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01 Today Tonight Tomorrow by Rachel Lynn Solomon It's the last day of high school, and nemeses Rowan Roth and Neil McNair have battled bitterly for every title, position, honor, and moment of recognition during their high school career. They wake up today texting their usual taunts and challenges. But today will be different: this is the day they'll find out which of them has earned the desired title of class valedictorian. For the unfortunate one, the only hope of regaining glory would be to win the elaborate seniors' game of Howl, a challenging competition that spans the city of Seattle. And if Neil and Rowan look like they're teamed up for the game, it's only because they each intend to use their teammate to get into a winning position--and then take them down. But spending time working together for once allows Rowan and Neil to see sides of the other person that aren't so infuriating and off-putting after all. It sounds crazy, but in a way, they almost seem like the perfect match. Rachel Lynn Solomon's young adult novel Today Tonight Tomorrow feels like a smart, sweet read to start the new year. (For my review, see Today Tonight Tomorrow.) 02 The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins In Rachel Hawkins's mystery The Wife Upstairs, set for January 5, 2021 publication, the main players and their histories aren't what they seem. Jane is a young woman who is new to Birmingham, Alabama. She's seemingly trustworthy and nonthreatening, the perfect dog-walker for upscale Mountain Brook families. And if, while she's taking care of their beloved pets, Jane slips a few small valuables into her pockets, to sell for cash or just because she can, no one is likely to ever be the wiser. But Jane--who's taken on this new name and is desperate to leave her dark past behind her--has wormed her way into the idyllic community in the aftermath of a tragedy. Two of the neighborhood's cherished young wives, longtime best friends, died months earlier in a boating accident. When Jane places herself in the path of one of the widowers and he shows interest in her, she can't believe her luck. This could be a better new beginning than even she could have manipulated into reality. But is Jane doing the scheming, or is something more sinister going on? I received a prepublication copy of this book from St. Martin's Press and NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. (For my review, see The Wife Upstairs.) 03 Here For It by R. Eric Thomas In Here for It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America, R. Eric Thomas, the creator of Elle's sassy and smart "Eric Reads the News" column, shares his thoughts, experiences, and reflections about life and the world around us with honesty and humor. In essays that are sometimes heartbreaking, often inspiring, and that frequently make me laugh out loud, Thomas explores his sheltered youth, his growing realizations that he was different than most people he knew, his shame and fear about living as his authentic self, and his meandering path toward his current life circumstances, in which he is living as he once only dreamed: he is joyfully challenged professionally, he is unapologetically his own unique self, he is exploring his complicated relationship with religion, and he deeply loves and is loved by his (pastor) husband. My friend Katherine recommended this book to me last spring and I'm finally getting around to reading it--I'm actually listening to it as an audiobook, and I adore hearing Thomas's voice take me through his essays. This is refreshing and so playful yet thoughtful, I love it so far. (I finished! For my full review, see Here For It.) What are you reading to start the new year? I've just started Today Tonight Tomorrow, my book club's first title of the year, and I do like the idea easing into 2021 with a young adult nemeses-fall-in-love premise. The Wife Upstairs has been aging nicely in my Kindle for months, until my realization that its publication date was fast approaching. It's a fast and engaging read so far, which also feels just right for these gray days of winter. And I'm listening to R. Eric Thomas read his audiobook, which I highly recommend. His voice and delivery are fabulous. What are you reading at the start of this new year? I just picked up an armful of library holds, and along with the stack of books I received as holiday gifts, I am now in possession of all the books. I hope this weekend holds some cozy reading time with books you love.

The women in Evaristo's novel are concerned with sexuality, autonomy, race, artistic expression, tradition This is a nice mix for me to have going on at once: a fictional, varied look at modern feminism and race

Bird does an excellent job of keeping up the tension and making clear the high stakes of Williams’s enormous secret in this story, which is based on the life of a real female Buffalo Soldier. Bird's Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen is based on the story of an actual female Buffalo Soldier, Cathy Williams, with many liberties taken for the sake of shaping a story. I was happy to suspend my disbelief at the many conveniently outlandish circumstances or coincidences—which led key characters to cross unlikely paths, caused characters to avoid making important discoveries until the timing was more convenient to the arc of the tale, or set events essential to a resolution in a magical otherworld to allow imagined outcomes. Bird does an excellent job of keeping up the tension and making clear the high stakes of Williams’s enormous secret and the destruction that would befall her if it came out. She explores in fascinating detail the hardscrabble life of a newly freed black person—and the often desperate circumstances of women (especially black women) without men to protect them at the time. The major and minor love stories are sweet if tragic on multiple levels. Any Bossy thoughts on this book? Bird is also the author of Above the East China Sea, about two teenaged girls, an American and an Okinawan, whose lives are connected across seven decades and across the world. Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen was mentioned in the Greedy Reading List Six Historical Fiction Books I Loved Over the Past Year.

The book explores the complicated implications of perception as reality when it comes to race and its meaning; the subjectivity of and intense power within race labels; and the tension of living under false #race, #historicalfiction, #siblings, #fourstarbookreview 02 Florence Adler Swims Forever ​ This lovely

Regarding race, she specifically explores white people's involvement in the oppression of women in Korea , the Korean hierarchical views of white race, and mutual Japanese-Korean contempt.

Brit Bennett Bennett explores the complicated implications of perception as reality when it comes to race The book explores the complicated implications of perception as reality when it comes to race and its meaning; the subjectivity of and intense power within race labels; and the tension of living under false He's forced to consider what loyalty means, and to face how dark the path ahead might become when the She is facing her mother’s decline in health and exploring her own identity and meaning in her life,

but I found the story exceedingly long and both thoroughly gruesome and extremely tedious in its slow pace pastor who met and was witness to the fantastical, frightening, brutal story of a Blackfeet man who faced I was intrigued by the premise, the revenge from a wronged Indigenous person upon the race aimed at extinguishing

Rae Dunlap's The Resurrectionist  and Caleb Carr's The Alienist , a suspenseful novel about the evolution

mystery about race and history from David Joy, Those We Thought We Knew; I'm listening to the third book imminent, eighty trained elite young people venture into space, where they hope to preserve the human race

But I find a memoir about facing mortality fascinating. Reading the reflections of someone facing death is powerful in that it forces me to consider my own life family but is also meaningful for anyone considering the way they live and how they might choose to face Kalanithi, a young neurosurgeon facing a terminal cancer diagnosis, found himself with many thoughts and disbelief in the face of enormous pain and tragedy.

Francis explores issues of class and race through her characters' strongly held assumptions and prejudices

In 2023, Erica was diagnosed with dementia, and Molly's husband was diagnosed with a rare cancer. Mother is a poignant, sharp, darkly funny memoir of a challenging, volatile relationship, and when faced with loss, accepting other's limitations and facing what feels like the impossible: letting go. But Emmy hasn't told anyone that her ADHD impulsiveness led her to pack up and leave her barrel-racing And in the meantime, can he help get her mind off her troubles with his handsome face and irresistible

of Old New York's Most Fabulous, Fearless, and Infamous Abortionist, and in Madame Restell, Wright traces for fair wages; power abuses; class divides; societal pressures; wealth, privilege, and power abuses; race

But I find a memoir about facing mortality fascinating. It seems inevitable that the reflections of someone facing death might lead a reader to consider their family but is also meaningful for anyone considering the way they live and how they might choose to face Kalanithi, a young neurosurgeon facing a terminal cancer diagnosis, found himself with many thoughts and disbelief in the face of enormous pain and tragedy.

They're fascinating and written about very different topics--race and incarceration, mental illness, Ben Macintyre deftly traces the webs of deceit, greed, bravery, and the desire for heroic glory that understanding of our nation's past and current racial situation, including a basic history lesson on race with white and Black people in anti-racism workshops and through her facilitation of discussions of race institutional power structure; the general and long-term white tendency to not discuss or acknowledge race

fighting to survive--and I couldn't ever forget that the enemy, the deadly monster here, is the human race

The enormous extended family lives in houses scattered all over the neighborhood, with cousins racing

Brit Bennett Bennett explores the complicated implications of perception as reality when it comes to race The book explores the complicated implications of perception as reality when it comes to race and its meaning; the subjectivity of and intense power within race labels; and the tension of living under false He's forced to consider what loyalty means, and to face how dark the path ahead might become when the She is facing her mother’s decline in health and exploring her own identity and meaning in her life,

inability to make ends meet--and, in this story, their deep bonding to each other across differences in race

seems destined to come to light--just as Lula and Beverly are running against each other in a mayoral race

fiction novel Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves, young Sena has lost both of her mothers to the brutal sled races would help her have one condition: she must help them take part in the planet's most infamous sled race

I loved the premise, in which a golden girl and barrel-racer returns home to small-town Wyoming to figure But Emmy hasn't told anyone that her ADHD impulsiveness led her to pack up and leave her barrel-racing And in the meantime, can Luke help get her mind off her troubles with his handsome face and irresistible I yearned for Emmy to take charge of facing her own horse-related fears, ideally while taking charge

The Life-and-Death Books I've Loved Who's with me in having an obsession with reading about facing mortality of what make up a meaningful life (or death, or both) and by stories, true or fictionalized, about facing If you're intrigued by facing the intertwined beauty and pain of our finite trips around the sun, you out the memoirs I've loved on my first Greedy Reading List on the subject, Six Powerful Memoirs about Facing offers meaningful insight, gritty truth-telling, and wry humor as she shares her experiences surrounding facing

His social position is fragile because of his mixed race and his modest background. But Dave never paints himself as a victim or feels righteous rage; his account treats such occurrences

We Are Not Like Them, Christine Pride and Jo Piazza's exploration of a complicated friendship and of race This exploration of love, race, friendship, and more is told in alternating points of view.

Paterno , and The Secret of Golf. 03 In My Element: Life Lessons from the World's Toughest Solo Ocean Race My eyes are streaming, sore from the icy wind that throws spray in my face. In My Element includes Pip Hare's firsthand account of her experiences in The Vendée Globe Race, one

of Old New York's Most Fabulous, Fearless, and Infamous Abortionist, and in Madame Restell, Wright traces for fair wages; power abuses; class divides; societal pressures; wealth, privilege, and power abuses; race Illuminating Memoirs to Lose Yourself In Six Foodie Memoirs to Whet Your Appetite Six Powerful Memoirs about Facing

father's complicated connection as part of the white oppression of women in Korea; explores issues of race

adult novel Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves, young Sena has lost both of her mothers to the brutal sled races be willing to use her trusted fighting wolf, Iska, to help her win the planet's most infamous sled race

Brit Bennett Bennett explores the complicated implications of perception as reality when it comes to race The book explores the complicated implications of perception as reality when it comes to race and its meaning; the subjectivity of and intense power within race labels; and the tension of living under false He's forced to consider what loyalty means, and to face how dark the path ahead might become when the She is facing her mother’s decline in health and exploring her own identity and meaning in her life,

Interesting Facts about Space; and I'm reading Kiley Reid's upcoming college-set novel dealing with race

deadly deep-space robots, showcases the power of music, and illustrates how love can persist even in the face the series The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon on the part of Martha Wells's Murderbot (check out my rave The robots and the imminent demise of the human race that they seem perched to enact serve as a catalyst I could feel my face contorting as I read about the immersive goo.)

deadly deep-space robots, showcases the power of music, and illustrates how love can persist even in the face The robots and the imminent demise of the human race that the robots seem perched to enact serve as a imminent, eighty trained elite young people venture into space, where they hope to preserve the human race Divine Rivals (Letters of Enchantment #1) by Rebecca Ross I liked Divine Rivals and the gutsy characters facing

offers complex motivations, clashes between idealism and realism, editorialization about class and race motivation here, as well as clashes between idealism and realism and editorialization about class and race

reviewed on Bossy Bookworm. 01 Horse by Geraldine Brooks Geraldine Brooks's Horse digs into issues of race But issues of race and their inextricable involvement in our nation's history are really the bedrock the thoroughbred Lexington, Horse delves into fascinating, complicated aspects of science, art, and race

distance from those they've left behind, forge bonds with each other, and reflect on their lives while racing Samantha Harvey's astronaut-focused novel Orbital traces a single day in the lives of six astronauts And all the while, the astronauts are facing what feels like the inevitability of the winding down of

They're fascinating and written about very different topics--race and incarceration, mental illness, Ben Macintyre deftly traces the webs of deceit, greed, bravery, and the desire for heroic glory that understanding of our nation's past and current racial situation, including a basic history lesson on race with white and Black people in anti-racism workshops and through her facilitation of discussions of race institutional power structure; the general and long-term white tendency to not discuss or acknowledge race

Based on the true story of the thoroughbred Lexington, Horse delves into science, art, and race as it funny moments with each of his living sisters, discusses his sister Tiffany, who died of suicide, and faces

My race and my gender. But they are not faults. They are strength.

imminent, eighty trained elite young people venture into space, where they hope to preserve the human race

Morris's All Her Little Secrets, a fast-paced Southern mystery that also explores issues of race and Morris is one of our picks from last year's event, and because it's a fast-paced mystery, we decided

I'm listening to The Personal Librarian, historical fiction with race and art at the heart of it, set I listed other heartbreaking and beautiful memoirs about facing death and loss in the Greedy Reading List Six Powerful Memoirs about Facing Mortality, and Kate Bowler's No Cure for Being Human is another excellent book about facing mortality.

I gave five of these books four stars and rated one of them five stars. I’m dying to know how closely Anita Abriel’s book traces the inspiring events from her mother’s incredible Adler Swims Forever . 05 Call Your Daughter Home by Deb Spera Although the three interconnected women faced But the details of cooking, strong women's determination to survive, race relations, and life in 1924

Although the three interconnected women faced sometimes staggeringly tragic challenges, Spera injects And although the three interconnected women faced sometimes staggeringly tragic challenges, Spera injects But the details of cooking, surviving, race relations, and life in 1924 South Carolina were wonderful

offered complex motivations, clashes between idealism and realism, editorialization about class and race

The "grace" of the title refers to the grace of God that Frank experiences during the crises and uncertainty

Race issues are explored through Isobel's lifesaving Black neighbors--who share resources, offer advice

01 Maame by Jessica George Jessica George's debut Maame takes on big issues of race, culture, and the Jessica George offers a wonderful story with messy moments of love, some humor, big issues of race, loss consistently bizarre, at times base, and often darkly funny as her characters alternately dive into and avoid facing

The novel is about a family stretched to its limits in the face of the horrors of Nazi-occupied France Yael's goal: to win a ruthless, exclusive annual motorbike race through Axis-controlled lands. Buckle up for this one--it's unusual and fast-paced.

way back together again; I Have Some Questions for You, a boarding-school mystery that's also about race deadly deep-space robots, showcases the power of music, and illustrates how love can persist even in the face The robots and the imminent demise of the human race that the robots seem perched to enact serve as a The story features instances of rape, abandonment, witch hunting, and attempted suicide.