchen, a 40-seat restaurant in Freedom, Maine. The Lost Kitchen was named one of TIME Magazine's World's Greatest Places and one of "12 Restaurants Worth Traveling Across the World to Experience" by Bloomberg. Here, French shares over 75 recipes ranging from Pecorino Puffs to Little Nutmeg Diner Donuts and from Pickle-Brined Roast Chicken to Gram's Clam Dip, with flavors ready for a cozy night in or a fancier dinner party. French also includes tips from her own dining room, including setting the table with found objects, garnishing with edible flowers, and the simple gift of offering a guest a cold cloth on a hot evening. 06 100 Morning Treats: With Muffins, Rolls, Biscuits, Sweet and Savory Breakfast Breads, and More by Sarah Kieffer Sarah Kieffer, the baker and author of 100 Cookies and Baking for the Holidays, as well as the creator of The Vanilla Bean Blog, turns her attention to the delicious adventures of the first meal of the day in 100 Morning Treats. Whether you prefer savory or sweet, flaky or hearty, eaten on the run or while cozied in, Kieffer has you covered here with how-to recipes for danishes, coffee cakes, quiches, quick breads, muffins, and more. The recipes are inventive yet accessible, and the 120 gorgeous photographs are instructive while tantalizing.

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm listening to Divine Rivals, the first in Rebecca Ross's Letters of Enchantment series, about a magical wardrobe through which letters can be sent--and rival journalists who might have more in common than they think; I'm reading To Shape a Dragon's Breath, about the hopeful return of dragons to a rural community--and the Anglish conquerers' constricting rules about its raising and training; and I'm listening to a cozy fantasy story about an orc opening a coffee shop, Legends & Lattes. What are you reading these days, bookworms? 01 Divine Rivals (Letters of Enchantment #1) by Rebecca Ross In Divine Rivals, Iris and Roman, two journalists, are competing for a permanent position as a newspaper columnist. The two are constantly at odds with each other, and each has erected emotional armor around a devastating loss. Iris's beloved brother is missing in action in the war among the gods, and sending letters through a magical wardrobe is the only way she can reach him. But the person receiving these missives is not Forest, but Iris's work nemesis, Roman. He keeps his knowledge secret, yet becomes more and more drawn to Iris. I really like this, but so far it's an odd mix of everyday, regular-human concerns with an unlikely-feeling god-war and magical letter-sending method mixed in. I'll be curious to find out how it all comes together, as it seems one or both characters are preparing to become war correspondents--and to give the reader glimpses into the god war. 02 To Shape a Dragon's Breath (Nampeshiweisit #1) by Moniquill Blackgoose I love a book about dragons. Moniquill Blackgoose's To Shape a Dragon's Breath is set on a remote island, Masquapaug, where dragons are local legends but haven't been seen in generations. Then fifteen-year-old Anequs finds a dragon egg, and when it hatches, she befriends and bonds with the hatchling. The community's hopes soar for a return to days of cooperation with and good luck received from dragons. But the Anglish conquerers of Masquapaug insist that a dragon must be raised a certain way, and they send Anequs and the dragon to a school for special training. If they fail, the dragon will be killed. 03 Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree I've had this book on my list for ages, and I'm so glad to finally be listening to Legends & Lattes. Viv spent years hunting down creatures for bounties, wielding her sword, and doing anything needed to bag her prey. But in this cozy fantasy story, Viv has discovered the wonder of coffee and has determined to make a new start: she's headed to the city of Thune to settle down and open its first coffee shop. She must rely on an unlikely, ragtag group of new friends and collaborators to make her business a success--and she'll have to finally let down her guard if she's going to build the friendships and find the love she's realizing she so desperately wants.

Movie, Media, and Music Book Gift Ideas Here are the 2023 books about television, movies, and music that I'm most excited to give as gifts this holiday season. Other contenders for this list were: Black TV: Five Decades of Groundbreaking Television from ‘Soul Train’ to ‘black-ish’ and Beyond by Bethonie Butler From Hollywood with Love: The Rise and Fall (and Rise Again) of the Romantic Comedy by Scott Meslow (published in 2022) Curepedia: An A-Z of The Cure by Simon Price I Like to Watch: Arguing My Way Through the TV Revolution by Emily Nussbaum (The New Yorker culture critic) I'm sharing my annual Bossy book gift ideas on Fridays leading up to the holidays, and I hope you'll find a book or two in these lists to delight someone you love--or to gift to yourself! Don't forget to check my past Bossy idea lists for quirky books, perennial classics, modern favorites, nonfiction must-haves, or other new-to-you titles that might be perfect for the people on your holiday gift list! 2020 Bossy Book Gift Guides Shhh! Books I'm Giving as Gifts This Holiday Shhh! More Book Gift Ideas for the Holidays Shhh! Book Gifts for Kids and Teens Shhh! More Book Gifts for Kids and Teens 2021 Bossy Book Gift Guides Shhh! Book Gift Ideas for the Holidays Shhh! Six More Book Gift Ideas for the Holidays Shhh! Nonfiction and Hobby Book Gift Ideas for the Holidays Shhh! Kid and Teen Book Gift Ideas for the Holidays 2022 Bossy Book Gift Guides Shhh! Holiday Cookbook Gift Ideas Shhh! Coffee Table Bossy Book Gift Ideas Shhh! Science and Nature Bossy Book Gift Ideas Shhh! Bossy Nonfiction Book Gift Ideas 2023 Bossy Book Gift Guides Shhh! Bossy Book Gift Ideas: Science and the Natural World Shhh! Bossy Book Gift Ideas: Sports Nonfiction Bossy Independent Bookstore Love A Bossy book-buying note: If you're buying books this holiday season, please support your local independent bookstore. They need and appreciate our business! (The book covers on this site link you to Bookshop, a site that supports the beloved indies that keep us swimming in thoughtful book recommendations and excellent customer service all year round.) I love my local independent bookstore here in Charlotte, Park Road Books. They have a fantastic selection of titles, staff members offer spot-on recommendations (and sparkling personalities!), and they can order almost anything they don't have in stock. 01 Kind of a Big Deal: How Anchorman Stayed Classy and Became the Most Iconic Comedy of the Twenty-First Century by Saul Austerlitz ...shares surprising stories and facts: from the film's original conception as a plane crash/cannibal comedy mashup to the surprising, real-life newscaster who inspired the character of Veronica. With more than 60 new interviews with Anchorman cast, crew, and creators, Kind of a Big Deal tells the story of the writing by Adam McKay and Will Ferrell; the casting of future stars Will Ferrell, Steve Carell, and Paul Rudd; and the film's "sly commentary on feminism, the media, fragile masculinity, 1970s nostalgia, and more." 02 Quantum Criminals: Ramblers, Wild Gamblers, and Other Sole Survivors from the Songs of Steely Dan by Alex Pappademas No one else in the classic-rock canon has conjured a more vivid cast of rogues and heroes, creeps and schmucks, lovers and dreamers and cold-blooded operators—or imbued their characters with so much humanity. In Quantum Criminals, Alex Pappademas explores the "darkly comic" inspirations and imaginations of Steely Dan's Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, who've created song protagonists that are so richly built, they feel fully formed--including Rikki, Dr. Wu, Hoops McCann, and Kid Charlemagne. 03 Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel & Ebert Changed Movies Forever by Matt Singer Before Rotten Tomatoes, before IMDB, before the internet, if you wanted to find out if a movie was worth watching, you waited to hear whether Siskel and Ebert gave it "two thumbs up." Gene Siskel was the film critic for the Chicago Tribune and Roger Ebert was at the Chicago Sun-Times before they collaborated on a movie review show for PBS. With verbal sparring on screen and off, Siskel and Ebert often disagreed--on which movies to review, the wisdom of casting choices, which of them would lead the review, and how to pronounce foreign titles. But when both of them approved that a movie earned two thumbs up, that's when you knew it was a winner. 04 Lou Reed: The King of New York by Will Hermes In Lou Reed: The King of New York, Will Hermes offers the definitive narrative of Reed’s life and legacy, dramatizing his long, brilliant, and contentious dialogue with fans, critics, fellow artists, and assorted habitués of the demimonde. In King of New York, Hermes examines the life of turbulent musical artist Lou Reed, his collaborations with David Bowie and Andy Warhol, his career with The Velvet Underground, and his early days on the Lower East Side of New York--all while examining New York itself as a cultural capital. 05 Surely You Can't Be Serious: The True Story of Airplane! by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker With interviews with famous fans like Bill Hader, Judd Apatow, Adam McKay, as well as detailed interviews with the ZAZ trio of Airplane! creators (authors Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker) about the inspirations for the movie's one-liners, gags, and slapstick jokes. With background on casting decisions, how Leslie Nielsen's pranks got everyone in trouble, and an exploration of how a movie with a budget of 3.5 million earned more than 200 million and became influential for comedy ever after its 1980 release. 06 But Will You Love Me Tomorrow?: An Oral History of the '60s Girl Groups by Laura Flam and Emily Sieu Liebowitz "...I never really wanted to sing girl songs and I never wanted that typical girl sound...my thing wasn't cutesy. I wanted to go up there--and I was competitive. I'd go to these music centers and I'd hear these guys, they were just throwing down--singing and the harmonies were so rich and full. That's the sound that I wanted." Laura Flam and Emily Sieu Liebowitz conducted more than 100 interviews while exploring the successful voices of the young, predominantly black girls making up the 1960s girl groups, their often working-class backgrounds, and the power disconnects between the young women and the music-industry executives in charge of their contracts and pay.

ICYMI: In Naomi Alderman's novel The Power, teenage girls develop unimaginable powers, including the ability to inflict harm. This resets the power structure of the world and has fascinating repercussions for the previously persecuted and helpless. It follows that there are two ways for the nature and use of human power to change. One is that an order might issue from the palace, a command unto the people saying “It is thus.” But the other, the more certain, the more inevitable, is that those thousand thousand points of light should each send a new message. When the people change, the palace cannot hold. In The Power, Naomi Alderman offers a dark and fascinating look at a world where the traditional male-female and old-young power structures are turned on their heads. The Power explores the destructive nature of the greed for control and influence--especially damaging when coupled with the certainty that your opinion is infallible and correct. I found this book fascinating. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? I included The Power in the Greedy Reading List Six Fascinating Dystopian and Postapocalyptic Novels. You can find more books like this on the Greedy Reading List Six More Fantastic Dystopian and Postapocalyptic Novels. Naomi Alderman is also the author of The Future.

Claire Keegan is one of my favorite writers; in these three stories, she builds layered situations--and then turns them on their heads, in fascinating fashion. Down on the lawns, some people were out sunbathing and there were children, and beds plump with flowers; so much of life carrying smoothly on, despite the tangle of human upsets and the knowledge of how everything must end. In the brilliant, Irish-born Claire Keegan's newest slim story collection, she explores gender dynamics and defied expectations, and she considers what might be or might have been between the sexes. Three stories written during various eras in Keegan's career are revised and expanded here: "Antarctica" (which appears in the previously published short story collection Antarctica) explores a married woman's curiosity about being with another man; "The Long and Painful Death" follows a writer at a retreat who faces a headstrong fellow writer; and in "So Late in the Day," a man reflects on what might have been with his lost love, had he made different choices. These disparate stories showcase Keegan's perfectly spare, captivating storytelling; her writing feels to me like long-form poetry in its striking, unexpected, yet precise language and its evocative power. Each of Keegan's three stories builds a layered situation and then turns it on its head; a wisp of a moment, a careless remark, or a premeditated change sets the course of a day or a life on a dramatically different trajectory, and it's fascinating to read as various unravelings begin and build momentum. Keegan is one of my favorite authors, and I'm in for all of her books. I received a prepublication edition of this book courtesy of NetGalley and Grove Press. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Click here to read my rave reviews of Claire Keegan's novels Foster and Small Things Like These and her short story collection Antarctica. You might also want to check out the short story collections listed in my Greedy Reading Lists Six Short Story Collections to Wow You and Six More Short Story Collections I Loved.

The Madstone begins as an against-the-odds attempt to evade evil and develops into a beautiful heartbreaker of a story about duty, family, and love in Civil War-era Texas. I will tell you, if there is a thing harder than facing danger, it's knowing it's headed your way. It's 1868 in Texas, and a stagecoach that's off track and in trouble (with a fortune tucked away inside) turns out to also hold unexpected passengers: pregnant Nell and her four-year-old son, Tot, who are fleeing from Nell's abusive husband and his vindictive, terrifying "Swamp Fox" family. When nineteen-year-old orphan and frontier carpenter Benjamin Shreve encounters Nell, he determines to shepherd her and Tot to safety. But their trip to the Gulf of Mexico is fraught with danger--and Nell's husband and his murderous brothers may be hot on their tail. The book is fully epistolary, as the story is told in a book-long letter from Benjamin to Tot. It started off a little slowly for me because Benjamin shared so many details of thoughts and in setting the scene, but I ended up loving the delivery of the story as Benjamin shares understated, thoughtful reflections and begins to express burgeoning emotions and vulnerability. I loved the Old West setting, the relationships, the unlikely allies, the high threat level, the danger and chases, the few quiet moments--all of this. The sourcing of and use of the madstone here is something I may never get over--it was both somewhat disgusting and absolutely fascinating. I received a prepublication edition of this book courtesy of NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company. If you're interested in this book, you might also like the titles on my Greedy Reading List Six Great Historical Fiction Stories Set in the American West and Six More Great Historical Fiction Stories Set in the American West. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Elizabeth Crook is also the author of The Which Way Tree; The Night Journal; Monday, Monday; and other books.

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm listening to The Running Grave, the newest in the mystery series by Robert Galbraith (J. K. Rowling's pen name for the Cormoran Strike books); I'm reading John Scalzi's story about a young man without direction who inherits a supervillain business, Starter Villain; and I'm reading nonfiction focused on life (and quality of life) and death by surgeon Atul Gawande, Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End. What are you reading these days, bookworms? 01 The Running Grave (Cormoran Strike #7) by Robert Galbraith I'm listening to The Running Grave, the newest in the mystery series by Robert Galbraith (J. K. Rowling's pen name for the Cormoran Strike books). In the newest doorstop of a book in the series, Cormoran Strike is cursorily on a health kick, he and Robin remain drawn to each other but with emotional barriers to a deeper connection, and the agency is focused on trying to take down the fictional religious cult Universal Humanitarian Church (UHC) from the inside. Robin is getting the majority of page time so far as she infiltrates the UHC and works to uncover the truth of rumored brainwashing, cruel punishments, sexual abuse, and suspicious deaths. You can check out my reviews of books 1 through 4, book 5, and book 6. 02 Starter Villain by John Scalzi The cover of Starter Villain shows a grumpy-seeming cat's head on a human torso clad in a suit with "Meet the new boss" across the top, so I clearly needed to add this to my to-read list. Charlie's a substitute teacher, divorced, and living in a house his siblings want to sell. Then he inherits his long-lost uncle's supervillain business--complete with an evil lair in an island volcano. Could this be an unexpected new start that will point Charlie in a productive new direction? But the recently deceased Uncle Jake, an old-fashioned villain, made a lot of enemies--and they're ruthless, well-funded, and out for revenge. The premise of this novel calls to my mind another book, which I loved, Natalie Zina Walschots's Hench. 03 Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters In the End by Atul Gawande The past century of medical advancements have transformed some conditions from death sentences to manageable or curable illnesses. But the focus on living longer and attempting to move past former limitations of medical solutions sometimes create a difficult dynamic: pursuing additional years of life at any cost sometimes means paying the cost of dramatically diminished quality of life. In Being Mortal, surgeon Gawande explores the successes and failures of the medical field in prolonging a life worth living. If you're interested in books about mortality, you might like the books on my Greedy Reading Lists Six Powerful Memoirs about Facing Mortality and Six More Powerful Books about Facing Mortality.

Sports Nonfiction Book Gift Ideas Here are the 2023 sports books that I'm most excited to give as gifts this holiday season. The list skews toward basketball--as does my list of gift recipients--but there's a baseball, hockey, and a Formula 1 book in here as well. I'll be sharing my annual Bossy book gift ideas on Fridays leading up to the holidays, and I hope you'll find a book or two in these lists to delight someone you love--or to gift to yourself! Don't forget to check my past Bossy idea lists for quirky books, perennial classics, modern favorites, nonfiction must-haves, or other new-to-you titles that might be perfect for the people on your holiday gift list! 2020 Bossy Book Gift Guides Shhh! Books I'm Giving as Gifts This Holiday Shhh! More Book Gift Ideas for the Holidays Shhh! Book Gifts for Kids and Teens Shhh! More Book Gifts for Kids and Teens 2021 Bossy Book Gift Guides Shhh! Book Gift Ideas for the Holidays Shhh! Six More Book Gift Ideas for the Holidays Shhh! Nonfiction and Hobby Book Gift Ideas for the Holidays Shhh! Kid and Teen Book Gift Ideas for the Holidays 2022 Bossy Book Gift Guides Shhh! Holiday Cookbook Gift Ideas Shhh! Coffee Table Bossy Book Gift Ideas Shhh! Science and Nature Bossy Book Gift Ideas Shhh! Bossy Nonfiction Book Gift Ideas 2023 Bossy Book Gift Guides Shhh! Bossy Book Gift Ideas: Science and the Natural World Bossy Independent Bookstore Love A Bossy book-buying note: If you're buying books this holiday season, please support your local independent bookstore. They need and appreciate our business! (The book covers on this site link you to Bookshop, a site that supports the beloved indies that keep us swimming in thoughtful book recommendations and excellent customer service all year round.) I love my local independent bookstore here in Charlotte, Park Road Books. They have a fantastic selection of titles, staff members offer spot-on recommendations (and sparkling personalities!), and they can order almost anything they don't have in stock. 01 When the Game Was War: The NBA's Greatest Season by Rich Cohen In When the Game Was War, Rich Cohen shares the gritty back story of the 1987 NBA season--including off-court conflicts and drama involving Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Isiah Thomas, and Michael Jordan. The 1987-1988 season offered the most future Hall of Famers competing in any season, with four superstars at the center of this golden year of basketball. Cohen's dozens of interviews with basketball insiders brings to life the many other characters and players who allowed four men to dominate the NBA, including Bill Laimbeer, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Danny Ainge, and Charles Oakley. 02 Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments by Joe Posnanski Joe Posnanski's Why We Love Baseball traces 50 key moments in the sport, from enormously important, well-known events to largely forgotten or lesser known but striking moments; from soaring victories to demoralizing mistakes. "From nineteenth-century pitchers' duels to breaking the sport's color line in the '40s, all the way to the greatest trick play of the last decade and the slide home that became a meme, Posnanski's illuminating take allows us to rediscover the sport we love--and thought we knew." Posnanski--who lives in Charlotte--is also the author of Why We Love Baseball, The Baseball 100, Paterno, and The Secret of Golf. 03 Surviving to Drive: A Year Inside Formula 1 by Guenther Steiner Haas team principal Guenther Steiner--who you'll know of if you and yours have been hooked on the Netflix series Drive to Survive--offer's an insider's look at the 2022 Haas season. From the ins and outs of preseason planning, hiring and firing drivers, designing and launching a car, and the competition season itself, Guenther--an unflinching, blunt communicator on the show--lays bare the behind-the-scenes goings-on for Formula 1 fans. Surviving to Drive is the first book from a racing team principal, and Steiner promises to keep the pace moving in this no-holds-barred account. 04 Black Ball: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Spencer Haywood, and the Generation That Saved the Soul of the NBA by Theresa Runstedtler Black Ball traces how these players, some household names, others more obscure, ultimately transformed professional basketball in this neglected yet crucial peroid. Runstedtler turns her research skills to storytelling by exploring key events such as antitrust lawsuits, innovative playing styles, the challenges facing Black players such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and the advent of Black employees in the NBA offices who began to change the organization from inside. Theresa Runstedtler is also the author of Jack Johnson, Rebel Sojourner: Boxing in the Shadow of the Global Color Line, about the world's first Black heavyweight boxing champion. 05 Freedom to Win: A Cold War Story of the Courageous Hockey Team that Fought the Soviets for the Soul of Its People--and Olympic Gold by Ethan Scheiner In this David-and-Goliath story, Scheiner explores Czechoslovakian and Soviet Union international politics and their intersection with sports. Freedom to Win is a detailed, deeply researched, character-driven nonfiction account of the Czech hockey team's noble quest to win an Olympic gold medal over the juggernaut Soviet team--after the Soviets brutally invade Czechoslovakia. Scheiner focuses on the three sons in the Holik family who made up the heart of the Czech team--and whose parents resisted the cruelties of the Communist invaders. This is a hockey story with lots of heart. 06 Magic: The Life of Earvin "Magic" Johnson by Roland Lazenby "I get out on the break, and I just get crazy. That's when I'm at my highest point. And I feel it crazy down to my knees." --Earvin "Magic" Johnson, 1986 Biographer Roland Lazenby conducted hundreds of interviews of fellow players, family members, coaches, opponents, loved ones, and with Magic himself to craft the story of the celebrated, then controversial (then celebrated again) figure for Magic. Roland Lazenby is also the author of biographies of Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and Jerry West, among other books.

ICYMI: The Winter Soldier is a World War I tale full of medical details and lovely, unlikely bonds. This is a five-star read from the author of North Woods. Lucius is a young medical student when World War I sweeps across Europe. With romantic notions in his head about noble work in a field hospital filled with brilliant surgeons, he enlists and heads to his post in the remote Carpathian Mountains. But there he finds one solitary nurse, Sister Margarite, bravely keeping together the makeshift clinic, which has been decimated by typhus. The other doctors have all left. Lucius is surrounded by grave injuries but has never even wielded a scalpel He'll learn more from Sister Margarite--who he's falling for--than he ever could have in his classes. She's been building an immense wealth of practical knowledge while trying to save the broken soldiers. This was wonderful. The details of World War I injuries and methods of treatment were fittingly grim and sometimes gruesome, but Mason's writing is beautiful and evocative, conveying the cold and brutal nature of war and loss, the chilling nature of acts done in coldhearted necessity, and the warm, promising hope of love. The novel began a little slowly for me, but when it got going I became completely lost in it. I read this with my book club. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Daniel Mason is also the author of North Woods, The Piano Tuner, A Far Country, and A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth.

Spears's slim memoir offers vulnerability, the shocking details of her now-infamous 13-year conservatorship, self-reflection, and her view of the future. "...this industry… I can see now that you have to be smart enough, vicious enough, deliberate enough to play the game, and I did not know the game." In her memoir The Woman in Me, Britney Spears offers the story of her life to date: select events of her youth, complicated family dynamics, the growth of her explosive fame--and the shocking loss of freedom and rights she suffered for years while her parents abused their control over her person, her estate, her finances, and her business decisions in the now-infamous conservatorship that lasted over 13 years. The tone feels carefully crafted, and the book reveals disturbing, ongoing abuse and frightening misuse of power while positioning Britney as a strong young woman with regret--but without expressed bitterness--about the intensely dark turn her life took for over a decade. She rejoices in her children, grieves the relationship she might have had with her sister, and seems to have spent significant time on self-reflection. You might very well not come away loving JT the way you might have going into this one, fair warning. Spears shares details to make the blood boil. This is a slim book, but in The Woman in Me, Spears opens up and feels vulnerable, shares her perspectives on matters you likely remember from the tabloids, and considers the possibilities of her future in a thoughtful way. I listened to this title as an audiobook, which was read wonderfully by Michelle Williams. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? If you like to read memoirs like I do, you might be interested in the Greedy Reading Lists here: Six Fascinating Memoirs to Explore Six More Fascinating Memoirs to Explore Six Musicians' Memoirs that Sing 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 Six of My Favorite Memoir Reads Last Year

Madame Restell is compelling nonfiction about an ambitious feminist in pre-Gilded Age New York and her profession as a surgeon offering birth conrol and abortions--as well as the societal backlash to her career and her unapologetic, unwavering manner. The subtitle of Jennifer Wright's nonfiction book is The Life, Death, and Resurrection of Old New York's Most Fabulous, Fearless, and Infamous Abortionist, and in Madame Restell, Wright traces the humble beginnings, self-taught skills, carefully crafted aura, rise, fall--and rise and fall again--of the titular immigrant in pre-Gilded Age New York. Restell is an intriguing, controversial, strong-willed, entrepreneurial figure. But Restell's story also swirls with weighty issues still relevant today--women's rights and autonomy; the fight for fair wages; power abuses; class divides; societal pressures; wealth, privilege, and power abuses; race and racism; gender issues; and more. Wright positions Restell's career and wealth within the volatile events of the time--particularly society's changing reactions to birth control, abortion, and women's rights--in order to set a framework for the many ups and downs that occurred in her life. Madame Restell is a feminist account of an audacious, contentious figure. I listened to this as an audiobook. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Jennifer Wright is also the author 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.

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading a novel in two timelines about a young woman posing as a cabin boy on a pirate's ship and a professor centuries later who tries to piece together her life, A True Account; I'm listening to Jennifer Wright's nonfiction account of a powerful, controversial, self-taught surgeon providing birth control and abortions in pre-Gilded Age New York, Madame Restell; and I'm listening to Britney Spears's memoir, The Woman In Me. What are you reading these days, bookworms? 01 A True Account: Hannah Masury's Sojourn Amongst the Pyrates by Katherine Howe In Katherine Howe's novel A True Account, a violent end is coming for the Golden Age of Piracy. Hannah Masury has been hired out as a Boston waterfront inn worker since childhood, but when a man is hanged in the town square for piracy and rumors spread about a valuable Caribbean treasure, Hannah runs for her life. She disguises herself as a cabin boy on the ship of a notorious pirate, determined to change her fate--and to try to find the notorious treasure. Centuries later, professor Marian Beresford pieces together the story of Hannah's life from her first-person account--and tries to solve a mystery that Hannah may have been determined to take to her grave. I received a prepublication edition of this title, published November 21, courtesy of NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company. 02 Madame Restell by Jennifer Wright The subtitle of Jennifer Wright's nonfiction book is The Life, Death, and Resurrection of Old New York's Most Fabulous, Fearless, and Infamous Abortionist, and in Madame Restell, Wright traces the humble beginnings, self-taught skills, carefully crafted aura, rise, fall--and rise and fall again--of the titular immigrant in pre-Gilded Age New York. But Restell's story swirls with weighty issues still relevant today--women's rights and autonomy; the fight for fair wages; power abuses; class divides; societal pressures; wealth, privilege, and power abuses; race and racism; gender issues; and more. Madame Restell is a feminist account of an audacious, controversial figure. I'm listening to this as an audiobook. 03 The Woman in Me by Britney Spears In her slim memoir The Woman in Me, Britney Spears offers the story of her life to date: her youth, complicated family dynamics, the growth of her explosive fame--and the shocking loss of freedom and rights she suffered for years while her parents abused their power over her person, her estate, her finances, and her business decisions in the now-infamous conservatorship that lasted over 13 years. I'm listening to this title as an audiobook, read by Michelle Williams. If you like to read memoirs like I do, you might be interested in the Greedy Reading Lists here: Six Fascinating Memoirs to Explore Six More Fascinating Memoirs to Explore Six Musicians' Memoirs that Sing 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 Six of My Favorite Memoir Reads Last Year

My very favorite Bossy November reads! Here are the six books I most loved reading this past month: a wonderful story about a grumpy female pirate; fascinating futuristic speculation; a Gothic-feeling multi-timeline work of literary fiction; magical realism and time travel; and a captivating mystery about a complicated family. If you've read any of these, 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 Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi (Amina al-Sirafi #1) by Shannon Chakraborty I loved every bit of the story of willful, sometimes grumpy pirate Amina al-Sirafi and her quest, her strategic swearing, her strength, her fierce loyalty, and her messy, grand, swashbuckling adventures. “Amina, if you insist on going in alone, at least stop caressing your dagger.” I listened to the first installment in Shannon Chakraborty's Amina al-Sirafi fantasy series, The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi, as an audiobook, which was narrated by the fantastic Lameece Issaq and Amin El Gamal. Amina is a notorious former pirate--ruthless, scandalous, and invincible--who has dropped out of sight and settled down to raise her young daughter alongside her strong-willed mother. Then a mysterious, wealthy matriarch preys upon Amina's need for funds--and her desire for one final, glorious success. Amina soon finds herself entangled in a dangerous ocean quest to rescue a young woman, while fighting to keep her own family safe. The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi is fun, funny, and smart, and I was hooked on the lightning-fast banter; the gruff and independent, saucy, and irresistible main protagonist in the feminist Muslim character of Amina; and the sea adventure with various fantastical elements. Chakraborty offers some closure to book one while setting up a sequel. I am alllll in on this series and can't wait for the second installment. For my full review of this book, please see The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi. 02 The Future by Naomi Alderman Alderman offers a dive into a future world that's crumbling due to greed, disregard for the environment, a loss of human connection, and threatening pandemics--then turns all of it on its head with a twisty, compelling, futuristic, technology-driven attempt at survival--and at maybe just changing the world for the better, and for good. The behavior of three key tech billionaires might seem like the symptom of all the biggest world problems...relentless greed, disregard for the environment, hoarding of resources, destruction of privacy, and more. These three figures become the center of the plot of The Future, around which mind-bogglingly enormous developments occur. In The Future, Alderman considers religious fanatics, corporate entities, pandemics, environmental implosion, fascinating imagined technological advancements, and more, while offering great twists, a compelling story, characters I was curious about, oddball friendships, and deep love. This was an engrossing dystopian read. I loved it. I mentioned Naomi Alderman's novel The Power in the Greedy Reading List Six Fascinating Dystopian and Postapocalyptic Novels. You might also want to check out the books on the Greedy Reading List Six More Fascinating Dystopian and Postapocalyptic Novels. Click here for my full review of The Future. 03 North Woods by Daniel Mason Mason's novel isn't simply a historical fiction story linked through timelines. The book builds to be an often-sinister, Gothic-feeling story with various interconnected repercussions, discoveries, and punishments; ghosts able to enact revenge; and, in the end, for select characters, a surprising and hopeful opportunity for a new start. Mason's newest novel tells the story of a New England house in the woods by tracking those who live in it over the centuries. But North Woods isn't a charming historical fiction novel. While Mason's various timelines and myriad inhabitants show the interconnectedness of us all and celebrate the wonders of the wild world surrounding us, they do so with a significant, dark undercurrent that grows in prominence as the story progresses. North Woods explores cycles of nature and human behavior. The tone is spooky and the story moves at a measured pace. I was interested in the ultimate connections and outcomes and I appreciated the story and particularly Mason's gorgeous writing (the final chapter is a particular knockout), but I did take a long time to get through this one. Click here for my full review of North Woods. 04 The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young June struggles with the complicated implications of her family's curse of hallucinations and mental illness...until she realizes that the red door and visions of the past are real memories from her own time-travel experiences. June has been seeing and hearing visions for a year now, and she believes they're linked to the curse that the community believes has its hold on the Farrow women. She would love to end the curse, the fraying of the Farrow women's minds, once and for all--by never having a child and allowing the mental illness to die with her. But when she realizes she can walk through a magical red door, she finds unexpected circumstances--and realizes that she may be able to reinvent her path forward--and possibly also shift the events of the past. The circumstances of the ending are largely satisfying, the emotional connections June ultimately makes are poignant, and there's a character-reveal twist that was sweet and lovely. Adrienne Young is also the author of Fable, its sequel Namesake, and The Last Legacy, loosely set in the worlds of Fable and Namesake, and Spells for Forgetting. Please click here for my full review of The Unmaking of June Farrow. 05 Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh Emily Tesh's debut novel is a space opera about war, duty, brainwashing, escaping limitations, and reinventing oneself--with fascinating turns of events and richly wrought characters. I just loved it. Kyr has not only trained her whole life for the day she can avenge the long-ago destruction of Earth, she was genetically bred to be exceptional at the task. But then unexpected events lead her to leave the only home she's ever known in order to try to save her brother. She realizes that the revenge fantasies that have been instilled in her since birth--along with a distrust of all nonhuman creatures--were based on lies. An oddball trio made up of Kyr, her brother's subversive genius of a friend, and a lonely alien force Kyr to reexamine all that she's ever known. Emily Tesh's Some Desperate Glory examines deep matters in a fascinating chain of events, reflections, unexpected do-overs, and fantastic character growth. I absolutely loved Tesh's writing, the scope of her work, her characters, their connections, the world-building--all of it. I'm in for alllll Emily Tesh books now. For my full review, check out Some Desperate Glory. 06 Happiness Falls by Angie Kim Angie Kim's sophomore novel is a mystery, but Happiness Falls is primarily an exploration of a complicated, loving, messy family and each of its members. For the rest of our lives, every time one of us goes somewhere and doesn’t return on time, doesn’t let the others know where we are, we will remember this time, what can happen. And we will fall apart. Mia doesn't panic when her father and brother Eugene are late returning from a walk in the park. They might have forgotten their phones, or taken a detour. But when Eugene rushes into the house, bloody and alone, Mia realizes something terrible has happened. And Eugene, who has the rare genetic condition Angelman syndrome, cannot communicate to tell her what occurred. Kim's missing-person novel is a mystery and is structured around the discovery and exploration of what may have happened to cause Mia's father's disappearance. But Happiness Falls is primarily a story about a family finally understanding each other and going to extraordinary lengths to work together. For my full review, please see Happiness Falls.

Alderman offers a dive into a future world that's crumbling due to greed, disregard for the environment, a loss of human connection, and threatening pandemics--then turns all of it on its head with a twisty, compelling, futuristic, technology-driven attempt at survival--and at maybe just changing the world for the better, and for good. Martha Einkorn fled her father's religious compound in Oregon as a teen. But now she's working for a social media guru bent on controlling everything, and some days she wonders if she's ventured very far from her beginnings after all. Meanwhile in Singapore, survivalist Lai Zhen has temporarily evaded a would-be assassin. A mysterious app on her phone seems to have all of the answers she needs--but Lai isn't sure what the tradeoff for information and safety will be. When Martha and Zhen connect, the collision might just change everything...for everyone in the world. The behavior of three key tech billionaires might seem like the symptom of all the biggest world problems...relentless greed, disregard for the environment, hoarding of resources, destruction of privacy, and more. These three figures become the center of the plot of The Future, around which wonderfully mind-bogglingly enormous developments occur. In The Future, Alderman considers religious fanatics, corporate entities, pandemics, environmental implosion, fascinating imagined technological advancements, and more, while offering great twists, a compelling story, characters I was curious about, oddball friendships, and deep love. This was an engrossing dystopian read. I loved it. I received a prepublication edition of this book courtesy of NetGalley and Simon & Schuster. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? I mentioned Naomi Alderman's novel The Power in the Greedy Reading List Six Fascinating Dystopian and Postapocalyptic Novels. You might also want to check out the books on the Greedy Reading List Six More Fascinating Dystopian and Postapocalyptic Novels.

Yarros's experience as a romance author remains showcased in book two through teen-angst-dramaaatic, romaaantic dialogue. My favorite elements were the action sequences, the opportunities for humor, and the pacing of this 640-page story. I wanted to love Fourth Wing, the first in this series, (talking dragons! dragon riders! dragon-rider training!). I was distracted by the ultra-dramatic young-adult teen angst and sometimes-clumsy dialogue, yet the promise of the dragon element kept me reading with fingers crossed that the story would take off and eclipse the pacing and the forced-feeling will-they/won't-they-focused conflicts (spoiler: they will). Yet Yarros's thrilling, twisty ending hooked me to find out what would happen in book two. I do love a dragon book, and the second in the Empyrian series offers more page time for the talking dragons, some surprises, and a more deftly paced story, with stronger character development--along with dramaaaaatic, romaaaaantic dialogue and super steamy scenes, as also seen in the first installment. Yarros offers a villainous teacher so over the top, there's no way he could be allowed to live through the book. Yet she also serves up an unexpected (as in, we thought he was dead, so: very unexpected) second chance at redemption for a character who was presented as a villain in book one. Violet's mother is shown to have depth, show some caring for Violet, and demonstrate plausible deniability related to atrocities occurring at the border. These all seem aimed at tempering the impression Violet has that her mother is without a heart. Yarros's romance-novel background is evident with the very specific sex scenes (no detail is left unshared), as well as the ongoing (and drummed-up-feeling) dramatic angst from Violet regarding Xaden (I can't trust him, because he doesn't tell me everything) despite what felt like a book-one resolution to the will-they/won't-they tension between the two. There's an added bump in the road for the couple in this book related to Violet's mother that predates Violet's relationship but affects Xaden. I was so distracted by the frequency of "f*ck" in book one that I searched on my Kindle version and found that there were 257 instances in Fourth Wing. In book two, I wasn't sure about Violet's use of "damn" and "damned" ("I'm still really damned angry with you" felt odd; the type of "damn if" compliments about Xaden's body seemed silly). Violet and Xaden are verrrry flowery about their feelings (“You want to know something true? Something real? I love you. I’m in love with you. I have been since the night the snow fell in your hair and you kissed me for the first time."). These elements follow from the romance-novel feeling of Fourth Wing. But there's some funny dialogue here that made me laugh, and Yarros allows the characters to be less earnest and more playful and to invoke a little bit of dark humor at times (my favorite kind) in Iron Flame. The melding of two fighting forces offers additional interesting characters, conflicts, complexities, and interactions, which I liked. Violet's physical condition and chronic illness is referred to in Iron Flame but is far less of a key element than it was in Fourth Wing. One of my favorite dragons is almost completely absent from the book (sleeping for hundreds of pages), with a grand reveal at the end, the impact of which felt a little lost on me. The action scenes and battles were the highlight for me in Iron Flame. Yarros ends this one with a bang that hooks the reader for book two just as they might be wavering on reading a third 500+ page book--as she did for me with book one. I listened to Iron Flame as an audiobook. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Click here for my review of Fourth Wing. Have you read the fantastic Temeraire series by Naomi Novik? It's got all the talking dragons, dry humor, battles, and military strategy you'd want. The tone is very different from the Empyrian series--no teen angst or steamy scenes.

I loved the premise of a teen who wakes up as a thirty-year-old, engaged to her high school nemesis. Some of the small moments didn't feel real to me, and the story felt like it was young adult--which I love but wasn't expecting here. A fun read. Charlotte Wu is a super organized overachiever, and planning the perfect prom is the final item on her high school to-do list. But decorating disasters threaten to undo her plan when she falls off a ladder and crashes into her nemesis, J. T. Renner. When Charlotte wakes up, she finds that more has gone awry than the streamers in the gym. Unless she's hallucinating or dreaming, she's thirty years old. Living in a grown-up's house, holding down a job, having an adult life. And the bearded fiance sleeping next to her...is J. T. Renner. Forget the prom-planning disaster--Charlotte and J. T. seem to have been thrown forward in time and into the thick of young adulthood. But why? How and why would she end up with her nemesis? J. T. and Charlotte must work together to figure out: Are they meant to change the future, make sure nothing changes, learn a lesson, or impart knowledge of some kind? Can they find their way back to their seventeen-year-old selves? Have they missed thirteen years of their lives--and the chance to figure out how the heck they ended up together? This premise is a slam-dunk for me. I looove a book that plays with time. Some of the small moments didn't work for me here, and the book felt like a young adult read to me (but wasn't sold as such), with the teen-focused angst and perspectives. I may have seen the mistaken-premise setup coming, and the friend betrayal, and the rough lines of the resolution to come, but I loved the bookending of the time capsule and letters to their future selves, the second-chance element, and the love. Woke Up Like This is a fun read. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? A teen-focused book I loved that played with time is Rachel Lynn Solomon's See You Yesterday. If you're intrigued by time-travel stories, you might also like the books on the Greedy Reading Lists Six Riveting Time-Travel Stories to Explore and Six Second-Chance, Do-Over, Reliving-Life Stories, Six More Time-Travel Stories to Dive Into, and Six More Riveting Time-Travel Stories to Explore.

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm listening to the second in Rebecca Yarros's Empyrian series, Iron Flame; I'm reading C. Pam Zhang's dystopian story Land of Milk and Honey; and I'm reading a young adult, lighthearted story of King Arthur's descendant, Gwen & Art Are Not in Love. What are you reading these days, bookworms? 01 Iron Flame (Empyrian #2) by Rebecca Yarros I wanted to love Fourth Wing, the first in this series, (talking dragons! dragon riders! dragon rider training!). I was distracted by the ultra-dramatic young-adult teen angst and clumsy dialogue, yet the promise of the dragon element kept me reading. But I do love a dragon book, and so far the second in the series offers more page time for the talking dragons, some surprises, and a more deftly paced story, with character development--along with some of the cringey dialogue reminiscent of book one and also some super steamy scenes, as also seen in the first installment. I'm listening to Iron Flame as an audiobook. 02 Land of Milk and Honey by C. Pam Zhang In C. Pam Zhang's slim dystopian novel Land of Milk and Honey, a chef in a polluted, dying city flees to a mountaintop retreat--and finds that fresh food, clear air, and lush opportunities for pleasure abound for the wealthy elite. As the chef explores the sensual pleasures of food and reawakens her connection to her body, she considers the ethics of taking advantage of the opportunities provided by privilege, and envisions rebuilding a more just world. Zhang is also the author of How Much of These Hills Is Gold? 03 Gwen & Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher It's hundreds of years after King Arthur's reign, and his descendant and namesake Arthur, a future lord and social butterfly, has long been betrothed to the short-tempered princess Gwendoline. But Gwendoline and Arthur detest each other. When they're forced to spend the summer together at Camelot to prepare for their upcoming nuptials, it doesn't take long for them to realize that Art has been kissing a boy and that Gwen has a crush on the only female knight in the kingdom. They just might make better allies than enemies, and as they agree to cover for each other amid sword-fighting, royal court goings-on, and romantic dramas, they forge a friendship that just might last. I received a prepublication edition of this title, to be published November 28, courtesy of NetGalley and St. Martin's Press.

Science and Nature Book Gift Ideas I spend most of my reading time on fiction titles, but my favorite book titles to give as gifts are those about science and nature. Books about the natural world or how things work seem to best lend themselves to being read at one's leisure, promise to teach something in an engaging way, and are a gift many of my recipients don't buy for themselves. Here are the new science and nature books--published at the end of last year or during this calendar year--that I'm most excited to give as gifts this holiday season. I'll be sharing my annual Bossy book gift ideas on Fridays leading up to the holidays, and I hope you'll find a book or two in these lists to delight someone you love--or to gift to yourself! And don't forget to check my past Bossy idea lists for quirky books, perennial classics, modern favorites, nonfiction must-haves, or other new-to-you titles that might be perfect for the people on your holiday gift list! 2020 Bossy Book Gift Guides Shhh! Books I'm Giving as Gifts This Holiday Shhh! More Book Gift Ideas for the Holidays Shhh! Book Gifts for Kids and Teens Shhh! More Book Gifts for Kids and Teens 2021 Bossy Book Gift Guides Shhh! Book Gift Ideas for the Holidays Shhh! Six More Book Gift Ideas for the Holidays Shhh! Nonfiction and Hobby Book Gift Ideas for the Holidays Shhh! Kid and Teen Book Gift Ideas for the Holidays 2022 Bossy Book Gift Guides Shhh! Holiday Cookbook Gift Ideas Shhh! Coffee Table Bossy Book Gift Ideas Shhh! Science and Nature Bossy Book Gift Ideas Shhh! Bossy Nonfiction Book Gift Ideas A Bossy book-buying note: If you're buying books this holiday season, please support your local independent bookstore. They need and appreciate our business! (The book covers on this site link you to Bookshop, a site that supports the beloved indies that keep us swimming in thoughtful book recommendations and excellent customer service all year round.) My favorite bookstore is my local independent bookstore here in Charlotte, Park Road Books. They have a fantastic selection of titles, offer spot-on recommendations, and can order almost anything they don't have in stock. 01 To Infinity and Beyond: A Journey of Cosmic Discovery by Neil deGrasse Tyson Once upon a time, before humans understood what lay above the clouds, the realm of sky and stars was inhabited only by gods and explained only by myths and fables. But a series of discoveries, intermingled with fits and starts, wrong ways and dead ends, ultimately shattered those primal beliefs, empowering humankind with the knowledge to unveil strange and humbling truths. In To Infinity and Beyond, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, host of the podcast StarTalk Radio and National Geographic Channel shows StarTalk and Cosmos, offers an illustrated narrative guide to the cosmos. As always, Tyson breaks down the mysteries of the universe into understandable pieces, using humor and his immense bank of knowledge. To Infinity and Beyond is published by National Geographic. 02 The Quickening: Creation and Community at the Ends of the Earth by Elizabeth Rush In 2019, fifty-seven scientists and crew members set out for Thwaites Glacier, never before visited by humans and believed to be in danger of permanent deterioration--which would result in a destructive rising of the global sea level. Elizabeth Rush relates the details of the journey, from spying her first glacier to the long, monotonous hours spent in a lab. She explores our collective responsibility to each other and to our earth while highlighting the pivotal contributions to science by woman and persons of color that have been possible in the recent past. Rush is also the author of Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore 03 Beautiful Experiments: An Illustrated History of Experimental Science by Philip Ball In Beautiful Experiments, Philip Ball ventures to answer questions such as How does the world work? What makes things happen? What is the world made from? What is light? What is life? And How do organisms behave? Ball celebrates scientific developments and the evolution of the equipment required to make earth-shaking discoveries while reflecting on how we came to understand the way in which the world functions. This is an admittedly dense text, but the photographs and illustrations are fascinating. For a committed science lover, this title could very well do the trick. 04 Brave the Wild River: The Untold Story of Two Women Who Mapped the Botany of the Grand Canyon by Melissa L. Sevigny The ideal female botanist, described in a letter between department heads, was attractive, mannerly, a good teacher, "doesn't smoke or drink and looks like a thoroughly fine girl." Botanists Elzada "Dode" Clover and Lois Jotter didn't fit this description. Strong-willed, educated, independent, with wild streaks, the women set out to run the rough, boulder-strewn Colorado River, recognized as the most dangerous river in the world. With an eclectic accompanying group--a zoologist, two amateur boatmen, and an expedition leader--the women spent 43 days making their way down he river and cataloging the plants along their route. I love a story about strong women in the past braving the wild. I can't wait to read this one. 05 How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures by Sabrina Imbler ...you may have heard that goldfish have a three-second memory. But goldfish can remember that a colored paddle means food is coming, even months after the association is formed. Goldfish can perform complex tasks, such as escaping a net or navigating a maze. How can such a small fish hold on to the memory of the snaking path of a maze for three months? In How Far the Light Reaches, writer and science journalist Sabrina Imbler considers ten striking creatures from the ocean and their unique habits and characteristics, including the mother octopus, who goes without food while keeping her eggs safe; the strange, vicious Bobbitt worm (named after Lorena); and the Chinese sturgeon, whose migration has been harmed by pollution and human interference. 06 What an Owl Knows: The New Science of the World's Most Enigmatic Birds by Jennifer Ackerman They're tender and deadly, cute and brutal, ferocious and funny, sometimes even playing the mischievous clown, stealing camera equipment or snatching hats.... Owls have this kind of duality. Bring on the bird books! This is the first of two bird books on this gift list, and if you've checked out my Bossy Book Gift Lists in the past, you know that bird books (including others by this author) are a favorite theme--and a big hit for my bird lovers. Ackerman, author of The Bird Way and The Genius of Birds, here tackles biology and natural history of the elusive owl, exploring fascinating facts as well as considering why humans are so intrigued by the owl. 07 The Blue Machine: How the Ocean Works by Helen Czerski The earth's ocean is fickle when it comes to its appearance. Seawater can present itself as the startling turquoise of a shallow tropical bay, the ruffled grim grey of a blustery northern coast, a calm royal blue that stretches for a thousand miles--or perhaps temporarily cloaked in the cheeky orange of a sunset. In The Blue Machine, physicist and oceanographer Helen Czerski explores the "ocean engine," the concept that all of the earth's oceans, from the poles to the equator and across the globe, operate as one system, "powered by sunlight, driving huge flows of energy, water, life, and raw materials." Another ocean-focused book that looks captivating is The Underworld: Journeys to the Depths of the Ocean by Susan Casey. 08 The Cat's Meow: How Cats Evolved from the Savanna to Your Sofa by Jonathan B. Losos Cats seemed to revel in behaving in risky ways: crossing roads, climbing underneath cars and onto roofs, entering storm drains and crawl spaces, and eating and drinking whatever they came upon. We brought our first puppy into the family this year (Leo!), but I'm a longtime cat lover (OGs Emmett, Tigger, and Baby). In The Cat's Meow, Evolutionary biologist Jonathan B. Losos has taught a Harvard course about the evolution of cats. He explains that cat-loving scientists are envious of how dogs have become the "darlings" of the scientific research community, but that cats may be at the center of cutting-edge research. 09 Flight Paths: How a Passionate and Quirky Group of Pioneering Scientists Solved the Mystery of Bird Migration by Rebecca Heisman Only recently have we begun to fully understand where birds go when they disappear south over the horizon, flying thousands of miles across the earth each fall and spring. And although we now know much more about these amazing journeys than ever before, the process of how scientists revealed these epic voyages is a miracle in and of itself. More more more bird books for my bird people, please! I always seem to have a handful of bird-focused science books on my gift list, and so far they've all been hits with my loved ones who love their feathered friends. In Flight Paths, Heisman traces the remarkable cooperation across many branches of science that led scientists to "solve the great mystery of bird migration." With vivid details that bring to life the odd history (counting silhouettes of birds as they passed in front of the moon was one way bird migration was once measured) and the fascinating evolution of the science.

Thankful for Five-Star Bossy Favorites I'm always thankful for books and reading, so I wanted to reshare some of my five-star reads from the past in case you need a great long-weekend read or book gift idea. A five-star read is a special one for me. It may make me feel all the feelings, and/or may be intriguing and make me think, and it's usually engaging enough that it's tough for me to put down. You might also like the books on the Greedy Reading List Six Five-Star Bossy Reads to Check Out. Or you can search the site for my Five-Star Book Reviews. Which standout books have you read this year? Do you have all-time favorites you always recommend to others? What makes them your favorites? 01 The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell This book! This book is about everything. Family, pain, love, music, influence, trust, wonder, brutality, invention, discovery, loyalty, and most of all, faith—in some cases, lost and found again. And also...aliens. In The Sparrow, humans find proof of extraterrestrial life, and the UN begins deliberating about those on Earth should proceed. Meanwhile, a small team from the Society of Jesus quickly strikes out on its own to approach the planet first. The life they find there is wondrous and overwhelming, and it forces them to rethink their assumptions about humanity and the universe. I don’t usually read books again, but I could use a copy of my own to highlight upon rereading. The Sparrow took a little time to get going for me, but then I was blown away. For my full review of this book, please see The Sparrow. 02 Autoboyography by Christina Lauren I adored this young adult LGBTQ+ love story by Christina Lauren (the pen name for the writing team Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings). The characters in Autoboyography are thoughtful and young and funny and defiant but good, and they make mistakes and pay for them and live within their awful messed-up moments and their painful consequences, and they try to figure out their lives as teenagers must. They feel first love and angst so deeply and talk about it so so SO much, and somehow it wasn’t insufferable to read about at all, it was just perfect and made me laugh (and at one point cry, ahem). The Autoboyography dialogue is fantastic and witty but feels effortless and like it comes from actual teenagers--a difficult tone to pin down. This is fantastic contemporary young adult fiction. Click here for my full review of Autoboyography. 03 When We Were the Kennedys by Monica Wood In 1963 the Woods were a typical Catholic immigrant family in Mexico, Maine. But when Monica's father dies suddenly, Monica and her three sisters begin to drift, and the family seems in danger of feeling unmoored forever. When We Were the Kennedys is a memoir about grieving deeply, leaning on family and community in a crisis and in common suffering, and figuring out the impossible: how to move on after devastating tragedy. Wood gorgeously evokes the many characters and unfathomable events that changed her family's existence--as well as that of her community and the entire country--in 1963. I loved this fantastic memoir! Wood's memoir is heartwarming and funny and tragic and vivid. I ate it up in a single day. For my full review, please see When We Were the Kennedys. 04 Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano Twelve-year-old Edward Adler is the sole survivor of a plane crash. He struggles to move forward, but he feels stuck, as though part of him will always be lost. Edward tries on the mantle of taking responsibility for every life lost; he wallows in the despair of others and their hopes that he will pursue their loved ones’ lost dreams and right their wrongs; then he messily works out how to create his own lucky, unshackled, truest life. Dear Edward was so much more than I expected, but thankfully Napolitano didn’t rely solely on her book’s promising premise. She wrote the hell out of this and created an irresistible and true-feeling character in Edward. Nothing is too easy here, nor is it ever melodramatic in Napolitano’s hands. I loved this book. I kept thinking about it while I was doing other things, and I just wanted to get back to Edward to find out how things were going. I read this book with my longtime book club. For my full review, please see Dear Edward. 05 The Gilded Hour by Sara Donati In The Gilded Hour, Donati shapes a historical fiction story about an eccentric family and a broad surrounding cast of characters--and it's all centered around independent women with unconventional women's roles in society in nineteenth century New York City. The Gilded Hour explores how these women's abilities and constraints intersect with women's rights of the time period, social responsibility, and conventions, all in an immensely readable book rich in period detail, great dialogue, and satisfying elements of love, mystery, and searches for justice. I felt that a couple of important underlying plot lines remained oddly unresolved at the end--even keeping in mind that there's a second book in Donati's Waverly Place series, Where the Light Enters. However, I just loved this story and Donati's storytelling too much to let it cloud my gleeful reading experience. I loved digging into this 750-page historical fiction wonder. For my full review, please see The Gilded Hour. 06 Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb I was going to be happy with a light, surface-level peek at therapy and at the ins and outs of a therapist's providing and receiving therapy. But Maybe You Should Talk to Someone quickly grows into a network of sometimes interconnected and consistently meaningful searches for purpose and peace that surprised me. Gottlieb says therapy is about asking, "Who am I? What do I want? What's in my way?" She also says "Everyone needs to hear that other person's voice saying, 'I believe in you. I can see possibilities that you might not see quite yet. I imagine that something different can happen, in some form or another. ' In therapy we say, 'Let's edit your story.'" I loved that, and this "editing of the story" is apparent in Gottlieb's own therapy experience and in her experiences with her patients. There's beautiful exploration in Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed of dying, death, appreciating the beauty of the impermanence of our lives, planning for loved ones after our death, and living life fully. For my full review, please see Maybe You Should Talk to Someone.

Mason's novel isn't simply a historical fiction story linked through timelines. The book builds to be an often-sinister, Gothic-feeling story with various interconnected repercussions, discoveries, and punishments; ghosts able to enact revenge; and, in the end, for select characters, a surprising and hopeful opportunity for a new start. ...she has found that the only way to understand the world as something other than a tale of loss is to see it as a tale of change. Mason's newest novel tells the story of a New England house in the woods by tracking those who live in it over the centuries. But North Woods isn't a charming historical fiction novel. While Mason's various timelines and myriad inhabitants show the interconnectedness of us all and celebrate the wonders of the wild world surrounding us, they do so with a significant, dark undercurrent that grows in prominence as the story progresses. The feeling here is Gothic, as those who are wronged come back to haunt certain later inhabitants and are able to shift events to their will. Some characters are able to see apparitions, while others are not, and by the end of the book, Mason has established the magical-realism link to the past that some protagonists are able to experience. Mason's characters range from a young couple in love, escaping their rigid Puritanical community; to an English soldier who escapes battle to grow apples; to spinster twins coping with wartime struggles; to a panther who takes refuge in the house; in addition to others, and the multiple ties, whether prominent or minor. between these characters are eventually made clear. North Woods draws variously sinister, tenuous, or gripping links between timelines: of dark deeds and revenge; mental illness and the ability to perceive spectral beings; and a connection to the land and an inability to leave the crumbling house. North Woods explores cycles of nature and human behavior. The tone is spooky and the story moves at a measured pace. I was interested in the ultimate connections and outcomes and I appreciated the story and particularly Mason's gorgeous writing (the final chapter is a particular knockout), but I did take a long time to get through this one. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Daniel Mason is also the author of The Piano Tuner, A Far Country, The Winter Soldier, and A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth.

This darkly funny story made me cringe while staying riveted by the main protagonist's deeply faulted reasoning, criminal actions, and bumbling through the publishing industry of Kuang's Yellowface. Juniper Song is a bestselling author. But she isn't simply a hardworking writer overcoming sluggish first-book attention and sales, emerging with an enormous hit (and new pen name) overnight, as she would have others believe. The key is that Juniper, formerly known and published under the name June Hayward, is a longtime Yale acquaintance of Athena Liu--the Athena Liu, publishing's darling, with multiple critically acclaimed and celebrated titles--and the focus of June's years-long envy. When June witnesses Athena's death and then mysteriously comes up with a story about Chinese laborers during World War I, she covers her tracks to avoid anyone's asking: But wasn't Athena working on a similar story before her untimely end? As June navigates the cutthroat, sometimes superficial, often silly publishing world Kuang puts forth here, she wavers between attempting to justify her compounded, ethically devastating actions to Yellowface readers and panicking at the idea that the origins of and true credit for the story (Athena) will become clear. June isn't worried about being found out because she feels she's in the wrong, however. She fears that all that she's taken will be taken from her, and because she's a petty, narcissistic, selfish, greedy young woman, staggeringly unaware of her faults and lacking perspective or understanding of cultural appropriation, she builds elaborate justifications for her increasingly complicated lies, theft, and the fictional version of her past and her false inspirations. June creates horrifying, cringe-inducing, deliberately gray areas related to race. Her new pen name is meant to be ambiguously Asian American, but to her utter annoyance, she is white. Her inner thoughts and secretly shared feelings concerning the ways in which her whiteness is holding her back from telling diverse stories offers dark humor that made me cringe cringe cringe. The reader is also party to the fully racist thoughts and assertions June holds. All of this satire was darkly funny and horrifying to read, and Kuang is relentless in putting forth the insufferable, ignorant, resentful June as increasingly all of these things as the book progresses. Much of the book is about June's writing, her vicious drive, her belief in her talent, and the various accolades that she is desperate for and feels she deserves. The reader understands what June does not: that she is decimating Athena's work by inserting tired tropes, racist elements, unsettlingly silly romantic moments, and more faults, and we grasp from reviewers' comments that despite June's belief that Athena merely laid the groundwork and June secretly pushed the book to excellence, June's contributions are the schizophrenic weak links throughout. I listened to R. F. Kuang's Yellowface as an audiobook. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? R. F. Kuang is also the author of Babel and The Poppy War trilogy.

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading recently published stories by Claire Keegan, So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men; I'm reading Amy Lea's feel-good time-travel story, Woke Up Like This; and I'm listening to the publishing industry satire Yellowface by R. F. Kuang. What are you reading these days, bookworms? 01 So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men by Claire Keegan In the brilliant, Irish-born Claire Keegan's newest collection, her stories explore gender dynamics, expectations, and what might be or might have been between the sexes. Three stories from various eras in Keegan's career are revised and expanded here: Antarctica explores a married woman's curiosity about being with another man; The Long and Painful Death follows a writer at a retreat who faces a headstrong fellow writer; and in So Late in the Day, a man reflects on what might have been with his lost love, had he made different choices. I received a prepublication edition of this book, published November 14, courtesy of NetGalley and Grove Press. Click here to read my rave reviews of Claire Keegan's novels Foster and Small Things Like These and her short story collection Antarctica. 02 Woke Up Like This by Amy Lea Charlotte Wu is a super organized overachiever, and planning the perfect prom is the final item on her high school to-do list. But decorating disasters threaten to undo her plan when she falls off a ladder and crashes into her nemesis, J. T. Renner. When Charlotte wakes up, she finds that she's thirty years old. And the bearded fiance sleeping next to her...is J. T. Renner. Forget the prom-planning disaster--Charlotte and J. T. seem to have been thrown forward in time and into the thick of young adulthood. Can they find their way back to their seventeen-year-old selves? Or will they have missed thirteen years of their lives--and the chance to figure out how the heck they ended up together? 03 Yellowface by R.F. Kuang I'm listening to R. F. Kuang's Yellowface as an audiobook. Juniper Song is a bestselling author. But she isn't simply a hardworking writer overcoming sluggish first-book attention and sales, emerging with an enormous hit (and new pen name) overnight. June Hayward is a longtime acquaintance of Athena Liu--the Athena Liu who is publishing's darling, with multiple critically acclaimed and celebrated titles, and the focus of June's years-long envy. Until June witnesses Athena's death and mysteriously comes up with a story about Chinese laborers during World War I. But wasn't Athena working on such a story before her untimely end?

More Bossy Short Story Love Some of my fellow readers have mentioned to me in the past that they don't seek out short stories, whether because they want more of a hefty book to dive into, they worry about getting invested in the characters and then getting kicked out abruptly via an ending that feels like it comes too soon, or they worry that a short story won't feel fully realized. But short stories in the hands of talented authors can serve as glimpses into small moments that change everything, alluding to a greater story and world beyond the brief foray into a situation. And if you're having trouble finding time to dig into a longer work with the holidays coming, or just because of Life, short stories can feel more manageable--you can pick up and put down the book as needed without losing the plot. Have you read any of these collections? Do you have any favorite short story collections I should read? You might also like the books on my first Greedy Reading List of short stories: Six Short Story Collections to Wow You. 01 Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo Evaristo offers a set of twelve interconnected stories about Black women in contemporary Britain and their friendships, loves, struggles, and successes. The twelve women in Girl, Woman, Other --each of whom gets a chapter to tell her story, which is often joined in progress--are mothers, daughters, friends, and lovers concerned with sexuality, autonomy, race, artistic expression, tradition, class, education, loyalty, and how each of these factors shape their past, present, and future identities as Black British women. We get to know something about life in contemporary Britain through the varied interconnected friendships, partnerships, loves, struggles, successes, and the ways in which these twelve women's lives are affected by past colonialism and the present-day British environment. I was most fascinated by the looping and sometimes surprising interconnectedness of the characters. During the multiple lessons the characters gave each other about feminism and gender--complete with references to authors, activists, texts, and more--I felt as though I were taking a class; I was interested in the facts but didn't feel drawn into the characters or their stories during those sections. Evaristo won the Booker Prize for Girl, Woman, Other. For my full review, check out Girl, Woman, Other. 02 Festival Days by Jo Ann Beard In Jo Ann Beard's lovely essays and short stories, she writes honestly and beautifully about moments large and small, from the weightiness of saying goodbye to loved ones for the last time to the comically complicated corralling of unruly ducks. In the nine essays and short stories that make up Festival Days, the fantastic Jo Ann Beard explores tiny moments that make up a day and ultimately make up a life, as well as enormously important moments of life-and-death balance that can define everything. Festival Days is not light reading: "Cheri" delves into the last days of a woman who is terminally ill with cancer; "Last Night" relates the final moments of the author's beloved dog's life; and the backbone of the collection is the title piece, "Festival Days," which centers around a trip through India that explores mortality and love. But Beard's writing feels like long-form poetry in a way--evocative and anchored in wonderfully wrought detail--and despite the sometimes difficult subject matter, she injects humor and beauty into the disparate scenes and situations she relates. Festival Days is lovely and sometimes surprising; it feels honest as Beard explores bitterness, confusion, petty thoughts, life-and-death issues, trivial concerns, and intense love and loss. It's also often wryly funny. Click here for my full review of Festival Days. 03 You Have a Friend in 10A by Maggie Shipstead Shipstead's varied stories range from funny with an edge to darkly haunting. She builds her characters with vivid detail, and she serves up the brutal truth alongside vulnerability in this fascinating collection. In You Have a Friend in 10A, Maggie Shipstead offers gripping, sometimes haunting, sometimes darkly funny short stories, diving into eclectic and vivid settings ranging from an Olympic village, to a deathbed in Paris, to a Pacific atoll, to an abandoned mountaintop. The tones of each captivating story vary wildly, whether lighthearted with an edge or tragic and dark. Throughout each disparate story, Shipstead's eye for detail and for illustrating pivotal small moments allows her to explore the lives of a cast of vivid characters and make them feel fully formed. Maggie Shipstead is also the author of Astonish Me, Seating Arrangements, and Great Circle, one of my favorite books the year that I read it. For my full review, please check out You Have a Friend in 10A. 04 You Think It, I'll Say It by Curtis Sittenfeld Sittenfeld shapes fully realized, fascinating characters that stuck with me in the ten stories of You Think It, I'll Say It. I loved it and rated the collection five stars. I had no idea, of course, that of all the feelings of my youth that would pass, it was this one, of an abundance of time so great as to routinely be unfillable, that would vanish with the least ceremony. At the start of this collection I was concerned that this was going to be a short story collection about people making poor choices, and I have loooots of trouble and get verrrry nervous reading those situations. But Sittenfeld has a fascinating way of turning situations on their heads and making the reader sympathetic to absurd, heartbreaking, sometimes dramatic everyday situations, as she does here. The ten stories in You Think It, I'll Say It explore expectations related to gender and relationships while Sittenfeld builds characters whose lives are shaped by missed connections, coincidences--and the aforementioned faulty decision-making. Sittenfeld is also the author of Romantic Comedy, American Wife, You Think It, I'll Say It, Prep, Rodham, and Eligible. For my full review of this book, check out You Think It, I'll Say It. 05 Half Wild by Robin MacArthur MacArthur's stories, set in rural Vermont, are tragic, beautiful, heartwarming, and heartbreaking. MacArthur, who is from Vermont and lives on the farm where her grandparents lived and where she was born, here offers stories spanning forty years, featuring women, men, and young people tied to the beautiful and wild land of rural Vermont and to each other. I loved these vaguely interconnected, often beautifully and minorly (or majorly) tragic but never overblown stories set in rural Vermont. The themes feel potentially universal to other small, rural communities. The author has an eye for the details that bring characters to life and a gift for showing readers the grit, emotion, imperfection, and beauty related to the setting that shapes them. MacArthur is also the author of the mystery Heart Spring Mountain. For my full review, please see Half Wild. 06 Five Tuesdays in Winter by Lily King King builds each story within Five Tuesdays in Winter to be full, rich, and full of pain and poignancy. I loved this collection. In Lily King's story collection, she turns her eye for detail and for wonderfully faulted characters on explorations of love, desire, loss, and tragedy. From a bookseller closed off emotionally from the world who begins to consider letting someone in again to the complicated, tragic reunion of former college roommates; from a mourning elderly man faced with disaster to a writer who has been silenced for too long, King mines uncomfortable or joyful, sometimes tiny moments that shape her characters' lives in profound ways. With masterful storytelling, King builds a world within each short story that feels immediate, sometimes poignant, and which repeatedly surprised me with the amount of heart involved. Lily King is also the author of Writers & Lovers and Euphoria. For my full review, please see Five Tuesdays in Winter.

Keegan turns her keen eye to the small moments that transform a life in this riveting short story collection. The settings range from the South to rural Ireland, and characters face temptation, betrayal, crushing blows, and surprising new beginnings. When I fell in love with Keegan's novels Foster and Small Things Like These in quick succession, I became an all-in Claire Keegan fan for life. I was recently talking with my friend James about books and our shared affinity for Keegan's writing. The conversation reminded me that I hadn't finished this powerful and lovely short story collection by Keegan, despite its having sat on my bedside table as a half-read reminder for months while library books became due and my e-book backlog grew. Keegan also has a new novel (published this week) that I'm excited to read. Keegan Keegan Keegan! That's the way it is in our house, everybody knowing things, but pretending they don't. In just a few of the stories of Keegan's acclaimed debut, Antarctica, a young wife leaves town to experience being with a man other than her husband; a Harvard student endures humiliation from his father on his graduation day; and a couple endures the deepest grief as one implodes and the other reaches out desperately to connect. Keegan's settings span from the South to rural Ireland; her characters sometimes face crushing loss or teeter on the precipice of disaster. A few small moments change everything; a dance, a look, a careless word, a cruel reminder. Judgment fails; unforeseen repercussions shift lives; grief is borne; and temptation, tragedy, and punishment all play out in unexpected ways or in versions of redemption. Antarctica showcases Keegan's masterful ability to distill varied lives into seemingly small moments, and I was riveted. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Click here to read my rave reviews of Claire Keegan's Foster and Small Things Like These. So Late in the Day is her most recent novel; please stay tuned for that Bossy review. If you like short stories, you might also be interested the books on my Greedy Reading List Six Short Story Collections to Wow You.

I loved every bit of the story of willful, sometimes grumpy pirate Amina al-Sirafi and her quest, her strategic swearing, her strength, her fierce loyalty, and her messy, grand, swashbuckling adventures. “Amina, if you insist on going in alone, at least stop caressing your dagger.” I listened to the first installment in Shannon Chakraborty's Amina al-Sirafi fantasy series, The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi as an audiobook, narrated by the fantastic Lameece Issaq and Amin El Gamal. Amina is a notorious former pirate--ruthless, scandalous, and invincible--who has dropped out of sight and settled down to raise her young daughter alongside her strong-willed mother. Then a mysterious, wealthy matriarch preys upon Amina's need for funds--and her desire for one final, glorious success. Amina soon finds herself entangled in a dangerous ocean quest to rescue a young woman, while fighting to keep her own family safe. “Men find it easier to believe they have been swindled by a witch than outwitted by a woman.” This reads like a grown-up (profanity is used strategically and to great comic effect) fairy tale, and I delighted in the story itself as well as the varied cast of characters--including a dreaded, intriguing, infuriating, potentially devastating blast from the past (ahem: demon!) who throws Amina for a loop--and vice versa. For her seafaring voyage, she enlists the help of certain trusted shipmates from long ago, and while Amina once thought of herself as a one-woman show, despite having had a full crew, her old friends prove their mettle and take initiative at key points, reminding Amina that it's not her against the whole world. "The gang's all back together...we should rob something!" The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi is fun, funny, and smart, and I was hooked on the lightning-fast banter; the gruff and independent, saucy, and irresistible main protagonist in the feminist Muslim character of Amina; and the sea adventure with various fantastical elements. Chakraborty offers some closure to book one while setting up a sequel. I am alllll in on this series and can't wait for the second installment. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Shannon Chakraborty also writes under the name S. A. Chakraborty and is the author of the Daevabad Trilogy: The City of Brass, The Kingdom of Copper, and The Empire of Gold.

Angie Kim's sophomore novel is a mystery, but Happiness Falls is primarily an exploration of a complicated, loving, messy family and each of its members. For the rest of our lives, every time one of us goes somewhere and doesn’t return on time, doesn’t let the others know where we are, we will remember this time, what can happen. And we will fall apart. Mia doesn't panic when her father and brother Eugene are late returning from a walk in the park. They might have forgotten their phones, or taken a detour. But when Eugene rushes into the house, bloody and alone, Mia realizes something terrible has happened. And Eugene, who has the rare genetic condition Angelman syndrome, cannot communicate to tell her what occurred. Kim's missing-person novel is a mystery and is structured around the discovery and exploration of what may have happened to cause Mia's father's disappearance. But Happiness Falls is primarily a story about a family finally understanding each other and going to extraordinary lengths to work together. As the family works to find their missing member, various illuminating elements of the imperfect man become clear. The family digs into the traces of his recent activities and are shocked and amazed, angered and intrigued by the depth of his deception and search for knowledge. I was totally hooked on the mystery aspect and the delving into Eugene's potential communication. But my favorite element of the novel was the messy, wonderful family members that forge deeper connections than ever before during the most confusing, painful period of their lives. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Angie Kim is also the author of Miracle Creek.

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading a recently published Western by Elizabeth Crook, The Madstone ; I'm reading David Grann's literary journalism, Killers of the Flower Moon; and I'm listening to The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi, the first installment in Shannon Chakraborty's series about a saucy female pirate. What are you reading these days, bookworms? 01 The Madstone by Elizabeth Crook It's 1868 in Texas, and a vanished stagecoach (with a fortune inside) holds unexpected passengers including pregnant Nell and her four-year-old son, Tot, who are fleeing from Nell's abusive husband. When nineteen-year-old Benjamin Shreve encounters Nell, he determines to shepherd Nell and Tot to safety. But their trip to the Gulf of Mexico is fraught with danger--and Nell's husband and his murderous brothers may be hot on their tails. I received a prepublication edition of this book, published November 7, courtesy of NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company. You might also like the titles on my Greedy Reading List Six Great Historical Fiction Stories Set in the American West and Six More Great Historical Fiction Stories Set in the American West. 02 Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann David Grann's true-crime story is having a resurgence in popularity because of the recent motion picture version of the story. In 1920, the most wealthy people per capita in the whole world were the members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma, due to the value of the oil discovered on Osage land. But one by one, the Osage began to be killed under mysterious circumstances. Every Osage was a potential target--and many of those who risked investigating the deaths were killed as well. The newly formed FBI looks into the case, with its young director J. Edgar Hoover turning to a former Texas Ranger, Tom White, to head up the group trying to figure out the mystery, revealing a horrifying conspiracy. 03 The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi (Amina al-Sirafi #1) by Shannon Chakraborty I'm listening to the first wonderful installment in Shannon Chakraborty's Amina al-Sirafi fantasy series, The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi. Amina is a notorious former pirate--ruthless, scandalous, and invincible--who has dropped out of sight and settled down to raise her young daughter alongside her strong-willed mother. Then a mysterious, wealthy matriarch preys upon Amina's need for funds--and her desire for one final, glorious success. Amina soon finds herself tangled in a dangerous ocean quest to rescue a young woman, while facing complicated key figures from her own past--and fighting to keep her own family safe. This is fun, funny, and smart, with wonderful banter, a gruff and independent, saucy main protagonist in Amina, and a fantastic sea adventure I'm hooked on.

Historical Fiction Mysteries I adore historical fiction and mystery books, and I love the intersection of the two genres. Something about detailed settings from the past just sets off a mystery beautifully for me. Some of the books listed here also have supernatural elements, as in a recent favorite read I reviewed, A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske. Here's a greedy reading question: What other historical fiction mysteries should I read? I recently added Mrs. England by Stacey Halls, A Peculiar Combination (Electra McDonnell #1) by Ashley Weaver, and And By Fire by Evie Hawtrey to my to-read list. 01 The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is not to be confused with another "seven/Evelyn" book, Taylor Jenkins Reid's The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. The premise and structure of Stuart Turton's The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle are fascinating: Evelyn Hardcastle will die every day until Aiden Bishop can identify her killer and thereby break the cycle. But every day Aiden wakes up in the body of a different guest at Blackheath Manor. Let the playing with points of view and the time-turning begin! This book had many moving parts, evolving points of view and senses of self, shifts between days and times within a day, major but mysterious supernatural undercurrents, important characteristic revelations, and complicated past entanglements between parties. I was just glad to roll with it. (Although I really would have enjoyed having a futuristic ability to create fact webs, detailed maps indicating various characters’ hourly movements, and interrupted timelines in the air as I read. Ahem!) But being able to track every detail and how it fit wasn't required (I kept reminding myself that I was not in fact the editor here); the book held my curiosity, and I gladly gave up trying to unpack the characters’ complicated interconnectedness or potential individual motivations past Turton's assertions. I was happy to go along with the denouement to this intriguing book and trust that all the moving pieces fit beautifully. 02 Things in Jars by Jess Kidd In Things in Jars, Jess Kidd offers a creepy, dark mystery tale gloriously steeped in details of Victorian London. The story swirls with seedy, sordid characters, and it's all built on a framework of heroes with heart. Along with the kickass, whip smart, savvy, kind, and irresistible main protagonist Bridie are her striking and unfailingly loyal sidekick Sadie as well as the character of Ruby, who is both a tender tie to her hardscrabble past and a devoted and helpful apparition. Various depraved and frighteningly cruel characters help drive the story of Things in Jars and add to the mystery. Bridie is a strong female protagonist, and Things In Jars offers solid historical fiction details of Victorian London within a creepy mystery with dark twists and turns. Yes on all counts! For my full review, please see Things in Jars. 03 A Curious Beginning (Veronica Speedwell #1) by Deanna Raybourn This fantastic book is the first in Deanna Raybourn's Veronica Speedwell series. Frankly, now that I'm revisiting this title and remembering how much I loved it, I can't believe I haven't plowed through the entire series, which continues with A Perilous Undertaking, A Treacherous Curse, A Dangerous Collaboration, A Murderous Relation, An Unexpected Peril, An Impossible Impostor, and the upcoming eighth title (to be published in early 2023), A Sinister Revenge. Veronica is a curious young Victorian-era lady with progressive ideas, and I adore how matter-of-factly and innocently she presents her wild-for-the-times views and the way she questions power structures and injustices. Raybourn may allow Veronica to benefit from the author's own modern sensibilities in A Curious Beginning, but Veronica is a strong and unorthodox main protagonist, and for me this aspect of her character works wonderfully. Veronica finds herself entangled in a dangerous set of circumstances, complete with intrigue, a traveling show (why is this always such a favorite element for me?), extensive butterfly knowledge, and fascinating references to Veronica's past worldwide adventures—all alongside a dark and brooding and heavily tattooed adventurer and naturalist who becomes a loyal friend. I loved it! For my full review of this book, please see A Curious Beginning. I've loved all of the Veronica Speedwell books I've read so far--you can find my reviews of all of them on the blog! 04 The Clockmaker's Daughter by Kate Morton “There are very few certainties in this world, Mr. Gilbert, but I will tell you something I know: the truth depends on who it is that’s telling the story.” In 1862, a group of artists arrive at Birchwood Manor to relax and allow inspiration to strike, but odd tragedy and destruction unfold instead. A hundred and fifty years later, a young archivist, Elodie Winslow, is drawn to the long-ago mystery. She's determined not to stop searching until she finds out what really happened that summer. The Clockmaker's Daughter took a little page time to start moving along for me, but I loved Kate Morton’s writing and her rich detail. I’m glad the circumstances of what led to the mystery—yikes!—didn’t become plain until toward the end. Kate Morton's book offers dual story lines; the tales of multiple generations; interesting, assumed identities; otherworldly beings; wonderful chance (and life-changing) encounters; and a rich English countryside setting. I thought this was lovely. 05 Jackaby (Jackaby #1) by WIlliam Ritter “I prefer to look after myself, ma’am, but thank you. I appreciate your concern for my well-being, but some of us have more pressing matters to attend to than practicing our curtsies and turning foolishly sized bonnets into topiaries.” Jackaby is the first in the young adult supernatural mystery series of the same name, and in it, author William Ritter provides memorable main characters as well as great pacing and banter--and just look at this gorgeous cover. It's 1892 in New Fiddleham, New England. R.F. Jackaby investigates the mysteries of the unexplained, and Abigail Rook has just arrived in town and needs a job. Her keen eye for details leads her to become his trusty assistant. Abigail is clever, and her strong role in her partnership with the wonderfully odd Jackaby is satisfying. The Jackaby story is dark, mysterious, and feels Gothic, yet there's humor too. This book had me so hooked that realizing that I'd figured out the basic facts behind the mystery (although I hadn't figured out the many great details surrounding the events) didn't diminish my reading enjoyment in the least. The next titles in the Jackaby series are Beastly Bones, Ghostly Echoes, and The Dire King. 06 The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo The Night Tiger is a wonderful historical fiction mystery and love story shaped by superstition, fables, and tales. Ji Lin is a young girl who would have dreamed of becoming a doctor if society would have allowed it, but as it is, she's stuck working off her mother's Mahjong debts by being a dance hall girl. She encounters a Chinese houseboy Ren on a bizarre mission, and their paths become intertwined around a superstition that men can turn into tigers. Ji Lin speaks her mind and ruffles feathers even as she exploits assumptions about women, sexual attraction, and power. She doesn’t fit the mold of a typical woman from 1930s Malaysia nor that of the British colonists living there—in all wonderful ways. She’s itching for (and finds) adventure, knowledge, and more than a loveless, practical marriage match. There's magical realism at the heart of this book, and Choo also examines colonialism, superstition, and young love. I thought it was fascinating.

Although the first section felt manic and uneven as Green hurtled through time, the second point of view offered lovely perspective on human connections and duty to each other. Green is just an ordinary young guy, dancing, drinking, living it up. But something's off: he's started hurtling through time, and he can't stop, which means he can't hold onto relationships or grasp his present before he's off again. Zada is a scientist from the future who becomes aware of Green's problem and seeks to help him. But doing so may require her to jump into Green's timeline, and she knows that there's no assurance she'll ever get back to her own original time again. A meeting of the two characters could alter their lives forever. I had significant difficulty getting through the initial portion of this book. Green's party-guy, train-of-thought-spewing, reactive personality made it tough for me to follow what he was trying to express and tough to care about him as a character. The early scenes felt zany and disjointed, even without the time travel element. I was very close to abandoning the book. But I'm glad I stuck with it. The calm and thoughtful perspective offered by Zada's later point of view made for a far more cohesive story--and that's saying something, as the novel is, after all, a time-jumping frenzy in a futuristic setting. It's unclear whether the book's having been written by two authors accounts for some of this drastic split. Alternative perspectives later in the book (family, friends, and Zada) served up a surprisingly vulnerable, sympathetic Green that was not evident to me in the early portion of the book. The story centers around Green's activities, but because of the shift in point of view away from his own, he largely drops out of the plot and the story takes off without him. The off-screen, forward-thinking future version of Green didn't jibe with the early image of him for me, but his unexpected, spot-on predictions and savvy intuition allow for the resources for the most interesting portion of the story to occur in the future, as a crack team attempts to understand how to send Zada back to meet him in time. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? I received a prepublication edition of this title courtesy of NetGalley and John Hunt Publishing: Cosmic Egg Books.

In her memoir, Gupta explores the stressful, tragic disconnect between the "perfect minority" image her father demanded of the family and the naturally messy behind-the-scenes family life shaped by individuals with unique desires and troubles. In her memoir They Called Us Exceptional, Prachi Gupta explores her Indian American culture, her parents' expectations, society's pressures, and the fiction that her family attempted to portray of being perfect--despite conflict, messy moments, and Gupta's need to be seen for who she really was. The book begins with Gupta's apology to her mother for airing the family's dirty laundry rather than writing the book as a novel. She explains that only by telling the truth in this way does she have any hope of allowing others to live their truths as well. The book itself is directed to Gupta's mother, and Gupta explains to her mother the reality of past events, her points of view, and her reactions to various occurrences in a way that emphasizes her estrangement from her parents--and her particular pain in being distant from her mother. Gupta explores the intense stress of being forced--through verbal abuse, violence, emotional blackmail, and more avenues--to comply with her father's often-volatile whims, his desire for Prachi to adhere to his stringent (and sometimes seemingly random) "model minority myth" standards, and his will in all things. She contrasts this with her father's presentation to the world of his generosity, wisdom, and graceful success--and outlines her long-held shame at this disconnect and at her inability to fit the mold as set for her, while knowing she was and is incapable of doing so. Her father uses his mental illness to emotionally manipulate the family, then demands that no one outside the household know about it. He lays out a history of familial depression and suicidal thoughts as though the occurrence is inevitable for his children, which haunts Prachi--and seems to singularly take hold of her brother Yush. This is a memoir in which Prachi wrestles her fate--as messy, imperfect, and wonderfully independent as she wishes it to be--back into her own hands, while facing the tragic fallout of her family's years of dysfunction and difficulty as well as the consequences and freedom of her departure from the heart of the family. I listened to Prachi Gupta's They Called Us Exceptional as an audiobook. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? If you like to read memoirs, you might be interested in the titles on my various memoir-focused Greedy Reading Lists: Six Fascinating Memoirs to Explore Six More Fascinating Memoirs to Explore Six Musicians' Memoirs that Sing 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 Six of My Favorite Memoir Reads Last Year

Sara Donati's historical fiction includes nods to Outlander and The Last of the Mohicans, considers the trials and adventures of a feminist woman in the 18th century wilderness of New York, and offers copious romance and lush description. In this first book of Donati's Wilderness series, it's 1792 and Elizabeth Middleton has traveled with her malcontent lush of a brother from a grand English estate to a wild New York settlement to meet up with her father, who has been building business connections there for years. She quickly realizes that her father's oblique promises that she could teach school in their new home may have been a ruse to get her to New York--and he then planned to push her into considering marriage in order to serve his business interests. But she's determined to follow her own path--and her strong-willed decisions fly in the face of rigid society's expectations concerning women, slavery, and appropriate marriage prospects. And Elizabeth can't fight her immediate attraction to the no-nonsense Nathaniel Bonner, a white man dressed in Mohawk gear. I've heard this called Outlander fan fiction (Jamie and Claire Fraser are mentioned in this novel), and have also heard that the Hawkeye character in the book (Nathaniel's father) is the same character as in James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans. Regardless of its true origins, Into the Wilderness did scratch the itch of reading a combination of historical fiction, romance, and rich descriptions of taming the wild. Elizabeth is a feminist in a time in which independence and freedom are not encouraged in a woman. She finds clever ways to assert her strong will by working within and around the confines of the law and of social expectations. The Elizabeth-Nathaniel relationship is romantic and saucy and swoony. Richard is a powerful, vindictive, greedy third wheel (who, like Nathaniel, is white and has deep Indian roots; it often felt to me as though he played an over the top Evil Nathaniel Alternative here). Elizabeth's brother Julian is weak, easily tempted, shirks responsibility, and is set upon seeing others fail. I listened to this as an audiobook, and it ran 30 hours and 13 minutes. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Sara Donati is the pen name of Rosina Lippi. Lippi has primarily published academic works under her real name, as well as the novel Homecoming. Donati is also the author of the wonderful book The Gilded Hour as well as Where the Light Enters and ten other historical fiction novels.

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading The Power author Naomi Alderman's newest novel, The Future, to be published tomorrow; I'm listening to Prachi Gupta's memoir about growing up Indian American, They Called Us Exceptional; and I'm reading A Power Unbound, Freya Marske's final installment in her Last Binding trilogy. What are you reading these days, bookworms? 01 The Future by Naomi Alderman Martha Einkorn fled her father's religious compound in Oregon. But now she's working for a social media guru bent on controlling everything, and she's starting to wonder if she's ventured very far from her beginnings after all. Meanwhile in Singapore, survivalist Lai Zhen has temporarily evaded a would-be assassin. A mysterious app on her phone seems to have all of the answers she needs--but Lai isn't sure what the tradeoff is. When the two connect, they just might change everything. I mentioned Naomi Alderman's novel The Power in the Greedy Reading List Six Fascinating Dystopian and Postapocalyptic Novels. I received a prepublication edition of this book, scheduled for publication tomorrow, courtesy of NetGalley and Simon & Schuster. 02 They Called Us Exceptional: And Other Lies that Raised Us by Prachi Gupta I'm listening to Prachi Gupta's They Called Us Exceptional. In her memoir, Gupta explores her Indian American culture, her parents' expectations, society's pressures, and the fiction that her family attempted to portray of being perfect--despite conflict, messy moments, and Gupta's need to be seen for who she really was. The book begins with Gupta's apology to her parents for airing the family's dirty laundry rather than writing the book as a novel. She explains that only by telling the truth in this way does she have any hope of allowing others to live their truths as well. 03 A Power Unbound (Last Binding #3) by Freya Marske I've been sooooo excited to read this final installment in Freya Marske's Last Binding trilogy, a queer historical fiction fantasy-mystery series I've loved. Lord Hawthorn swore he was finished with magic for good after his twin sisters died. But when a dangerous ritual threatens the safety of all the magicians in Great Britain, he reluctantly dives back into the world to try and help procure the Last Contract. An unlikely group of allies fights to reveal the source of the evil at work--and through unexpected attractions and the uncovering of weighty secrets, the group works to unravel the mysterious roots of British magic once and for all. Marske is also the author of A Marvellous Light and A Restless Truth. I received a prepublication edition of this title, scheduled for publication tomorrow, courtesy of NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group.

The Life-and-Death Books I've Loved Who's with me in having an obsession with reading about facing mortality? Does it stem from being in middle age? Is it because I have a cancer history? Is it simply morbid fascination? It's the human condition that we're all headed in the same eventual direction, and I'm captivated by explorations of what make up a meaningful life (or death, or both) and by stories, true or fictionalized, about facing mortality. If you're intrigued by facing the intertwined beauty and pain of our finite trips around the sun, you might also want to check out the memoirs I've loved on my first Greedy Reading List on the subject, Six Powerful Memoirs about Facing Mortality, which included the beautiful books The Unwinding of the Miracle; I Am, I Am, I Am; When Breath Becomes Air; Everything Happens for a Reason; The Bright Hour; and I've Seen the End of You. Have you read books in this vein that you'd recommend? (Or do you stay far away from such topics?) 01 In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss by Amy Bloom Amy Bloom writes with brutal honesty about her heartbreak and her determination to support her husband Brian Ameche's desire to end his life on his own terms. In her memoir In Love, author Amy Bloom shares the story of an impossible situation: the pending loss of her husband Brian Ameche, first mentally and then physically, to Alzheimer's disease. Ameche begins showing cognitive loss, and when a diagnosis is established of Alzheimer's disease, he considers the cases of those he has known who suffered for many years from the disease--and their caregivers alongside them. He becomes determined to participate in an assisted suicide program while he is still showing enough cognition to enter into the agreement. In Love includes dark humor; some self-flagellation and brutal honesty about what Bloom perceives as her own instances of weakness and pettiness; intense kindness from others in desperately needed moments; and the dogged determination from various individuals to help Ameche's vision of taking control of circumstances surrounding the end of his life occur. You can find my full review of In Love here. 02 No Cure for Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear) by Kate Bowler Touching, honest, raw, funny, and full of gritty reflections about life and faith, this was a read that I absolutely adored and gave five Bossy stars. THIS BOOK! Reading memoirs centered around cancer is not always a go for me, but this book was special. Divinity professor Kate Bowler offers meaningful insight, gritty truth-telling, and wry humor as she shares her experiences surrounding facing stage 4 colon cancer. I finished No Cure for Being Human in one evening, tabbed many, many passages, immediately bought my own copy, re-tabbed everything, and would have been perfectly willing to read the book again in its entirety right away. So many moments struck me, surprised me, or touched me as I read this lovely work, including Bowler's exploration of how our lives are largely shaped by choices out of our control and her reckoning with the way in which she considers her body after cancer treatment ("Who would fault a body that has survived so much and asked for so little?"). No Cure for Being Human is beautiful, funny, heartwarming, practical, and Kate Bowler is so wise and wonderful, I hugged this book to my chest when I finished reading it. For my full review, check out No Cure for Being Human. 03 This Shining Life by Harriet Kline Kline's poignant, lovely book explores a family's emotional missteps and enduring love after a painful loss, and their hard-fought resolutions and tentative steps forward. Young Ollie finds people confusing. They don't always say what they mean, and lately they're often crying. Harriet Kline's This Shining Life tracks Ollie's attempts to make sense of things after his father Rich's death from cancer; it follows his mother Ruth's adjustment to life without her free-spirited, joy-filled partner; and it tracks the grief and the resulting shifts within their close-knit extended family. Rich left small gifts to his loved ones, and Ollie becomes convinced that if he searches hard enough for meaning in these items, he'll uncover essential clues about the meaning of life and be able to understand what happened to his father. It's heartbreaking to witness various family members' attempts to do what they think is best for themselves and for others, often misreading what's needed or wanted. The examinations of mortality and of love and of living life fully are poignant and lovely, and the last ten percent of this book is so beautiful, it brought me to tears. You can find my full review of This Shining Life here. 04 Nobody Will Tell You This But Me: A True (As Told to Me) Story by Bess Kalb This is an irresistible tribute to Kalb's funny, opinionated, fiercely loving grandmother--a granddaughter's best friend and a wise and formidable character. I listened to Bess Kalb's irresistible love letter to her late grandmother, Nobody Will Tell You This But Me. The audiobook was wonderful and read by Kalb. The author saved every one of her grandmother's voicemails, and here she uses them--along with emails, letters, vividly recalled conversations, and her grandma Bobby's imagined thoughts from beyond the grave--to construct a picture of a formidable, tough-love, fiercely protective matriarch in Bobby Bell. of doubting his faith, God, his life’s work, and his vision of an afterlife. This is a heartwarming, funny, poignant, sassy tribute to a life fully lived and to a determination love freely, deliberately, and unwaveringly. It made me laugh out loud and brought me to tears. I just adored this gem. Click here for my full review of Nobody Will Tell You This But Me. 05 The Light of the World by Elizabeth Alexander Poet Elizabeth Alexander writes a gorgeous account of her love affair with her husband and the trauma of his sudden death in a heartbreaking, heartwarming account of moving through the darkness and holding tight to life's beauty and its pain. “The story seems to begin with catastrophe but in fact began earlier and is not a tragedy but rather a love story. Perhaps tragedies are only tragedies in the presence of love, which confers meaning to loss. Loss is not felt in the absence of love.” In The Light of the World, Elizabeth Alexander writes gorgeously about Ficre Ghebreyesus, the husband she lost suddenly; the elements that made him irreplaceable to her and to the world; and the impossibility and inevitability of adjusting to life without him. Alexander shares the trauma surrounding this enormous loss--which occurred days after Ghebreyesus's fiftieth birthday surprise party--and her personal journey toward finding peace. Much of the book explores the beauty of companionship, and with poetic gorgeousness Alexander lays out her unique love story. You can find my full review of The Light of the World here. 06 The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin Cronin's debut novel explores mortality, vulnerability, surprising moments of joy and reflection, an irresistible young protagonist, and a wonderful array of friends who are like family. Lenni and Margot was one of my top twelve reads of the year the year I read it. Seventeen-year-old Lenni Pettersson lives in the terminal ward at the Glasgow Princess Royal Hospital. Her life expectancy isn't long, but Lenni still has a lot she wants to do and be. In the hospital's arts and crafts class, she meets 83-year-old Margot, a spirited, rebellious new friend. Collectively they've been around 100 years, but this just doesn't feel like enough, and they each want to leave their mark on the world. With the help of Father Arthur, the hospital chaplain, and a kind palliative care nurse, the friends make a plan to create one hundred paintings, one to represent each of their years of life. This goal adds structure to the novel, but the story is far richer than the characters' mission to create art. Another novel I loved that involves a precocious, wise, reflective, tough young protagonist is This Is All He Asks of You. Click here for my full review of The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot.

Emily Tesh's debut novel is a space opera about war, duty, brainwashing, escaping limitations, and reinventing oneself--with fascinating turns of events and richly wrought characters. I just loved it. Kyr has not only trained her whole life for the day she can avenge the long-ago destruction of Earth, she was genetically bred to be exceptional at the task. But then unexpected events lead her to leave the only home she's ever known in order to try to save Magnus, her genetic brother, who she's never really allowed herself to feel emotionally connected to. She realizes that the revenge fantasies that have been instilled in her since birth--along with a distrust of all nonhuman creatures--were based on lies. An oddball trio made up of Kyr, her brother's subversive genius of a friend, and a lonely alien force Kyr to reexamine all that she's ever known. My favorite science fiction novels examine the Big Issues: What makes us people? What really matters? What do we owe to each other? How do you measure a successful, fulfilled, worthy life? Emily Tesh's Some Desperate Glory examines deep matters in a fascinating chain of events, reflections, unexpected do-overs, and fantastic character growth. I absolutely loved Tesh's writing, the scope of her work, her characters, their connections, the world-building--all of it. I'm in for alllll Emily Tesh books now. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Emily Tesh is also the author of the Greenhollow Duology, which is made up of the novella Silver in the Wood and Drowned Country.

ICYMI: Morton masterfully weaves together timelines, threads of family history, and long-held secrets now revealed, while her main protagonist forges a new life path. Cassandra's beloved grandmother Nell has recently passed away, and Cassandra is reeling. The terrible accident from a decade earlier still looms over Cassandra, and with the loss of Nell, she feels as though everything is lost. But an odd bequest in Nell's will turns everything on its head for Cassandra. Nell has left her a book of dark fairy tales by the reclusive Victorian author Eliza Makepeace, who mysteriously disappeared in the early 1900s. As Cassandra follows the trail Nell has laid out for her, she discovers more about her family's history, uncovers secrets, and may just find a new path for her own future. Morton is masterful at weaving together several timelines, rich family history, intriguing discoveries, an overarching mystery, and a female protagonist who discovers she's made of stronger stuff than she knew. The Forgotten Garden is over 500 pages long, and I was engrossed the whole way through. In many ways this felt like a Secret Garden (a book I was obsessed with as a child) for grown-ups, with intertwined, mysterious stories from 1900, 1975, and 2005 and a vivid setting, interesting characters, and enough twists to keep you guessing. This was such a great read! Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Morton is also the author of Homecoming, The Clockmaker's Daughter, The Secret Keeper, The House at Riverton, The Lake House, and The Distant Hours.

Winkler is candid, charming, self-deprecating, and delighted by life and his experiences. I loved listening to him read the audiobook of Being Henry. I listened to Henry Winkler read his irresistibly candid, funny, and poignant memoir. Winkler explores his childhood and his critical, yelling, stressed parents, survivors of the Holocaust who were later concerned with wealthy appearances and often in terrible debt. He credits their appreciation for his fame but not for him as a person for his lifetime of insecurity, difficulty opening up emotionally, and need for ongoing therapy. He also shares his lifelong joy in putting on other personas and his professional ups and downs, including the luck, grit, and adventures of starring in Happy Days, Arrested Development, Parks and Recreation, and Barry. Winkler dives into endearingly frank discussions of his perceived shortcomings and mistakes, as well as his many delights and blessings. All of this is intermingled with his clear adoration and admiration for his family--his wife chimes in with her perspective at some key points--and his family's natural inclination for activism. His dyslexia, which was undiagnosed until he was well into adulthood, and its myriad challenges led to his eventual emergence as the children's book author of the successful Hank Zipzer series, about a boy with learning differences. Winkler brings heart and honesty to the story of his life, and I loved it. I received a prepublication audiobook version of this title courtesy of NetGalley and Macmillan Audio. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Henry Winkler is the author of the Hank Zipzer series (Niagara Falls, Or Does It? is the first) and the Ghost Buddy series.

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading Daniel Mason's novel tracking generations of inhabitants in a New England cabin, North Woods; I'm listening to Henry Winkler's charming, candid memoir, Being Henry; and I'm reading Secondhand Daylight, Eugen Bacon and Andrew Hook's science fiction story about time travel gone wrong--and a connection from the future that could be one man's saving grace. What are you reading these days, bookworms? 01 North Woods by Daniel Mason Mason's novel tells the story of a New England house in the woods by tracking those who live in it over the centuries. Mason's characters range from a young couple in love, escaping their rigid Puritanical community; to an English soldier who escapes battle to grow apples; to spinster twins coping with wartime struggles; to a panther who takes refuge in the house. The story explores cycles and links through history, considering how each of us may live on after we're gone. I received a prepublication edition of this book courtesy of NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group: Ballantine, Delacorte Press. 02 Being Henry: The Fonz...and Beyond by Henry Winkler I'm listening to Henry Winkler read his memoir, which is irresistibly candid, funny, and poignant. Winkler explores his childhood and his critical, yelling, stressed parents; his joy in putting on other personas even as a young child; and his undiagnosed dyslexia and its challenges, then dives into the luck, grit, and adventures of starring in Happy Days, Arrested Development, Parks and Recreation, and Barry. Winkler brings heart and honesty to the story of his life so far, and I love it. I received a prepublication audiobook version of this title courtesy of NetGalley and Macmillan Audio. 03 Secondhand Daylight by Eugen Bacon and Andrew Hook Green is just an ordinary guy, jumping through time. But something's off: he's unable to stop hurtling through time, which means he can't hold onto relationships or grasp his present before he's off again. Zada is a scientist from the future who becomes aware of Green's problem and seeks to help him. But it may require her to jump into Green's timeline, and she knows that unexpected results could be triggered. The intersection of the two characters alters their lives forever. I received a prepublication edition of this title courtesy of NetGalley and John Hunt Publishing: Cosmic Egg Books.

My very favorite Bossy October reads! Here are the six books I most loved reading this past month: two historical fiction stories, gothic magical realism, science fiction, a character-driven mystery, and yet another of Deanna Raybourn's Veronica Speedwell Victorian mysteries. If you've read any of these, I'd love to hear what you think! And I'd also love to hear: what are some of your recent favorite reads? 01 October in the Earth by Olivia Hawker Hawker's newest historical fiction gives a wonderfully evocative peek into a gritty period, as her main protagonist escapes a bad marriage to ride the rails during the Depression and reinvents herself completely. Olivia Hawker's newest historical fiction is set in Depression-era Kentucky. Adella (Del) Wensley is the wife of the showy, prosperous, revered local preacher. She's learned to bite her tongue, and she feels like the poor treatment her husband shows her may be deserved, as after eight years of marriage, they haven't conceived a child. Her life's purpose is meant to be made up of motherhood, catering to her husband's needs, and keeping house, after all. But when her husband pushes her too far with abhorrent behavior, Del hops a train and dives into the transient community riding the rails in search of work and survival. Hawker offers a wonderfully vivid, gritty, sobering, often surprisingly hopeful--but never too easy--peek at Depression-era desperation, forged loyalties, shedding of expectations, and new, hard-fought identities and priorities. For my full review of this book, please see October in the Earth. 02 The Great Transition by Nick Fuller Googins Emi, Kristina, and Larch are a family that survived the immense destruction of the climate crisis, but secrets, danger, and a double life might be their undoing. Emi Vargas is, frankly, tired of being reminded that her parents were part of the movement that saved the world--and weary of the constant comments about how she's so lucky to have been born after the climate crisis. But then climate criminals begin to be systematically assassinated in public shows of retaliation for their past crimes, Emi's mother Kristina goes missing, and Emi fears that her mother is in danger. Emi and her father Larch journey from their home in Greenland to a near-future, postapocalyptic New York City, frequently ravaged by flooding and storms, to try to find Kristina. When a long-term secret is revealed and Emi's safety is endangered, the family must decide whether they can go on as before, or whether they must invent a new future for themselves. You might also like the books on my Greedy Reading Lists Six Fascinating Dystopian and Postapocalyptic Novels and Six More Dystopian and Postapocalyptic Novels. Click here for my full review of The Great Transition. 03 The Caretaker by Ron Rash Ron Rash's newest Appalachian-set novel explores a small town shaken by upended expectations, the Korean War, and selfish rigidity that threatens to undo them all. Blackburn Gant is the sole caretaker of a hilltop cemetery in 1951 Blowing Rock, North Carolina. He lives a quiet life, which is partially dictated by his physical limitations since suffering through polio as a child. When his best (and only) friend Jacob is sent to serve overseas in the Korean War, Blackburn promises to look after Jacob's wife, Naomi. The two had eloped just months after meeting, which led to Jacob's being disowned by his wealthy family. Blackburn and Naomi grow close as they anxiously await word of Jacob's fate halfway around the world. When an important telegram arrives, they fear the worst. A series of elaborate falsifications, outrageous subterfuge, and outright lies creates a tangled web for all involved--and the situation just begs for justice to be served to those blinded by selfish desire and rigid expectations. I included the wonderful Ron Rash short story collection Nothing Gold Can Stay in my Greedy Reading List Six Short Story Collections to Wow You, and I loved his novel One Foot in Eden. Click here for my full review of The Caretaker. 04 American Girl by Wendy Walker This is another whodunit winner from Wendy Walker: a character-driven mystery with a neurodivergent main protagonist, small-town intrigue, and satisfying revenge. Charlie is a math-whiz teen with autism who is working as much as possible at The Triple S sandwich shop so that she can one day afford to leave her Pennsylvania hometown and attend MIT. But when the shop owner, Clay Cooper, who owns several other local businesses, is a town council member, and has his hand in most of the local business, turns up dead, everyone becomes a suspect, including all of his employees. Charlie must help discover the truth about what happened in order to clear her coworkers--and Charlie herself--from suspicion of murder. Wendy Walker writes wonderful, character-driven suspense that keeps me hooked as she guides the reader through a twisty mystery. The fierce loyalty and revenge elements in this intriguing whodunit were immensely satisfying. Wendy Walker is also the author of What Remains and Don't Look for Me as well as All Is Not Forgotten, Emma in the Night, and The Night Before. Please click here for my full review of American Girl. 05 Starling House by Alix E. Harrow Starling House is another wonderful, dark, twisty story from Alix E. Harrow, with imperfect characters, a noble, messy quest, layers of history, and a captivating end. Opal is desperate for cash, and her petty theft at her minimum-wage jobs isn't going to cut it. She's got to raise the money to send her bright younger brother Jacob to a private school where he can thrive--and have better prospects than Opal herself has had since the loss and disappearance of their single mother. She's been cobbling together enough to get by, but when a mysterious draw to the spooky Starling House ends up in an overpaying job offer, she feels she can hardly say no. Arthur, the young, haunted-seeming caretaker of the estate, seems resigned to her presence even as he advises her to stay far away from Starling House. He's caught up in solving some sort of puzzle related to the past. Opal takes his envelopes of cash for her overpriced housekeeping, but she doesn't tell Arthur that she's been dreaming of the decrepit, rambling house for years, and that she has some eerie sense that she's finally home. Alix E. Harrow is also the author of the wonderful The Once and Future Witches and The Ten Thousand Doors of January, as well as A Spindle Splintered, A Mirror Mended, The Autobiography of a Traitor and a Half-Savage, and Fractured Fables. For my full review, check out Starling House. 06 A Murderous Relation (Veronica Speedwell #5) by Deanna Raybourn The fifth book in the Veronica Speedwell series offers more of Raybourn's magic: witty dialogue, an unorthodox partnership, will-they/won't-they tension, and the solving of dark Victorian-era mysteries that call for bravery, creativity, and a little ruthlessness. In A Murderous Relation, Veronica and Stoker become involved in a mystery involving a house of debauchery, the heir to the throne, kidnapping, and Jack the Ripper. Raybourn offers dark undercurrents, witty banter, mischief, and also social commentary. A Murderous Relation also explores class and privilege: the story revisits a working-class character from an earlier book--and presents society's moral judgements (as well as Veronica and Stoker's indignance) about the fact that Jack the Ripper's victims were not only vulnerable, but often poor and scrambling desperately and without qualms to make ends meet. Hold on to your hats: the Veronica-Stoker relationship gains clarity at long last! I listened to this as an audiobook, which is wonderfully narrated, as the rest of the series has been, by Angele Masters. I loved A Curious Beginning, the first book in Deanna Raybourn's feisty Veronica Speedwell series of historical fiction mysteries, as well as the sequels A Perilous Undertaking, A Treacherous Curse, and A Dangerous Collaboration. (There are currently eight books in the series, with a ninth scheduled for publication in 2024.) Raybourn is also the author of the wonderful stand-alone title Killers of a Certain Age. For my full review, please see A Murderous Relation.

June struggles with the complicated implications of her family's curse of hallucinations and mental illness...until she realizes that the red door and visions of the past are real memories from her own time-travel experiences. I wasn't the first Farrow, but I would be the last. June Farrow is biding her time on her family's flower farm in the small town of Jasper, North Carolina. But she's been seeing and hearing visions for a year now, and she believes they're linked to the curse that the community believes has its hold on the Farrow women. June would love to end the curse, the fraying of the Farrow women's minds, once and for all--by never having a child and allowing the mental illness to die with her. But when she realizes she can walk through a magical red door, she finds unexpected circumstances--and realizes that she may be able to reinvent her path forward--and possibly also shift the events of the past. Young builds a story of traveling through time and of shimmers of other realities that might have been--or possibly did occur; whether they happened or not is not always clear. The Unmaking of June Farrow involves some maddening determination on certain characters' parts to keep the time-travel element wholly secret from those who would ultimately be faced with it. (If even the bare bones of this crucial information were shared on a need-to-know basis, a character's possibility of showing up as herself in a dangerous point in time--for example, a time in which she may have been accused of a grave crime--could help secure her own safety and preserve her existence through various timelines and her implications on others.) It was tough not to feel frustrated at characters' reluctance to even allude to the giant elephant in the room, once the situation was laid bare for the reader. Receiving only vague advice (which initially feels faulty, to say the least) about simply walking through the vision of a red door that appears to her leads June into a dangerous situation in the past--a past from which she built deep roots at one point, then simply disappeared. The mystery of why June left a past timeline is intriguing and keeps the story going. The story shifts between events of 1912, 1946, 1950, 1951, and 1989. Late in the book, June begins to understand the "folding of time" and intuits how timelines may have combined. It's a complicated web of cause and effect, and for much of the book I wasn't certain that the bundle of events affected by time-travel added up (which age and version of which person exists in which time, and how does the interaction between different versions affect everything else), but I was willing to roll with it. The circumstances of the ending are largely satisfying, the emotional connections June ultimately makes are poignant, and there's a character-reveal twist that was sweet and lovely. I received a prepublication edition of this book courtesy of NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group: Ballantine, Delacorte Press. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Adrienne Young is also the author of Fable, its sequel Namesake, and The Last Legacy, loosely set in the worlds of Fable and Namesake, and Spells for Forgetting.

Starling House is another wonderful, dark, twisty story from Alix E. Harrow, with imperfect characters, a noble, messy quest, layers of history, and a captivating end. I can see them all now, truths and lies, all lying one atop the other...the Gravely brothers...Eden, which was a good little town and a terrible little town, filled with good and terrible people...Eleanor. Opal is desperate for cash, and her petty theft at her minimum-wage jobs isn't going to cut it. She's got to raise the money to send her bright younger brother Jacob to a private school where he can thrive--and have better prospects than Opal herself has had since the loss and disappearance of their single mother. She's been cobbling together enough to get by, but when a mysterious draw to the spooky Starling House ends up in an overpaying job offer, she feels she can hardly say no. Arthur, the young, haunted-seeming caretaker of the estate, seems resigned to her presence even as he advises her to stay far away from Starling House. He's caught up in solving some sort of puzzle related to the past. Which Opal promptly attempts to file under Not Her Problem. Opal takes his envelopes of cash for her overpriced housekeeping, but she doesn't tell Arthur that she's been dreaming of the decrepit, rambling house for years, and that she has some eerie sense that she's finally home. Harrow has crafted a rich, fully realized set of interconnected elements; families riddled with greed and betrayal, duty and disappointment, well-meaning and ineffectual passersby; and dreams of darkness, belonging, and taking up the mantle of an eerie, wonderful, terrible home and the predecessors who fought for it. Starling House includes social commentary and judgments about privilege, corruption, and abuse at the hands of terrible, powerful men. The supporting characters are fantastically odd, fiercely loyal, and a heartwarming support for a girl who often feels without an anchor. I adore Harrow's writing; her imperfect, faulted characters; the noble, messy quest; the hard-fought realizations and revenge. This was wonderful. I received a prepublication edition of the audiobook of this title courtesy of NetGalley and Macmillan Audio. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Alix E. Harrow is also the author of the wonderful The Once and Future Witches and The Ten Thousand Doors of January, as well as A Spindle Splintered, A Mirror Mended, The Autobiography of a Traitor and a Half-Savage, and Fractured Fables.

This is another whodunit winner from Wendy Walker: a character-driven mystery with a neurodivergent main protagonist, small-town intrigue, and satisfying revenge. I began to form rules like math equations. When this happens, people act that way and say those things. When that happens, people act this way and say other things. And those rules stayed in my head, each and every one. I realized I could use them to prepare for whatever was coming. To protect myself. Charlie is a math-whiz teen with autism who is working as much as possible at The Triple S sandwich shop so that she can one day afford to leave her Pennsylvania hometown and attend MIT. But when the shop owner, Clay Cooper, who owns several other local businesses, is a town council member, and has his hand in most of the local business, turns up dead, everyone becomes a suspect, including all of his employees. Charlie must help discover the truth about what happened in order to clear her coworkers--and Charlie herself--from suspicion of murder. But it becomes clear that Clay was in deep with some seedy characters, and key elements of the mystery of his death stretch back decades--intersecting with Charlie's own family. Charlie is whip-smart intelligent in her evaluation of the facts of the complicated series of events. She is also somewhat closed off emotionally (this seems to be connected to her autism). She has a difficult relationship with her stepfather and her mother, who loves Charlie deeply but manipulates others in order to get by. (Side note: the storyline concerning the scholarship and her stepfather had me on the verge of screaming with frustration on Charlie's behalf.) She was describing things I already knew about myself that I thought no one else had noticed because I was so good at pretending. Her longtime friend and could-be love is a steady, supportive force in the background of her life--but Charlie has developed heartbreaking relationship "rules" that prevent her from becoming attached, for fear that she won't be strong enough to leave town and make her mark on the world. I loved Charlie as our main protagonist. She is not exactly an unreliable narrator, but it does turn out that she's been withholding key information from the reader. I was fascinated, watching her knowledge creep out and its implications unfold, while she discovered essential facts that change everything. I appreciated the choice to have main protagonist Charlie be neurodivergent--and to name the book about her American Girl. Wendy Walker writes wonderful, character-driven suspense that keeps me hooked as she guides the reader through a twisty mystery. The fierce loyalty and revenge elements in this intriguing whodunit were immensely satisfying. I received a prepublication edition of this book courtesy of NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Wendy Walker is also the author of What Remains and Don't Look for Me as well as All Is Not Forgotten, Emma in the Night, and The Night Before.

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading the newest novel by Adrienne Young, time-traveling magical realism based in small-town North Carolina, The Unmaking of June Farrow; I'm reading Angie Kim's suspenseful story that also centers around family connection, Happiness Falls; and I'm listening to Starling House, Alix E. Harrow's newest spooky, darkly funny, fascinating novel. What are you reading these days, bookworms? 01 The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young June Farrow is biding her time on her family's flower farm in the small town of Jasper, North Carolina. But she's been seeing and hearing visions for a year now, and she believes they're linked to the curse that the community believes has its hold on the Farrow women. June is determined to end the curse once and for all. When she realizes she can walk through a magical door, she finds unexpected circumstances--and realizes that she may be able to reinvent her path forward--and possibly also shift the events of the past. Adrienne Young is also the author of Fable, its sequel Namesake, and The Last Legacy, loosely set in the worlds of Fable and Namesake, and Spells for Forgetting. I received a prepublication edition of this book courtesy of NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group: Ballantine, Delacorte Press. 02 Happiness Falls by Angie Kim For the rest of our lives, every time one of us goes somewhere and doesn’t return on time, doesn’t let the others know where we are, we will remember this time, what can happen. And we will fall apart. Mia doesn't panic when her father and brother Eugene are late returning from a walk in the park. They might have forgotten their phones, or taken a detour. But when Eugene rushes into the house, bloody and alone, Mia realizes something terrible has happened. And Eugene, who has the rare genetic condition Angelman syndrome, cannot communicate to tell her what occurred. Kim's missing-person story is also about a family deeply connecting to each other and going to extraordinary lengths to work together. Angie Kim is also the author of Miracle Creek. 03 Starling House by Alix E. Harrow Opal is desperate for cash, and her petty theft at her minimum-wage jobs isn't going to cut it. She's got to raise the money to send her bright younger brother Jacob to a private school where he can thrive--and have better prospects than Opal herself has had since the loss and disappearance of their single mother. She's been cobbling together enough to get by, but when a mysterious draw to the spooky Starling House ends up in an overpaying job offer, she feels she can hardly say no. Arthur, the young, haunted-seeming caretaker of the estate, seems resigned to her presence even as he advises her to stay far away from Starling House. He's caught up in solving some sort of puzzle related to the past. Which Opal promptly attempts to file under Not My Problem. Opal takes his envelopes of cash for her overpriced housekeeping, but she doesn't tell Arthur that she's been dreaming of the decrepit, rambling house for years, and that she has some eerie sense that she's finally home. I received a prepublication edition of the audiobook of this title courtesy of NetGalley and Macmillan Audio. Alix E. Harrow is also the author of the wonderful The Once and Future Witches and The Ten Thousand Doors of January.

More book club love! My book club has been meeting for 17 years; we're all from a moms' group we joined when our kids were tiny and I'm so thankful that we have held steady! Some of our book club "rules": we don't have to finish the book to attend, but we do need to be ready to hear spoilers; we always end up talking much more about books we're frustrated by or unhappy with than the ones we like; and sometimes (always?) we talk about life more than the book. These are my favorite book club reads from the past year. (I've already read our November and December books and they're listed here as favorites!) We also read A Play for the End of the World, How to Be Perfect, These Impossible Things, Reminders of Him, Less Is Lost, and Hester, which I listed in the Greedy Reading List Another Six Wonderfully Witchy Stories to Charm You. For some of my favorite book club reads from the past, check out the Greedy Reading Lists Six Book Club Books I Loved Last Year, Six Book Club Books I Loved in 2021, and My Six Favorite Book Club Books of 2022. Are you in a book club? Have you had any favorite book club reads this year? 01 Uncultured: A Memoir by Daniella Mestyanek Young Young offers a brutally honest behind-the-scenes look at the systematic abuse she suffered in The Children of God cult and a front-row view of the misogyny and gaslighting she experienced in the military in this powerful memoir of resilience, reflection, and self-discovery. Daniella Mestyanek Young grew up the daughter of high-ranking members of The Children of God cult in Brazil. Her mother was forced to marry the cult's leader when she was thirteen and worked as secretary for "The Family" for many years. While in the cult, Daniella was physically, emotionally, and sexually abused, while being told these acts reflected God's love. She was not allowed to attend school. Young doesn't flinch away from sharing the grueling details of the generational abuse, hunger, male-dominated power structures, and various methods of deprivation that kept her and other cult members under control of the Uncles, as the group called the men in charge. I'm fascinated by a peek into a secret scene, and cults and the military each fit the bill. Young's pain in both avenues is substantial and horrifying, and she is brutally honest. Yet Uncultured is primarily an affecting account of Young's impressive perseverance, hard-fought growth, personal reflections, and significant strength. For my full review of this book, please see Uncultured. 02 The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell I was hooked on the captivating details of Renaissance life, masterfully paced swirling danger and paranoia, and richly developed major and minor characters in The Marriage Portrait. In The Marriage Portrait, Maggie O'Farrell turns her attention to Renaissance Italy to tell a historical fiction story of a precocious third daughter of the grand duke of Florence. But when young Lucrezia's older sister dies suddenly before her scheduled marriage to the ruler of Ferrara, the men of the families involved and their advisors are quick to thrust the preteen into her sister's place. Her trusted nurse and former milk-mother Sofia does her best to delay plans to wed the slight young girl to an older duke, but ultimately Lucrezia is offered as a substitute. O'Farrell masterfully balances the reader on a tightrope, wondering how much of the potential danger Lucrezia perceives is imagined and how much is real. Lucrezia's shrinking world made me feel claustrophobic on her behalf and paranoid about everyone's potential intentions. The Marriage Portrait offers wonderful details--of food, palace life, clothing, and art--as well as a shocking ending. O'Farrell presents a fascinating Author's Note about the real figures and circumstances that inspired this book. Maggie O'Farrell is also the author of Hamnet, I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, Instructions for a Heatwave, This Must Be the Place, and others. For my full review, please check out The Marriage Portrait. 03 Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout In Lucy by the Sea, familiar Strout characters Lucy Barton and her ex-husband William flee New York City for rural Maine during the Covid-19 pandemic. The novel offers introspection, vulnerability, and new beginnings. But despite her insecurities and what sometimes feels like fragility, Lucy is often able to see the difficult truth in situations and face them with stolid resolve. She alludes to her difficult childhood circumstances (which are more fully explored in My Name Is Lucy Barton), and we see that her lifelong ability to cope with despair and grim events serve her well in her current circumstances. The nearby ocean is a haunting presence but also a steady, everchanging comfort to Lucy. To her surprise, she begins to notice and respond to the wonders of the light, the weather, the air, and the changing scenery of her daily walks in beautiful and immersive passages in the book. Strout takes us into the heart of a stressful, unusual pandemic situation in which Lucy and William, longtime friends and ex-spouses, live in intimate solitude together, wondering about and worrying about their daughters, each other, themselves, and the world. In order to feel the full weight of this book, I think it's important to first read Strout's My Name Is Lucy Barton. Lucy's creation of an imaginary, supportive mother and her loving responses to and comfort for Lucy in this book absolutely broke my heart. Oh William! is another Strout book linked to this story, but I didn't respond to that one as much as Lucy Barton or Lucy by the Sea. For my full review, check out Lucy by the Sea. 04 Solito: A Memoir by Javier Zamora Zamora's memoir of his grueling journey from El Salvador to the United States without family at age nine keeps the reader within each immediate, breathless, uncomfortable, fear-filled moment through and to the unknown. In Solito, the poet Javier Zamora shares the story of his grueling journey from El Salvador to the United States at age nine. Zamora keeps us in his nine-year-old perspective, which also serves to keep us focused on moment-by-moment sensations and concerns and makes the memoir feel immediate and breathless. Physical discomfort (he is tired, cold, hot, burned, thirsty, hungry), emotional turmoil (he feels loneliness, fear, concern, disconnectedness), and yearning (he is desperate for trust, for assurances, for safety and security, for reunification) are at the forefront. Zamora takes us through what often feels like his literal step-by-step journey, without summarizing or skipping over impactful moments of need and want and despair. Yet he doesn't mine the difficult situation in an effort to build drama; his account feels honest and without emotional manipulation. I listened to Solito as an audiobook. Click here for my full review of Solito. You might also be interested in the titles on my Greedy Reading List Six Fascinating Books about Immigrants' Experiences. 05 Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson Atkinson's newest mystery is set in vivid Roaring Twenties London as Nellie Coker struggles to hold on to her empire of clubs while mysterious dark undercurrents threaten stability throughout the city. It's 1926 in London, and recovery from the Great War inspires many in the city to dive into the wild nightlife scene and revel in the frenzy of the Jazz Age. Nellie Coker is fresh out of jail and ready to jump back into the action, masterminding moves to increase her family's power, influence, and riches. But not everyone she's paying off can be trusted, some of her six children are undermining her, and goings-on in the dark undercurrents of Soho could shake Coker's hold on her empire--and upset her ambitious dreams. On the other side of the Shrines of Gaiety story line is Detective Frobisher, an upstanding outlier in the largely corrupt police force, and his unlikely assistant in investigating Ma Coker, former librarian Gwendolen Kelling. I was particularly hooked by the intersection of Gwendolyn and Ma Coker's golden child, her eldest son Niven--along with the mystery of missing girls across Roaring Twenties London, plus deadly high stakes, the dealings of various crooks, and significant double-crossing throughout the story. Click here for my full review of Shrines of Gaiety. 06 Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt Marcellus the octopus is the very deserving star of the show here, and being able to predict much of where the story was headed didn't affect my enjoyment of this big-hearted tale. Shelby Van Pelt's Remarkably Bright Creatures centers around a widow who makes an unlikely friend. After Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the night shift at her local aquarium as a custodian. She's always felt that keeping busy helps her cope--she tried the same approach when her son disappeared from a boat in Puget Sound decades earlier. Then Tova forms a connection with Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus who heretofore has been unwilling to cooperate with his captors. An overly convenient situation and moment of chitchat pushes the main mystery of the story to a head-- although the reader has seen various layers of situations in the story that are leading us there--but again, I didn't mind. Remarkably Bright Creatures has a lot of heart, and I felt cozy in my confidence that all present situations would ultimately, in a fashion, work out. Check out my full review of Remarkably Bright Creatures here.

In Evil Eye, Etaf Rum (author of A Woman Is No Man) considers a small-town North Carolina artist, mother, and wife struggling with the conflicting pressures of her Palestinian culture and her desire to escape past trauma and move forward. Yara is put on probation at the college where she is an assistant art history teacher after calling out a colleague for racism. She's required to attend therapy to learn to cope with her anger, even though she's sure therapy is just a waste of time. So what if she's resentful of the limitations she allows to be put on her, if she's blanking on periods of current-day life due to stress, if she's increasingly dissatisfied with her life, if she's frequently flashing back to her parents' abuse? Isn't she supposed to feel thankful for a kind husband, healthy and lovely daughters, and being allowed to have a job? Rum explores mother-daughter relationships and cycles of dysfunction and abuse in Evil Eye. The bulk of the story is spent with Yara spinning her wheels, unable to feel connected to her life. She admits to the reader that she is not particularly attached to the idea of remaining alive, yet not actively looking to end her life. Her childhood trauma has a strong hold on her, and only when she begins to face it can she fully realize herself. The challenging process of Yara's therapy and fight for growth is really satisfying to witness. She realizes that the dreaded, looming specter of divorce, which is considered a life-ruining choice in her culture, may have been able to save her mother had she had any support in pursuing it. As Yara considers the same path, she has to fight against the voices in her head. The evil eye imagery is poignant, as it carries from her mother to Yara and means different things to Yara at various points in her emotional journey. Her husband's gaslighting during her emotional crisis threatened to make my head explode. I listened to this novel, which alternates present-day scenes with Yara's journals (made up of often brutally painful, occasionally momentarily lovely memories of her childhood), as an audiobook (narrated by Vaneh Assadourian and Gail Shalan). The journal entries were read by the younger voice. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Etaf Rum is also the author of A Woman Is No Man.

Hawker's newest historical fiction gives a wonderfully evocative peek into a gritty period, as her main protagonist escapes a bad marriage to ride the rails during the Depression and reinvents herself completely. I love Olivia Hawker's books (see links to my other reviews below), and her newest historical fiction is set in Depression-era Kentucky. Adella (Del) Wensley is the wife of the showy, prosperous, revered local preacher. She's learned to bite her tongue, and she feels like the poor treatment her husband shows her may be deserved, as after eight years of marriage, they haven't conceived a child. Her life's purpose is meant to be made up of motherhood, catering to her husband's needs, and keeping house, after all. But when her husband pushes her too far with abhorrent behavior, Del hops a train and dives into the transient community riding the rails in search of work and survival. Hawker offers a wonderfully vivid, gritty, sobering, often surprisingly hopeful--but never too easy--peek at Depression-era desperation, forged loyalties, shedding of expectations, and new, hard-fought identities and priorities. The two women at the heart of the story are tough as nails but vulnerable with each other. Their deep friendship is poignant in its beginning and its end. Whew, a heartbreaker! Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Olivia Hawker is also the author of The Fire and the Ore and The Ragged Edge of Night, and One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow, which I mentioned in the Greedy Reading List Six Great Historical Fiction Stories Set in the American West. I received a prepublication edition of this book courtesy of NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing.