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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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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.

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

and angers those around her by challenging the limitations of what women might do or say in the year 1400

Turner’s book These Is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901 (despite the title, which

I appreciated the character of Esta as a smart master thief who can bend time, and I loved the 1901 New

some one of these but striving to be the other--striking out into the West in the first half of the 1800s

In the mid-1600s, the family living in The Bridge is readying for a royal visit, but there seems to be

Plateau on foot, and making first ascents in Chad's Ennedi Desert and Antarctica's Queen Maud Land. 05 1000 by Michael Ochs This book is a few years old, but the collection of cover art from albums from the 1960s through 1990s highlights an often-overlooked art form perfect for music lovers. perusal for the vinyl lover in your life. 06 The Only Woman by Immy Humes The Only Woman is made up of 100

I appreciated the character of Esta as a smart master thief who can bend time, and I loved the 1901 New

that's part of an interconnected series; a romantic story about starting over; a memoir focused on the 1960s full review, please see When We Were the Kennedys . 04 The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon I loved the 1700s

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

I appreciated the character of Esta as a smart master thief who can bend time, and I loved the 1901 New

British Isabella Bird explored the wild, rugged western United States in the late 1800s, and she journeyed aspect of the novel is based on the true story of the destruction of the town of Iola, Colorado, in the 1960s In this historical fiction, Marshall explores the goings-on at 1960s unwed mothers' homes in Canada--

Greta sits in her 1700s Dutch farmhouse in Hudson, New York transcribing sessions for a local New Age In this historical fiction, Marshall explores the goings-on at 1960s unwed mothers' homes in Canada--

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

and angers those around her by challenging the limitations of what women might do or say in the year 1400 Now Zott is a chemist in 1960s California on an otherwise all-male staff at Hastings Research Institute

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

and angers those around her by challenging the limitations of what women might do or say in the year 1400