In Blau's gleefully 1970s-set novel, Mary Jane doesn't merely shift from emotional innocence to young In Jessica Anya Blau's novel Mary Jane, we're in 1970s Baltimore (with all of the glorious, immersive

Kim Michele Richardson's historical fiction offers a 1936 Appalachian setting, the magic and unassuming power of a rural librarian, and the exploration of a rare genetic condition. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek was a winning read for me. Appalachian setting? Check. Tough female protagonist? Check. Rural librarian? Check. Fascinating implications of a rare genetic condition? Check. I'm not sure why it took me so long to read Kim Michele Richardson's The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, except for pre-reading anxiety that it might not live up to my sky-high expectations. But this is a solid historical fiction story that I loved. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek is set in 1936 in the rural Appalachians, centering around the character of Cussy Carter, nicknamed Bluet. In this tale, Bluet is one of the rare, real-life "Blue People" of Kentucky (those with the blood disorder methemoglobinemia, which causes the appearance of blue-tinted skin). Bluet is a librarian through the Pack Horse Library Project of Kentucky (side note: there is nothing about the setup for this book that I don't absolutely adore), and she rides her mule Eugenia through all the hollers and up through the mountains, delivering sought-after newspapers and practical and fanciful books to families who rarely emerge from deep in the woods and for whom the written word is a window to the greater world. Bluet's natural independence, her love of books and reading, her eschewing of marriage, and her blue-tinged skin collectively draw the wrath and disgust of some in her small community--those who are suspicious of any break from tradition or anyone who questions the status quo. Bluet faces racial discrimination, misogyny, and some cruel and creepy handling in the name of scientific exploration and understanding of her skin color. This last element is smoothed over by a trade of food for her hungry household (and those of local schoolchildren) by the local doctor and his colleagues, initially so insistent about studying every possible aspect of Bluet's anatomy and blood, and so inappropriate in their methods, that it haunted me for the rest of the book and as I think about the story now. Richardson offers a satisfying ending that's not without an edge or imperfections, and I found narrator Katie Schorr's reading of the story wonderful. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? The book's sequel is The Book Woman's Daughter, published earlier this year. I can't wait to read that one as well. Kim Michele Richardson is also the author of Liar's Bench, The Sisters of Glass Ferry, and Godpretty in the Tobacco Field.

a captivating series of character studies within a tightly knit Irish seaside community in the late 1900s In a seaside Irish town in the 1970s, a baby is washed up on the shore.

fascinating, layered story about a strong-willed, whip-smart young Indigenous woman in a steampunk 1800s historical significance, and potential power of being linked to dragons, It's also a steampunk, mid-1800s

women scientists to join NASA’s space shuttle program, Joan becomes obsessed with being part of the 1980s a captivating series of character studies within a tightly knit Irish seaside community in the late 1900s In a seaside Irish town in the 1970s, a baby is washed up on the shore.

a captivating series of character studies within a tightly knit Irish seaside community in the late 1900s In a seaside Irish town in the 1970s, a baby is washed up on the shore.

Harrow has crafted a lovely adventure through different wonderfully imagined worlds (including the early 1900s

is trying to piece together the events surrounding the shooting of a man named Lloyd Wilson in his 1920s

The more modern timeline introduces Wendy, a NYPL librarian in the 1980s. social classes--as well as their determination to find justice--in San Francisco just before the Great 1906 In 1906 San Francisco, two very different women seek new beginnings: Gemma is a gifted soprano whose Yet I loved the rich early-1900s San Francisco setting, the focus on the arts, the strong women characters In the 1950s timeline, Oscar Hammerstein is striving to bring Maria's story to life on the stage--but

ICYMI: This young adult historical fiction story was a five-star read for me. I adored it. “My books promised me that life wasn’t just made up of workaday tasks and prosaic things.” Laura Amy Schlitz's book The Hired Girl is fantastic young adult historical fiction written in diary form. It's 1911, and fourteen-year-old Joan's life is far from the romantic, sweeping novels she loses herself in. She's living a hardscrabble life on her family's Pennsylvania farm, working ceaselessly for her rough father and brothers--and dreaming of escape. When she runs away to the big city of Baltimore, she presents herself as an eighteen-year-old named Janet, and she is delighted to be taken on as a hired girl for the refined Rosenbach family. “In my new life I’m not going to be vulgar. Even though I’m going to be a servant I’m going to cultivate my finer feelings. I will better myself and write with truth and refinement.” Joan is desperate for knowledge, and the Rosenbachs encourage her growth. Mr. Rosenbach explains anti-Semitism, charming young Mimi shows Joan how to pin her hair and carry herself, and David halfheartedly attempts to woo her (which leaves Joan breathless, imagining Jane Eyre-worthy drama and desperate for an upheaval of her life worthy of that book). Meanwhile Joan is exploring her Catholic faith and questioning and recognizing the existence of God. She's growing up and growing into a calm assurance, finding her place in the world. Schlitz's novel, inspired by her grandmother's journal, explores art, faith, challenge, transformation, imagination, romance, growth, and wonderful humor. Joan is a funny, heartbreaking, meddlesome, irresistible main protagonist. I could have read about her for a full series of books, and I devoured The Hired Girl in twenty-four hours--whereupon I immediately wished I'd savored it more slowly. I loved Joan and I loved this book! Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Laura Amy Schlitz has also written the children's book Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village as well as Splendors and Glooms, a Gothic mystery about puppeteers that was a Newbery Honor book, among others.

man is trying to piece together the events surrounding the shooting of a man named Lloyd Wilson in 1920s

Now Zott is a chemist in 1960s California on an otherwise all-male staff at Hastings Research Institute

characters sometimes feel like caricatures of evil villains, his young characters and the vivid setting of 1930s I listened to Krueger's This Tender Land as an audiobook, and I was satisfyingly immersed in 1930s life

The book jumps between 1940, the beginning of the women's forays into their secret duties and responsibilities

and the fears and joys of seeking a new life in a new place. 01 Pachinko by Min Jin Lee In the early 1900s

This was like a Secret Garden for grown-ups, with intertwined, mysterious stories from 1900, 1975, and

A book I loved, in case you missed it: Wood's memoir is captivating and lovely, poignant, sweet without being overly sentimental, and just all-around wonderful. In 1963 the Woods were a typical Catholic immigrant family in Mexico, Maine. Dad worked for the local paper mill alongside countless other immigrants, and the family had a steady life. But when Monica's father died suddenly, Monica and her three sisters began to drift. Father Bob, their mother's brother, tried to be the ballast the family needed. Then Monica's mother became inspired after the tragic death of John F. Kennedy, and she insisted on a family road trip to Washington, D.C. The trip was an initial, unexpected step toward the healing Monica and her family desperately needed. When We Were the Kennedys is about grieving deeply, leaning on family and community in a crisis and in common suffering, and figuring out the impossible: how to move on after devastating tragedy. Wood gorgeously evokes the many characters and unfathomable events that changed her family's existence--as well as that of her community and the entire country--in 1963. Oh, how I loved this book! Wood's memoir is heartwarming and funny and tragic and vivid. This memoir is fantastic. I ate it up in a single day. ICYMI: A Book I Loved I had to post about this book in case you missed it when it was first published. I'm also going to admit here that in the notes I made with my five-star rating just after reading this in 2012, I said "This memoir is the bomb."

He was stranded in the 1990s when a mission went wrong. Harrow has crafted a lovely adventure through different wonderfully imagined worlds (including the early 1900s

a captivating series of character studies within a tightly knit Irish seaside community in the late 1900s In a seaside Irish town in the 1970s, a baby is washed up on the shore. women scientists to join NASA’s space shuttle program, Joan becomes obsessed with being part of the 1980s

01 Pachinko by Min Jin Lee In the early 1900s, a teenager falls for a silver-tongued stranger on the

He was stranded in the 1990s when a mission went wrong. Harrow has crafted a lovely adventure through different wonderfully imagined worlds (including the early 1900s

reading a book in which a modern-day, luxury tradwife influencer wakes up in the gritty, unforgiving 1800s She is living in the actual 1800s, in a homestead version of her life without electricity, indoor plumbing

keeping track of her family from outside the country. 03 The Pretender by Jo Harkin Harkin crafts a mid-1500s

Julia Fine's Maddalena and the Dark is a gothic story set in 1700s Venice in which two young women's It's early 1700s Venice at a prestigious music school for orphans, the Ospedale della Pietà.

I'm Reading Now I'm reading Emma Donoghue's newest historical fiction, Learned by Heart, set at an 1800s orphan sent from India to England at age 6 and grew up in the cold, strict Manor School in the early 1800s

I'm reading Maddalena and the Dark, Julia Fine's upcoming novel about young friends and musicians in 1700s 01 Maddalena and the Dark by Julia Fine It's early 1700s Vienna at a prestigious music school, the Ospedale

British Isabella Bird explored the wild, rugged western United States in the late 1800s, and she journeyed some one of these but striving to be the other--striking out into the West in the first half of the 1800s

Lauren Goff's novel The Vaster Wilds begins in the Jamestown colony in the early 1600s. fascinating, layered story about a strong-willed, whip-smart young Indigenous woman in a steampunk 1800s historical significance, and potential power of being linked to dragons, It's also a steampunk, mid-1800s

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm listening to SenLinYu's 1000-plus-page fantasy novel Alchemised , which

This 1000-page fantasy novel is intense, brutal (significant trigger warnings are warranted), extremely

scheduled for publication in March under the title Beneath . 03 The Sea Child by Linda Wilgus In early 1800s

a savvy, strong woman determined to provide for her household after being widowed in a patriarchal, 1700s-feeling I adored the details of the late-1700s-feeling setting; the exploration of women’s struggles to carve

Women in the 1200s aren't given much freedom, and she must wrest her power from her father, her husbands

Lauren Goff's novel The Vaster Wilds begins in the Jamestown colony in the early 1600s. fascinating, layered story about a strong-willed, whip-smart young Indigenous woman in a steampunk 1800s It's also a steampunk, mid-1800s Nordic setting for some radical rethinking of nonsensical, destructive As Lauren Grodstein's We Must Not Think of Ourselves begins, it's November 1940, and Adam Paskow is one

British Isabella Bird explored the wild, rugged western United States in the late 1800s, and she journeyed

a savvy, strong woman determined to provide for her household after being widowed in a patriarchal, 1700s-feeling I adored the details of the late-1700s-feeling setting; the exploration of women’s struggles to carve

I'm listening to In Memoriam as an audiobook. 03 Grey Dog by Elliott Gish It's 1901, and Ada Byrd has

Bird Isabella Bird was a British explorer of the western United States in the late 1800s, and she journeyed

with a rich backstory, showing him to be a man shaped by personal and societal circumstances in mid-1800s You might also be interested in these Bossy reads  that are set in the 1800s. Thief .   02 Bug Hollow by Michelle Huneven Bug Hollow tracks the Samuelson family from an idyllic mid-1970s Briar Club  employs nine points of view to tell the story of life in a female-only boarding house in 1950s In 1920s New York, Benjamin Rask is a ruthless, outrageously successful Wall Street tycoon, and his beloved

with a rich backstory, showing him to be a man shaped by personal and societal circumstances in mid-1800s You might also be interested in these Bossy reads  that are also set in the 1800s.

fascinating, layered story about a strong-willed, whip-smart young Indigenous woman in a steampunk 1800s It's also a steampunk, mid-1800s Nordic setting for some radical rethinking of nonsensical, destructive

Newman's nonfiction book about motherhood, Waiting for Birdy. 02 Big Swiss by Jen Beagin Greta sits in her 1700s

06 Maddalena and the Dark by Julia Fine Julia Fine's Maddalena and the Dark is a gothic story set in 1700s It's early 1700s Venice at a prestigious music school for orphans, the Ospedale della Pietà.

Donoghue Donoghue's captivating historical fiction centers around two real-life young women in an early 1800s She grew up in a cold, strict British boarding school in the early 1800s.

ability to travel through memory to revisit the past secures her a revered role in a counterculture 1950s Donoghue Donoghue's captivating historical fiction centers around two real-life young women in an early 1800s She grew up in a cold, strict British boarding school in the early 1800s.

Greta sits in her 1700s Dutch farmhouse in Hudson, New York transcribing sessions for a local New Age

Talented needleworker Isobel and her husband leave Scotland for America in the early 1800s.

duology; Retribution Rails is the second. 02 These Is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901

Hester, talented needleworker Isobel Gamble and her husband leave Scotland for America in the early 1800s

a savvy, strong woman determined to provide for her household after being widowed in a patriarchal, 1700s-feeling I adored the details of the late-1700s-feeling setting; the exploration of women’s struggles to carve