Gillian McAllister offers a smart, intriguing, twisty story that plays with time and offers second chances, revelations, betrayals, deep connections, and an unusual route to uncovering the truth. I loved it. Gillian McAllister's twisty mystery Wrong Place Wrong Time plays with time, and I love books that play with time. The story begins with a mother awaiting her teenage son's return home late one night. She peers out the window to see him walking down the street--then she sees that he is armed, and to her horror, she sees him kill another man on the street. But when she awakens the next morning bracing to face the living nightmare her family has begun living in, she's relieved to find that her son hasn't killed anyone, he hasn't been arrested, and in fact, none of last night's events have happened after all. She must be losing her mind. But she knows that last night was real. But somehow she's reliving yesterday again. She really and truly is. She can't explain what's happened, but she quickly realizes that now she may be able to stop the murder before it occurs. Can she shift the future by changing the past? She wakes again the next day to find that it is now the day before yesterday. Time is moving backward, and if she can't figure out how it's happening, she must at least figure out why. Wrong Place, Wrong Time offers a smart, mind-bending structure that is complex and interesting but not difficult to follow. McAllister develops her characters fully and uses the time jumps wonderfully--to explore relationships, truth-telling and lies, assumptions, terrible realizations, and heartwarming reassurances. Main characters have plausible reactions of disbelief, wonder, irritation, and fatigue to the unfathomable goings-on, which I loved. McAllister's twists never feel like red herrings, nor do they make me feel irritated by manipulation. I loved watching every building block slot into place as we wound our way back through time toward the truth. The story was fascinating and touching and chilling and sweet. I absolutely loved it. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? If you like books like this, you may want to check out these other Bossy books I've read that play with time. My Greedy Reading Lists Six Riveting Time-Travel Stories to Explore and Six Second-Chance, Do-Over, Reliving-Life Stories highlight some of my very favorite books that twist time!

ICYMI: 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. After I finished reading, I kept thinking about the characters and their realizations, compromises, and sometimes their resignation in the face of imperfect circumstances. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Sittenfeld is also the author of Romantic Comedy, American Wife, You Think It, I'll Say It, Prep, Rodham, and Eligible. If you enjoy short story collections, you might like to check out Six Short Story Collections to Wow You.

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm listening to Carley Fortune's newest light fiction about a missed opportunity and second chances, Meet Me at the Lake; I'm reading a book club pick about three young Muslim women and their friendship, Salma El-Wardany's These Impossible Things; and I'm reading S.B. Divya's space opera, Meru. What are you reading these days, bookworms? 01 Meet Me At the Lake by Carley Fortune Thirty-two-year-old Fern Brookbanks has pinned most of her romantic dreams on Will Baxter--despite the fact that they spent only 24 hours together in their twenties. A chance encounter blossomed into a glorious connection and a pact to meet up one year later...but while Fern showed up to their romantic meet-up, Will did not. Now Fern is trying to figure out how she ended up managing her mother's lakeside resort instead of living a glamorous life in the city. And just guess who shows up, nine years late? Meet Me At the Lake is narrated by A.J. Bridel & Carley Fortune. I received a complimentary audiobook version of this title courtesy of Libro.fm and Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group. 02 These Impossible Things by Salma El-Wardany Malak, Jenna, and Kees are best friends and always have been. They're good young Muslim women...and they also know how to skirt the rules, cover for each other, and find some freedom for themselves. These Impossible Things follows each girls' life trajectory as they experiment with love, sex, difficult truths, faith, and friendship. As the women prepare to graduate from college, one night of confessions could change their relationships forever. These Impossible Things is one of my book club's reads this year. 03 Meru (The Alloy Era #1) by S.B. Divya For five hundred years, humans have been restricted to living on Earth, while posthuman descendants, called alloys, roam freely throughout the galaxy. Jayanthi is the adopted child of alloy parents, and when the Earthlike planet of Meru is discovered, Jayanthi sees an opportunity to rehabilitate humans' reputation as selfish and destructive, while alloy pilot Vaha jumps at the chance to ensure a future with a successful journey. While building bonds and problem-solving their way to Meru, neither realizes the mission has been set up to fail. S.B. Divya is also the author of Machinehood, a book I listed on the Greedy Reading List Six More Fantastic Dystopian and Postapocalyptic Novels.

Some of my very favorite reads of the year...so far! I've also had three Bossy five-star reads in 2023, and I'm hoping I rack up some more for a post to be made up solely of the year's five-star reads. Meanwhile, here are the six books I've loved and have given 4.5 Bossy stars this year. If you've read any of these titles, I'd love to hear what you think! And I'd also love to hear: what are some of your recent favorite reads? 01 Exiles (Aaron Falk #3) by Jane Harper The third in Jane Harper's Aaron Falk series offers procedural detail, a lush Australian setting, and character development I found heartwarming and immensely satisfying. I love Aaron Falk stories and I loved the twisty interconnectedness of the characters in Exiles. Harper allows for Falk to develop more fully as a character--as a friend, a romantic interest, a father figure, and a detective. Yet she allows for new opportunities for him that felt real and possible, which I again loved. I wasn't ever sure who was responsible for the multiple tragedies at the heart of the story, and the resolutions make sense. Meanwhile Harper explores loyalty, procedural details related to the past and near past, beginnings and endings, and looooove. Jane Harper's The Dry (Aaron Falk #1) is set in small-town Australia with dark secrets and twists and turns, and she offers more of her excellent pacing in Force of Nature (Aaron Falk #2). I'm in for all Jane Harper and all Aaron Falk stories! Exiles was the right mystery at the right time for me. For my full review, check out Exiles. 02 Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan Keegan's slim book may seem cozy and quiet at first, but she beautifully illuminates tiny moments alongside momentous decisions and explores how together, they form a person and make up a whole life. When Bill, a good-hearted coal merchant, discovers something shocking while making his regular delivery to the local convent, he must decide whether to carry on his way or to consider the uncomfortable implications of the Catholic church's deep influence on the community. Similarly, when he stumbles onto a truth about his own mysterious heritage--a mystery he felt he had made peace with--he must decide whether it changes his feelings about his childhood and his identity. The two issues are intertwined, and it's a joy to watch the manner in which Bill copes with both instances. The story comes alive through the little moments Keegan highlights; while she explores decisions often determined by instinctual black-and-white, right-and-wrong judgments, she also digs into the intense struggle involved in reaching out from comfortable safety and taking a risk in order to do what feels right. Keegan takes the small moments, impulses, generosities, omissions, and aversions that make up a day, a week, and a month and lays them alongside Big Moments of Realization--which often require grace and forgiveness, other times action and defiance--and with all of this in hand, she paints a picture full of the nuances choices, self-reflection, and possibilities that form the basis of a life. Please click here for my full review of Small Things Like These. 03 The Night Ship by Jess Kidd Kidd's dual-timeline historical fiction, based on actual events, shines in its vivid settings, richly imagined characters, sea voyage details, and magical realism elements. The Night Ship is historical fiction with a magical realism undercurrent that's told in two timelines. I didn't realize up front that this is based upon a true story, and now I'm even more deeply haunted. The Night Ship centers around the dilemmas, conflicts, and discoveries of two characters separated by three centuries: Mayken, a Dutch girl on an ocean voyage who is shipwrecked off the coast of Australia, and Gil, an eccentric Australian boy living three hundred years later on the same island, trying to move past trauma and make a home with his grandfather, a stranger to him. Jess Kidd is the author of Things in Jars, a mystery I gave four Bossy stars--and listed in two Greedy Reading Lists, Six Spooky, Gothic Tales and Six Historical Fiction Mysteries Sure to Intrigue You. For my full review, check out The Night Ship. 04 Solito 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 The Trackers by Charles Frazier Frazier offers an immersive story that morphs from a WPA-funded rural art commission to a leisurely country-wide search, an unlikely obsession, moments of brutality, strange connections, and, finally, an upended set of circumstances. In The Trackers, Cold Mountain author Charles Frazier offers historical fiction featuring a Great Depression-era painter, Val Welch, traveling west to a small rural town in Wyoming. As part of a New Deal grant, Val has landed the job of painting a mural on the Dawes, Wyoming, post office. In Dawes, he meets eccentric, wealthy art lovers John and Eve Long--mysterious, possibly hiding something, and certainly unpredictable. When Eve takes off from Dawes with a piece of valuable artwork, Val agrees to follow her--and uncovers long-buried secrets that could change everything. Frazier's writing is gorgeous, evoking the stark western landscapes Val passes through, gritty San Francisco, and the powerful cliffside ocean as well as lush, wild, wet Florida and its accompanying corruption and danger. If you're interested in Great Depression-era historical fiction like I am, you might also like the books The Giver of Stars, The Saints of Swallow Hill, Wingwalkers by Taylor Brown, Nocturne, which offers magical realism and a dance-focused storyline within a Great Depression setting, and This Tender Land. For my full review, please check out The Trackers. 06 As Good As Dead by Holly Jackson Jackson doesn't skimp on heart-pounding pacing, captivating character development, and dark turns in this third book in her young adult mystery series. I never would have predicted the twists. Sign me up for all Pippa Fitz-Amobi books, forever, please. As Good As Dead is the final book in A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, a series I've loved, and I've been delaying reading this third and final installment due to my willful denial that the series is ending, my intense love for the characters of Pip and Ravi, and Holly Jackson's smart, sassy, irresistible storytelling. Ever since Pip's book two detective work ended in an important resolution, she's been coping with the significant trauma of that case's dramatic final events. She's in danger of being sued for libel by Max Freaking Hastings, who Pip knows is a terrible person who has done terrible things--which is why she said so, passionately, on her podcast. And she can't shake a general sense of unease, as though she's missing something. The direction the book takes is fascinating. Jackson does not let off the gas pacing-wise. The unexpected twists and turns kept me riveted while Pip's unfailing bravery and her hero's struggles and emotional turmoil threatened to break my heart. For my full review (and links to my reviews of the other books in this series), check out As Good As Dead.

The transcripts of 200 audio files make up much of the novel, and I had difficulty feeling invested in this structure, which felt more tedious to me than intriguing. Janice Hallett's The Twyford Code explores a mysterious potential connection between a teacher's disappearance decades earlier and a potential code hidden in an old-fashioned, banned children's book. Steven Smith ("Smithy") was a mischievous orphan raised by his inept older brother. He hadn't yet become the convicted criminal of his adulthood. Now Smithy's out of prison and he mainly resists sinking back into illegal habits. But he's got a hunch that the mystery of the code in deceased author Edith Twyford's largely condemned, prejudiced stories may be linked to the vanishing of his teacher so many years earlier--that is, linked by a hidden fortune. The unreliable narrator gathers friends from primary school to compare accounts of that pivotal day of their beloved teacher's disappearance that occurred decades earlier so he can grab the fortune for himself if he can. I imagine that I would have preferred to read the print version of this title. The book is almost exclusively 200 transcripts of audio files, which is extremely tedious to listen to ("Voice one...voice two...audio quality...silence for X seconds..." entries). The pacing is slow, and the book is largely made up of various characters talking about conflicting memories of decades-old events and poring over simplistic book text for potential patterns and clues. At about three-fourths of the way through the story, events began to occur that spiked my interest, and it became clear that things were not as they seemed. But by then I had been feeling impatient for the bulk of the book and was feeling grumpy about the whole situation. I had predicted some of the twists that are eventually revealed, and I was too irritated to feel invested in the final outcome. I also didn't feel at all convinced that the person trying to sort out the convoluted situation at the end would bother to do so. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? You can find reviews of mysteries I've read and enjoyed here.

White's twisty mystery is set against the backdrop of an unforgiving winter on an Australian island, with two women attempting to piece together their husbands' secrets and lies. She sensed a primal darkness standing over them, following her like a shadow, and when she went downstairs and saw that body, it would clap around her shoulders, drag her down and stay with her forever. Christian White's The Wife and the Widow offers two intersecting storylines centering around female protagonists, family secrets, shame, and hidden selves. The tone of the story is shaped by its setting: an unforgiving winter on an Australian island. The perspectives alternate by chapter: Kate is a widow who uncovers her dead husband's secret life and must come to terms with it, while Abby is an island local whose husband has hidden something significant, and she fears it is his guilt. Only when the two women's worlds intersect can they piece together the full stories of their husbands' lives and understand the impact of their lies. White offers cleverness with timelines that create an intriguing twist, and I didn’t predict the denouement. I was in for the vaguely unsympathetic but interesting and evolving characters of Abby and Kate. The amateur taxidermy was fascinating and horrifying. I just could not get past it! I was provided with an advance copy of this book by St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Christian White is also the author of The Nowhere Child and Wild Place.

The premise and setting of The Secret Book of Flora Lea are captivating. I was distracted by what felt like overly dramatic dialogue and exclamations as well as easily predicted events. Young Flora and her teen sister Hazel were evacuated in 1939 from the bombing and danger in wartime London to the English countryside, where they lived with a rural family. They spent their days walking by the river, and to keep Flora entertained and distracted, Hazel made up elaborate stories about a magical, secret world alongside the water. Then tragedy struck: Flora went missing and was presumed to be dead. Twenty years later, Hazel is working in a bookshop when she unwraps a package and can't believe her eyes. The book inside is about the made-up world she shared with Flora--but Hazel had never told another soul about the tales or the name of the secret, pretend place, Whisperwood. Someone out there knows about the stories and the imaginary world she shared with her sister. Could this mean that Flora is somehow still alive? Hazel begins to dig into the past, including her own young love (fractured by the tragedy of Flora's disappearance), anyone who might have been connected to Flora's disappearance, and the mysterious book about Whisperwood. She questions her current romantic relationship, her planned job change, and what her future might look like, while renewing her hope that against all odds she might find Flora alive and unharmed somewhere out in the world. I looooved the premise of The Secret Book of Flora Lea, and a World War II-set historical fiction tale is usually a slam dunk for me. The book involved some style choices that distracted me from the story--for example, dramatic shrieks of "No!" in conversations, which felt unlikely and jarring; a twist that's hinted at repeatedly and that I therefore anticipated early on; and repeated theatrical-seeming dialogue and expositions that didn't ring true for me. Henry based the evacuation element of her story upon the real-life Operation Pied Piper, which swiftly relocated a staggering one and a half million children from London to the countryside and around the world during World War II. I received a prepublication edition of this book courtesy of NetGalley and Atria Books. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? If you're interested in World War II-set historical fiction, you might like the books on my Greedy Reading List Six Great Stories about Brave Women During World War II and these books set during World War II.

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading Gillian McAllister's twisty mystery that plays with time, Wrong Place Wrong Time; I'm reading Antarctica, a collection of short stories by one of my favorite authors, Claire Keegan; and I'm listening to Janice Hallett's unreliable narrator mystery, The Twyford Code. What are you reading these days, bookworms? 01 Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister Gillian McAllister's twisty mystery Wrong Place Wrong Time plays with time (like some of my favorite books do). A mother awaiting her teenage son's return home late at night peers out the window to see him--he is armed, and to her horror, she sees him kill another man on the street. But then she awakens and is relieved to find that she's reliving yesterday again. She can't explain what's happened, but the murder at her son's hands hasn't happened. Yet. Then she wakes again to find that it is now the day before yesterday. Time is moving backward, and she must figure out why--and how to save her son. 02 Antarctica by Claire Keegan I was emailing about books with my friend James this weekend and was raving about my obsession with Claire Keegan. When I fell in love with Keegan's Foster and Small Things Like These, I became an all-in Keegan fan for life. (The short story collection Walk the Blue Fields will be my next Keegan read.) In 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. Click here to read my reviews of Claire Keegan's Foster and Small Things Like These. 03 The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett Janice Hallett's The Twyford Code explores a mysterious potential connection between a teacher's disappearance decades earlier and a potential code hidden in a banned children's book. Steven Smith was a mischievous child raised by his older brother and hadn't yet become the convicted criminal of his adulthood. Now he's out of prison and mainly resists sinking back into illegal habits...but he's got a hunch that the mystery of the code in deceased author Edith Twyford's largely condemned, simplistic, prejudiced stories and the vanishing of his teacher so many years earlier may be linked by a hidden fortune. The untrustworthy narrator gathers friends from primary school to compare accounts of that pivotal day decades earlier so he can get the fortune for himself if he can.

Six Bossy Favorite Nonfiction Reads Fridays are for highlighting books I've loved! I thought these titles were fascinating, surprised me, or infuriated me, and all were powerful in their own way. I've been posting about favorite reads from lots of genres that I've loved reading in the past year: Six of My Favorite Lighter Fiction Reads from the Past Year Six of My Favorite Fiction Reads from Last Year Six More of My Favorite Fiction Reads from Last Year Six Four-Star Mystery Reads I Loved Last Year Six More Four-Star Mysteries I Loved Last Year Six Four-Star Historical Fiction Reads I Loved Last Year Six Four-Star (And Up) Science Fiction Reads I Loved Last Year, and Six of My Favorite Memoir Reads Last Year You can also check out My Very Favorite Bossy 2022 Reads for my absolute favorite reads from last year. If you've read any of the books mentioned here, I'd love to hear what you think! What are some of your favorite nonfiction reads, from the past year or from this one so far? 01 Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe Keefe offers an infuriating, fascinating, meticulously researched account of the Sackler family and their collective responsibility for the ongoing, devastating opioid crisis. I listened to Empire of Pain, Patrick Radden Keefe's exhaustive, revolting, fascinating history of the Sackler family as traced through their modest beginnings, medical degrees, various interpersonal dramas, multiple marriages, handshake deals, amassing of vast wealth, and ruthless promotion of the family's legacy. Meticulously researched, always interesting, and consistently infuriating, Empire of Pain is essential nonfiction that details the shocking narcissism, relentless ambition and greed, aggressive delusions, obscene negligence, and dogged maleficence that created our nation's opioid crisis and has led to hundreds of thousands of opioid-related deaths—a number that continues to grow. Patrick Radden Keefe is a master of compelling, important nonfiction. His book Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland was one of my Six of the Best Nonfiction Books I read that year. Click here for my full review of Empire of Pain. 02 The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones In exposing our nation’s troubled roots, the 1619 Project challenges us to think about a country whose exceptionalism we treat as the unquestioned truth. It asks us to consider who sets and shapes our shared national memory and what and who gets left out... In this hefty expansion of the 1619 Project, which was spearheaded by Nikole Hannah-Jones at The New York Times Magazine, an array of contributors reframe the history of the United States, putting enslaved people and their work and contributions at the center of our past. While history is what happened, it is also, just as important, how we think about what happened and what we unearth and choose to remember about what happened... The 1619 Project highlights tragic, uncomfortable aspects of our nation's history in an important work of nonfiction about race. Hannah-Jones aims to better shape how we recognize and address our country's past wrongs and how we might begin to address these travesties in order to move forward. For my full review, check out The 1619 Project. 03 The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green John Green provides a range of thoughtful, wonderfully absurd, or sentimental examinations along with his ratings on a five-star scale of various concepts, natural phenomena, and inventions of our age. The Anthropocene Reviewed is a collection of personal essays from John Green. The title comes from Green's podcast of the same name, in which he rated "facets of the human condition on a five-star scale." His book includes some of the subjects he explored in the podcast, as well as some new topics. The Anthropocene is the current geological age, and Green delightfully subjects a wide range of aspects of our world (including the QWERTY keyboard, Canada geese, Super Mario Kart, the Bonneville Salt Flats, whispering, the World's Largest Ball of Paint, wintry mix, and teddy bears) to his sometimes absurd, occasionally unfavorable, often effusive star rating system. Green is thoughtful and self-effacing, curious, sensitive, and I reveled in his explorations of his own glorious favoritism (hello, Diet Dr. Pepper) and deep-seated resentments (I’m looking at you, Canada geese) . I listened to The Anthropocene Reviewed as an audiobook. Click here for my full review of The Anthropocene Reviewed. 04 How to Be Perfect Filled with sometimes playful, often weighty questions, scenarios, and ideas, How to Be Perfect makes considering ethics and morality fun, and Michael Schur's tone is self-deprecating and thoughtful. The best thing about Aristotle’s “constant learning, constant trying, constant searching” is what results from it: a mature yet still pliable person, brimming with experiences both old and new, who doesn’t rely solely on familiar routines or dated information about how the world works. In How to Be Perfect, Michael Schur, the creator of Parks and Recreation and The Good Place, relies upon takeaways from morality and ethics writings and lessons to craft this guide to how to behave in the world. What does being a "good" person mean? What do we owe to each other? What is our duty to our fellow humans in different situations? I listened to this as an audiobook. Schur comes across as intelligent and kind, thoughtful, and self-deprecating. I watched The Good Place for the third time just before reading this, and I loved hearing Schur's references to the inspirations for the show and hearing his references to specific scenes, which were fresh in my mind. With sections read by stars of The Good Place, Schur's How to Be Perfect is funny, interesting--and a heartwarming reminder that there are thoughtful, kind, well-meaning people out there spending time reflecting on how best to be a human in today's world. That in and of itself is a comfort. For my full review, check out How to Be Perfect. 05 The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson Bryson's examination of the human body, its processes, its wonders, and its limitations is surprising, illuminating, and wonderful. “We pass our existence within this wobble of flesh and yet take it almost entirely for granted.” The Body: A Guide for Occupants is made up of fascinating, funny, odd, and often unexpected information about the complicated corporeal shell we each inhabit. With his signature wit and curiosity, Bryson delves into everything you didn't know that you didn't know about the body (and, I'm glad to say, he narrates the audiobook edition of the book). I'm willing to accompany Bill Bryson anywhere he wants to take me, and an adventure through body systems, grievous injuries, and our various, wondrous healing processes is no exception. Bryson considers the body's systems, outside positive and detrimental influences upon the body, and disease and the process of death. He inspires wonder, shares knowledge, and offers sometimes shocking factoids about our bodies and how they work. For my full review, check out The Body. 06 Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne Heartbreaking and disturbing, this is a fascinating exploration of the motivations behind and the execution of white men's relentless mission of destruction; details of Comanche life; and their position as the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. Victorious in war, unchallenged by foreign foes in North America for the first time in its history, the Union now found itself unable to deal with the handful of remaining Indian tribes that had not been destroyed, assimilated, or forced to retreat meekly onto reservations where they quickly learned the meaning of abject subjugation and starvation. In Empire of the Summer Moon, S.C. Gwynne explores the forty-year battle between white settlers and Native Americans in the American West, particularly focusing on Quanah, the chief of the Comanches, the most powerful tribe in American history. Gwynne traces the evolution of the Comanches--including their captivatingly described, unprecedented skill at breeding, breaking, riding, amassing, and trading horses as well as their revolutionary fighting style of hanging on the sides of their horses and shooting arrows under the horses' heads while galloping at full speed. Digging into the motivations and machinations that shaped the genocide that is detailed in Empire of the Summer Moon is disturbing and heartbreaking, but appropriately so. For my full review, check out Empire of the Summer Moon.

A former artist-in-residence at a hospice, MacNaughton distills the process of witnessing a loved one's end of life into a few elements we can direct--and encourages us to accept the beauty of the perfectly imperfect, inevitable, departure. In How to Say Goodbye, Wendy MacNaughton, former artist-in-residence at a hospice in San Francisco, illustrates the words of kindness, thoughtful approaches, and wisdom she gained by spending time around hospice caregivers and the people relying upon them, the dying and their loved ones. While acknowledging how much is out of our control regarding our loved ones' final moments, How to Say Goodbye shines a light on the things we can potentially shape--including sharing memories, expressing love, and offering forgiveness. Focusing on respect, love, and closure, MacNaughton offers a guide to creating a path through the precious time leading up to death. The circumstances may be complicated or fraught, or they may be heartbreaking yet straightforward, but How to Say Goodbye beautifully distills the title's process--of standing by, helping, embracing silence, and turning over the reins to the person who is passing away--into its essence. MacNaughton's text feels like a poem and her illustrations offer brutal beauty and express their own lovely, heartbreaking, poetic message that embraces the perfection of imperfection and lack of control. I received a prepublication copy of this slim, powerful, gorgeous book courtesy of Bloomsbury Publishing. How to Say Goodbye is scheduled for publication July 18, 2023. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? If this book is of interest to you, you might also be interested in the books on my Greedy Reading List Six Powerful Memoirs about Facing Mortality.

Sutanto's Vera Wong is playful, brusque, bossy, and connects an unlikely cast of characters, all murder suspects, into a heartwarming friendship that feels like family. Vera Wong is running a largely unvisited tea house, lamenting her grown son's lack of time for her, and grumbling about the new "French" bakery that's just opened down the street in Chinatown. When a dead body shows up in her tea house, Vera takes charge of the investigation of what only she is certain is a murder. She slips potential evidence into her pocket, gathers and questions those she thinks are suspects, and bosses around the police. Marshall, the deceased, was a petty, obnoxious, verbally abusive, selfish, belittling jackass. (It's not clear why anyone put up with him, but he is described as having been handsome and as having fooled absolutely everyone with a nice-guy act.) As the truth comes out about Marshall's activities and his final evening, it becomes clear that each character has a possible motivation for having offed Marshall, so to Vera, each is a potential killer. She throws dinner parties and facilitates get-together to study her subjects. And along the way, Vera's brusque truth-telling inspires an unlikely group of friends to form a special bond that's more like that of a family. This was absolutely my favorite part of the book. I can't help comparing this lighthearted fiction about the formation of a group of unlikely friends to another recent read of mine, The Lonely Hearts Book Club. In that book, I kept feeling stopped by wondering why the heck anyone would continue delving daily into the orbit of a brutally grumpy and unappreciative character. But in Vera Wong, while Vera is pushy she is also deeply caring, helpful, and serves as a connector--and the unlikable character in the story died before the book begins. I listened to the playful, heartwarming Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers as an audiobook, narrated by Eunice Wong. This was a fast read (listen), and while the denouement didn't completely hold together for me and the loose ends were tied up with extreeeeeemely tidy bows, the story was really about the relationships and Vera's coming into her own, and I adored these aspects. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Jesse Q. Sutanto is also the author of Dial A for Aunties, Four Aunties and a Wedding, The New Girl, Well, That Was Unexpected, The Obsession, I'm Not Done with You Yet, and the Theo Tan series for young readers.

Frazier offers an immersive story that morphs from a WPA-funded rural art commission to a leisurely country-wide search, an unlikely obsession, moments of brutality, strange connections, and, finally, an upended set of circumstances. In The Trackers, Cold Mountain author Charles Frazier offers historical fiction featuring a Great Depression-era painter, Val Welch, traveling west to a small rural town in Wyoming. As part of a New Deal grant, Val has landed the job of painting a mural on the Dawes, Wyoming, post office. In Dawes, he meets eccentric, wealthy art lovers John and Eve Long--mysterious, possibly hiding something, and certainly unpredictable. When Eve takes off from Dawes with a piece of valuable artwork, Val agrees to follow her--and uncovers long-buried secrets that could change everything. The situation is complicated between Val and Eve and John, Eve and John themselves, and regarding the couple's circumspect right-hand-man cowboy Faro. Many things go unsaid, while deep, defining secrets are also revealed. I love a Great Depression-set story, and in Frazier's literary fiction The Trackers, he immerses us in the resentments, desperation, and tiredness of the period. The search for Eve morphs into an uncomfortable encounter between Val and a volatile family; a terrible evasion effort on the part of Val; and an unusual connection between Eve, Val, and Faro. Yet loyalties variously rule all or fade away as an unlikely set of alliances and relationships stand at the end of the story. Frazier's writing is gorgeous, evoking the stark western landscapes Val passes through, gritty San Francisco, and the powerful cliffside ocean as well as lush, wild, wet Florida and its accompanying corruption and danger. I received a prepublication version of this book courtesy of NetGalley and Ecco. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? If you're interested in Great Depression-era historical fiction like I am, you might also like the books The Giver of Stars, The Saints of Swallow Hill, Wingwalkers by Taylor Brown, Nocturne, which offers magical realism and a dance-focused storyline within a Great Depression setting, and This Tender Land.

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading the upcoming The Secret Life of Flora Lea, historical fiction with magical realism from Patti Callahan Henry; I'm listening to the audiobook version of Jesse Q. Sutanto's Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers; and I'm reading the slim, powerful nonfiction book How to Say Goodbye from Wendy MacNaughton. What are you reading these days, bookworms? 01 The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry Young Flora and her teen sister Hazel were evacuated in 1939 from the bombing and danger in wartime London to the English countryside, where they lived with a rural family. They spent their days walking by the river, and to keep Flora entertained and distracted, Hazel made up elaborate stories about a magical, secret world alongside the water. Then tragedy struck: Flora went missing and was presumed to be dead. Twenty years later, Hazel is working in a rare bookshop when she unwraps a package and can't believe her eyes. The book inside is about the made-up world she shared with Flora--but Hazel never told another soul about the tales or the name of the secret, pretend place. I received a prepublication edition of this book courtesy of NetGalley and Atria Books. The Secret Book of Flora Lea is scheduled for publication May 2. 02 Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto Vera Wong is running a largely unvisited tea house, lamenting her grown son's lack of time for her, and grumbling about the new "French" bakery that's just opened down the street in Chinatown. When a dead body shows up in her tea house, Vera takes charge of what she is certain is a murder. She slips potential evidence into her pocket, gathers and questions those she thinks are suspects, and bosses around the police. And along the way, she forms an unlikely group of friends with a special bond. I'm listening to the playful, heartwarming Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers as an audiobook. 03 How to Say Goodbye by Wendy MacNaughton In How to Say Goodbye, artist-in-residence at a hospice in San Francisco, Wendy MacNaughton illustrates the words of kindness, thoughtful approaches, and wisdom of hospice caregivers. While acknowledging how much is out of our control regarding our loved ones' final moments, How to Say Goodbye focuses on the things we can potentially shape--including sharing memories, expressing love, and offering forgiveness. Focusing on respect, love, and closure, MacNaughton offers a guide to creating a path through the precious time leading up to death. I received a prepublication copy of this book courtesy of Bloomsbury Publishing. How to Say Goodbye is scheduled for publication July 18, 2023. If this book is of interest to you, you might also be interested in the books on my Greedy Reading List Six Powerful Memoirs about Facing Mortality.

My very favorite Bossy April reads! Here are the books I most loved reading in April: Exiles, the third in Jane Harper's Australian Aaron Falk mystery series; Curtis Sittenfeld's focus on skit comedy and an unlikely romance that I adored, Romantic Comedy (this was my favorite read of the month!); You Could Make This Place Beautiful, poet Maggie Smith's beautiful memoir about divorce and life; Go As a River, Shelley Read's debut historical fiction set in mid-century rural Colorado; Illuminations, Mary Sharratt's historical fiction about a walled-in medieval anchorite mystic who becomes a Benedictine abbess; and American Mermaid, Julia Langbein's playful story within a story with magical realism elements and a struggle to stay true to one's self. If you've read any of these books, I'd love to hear what you think! And I'd also love to hear: what are some of your recent favorite reads? 01 Exiles (Aaron Falk #3) by Jane Harper The third in Jane Harper's Aaron Falk series offers procedural detail, a lush Australian setting, and character development I found heartwarming and immensely satisfying. I love Aaron Falk stories and I loved the twisty interconnectedness of the characters in Exiles. Harper allows for Falk to develop more fully as a character--as a friend, a romantic interest, a father figure, and a detective. Yet she allows for new opportunities for him that felt real and possible, which I again loved. I wasn't ever sure who was responsible for the multiple tragedies at the heart of the story, and the resolutions make sense. Meanwhile Harper explores loyalty, procedural details related to the past and near past, beginnings and endings, and looooove. Jane Harper's The Dry (Aaron Falk #1) is set in small-town Australia with dark secrets and twists and turns, and she offers more of her excellent pacing in Force of Nature (Aaron Falk #2). I'm in for all Jane Harper and all Aaron Falk stories! Exiles was the right mystery at the right time for me. For my full review, check out Exiles. 02 Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld This was my favorite read of the month! Sittenfeld's funny and sweet take on an unlikely romance sparked by a longtime SNL-type weekly skit show immediately had me hooked, never felt too easy, and charmed me throughout. I love Curtis Sittenfeld's books, and in Romantic Comedy she offers an outstanding premise: Sally Milz is a sketch writer for a late-night comedy show, and she's sworn off love. That is, until she pokes fun at her fellow writer in a sketch about talented but average-looking men dating gorgeous women...and then gorgeous pop sensation and serial model-dater Noah Brewster hosts the show and turns his attentions on Sally. I was delighted to find that much of the book is focused on the behind-the-scenes making of the SNL-like Saturday night sketch comedy show in the book, The Night Owls, and I was fascinated by this aspect. Romantic Comedy offers lots of funny, funny dialogue that delighted me. This was the right book at the right time for me, and I loved everything about it. Sittenfeld is also the author of American Wife, You Think It, I'll Say It, Prep, Rodham, and Eligible. Click here for my full review of Romantic Comedy. 03 You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith Poet Maggie Smith's memoir traces the end of her marriage, weaving in the history and the future while she acknowledges that any story is only one person's reality and experience. Life, like a poem, is a series of choices. In You Could Make This Place Beautiful, poet Maggie Smith recounts her painful, prolonged divorce and her marriage, which was ending as she wrote this memoir. The book is made up of many short sections, and much of Smith's exploration is focused on the way in which she chooses to write about and present her situation--both of which seem fitting for a writer and poet. Smith deliberately presents the book not as a "tell-all" but a "tell-mine," repeatedly acknowledging that she can only tell her side of the story, built upon facts but only those she chooses to share; built on feelings, but only her feelings; built on resulting repercussions, but only those she chooses to acknowledge and share. The author mentions much of the music she finds powerful and inspiring or comforting, and she references other poets' work and her own. I found myself noting and saving much of this gorgeousness. Click here for my full review of You Could Make This Place Beautiful. 04 Go As a River by Shelley Read Read's debut novel is gorgeously written, with vivid details of mid-century Colorado, moments that change everything, impossible decision-making, heartbreak, and hope. Victoria is the last surviving female in a family of difficult men, living on a rural Colorado peach farm--its existence in that place and time a miracle and a testament to her father's creative farming and skill. Wilson Moon is a drifter displaced from his tribal lands, and a chance meeting between Wil and Victoria shifts the paths of their lives forever. Driven by instinct and survival, Victoria responds to the challenges of the wilderness, unforgiving weather, and seesawing temperatures. She realizes she must make an impossible choice--one with heartbreaking repercussions. Much of the book is about putting one foot in front of the other despite unimaginable devastation; finding the strength to go on despite few options; and the surprise of new determination and hope after years of pain and loss. Read brings Go As a River to life through the sights, sounds, and wildlife in the high Colorado forest; the grip of a farming lifestyle along the churning Gunnison River; and the rhythm of life dictated by the peach orchard. The planned-flooding aspect of the novel is based on the true story of the destruction of the town of Iola, Colorado, in the 1960s. I loved the immersive details of Victoria's life, her stalwart manner, her strength, and her perseverance. Please click here for my full review of Go As a River. 05 Illuminations by Mary Sharratt Sharratt's carefully researched, richly detailed historical fiction is based on the life of the medieval mystic who long served as an unwilling anchorite, walled into a monastery cell. Her rise to freedom and power is built upon visions and feminism. Mary Sharratt offers an exhaustively researched, fascinating historical fiction account of the life of the 12th century mystic who later spearheaded the building of a convent and became a Benedectine abbess. Sharratt begins the book with an aged Hildegard who has emerged from the monastery cell of her childhood. Because of this structure, I was relieved to know that she ultimately escapes her forced isolation. This made it bearable to read Sharratt's account of Hildegard's claustrophobic, dark years behind a dank, damp wall--finding spots of joy and inspiration where she is able. I read Illuminations with a group of women over a period of months, and we were captivated by the details of the Middle Ages setting; the satisfying, subversive feminism Sharratt inserts throughout; and Hildegard's ability to reinvent her situation so dramatically. There's relatively little page time spent on the later years of Hildegard's life at the abbey. Mary Sharratt also wrote Revelations, historical fiction about the life of Margery of Kempe, a mother of fourteen whose radiant visions led her to stun medieval British society with her vow of celibacy and ambitious pilgrimage halfway around the world. For my full review, please check out Illuminations. 06 American Mermaid by Julia Langbein This story within a story is playful and satirical while providing deep issues to contemplate. It's different and captivating and silly and sobering. Penelope Schleeman is an English teacher struggling to make ends meet when her feminist novel American Mermaid becomes a bestseller. Penny is hooked on the promise of a big payday and leaves her teaching position in Connecticut to move to Los Angeles and turn her novel into a script. But others' visions for the story involve her eco-warrior main character morphing into a teen beauty wearing a clamshell bra, wiping away her complex hero's dark motivations, and erasing much of what makes the story worth telling. Then mysterious threats and unexplained feminist changes begin appearing within the script, aimed at the writers who know how to make a shallow, profitable movie--but who are picking apart what made her novel sing in the first place. The excerpts from the book within a book of American Mermaid show glimpses of the novel that is the basis for Penny's trajectory--while digging into themes of climate change, greed, and dangerous assumptions about ability and motivation. The story culminates in tragedy or triumph, depending on your point of view. For my full review, please check out American Mermaid.

Read's debut novel is gorgeously written, with vivid details of mid-century Colorado, moments that change everything, impossible decision-making, heartbreak, and hope. You can be a good girl, a good horse, you can obey, you can love, but don't expect that if you do right then right will come to you. Victoria is the last surviving female in a family of difficult men, living on a rural Colorado peach farm--its existence in that place and time a miracle and a testament to her father's creative farming and skill. Her brother is jealous and cruel; her uncle has become bitter and petty since his fortunes have changed; and her father seems broken by the terrible tragedy and loss their family sustained when Victoria was young. Victoria is the glue holding the family together, and she's never considered doing anything but her duty. Wilson Moon is a drifter displaced from his tribal lands, and a chance meeting between Wil and Victoria shifts the paths of their lives forever. We are one and all alike if for no other reason than the excruciating and beautiful way we grow piece by unpredictable piece, falling, pushing from the debris, rising again, and hoping for the best. Victoria's life changes dramatically. Driven by instinct and survival, she responds to the challenges of the wilderness, unforgiving weather, and seesawing temperatures. She realizes she must make an impossible choice--one with heartbreaking repercussions. Much of the book is about putting one foot in front of the other despite unimaginable devastation; finding the strength to go on despite few options; and the surprise of new determination and hope after years of pain and loss. Read brings Go As a River to life through the sights, sounds, and wildlife in the high Colorado forest; the grip of a farming lifestyle along the churning Gunnison River; and the rhythm of life dictated by the peach orchard. An epistolary section is illuminating, if convenient, and it sets up the buoy of hope and version of resolution that closes the book. The planned-flooding aspect of the novel is based on the true story of the destruction of the town of Iola, Colorado, in the 1960s. I loved the immersive details of Victoria's life, her stalwart manner, her strength, and her perseverance. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? This is Shelley Read's debut novel. The tone of the book reminded me of another book I loved, Elizabeth Hardinger's All the Forgivenesses, which I mentioned in the Greedy Reading List Six Historical Backlist Favorites.

Mary Otis's debut novel explores the complicated mother-daughter relationship between alcoholic, erratic Charlotte and rigid, dance-focused Viva. Mary Otis's debut novel Burst explores a fraught mother-daughter relationship. Burst is told from both Viva and Charlotte's points of view, and Otis manages to nail each. Viva and Charlotte have always been a team. Young Viva overlooks and covers for her mom Charlotte's drinking, while Charlotte drags them from town to town as she takes advantage of people to get by. They move on when Charlotte has burned bridges again. Viva sees Charlotte as self-obsessed and unreliable, while Charlotte imagines herself an artsy, nonconformist tough lady who was pregnant too young and has done a bang-up job. As Viva gets older, she immerses herself in dance and distances herself from her mother. Viva writes in a college admissions essay--which Charlotte secretly reads, and resents--that Charlotte's drinking and flakiness were always something for Viva to push against. As a reaction to her mother she shapes her life as the opposite of Charlotte's influences. Viva dances and thrives in the rigid, exacting, unforgiving yet artistically expressive environment, she largely eschews drinking, and she takes the jobs she must in order to sustain her dancing lessons and art-focused lifestyle. When an unexpected event makes Viva vulnerable to thwarted dreams and pain, echoing her mother's disappointment from her younger years, she begins to make choices that further echo her mother's path. Meanwhile, Charlotte feels like she's losing her grip on reality and begins acting more erratically than ever. The two women clash, resisting their reliance on each other as they become more deeply intertwined. It's sometimes difficult for me to read about people making unhealthy or unhelpful choices for themselves, so I spent a lot of time bracing myself for the next blow while listening to this book. Yet Otis offers realistic hope in the end without neatly wrapping up her story with a bow, and she kept my interest throughout the ups and downs of the novel. I received a prepublication audiobook edition of this book courtesy of Libro.fm and Zibby Books. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Mary Otis is also the author of the short story collection Yes, Yes, Cherries. You can find more Bossy reviews of books I've read about mothers and daughters here.

Sharratt's carefully researched, richly detailed historical fiction is based on the life of the medieval mystic who long served as an unwilling anchorite, walled into a monastery cell. Her rise to freedom and power is built upon visions and feminism. Hildegard von Bingen began seeing visions at a young age, and her family offered her to the church at age 8. Because of familial monetary concerns and timing (another girl was willingly entering into solitude), Hildegard was sent to become an anchorite. She was walled up in a monastery although she yearned to continue roaming the natural world as she did until that time. Mary Sharratt offers an exhaustively researched, fascinating historical fiction account of the life of the 12th century mystic who later spearheaded the building of a convent and became a Benedectine abbess. Sharratt begins the book with an aged Hildegard who has emerged from the monastery cell of her childhood. Because of this structure, I was relieved to know that she ultimately escapes her forced isolation. This made it bearable to read Sharratt's account of Hildegard's claustrophobic, dark years behind a dank, damp wall--finding spots of joy and inspiration where she is able. Hildegard's study of herbs, the writing of her visions, and her love of music see her through the devastating limitations of her containment. Her various power moves and clever rebellions are entertaining to read about--and in Sharratt's account, lead to Hildegard's extreme change in fortune as well as her breakout from the confines of her young life. I read Illuminations with a group of women over a period of months, and we were captivated by the details of the Middle Ages setting; the satisfying, subversive feminism Sharratt inserts throughout; and Hildegard's ability to reinvent her situation so dramatically. There's relatively little page time spent on the later years of Hildegard's life at the abbey. I adore Sharratt's writing and am in for all of her books! Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Mary Sharratt also wrote Revelations, historical fiction about the life of Margery of Kempe, a mother of fourteen whose radiant visions led her to stun medieval British society with her vow of celibacy and ambitious pilgrimage halfway around the world.

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading Go as a River, historical fiction from Shelley Read; I'm listening to the audiobook version of Mary Otis's Burst, a story about a mother and daughter; and I'm reading Mary Sharratt's historical fiction, Illuminations. What are you reading these days, bookworms? 01 Go As a River by Shelley Read Victoria is the last surviving female in a family of complicated men. She's running her family's rural peach farm in Colorado. Wilson Moon is a drifter displaced from his tribal lands. A chance meeting shifts the paths of their lives forever. When tragedy strikes, Victoria flees into the wilderness as the Gunnison River threatens to flood her home. Go as a River is based on the true story of the destruction of the town of Iola, Colorado, in the 1960s. 02 Burst by Mary Otis Mary Otis's debut novel Burst explores a fraught mother-daughter relationship. Viva and Charlotte have always been a team. Young Viva overlooks and covers for her mom Charlotte's drinking, while Charlotte drags them from town to town as she takes advantage of people to get by and moves on when she's burned their bridges again. As Viva gets older, she immerses herself in dance and distances herself from her mother. Burst is told from both Viva and Charlotte's points of view. I received a prepublication audiobook edition of this book (to be released April 25) courtesy of Libro.fm and Zibby Books. 03 Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard Von Bingen Hildegard Von Bingen began seeing visions at a young age, and her family offered her to the church at age 8. She became an anchorite, walled up in a monastery although she yearned to roam the outdoors. Mary Sharratt offers an exhaustively researched, fascinating historical fiction account of the life of the 12th century mystic who later spearheaded the building of a convent and became a Benedectine abbess. Mary Sharratt also wrote Revelations, about the life of Margery of Kempe, a mother of fourteen whose radiant visions led her to stun medieval British society with her vow of celibacy and ambitious pilgrimage halfway around the world.

Six Favorite Lighter Fiction Reads I'm having so much fun spending Fridays highlighting books I've loved. And see, my heart is not made of ice--I do love rom-com books! I just need to buy into the small moments they're built upon. And these six did the trick for me. Others I've enjoyed during the past year include: The Dead Romantics, Something Wilder, Weather Girl, and Let's Not Do That Again. I've also been posting about favorite reads from lots of genres that I've loved reading in the past year: Six of My Favorite Fiction Reads from Last Year Six More of My Favorite Fiction Reads from Last Year Six Four-Star Mystery Reads I Loved Last Year Six More Four-Star Mysteries I Loved Last Year Six Four-Star Historical Fiction Reads I Loved Last Year Six Four-Star (And Up) Science Fiction Reads I Loved Last Year, and Six of My Favorite Memoir Reads Last Year You can check out My Very Favorite Bossy 2022 Reads for my absolute most favorite reads from last year. If you've read any of the books mentioned here, I'd love to hear what you think! What are some of your favorite lighter fiction reads, from the past year or from this one so far? 01 Flying Solo by Linda Holmes In this satisfying story by the author of Evvie Drake Starts Over, Linda Holmes offers sweet, funny dialogue; a complicated reunion between old flames; and a hometown return that's both heartwarming and fraught. In Flying Solo, Laurie Sassalyn returns to her Maine hometown, stinging from her recently canceled wedding, facing being on the cusp of forty, and ready to dive into the massive job of dismantling her beloved, recently deceased, never married great aunt Dot's collectible- and memento-filled house. Then an unusual antique she finds in Dot's attic and an old love letter send her on a wild caper through her own past, back to her first love and her oldest friend, as well as into the hands of con artists and antique dealers eager for what she's got. I adore Holmes's excellent ability to set up and develop a rom-com with depth. Her wonderful dialogue, appropriate and satisfying sentimentality, and the thrill of connection--I love all of it. I appreciated that Laurie's desire for independence and solitude weren't swept away in a convenient, abrupt sea change. Holmes digs into a complicated, messy situation that's far more interesting than that. I loved this. Click here for my full review of Flying Solo. 02 Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez Jimenez offers humor, spicy moments, and romance while incorporating weighty issues into her light fiction opposites-attract story Part of Your World. In Part of Your World, Abby Jimenez takes on a meet-cute between a rural renaissance man (he's the small-town mayor, a graceful bed and breakfast host, and part of a close-knit network of community members) and a successful city doctor with expensive taste and very little practical knowledge outside of an emergency room. Jimenez incorporates weighty issues here, such as access to health care, domestic abuse, and emotional abuse, as well as a personal reckoning in which the warring powers of privilege and responsibility are faced. Told in alternating points of view from Daniel and Alexis, Part of Your World is romantic, often funny, sometimes sexy, poignant, and it includes touches of magical realism. I felt confident that I knew where this was going, but I was in for all of it. For my full review, check out Part of Your World. 03 One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston McQuiston's love letter to New York offers charming song references, LGBTQ love, steamy scenes, character growth--and an irresistible playing-with-time element. In One Last Stop, twenty-three-year-old August keeps to herself--she's kind of cynical, she doesn't have a lot of friends, and she's holding true to form after her recent move to New York. August needs to put some distance between her mother and herself, and if her mom has taught her anything, it's the pain of experiencing loss after loving and being vulnerable. To say that August isn't particularly inclined to let anyone into her own emotional life is a serious understatement. But August's adorably quirky roommates and a mystery woman she keeps running into on the Q train might just bring her out of her shell and make her want to risk opening up her heart. One Last Stop plays with time in a really fun, interesting way, and through the time-jump premise McQuiston's characters explore loyalty, love, connection, and heartbreak in poignant, funny, irresistible ways. Click here for my full review of One Last Stop. 04 Nora Goes Off Script by Annabel Monaghan Sink into this light-fiction escapism; Nora Goes Off Script is romantic and satisfying in its outlandishly satisfying resolutions, convenient events, and happy endings. Nora Hamilton is a scriptwriter for a Hallmark-style romance channel--and an expert in crafting the perfect romantic storylines and happy endings, according to her tried-and-true formula. Meanwhile, her own love life is a mess and she's reluctant to be vulnerable again (her ex was a selfish, immature, entitled jerk who isn't involved in the kids' lives anymore). Nora's focused on her work, her small-town life, her kids' sports and their school play, and her longtime friends. But when the movie of her latest script is filmed at her house (side note: I'm not clear on how that sequence of events was meant to make sense), handsome and insufferable movie star Leo Vance shows up--and upends everything Nora thought she knew about love. For my full review, check out Nora Goes Off Script. 05 Every Summer After by Carley Fortune Carley Fortune offers a satisfying story of coming home, young love, mistakes and redemption, romance, lake life, and some past and present steamy scenes. In Carley Fortune's debut Every Summer After, Persephone Fraser knows all too well the saying "you can't go home again." It's been ten years since she made the biggest mistake of her life in the wondrous place where she spent her youthful summers, Barry's Bay. Now Percy is making her way in the city, trying (and failing) to avoid thinking about how she's disconnected from the place and the people who helped shape her into who she is. But when she returns to the lake for Sam Florek's mother's funeral, she's swept back into the connection she and Sam once had, and her determination to keep her heart closed might be shaken--along with everything else around which she's built her young adult life. I love stories about returning home, reconnecting with old flames, and chances for redemption, and Every Summer After has all of these elements, plus lots of reminiscing, cute banter, poignant moments, and a few steamy scenes. I read this satisfying, romantic read in a day. For my full review, check out Every Summer After. 06 The Bodyguard by Katherine Center Katherine Center's newest light fiction offers an irresistible premise--a female bodyguard poses as the girlfriend of a heartthrob actor--and delightful, if sometimes predictable, developments that lead to a satisfying ending. Hannah Brooks looks like the young woman next door--but she's actually a highly skilled Executive Protection Agent--a bodyguard. And her newest client is the Jack Stapleton, action star, household name--and, in recent years, recluse. Someone is stalking Jack, and Hannah is bound to protect him. But Jack's mother is sick, he wants to return home to Texas, and he doesn't want his family to know he's got a stalker and be worried while they're focused on his mother's health. So against her better judgment, Hannah agrees to pose as Jack's girlfriend. Only...the longer she pretends, the more their fake relationship seems like it might have promise. The Bodyguard is fun, often charming--and the premise is absolutely irresistible. Jack's family is lovely, and there's a subplot in which Jack and his brother Hank are furious with each other after the loss of their brother, for which Jack has been blamed. This--along with a late-stage, dangerous, dramatic situation requiring Hannah's smarts and strength--adds tension and conflict to the story. Even if some of the resolutions here are predictable, it's satisfying to know that in Center's hands, her characters are relatively safe, and that she'll deliver an ending that makes a reader happy. The journey to the conclusion is joy-filled and entertaining. For my full review, check out The Bodyguard.

I love a book about books, but I was confused as to why the characters would seek out and spend prolonged time with the verbally abusive, acerbic, angry Arthur. Sloane is an underappreciated librarian running things and doing all the behind-the-scenes work without complaining. She adores books and reading, but her emotional passion for literature is a negative in the eyes of her boss. Arthur McLachlan is a grumpy elderly patron who regularly excoriates the staff and insults them. Sloane's personal life is lacking, and Arthur clearly seems lonely. Could the two forge some type of unlikely bond? Not if Arthur has anything to say about it. The Lonely Hearts Book Club is a sweet story about unlikely friendships with a side of book talk, but I found myself impatient through it all. Sloane's fiancé Brett and his family are presented as largely silly and obnoxious: his chiropractor status is continually ridiculed when he calls himself "doctor"; his pleasant family pushes Sloane around regarding the wedding plans; his mother indicates that he's marrying below his station. Brett is not unkind, but he's condescending, discounts Sloane's opinion, ignores her concerns, and makes decisions for both of them. (Late in the story he seems surprisingly thoughtful and insightful, however.) I was frustrated by various characters' inabilities to stand up for themselves. Maisie is one of my favorite characters, but she struggles with her self-esteem and seems open to verbal abuse and bad treatment. Sloane puts up with being repeatedly taken for granted at work, and I was frustrated by her smiling willingness to put up with Arthur's hateful comments, then frustrated with everyone else as they seemed willing to do the same, without any reason presented for them to do so. Gilmore presents late chapters from the points of view of different characters, allowing insights otherwise not available to the reader. Yet by that point I was fully irritated by Arthur's careless cruelty--and others' eager exposure to it morning and night. The fact that he might ultimately speak truths seems irrelevant when his manner has been so consistently off-putting. Who would have stuck around to find this out? Who would give him the benefit of the doubt so many times? Who would be brought to tears and then move in to help him, without his having shown remorse, reflection, insight, or feelings? The motley crew bonds over books, although the book feels more focused on the oddly immediate intimacy between unlikely friends. The idea that the group would even consider asking Sloane to shift her life plans in order to stay local seemed absurd. They may have made judgments about Brett and her faulty decision-making--she doesn't share her own feelings on these matters with any of them until quite late--but this all came across to me as more infantilizing than caring. This is light fiction, and I typically love a book about the love of books, but I couldn't buy into the premise or the building bonds, so I felt disconnected from the story. I received an audiobook edition of this book courtesy of Libro.fm and Dreamscape Media. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? If you like light fiction stories, you might like the books on my Greedy Reading Lists Six Lighter Fiction Stories for Great Escapism and Six More Great Light Fiction Stories.

Six longtime friends gather for one last Maine vacation--but each of them has been keeping secrets that impact their relationships. The story's tension requires ongoing misunderstandings, and I was impatient with the prolonged lack of communication. Harriet and Win were attracted to each other from the start, but they spent ages trying to deny it for fear of upending their close-knit friend group if things didn't work out. Now they've been engaged for six years, they're desperately in love, and they've been dating long-distance while Harriet pursues her residency and Win, a furniture repair person, helps his sick mother at home in Montana. For years they've taken annual trips to their friend Sabrina's cottage in Maine with the rest of their group, building traditions, strengthening their friendships, and enjoying their happy place. So this year, when their friends surprise Harriet upon her arrival with the fact that Win was able to come after all, it should be a good--no, a great--thing. Except, Harriet and Win broke up months ago...and haven't told anyone yet. Harriet is heartbroken and reeling at being bunked up with Win, but after Sabrina shares big news of her own, Harriet doesn't feel she and Win can come clean. Meanwhile, everyone expects them to act like they're in love and for them to take part in years-old traditions and celebrations. I couldn't get over how odd and unlikely it was that Win and Harriet never spoke about the reason for their breakup. This setup allows for an enormous misunderstanding/I thought I was reading your mind/I misread the situation to a tragic degree combination of errors to persist. Self-esteem issues and a lack of basic communication of feelings, goals, and needs compound the problem and ensure that nothing is resolved for a prolonged period. There's an enormous career shift that felt an awful lot like a woman giving up a career for a guy, although Henry emphasizes that dissatisfaction with the actuality of the job is what spurs the abandonment of years of schooling and training. I couldn't decide if I wanted this character's hobby to become the new career or not, and I was happy with the way Henry went with this decision. For much of the book, Harriet's parents are presented as emotionally distant and focused on appearances rather than being tuned into her happiness, then late in the game they shifted to be warm and accepting, involved, and supportive; this redemption felt overly convenient. The intimacy of the friends felt claustrophobic at times--although the reliance on inside jokes and the insistence that things should be done the way they always have in their friend group is largely driven my one character. The grown-up friends' ability to move past the evolutions of their relationships was a highlight. Happy Place involves steamy scenes and will-they/won't-they tensions. Win and Harriet's interactions, when they do begin communicating, are lovely and sweet and funny and heartbreaking. As a former Mainer, I loved that the book was set in Maine, but I didn't get a strong sense of the place; despite the inclusion of mentions of lobster and the coast, it felt like it was set elsewhere somehow. I received a prepublication audiobook edition of this book (to be released April 25) courtesy of Libro.fm and Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Henry's Beach Read was one of my favorite books the year I read it, and it made it onto the Greedy Reading List Six Lighter Fiction Stories for Great Escapism. People We Meet on Vacation was another great Henry story; you can check out my review here, and you might like to check out its spot on Six More Great Light Fiction Stories plus the five other titles on that Greedy Reading List.

Holes's account of the dogged determination and attention to detail--as well as the cost to his personal life--involved in discovering the identities of killers was fascinating. I have caught some of the most notorious killers of the twenty-first century and brought justice and closure for their victims and families. I want to tell you about a lifetime solving these cold cases, from Laci Peterson to Jaycee Dugard to the Pittsburgh homicides to, yes, my twenty-year-long hunt for the Golden State Killer. From Paul Holes, the detective who found the Golden State Killer, comes a nonfiction work about tracking cold cases--and the rewards and tolls of a lifetime of the obsessive search. Holes presents his single-focus personality and obsessive immersion--in the gritty details of homicides, the preliminary circumstances, the aftermaths, and the various movements of potential suspects over months and years--as historically detrimental to his personal life even as it is essential to his work and successful solving of cases. Employing someone dedicated to cold cases was a budgetary luxury we couldn't afford. Cold case units were the exception rather than the rule, despite the fact that the number of unresolved homicides were growing exponentially across the country every decade. He tracks for the reader the somewhat circuitous route he took in beginning to look into cold cases, the seemingly mundane clues he relied upon for answers, the persistent review of the facts and killers' potential motivations, and his dogged determination in comparing notes and working cooperatively with others--even when his full-time job was not meant to be focused on this particular work, but on more administrative concerns. I'm too chicken to watch shows about this type of topic, and the relevant details to the cases and deaths (attacks, premeditation, cruelties, horrors, blood spatter) are disturbing, but I felt more comfortable reading about them on the page. While the work almost certainly was tedious, Unmasked never is, nor does it feel that Holes (with Fisher) is inserting drama that doesn't inherently exist. I was captivated by the often slow, sometimes shockingly swift realizations and their implications. The development of DNA analysis and technological possibilities was fascinating. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? If you like nonfiction books, you might also like the books I list on my Greedy Reading List Six Compelling Nonfiction Reads--and stay tuned for my upcoming list of Six Nonfiction Bossy Favorites from the Past Year!

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm listening to The Lonely Hearts Book Club by Lucy Gilmore; I'm listening to the audiobook version of Emily Henry's Happy Place, scheduled for release April 25; and I'm reading the first in Tracy Deonn's young adult fantasy series, Legendborn. What are you reading these days, bookworms? 01 The Lonely Hearts Book Club by Lucy Gilmore Sloane is an underappreciated librarian running things through all the behind-the-scenes work she does without complaining. She adores books and reading, but her emotional passion for literature is a negative in the eyes of her boss. Arthur McLachlan is a grumpy elderly man and regular patron who regularly excoriates the staff in personal and insulting ways. Sloane's personal life is lacking, and Arthur clearly seems lonely. Could the two forge some type of unlikely bond? Not if Arthur has anything to say about it. I received an audiobook edition of this book courtesy of Libro.fm and Dreamscape Media. 02 Happy Place by Emily Henry Harriet and Win were attracted to each other from the start, but they spent ages trying to deny it, for the sake of their close-knit friend group. Now they've been engaged for six years, they're so in love, and they've been dating long-distance while Harriet pursues her residency and Win helps his sick mother at home in Montana. For years they've gone to their friend Sabrina's cottage in Maine with the rest of their group, building traditions, strengthening their friendships, and enjoying their happy place. So when their friends surprise Harriet upon her arrival this year with the fact that Win was able to come after all, it should be a good--no, a great- thing. Except, Harriet and Win broke up months ago and haven't told anyone yet. And everyone expects them to act like they're in love. I received a prepublication audiobook edition of this book (to be released April 25) courtesy of Libro.fm and Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group. 03 Legendborn (The Legendborn Cycle #1) by Tracy Deonn “Two faults. My race and my gender. But they are not faults. They are strength. And I am more than this man can comprehend.” After sixteen-year-old Bree's mother dies in an accident, she escapes the painful memories of her childhood home and town in favor of a special program for gifted youth at UNC-Chapel Hill (woot!). But her first night on campus, she witnesses the magical attack of a mythical creature on a student--then must evade a fellow student's attempts to wipe her memory of the event. The experience jogs a buried recollection: a wizard was present at the hospital after her mother's accident. Now Bree is determined to find the truth about what happened. Legendborn is the first in Tracy Deonn's young adult Legendborn Cycle series.

Six Favorite Fantasy Reads I love spending Fridays raving about books I've loved! I've also recently posted about favorite reads from various genres that I've loved reading in the past year: Six of My Favorite Fiction Reads Last Year Six More of My Favorite Fiction Reads from the Past Year Six Four-Star Mystery Reads I Loved Last Year Six More Four-Star Mysteries I Loved Last Year Six Four-Star Historical Fiction Reads I Loved Last Year Six Four-Star (And Up) Science Fiction Reads I Loved Last Year, and Six of My Favorite Memoir Reads Last Year And check out My Very Favorite Bossy 2022 Reads for my absolute most favorite reads from last year. If you've read any of the books mentioned here, I'd love to hear what you think! What are some of your favorite fantasy reads, from the past year or from this one so far? 01 Steelstriker (Skyhunter #2) by Marie Lu With intriguing questions about loyalties and motivations, gutsy skirmishes, deep friendships, familial duty, and a smoldering romance seen at a distance, Steelstriker wraps up the Skyhunter duology with action and also with heart. In Skyhunter, the first book in Marie Lu's young adult Skyhunter duology, Lu offered complex motivations, clashes between idealism and realism, editorialization about class and race, and futuristic advancements. In Steelstriker, the second and final book in the series, the last free nation in the world has been invaded. Our brave main protagonist (and rebel) Talin is forced to submit to the Federation's morally questionable and physically excruciating experiments. She must become a Skyhunter. Steelstriker is almost 400 pages of action, deceit, political maneuvering, and gutsy skirmishes, and Lu made me question the motivations and loyalties of practically everyone in Talin's web. I wasn't sure who would prove to be the true enemy and who might reveal themselves to have been traitorous all along. Click here for my full review of Steelstriker. 02 The Last Legacy by Adrienne Young In Young's story, loosely set in the world of her Fable series, strong young Bryn fights for her own autonomy in an appealing tale of craftiness, determination, and love. A letter from her uncle Henrik on her eighteenth birthday calls orphan Bryn back to the island of Bastion. It might be an understatement to say that she has mixed emotions about returning, but Henrik has plans for her that he's been building for ages. Situations on Bastion are complicated by longstanding rivalries, the suspicious circumstances surrounding Bryn's parents' long-ago deaths, and an extended family with mysterious loyalties and plans of their own. I was thrilled to find that Young's wonderful, signature strong-young-female protagonist-in-a-man's-world element is in full effect here. Bryn finds her footing in an appealingly realistic, indirect fashion. She has missteps and recognizes an immediate need to develop a thick skin—as well as feeling the complicated impetus to establish loyalties while retaining her own secrets and power. This was satisfying and wonderfully immersive. Click here for my review of Adrienne Young's Fable, and click here for my review of the second book in the series, Namesake. For my full review, check out The Last Legacy. 03 Herrick's End (The Neath #1) by T.M. Blanchet The first book in Blanchet's Neath trilogy offers a bizarre dark underworld; cruelty and revenge; an unlikely hero; and heartwarming bravery and unexpected bonds. In Blanchet's young adult fantasy debut, Herrick's End, Ollie's only friend Gwen has disappeared. He has no idea where she's gone, but he thinks her recent black eye, edginess, and her brooding jerk of a boyfriend have something to do with it. He searches for her, then receives a mysterious note: "Still looking for your friend? I know where she is." A strange fellow offers to lead Ollie to Gwen. Ollie pushes down his panic and decides to push on bravely (and possibly foolishly), determined to find and save Gwen. But the trail Ollie finds himself on leads to darkness and danger in a mysterious underworld. The land is odd, troubling, and filled with unexpected magic--as well as brutal vengeance. It defies much of what he has known as fact and reality up above. And, alarmingly, a powerful local legend has been expecting him. The story is funny, sometimes grotesque, at other times sweet, and full of surprises. With zombified children; curses and prophecies; domestic abuse and revenge; bizarre creatures; impossible choices with enormous consequences; struggles with body image; and budding love. I love this beautiful cover and loved how much heart Blanchet's story offered. Click here for my full review of Herrick's End. 04 Six Crimson Cranes (Six Crimson Cranes #1) by Elizabeth Lim I was captivated by Lim's fairy tale of a fantasy novel, particularly the vivid magical realism, Shiori's strength and abilities, and young looooove! In this young adult novel, the first in a magical fairy tale duology from Elizabeth Lim, main protagonist Shiori is a princess trying desperately to hide the forbidden magic coursing through her veins. But before her betrothal ceremony to the son of a distant royal, a stranger she's reluctant to marry, Shiori's power is dramatically revealed. She is banished from her kingdom, her six brothers are turned into cranes, and Shiori is cursed to not speak a word--with each word she utters, one of her brothers will die. I couldn't wait to find out how Lim would make this plot construct of a wordless main protagonist work in an engaging way, and with the help of a magical paper bird (its name is Kiki, and please just roll with this element, because it's actually amazing), Shiori's silence is made rich and intriguing. The detailed magical realism is vivid and I was in for all of it. I found the hints at young love absolutely irresistible. I can't wait for the second book. For my full review, check out Six Crimson Cranes. 05 Tess of the Road by Rachel Hartman Rachel Hartman's young adult story follows irresistible, hardheaded, wonderfully faulted Tess as she breaks from rigid medieval gender roles in favor of adventure and discovery. It's captivating, sometimes weighty, and often playful, but never silly. In Hartman's Tess of the Road, Tess doesn't fit the mold of an obedient, quiet young woman in her medieval kingdom of Goredd, where men rule the land and each household within it. Without airing out all of the family's dirty laundry, let's just say that this time Tess has really taken things too far for fine society, and she's not a young lady who can be subdued. So Tess's family decides to send her to a nunnery. But Tess has other plans. Hartman's 521-page story is immensely satisfying. Tess of the Road is playful yet never silly. The story zigzags in an appealing way through phases of Tess's young explorations. The tale is full of captivating discoveries of all kinds while also addressing deep issues about gender, power, and possibility. It addresses female empowerment within the frustrating constraints of the time, laying out some hopeful, plausible baby steps toward progress. For my full review, check out Tess of the Road. 06 The Becoming by Nora Roberts The second installment in Nora Roberts's Dragon Heart Legacy series is satisfying and comfortable, as Bree becomes more powerful, confident, and determined. Plus: more dragons! In The Awakening, the first book in Nora Roberts's Dragon Heart Legacy series, she set up a romantic fantasy about a chosen one, a long-lost family, portals to a magical world, and a treasure of a best friendship. In book two of the series, Breen Siobhan Kelly is coming into her own. She has conveniently shuffled off from Philly to the magical Talamh, where she revels in her new-found and strengthening powers (yet maintains her new, successful career as a children's author--with promise of becoming an adult author too. Why not take this fantasy all the way, after all?). I enjoyed this second installment even more than the first book. Roberts has already set up the situation, and Bree is coming into her own, growing more powerful, figuring out her abilities, and gaining confidence in her role and her contributions. It's fun to have BFF Marco along, and it's satisfying to witness Bree attempting to understand with compassion her mother's reasoning for having kept her heritage secret (although the cutting down of Bree's confidence feels difficult to forgive). For my full review, check out The Becoming.

Poet Maggie Smith's memoir traces the end of her marriage, weaving in the history and the future while she acknowledges that any story is only one person's reality and experience. Life, like a poem, is a series of choices. In You Could Make This Place Beautiful, poet Maggie Smith recounts her painful, prolonged divorce and her marriage, which was ending as she wrote this memoir. The book is made up of many short sections, and much of Smith's exploration is focused on the way in which she chooses to write about and present her situation--both of which seem fitting for a writer and poet. I'm trying to get to the truth, and I can't get there except by looking at the whole, even the parts I don't want to see. Maybe especially those parts. I've had to move into--and through--the darkness to find the beauty. Through tracing the framework of and the growth and change of her relationship, Smith also explores gender roles, womanhood, motherhood, fury, loss, and a new fire for looking out for one's self. It's a mistake to think of my life as a plot, but isn't this what I'm tasked with now--making sense of what happened by telling it as a story? While Smith focuses on aspects such as the increased understanding she gained about the longtime structure of her marriage--the give and take (or lack thereof), the power imbalance, the resentment, the unspoken yearnings--You Could Make This Place Beautiful is not a laying-bare of emotional turmoil, and in a way the writing about it feels like a somewhat dispassionate exercise despite the topic. Yet her language is beautiful, evocative, and full of pain, resolve, reflection, anger, discovery, and resignation. I hover like a camera on a boom over those two young people, just kids, and I pity them because they have no idea what's coming. Smith deliberately presents the book not as a "tell-all" but a "tell-mine," repeatedly acknowledging that she can only tell her side of the story, built upon facts but only those she chooses to share; built on feelings, but only her feelings; built on resulting repercussions, but only those she chooses to acknowledge and share. The author mentions much of the music she finds powerful and inspiring or comforting, and she references other poets' work and her own. I found myself noting and saving much of this gorgeousness. This book is powered by questions, many of them unanswerable, so their fuel burns forever. I received a prepublication edition of this book courtesy of NetGalley and Atria Books. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? For memoirs I've loved that you might want to try, check out these Greedy Reading Lists: Six Musicians' Memoirs that Sing Six Fascinating Memoirs to Explore Six More Fascinating Memoirs to Explore Six Illuminating Memoirs to Dive Into Six Illuminating Memoirs I've Read This Year Six More Illuminating Memoirs to Lose Yourself In Six Foodie Memoirs to Whet Your Appetite Six Powerful Memoirs about Facing Mortality

Perry recounts the daily reality of his years in a chokehold of addiction to drugs and alcohol, his struggles to quit using, and the many (beautiful) women who got away. I found myself yearning for more introspection but appreciated his honesty. “I am no saint—none of us are—but once you have been at death’s door and you don’t die, you would think you would be bathed in relief and gratitude. But that isn’t it at all—instead, you look at the difficult road ahead of you to get better and you are pissed. Something else happens, too. You are plagued by this nagging question: Why have I been spared?” In Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, Matthew Perry, former star of Friends, recounts his many, many daily struggles and his long-term battle with addiction, brushes with death, attempts to get sober, search for love and acceptance, and seeking a purpose in life. Perry is candid about his reality of sitting in a life dictated moment by moment by addiction, not shying away from sharing the context of his repeated decision of drugs or alcohol over sobriety--despite having at times made progress in quitting, despite his multiple dire hospitalizations, and despite multiple rehab stays. Again and again he chooses the numbing effect of using over feeling uncomfortable emotions, and he ties his feelings of not feeling like enough as an adult to a childhood in which his young parents' divorce, remarriages, and new children hit him particularly hard. The pain of his compulsion to use and his longtime inability to stop causes him to share multiple times that he would be willing to trade places with those in dire situations--for example, those who worry about money and health--if he could only be free of his addiction. He feels he would do anything to be free of the chokehold of his addiction, which he feels is more severe than most others'. Yet this particular assertion came across to me as uncomfortably privileged and felt in need of more delicate handling: supposing a semblance of understanding of the desperate plights of those who struggle to get by--particularly in light of the longtime weekly million dollars he mentions earning on Friends and the additional fortune he amassed and also notes in the book. I appreciate Perry's honesty--he doesn't sugar-coat the endless march toward destruction that seemed perilously close throughout the book. His sense of feeling God in a moment and his resulting, sustained faith in a higher power was interesting. I was also intrigued by his early days of auditions and how he stumbled into the perfect role and a once-in-a-lifetime ensemble on Friends. His candor and vulnerability in taking the reader through the depths of his experience are commendable. It seems unfair to say of someone's honest addiction story laid bare on the page (and, in my case, then read by the author) that I wished for a little more introspection. Perry spends much of the page time focusing on the many (beautiful) women who got away. He relives his repeated dives back into drugs and alcohol, sharing his physical pain and discomfort due to withdrawal and due to the extensive drug and alcohol damage to his body (and the desperate physical repairs needed, which held their own complications and pain--and which he seems to resent), and linking much of his inability to function as an emotionally mature man to the abandonment he felt in his childhood. The book zigzags through time to paint a picture of years of damaging substance abuse, and Perry's honesty about how much he drank and how many pills he took made me feel increasingly shocked that he has survived. I listened to Perry's memoir as an audiobook. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? For memoirs I've loved that you might want to try, check out these Greedy Reading Lists: Six Musicians' Memoirs that Sing Six Fascinating Memoirs to Explore Six More Fascinating Memoirs to Explore Six Illuminating Memoirs to Dive Into Six Illuminating Memoirs I've Read This Year Six More Illuminating Memoirs to Lose Yourself In Six Foodie Memoirs to Whet Your Appetite Six Powerful Memoirs about Facing Mortality

Sittenfeld's funny and sweet take on an unlikely romance sparked by a longtime SNL-type weekly skit show immediately had me hooked, never felt too easy, and charmed me throughout. I love Curtis Sittenfeld's books, and in Romantic Comedy she offers an outstanding premise: Sally Milz is a sketch writer for a late-night comedy show, and she's sworn off love. That is, until she pokes fun at her fellow writer in a sketch about talented but average-looking men dating gorgeous women...and then gorgeous pop sensation and serial model-dater Noah Brewster hosts the show and turns his attentions on Sally. I was delighted to find that much of the book is focused on the behind-the-scenes making of the SNL-like Saturday night sketch comedy show in the book, The Night Owls, and I was fascinated by this aspect. I was hooked by being immersed in the rhythm of show weeks and of skit pitches and power dynamics; and I loved the funny, loyal, irresistible show-based friendships between Sally and Viv, Henrietta, and Danny. The complex Sally-Noah situation is not too easy, yet Sittenfeld avoids irritating by introducing convoluted roadblocks. The connection, the challenges, the fits and starts, and the way Sittenfeld pulls everything together were satisfying and adorable and just wonderful. Romantic Comedy offers lots of funny, funny dialogue that delighted me. This was the right book at the right time for me, and I loved everything about it. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Sittenfeld is also the author of American Wife, You Think It, I'll Say It, Prep, Rodham, and Eligible. I received a prepublication version of this book courtesy of NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group.

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading Cold Mountain author Charles Frazier's newest historical fiction, The Trackers, to be published April 11; I'm reading a memoir by the poet Maggie Smith, You Could Make This Place Beautiful, also scheduled for publication April 11; and I'm listening to Matthew Perry's memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing. What are you reading these days, bookworms? 01 The Trackers by Charles Frazier In The Trackers, Cold Mountain author Charles Frazier offers historical fiction featuring a Great Depression-era painter, Val Welch, traveling west to a small rural town in Wyoming. As part of a New Deal grant, Val has landed the job of painting a mural on the Dawes, Wyoming, post office. In Dawes, he meets eccentric, wealthy art lovers John and Eve Long--mysterious, possibly shady, and certainly unpredictable. When Eve takes off from Dawes with a piece of valuable artwork, Val follows her--and uncovers long-buried secrets that could change everything. I received a prepublication version of this book courtesy of NetGalley and Ecco. The Trackers will be published April 11. 02 You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir by Maggie Smith “Life, like a poem, is a series of choices.” In You Could Make This Place Beautiful, poet Maggie Smith recounts her painful, prolonged divorce and the marriage that was ending with heartbreak as she wrote this memoir. Smith also explores gender roles, womanhood, motherhood, fury, loss, and looking out for one's self. I received a prepublication edition of this book courtesy of NetGalley and Atria Books. You Could Make This Place Beautiful is scheduled for publication April 11. 03 Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir by Matthew Perry “I am no saint—none of us are—but once you have been at death’s door and you don’t die, you would think you would be bathed in relief and gratitude. But that isn’t it at all—instead, you look at the difficult road ahead of you to get better and you are pissed. Something else happens, too. You are plagued by this nagging question: Why have I been spared?” In Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, Matthew Perry, former star of Friends, recounts his longtime, daily struggle with addiction, multiple brushes with death, many attempts to get sober, his ongoing search for love and acceptance, and seeking his purpose in life. I'm listening to this memoir as an audiobook.

Six More Favorite Fiction Reads I love spending Fridays raving about books I've loved! I listed Six of My Favorite Fiction Reads from Last Year in this Greedy Reading List, then I highlighted six more of my favorite fiction reads from last year in a second Greedy Reading List. I've also recently posted about favorite reads from certain genres that I've loved reading in the past year: Six Four-Star Mystery Reads I Loved Last Year Six More Four-Star Mysteries I Loved Last Year Six Four-Star Historical Fiction Reads I Loved Last Year Six Four-Star (And Up) Science Fiction Reads I Loved Last Year, and Six of My Favorite Memoir Reads Last Year And check out My Very Favorite Bossy 2022 Reads for my absolute most favorite reads from last year. If you've read any of the books mentioned here, I'd love to hear what you think! What are some of your favorite fiction reads, from the past year or from this one so far? 01 See You Yesterday by Rachel Lynn Solomon Rachel Lynn Solomon crafts another sweet, quirky, funny, romantic young adult story that plays with time and is centered around irresistibly imperfect characters. In See You Yesterday, Rachel Lynn Solomon explores the first day of college for Barrett Bloom, who desperately needs a fresh start. But on day one, Barrett's ruthlessly straightforward manner, defensive way of keeping others at a distance, and habit of speaking harsh truths before she stops to think seem destined to lead her to misstep and thwart her own chances of success and happiness. After being involved in multiple disasters in only her first day of classes, she fears college may become a ruination on par with the end of her high school career. She wakes up the next day...and finds that she's reliving her first day of college. She has the incredible chance to make the same decisions or to consider her choices and do things differently. The following morning, she gets yet another chance at reliving her first day. And there's an interesting boy she keeps running into, regardless of which paths and options she alters. He keeps challenging her and seems to know her somehow. Barrett can't decide if this time loop is a dream come true--or a living nightmare. I love Rachel Lynn Solomon's stories, and I loved this story of Barrett and Miles and youthful adventure and finding themselves and discovering how to be vulnerable and ALL of it. Hook, line, and sinker. Click here for my full review of See You Yesterday. 02 How to Date a Superhero (And Not Die Trying) by Cristina Fernandez How to Date a Superhero (And Not Die Trying) was also one of my overall Very Favorite Bossy 2022 Reads. This is a charming, irresistible young adult story about superheroes, villains, a crushing premed course load--and the everyday bravery involved in being vulnerable with friends and in falling in love. In Cristina Fernandez's book, main protagonist and Columbia premed undergrad Astrid is dating Max Martin, a sweet, nerdy boy she knew back in high school. But when a supervillain breaks into Astrid's apartment to kidnap her--she has organic chemistry to study for and she really does not have time for this!--she has to face facts: It really seems undeniable that Max...is a superhero. Superheroes exist--but Astrid never planned to get involved with one. In fact, she's reminded again that her schedule really doesn't allow time for romantic entanglements in the first place. How to Date a Superhero (And Not Die Trying) is a wonderfully romantic story about finding your own true self, listening to your gut, finding the strength to put yourself on the line for other people, the bravery of falling in love, and the importance of treasuring every day. Cristina Fernandez has crafted an irresistibly charming story that I absolutely adored. For my full review, check out How to Date a Superhero (And Not Die Trying). 03 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. On the eve of her 40th birthday, Alice’s job, apartment, and love life are solidly okay. The only dark spot in her life is her father’s grave illness. When she wakes up the next morning...it’s her 16th birthday again. And it isn't just that being in her teen body again shocks her, or that seeing her high school crush is jarring. It's incredible to see her healthy, vital, young dad. I am a huuuuuuge fan of books that play with time, and Straub offers up all the best parts of a time-travel book in This Time Tomorrow. This Time Tomorrow indulged my own personal desire for sentimentality, while also emphasizing the value of cutting to the heart of a situation without wasting time. The story offers up lots of loving moments as well as perfectly imperfect decisions and mistakes. The story is heartbreaking and lovely in its ultimate insistence that one must let go of the past. If you like books that play with time, you might also enjoy the books on the Greedy Reading List Six Second-Chance, Do-Over, Reliving-Life Stories. Click here for my full review of Remarkably Bright Creatures. 04 The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton This gorgeously written postapocalyptic climate-fiction story offers up a future in which civilization buckles to the power of weather and ocean while certain species thrive in the extreme changes and shifted conditions. In Lily Brooks-Dalton's novel The Light Pirate, pregnant Frida and her husband and stepsons prepare for another catastrophic hurricane bearing down on Florida, one in a string of never-ending storms threatening to destroy the state from the outside in. Her husband Kirby disappears in the heart of the storm to locate the kids, who have run off for some ill-advised exploring. Meanwhile Frida gives birth to a child, Wanda, who she names after the storm, and who has a special gift. This is a beautifully written novel with a haunting postapocalyptic tone and vivid setting. The shadow of real-life global warming and weather changes add to the power of the story, and the touch of magical realism is both essential to the plot and a lovely element. For my full review, check out The Light Pirate. For other postapocalyptic stories I've loved, check out Six Fantastic Dystopian and Postapocalyptic Novels and Six More Fantastic Dystopian and Postapocalyptic Novels. 05 Unlikely Animals by Annie Hartnett In Unlikely Animals, Hartnett's irresistible, oddball tragicomedy with heart, characters explore the limits and solidity of friendship and family loyalty, show mistakes and imperfections, and cling to hope. Emma Starling is a former natural healer whose abilities have disappeared, and she's also a recent med-school dropout. It's not that she couldn't hack medical school--she just didn't go the first day, or the second, or any day after that. Now she's scrabbling to make ends meet in California and drifting a little bit--oh, and she's been telling her parents about fictitious classes she's been attending at the medical school she isn't going to. Emma returns to small-town New Hampshire to care for her father Clive, who is dying. He's also vividly hallucinating small animals and the speaking specter of a long-dead local naturalist, Ernest Harold Baynes, who is advising Clive about how to spend his final days, sometimes through making daring and eccentric decisions. Hartnett evokes a sense of place so strong, the town felt like a character itself. Unlikely Animals is sweet and wonderfully strange, and Hartnett employs a light touch and thoughtful approach to addressing potentially heavy, dark issues. This book made me smile over and over. For my full review, check out Unlikely Animals. 06 Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow was also one of my overall Very Favorite Bossy 2022 Reads. A book about childhood friends making a video game is an unexpected, captivating setup for this wonderfully deep, epic look at creativity, tragedy, and love. Childhood friends Sam Masur and Sadie Green are brilliant, creative collaborators and a wonderfully complementary pair since their chance meeting in childhood--and they're also (sometimes) full of love for each other. Reunited in college, Sam and Sadie come together to try to create a masterpiece: a video game unlike any that has come before. Something immersive, something fascinating, something irresistible. A book about longtime friends creating a video game feels like an unusual vehicle for delivering the beauty and depth Zevin builds into each page. But Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is an epic view of a lifetime of friendship and love, tragedy, renewed faith in others, overcoming incredible hardship...and a captivating account of the making of a video game, love for other games, and the power of games to bring people together. I just loved this book. For my full review, check out Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow.

Samantha Markum's young adult novel is set in a small town in the Florida Keys, with plenty of teen angst, tests of friend loyalty, burst expectations, and realizations. Sure, Juniper and Graham kissed. But they're still friends. Nothing could change that. Right? Only, the lengths Junie went to to keep their summer fling a secret might turn out to be unforgivable. They might also have ruined Graham's life. What with working at her family restaurant and managing the Graham situation, Junie already has enough to worry about. But then her mother's boyfriend and his teen daughter Tallulah move in, suddenly Junie's community theatre production is in danger of being canceled, and the frosty reception she's getting from Graham doesn't seem like it's ending anytime soon. Her father's upcoming visit is the only bright spot in the near future. But things can always get worse. I had a tough time pinning down the tone(s) of the book. Joking drifts into poignancy which morphs into moments of bristled, hurt feelings. Seemingly small issues dramatically affect relationships. On the page the many shifts felt jarring to me and I often found them difficult to follow. Junie would likely be charming, and her joking dialogue and zingers might land more solidly, in person; on the page I found her sometimes grating with her incessant picking at others. I sympathized with Tallulah more than I think I was intended to. I'm always up for some good teen angst, and Markum delivers that wonderfully. I loved the two boy-girl best-friend pairings and was intrigued by the complications of an infant sibling and newly mixed family (Graham's); a seemingly likely future stepsibling and stepparent (Junie); navigation of a new relationship (Milo); and unconditional support and rejection of others' expectations (Lucy). I loved feeling confident that all would work out in some fashion, and ultimately the teen romance here was satisfying and so fun. The Florida Keys setting, the sense of place, and the rhythm of the small town were wonderful. I received an electronic version of this young adult title courtesy of NetGalley and St. Martin's Press. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Samantha Markum is also the author of This May End Badly.

Poet and essayist Ross Gay explores the experiences and explorations that have offered him meaning, depth, connection, understanding, and joy--despite the many challenges and heartbreaking matters that are always at hand. In poet and essayist Ross Gay's Inciting Joy, he aims to explore the joy in our interactions with each other and the avenues by which he himself finds joy. Inciting Joy is about various ways of caring for each other and the human connections that make up a full, rich life. Gay turns his thoughtful eye and sensitive mind to inspiration and fulfillment in essays with topics ranging from skateboarding to masculinity to facing mortality. At times Inciting Joy feels most like stream of consciousness reflections. I enjoy peeking into Gay's thoughtful perspective and reading his often-incisive or poignant commentary--on immersing himself in legendary Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy standup, or the power of monumental cover songs, or the poignancy of creating a community orchard that won't bear fruit for decades. But I didn't connect as fully to some of the experiences Gay shared here--or to the arc of incitements in the book--as I did the essays in his Book of Delights. I find Gay's essays most heartbreaking, beautiful, and penetrating when he digs into specifics of his own particular experiences, rather than his immersion in other media or others' writings. (Side note: I would love a separate list of the many musical, poetic, prose, comedic, and other works Gay references here out of his deep love, fascination, and awe.) I love diving into his vulnerabilities surrounding grief, change, pain, and the fight for freedom from preconceived notions. It is true that we are often implored--or compelled, especially by institutions that have the power to kill us, by which I mean the power to withhold the resources for life and the power to exterminate us--to be grateful. ...you should just be grateful you have a job here. Or you should just be grateful we let you in.... In the final pages of Inciting Joy, Gay is winding down the text when he quotes a line from Toi Derricotte's poem "The Telly Cycle" that feels like the heart of the book: "joy is an act of resistance." Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Ross Gay's Book of Delights is a sunshiny set of thoughts and examinations that's not overly earnest and never corny. I just loved it. You can check out my Bossy review of that book here.

VenCo offers feminist, hard-drinking, foul-mouthed witches bound together by mysterious forces who undergo a quest to secure their survival by fighting a sexy, evil, legendary enemy out to destroy them. Young Lucky St. James is on the verge of snapping--and that's before she finds out she and her increasingly forgetful grandmother are going to be evicted from her Toronto apartment. Then a mysterious power begins calling to her. She breaks into the wall to find a silver spoon, engraved with the word SALEM. Through a series of unexpected events, she is offered a mysterious job at a publishing company...but she and her grandmother are folded into what feels like an oddly tight-knit community of women. The spoon turns out to connect Lucky to a vast network of witches and her ancestors--through a front company, VenCo (an anagram of "coven"). I was excited about the premise of a sleek, powerful company serving as a front for a coven of witches pulling the strings (I admit, I was imagining something like the feel of Hench), but the company was not at all a focus of the book. And the witches' extensive, all-knowing abilities extend to many scenarios, but the gaps in their knowledge and powers leave them stumped and are necessary to drive the story. The tone frequently feels geared toward young readers to me, and I had no trouble predicting the twist regarding the missing witch. But Dimaline's entertaining VenCo offers a sexy and mischievous witch hunter, a raucous girls' road trip, heavy-drinking and foul-mouthed witches, the oozing, dark magic of New Orleans, a steady dose of feminism, and a dramatic showdown. I received a prepublication audiobook version of this book courtesy of Libro.fm and HarperAudio. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Cherie Dimaline is also the author of Empire of Wild, The Marrow Thieves, and other books. If you like stories about witches, you might also like the books on the Greedy Reading Lists Six Wonderfully Witchy Stories and Six More Wonderfully Witchy Stories to Charm You.

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm so excited to be reading the newest book by Curtis Sittenfeld, Romantic Comedy, to be published April 4; I'm reading a young adult fantasy novel of Arthurian legend, Silver in the Bone, by Alexandra Bracken, also scheduled for publication April 4; and I'm reading the first in Adrian Tchaikovsky's space opera trilogy, Children of Time. What are you reading these days, bookworms? 01 Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld I am so so SO excited to read this novel. I love Curtis Sittenfeld's books, and I can't wait to find out what Sittenfeld does with this outstanding premise. Sally Milz is a sketch writer for a late-night comedy show, and she's sworn off love. That is, until she pokes fun at her fellow writer in a sketch about talented but average-looking men dating gorgeous women...and then gorgeous pop sensation and serial model-dater Noah Brewster hosts the show and turns his attentions on Sally. Sittenfeld is also the author of American Wife, You Think It, I'll Say It, Prep, Rodham, and Eligible. I received a prepublication version of this book courtesy of NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group. Romantic Comedy will be published April 4. 02 Silver in the Bone by Alexandra Bracken In Alexandra Bracken's young adult novel Silver in the Bone, sorceresses and dark magical beings populate the underground beneath Boston, but Tamsin Lark is separate from them all, as she was born without magic. But when her last remaining parent disappears without a trace, Tamsin is forced to seek enchanted relics in order to keep herself and her brother Cabell alive. She must determine if a legendary ring from Arthurian times could save Cabell from a curse threatening his life. Alexandra Bracken is also the author of Lore. I received a prepublication edition of this book courtesy of NetGalley, Random House Children's, and Knopf Books for Young Readers. Silver in the Bone is scheduled for publication April 4. 03 Children of Time (Children of Time #1) by Adrian Tchaikovsky If there had been some tiny bead present in the brain of all humans that had told each other, They are like you; that had drawn some thin silk thread of empathy, person to person, in a planet-wide net--what might then have happened? Would there have been the same wars, massacres, persecutions, and crusades? In the first book of Tchaikovsky's space opera trilogy, the last humans once left Earth for the stars...then returned to find a planet terraformed and ready for them to inhabit. But not everything on Earth is as welcoming as it appears.

My very favorite Bossy March reads! I had so many favorite reads this month, I'm saving back two from the past week for April in case I need them! Read on for what I loved reading in March: The Night Ship, historical fiction set in two timelines featuring magical realism; Hello Beautiful, contemporary fiction about a family that breaks and finds its way back together again; I Have Some Questions for You, a boarding-school mystery that's also about race, gender, and power; Weyward, a multi-timeline witchy story; August Kitko and the Mechas from Space, wonderfully wacky science fiction; and Foster, a slim Irish story that captured my heart and that I gave five Bossy stars. 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 Night Ship by Jess Kidd Kidd's dual-timeline historical fiction, based on actual events, shines in its vivid settings, richly imagined characters, sea voyage details, and magical realism elements. The Night Ship is historical fiction with a magical realism undercurrent that's told in two timelines. I didn't realize up front that this is based upon a true story, and now I'm even more deeply haunted. The Night Ship centers around the dilemmas, conflicts, and discoveries of two characters separated by three centuries: Mayken, a Dutch girl on an ocean voyage who is shipwrecked off the coast of Australia, and Gil, an eccentric Australian boy living three hundred years later on the same island, trying to move past trauma and make a home with his grandfather, a stranger to him. Jess Kidd is the author of Things in Jars, a mystery I gave four Bossy stars--and listed in two Greedy Reading Lists, Six Spooky, Gothic Tales and Six Historical Fiction Mysteries Sure to Intrigue You. For my full review, check out The Night Ship. 02 Foster by Claire Keegan This was my favorite read of the month! Keegan offers a gorgeously wrought Irish story of childhood, hope, love, and loss that is spare, lovely, heartbreaking, and that brought me to tears. In Claire Keegan's slim novel Foster, a young girl in Ireland is taken by her unreliable, frequently drunk gambler of a father to spend the hot summer with previously unknown-to-her relatives, a couple living on a rural farm. Her bitter mother has just had another baby, and her various other siblings are fighting for resources. Her home life is hectic, hardscrabble, and emotionally cold, but she has never known life to be any other way. The loving, affectionate household in the country allows her to feel more open and secure than she has before. She has plenty to eat, useful work to do, she learns to love books, she finds laughter. She can't help wondering if she might possibly be here to stay of if she'll be thrust back into her rough home, and which she'd prefer. Summer is ending, and there's a mysterious, unspoken, dark undercurrent at the Kinsellas'. I absolutely adored this book. It's beautiful, spare, and powerful. I was brought to tears at the end. I'm in for all Claire Keegan books forever now and just ordered her story collection Antarctica through my local bookstore, Park Road Books. I loved Claire Keegan's novel Small Things Like These. Click here for my full review of Foster. 03 August Kitko and the Mechas from Space by Alex White White's first Starmetal Symphony installment offers deadly deep-space robots, showcases the power of music, and illustrates how love can persist even in the face of imminent demise. I loved the main characters' fashion, banter, and stubbornness. Gus is a jazz pianist whose biggest hope for the pending end of the world was to play at the most epic goodbye party of all time. After all, the Vanguards, giant, deadly AI robots, are headed from deep space to destroy Earth at any moment. But when the Vanguards arrive, the sudden, brutal ending Gus has envisioned for himself doesn't happen. Instead, Gus and a few other Earthlings are pulled in by a small group of traitorous Vanguards--and tasked with being modified, temporarily melded with the robots, battling other robots--and saving all of humanity. The robots and the imminent demise of the human race that the robots seem perched to enact serve as a catalyst for the human main characters to assess their own purposes and consider what makes life worth living. They forge desperate, deep connections and struggle with loss and an uncertain future, and I loved the impractical, invigorating, stubborn love in the book. I really enjoyed Alex White's Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe, the first in the Salvagers series. Click here for my full review of August Kitko and the Mechas from Space. 04 I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai Makkai's boarding school-set mystery offers depth as it exposes age-old power mismatches; offers young characters agency; explores systemic violence against women; and serves up true-crime fascination while its middle-aged protagonist makes mistakes, seeks justice, and fights for closure. Bodie Kane is a professor and podcaster, and she has left firmly in the past the events of her boarding school years, when her roommate Thalia was murdered--and the school's athletic trainer was convicted of the crime. But when her alma mater invites her to return to teach a course, Bodie is drawn back to the case and realizes its shoddy investigation and its seemingly faulty conclusions. It makes her wonder: who really killed Thalia? I've been eagerly awaiting the release of this story, which I understood to be part whodunit, part boarding school novel--I love a boarding school novel. Yet Makkai's book was also much more. I Have Some Questions for You is an examination of the shocking, broad power of a social media whirlwind, particularly one without basis in facts or merit. It's about our societal obsession with tragedies and mysterious murders, and the tendency of bystanders to insert themselves into speculation and judgment. It's about the infuriating, often tragic power mismatches between men and women, white and Black people, and the wealthy and the poor. Please click here for my full review of I Have Some Questions for You. 05 Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano Ann Napolitano's Hello Beautiful explores family bonds, broken connections, forging through pain, allowing for unconventional routes to happiness, and finding forgiveness. William grew up in a family broken by tragedy, the darkness and trauma of which shaped his childhood and overshadowed everything. He is emotionally closed off and only reliant upon himself. When he meets driven, plan-focused Julia in his freshman year of college, she pulls him into her high-spirited, joy-filled, energetic orbit--and into her loving family, which includes her volatile and no-nonsense mother, her beloved and romantic father, and her three charming sisters, who have always felt like interconnected pieces of a whole. When William's painful history resurfaces, it shakes the entire family with its repercussions. It's not clear whether he and Julia can go on--or if her family will ever be the same. I didn't expect the ways in which various characters redefine their bonds and reconsider their places in the world when they make choices that separate them from each other. The ways in which the family members reconvene were not neat or without pain, but were intriguing. Napolitano is also the author of Dear Edward, a book I adored. For my full review, please check out Hello Beautiful. 06 Weyward by Emilia Hart Emilia Hart's debut novel links women in three timelines through blood and a powerful connection to the natural world as they resist male dominance and cruelty in various witchy ways. In Weyward, Emilia Hart's story of witchcraft and the natural world, she explores three timelines of women connected through the ages by power and by society's historical suspicion of strong women. The majority of the male characters in Weyward are unredeemable buffoons, at best ignorant and rigid and at worst neglectful and cruel--and always holding the power, at least before the Weyward women recognize and develop their own. The story features instances of rape, abandonment, witch hunting, and attempted suicide. Yet Altha, Violet, and Kate persist, struggle against the binds society attempts to put upon them, connect powerfully with the natural world, and are linked by blood ties and echoes of hardship and overcoming. I received an audiobook version of this book courtesy of Libro.fm (Libro.fm supports local bookstores!) and Macmillan Audio. The story is wonderfully narrated by Aysha Kala, Helen Keeley, and Nell Barlow. For my full review, please check out Weyward. If you like witchy stories, you might enjoy the books on my Greedy Reading Lists Six Wonderfully Witchy Stories and Six More Wonderfully Witchy Stories to Charm You.

The third in Jane Harper's Aaron Falk series offers procedural detail, a lush Australian setting, and character development I found heartwarming and immensely satisfying. Jane Harper's The Dry (Aaron Falk #1) is set in small-town Australia with dark secrets and twists and turns, and she offers more of her excellent pacing in Force of Nature (Aaron Falk #2). In Exiles, Jane Harper tells another Aaron Falk story, as Federal Investigator Falk ventures into Australian wine country for the christening of a friend's baby. But the year-old mysterious disappearance of Kim Gillespie, a young woman from the area, hooks Falk and his old friend Raco, and they can't stop asking questions of the fractured group of Kim's friends and family to try to understand potential motives, details, and dark secrets. I love Aaron Falk stories and I loved the twisty interconnectedness of the characters in Exiles. Harper allows for Falk to develop more fully as a character--as a friend, a romantic interest, a father figure, and a detective. Yet she allows for new opportunities for him that felt real and possible, which I again loved. I wasn't ever sure who was responsible for the multiple tragedies at the heart of the story, and the resolutions make sense. Meanwhile Harper explores loyalty, procedural details related to the past and near past, beginnings and endings, and looooove. I'm in for all Jane Harper and all Aaron Falk stories! Exiles was the right mystery at the right time for me. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Harper often sets her stories in an Australian bush setting, and her somewhat spare writing style complements the stark, often brutal backdrop. This often makes her books feel like Westerns to me, as with her book The Lost Man. The Survivors, which is set on the Tasmanian coast, is one of my favorite Harper novels.

I love a novel set in India, and the details of the sparkling promise and darker underpinnings of the city of Hrishipur were a standout in Mukherjee's debut novel of interconnected points of view, fortune, and tragedy. Maneka Roy has temporarily returned to India after six years teaching creative writing in the American Midwest. Her mother has died, and her father and friends have moved from Calcutta to Hrishipur, a booming city full of malls and the promise that all will be newer, bigger, shinier, and better. She struggles to reconcile her past and her memories with the present, the shallow facades with the gritty underpinnings. Mukherjee shapes The Dream Builders by telling the stories from ten different characters, interconnected but varied in class, power, wealth, experience, and hope for the future. The building of a seven-tower Trump property in Hrishipur comes into play in various ways, as poor workers toil on the construction while other local developers fall into obscurity and those wealthy enough to invest in the venture cling to what they perceive as the promise of the height of luxury to come. Characters shift from upstanding to suspect, from envied to emotionally wrecked, from without hope to buoyed by promise--and in some cases, their situations and fortunes are reversed yet again. The interconnectedness was interesting. The intellectual who has spent time in the United States is unversed in the current workings of the city where her father and schoolmates live. The savvy poor work the system the only way available to them. Those who seem without hope fight and claw for a chance, while those who seem to have it all fall to pieces. Mukherjee's The Dream Builders doesn't pretend that neatly wrapped-up loose ends are always possible, and tragedies occur that affect various characters. I felt that some of the more animated female characters sounded like caricatures and almost anime-style in the tones of their flighty exclamations and pronouncements, and I found these instances distracting. I listened to an audiobook edition of this title, which I received courtesy of Libro.fm and Blackstone Publishing as part of the Libro.fm ALC program. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? I'm intrigued by novels with an Indian setting. This is Oindrila Mukherjee's debut novel.

This story within a story is playful and satirical while providing deep issues to contemplate. It's different and captivating and silly and sobering. How could we be readers, how could we be lovers of the impossible and the imagined, and not want to swell up with a new character, pull it onto land from a sea we made, and trick it by disappearing behind our hands? I've been so very excited for this book for ages, and I'm glad to finally be diving in! (See what I did there?) Penelope Schleeman is an English teacher struggling to make ends meet when her feminist novel American Mermaid becomes a bestseller. Penny is hooked on the promise of a big payday and leaves her teaching position in Connecticut to move to Los Angeles and turn her novel into a script. There is nothing mythological about this: Have you ever seen a mother spring up from a table when her child, two floors above, has a fall? Mothers move in the dark at night, while men fumble for the lights. But others' visions for the story involve her eco-warrior main character morphing into a teen beauty wearing a clamshell bra, wiping away her complex hero's dark motivations, and erasing much of what makes the story worth telling. Then mysterious threats and unexplained feminist changes begin appearing within the script, aimed at the writers who know how to make a shallow, profitable movie--but who are picking apart what made her novel sing in the first place. Penny begins to suspect that she has unleashed a power within her story that somehow allows her mermaid character Sylvia to manipulate the real world. Even the posed explanations don't fully hold water (I'm sorry, but I can't stop the puns), making the reader wonder about the nature of multiple mysterious occurrences. "You have to be like your namesake." "Penelope Gruber, my mom's best friend from growing up? I should be an eye doctor outside of Tampa?" "No, the original Penelope. From the Odyssey. Who undoes her own tapestry every night. Never finishes it. The men never get to possess her." This story within a story echoes back and forth with linking elements including explorations of power, femininity, and the weight of perception. The Penny-in-Los-Angeles storyline offers some hilarious (and often cringey) peeks at the world of movie-making as the script writers aim to ruthlessly distill the story to cinematic visuals rather than a tale buoyed (I know, I know) by substance and reflection. The excerpts from the book within a book of American Mermaid show glimpses of the novel that is the basis for Penny's trajectory--while digging into themes of climate change, greed, and dangerous assumptions about ability and motivation. The story culminates in tragedy or triumph, depending on your point of view. "Why does she have to be unconscious when she goes underwater? Why don't we get access to that? Can't a woman retain her clearheadedness even when she's doing battle?" American Mermaid is playful, yet there's a lot of meat on the bones of the often satiric story to dig into. It made me laugh and also made me think. (The imaginary blurbs in the Epilogue purely made me laugh--they're so disturbingly plausible and silly.) This is weird and wonderful, and I hope Langbein has more books in the works. I received an electronic version of this title, published March 21, courtesy of NetGalley and Doubleday. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? You can find other wonderfully oddball books I've read and reviewed here and here.

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading Amy Harmon's Revolutionary War-set historical fiction about a young woman passing as a soldier in the Continental Army, A Girl Called Samson, to be published April 1; I'm reading detective Paul Holes's nonfiction book Unmasked, about his career solving cold cases; and I'm reading Samantha Markum's young adult You Wouldn't Dare, about summer turmoil, young love, and betrayal, to be published March 28. What are you reading these days, bookworms? 01 A Girl Called Samson by Amy Harmon It's 1760, and Puritan-born Deborah Samson lives in Plymouth, Massachusetts. When her father disappears, abandoning the family, young Deborah is sent to serve as an indentured servant. She's desperate for adventure and freedom. As the Revolutionary War looms, Deborah's large frame allows her to pass as a male and join the Continental Army. She is thrust into danger, surrounded by brutal death--and she might also find love in an unforgiving setting. Amy Harmon is also the author of Where the Lost Wander, What the Wind Knows, and other books. This book will be published April 1, 2023. 02 Unmasked: My Life Solving America's Cold Cases by Paul Holes and Robin Gaby Fisher I have caught some of the most notorious killers of the twenty-first century and brought justice and closure for their victims and families. I want to tell you about a lifetime solving these cold cases, from Laci Peterson to Jaycee Dugard to the Pittsburg homicides to, yes, my twenty-year-long hunt for the Golden State Killer. From Paul Holes, the detective who found the Golden State Killer, comes a nonfiction work about tracking cold cases--and the rewards and tolls of a lifetime of the obsessive search. 03 You Wouldn't Dare by Samantha Markum Sure, Juniper and Graham kissed. But they're still friends. Nothing could change that. Right? Only, the lengths Junie went to to keep their summer fling a secret might turn out to be unforgivable. They might also have ruined Graham's life. What with working at her family restaurant and managing the Graham situation, Junie already has enough to worry about. But then her mother's boyfriend and his teen daughter Tallulah move in, suddenly Junie's community theatre production is in danger of being canceled, and the frosty reception she's getting from Graham doesn't seem like it's ending anytime soon. Her father's upcoming visit is the only bright spot in the near future. But things can always get worse. I received an electronic version of this young adult title, scheduled for publication March 28, courtesy of NetGalley and St. Martin's Press.

Six More Four-Star (and Up) Bossy Historical Fiction Reads Historical fiction is one of my very favorite genres, and I loved my historical fiction reads in 2022. I posted last month about Six Four-Star Historical Fiction Reads I Loved Last Year, but I had six more favorites to share...and here they are! And four historical fiction books were on my overall favorites list for last year: The Last Bookshop in London, Wingwalkers, The Rose Code, and Our Woman in Moscow. You might want to check out all the titles on My Very Favorite Bossy 2022 Reads for my very favorite reads from the past year. If you've read any of these, I'd love to hear what you think! I'd also love to hear: what are some of your favorite historical fiction reads? You can click here for other historical fiction books I've reviewed on Bossy Bookworm. 01 Horse by Geraldine Brooks Geraldine Brooks's Horse digs into issues of race across three timelines, linked by a special bond between an enslaved man and a horse in 1850s Kentucky. In Horse, Geraldine Brooks links three periods in time: 1850 Kentucky, where an enslaved groom and a foal forge a bond and an itinerant painter captures their likenesses; 1954 New York City, in which a gallery owner becomes obsessed with the mid-nineteenth-century painting; and 2019 Washington, DC, when two historians are linked by their interest in a record-breaking stallion from the past. Horse takes place primarily in the 1850s timeline, as we see Jarrett grow up enslaved and dedicated to his horse Darley (later renamed Lexington in a change of control--of both horse and man). Jarrett builds a complex sense of self, linked to the horse and enjoying moments of autonomy related to training and care, yet ultimately trapped without any say in his present or future and subject to all manner of cruelties, both careless and intentional. But Brooks also builds rich stories in each of the other interconnected timelines, as we see privileged Martha Jackson dive into the art world and, decades later, the fraught attraction between Jess and Theo. Horse is, on the surface, about the deep bond between Jarrett and Lexington. But issues of race and their inextricable involvement in our nation's history are really the bedrock for the book. Based on the true story of the thoroughbred Lexington, Horse delves into fascinating, complicated aspects of science, art, and race as it spans decades. For my full review, check out Horse. 02 Revelations by Mary Sharratt Sharratt offers vivid historical fiction details of the everyday life of Margery of Kempe, a mother of fourteen whose radiant visions led her to stun medieval British society with her vow of celibacy and ambitious pilgrimage halfway around the world. In Revelations, Sharratt offers an immersive historical fiction novel that includes thoroughly researched, fascinating details of medieval life. The story is built upon the framework of facts from the lives of Julian of Norwich and what is known of the life of our main protagonist, Margery Kempe. Our main protagonist puzzles and angers those around her by challenging the limitations of what women might do or say in the year 1400, and the Church is particularly galled and upset by the audacity of such a woman to have blindingly beautiful visions of Christ and to speak of Jesus's love. Sharratt injects an undercurrent of what feels like modern feminism in her first-person story. I underlined many, many meaningful passages in Revelations, and I found exploring this time through Margery's imagined point of view to be fascinating, particularly the everyday details of life at the time. For my full review, check out Revelations. 03 The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid Taylor Jenkins Reid's novel offers a dual timeline, immersive Old Hollywood detail, a forbidden love, and revelations and long-held secrets that seem destined to shake up everything for our modern-day main protagonist. Evelyn Hugo is a reclusive, extremely famous Old Hollywood movie star, and she's finally ready to tell the story of her life--all the heartbreak, career maneuvering, mistakes, joys, victories, the sordid details of her many marriages, and the story of her one true love. She plucks Monique Grant, a promising young magazine writer, out of relative obscurity for the writing job, offering incredibly lucrative terms and making demands about having the biography released only after her death. Monique can't figure out why she's been trusted to tell Evelyn's story, nor does she understand the multiple allusions Evelyn makes regarding her certainty that Monique will come to hate her by the end of her roller coaster of a tale. As is often the case for me with stories structured around dual timelines, I felt more invested in one time period than the other--in this case, I was entranced by the immersive Old Hollywood era of the book more so than in the modern bookends of Monique's documentation of Evelyn's stories. Jenkins Reid focuses much of the page time here on the fascinating dynamics of Evelyn's romantic and professional relationships, which were without question my favorite aspect of the book. This was a fast, captivating read. Check out my full review of this book here. 04 Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus Garmus's debut is witty and smart, heartbreaking, infuriating, and lovely. Lessons in Chemistry explores deep issues, conflict, and dark times, yet offers hope and joy. Has anyone heard of this book? I KID. No other book seemed to come up in conversation as frequently last year with my fellow book lovers as this one. Elizabeth Zott has worked hard in her scientific pursuits, often as the only female in the room, either dismissed or harassed because of her gender. Now Zott is a chemist in 1960s California on an otherwise all-male staff at Hastings Research Institute. After twists and turns, momentous changes, and several years, Elizabeth is a single mother who becomes...the star of a hit televised cooking show. But she's not only demonstrating recipes. She's using science to inspire the upending of the status quo for her largely female audience. Females are overshadowed, abused, and generally wronged throughout the book, a reflection of realistic, historic treatment. But there is some eventual revenge that I found deeply satisfying. This cover style says "light fiction" to me, but this book addresses deeper issues--of what it means to be a family, of secrets and vulnerability, of constricting gender roles, of loss and love, and of the powerful shattering of expectations. Garmus's characters test themselves and others, shy away from connection, dive into love, question the meaning of life, embrace or eschew religion, and cleave together in heartbreakingly beautiful, unexpected ways. I loved this. For my full review, check out Lessons in Chemistry. 05 The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn The Diamond Eye is historical fiction about a real World War II figure, an unassuming Russian woman who fought the Nazis and earned the nickname Lady Death. Kate Quinn tells the World War II tale of a quiet bookworm who becomes history's deadliest female sniper. (Check, check, and check!) In 1937, history student Ludmila Pavlichenko takes shooting lessons in order to teach her son a skill his absent father might otherwise have taken on--and she finds that she's got a knack for the skill. After Hitler's invasion of Russia and the Ukraine, Mila, along with so many others, enlists to fight alongside countrymen and -women and fight back the Nazis. Surmounting challenge after challenge, Mila ultimately becomes a sniper trainer and a lethal hunter of Nazis. Quinn shapes Mila's story by sharing scenes of love and terrible loss, as well as immersive Russian landscape descriptions. She weaves in interesting aspects of the time such as the contrast between active female roles in the Russian military and the more peripheral positions women could hold in the United States military at the time. Kate Quinn is a master of historical fiction and is the author of the fantastic titles The Huntress, The Rose Code, and The Alice Network. Click here for my full review of The Diamond Eye. 06 The Fire and the Ore by Olivia Hawker Hawker offers irresistible details of daily life and historical elements that add vivid layers to this story of Utah Territory, Mormonism, and strong women in the mid-nineteenth century. In The Fire and the Ore, Olivia Hawker tells a tale of the interconnected lives of three women in Utah Territory in 1857 and of the burgeoning Mormon faith in that place at that time. The story is inspired in part by Hawker's own ancestors' experiences. Much of the story is set on the unforgiving trail west to Utah (and if you're looking for a reason to feel thankful for comforts like shelter, clothing, and food, this section should do the trick). Tamar, Jane, and Tabitha become linked by complicated connections to one man. When the US Army invades Utah and challenges Mormon leaders late in the book, the women must flee into the desert to survive. While carving out an existence in the stark landscape, they take stock of where their lives might lead them--whether banded together or seeking their own individual luck. The author's note explains the historical events at play and illuminates the ways in which Hawker's historical fiction explores aspects of real-life religious beliefs, plural marriage, governmental involvement, community resistance, and more. Click here for my full review of The Fire and the Ore.

William Kent Krueger's writing is beautiful, and J.D. Jackson reads the audiobook wonderfully, but I felt impatient with the focus on logistics and the bullheaded man who ignored the coming flood and endangered the lives of countless others. In William Kent Krueger's audio novella The Levee, four men in a rowboat struggle to rescue a family trapped by the rising waters of the Mississippi after a storm. The river balloons to 80 feet wide, and three convicts and their leader arrive at the ancestral home to rescue the family--but not all of them want to leave. Secrets and loyalties swirl as the levee threatens to give, flooding the land. In the author's note, William Kent Krueger explains that The Levee was inspired by William Faulkner‘s story The Old Man and is set at the beginning of the worst flood in American history. (In 1927, the Mississippi flooded 27,000 square miles, becoming 80 miles wide south of Memphis and 30 feet deep in places.) The Levee is largely about the buildup to the flood, and it centers specifically on the attempted rescue of a family from their home, Ballymore. The widower patriarch of the family is stubborn and refuses to leave despite the rising waters. His prideful focus on material objects and on his societal standing seems perfectly showcased by the fact that the grand house he takes such pride in is built below the levee, out of sight of the nearby river--yet it is poised for destruction by the forces he is willfully ignoring. His devoted daughter is determined to stick by him, and the family's servants stay in order to keep an eye on the daughter. Meanwhile we learn about the motivations and secrets of those in the boat full of would-be rescuers, and we see nefarious plots unfold aimed at theft and escape. Krueger's writing is beautifully spare, but I felt impatient with the entire enterprise. The men's efforts are aimed at rescuing a bullheaded man who comes off as maddeningly foolish, while multiple others willingly put their own lives in danger to support him. There’s a lot of page time spent on figuring out the potential logistics of shoring up the levee, which slowed the pacing further. I didn’t feel character connections between the characters or a connection to them as a reader. I did find interesting the examination of unpredictability of both man and nature, which the author mentioned in his author's note, as well as the exploration of the immense power of weather and water. I received an audiobook edition of this title courtesy of Libro.fm and Simon & Schuster Audio Originals as part of the Libro.fm ALC program. The story is narrated wonderfully by J.D. Jackson. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? William Kent Krueger is also the author of Ordinary Grace and This Tender Land.

Ann Napolitano's Hello Beautiful explores family bonds, broken connections, forging through pain, allowing for unconventional routes to happiness, and finding forgiveness. William grew up in a family broken by tragedy, the darkness and trauma of which shaped his childhood and overshadowed everything. He is emotionally closed off and only reliant upon himself. When he meets driven, plan-focused Julia in his freshman year of college, she pulls him into her high-spirited, joy-filled, energetic orbit--and into her loving family, which includes her volatile and no-nonsense mother, her beloved and romantic father, and her three charming sisters, who have always felt like interconnected pieces of a whole. William's entry into the Padavano family dynamic shifts things irrevocably, and he finds himself frequently in wonder at the deep connections shared by Julia's siblings and parents. It begins to seem that he and Julia are better suited on paper than in reality, but who is William to say what a relationship should feel like, after all, and meanwhile, don't William and the relationship tick off some of Julia's key boxes on her life's checklist? When William's painful history resurfaces, it shakes the entire family with its repercussions. It's not clear whether he and Julia can go on--or if her family will ever be the same. This is a book that quietly builds to a deep crisis for Edward, Julia, and all of the Padavanos. Napolitano takes the reader through a series of disastrous events and through sometimes unconventional routes to picking up the pieces. The group experiences rifts that none of the characters could have imagined, yet the extended family manages to go on. I didn't expect the ways in which various characters redefine their bonds and reconsider their places in the world when they make choices that separate them from each other. The ways in which the family members reconvene were not neat or without pain, but were intriguing. The book is largely about rejecting society's expectations, learning to know yourself, and allowing for forgiveness. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Napolitano is also the author of Dear Edward, a heartbreaking and lovely book I adored. I received an electronic version of this title courtesy of NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group.

Keegan offers a gorgeously wrought Irish story of childhood, hope, love, and loss that is spare, lovely, heartbreaking, and that brought me to tears. “You don’t ever have to say anything," he says. "Always remember that as a thing you need never do. Many’s the man lost much just because he missed a perfect opportunity to say nothing.” In Claire Keegan's slim novel Foster, a young girl in Ireland is taken by her unreliable, frequently drunk gambler of a father to spend the hot summer with previously unknown-to-her relatives, a couple living on a rural farm. Her bitter mother has just had another baby, and her various other siblings are fighting for resources. Her home life is hectic, hardscrabble, and emotionally cold, but she has never known life to be any other way. It’s a hard feeling but as we walk along I begin to settle and let the difference between my life at home and the one I have here be. The loving, affectionate household in the country allows her to feel more open and secure than she has before. She has plenty to eat, useful work to do, she learns to love books, she finds laughter. She can't help wondering if she might possibly be here to stay of if she'll be thrust back into her rough home, and which she'd prefer. Summer is ending, and there's a mysterious, unspoken, dark undercurrent at the Kinsellas'. I absolutely adored this book. It's beautiful, spare, and powerful. I was brought to tears at the end. I'm in for all Claire Keegan books forever now and just ordered her story collection Antarctica through my local bookstore. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? I loved Claire Keegan's novel Small Things Like These, about Irish-small-town coal salesman Bill Furlong. Each of his small choices build to a crescendo of spilled secrets and an upended decades-old system of cruelties and greed. You can check out my Bossy review of Small Things Like These here. Keegan is also the author of the story collections Antarctica and Walk the Blue Fields as well as the novella The Forester's Daughter, all of which I plan to read.

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading Jane Harper's newest Australian-set Aaron Falk mystery, Exiles; I'm listening to a Libro.fm audiobook of The Dream Builders, Oindrila Mukherjee's story of the intersection of old and new India; and I'm reading a prepublication edition of American Mermaid, Julia Langbein's story of an English teacher who moves to Los Angeles to adapt her surprise feminist bestseller into a movie--without losing her integrity or being derailed by mysterious occurrences surrounding the whole situation. What are you reading these days, bookworms? 01 Exiles by Jane Harper Jane Harper's The Dry (Aaron Falk #1) is set in small-town Australia with dark secrets and twists and turns, and she offers more of her excellent pacing in Force of Nature (Aaron Falk #2). In Exiles, Jane Harper tells another Aaron Falk story, as Federal Investigator Falk ventures into Australian wine country for the christening of a friend's baby. But the year-old mysterious disappearance of Kim Gillespie, a young woman from the area, hooks Falk and his old friend Raco, and they can't stop asking questions of the fractured group of Kim's friends and family to try to understand potential motives, details, and dark secrets. Harper often sets her stories in an Australian bush setting, and her somewhat spare writing style complements the stark, often brutal backdrop. This often makes her books feel like Westerns to me, as with her book The Lost Man. But The Survivors, which is set on the Tasmanian coast, is my favorite Harper novel so far. 02 The Dream Builders by Oindrila Mukherjee Maneka Roy has temporarily returned to India after six years teaching creative writing in the American Midwest. Her mother has died, and her father and friends have moved from Calcutta to Hrishipur, a booming city full of malls and the promise that all will be newer, bigger, shinier, and better than India has ever known it. Maneka struggles to reconcile her past and her memories with the present and the glittery facades with their gritty underpinnings. Mukherjee shapes The Dream Builders by telling the stories from ten different characters, interconnected but varied in class, power, wealth, experience, and hope for the future. I received an audiobook edition of this title courtesy of Libro.fm and Blackstone Publishing as part of the Libro.fm ALC program. The story is narrated by Soneela Nankani. 03 American Mermaid by Julia Langbein I've been so very excited for this book for ages, and I'm glad to finally be diving in! (See what I did there?) Penelope Schleeman is an English teacher struggling to make ends meet when her feminist novel American Mermaid becomes a bestseller. She's hooked on the promise of a big payday and leaves her teaching position to move to Los Angeles and turn her novel into a script. But others' visions for the story involve her eco-warrior main character morphing into a teen beauty wearing a clamshell bra. Then mysterious threats begin appearing within the script, aimed at the writers who are picking apart what made her story sing in the first place. I received an electronic version of this title, scheduled for publication March 21, courtesy of NetGalley and Doubleday.

Six More Great Bossy Science Fiction Reads The Obsessive Wrap-Up of Favorite Reads continues! A while back I posted about Six Four-Star (and Up) Science Fiction Reads I Loved Last Year, and here are six more of my favorite science fiction reads from the past year. I've posted roundups of favorites each Friday in 2023--check them out! And you can click here for My Very Favorite Bossy 2022 Reads. If you've read any of these, I'd love to hear what you think! You can click here for other science fiction and fantasy books that I've reviewed on Bossy Bookworm. I'd love to hear: what are some of your favorite science fiction reads? 01 Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves by Meg Long I was hooked by Meg Long's debut young adult science fiction novel about tough young Sena, her skittish fighting wolf Iska, and their desperate journey across the ice. In Meg Long's Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves, young Sena has lost both of her mothers to the brutal sled races on her frozen planet. Since then she's had to be scrappy, creative, and above all, tough. When she angers a local warlord and becomes eager to escape her world, she's relieved to secure promises of transport out--but the earnest scientists who would help her have one condition: she must help them take part in the planet's most infamous sled race. In Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves, Long offers an intriguing story of brutal conditions, determined survival, hard-earned loyalty, grudging friendship, and a stubborn overcoming of various vivid dangers. I was hooked by Long's world-building, her evocative, immersive descriptions of the cold climate, and by tough, grumpy Sena, who has a big heart and a soft spot for Iska, her personality counterpart in wolf form. For my full review, check out Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves. The book's sequel is Swift the Storm, Fierce the Flame. You might also like the books on the Greedy Reading List Six Books with Cold, Wintry Settings to Read by the Fire. 02 Tell Me an Ending by Jo Harkin Harkin's fascinating debut speculative fiction considers a memory clinic that erases and reinstates memories at clients' requests, the impact of painful experiences on building the self, and the potential repercussions of tinkering with your recall of the past. In Jo Harkin's debut novel world, many have elected to have the company Nepenthe remove traumatic or upsetting memories through a relatively new procedure. The key memory and all connected elements are eliminated, presumably allowing these individuals to plow back into their lives unencumbered by upsetting past mistakes or experiences. But some clients are beginning to have flashes of their erased memory, "traces" that disturb and confuse them, and the company providing the service seems to be keeping secret some highly negative effects on some patients. Secrets and lies swirl throughout this book and the plot zings along. Harkin digs into her characters and their brokenness, heartache, and mistakes, but also their love, joy, resilience and ability to transcend tragedy, and persistent hope. I love fiction about memory and how it shapes us, and I thought Harkin's Tell Me an Ending was wonderful. I was captivated by the various situations, secrets, how memory is connected to a sense of self, and the complicated web of memories, experience, personality, and hopes and dreams that make us who we are. Please click here for my full review of Tell Me an Ending. 03 The Humans by Matt Haig The Humans was one of my Bossy favorite books of the whole year last year. The Humans is about mathematics, aliens, and shape shifters, but at its heart it's about a hurting family and an unimaginable, shocking, heartwarming chance at a new beginning. This was fascinating, sometimes funny, thoughtful, and lovely. In Matt Haig's The Humans, an extraterrestrial arrives on Earth with a mission: to kill the man who has achieved a mathematical discovery considered beyond what is appropriate for humans and for the planet. Horrified by the appearances of the humans, confused by their disgusting obsessions with wearing clothing and drinking coffee, and pitying of their limited brain capacities and lack of special powers, the visitor nevertheless assumes the appearance of Professor Andrew Martin and clumsily takes on the man's life for a time. Through New Andrew's alien eyes we see the contradictory, beautifully messy, infuriating, wondrous aspects of the human condition. Haig handles the complexities and challenges of the bizarre situation with heart, some wry humor, and with thoughtfulness. The Humans is funny, strange, deep, and lovely. I loved it. Click here for my full review of The Humans. Haig is also the author of The Midnight Library, How to Stop Time, and Reasons to Stay Alive. 04 Nightwatch on the Hinterlands by K. Eason In Eason's science fiction mystery, an unlikely pair who get on each other's nerves work together to determine who is responsible for a puzzling murder and other strange occurrences that threaten their world. In K. Eason's science fiction mystery Nightwatch on the Hinterlands, a templar, Iari, and a spy, Gaer, have built a somewhat formal working relationship. Neither is quite sure where the other's loyalties begin and end, nor are they intimately acquainted with the other's history or personal motivations. They begin to forge a stronger bond (despite how irritating they each find the other), but there's no time to waste, because high-stakes danger is quickly building to a crisis point around them. Searching for the truth leads the unlikely duo on a search to uncover who is controlling a riev that shouldn't have been capable of killing, but did--and they're led to someone with nefarious goals that go much farther and are much more elaborately imagined than one isolated killing. I think this was because of personal timing and my reading-during-vacation distraction circumstances, but I did have ongoing trouble following the logistics and political machinations and motivations here. It didn't matter, though, because I was most invested in and engaged by the interplay of characters--particularly the grudging friendship and grumpily built but rock-solid loyalty between Iari and Gaer. And I was wholly charmed by the rievs (former battle robots) who mysteriously show sentience and surprising preferences for personal pronouns, and who are set on reinventing themselves in drastic fashion. Click here for my full review of Nightwatch on the Hinterlands. 05 Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel In this nested story that spans centuries, Mandel explores a pandemic, moon colonization, the universal connection of music, the temptation to change the past, portals and time loops, loyalty, fear, love, and wonder. In this science fiction novel, Mandel plays with time and time travel as well as mysteries surrounding what may be a portal linking individuals through time. Mandel explores an emerging pandemic in a future with a colonized moon, considers the universal connection of music, and digs into the difficulty and danger in changing the past. But all of these players and times feel mainly to be in place to serve as a structure for our true main protagonist, Gaspary, and we see the most depth and development and change; loyalty and love and grief; wonder and danger; resignation and hope in his portion of the story. This was where I was captivated and delighted and emotionally engaged. Do you like books that play with time? You might like the books I list on the Greedy Reading Lists Six Second-Chance, Do-Over, Reliving-Life Stories or Six Riveting Time-Travel Escapes or these Bossy reviews of books that play with time. Click here for my review of Mandel's Station Eleven. And click here for my full review of Sea of Tranquility. 06 How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu Nagamatsu's science fiction centers around a resurgence of an ancient Arctic plague. These interconnected stories are odd, fascinating, and sometimes panic-inducing, yet they offer glimmers of hope. I was intrigued by all of it. It's 2030, and an archaeologist in the Arctic Circle discovers a body perfectly preserved in the permafrost. His personal situation is complicated by his grief for his recently deceased daughter, and he aims to continue the research work she began. But the young woman he has found may have died of an ancient virus, and thawing the body for study could unleash the long-eradicated illness all over again. The stories that make up How High We Go in the Dark are steeped in death and in coming to terms with mortality while fighting for answers. Yet deep connections are forged--in life-or-death moments throughout the book, as well as within the collective goal of saving humanity--and in some cases these bonds feel deeper than marriages or long-held relationships. As the virus passes like a whirlwind through societies and nations around the globe, Nagamatsu's How High We Go in the Dark highlights interpersonal connections spanning centuries--and extending as far as the stars. Click here for my full review of How High We Go in the Dark.

The more somber tone of book three and the focus on logistics feel appropriate as the recent graduates of the Scholomance desperately try to save everyone, friends and foes alike. A Deadly Education is the first in Novik's Scholomance series, which begins the story of a magical high school with two routes out: a grueling path to graduation and beyond or, just as likely, death. Danger and darkness lurk around every corner for grumpy, powerful El and her classmates. The second book of the Scholomance is The Last Graduate, which builds on book one's dark humor, dangerous forces, and the irresistible attraction between El and Orion. I loved it so much, I really tried to slow down and savor it. In The Golden Enclaves, the third installment of the series, an allied force of students faces the aftermath of their ambitious book-two plan to save the world. Getting out of school alive was meant to be the solution to all their problems. But El and Orion's plan didn't exactly go off without a hitch. Now El and Orion are separated; greed, power plays, and corruption are as present in the worldwide magical enclaves as ever; and El is afraid of the boundless dark power within herself, even as she recognizes a similar danger in another key character. With everything going wrong, El and her friends must do the unthinkable yet again: they must find their way back into the school they fought desperately for years to escape. The fractured nature of the fight in The Golden Enclaves meant that I didn't get to spend extended page time with some of my most favorite aspects of the series--the Orion/El relationship, El's grumbly reflections, and the dark-playful tone of the effortless power El and Orion wielded in prior books. Much of the book is spent with El trying to figure out what's going on--who is behind attacks on the enclaves? Who might be allies for her, if anyone? What can be done about the enclave structure--and what can upend the evil holding up the enclaves' power, without making things worse? This didn't make The Golden Enclaves the most darkly fun, deeply emotional, or captivatingly paced book in the series for me. But I'm fully invested in this series. And Novik offers touching moments when surprising truths about El's, Orion's, and their parents' histories and motivations are continually revealed. The largely somber tone of the third book in the series appropriately reflects these kids' growing up and facing challenges more complex than they could have imagined. The young people feel the weight of the world on their shoulders--and it really does seem to be up to them to save everyone after all. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Novik is also the author of other fantasy novels featuring main protagonists I love: Uprooted and Spinning Silver as well as the first two in this Scholomance series, A Deadly Education and The Last Graduate. I feel compelled to also mention that Novik has a series of nine books about dragons, the Temeraire series. The dragons talk and are haughty and greedy and intensely loyal to their riders, Novik explores world politics and the intricacies of nations' relationships and airborne dragon battles within the books' alternate history, and the human protagonists are wonderfully faulted and fantastic.

Emilia Hart's debut novel links women in three timelines through blood and a powerful connection to the natural world as they resist male dominance and cruelty in various witchy ways. In Weyward, Emilia Hart's story of witchcraft and the natural world, she explores three timelines of women connected through the ages by power and by society's historical suspicion of strong women. In 1619, Altha is awaiting her trial for the murder of a local farmer, and she'll need to use all of her powers to evade execution. In 1942, as World War II disrupts the world, Violet is stuck in her family's ramshackle estate when she discovers an intriguing link to the past. In 2019, Kate flees an abusive relationship in London for the safety of the crumbling cottage she's inherited from her aunt--and learns of her ancestors' persecution in the witch hunts of the 17th century. The majority of the male characters in Weyward are unredeemable buffoons, at best ignorant and rigid and at worst neglectful and cruel--and always holding the power, at least before the Weyward women recognize and develop their own. The story features instances of rape, abandonment, witch hunting, and attempted suicide. Yet Altha, Violet, and Kate persist, struggle against the binds society attempts to put upon them, connect powerfully with the natural world, and are linked by blood ties and echoes of hardship and overcoming. I received an audiobook version of this book courtesy of Libro.fm (Libro.fm supports local bookstores!) and Macmillan Audio. The story is wonderfully narrated by Aysha Kala, Helen Keeley, and Nell Barlow. Weyward is Emilia Hart's debut novel. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? I love a witchy book! The female characters are often strong, and there's often lush historical fiction detail. If you like these stories too, you might enjoy the books on my Greedy Reading Lists Six Wonderfully Witchy Stories and Six More Wonderfully Witchy Stories to Charm You.

Harding bases his slim historical fiction novel This Other Eden on a real-life, racially integrated island off the coast of Maine, tipping his eccentric characters farther and farther toward tragedy as mainland men motivated by greed aim to destroy the community. Back in 1792, a formerly enslaved man Benjamin Honey and his Irish wife found a safe haven on an island off the coast of Maine. A century later, the Honeys' descendants and their diverse neighbors--some have escaped from trouble, while others are seeking peace and a simple life--make up a hardscrabble community that must scratch and claw to subsist. Yet they remain on their island, safe from the judgment and danger of the mainland. When a schoolteacher-turned-missionary arrives to educate the island's children, he draws the attention of eugenics-focused authorities, who set out to forcibly evacuate the island. The title of Harding's book comes from Shakespeare's Richard II: This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, This other Eden, demi-paradise, This fortress built by Nature for herself The secluded community in the book is like a large family, dependent on only each other, and they are focused on nature and on subsisting independently. The story is inspired by the real-life, formerly integrated Malaga Island off the coast of Maine (in the book it is called Apple Island). One fair-skinned boy is sent to the mainland in an effort to better his circumstances and so that he may take art classes, with his teacher's unspoken hope that he will pass for white, but his past--about which he is guileless--threatens to destroy his future due to others' rash assessments. Harding meanwhile offers a quickly unraveling series of events on the island as government officials impose destructive mainland judgments and values on the island's inhabitants. The story tips its island characters farther and farther toward tragedy, then plunges headfirst into the various heartbreaking consequences of mainland strangers' decisions, cold cruelties, and greedy motivations, culminating in the forceful removal of the peaceful Apple Island inhabitants. Harding's language is beautiful as it evokes the harsh landscape and the characters' connection to the weather, the terrain, and the natural world. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? I received an audiobook version of this book courtesy of Libro.fm (Libro.fm supports local bookstores!) and Recorded Books, Inc. The book is wonderfully narrated by Edoardo Ballerini. Paul Harding is also the author of Tinkers.

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm listening to William Kent Krueger's historical fiction novella set on the banks of the overflowing Mississippi, The Levee; I'm reading a witchy tale set in 1762 Brittany, The Great Witch of Brittany by Louisa Morgan (author of A Secret History of Witches); and I'm reading the upcoming Hello Beautiful, fiction about trying to overcome past trauma and tragedy by Dear Edward author Ann Napolitano. What are you reading these days, bookworms? 01 The Levee by William Kent Krueger In William Kent Krueger's audio novella The Levee, four men in a rowboat struggle to rescue a family trapped by the rising waters of the Mississippi after a storm. The river balloons to 80 feet wide, and three convicts and their leader arrive at the ancestral home to rescue the family--but not all of them want to leave. Secrets and loyalties swirl as the levee threatens to give, flooding the town. William Kent Krueger is also the author of Ordinary Grace and This Tender Land. I received an audiobook edition of this title courtesy of Libro.fm and Simon & Schuster Audio Originals as part of the Libro.fm ALC program. The story is narrated by J.D. Jackson. 02 The Great Witch of Brittany by Louisa Morgan It's 1762 in Brittany, and there hasn't been an Orchière witch born in generations. Ursule Orchière watches her mother fooling local women with her false spells, using her family history to pretend legitimacy. But as Ursule comes of age, real sparks of power begin to emerge. Will she be the embodiment of her family's long-held hopes and potential? Louisa Morgan is also the author of A Secret History of Witches. You might also like the books on the Greedy Reading List Six Wonderfully Witchy Stories and Six More Wonderfully Witchy Stories to Charm You. 03 Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano William grew up in a family broken by tragedy, the darkness and trauma of which shaped his childhood and overshadowed everything. When he meets Julia in his freshman year of college, she pulls him into her high-spirited, joy-filled, energetic orbit--and pulls him into her loving family, including her two charming sisters. When William's painful history resurfaces, it threatens everything. Can he and Julia go on--and will her family ever be the same? Napolitano is also the author of Dear Edward, a heartbreaking and lovely book I adored. I received an electronic version of this title, scheduled for publication March 14, courtesy of NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group.

Six More Favorite Fiction Reads I listed Six of My Favorite Fiction Reads from Last Year in this Greedy Reading List. In today's post I highlight six more of my favorite fiction reads from last year. I read and loved so many books in the past year, I can't resist more more more roundups of my favorites. At this point you might be asking: Will I spend a whole year of Fridays reliving the glory days of my past year of reading? Well, maybe! I also recently posted about: Six Four-Star Mystery Reads I Loved Last Year Six More Four-Star Mysteries I Loved Last Year Six Four-Star Historical Fiction Reads I Loved Last Year Six Four-Star (And Up) Science Fiction Reads I Loved Last Year, and Six of My Favorite Memoir Reads Last Year And check out My Very Favorite Bossy 2022 Reads for my overall favorite reads from last year. If you've read any of the books mentioned here, I'd love to hear what you think! I'd also love to hear about some of your favorite fiction reads, from last year or from this one so far. 01 True Biz by Sara Nović True Biz is a coming-of-age story, a beginner's primer on Deaf culture, and a captivating novel about romance, disappointment, fury, and loyalty. I happily read it in one sitting. Students at the residential River Valley School for the Deaf are trying to get through finals, maintain teenage crushes on each other, and make the most of living out from under their parents' roofs. But the hearing headmistress February (a CODA--a child of deaf adults), the rebellious new transfer student who doesn't know ASL, Charlie, and teacher's pet (and Deaf royalty in the area) Austin find that their pasts, current struggles, and priorities link them together in unexpected ways. True Biz is a coming-of-age story that also explores the importance society places on language; past and present political and social pushes concerning American Sign Language, cochlear implants, and Deaf culture; and above all, the essential role of community. The ASL-focused illustrations and information could have been dry but were illuminating instead. I learned about Deaf history, culture, and the politics that have disrupted and damaged those in the Deaf community while immersing myself in True Biz. True Biz was fascinating, and I devoured it in one sitting. Click here for my full review of True Biz. 02 Doctors and Friends by Kimmery Martin Through various doctors' and medical experts' points of view, Martin paints a picture of a worldwide pandemic, crises and impossible situations, and powerful, sustaining friendships. Kimmery Martin's Doctors and Friends begins with a group of seven women, friends since medical school, reuniting in Spain. But as they catch up on each other's careers and personal lives, explore, eat, drink, and celebrate, a global pandemic begins to take shape. I was hooked on the medical details and the behind-the-scenes medical experiences of the experts. The various ways Martin made the pandemic feel personal to the story--as with the account of Patient Zero's experience and his two degrees of separation from the main characters--added to the urgent feeling. Doctors and Friends was written before the Covid-19 pandemic and published in the fall of 2021. In her author's note, Martin explains her extensive research into pandemics, and clarifies that her experiences with the real-life pandemic shaped only minor edits to her story (for example, she added Zoom as a meeting structure). For my full review, check out Doctors and Friends. 03 This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub This Time Tomorrow was also one of my overall Very Favorite Bossy 2022 Reads. Straub offers a story that plays with time, explores sentimental moments, offers do-overs, and sweeps the reader into a love-filled, hopeful heartbreaker of a tale. On the eve of her 40th birthday, Alice’s job, apartment, and love life are solidly okay. The only dark spot in her life is her father’s grave illness. When she wakes up the next morning...it’s her 16th birthday again. And it isn't just that being in her teen body again shocks her, or that seeing her high school crush is jarring. It's incredible to see her healthy, vital, young dad. I am a huuuuuuge fan of books that play with time, and Straub offers up all the best parts of a time-travel book in This Time Tomorrow. This Time Tomorrow indulged my own personal desire for sentimentality, while also emphasizing the value of cutting to the heart of a situation without wasting time. The story offers up lots of loving moments as well as perfectly imperfect decisions and mistakes. The story is heartbreaking and lovely in its ultimate insistence that one must let go of the past. If you like books that play with time, you might also enjoy the books on the Greedy Reading List Six Second-Chance, Do-Over, Reliving-Life Stories. Click here for my full review of This Time Tomorrow. 04 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. 05 Sparks Like Stars by Nadia Hashimi This peek into a childhood in Kabul and a lifetime of searching and yearning is luminous and vivid in Hashimi's hands. Young Sitara is living a comfortable life in Kabul in 1978. Her father has a prominent position in the government, and the family has plenty of love and laughter. But when the military soldiers she's always known turn against those in charge, the men stop protecting her family and help enact a bloody massacre that sweeps up much of the current government administration and their families. Sparks Like Stars follows Sitara through unlikely alliances, a desperate plan to escape her fiery homeland, and a life with twists and turns that ultimately lead her back to the beginning of it all. Hashimi's storytelling is luminous. She sets the scene in Kabul with the vivid sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of the past that reemerge in Sitara's memories and her subconscious, and she explores Sitara's complicated, ongoing, conflicting feelings of survivor's guilt. For my full review, check out Sparks Like Stars. 06 The Impossible Destiny of Cutie Grackle by Shawn K. Stout Stout's middle-grade story is irresistibly strange, full of difficulties and a tough young heroine's gritty problem-solving, and largely about believing in the impossible and never losing heart. Cutie Grackle lives in a cabin in the Appalachian Mountains with her dim-witted, muttering Uncle Horace. She's used to being hungry, to sucking on pebbles to trick her stomach into thinking it's getting food, and to relying on a couple of trusted outsiders for help when necessary. After an encounter with a fortune-cookie message and a flock of ravens who seem to be following her, Cutie begins to believe that the curse Uncle Horace keeps mumbling about might be real--and that it might have been connected to the deaths of her parents. As the ravens begin to bring Cutie objects that seem to be linked to a bigger message and mission, she wonders: could identifying and lifting the curse offer answers--and could it even change the trajectory of her tough young life? The Impossible Destiny of Cutie Grackle is a mountain adventure story that offers magical realism with an edge. Shawn K. Stout's novel is full of heartbreak and hope and is irresistibly unexpected. Click here for my full review of this book. I listed Cutie Grackle in the Greedy Reading List The Bossy Five-Star Reads So Far This Year.

White's first Starmetal Symphony installment offers deadly deep-space robots, showcases the power of music, and illustrates how love can persist even in the face of imminent demise. I loved the main characters' fashion, banter, and stubbornness. In the first book in Alex White's Starmetal Symphony space opera series, Gus is a jazz pianist whose biggest hope for the pending end of the world was to play at the most epic goodbye party of all time. After all, the Vanguards, giant, deadly AI robots, are headed from deep space to destroy Earth at any moment. But when the Vanguards arrive, the sudden, brutal ending Gus has envisioned for himself doesn't happen. Instead, Gus and a few other Earthlings are pulled in by a small group of traitorous Vanguards--and tasked with being modified, temporarily melded with the robots, battling other robots--and saving all of humanity. I really liked the way music is a key and powerful element; how working together benefits all; the quirky characters and their banter; the presence of giant fighting robots (they are not imbued with personality but are battle machines with infinite knowledge); and the fight for love in this LGBTQ space opera. My obsession with the irresistible dry humor, grudging and undying loyalty, and love for the series The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon on the part of Martha Wells's Murderbot (check out my rave review in Six Great Stories about Robots, Humans and Alien Life, and AI) may have ruined me for all other robot characters forever. But August Kitko isn't about the robots from space. The robots and the imminent demise of the human race that they seem perched to enact serve as a catalyst for the main characters to assess their own purposes and consider what makes life worth living. They forge desperate human connections and struggle with loss and an uncertain future, and I loved the impractical, invigorating, stubborn love in the book. There's a light tone running through the heightened, saving-the-universe tension, along with entertaining, offbeat fashion, which is vividly described. (There is also a copious amount of goopy fluids described--they are dispersed both in battle and in the melding of humans and robots. I could feel my face contorting as I read about the immersive goo.) Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? I really enjoyed Alex White's Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe, the first in the Salvagers series--which I look forward to finishing. That first book in that space opera series offers diverse characters, strong women, a heist setup, and, ultimately, a ragtag group of underdogs saving the day. I think it's time for me to read more Alex White books--I've heard that the alien novels The Cold Forge and Into Charybdis are great. You might also like the books on the Greedy Reading List Six Great Stories about Robots, Humans and Alien Life, and AI.