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been sooooo excited to read this final installment in Freya Marske's Last Binding trilogy, a queer historical

The desire to rewrite history in this way reveals a silly, petulant wealthy main character who is easy

life in general, from Kate Bowler; The Saints of Swallow Hill, Donna Everhart's recently published historical Sparks Like Stars, Nadia Hashimi's luminous historical fiction about a childhood lived in Kabul and a out No Cure for Being Human. 02 The Saints of Swallow Hill by Donna Everhart This Depression-era-set historical a tale of intense hardship, bad luck, and rough circumstances in a difficult period of our nation's history

This month my favorite reads were a retelling of a Mark Twain story; historical fiction set in North 01 What the Mountains Remember by Joy Callaway The historical fiction story about the building of the Novel of Maria von Trapp by Michelle Moran I was hooked on the behind-the-scenes feeling of Moran's historical-fiction

We learn about Elizabeth and Jack's histories and motivations, their stunted emotional statuses and the

Atkinson is also the author of Shrines of Gaiety , Case Histories, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, Life

The janitor is a cultural outsider with a complicated history, and what he lacks in training he makes

importantly for me, the adventure, elite training, secret powers, double-edged quest, unrevealed personal history

that play with time and alternate realities, you might also like the books on the Greedy Reading List Six

attempted to work through the pain and complications of her past by fictionalizing elements of her personal history

and the intricacies of nations' relationships and airborne dragon battles within the books' alternate history

Sure that it's an error, Polly digs into her family history to make sure she is who she has always thought

If you like memoirs, you might also like Six Illuminating Memoirs I Read This Year.

loved last year's gritty, character-driven mystery-thriller Blacktop Wasteland so much that it made my Six

The dragons are a large part of the history--and are purported to exercise control over humans and creatures

you like nonfiction books that read like fiction, you might try the books on the Greedy Reading List Six

like to read fiction about music, you might also like the titles I included in the Greedy Reading List Six

I mentioned Wild Game in the Greedy Reading List Six More Illuminating Memoirs to Lose Yourself In.

stage, spouted off comedic takes on her life, and after lots of scrapping and scrambling, the rest was history

Toya Gardner has returned from Atlanta to her rural North Carolina town to track her family's history When two terrible crimes shake the small community, they also bring to light generations of dark history

Centuries after her death, spindly, awkward historian Owen Mallory unearths her story--and becomes inexorably If Una and Owen are going to change the way history is remembered--or simply get Owen back to his own

Cosby; I loved Blacktop Wasteland last year (it was one of my Six Favorite Summer Reads) and I just read She weaves songs into her stories and personal history, and the placement of the music feels seamless of essential projects—the creation of Central Park, the founding of the Met Museum and the Natural History

The early story captured my attention with ballet, an orphan's struggles, and Depression-era Chicago, but once Nocturne shifted into dark fantasy I didn't feel connected. In Alyssa Wees's slim (it's 240 pages) fantasy novel Nocturne, set in the Little Italy of 1930s Chicago, promising young dancer Grace dreams of becoming a prima ballerina. As the Depression rages, orphaned Italian immigrant Grace rises through the ranks of the Near North Ballet Company--losing friends, becoming more jaded, and ultimately gaining a valuable, secretive benefactor who may be the key to her job security--but he may not be what he seems. Grace is faced with compromises and tradeoffs, and she must decide where her own loyalties lie and determine how far she's willing to go to keep hold of her long-held dream. I felt connected to Wees's story through Grace's early struggles, her sole real connection, to friend Emilia, and her ballet training and performances. The understated dark undercurrents felt powerful and mysterious. But once the fantasy elements became the focus, the story felt more like a series of ethereal concepts to me. The predator-prey, death-and-life, constricting-and-controlled scenario is orchestrated by an evasive, sinister, and, I felt, annoying man (every Sunday night Grace is forced into a dance and some evasive conversation, and meanwhile she must wait around all week for this?). The story began to feel more juvenile in tone to me as it evolved into a twisted fairy tale, which I often enjoy. Grace's benefactor, who barely speaks, seeks to control her, and has professed his romantic interest in her, has been watching and fixating on her since her childhood (ugh), yet this predatorial scenario is made out to feel more romantic than a horror. As Nocturne became less anchored in emotions and motivations that I could grasp, I lost my connection to Grace. There are twists, and I enjoyed Grace's strong stand at the end, but by that point I had lost my feeling of investment in her story. I received a prepublication edition of this book courtesy of NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group, and Ballantine. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Alyssa Wees is also the author of The Waking Forest. You can check out my Bossy reviews of other fantasy titles here.

Six More Book Gift Ideas for the Holidays Shhh! More Book Gift Ideas for the Holidays Shhh!

to her, and the book eventually begins to illuminate their complicated enemy/friend/destroyer/savior history

past, and the book eventually begins to illuminate their complicated enemy/friend/destroyer/savior history

If you like mysteries, you might also want to look at the Greedy Reading List The Six Best Mysteries

Northwest in the next 50 years, and that it would be one of the biggest natural disasters in North American history

While Bruno at first seems old-fashioned, telling his stories and considering the shape of history, he

the lurking folklore figure that seems to signal death and destruction, and the despairing community history

superstar action hero; I'm listening to The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, Kim Michele Richardson's historical Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson Kim Michele Richardson's The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek is historical

tension is finally spoken aloud, although not resolved, and the mystery twists to involve personal histories

and the intricacies of nations' relationships and airborne dragon battles within the books' alternate history

and the intricacies of nations' relationships and airborne dragon battles within the books' alternate history

work through the pain and complications of her past by fictionalizing key elements of her personal history

Unsinkable is historical fiction by Jenni L. Walsh that's set in two timelines.

the sixth and final book in Turner's Queen's Thief series (which I listed in the Greedy Reading List Six

Issues of memory, chosen family, history, loneliness, and love shape Vuong's novel, and the author forces

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

Issues of memory, chosen family, history, loneliness, and love shape Vuong's novel.

The second book in Marske's series is an irresistible queer magical mystery thriller with Edwardian England details, racy encounters, vulnerability and love, and witty banter on a ship bound for England. A Restless Truth is the second in Freya Marske's queer fantasy mystery Last Binding trilogy that began with A Marvellous Light. A Marvellous Light was full of details of life in Edwardian England, gay love, mystery, magic, wonderful dialogue, and plenty of heart. I adored it. In A Restless Truth, the character of Maud Blyth (Robin's sister, introduced in book one) expects adventure when she agrees to help save the magical world by serving as companion to an elderly magician on an ocean liner. By doing so, Maud aims to help her beloved older brother resolve a magical mystery that's been decades in the making. But when her charge drops dead on day one, Maud must identify the murderer, try to get her hands on a magical object essential to untangling the mystery at hand--and try to survive the voyage without being murdered herself. Maud and each of her unlikely allies are fantastic characters. The mystery element kept me hooked, and details of proper Edwardian etiquette and clothing were wonderful. Marske doesn't skimp on presenting multiple magical elements, which I loved--and she includes many detailed, saucy, passionate encounters between our main characters. I was struck by the drastic manner in which Violet attempted to free herself from the shackles of marriage and the subsummation of a woman to her husband that was expected at the time. (This reminded me of the measures taken by the main protagonist in another book I recently read, A Study of Scarlet Women, in order to secure freedom from a stifling marriage.) A Restless Truth is fun and quirky yet has depth, an appealingly complicated mystery, and a satisfying version of a resolution that sets up book three. I received a prepublication edition of this book courtesy of Macmillan-Tor/Forge, Tordotcom, and NetGalley. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? The third book in the Last Binding series will be titled A Power Unbound. Its publication date has not been announced.

I could not have predicted each version of me that I shifted into, but through my history, one constant

loved A Curious Beginning, the first book in Deanna Raybourn's feisty Veronica Speedwell series of historical

Is In Heaven , The Fall of Light , Only Say the Word , Boy in the World, Boy and Man , John , and History

Six More Book Gift Ideas for the Holidays, and Shhh!

Renkl is also the author of Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss and Graceland, At Last

protagonists' roles shift yet again, so that "guardian" and "thief" labels are muddied, characters' histories

listening to Emily Habeck's odd and sweet novel Shark Heart: A Love Story; I'm reading Heather Webb's historical

And Novik offers touching moments when surprising truths about El's, Orion's, and their parents' histories and the intricacies of nations' relationships and airborne dragon battles within the books' alternate history

This book is part of the Greedy Reading List Six Book Club Books I Loved Last Year.