My very favorite Bossy May reads! Here are the six books I most loved reading this past month. 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 The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak Elif Shafak's The Island of Missing Trees explores past Turkish-Greek conflicts in a small island community while illustrating the interconnectedness of grief, love, community, and nature in this heartwarming literary fiction story. Since her mother Defne went into a coma and never woke up, young loner Ada Kazantzakis has continued to live in London with her distracted botanist father Kostas, who has little brain space for anything but his plants. A fig tree with its own voice and point of view--I loved that there was no explanation, just a plunge into this omniscient, sometimes prickly, often opinionated view--witnessed Kostas's young love with Defne. The fig tree shares the story of the young lovers and while exploring the conflicts between Turkish and Greek characters in the book, also emphasizes the interconnectedness of nature and of humans over the centuries through her ecologically-centered vision of life. The ending section is lovely, with heartwarming promise, hope, resolution, and a fig-tree-related revelation that I loved. I listened to The Island of Missing Trees as an audiobook. For my full review of this book, please see The Island of Missing Trees. 02 We Must Not Think of Ourselves by Lauren Grodstein Grodstein tells a poignant, powerful story of the Warsaw Ghetto--of making a life within its prison walls and of finding resistance and even love in the face of despair. As Lauren Grodstein's We Must Not Think of Ourselves begins, it's November 1940, and Adam Paskow is one of the thousands of Jews newly imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto. He teaches English to children and adjusts to the shock of living in a flat with many other people--and understanding that this is his new reality. The heart of this story was inspired by the real-life project aimed at preserving the testimonies of Jews in the Ghetto, code named Oneg Shabbat. Stories of various characters are interwoven through the historical fiction novel and add depth to the story. Adam finds love in unlikely places, recalls his life, and finds ways to try to make a difference in the face of despair. Grodstein presents this incredibly difficult situation through various characters' attempts to accept impending doom, their wavering hope, and the incredibly powerful bonds they build to each other. I listened to We Must Not Think of Ourselves as an audiobook. Click here for my full review of We Must Not Think of Ourselves. 03 Baby X by Kira Peikoff Baby X explores the complex issues around an imagined future with genetically chosen embryos; Peikoff also digs into origin stories and sense of identity, duty, trust, and vulnerability in the various storylines of this intriguing book. In an imagined United States of the near future, any cell can be transformed into an egg or sperm. The process of creating embryos has been revolutionized, and parents can use Selection to analyze and choose an embryo based upon certain traits they desire in their offspring. But anyone with nefarious intent can theoretically create an embryo with the DNA of anyone with whom they've come into contact and obtained cells from. This means that sought-after DNA specimen sources such as celebrities are in potential danger of having their DNA stolen while going about their daily lives--and ultimately having biological children that they're unaware of. I was happily intrigued by how all of the pieces of this story fit together, and the revelations that came late in the book kept me hooked. Meanwhile Baby X explored interesting, complex, sometimes moral and ethical issues, including those around choosing qualities in a baby, balancing various dangers and promising traits. Peikoff also touches on the importance of origin stories and identity, and her characters fight to trust, to show vulnerability, and to do the right--sometimes difficult--thing. Click here for my full review of Baby X. 04 Betting on You by Lynn Painter Lynn Painter delivers funny, charming banter and an opposites-attract tension in this heartwarming rom-com about divorce, trust, blended families, and vulnerability. In Lynn Painter's rom-com Betting on You, rule-following seventeen-year-old Bailey and sarcastic, joking Charlie meet at a fraught moment--they're both leaving Alaska and coping with their parents' divorces. They're polar opposites, and they drive each other crazy. Now they're living in the same hometown again, and, coincidentally, they're about to be working together at a bizarre hotel fun park. When Bailey and Charlie fake date in order to try to thwart the new relationship between Bailey's mom and her always-around boyfriend, Bailey realizes she's got feelings for Charlie. And Charlie's emotionally immature, but he's never let his guard down the way he does with Bailey. Painter delivers charming and funny banter, emotional growth, deep friendship, plausible missteps that keep the couple apart, heart-wrenching moments of vulnerability, and heartwarming looooove. Please click here for my full review of Betting on You. 05 The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year by Margaret Renkl This gorgeously written set of fifty-two love letters to nature encourage reflection and urge the reader to pause to honor even the less glamorous wonders of wilderness. In The Comfort of Crows, Margaret Renkl offers a literary, nature-focused devotional of 52 chapters, each meditating on an element inspired by her close examination of the goings-on in her backyard. Renkl's beautiful, striking observations range from a New Year's Day sighting of a crow and her exploration of crows' senses of community and cleverness, which she hopes set a tone for the year to come; to a grief-stricken examination of deadly fads such as the desire to have a vibrant green yard, free of weeds, and the widespread impacts of the poisonous chemicals required to achieve such a thing. Renkl weaves in stories of her pivotal childhood encounters with nature, and for me the book really shone when she included her family's current shifts and changes in poignant passages she linked to her observations of nature. I adored this element--possibly because with a senior in high school, I am also facing enormous pending alterations to the makeup of our household. I listened to The Comfort of Crows as an audiobook, but I think this one would have been even better read as a physical book for easier pausing and pondering. For my full review, check out The Comfort of Crows. 06 The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley This captivating story involves time travel, but it's primarily about deep human connections, complete with fantastic, funny banter; awkward adjustments to the time period; and love and deep heartbreak. The ending is wonderful. In a world of the near future, a young (unnamed) woman is one of several civil servants offered a mysterious job: she'll be a handler for expats--and paid very handsomely for her work. But the expats the government is gathering aren't necessarily from another country. They're from other times in history. The main protagonist's focus in her work is Commander Graham Gore (a character based upon a real figure from history), who has been whisked from a desperately failed expedition in 1847 to the book's future setting. In order to be a "bridge" for Gore between his past and the present, she'll have to explain why she's showing so much skin, why it's not healthy to smoke all day, and what a washing machine is. But the bridge and her client are building bonds deeper than either could have imagined; the love story between the bridge and Gore is strange, heartwarming, steamy, fraught, and just lovely. For my full review, please see The Ministry of Time.

Fairy Tales and Retellings For this list, I focused on books with fantastical elements; clear good-and-evil conflicts; characters living as royalty or in poverty or both; traditional or newly imagined imagery; metamorphoses, enchantments, or magic; a concentration on wishes and dreams; and especially those with roots in fairy tales, fables, or folklore. Which other books would you include on this list? What fairy tales for grown-ups have you loved? 01 The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden The Bear and the Nightingale is an ancient-feeling, dark fairy tale of a story that takes place within a small Russian village and centers around an extended family. "True believers" are pitted against dark, feared forces, turning on its head what the village collectively believes to be good and pure. Those who triumph over destructive righteousness, blind obedience, and attempts at wielding selfish power do so by remembering the old ways, defying expectations, and showing limitless bravery. A few elements (tying the original appearances of the dark force to later more fully realized appearances, for example) meandered along and might've been shored up more fully. But the writing was ethereal and practically brought a chill to my skin as I read about the snow and cold danger. The main protagonist and conflicted priest were irresistible characters. The Bear and the Nightingale is the first book in the Winternight trilogy. The Girl in the Tower and The Winter of the Witch are the others, and I think Arden's stories get even stronger as the series goes on, with complex interpersonal relationships, court politics, mystical creatures, and wonderful character development. Katherine Arden is also the author of The Warm Hands of Ghosts . 02 The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey I'm a sucker for hardscrabble Alaska stories, but this book is much more than that. In The Snow Child , Ivey shares a luminous tale, based on a Russain folktale, set in the snow and unforgiving cold. In 1920s Alaska, Jack and Mabel are struggling. They desperately wanted children, but that part of their lives was not destined to be. They're getting older, and Jack buries himself in the backbreaking work on the farm while Mabel turns inward, driven to despair and hopelessness. In an impossible, magical turn of events, a moment of simple winter joy leads to renewed hope that they may be able to share their love with a child after all. Ivey intersperses fairy tale-like elements with evocative details of the cold, stark atmosphere in which they take place. I wasn't initially sure I was going to be able to suspend my disbelief as I dove into the story, but Ivey engrossed me fully in the world and its workings. I really liked this story and I still think about this book, years after reading it. My book club was not unanimously sold on this book, to the point that I'm tempted to include it in a future Greedy Reading List called "Books to Break Your Book Club." But if you like magical realism, this is a hauntingly lovely, wintry read. Ivey's book To the Bright Edge of the World was also wonderful. It appears on the Greedy Reading List Six Books with Cold, Wintry Settings to Read by the Fire . 03 Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik Miryem comes from a family of moneylenders who are on the verge of being unable to provide for themselves any longer. So Miryem sets herself the task of collecting the debts owed to her family, earning her the reputation of being able to spin silver into gold. When a foolish boast forces Miryem into a position of meeting the tsar's impossible challenge, she finds that the mysterious tsar isn't what he seems. The swirl of events draws other innocent young women into Miryem's complicated web and toward potential ruin for all of them. Spinning Silver is a creatively and fully reimagined version of Rumpelstiltskin, but Novik goes well above and beyond that fairy tale. The magical and irresistible tale includes protagonists with kickass girl power; multiple and haunting twists and turns I was eager to ride out with the characters; and a magic touch in telling a well-known story with more heart that I would have imagined. Novik's story offers endless odd, lovely, unexpected, and complex elements. 04 The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker In Helene Wecker's tale, which has roots in Jewish and Arab folk mythology, the lives of two outwardly human mythical creatures intersect in the dark Bowery of late 19th century New York. Chavia is a golem of clay brought to life by a desperate, disgraced rabbi, sent across the ocean to New York City, while Ahmad is a jinni, a being made of fire created in the ancient Syrian desert and trapped in a copper flask that makes its way to New York City as well. The two become linked and grow to be unlikely soul mates. The Golem and the Jinni explores issues of ownership, responsibility, and belonging, as Wecker simultaneously digs into the creatures' feelings, loyalty, and true affection. Wecker offers sentimental moments of discovery, yet the tone of the book often feels dispassionate, as though it is a study of such things, measured at a distance. This is magical realism, folklore, and historical fiction wrapped up in one very interesting read. 05 The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo The Night Tiger is a wonderful historical fiction mystery and love story shaped by superstition, fables, and tales. Ji Lin is a young girl who would have dreamed of becoming a doctor if society would allow it, but she's stuck working off her mother's Mahjong debts by being a lowly dance hall girl. She encounters a Chinese houseboy, Ren, on a bizarre mission, and their paths become intertwined around a superstition that men can turn into tigers. Ji Lin doesn’t fit the mold of a typical woman from 1930s Malaysia or that of the British colonists living there—in all wonderful ways. She’s itching for (and finds) adventure, knowledge, and much more in her life than the loveless match she was expected to make. She speaks her mind and ruffles feathers even as she exploits assumptions about women, sexual attraction, and power. There's magical realism at the heart of this book, and Choo also examines colonialism, superstition, and young love. I thought it was fascinating. I also listed this book in the Greedy Reading List Six Historical Fiction Mysteries to Intrigue You . 06 Uprooted by Naomi Novik “Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.” Agnieszka has grown up in a quiet village, surrounded by people she loves. But evil lurks in the nearby Wood, with the dark presence of the wizard they call the Dragon looming over all of them. The Dragon keeps them safe from the Wood, but at a high price: each year he demands one young woman from the village. She is taken for ten years to serve him. The next choosing is coming up quickly, and Agnieszka is sure that her best friend Kasia will be next to go. She considers every desperate plan she can to try to save Kasia from this horrible fate, knowing all the while that she cannot prevent what is to happen. This is the second Naomi Novik book on this short list because she reimagines fairy tales so captivatingly. Uprooted is a thoughtful, satisfying grown-up fairy tale with gloriously imagined details. I ate it up. Novik is also the author of the Scholomance series: A Deadly Education , The Last Graduate , and The Golden Enclaves . I feel compelled to also mention that Novik has a series of nine books about dragons, the Temeraire series, and the dragons talk and are haughty and greedy and intensely loyal to their riders, and the novels explore world politics and nations' relationships and airborne dragon battles within the books, and the human protagonists are wonderfully faulted and fantastic.

Six Great Bossy Literary Fiction Reads I read so many read literary fiction books last year, I'll need another best-of-the-year list. But for now, here are six of my favorites. In my mind, literary fiction focuses on realistic characters and themes, the author's writing style is showcased, plot takes a backseat, and you're never assured of a resolution or happy ending. A couple of these titles might stretch the definition because they don't adhere to real-world elements, but I am bossily including them. If you've read any of these books, I'd love to hear what you think! What are some of your favorite literary fiction reads? 01 Intermezzo by Sally Rooney Intermezzo is one of my favorite Rooney novels yet, exploring complicated families, grief, unconventional relationships, forgiveness, and possibilities that once seemed impossible. In the wake of their father's death, two brothers reel from the loss in his own way. They clash, hurt each other deeply, and wonder if they can ever reconcile. The men's methods of coping with their grief often test the line between hopelessness and possibility. Each of their romantic relationships is unconventional, and various players involved struggle to let go of societal expectations in favor or what feels real and meaningful and what makes them happy. Through it all, both Ivan and Peter are repeatedly forced to consider their place in the world and what the future might hold. But wars are being waged, and Rae quickly figures out that she's not the heroine of the story. She's the villain. And only she can organize the rest of the plotting, dark, moody, sometimes exasperating bad guys (and girls) in an attempt to change all of their futures. I'm such a greedy reader, it's been a while since I've slowed down to savor a book the way I felt compelled to do while reading Intermezzo . I was invested in the characters and their messy methods of coming to terms with death and with seizing control of their own lives. The prose in Intermezzo is gorgeous and often feels poetic--in fact, many of the notes in the back matter credit poems as the source of some of the references on these pages. Rooney is also the author of Normal People , Conversations with Friends , and Beautiful World, Where Are You . Please click here to see my full review of Intermezzo . This book was one of My Very Favorite Bossy 2024 Reads . 02 Wellness by Nathan Hill Flawed main characters Jack and Elizabeth try to find their way back to an emotional connection in this literary fiction work. Wellness is wry and poignant, and the absurdities of modern life that Hill explores sometimes feel disconcertingly on point. Jack and Elizabeth are strangers living across an alley in a gritty artists' area of 1990s Chicago, and they're immediately and powerfully drawn to each other. As they grow older, their mutual rejection of societal expectations begins to soften. They marry, have a baby, and aim to own a house. But somewhere along the way, they lose sight of each other--and of themselves. Nathan Hill pokes fun at the absurd extremes of the search for modern wellness and the manipulative power of social media and the order of internet searches. We learn about Elizabeth and Jack's histories and motivations, their stunted emotional statuses and the deep hurts inflicted upon them. They must dive into their own secrets, trauma, career weaknesses, faulted parents, and fractured families if they have any hope of salvaging their own marriage. Wellness is darkly funny, intriguing, and, at times, poignant. I was frequently uncomfortable reading the grim truths about our world that Hill lays bare, but I smiled at the wry humor here as well. I listened to Wellness  as an audiobook. For my full review, please see Wellness . 03 In Memoriam by Alice Winn Alice Winn's account of the unrelenting slog of World War I and the beautiful young men set against each other in the trenches serves as a backdrop for a tentatively begun, deep love story born in a British boarding school and blossoming amid the cruelties and horrors of battle. Alice Winn's gorgeous, brutal, captivating historical fiction In Memoriam  is set during World War I. Henry Gaunt, Sydney Ellwood, and their classmates came as young boys to their sometimes claustrophobic, cruel, and lonely English boarding school; now that they're close to the end of their schooling, they are playful, treasuring each other's friendships. But by 1914, World War I is drawing most of these young boys into a swirl of wartime horrors. They trade their hesitant confidences and youthful search for comfort and affection within an unforgiving school environment for the cruelties of battle. Characters struggle with vulnerability and to allow feelings to grow, and all is shaped by the constancy of life-and-death danger and the deep-seated fear of destroying a friendship that both young men cling to more deeply than living itself. In Memoriam is beautiful, frequently painful, and offers a layered, complicated version of happy ever after. I loved this. I listened to In Memoriam  as an audiobook. For my full review, please see In Memoriam . This book was one of My Very Favorite Bossy 2024 Reads . You might also be interested in these Bossy reviews of books set during World War I . 04 You Are Here by David Nicholls David Nicholls's characters, some of whom are strangers to each other, meander through the English countryside on a days-long jaunt--and along the way allow long-held vulnerabilities to fall away in this beautiful, heartbreaking, heartwarming story. In David Nicholls's You Are Here , a small group of Sophie's friends, along with her teenage son, assemble to "walk" (hike) through the hills and moors of northern England for several days. After meeting for the first time, Michael, a recently divorced teacher, studious and thoughtful, and Marnie, a playful copy editor who prefers solitude after her own divorce, fall into a companionable rhythm and, to their surprise, begin to seek out each other's company in an extended hike toward the coast. We see the disconnect between Marnie and Michael's inner selves and their unsure, sometimes awkward acts and words, and it's deliciously heartbreaking to be privy to their insecurities and fears as well as their soaring hopes--and their crushing attempts to reign them in, in case their feelings aren't reciprocated and their fragile hearts can't take another round of loss. I loved this literary fiction--the increasing vulnerability and search for connection after heartache, the vivid descriptions of English countryside, and the small moments that mean everything. Click here   for my full review of You Are Here . This book was one of My Very Favorite Bossy 2024 Reads . 05 Land of Milk and Honey by C. Pam Zhang In the dystopian food desert of the future, a desperate chef is enlisted to create elaborate dishes for the wealthiest elite on a lush mountaintop compound, and she loses more and more of herself and her morals with each passing day. In C. Pam Zhang's slim dystopian novel Land of Milk and Honey , an unnamed chef in a polluted, dying city flees to a mountaintop retreat--and finds that fresh food, clear air, and lush opportunities for pleasure abound for the most wealthy elite. The faulted, privileged few are terrifying in their elaborate, exclusive plans, which exclude all but a fraction of humanity. Money talks--and money is the only thing that buys food in a smog-ruined world. The chef finds herself forced to ignore her training and knowledge of how to treat ingredients in order to preserve her own safety and adhere to the base wishes of her benefactor and controlling group. But when the boss's daughter begins tinkering with precious resources, our main protagonist is swept up into a relationship she never anticipated--the cooking and romance and gross negligence all tied up in one giant, guilty wonder of a mess. This was an interesting dystopia and premise, and the writing about food is rich and captivating, but it took me foreeeeever to read this one. Zhang is also the author of How Much of These Hills Is Gold? For more dystopian stories, check out Six Fascinating Dystopian and Postapocalyptic Novels  and Six More Fantastic Dystopian and Postapocalyptic Novels . Click here   for my full review of Land of Milk and Honey . 06 Good Material by Dolly Alderton Alderton's literary fiction rom-com is a funny, poignant, and sometimes frustrating deep dive into the emotionally stunted main protagonist's extended heartache and the rehashing of key moments of his recent relationship. Andy and Jen were in love and living together. But now Andy, a struggling stand-up comedian, is left reeling, trying to figure out what went wrong. He's obsessed with trying to figure out why Jen broke up with him, and no amount of rehashing, deception regarding the manipulation of mental-health professionals, or mining for information is too much, in Andy's mind. The breakup came out of the blue. He and Jen had just gone to Paris--they were blissfully happy! Weren't they? Much of the story is told from Andy's point of view, and his capability for emotional growth is...limited. Baby steps are hard-won progress for the often-clueless main protagonist. He begins a Reasons Why I Loved Being with Jen list as well as a list of reasons why he's glad their relationship is over--tracing the funny, silly, nitpicky, ridiculous, and poignant moments they shared. The reader sees what a mismatch Jen and Andy are, despite their real affection for each other, but the clarity about their incompatibility is longer in coming to Andy, who remains wistful, hopeful, and heartbroken for much of the book. I listened to Good Material  as an audiobook. Please click here for my full review of Good Material .

Six Great Bossy Mystery Reads I didn't read as many mysteries last year as I typically do, but here are six of my favorites. I'm hoping to up my mystery and suspense reading this year. If you've read any of these books, I'd love to hear what you think! What are some of your favorite mystery or suspense reads? 01 The God of the Woods by Liz Moore I loved this summer-camp setting, the slow build of mystery in two timelines, the privilege and working class disparities, the eventual revelations concerning the disappearances of both Van Lear children, and the beautifully wrought tragedy and redemption. In August 1975, a teenage girl disappears from her Adirondack summer camp. But the girl isn't just any camper. She's Barbara Van Lear, the daughter of the owners of the camp where many local residents work. Oddly, her brother Bear, beloved by all who knew him, disappeared fourteen years earlier. He was never found. A frantic search takes place, and as the locals look for Barbara, various Van Lear secrets come to light. The split between the largely blue-collar area and the privileged Van Lear family is shown to be stark and significant. I love love love a summer-camp story, and I loved The God of the Woods . I was intrigued by the mysteries and their layers, which are continually revealed, and while I usually feel more invested in one timeline over another, with The God of the Woods , I was equally interested in both timelines. Liz Moore is also the author of Long Bright River  as well as Heft and The Unseen World . For my full review of this book, please see The God of the Woods . 02 Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll Knoll's novel was inspired by real events; Bright Young Women  traces a serial killer targeting young women and in the character of Pamela, offers a no-nonsense, brilliant nemesis who won't let up until she brings the criminal to justic e. Jessica Knoll's novel Bright Young Women  is inspired by real-life events: the targeting of a sorority by the first "celebrity serial killer" in his final killing spree. But when the studious, responsible Pamela stays home from a party and investigates a strange noise in the sorority house, she discovers a horrible tragedy--two of her sisters (one, her best friend) are dead and two others are maimed. And in her shock and horror, Pamela spied the culprit as he skulked away. In Seattle, Tina Cannon is trying to figure out what happened to her dear friend Ruth, who disappeared from a nearby state park. When she hears about the horrifying events in Tallahassee, she becomes convinced that what happened to Ruth is linked to the Florida sorority attack, and she travels to Florida, determined to get to the bottom of the crimes. I expected the novel to feel more salacious, and I was thankful that it did not. I found it satisfying to read about Pamela's growing contempt for The Defendant, her long-term commitment to prosecuting him, and her mission to find peace for his victims. The friendships and love interests--which were powerful enough to overshadow the book's dysfunctional families and painful relationships--were welcome distractions from the horror at the heart of this story. I read Bright Young Women  for my book club. For my full review, check out Bright Young Women . 03 Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera Listen for the Lie  offers a fascinating story structure, dark humor, and deeply flawed characters as main protagonist Lucy works to resolve her memory loss surrounding the events leading to her best friend's death. Twentysomething Lucy is found wandering the streets of her small Texas town, covered in her best friend Savvy's blood. But Lucy suffered a head wound the night of Savvy's death and now she can't remember anything about the night Savvy was murdered. Everyone assumes she killed Savvy, and Lucy can't escape the suspicions and resentment surrounding the mysterious conditions of Savvy's death. I was hooked on the structure of the story and the way the truth is gradually revealed; the information is illuminating as it creeps out but Tintera's tone is never teasing. The author doesn't throw in red herrings, and she doesn't manipulate the facts in order to spring a surprise on the reader. The podcast element was engaging--I loved how it allowed for layers of interpretation, revelation, and intrigue. I loved listening to this as an audiobook. For my full review of this book, please see Listen for the Lie . 04 None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell Lisa Jewell's haunting psychological thriller centers around birthday twins, an unreliable narrator, disparate lifestyles, and dark secrets that emerge. In Lisa Jewell's psychological thriller None of This Is True , successful podcaster Alix Summer is celebrating her forty-fifth birthday at the local pub when she meets a strange woman, Josie, also celebrating her birthday. Her "birthday twin" begins popping up where Alix is, and she's got a strange, disturbing life story to share. Tempted by Josie's intriguing tales, Alix begins interviewing her for the podcast, despite feeling unsettled by her increasingly frequent presence. But Josie has been keeping dark secrets, with horrifying details and impact beyond anything Alix could imagine. And they're all beginning to come out. I enjoyed peeking at Alix's fabulous lifestyle and also the making of a podcast. The story is dark and haunting, with intriguing, unreliable narrating; smaller mistakes that have enormous consequences; and nightmarish choices that are so upsetting, they're tough to read about. I listened to  None of This Is True  as an audiobook. For my full review, please see None of This Is True . Lisa Jewell is also the author of The Family Upstairs . Other books that center around a podcast are Listen for the Lie   (reviewed above) and also the Good Girl's Guide to Murder  series (featuring a favorite character of mine, Pippa Fitz-Amobi). 05 The Return of Ellie Black by Emiko Jean I'm a big fan of Emiko Jean's writing. The Return of Ellie Black  was a disturbing setup followed by a somewhat too-easy-feeling reveal, but in between, I was captivated by the ride. I'm fascinated by a missing-persons story . In Emiko Jean's The Return of Ellie Black , Detective Chelsey Calhoun is shocked by the reappearance of Ellie Black, a young girl who's been missing for two years. Chelsey is especially invested in the case because her own sister Lydia went missing years earlier--before falling victim to a tragic murder-suicide carried out by her boyfriend. The story takes us inside the claustrophobic, twisted, abusive, extremely disturbing compound where Ellie is kept prisoner--and she's not the only girl being kept against her will. When she comes home alive, only Chelsey finds it strange that Ellie has left her captor and remains alive. Has Ellie been released, rather than escaped? The reveal of the true story behind the abductions, cruelties, and murders seemed far-fetched (every one of the elements--motivations, participants, delusions--were linked to close-to-home situations). But as always, I enjoyed Jean's writing, and I couldn't wait to find out who was behind the infuriating, extremely disturbing kidnappings and why. Emiko Jean is also the author of the great young adult stories Tokyo Ever After  and Tokyo Dreaming  and Tokyo Forever , as well as Mika in Real Life , Empress for All Seasons , and other books. Click here   for my full review of The Return of Ellie Black . 06 Sleeping Giants by Rene Denfeld I was taken with the main characters of the past storyline here: a young boy at a children's home and his unlikely best friend. When his sister tries to solve the mystery of his death, she and her own unlikely companion unravel secrets and danger. Almost thirty years ago, Dennis, a young boy from a children's home, washed away in the rough waves of an Oregon beach, and his body was never found. His sister Amanda and Larry, her new local friend, believe that Dennis had an unorthodox friendship with a custodian at the boys' home, but can find out little else about Dennis's short life. Disturbing facts begin to emerge regarding the horrifying behavioral modification methods used at the home--and those who enacted them. Amanda and Larry are closer than ever to uncovering the whole, heartbreaking truth. At times, particularly in the middle of the story, things felt disjointed to me and jumped around in a way that I found jarring. While I enjoyed the trip to Alaska (I love an Alaska storyline) and the polar bear-focused parts of the story, it felt far afield from the main plot. I didn't suspect that Amanda was coping with cognitive challenges until late in the book when multiple mentions were made regarding this; maybe I simple missed the earlier clues? Things wrap up in quite neat fashion at the close of the story, but I didn't mind because of the justice being served and the mysteries' resolution. I mentioned Rene Denfeld's great book The Child Finder  in the Greedy Reading List Six Chilly Books to Read in the Heat of Summer . Click here   for my full review of Sleeping Giants.

Historical Fiction Story Love If you're into historical fiction, you might also like to take a look at the books I listed on the Greedy Reading Lists Six Great Historical Fiction Stories Set in the American West , Six Historical Fiction F avorites , Six Historical Fiction Mysteries Sure to Intrigue You , and Six Great Historical Fiction Stories about the Civil War . You can also search by category under the Bossy Book Reviews menu to find other historical fiction books I've liked that you might like too! What are some of your favorite historical fiction reads? 01 The Huntress by Kate Quinn I'm all in for World War II-set books with tough, brave female protagonists, and I loved this book. Nina Markova always wanted to fly, and when Nazis begin to wreak havoc on the Soviet Union, she joins the Night Witches, an all-female regiment of night bombers pushing back the Germans. That is, until Nina becomes stranded behind enemy lines. I thought this character-driven post-WWII story was wonderful, with compelling and lush detail about tough female pilots; life in the Siberian wild; Boston; antiques and photography; and the patient, persistent, creative detective work done by Ian, Tony, and Nina. The reader is able to see events unfolding while the characters remain unaware, but watching the pieces shift and click into place is immensely satisfying. Kate Quinn is also the author of the fantastic titles The Rose Code , The Diamond Eye , and The Alice Network. Please click here for my full review of The Huntress . If this book sounds down your alley, you might also like the books on the Greedy Reading List Six Great Stories about Brave Women During World War II . 02 A Well-Behaved Woman by Therese Anne Fowler Fowler captures wonderful details in A Well-Behaved Woman , both in the surroundings and the rigid views of the period about women, marriage, sex, politics, public and private behavior—and of course "society," which almost serves as a main character in this book, it so constantly shaped behavior, views, marriage and divorce decisions, and everything else. But Fowler also does an excellent job of delving into the all-consuming obsessions the desperate young Alva likely had with appearances and others’ opinions in order to grasp and keep hold of her position as a Vanderbilt. As she grows as a person, in her perspective on the world, and in her role and responsibilities within it, Alva questions being a slave to society, money, and expectations. Fowler strikes a realistic balance between what feels frivolous and what is Ava's meaningful growth, including her important role in the women’s suffrage movement. I loved it! Fowler also wrote A Good Neighborhood . For my full review of A Well-Behaved Woman , click here . 03 The Parting Glass by Gina Marie Guadagnino ​ Well well well! A lady’s maid in love with the lady, racy scenes, angst, wonderful details of a life in service to a wealthy family in 1830s New York, immigrant challenges, Irish gangs, people pretending to be different than they are, shifted expectations, true friendship—I loved this debut from Guadagnino! In this upstairs/downstairs novel, set in nineteenth century New York, Mary Ballard is a lady’s maid to high society's wealthy and respected Charlotte Walden. But on her own time, Mary is Irish exile Maire O’Farren, and she keeps mixed company as part of a secret society of rabble-rousers. Meanwhile, privileged Charlotte has her own secrets, and when both women's true situations begin to be revealed and to unravel, Mary finds that she and her brother are in jeopardy. With powerful looks at the widespread nineteenth-century prejudice against the Irish and other immigrant groups, as well as introducing a heart-wrenching, forbidden, unrequited love of one woman for another. 04 The Ragged Edge of Night by Olivia Hawker The Ragged Edge of Night centers around a World War II-era friar-turned-husband, Anton Starzmann, during the dark days of the war. When his school is shut down by the Nazis, he weds a widow who seeks a husband to help her raise her three children. The story beautifully lays out details of quiet life in the German countryside set against a background of unpredictable violence and destruction; tragedy; and gloriously stubborn, subversive resistance to the Reich. The wise asides in what felt like another point of view drew me out of the story, but generally I was all in on this one. Anton is searching for redemption after horrific events surrounding his students and school. His wife Elisabeth fears his involvement in the resistance that plans to assassinate Hitler. When the SS realizes what's going on, Anton's bravery and Elisabeth's dedication to this quiet, steady man are both tested. If you like historical fiction set during World War II, you might also like the books on the Greedy Reading List Six Great Stories about Brave Women During World War II . Hawker also wrote One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow , which I mentioned in the Greedy Reading List Six Great Historical Fiction Stories Set in the American West and the upcoming The Fire and the Ore . 05 Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen by Sarah Bird 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 compelling, captivating 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) in that time who were without men to protect them. The major and minor love stories are sweet, if also tragic. 06 All the Forgivenesses by Elizabeth Hardinger Oh, I loved this story! I was so sad when I finished it. Bertie! I would very happily read a full Little House on the Prairie -length series about Bertie and her life. Bertie is tough on herself and lives a hardscrabble farming life in the early twentieth century Midwest. She broke my heart over and over by feeling as though she didn’t deserve happiness and by never realizing the value of the important and continual sacrifices she willingly made for her family. Hardinger offers up many crisp and varied details of the time, she captures Bertie’s speech patterns, and, most importantly, she transports the reader into the gruff but hopeful mindset of a young woman forced to grow up too quickly--a woman who for years feels she must push away any hopes for a life that is easier or full of joy. And all of this is set against the backdrop of Bertie's endless daily and bone-wearying tasks of plucking chickens, caring for siblings, carting water, and all the rest. When the promise of a better life started to glimmer at the edges of her vision, I almost cheered.

Six Great Bossy Fantasy Reads I read some entertaining, imaginative, sometimes funny, fantastic fantasy in the past year--enough to make up multiple Greedy Reading List roundups. You can find other lists of favorite fantasy reads from past years here . And you can c lick here for other science fiction and fantasy books that I've reviewed on Bossy Bookworm. If you've read any of these books, I'd love to hear what you think! What are some of your favorite fantasy reads? 01 The Shadow of the Gods (The Bloodsworn #1) by John Gwynne Gwynne's epic, Norse-inspired saga tracks three fascinating main protagonists through battles, shifting alliances, strengthened resolve, and revenge journeys. I loved this. In John Gwynne's Norse-inspired saga The Shadow of the Gods , it's been a century since the gods battled themselves into extinction. Only their bones hold power now--for those brave enough to seek them out. There is talk of war's return, and three warriors will shape the future of the land of Vigrid: Elvar, a noblewoman searching for fame through battle; Orka, a huntress on a quest filled with danger; and Varg, a servant who joins the mercenaries called the Bloodsworn so that he may seek revenge. The three stories run along with plenty of steam, centered around violent battles, brutal revenge, extended searches for loved ones, and the carving out of new futures by our main protagonists. The story is always shifting--shaped by betrayals and the flipped script when fate and destiny aren't what the characters thought and they must come into their own. This is epic but never melodramatic, and I was hooked on the Viking-esque elements, the badass women who find their strength, and the perfect balance of resolution and cliffhanger to build anticipation for book two. Spoiler: a dragon appears at the very end of the book, laying the groundwork for more dragon page time in subsequent books. I listened to The Shadow of the Gods  as an audiobook. Please click here for my full review of The Shadow of the Gods . 02 A Power Unbound (Last Binding #3) by Freya Marske Marske's quirky, funny, richly imagined magical world, complex character-building, relationship exploration, and storytelling continues in this third and last installment of the Last Binding series. Jack Alston (Lord Hawthorn) swore that he was finished with magic for good after his twin sister Elsie died. But when a dangerous ritual threatens the safety of all the magicians in Great Britain, he reluctantly dives back into the world to try and help procure the Last Contract to keep safe his remaining loved ones--and the public at large. An unlikely (and wonderfully mischievous and complementary) group of allies fights to reveal the source of the evil at work, and favorite characters (and villains) from past books are present throughout. Through unexpected attractions to each other and the uncovering of weighty secrets, the group works to unravel the mysterious roots of British magic once and for all. In A Power Unbound , Marske also explores class divides, gender-power imbalances, LGBTQ love, and the difficulty in--and sometimes necessity of--breaking long-held, outdated traditions. The friends-like-family element and deep loyalty is strong among the members of Jack's group, and the magic of the situation is wonderfully imagined and rich in detail. There's danger, and justice served, and imperfect solutions, and compromise, and Marske's storytelling is yet again charming, funny, sometimes dark, and always fantastic. Marske is also the author of A Marvellous Light  and A Restless Truth . For my full review, check out A Power Unbound . 03 The Stolen Heir (Stolen Heir #1) by Holly Black In this return to the world of Elfhame (Folk of the Air trilogy), Holly Black takes us deeper into the story of characters Wren and Oak as they determine whether they can trust each other as they attempt to save Madoc. As a child, Wren read lots of fairy tales. That’s why, when the monsters came, she knew it was because she had been wicked. In The Stolen Heir , the first book in Holly Black's Stolen Heir duology, the story returns to the world of Elfhame. (It's important to first read the Folk of the Air trilogy--see link below in order to understand the plot and character development). Suren (Wren), changeling child queen of the Court of Teeth, is forced to band together with the charming, untrustworthy Oak (fae brother of Jude), to try to save Madoc from Lady Nore's Ice Needle Citadel. Wren and Oak were once betrothed, and Wren isn't sure how much of Oak's appealing vulnerability and honesty is real--or if she's being played for a fool. But Wren isn't content to let her fate be shaped by a beautiful, magical prince. She's going to need to wrest control of her own destiny. I didn't feel particularly drawn in by Wren, who feels lost throughout much of the story, and I didn't feel as though Oak was as fully developed as I wanted him to be. I loved the return of the storm hag Bogdana! Click here for my review of Black's The Queen of Nothing ; I mentioned the great Folk of the Air trilogy in the Greedy Reading List Six Royally Magical Young Adult Series . For my full Bossy review of this book, check out The Stolen Heir . 04 Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan Sarah Rees Brennan offers a funny, dark, clever story within a story in which the heroes and villains are redefined, redemption is always possible, revenge is sweet, and rewriting the story doesn't always shift the plot in the way you'd expect. I love a story that flips a traditional setup, and Long Live Evil  is my newest favorite in the Villains Are People Too book trend (check out two of my other recommendations in this vein below). Rae has always taken comfort in books. But now she's dying, and in a panic, she makes a magical deal in which she lives on...in the world of her sister's favorite fantasy series. But wars are being waged, and Rae quickly figures out that she's not the heroine of the story. She's the villain. And only she can organize the rest of the plotting, dark, moody, sometimes exasperating bad guys (and girls) in an attempt to change all of their futures. When Rae begins tinkering with characters, trying to shift the plot--posing as a prophet telling the future--she figures out that she's not the only one who came from the "real world" and has infiltrated the story. And she also realizes she may not be helping; she may be making everything worse. This is so funny, sometimes dark, and it has lots of heart. I adore all of the twists on the heroine-villain setup. I listened to Long Live Evil  as an audiobook courtesy of Libro.fm . For other books that take a sympathetic, darkly playful view of a villain, check out Hench and Starter Villain . Sarah Rees Brennan is also the author of the fantastic character-driven young-adult fantasy In Other Lands . Please click here to see my full review of Long Live Evil . 05 A Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal The first installment in Faizal's Blood and Tea series offers intriguing secrets, a swirling mystery, terrible betrayal, heartwarming found family, steady action--and vampires. "It's teatime, scoundrels." In the first book of Hafsah Faizal's Blood and Tea series, A Tempest of Tea , Arthie Casimir collects secrets--and by doing so, amasses enough power to become a criminal mastermind, exerting her influence within the city's dark underbelly. Her exclusive tea room becomes a posh hangout for vampires each night, but when her bloodhouse is threatened, she must work with one of her enemies in order to protect her livelihood and power. A Tempest of Tea  layers heartwarming found family, heartbreaking emotional barriers, and reluctant vulnerability to build characters that I cared about, funny gems, tantalizing moments, and an intriguing build-up to the books to come in this series. For my full review, check out A Tempest of Tea . 06 Bride by Ali Hazelwood Ali Hazelwood brings her wonderful banter and an intriguing mystery to this steamy interspecies romance that has lots of heart and kept me hooked throughout. Misery Lark is the only daughter of the most powerful Vampyre in the region, and she'd prefer to literally and figuratively stay in the shadows--but she's been called to take part in the building of a peacekeeping alliance between the Vampyres and the Weres--in the form of an arranged marriage between Misery and a Were. Lowe Moreland is the Alpha of the Weres, and he's as unpredictable, volatile, and unforgiving as any Were stereotype Misery has ever heard. As a child, Misery was given up by her family and community as collateral to keep the peace. But Misery has her own reasons for willingly entering into this marriage--her best friend's safety may be on the line--and she's willing to do anything to get her questions answered. I forgot how steamy Hazelwood's books are, and Bride and its interspecies love is no exception. I listened to Bride  as an audiobook. Ali Hazelwood is also the author of Love, Theoretically  and other books. Click here   for my full review of Bride.

Bossy Romantic Favorites The heat of August feels like a perfect time to dive into recently published romantic stories, and these have been six of my favorites this year. Check out the four titles from powerhouse romance authors (Center, Jimenez, Silver, and Fortune), plus two from new-to-me authors (Robinson, Sturino). I'm a longtime stalwart fan of my local independent bookstore and its knowledgeable and oh-so-helpful staff, Park Road Books --and I also love that an adorable romance-focused bookstore has opened in my city, Trope Bookshop ! If you're into reading lighter fiction with romance, a number of real-life issues and complications, and often some laughs, you might also like the books on these Greedy Reading Lists: Six Rom-Coms Perfect for Summer Reading Six More Great Rom-Coms Perfect for Summer Reading Six of My Favorite Light Fictions Reads of the Past Year Six More of My Favorite Light Fiction Reads of the Past Year Six Great Light Fiction Stories Perfect for Summer Reading Six More Great Light Fiction Stories Six of My Favorite Rom-Com Reads of the Year , and Six More of My Favorite Rom-Com Reads of the Year Have you loved any other romantic comedy or lighter fiction stories lately? 01 Sunny Side Up by Katie Sturino I loved Sunny's body positivity and her self-made-woman status. I didn't fully buy into one of her love interests but was hooked on the peeks behind the scenes of the fashion industry. Sunny has deeply loyal and inspiring newly divorced friends to lean on, a body- and sex-positive lifestyle, and some tantalizing dating prospects. So why can't she simply shake off the fact that nothing in the Bergdorf Goodman swimsuit section comes even close to fitting a woman over a size 10? The body-positivity in Sunny Side Up was a highlight, as was the group of Sunny's bright, supportive fellow divorcee friends (and her mentee at work), but the standout for me here was the peek into the fashion industry as Sunny continually Handles It and makes her dreams come true--thereby also taking care of fashion-conscious plus-sized women everywhere. The voicing of her Queens-native love interest didn't ring true to me, and while he was very nice, I was partially turned off by his many corny jokes, which didn't land for me. Her ex is purely selfish and easy to detest, and another love interest turns out to be more focused on money than Sunny herself. Ultimately, Sunny listens to her inner voice and doesn't settle for anyone who wants her to be less than she is. I loved Sunny's independence, savvy abilities, strong will, and, of course, her fashion sense. Katie Sturino is a body-acceptance advocate who is also the author of Body Talk: How to Embrace Your Body and Start Living Your Best Life. For my full review of this book please see Sunny Side Up . 02 One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune The main male protagonist was off-putting to me in his arrogance at first, but Carley Fortune is the best at developing a lakeside romance story with characters I root for and steamy, poignant, friendship-based relationships I love. This is a great summer read. Alice's career as a photographer really began the summer she spent with her grandmother Nan at family friends' lake house. Shy Alice watched more than she participated in lake life--and she took a photo of three smiling teenagers on a yellow boat, and it seemed to set everything else in motion. Now she's feeling disillusioned with the airbrushing and false scenes she's forced to create in her job rather than capturing something real. So when Nan falls and breaks her hip and needs a pick-me-up, Alice arranges for them to return to the cabin where she spent that pivotal summer. But handsome, mischievous Charlie Florek, one of the subjects of that long-ago photo, seems to be everywhere she turns--and she can't hide behind her lens anymore. Fortune drops some breadcrumbs regarding the Issue Sure to Keep Them Apart, which follows The Desire to Not Ruin the Friendship (a concern that seems heartbreakingly valid). The steamy scenes didn't invite involuntary squealing or cringing on my part--they couple is really drawn to each other, and there's a tantalizing teasing aspect to their slowing down the physical progression of the friends-with-benefits arrangement. I loved the eventual relationship between Charlie and Alice, and I loved their love. For my full review of this book please see One Golden Summer . Carley Fortune is also the author of Meet Me at the Lake  and Every Summer After   as well as This Summer Will Be Different. 03 Slow Burn Summer by Josie Silver I loved the love for books in this novel, but I did struggle with the premise, in which an actress plays the part of an author and develops elaborate, extensive lies about inspiration, writing process, back story, and more, then feels wronged when the situation blows up. In Josie Silver's newest rom-com, Charlie Francisco is a divorced, cynical, harried talent agent who desperately needs to hire an actress to play the part of a novelist--and tour in place of the reticent (the writer is famous in literary circles) author of a new blockbuster romance. Kate Elliott was once a soap opera actress, and now she's reeling from a divorce and thankful for a new job. She's ready to take on the persona of a romance novelist at readings and signings, but she also becomes entranced by the romantic story she's pretending to have authored. Over the course of an extended book tour, Charlie and Kate are repeatedly thrown together. I couldn't get comfortable with the compounding lies that were key to Kate's playing the role of an author out in the world, explaining (fake) inspiration, (made-up) personal experiences, and (invented) relevant life details. I was most intrigued by the Kate-Liv sister relationship as well as Charlie's new beginning and his complex past. (Side note and request: Can we please have books about Liv and Charlie?) And I loved the intense love for books that is evident throughout Slow Burn Summer . For my full review, please check out Slow Burn Summer . Josie Silver is also the author of A Winter in New York , One Day in December  and The Two Lives of Lydia Byrd , a book that appeared on the Greedy Reading List Six Second-Chance, Do-Over, Reliving-Life Stories . 04 The Love Haters by Katherine Center Katherine Center's sweet rom-com about a video producer and her reluctant hero of a subject is set against the colorful backdrop of Key West. The appealingly playful love story incorporates issues of body image, job insecurity, and past tragedy in a lighthearted and charming novel. Katie Vaughn has been single for a year, since her former fianc é , an up-and-coming musician, hit it big and then very publicly cheated on her with a pop star. She's a mid-level video producer on the verge of a layoff--unless she accepts a job in which she documents the life of Coast Guard rescue swimmer Hutch Hutcheson, an everyday hero who rose to fame when he happened to save Jennifer Aniston's golden retriever. And he's not interested in being filmed. The banter made me laugh at times, and I bought the attraction between Katie and Hutch, as well as the "reasons" (all solvable, folks!) that they must not be together. Katie's evolution in considering and coping with body image issues felt valuable and compelling. Supporting characters are great, colorful, and add nice layers of interconnectedness to the story. The crisis that forms toward the end felt over the top and drawn out, with a rom-com-easy resolution, but by that point I was ready for anything Center was throwing my way. This is not a racy book, and the attraction and relationship are focused on emotions and wanting to be together without being swoony or angsty. Please check out my full review of The Love Haters . Katherine Center is also the author of The Rom-Commers , Hello Stranger , What You Wish For , Things You Save in a Fire , The Bodyguard , and other books. 05 Definitely Better Now by Ava Robinson In Ava Robinson's debut novel, she offers an appealingly imperfect main character making missteps and forging a path forward while adjusting to romantic, family, and work complications after a year of sobriety. Emma is friendly but reserved with her coworkers. She's focused on extending her one year of sobriety--a fact that she doesn't share easily with others, except at her frequent recovery support meetings. When she's assigned to assist on the committee for the office's extravagant upcoming holiday party, she's thrown together with a cheesy, persistent executive who unfortunately spotted her joke of a dating profile before she pulled it down--and Ben, the intriguing IT manager she can't stop thinking about. I fell in love with Emma and her imperfect, determined path forward, her sometimes-regretful reckonings with her past, and her fight to be vulnerable for a potential relationship she begins to believe in. Her missteps felt relatable, and I was hooked by her difficult decision-making and her bravery. This is a great example of a light-fiction-feeling romance that deals with weighty, meaningful themes. It's a combination I love. This is Ava Robinson's first novel. Abby Jimenez  and Carley Fortune  are two more authors who offer deep, heartfelt situations, messy complications, and real-life consequences within a romantic structure. For my full review please check out Definitely Better Now . 06 Say You'll Remember Me (Say You'll Remember Me #2) by Abby Jimenez Abby Jimenez layers tough situations and messy complications into her rom-coms, and here, her main protagonists must face and overcome past and present difficulties in order to banter their way through the story and build a sweet life together. Samantha creates zippy social media posts for a local mustard company (I kept feeling surprise, but also joy, that this job seemed to provide a sustainable salary)--and she doesn't take any attitude from anyone. Xavier is a young veterinarian who feels grumpy, exhausted, and as though he may be losing faith in humanity--but he loves the animals he cares for. After one disastrous encounter involving a rescued kitten with a serious congenital disorder, then one magical, extended date, the two are falling for each other. But Xavier's painful past and Samantha's challenging present might make a future for the two impossible. Jimenez never shies away from including heavy themes and tough situations in her rom-coms. Here, childhood abuse, animal abuse, and dementia are all part of Xavier and Samantha's past and present stories, so nothing is too easy on their path to togetherness. Jimenez writes irresistible characters, and I loved the weight of the difficulties behind this sweet story of love. I received a prepublication audiobook edition of Say You'll Remember Me  courtesy of Hachette Audio and Libro.fm. For my full review of Say You'll Remember Me , please check out this link . Jimenez is also the author of Just for the Summer   (one of my Favorite Rom-Coms of the Year  last year), Part of Your World , Yours Truly , The Friend Zone , and The Happy-Ever-After Playlist .

More Funny and Sweet Light Fiction Adorable rom-coms can be perfect summertime reading. These Bossy favorites from a summer past stand the test of time. And soon I'll post another set of Bossy romantic favorites, this time titles that were published this spring and summer. If you're into lighter fiction with some romance and often some laughs, you might also like the books on these Greedy Reading Lists: Six Rom-Coms Perfect for Summer Reading Six of My Favorite Light Fictions Reads of the Past Year Six More of My Favorite Light Fiction Reads of the Past Year Six Great Light Fiction Stories Perfect for Summer Reading Six More Great Light Fiction Stories Six of My Favorite Rom-Com Reads of the Year , and Six More of My Favorite Rom-Com Reads of the Year Have you loved any other romantic comedy or lighter fiction stories lately? 01 Will They or Won't They by Ava Wilder Ava Wilder's rom-com takes us behind the scenes of a hit teen TV show whose lead characters once liked each other in real life but now can't stand each other. This was funny, sweet, steamy, and poignant--a fantastic summer light-fiction read that I loved. Lilah Hunter and Shane McCarthy are the stars of the popular paranormal television show Intangible , and for multiple seasons they've yearned for each other on screen, but their characters have never gotten together. Lilah has dreams of directing and of breaking into movies, but she's back for the sixth and final season of the show, in which her character and Shane's will finally get together. But in real life, Shane and Lilah detest each other. Their secret tryst at the end of season one ended badly, and they've been far from friendly ever since. I LOVED this. The premise sounded like a slam dunk for me, and the reality of the book was a funny, poignant, banter-filled, behind-the-scenes, realistically complicated, wonderful story. There's a ton of steaminess as Lilah and Shane at times can't deny their attraction and act upon it. I smiled a lot, I teared up, and I loved this perfect summer read! For my full review of this book, check out Will They or Won't They . Ava Wilder is also the author of Definitely Better Now , another book I loved. 02 Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood Ali Hazelwood's light fiction novel is wonderfully immersed in science, offering a forbidden relationship and an enemies-to-lovers dynamic, plus lots of steamy scenes. Elsie Hannaway is an adjunct physics professor, but her dream is to dedicate herself to a career in research. To help pay the bills, Elsie is a paid escort (who does not have sex with her clients, as she keeps explaining to certain men). She's fake-dating a nice man in order to keep his family off of his back. Now Elsie has the interview of a lifetime, at MIT. But a series of coincidences and misunderstandings lead to her being unaware that the head physicist on site...is her fake boyfriend's brother. I loved the significant science element here, the jargon, the exploration of academic politics, and the passion for research and discovery. I was frustrated by Elsie's lack of assertiveness, although I recognized that it was set up in order to have her ultimately find her own opinions and set her course. I found the family dynamic related to her mother's demands of Elsie absurd. The situation with her twin brothers felt slapstick and silly to me. The steamy scenes, the twisty route to the relationship, the career shifts, and the science focus were all winners for me. I'd like to read more by Ali Hazelwood. For my full review of this book, check out Love, Theoretically . Ali Hazelwood is also the author of Bride as well as numerous other contemporary romcom novels about women in STEM and academia. 03 The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren The True Love Experiment is a wonderful, romantic read about forbidden attraction and heartwarming vulnerability, with steamy scenes, will-they/won't-they tensions, funny dialogue, behind-the-scenes televised moments, and loooooooove. I loved T he Soulmate Equation from the writing team known as Christina Lauren. That book introduced the fantastic best-friend character of Felicity "Fizzy" Chen. The True Love Experiment is Fizzy's story. Fizzy is a straight talker, a sex-positive woman, and a successful romance writer, but she's never been in love, only in lust. Now she's beginning to feel like she's been selling her readers a lie. Connor Prince ( his last name is Prince! ) is a single dad and documentary filmmaker slated by his boss to create a reality TV program about finding love. He's completely out of his comfort zone and the pressure is on--but when he meets Fizzy, he just knows he's found the perfect star for the show. The True Love Experiment is an irresistible exploration of a spark of feelings, impossible difficulties, terrifying vulnerability, and hard-won joy. The issues keeping the two love interests apart felt powerful and heartbreaking and offered tantalizing tension to the story. The happy ending made me tear up and also made me want to cheer. This was a wonderful summer read for me and I loved it. For my full review, check out The True Love Experiment . The writing team of Christina Lauren also authored the books The Paradise Problem , The Unhoneymooners , In a Holidaze , Love and Other Words , Something Wilder , and Autoboyography . 04 Weather Girl by Rachel Lynn Solomon In Weather Girl , Rachel Lynn Solomon brings humor and a little steamy romance to a newsroom setting, with a fun Parent Trap -style backdrop--and weighty issues like depression that are addressed with grace. Ari Abrams has always been fascinated by the weather, and now she's got her dream job: she's a junior meteorologist on TV. But her two bosses, Torrence and Seth, who are exes, seem more concerned with their long-term petty arguments and with airing personal grievances than with running the station, mentoring younger staff members, or creating professional opportunities. When Ari and kind, quiet sportscaster Russell close down the company's holiday party, they joke about Parent Trapping Seth and Torrence in order to create harmony in the TV station and allow them to better do their jobs. As they mastermind a plan to bring the exes together in Rachel Lynn Solomon’s light fiction story, Russell and Ari realize they have more in common than they thought. Weather Girl is romantic and occasionally steamy. The story is largely about accepting yourself and loving yourself--and treasuring someone who delights in you just the way you are. This is an excellent example of how authors of light fiction can take on weighty issues with grace and care. For my full review of this book, check out Weather Girl . Rachel Lynn Solomon is also the author of See You Yesterday , The Ex Talk , and Today, Tonight, Tomorrow . 05 Better Than the Movies by Lynn Painter I LOVED this young adult book. It's perfectly charming, funny, quirky, and sweet, yet it deals with grief and fear, hope and forgiveness, being true to oneself and growing up, and of course love. Lynn Painter's adorable young adult rom-com Better Than the Movies is about Liz Buxbaum, a fabulously eccentric high schooler coping with the grief of having lost her mom--while navigating the sparkly idea--and messy reality--of romance, with the inspiration of her mom's favorite romantic comedies. Liz is a hopeless romantic who has been waiting her whole high school career to be swept off her feet in quintessential romantic-comedy fashion--with the perfect soundtrack playing in the background. But it looks like she may have to rely on her annoying next-door neighbor Wes to try to gain the attention of dreamy Michael with the perfect hair, who has just moved back to town. Better Than the Movies is funny funny funny and so lovely and sweet, I adored the whole story, the characters, the growth, the banter, the heartbreaking, heartwarming growth, the fun--this is basically a perfect young adult romantic comedy. For my full review of this book, please see Better Than the Movies . The sequel to this title is Nothing Like the Movies (which I didn't love quite as much) and Painter has authored other books, including the cute Betting on You . 06 Charm City Rocks by Matthew Norman Charm City Rocks is sweet, interesting, and layered. I loved this story about relationships, complications, famous/everyday person romance, and a love of music that binds. Billy Perkins is a music teacher living above a record store in Baltimore called Charm City Rocks with his beloved teen son Caleb. He's content co-parenting with his ex-partner Robyn, who is remarried. Margot Hammer, on the other hand, is miserable. The former drummer of the popular band Burnt Flowers is, decades later, a recluse living in New York City. When a documentary shines a light on Margot again, Billy's longtime crush on the musician is renewed. Caleb cooks up a scheme to get Margot to perform at Charm City Rocks so his dad, who Caleb thinks is lonely, can finally meet Margot and, if all goes as planned, hopefully forge a connection. I was in love with Charm City Rocks --the Baltimore love, the embracing of the beauty in an everyday life and in straightforward affection, the heartbreak of missed chances, and the soaring hearts who find renewed belief in true love. For my full review of this book, please check out Charm City Rocks . If you like books about music, you might also like the books on the Greedy Reading List Six Rockin' Stories about Bands and Music and other Bossy reviews of books about music .

More Memoirs I've Loved I love a good memoir, one that offers a glimpse or a deep dive into the life and pivotal experiences of another person. For me, the best memoir makes you feel some of the author's feelings and understand their perspective. This is a genre of books I often like to listen to in the form of audiobooks read by the author, because I love hearing a person tell their own story. For more memoirs I've loved that you might want to try, check out the Greedy Reading Lists Six Illuminating Memoirs to Dive Into and Six Illuminating Memoirs I've Read This Year . Have you read any of these books? I'd love to hear what you thought! Which other books should I add to my memoir to-read list? 01 A River in Darkness by Masaji Ishikawa Ishikawa, who is half-Korean, half-Japanese, and who lived under oppressive totalitarian rule for thirty-six years, tells a fascinating story of his life in North Korea--and of his gripping escape. The promise of better work and stronger education for the children lured Ishikawa's family from Japan to North Korea. But reality was a far cry from the promised utopia. The author traces a tragic cycle of bureaucratic ignorance and force, hunger and desperation, cruelty, and resignation. This short memoir digs into the author’s repeated experience with North Korean horrors and despair—and sets these experiences in contrast to his prior life and heartbreaking knowledge of the free, if difficult, world of his youth in poverty in Japan. The version of this book that I read was riddled with typos, which I imagine came about during the translation from the author's original Japanese account. For another set of accounts of life in North Korea, try Barbara Demick's Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea . My book club read this fascinating book, and I think Demick does an excellent job of exploring the brainwashing, isolation, and fear in North Korea, while building the stories of caring families and their everyday lives in which the madness is normalized. 02 This Will Only Hurt a Little by Busy Philipps Celebrity memoir time! I first saw Busy Philipps acting on my beloved Dawson's Creek many years ago, and since then, I've remained vaguely aware of her best-friendship with Michelle Williams, her various acting roles, and her candid social media presence. In This Will Only Hurt a Little , Philipps conversationally takes us through her youth in Scottsdale, Arizona, her awkward years, her discovery of her comedic leanings, her friendships, and her loves, mistakes, victories, and joys. She's frank about her missteps and she embraces an active-work-in-progress approach to her personal growth and learning. I listened to Busy read this in audiobook form. It’s interesting to hear experiences a person believes has shaped his or her life, and in This Will Only Hurt a Little , Philipps offers tales from childhood and Hollywood that affected her positively or negatively, while never flinching from laying bare her own regrettable, brave, stumbling, or confident decisions, trials, and adventures. 03 Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood Lockwood is a poet, and her view of the world is entertainingly quirky and off kilter. Her father the priest is an outrageous real-life character in Priestdaddy , and Lockwood works to present him as appealingly so. Late in the book she openly laments at how difficult this is (she worries, “I️ can only write down what you say”). Her tone is loyal while remaining brutal and honest. Her mother is presented sympathetically while coming off as odd, and Lockwood herself takes on a somewhat unhinged tone while recounting off-kilter periods for the family. There’s silliness, dark humor, and life-and-death tragedy—for example, the discovery of a nearby toxic waste dump as a likely reason for widespread and devastating health effects in the community. Lockwood notes that she is not a Christian but is very much “of” the church because of her upbringing. Her exploration of rituals, abuses of power in she's witnessed, and her own present-day participation in traditions felt most interesting to me. Lockwood is also the author of No One Is Talking About This , a book that is odd, disturbing, and likely not everyone's cup of tea. But it's truly unlike anything I have ever read, and the second section, which is an enormous departure in tone from section one, brought me repeatedly to tears. Please let me know if you've read this one! 04 Inheritance by Dani Shapiro Shapiro shares her shock at discovering (via a DNA test taken on a whim in her mid-fifties) that her biological identity as the descendant of two lines of Orthodox Jews is not accurate. The parents who raised her are no longer alive to question, and with this discovery, Dani voraciously challenges her own sense of self and is shaken to her core. She wonders about whether she has a claim to beloved extended relatives who shaped her life but are not, after all, blood relations; she reflects on her religious and cultural integrity and identity; she worries about her predispositions to heretofore unknown genetic health issues; and she considers her potential legacy to her own child—all while panicking about who she is after all and how she can possibly trust what she has believed to be the truth about almost anything anymore. Through practical research, lengthy reflection, and delving into the grief and the increasing layers of loss she feels, Shapiro eventually allows herself to feel hope and a growing peace regarding the likely truth—as well as a sense of freedom in having a more fluid sense of herself as a person. I thought Inheritance was fascinating, thoughtful, jarring, and just lovely. 05 Wild Game by Adrienne Brodeur Brodeur was always captivated by her mother and her magnetic personality. Her mother confided her darkest secrets to young Brodeur as though she was a friend, and she drew the teenaged Brodeur in as an accomplice to her longtime extramarital affair. I feared that reading this memoir was going to make me feel like the worst type of voyeur—that the details of the affair at the center of this story might make me feel uncomfortable at best and would feel tawdry at worst. But the story was ultimately more about an emotionally stunted mother, her codependence on her adolescent daughter, and how the author unraveled the many smothering ties to the woman whose conditional love and affection directed her life for too many years. Brodeur is a measured writer who thoughtfully considers her youth, her infatuation with and reliance on her mother (who throughout her life is only concerned with her own impulses and desires), and how her own eventual personal growth drove a rift between her and the mother she idolized, a shift that changed everything forever. Wild Game was really interesting and a quick, engrossing read that surprised me with its depth. I was given a copy of this book by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 06 My Life with Bob by Pamela Paul Pamela Paul, editor of The New York Times Book Review, writing in her mid-forties, recounts her dedication to a single book, one of her own making. She's carefully taken this book to Thailand, Paris, and London, shuffling it from apartment to apartment where it holds a place of honor and has for twenty-eight years. It's a book listing each of the books Paul has read to date. The Book of [Read] Books (which she affectionately calls Bob) reflects the author's hopes, dreams, adventures, and searches for meaning, while her life and the conditions within it affect the books she seeks out and dives into at different points of her life. My Life with Bob is also an examination of a reader's relationship with books, with reading, and with the paralyzing, never-ending, constantly expanding list of titles that make up a to-read list: “At this point, there is no human way that I could read even those books I've deliberately marked as absolute must-reads. . . . This is every reader's catch-22: the more you read, the more you realize you haven't read; the more you yearn to read more, the more you understand that you have, in fact, read nothing. There is no way to finish, and perhaps that shouldn't be the goal.” Paul delves fully into her meandering post-college years--during which Bob provides more structure in her life than anything else does. She dabbles in exploring her more recent life and reading habits as well in this thoughtful, unpretentious, gloriously nerdy, and lovable book.

Do you enjoy a character-driven Western? I appreciate an unflinching reflection of the atrocities visited upon the indigenous peoples of our continent because white people explored and settled in the West. I'm also fascinated by the optimistic explorer spirit--and I love reading about strong female characters in a time when the world around them didn't typically support women's strength and determination. If you're interested in books like those listed here, you might also like the titles on my Greedy Reading List Six Great Historical Fiction Stories Set in the American West. And for great historical fiction of all types, look at: Six Historical Fiction Books I Loved in the Past Year and Six Historical Fiction Books I Loved This Year. Happy reading, bookworms! 01 Inland by Téa Obreht Much of Téa Obreht's Inland is centered around Nora, an impulsive, hot-tempered, strong woman fighting for a hardscrabble life for her family in a remote town during a devastating drought. The other plotline concerns Lurie, a man who has adventures and challenges with his surprising, loyal, exotic companion. The two disparate stories intersect in an unlikely way in 1890s Arizona Territory, and fantastical elements throughout make even the most jaded characters believe in the odd and implausible in this remarkable book. I read this story as an e-book and was therefore robbed of gazing at this gorgeous cover. I adore it. Random House Publishing Group provided me with a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. For my full review of Inland, please click here. 02 Whiskey When We're Dry by John Larison In 1885, Jessilyn Harney finds herself orphaned and alone on the homestead. Seventeen-year-old girls aren't safe on their own, so Jess cuts her hair, binds her chest, and saddles up for a trip across the mountains in search of her lawless brother Noah. Jess is such a good shot, she ends up working for the mean-as-a-snake governor of the territory--and finds that the governor's armed forces are hunting for Noah and intend to capture him, dead or alive. “What started the war, Pa?" His eyes settled on me. "Stories, Jessilyn. We tell ourselves the wrong stories.” I love love love a character-driven western. Jess's voice was fantastic. She grapples with the stories she's been told as compared to the reality she experiences as she makes her way. Whiskey When We're Dry is a rough, heart-wrenching, wonderful story from John Larison. 03 Only Killers and Thieves by Paul Howarth Surprise! This book is not set in the American West. But to my mind, the atmospheric setting and the tone of the story places it firmly in good company among the other books on this list, so I Bossily included it. Set in the Australian outback at the end of the 19th century, Only Killers and Thieves centers around one family’s conflicts with others and with each other. One poor judgment leads to another, foolish choices end in bloodshed, one brother makes justifications and feels no remorse while the other feels crushed by it all. Toward the end we see messy second chances take shape, a little retribution, and an attempt at a changed existence—but the haunting memories of the past creep in relentlessly. This is an often brutal book to read, but it was beautifully written, in a style that felt perfectly suited for the stark setting. I thought about this one long after I finished it. Disturbing and a mind churner. For my full review of this book, please see Only Killers and Thieves. Howarth has published a sequel, Dust Off the Bones, which I have not yet read. 04 Doc by Mary Doria Russell Surprise again! Doc is nonfiction, but it reads like historical fiction (as opposed to a heavier nonfiction title like Tom Clavin's Tombstone, which also includes lots of Doc Holliday information), so I'm Bossily including it. I love Mary Doria Russell’s character-driven books, and this Western, set in Dodge City, Kansas, in the late nineteenth century, is a slow build rather than a dramatic, gun-slinging action story. Doc doesn’t focus on the Tombstone shootout, but instead on Doc Holliday’s life, his brotherlike friendship with the Earps, and his longtime relationship with a Hungarian noblewoman-turned-prostitute, Kate. Mary Doria Russell also interestingly explores Holliday's career as a dentist (at a time when the dental profession was tainted by traveling butchers and thieves), and his gallant, grumpy, well-read, mischievous, and generous-to-a-fault personality. The author also wrote The Sparrow, which I adored and gave five stars. She's such a gorgeous writer, I'd read anything she tried her hand at writing. 05 Into the Savage Country by Shannon Burke Into the Savage Country is a serenely told story of a band of fur traders--some wild, some considered gentlemen, some one of these but striving to be the other--striking out into the West in the first half of the 1800s. The writing style involves a lot of telling, which seemingly intentionally slows the pacing--and which I usually don't love, but here it gives a fittingly old-fashioned quality to the writing that feels as though it suits the time, the main protagonist, and the tale itself. The group encounters friendly and hostile Native Americans; copes with antagonized and antagonistic British trappers; is threatened with imprisonment; experiences cruel and potentially fatal betrayal by one of their own; faces the wild and its many dangers; suffers grave wounds; and saves each other's skin countless times--including after foolish situations (which seem as though they would have been easily avoided) such as literally waking a sleeping bear and baiting an injured bull. Yet because of the pacing, I didn't necessarily feel on the edge of my seat while I read about all of it. There is a deeper, quiet, surprisingly affecting story beneath the Western adventure, which is about trust, loyalty, sometimes begrudging but deeply felt affection, discovery of self-worth, celebrating differences, and love. And it's the pacing and tone of the story that allows for all of those elements to feel real. 06 News of the World by Paulette Jiles Captain Kidd has fought in three wars, and after the Civil War's end, he serves as a traveling news reader, providing eager listeners along his route with news from the world. Kidd somewhat reluctantly ends up agreeing to transport a young, recently rescued Kiowa captive 400 miles to her extended family. They'll have to pass through lawless lands to get to San Antonio, and Johanna isn't a willing participant in this venture, having become more culturally Kiowa over the years than white and unfamiliar with her remaining blood relatives. Not all of the members of my book club felt as strongly about this one as I did, but I adored every bit of this--Captain Kidd's reluctant but gentlemanly involvement and his voice, the character of Johanna, the Texas setting, the fits and starts of adventure, the noble heart of the story, the humor, and the heartbreak. I loved loved loved it. Jiles also wrote Simon the Fiddler and the glorious The Color of Lightning. Click here for my full review of The News of the World. (Who's seen the movie adaptation of this book, and if you have, what did you think?)

Do you love reading memoirs like I do? I love digging into the story of someone's life--notable because of chance, circumstance, or choice--and escaping into an eye-opening and fascinating memoir. If you love memoirs, you might also like the titles I listed on these Greedy Reading Lists: Six Fascinating Memoirs to Explore Six More Fascinating Memoirs to Explore Six Musicians' Memoirs that Sing 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 Six of My Favorite Memoir Reads Last Year I'd love to hear: What are some of your favorite memoir reads? 01 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 daily column "Eric Reads the News," 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 made me laugh out loud, Thomas explores his sheltered youth, his growing realizations that he was different than most of the people he knew, his shame and fear about living as his authentic self, and his meandering path toward his current satisfying life circumstances. I listened to this as an audiobook, and I adored hearing Thomas's voice take me through his essays. His voice and delivery are fabulous. Here For It is refreshing and playful yet thoughtful. I loved spending time with the uproariously funny Thomas as he recounts how he's navigated situations large and small in his life. Thomas is also a host of The Moth storytelling podcast in D.C. and Philadelphia--and he certainly knows how to craft a compelling and full story out of a momentous moment. For my full review of this book, see Here For It. 02 Notes on a Silencing by Lacy Crawford Crawford thought the trauma of her assault at St. Paul's boarding school decades earlier was behind her. It had shaped who she was in many senses, but now she was a grown woman with a full life, and she was not regularly reliving the crushing weight of it as a vivid horror any longer. But when evidence of extensive sexual assault and new allegations at St. Paul's School came to light, she added her voice to the throng of the attacked and abused, opening her own long-closed (and hitherto unknown to her) file and seeing for the first time the brutal facts of her own attack, as well as the ensuing, elaborate efforts to keep secret the events surrounding her situation. Crawford's memoir lays bare systemic lies, gross injustices, horrifying abuses of privilege and power, and longstanding patterns of unprosecuted assaults at elite St. Paul's boarding school--as well as the persistent tragic, infuriating, shaming treatment of assault victims. The topic is crushing, but Crawford's writing is wonderful in its honest and unflinching reflections on society, her own experiences, the horrifying power of privilege, and the abhorrent treatment of assault victims. She tries to imagine the points of view of everyone involved, and she treats her young self with empathy. For my full review of this book, see Notes on a Silencing. 03 In Pieces by Sally Field Here's the list's celebrity memoir! I found Sally Field's discussion of her "craft" and how she grew and changed as an actor to be the most compelling aspect of the book--along with the politics of getting roles and how she finally began listening to her inner voice in all aspects of her life. Therapy (and acting, which also served as a sort of therapy) eventually allowed Field to come into her fully realized adult self, and this journey is satisfying to watch after living through the page time of her languishing and struggling for so long. I listened to this as an audiobook, and I loved hearing Field tell her story. I appreciate when a celebrity provides brutal honesty, and I also admit to sometimes becoming impatient with the navel-gazing necessary to create a memoir. Aaaand I realize that this is unfair since I chose to read this person's life story. For my full review of this book, see In Pieces. 04 Blood by Allison Moorer "I'm still trying not to be the daughter of a murderer. I'm still trying to redeem [my parents]. I carry the structure of their bones around my insides...and try to tell the world, '...They were more than that.'" Allison Moorer is a Grammy- and Academy Award-nominated singer-songwriter whose father killed her mother when Allison and her sister were young. A longtime musical storyteller, Moorer examines her parents, her youth, and that pivotal tragedy, considering how it has shaped her into her adult self and how much of her identity is separate from that horrifying event and its endless repercussions. There's a lot of pain here. But Blood doesn't read as though Moorer is flogging her significant sorrow and anger or highlighting dramatic events for memoir or record sales. I felt like I was following her on her honest, zigzagging, messy journey toward gaining more of an understanding of the people her parents were and the forces that shaped their lives (and their daughters' lives)--as though I was witnessing her step-by-step movement toward something that more closely resembles peace. The foreword was written by Allison's sister, singer and songwriter Shelby Lynne. Regarding their talking through their past together, Moorer says: "So many memories we share and purposely keep well-oiled. We keep them alive even if they hurt us and suck up all the air in the room. They are all we have of our folks and the family we were." For my full review of this book, please see Blood. 05 Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come by Jessica Pan Jessica Pan was an introvert out of a job. Her closest friends had moved away, and she found herself lonely, living in another country, and feeling too reliant on her husband for her entire social life. Pan decided to deliberately put herself into extremely uncomfortable social situations for a year, and she fully commits. She does improv, approaches strangers on the Tube, goes on friend dates, attends networking events, takes a vacation alone (to a destination she doesn't learn until she's at the airport), and more. She regrets her one-year plan almost instantly but feels compelled to continue her terrifying exercises. Her interviews and experiences with others who mentor her journey in different ways could have felt disruptive or jarring but didn't; they added a layer to her story that I found interesting and often revelatory. Pan is wonderfully honest, appealingly thoughtful, and often so so funny. I was so happy spending time in her point of view throughout this book. I loved it and I'd read another book by her in a second. For my full review of this book, please see Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come. 06 Wild Life by Keena Roberts Keena Roberts grew up splitting her time between a primate research camp in Botswana, where she felt at home, and an elite Philadelphia girls' school, where she did not. Wild Life's subtitle, Dispatches from a Childhood of Baboons and Button-Downs, felt whimsical and light. But Roberts's memoir doesn't merely explore her culture shock, as interesting as that is. She reflects upon her identity in a raw and genuine way that I found gripping. Her disparate life experiences ultimately led her to think deeply about her place in the world, her responsibility to humans and animals, and how she might better the lives of others. This memoir was more than I'd hoped for. I love a peek at wildlife and living in the wild. I adored reading Roberts's account of her journey, from acting in a supporting role for her parents' research to discovering her own challenging, meaningful, and important career and calling. For my full review of this book, please see Wild Life.

Powerful Books about the Experiences of Immigrants I could have listed many other powerful books about immigrants. But these four fiction works and two nonfiction titles resonated with me, each offering glimpses into the challenges and triumphs of leaving one land and tackling another; striving to hold on to culture while navigating unfamiliar pitfalls; and facing the fears and joys of seeking a new life in a new place. 01 Pachinko by Min Jin Lee In the early 1900s, a teenager falls for a silver-tongued stranger on the coast of Korea. But when the relationship falters, she flees into a marriage with a sickly traveling minister and escapes to Japan, setting in motion the events that will shape the generations to come. Noa didn’t care about being Korean when he was with her; in fact, he didn’t care about being Korean or Japanese with anyone. He wanted to be, to be just himself, whatever that meant; he wanted to forget himself sometimes. Pachinko is a sweeping generational story of hardship, sacrifice, and fifty years of Korean-Japanese cultural conflict beginning in the early twentieth century, as seen through the experiences of one family. The many details of daily life (food, dress, tradition) in Korea and Japan made the almost-500-page story come alive for me. 02 The Girl Who Smiled Beads by Clemantine Wamariya Wow. Wamariya writes beautifully and brutally honestly about her journey of fleeing from Rwanda and through six other African countries—with her tough, hustling older sister Claire—during and after the Rwandan genocide. In The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After , Wamariya recalls her experiences through her childlike point of view, which allows for a painfully pure set of painful memories, betrayals, horrors, and sometimes a steeled numbness. Wamariya shares her views of the world, her often jarring experiences in the US—with her sister and family on weekends in inner city Chicago and her weekday life and schooling in wealthy Kenilworth, then Hotchkiss and Yale and beyond—and her search to help other refugees’ stories be known and for her own peace. The author's tone and voice is like poetry at times, raw and spare and true. 03 In the Country We Love: My Family Divided by Diane Guerrero The heart of Diane Guerrero's story is powerful: a hardworking family is preyed upon by criminals' financially ruinous scams against undocumented workers; the family members experience years of constant fears of deportation; and then they must face the shocking potential reality of deportation itself. Guerrero's interest in drama and her later fame ultimately help buoy her up despite her personal agony and family heartbreak, and she ultimately becomes an activist for immigration reform. Meanwhile, Guerrero is young and often sounds like it as she flits from topic to topic in her account of her life and especially her experiences as an actress in Orange Is the New Black . The details of her immigrant family's challenges, struggles, and strength were the elements I found most affecting about In the Country We Love . 04 The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing by Mira Jacob When practical surgeon Thomas begins speaking aloud and at length to his long-dead Indian relatives, his daughter Amina is called home to try to soothe him and help her mother figure out what's going on. In The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing , Jacob alternates between the past and present, India and Seattle, shaping the stories of each of the family members Thomas is conversing with and ultimately telling the story of an extended family and its many ups and downs. The title may be a little self-conscious, but the book itself is darkly funny, with wonderfully paced dialogue and compelling characters' lives you can get lost in. The title may be a little self-conscious, but the book itself is darkly funny, with wonderfully paced dialogue and compelling characters' lives you can get lost in. Jacob writes beautiful meditations on allowing oneself to either be haunted by the past or embrace its everyday presence in your life; accepting fateful choices and their ongoing impact; carving out an identity that both encompasses and is separate from a family's immigration, ethnicity, and familial ties; and letting go. 05 Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions by Valeria Luiselli Because—how do you explain that it is never inspiration that drives you to tell a story, but rather a combination of anger and clarity? How do you say: No, we do not find inspiration here, but we find a country that is as beautiful as it is broken, and we are somehow now part of it, so we are also broken with it, and feel ashamed, confused, and sometimes hopeless, and are trying to figure out how to do something about all that. This is a long essay (but a short book) illustrating the complex behind-the-scenes challenges and tragedies surrounding the child migration crisis in the US. Luiselli structures Tell Me How It Ends around the forty questions interpreters ask of undocumented children during their intake interviews upon arrival in the country. She explores the contradictions between potential safety and a future for immigrants and a reality that is more brutal and uncertain than the children and their parents may have feared. ​ 6 A Woman Is No Man by Etaf Rum In A Woman Is No Man , Etaf Rum explores the often powerless and essentially voiceless statuses of her female characters within their conservative Arab culture, both in Palestine and as immigrants and first-generation Americans in New York. Much of this is dark. Yet there are bright points: some rare friendships emerge, sisters build intense loyalty to each other, girls and women find joy in secret reading and in books, women find strength and demand truth rather than secrecy, and there are occasional breaks to freedom. The details Rum provides as a thread throughout the book of the food, spices, and meals that create much of the structure of the women’s days are wonderful. A Woman Is No Man ultimately explores the superhuman drive and bravery required by Rum's female characters--but also many other real-life women in comparable situations--to write a new history, one in which they enjoy basic freedoms and a voice. For my full review of this book, please see A Woman Is No Man .

Royalty, Intrigue, and Magically Wonderful Stories It's tough to fall in love with the first book in a series and then twiddle thumbs waiting for the next installment, then scramble to try to dive back into the setting and emotional investment while trying to remember what the heck happened in book one. But each of these series is complete , so if you haven't started them yet, you won't have to wait years for the sequels to be published. You are welcome! Another series that would fit perfectly within this list is the wonderful Winternight trilogy by Katherine Arden. I reviewed the first book, The Bear and the Nightingale , here , and I mentioned the series, which is set in Russia and has a dark fairy-tale tone, in the Greedy Reading List Six Magical Fairy Tales Grown-Ups Will Love . Have you read any of these books? What other series that have to do with court, queens, and royalty would you include on this list? 01 The Conquerer’s Saga series by Kiersten White White's And I Darken , the first book in her Conquerer's Saga series, has cover art that to me evokes fantasy, but the series is actually captivating historical fiction. I loved the Ottoman Empire setting, the strong female main protagonist, and the complications and sometimes burdens of loyalty, love, and and conflicting allegiances. The next books in Kiersten White's trilogy are Now I Rise and Bright We Burn . In Now I Rise , Lada is tough as nails but faulted, and we see her forge her identity more fully through every ruthless or merciful move she makes, buoyed by the loyalty of her dedicated followers. Bright We Burn is brutal, unrelenting, and fierce. I thought this final book in the trilogy was wonderful. Resolutions were graceful and fitting without being too easy. I gave each of these books four stars. 02 His Fair Assassin series by Robin LaFevers Grave Mercy is the first in LaFevers's five-book His Fair Assassin series. Main protagonist Ismae escapes an arranged marriage, arrives at a convent, and is ultimately trained as an assassin and must eliminate her victim within the high court of Brittany. I loved this book and was so engrossed, I could have read it in one fell swoop--except for the fact that it's 500+ pages. It's a little dark, consistently fascinating, sometimes funny, and very satisfying. This blend of historical fiction, fantasy, and paranormal continues with LaFevers's Dark Triumph , Mortal Heart , Courting Darkness , and Igniting Darkness . In Dark Triumph , the book's point of view traces events concurrent with those in the first book, so the reader can see how it all overlaps. I was absolutely hooked. Mortal Heart offers a melding of tidier-than-likely resolutions and dramatic romantic situations that I had no argument with--I found it all fabulously satisfying. I gave each of the first four books in LaFevers's His Fair Assassin series either three and a half ( Mortal Heart ) or four stars ( Grave Mercy and Dark Triumph ), and I just recently realized that I initially thought this was a trilogy and haven't finished this series, so I'm eager to read the last two installments, Courting Darkness and Igniting Darkness . 03 The Shadow and Bone trilogy by Leigh Bardugo I loooove me some Leigh Bardugo. Shadow and Bone is my favorite among multiple great Bardugo series, and it's also the title of the first book in Bardugo's trilogy. In book one, Alina, a refugee, uncovers an unlikely depth of powers with the ability to destroy or to heal. She finds that she may be the only hope to save her war-torn country. I love Bardugo's pacing, dialogue, twists and turns, character development, all of it, and I gave this book five stars. In the second book of the series, Siege and Storm , The Darkness emerges with a destructive and dangerous plan to crush everything Alina has ever known and loved. She is forced to reckon with the potential end to her land, her people, her love--and even her own powers. Bardugo doesn't take the easy way out with the plot, and the dialogue here is funny and smart. She builds on complicating elements, and character development is satisfying but the interpersonal relations are believably tricky at times. I gave it four stars. In Ruin and Rising , The Darkness is ruling Ravka, and the light and power meant to weaken him seem far away, holding little hope. I adored this final installment in the trilogy and gave it five stars. It's dark and darkly funny, with twists, turns, and satisfying relationship growth. 04 The Folk of the Air series by Holly Black The Folk of the Air is a young adult fantasy trilogy from Holly Black. The Cruel Prince is the first book, The Wicked King is the second, and the final book, The Queen of Nothing , is currently in "just started" position on my bedside table. In The Cruel Prince , Jude and her sister are sent to live with the enemy in the High Court of Faerie after their parents are brutally murdered. I was hooked from the first scene. There was some story meandering and I would have liked to see more character development for Taryn, but I enjoyed the forays back and forth from the human world to the faerie, the various things-aren’t-what-they-seem plot elements, and how things weren’t black-and-white. In The Wicked King , surprising revelations, shifting alliances, opaque political machinations, and enmity between main characters all complicate things for Jude. I loved the intrigue, clever plotting, complicated loyalties and desires, creatures of all kinds, plus: a twist...and double twist! And a cross...and double-cross! The final book in the series, The Queen of Nothing, catches up with Jude, who has been exiled. A dormant curse and dark power is unleashed, threatening humanity. Jude must determine whether her power to rule or the needs of her people will win out in her loyalties, while also facing confusing and maddening feelings for her former nemesis. 05 The Queen’s Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner Oh, these books! In The Thief , we're introduced to the irresistible character of Gen. He's plucked from the royal prison to help the king's magus find an ancient treasure. Things aren’t exactly what they seem in this first installment of the intriguingly twisty, turny series. The Thief is a book that frankly would stand alone beautifully, but instead, luckily for us, it begins Turner's six-book series, which offers wonderfully flawed characters, plot twists and revelations, great banter, and endings you may not predict. The Queen of Attolia , The King of Attolia , A Conspiracy of Kings (this was possibly my favorite among favorites), Thick As Thieves , and Return of the Thief are the other books in the series. These six books were published over a period of almost twenty-five years, and the story trail traces the charismatic Gen through what are consistently and, for me, wonderfully unexpected developments related to plot, character arc, point of view, morality, origin stories, conflict, despair, and love. If you haven't read this series yet, consider me envious. I just adored it and constantly recommend it. 06 The Queen of the Tearling series by Erika Johansen Exiled Princess Kelsea is trying to reclaim the crown her mother squandered away, while also fighting off the evil powers of The Red Queen in Mortmesne and securing safety for her people in their land, The Tearling. Queen of the Tearling traces the backstories of key characters and offers varied points of view. Queen of the Tearling was Johansen's debut novel. The Invasion of the Tearling offers more history of the Crossing, which led people to settle in The Tearling. In The Fate of the Tearling , the final book in the trilogy, J ohansen offers peeks at her characters' pasts as well as the forces that shaped the Tearling, and she plays with time and reality to create an ending to the trilogy that I didn't anticipate. In Beneath the Keep , the trilogy's prequel, the kingdom's evils are intensely detailed and extensively explored; this motivates characters to seek change, but also made the book a little difficult for me to read. I reviewed The Fate of the Tearling here , and Beneath the Keep , the trilogy's prequel, here .

You Had Me at "Time Travel" I love a time-travel story in any genre, and this Greedy Reading List offers a little of everything: light fiction/rom-com, mystery, fantasy, contemporary fiction, and science fiction. Time-travel and time shifts allow a story to go places it otherwise never could, allowing for unusual perspective, second chances, and realizations. Books that play with time almost always go straight on my to-read list. If you're intrigued by time-travel stories, you might also like the books on the Greedy Reading Lists Six Riveting Time-Travel Stories to Explore and Six Second-Chance, Do-Over, Reliving-Life Stories . Are there any stories you love that play with time? 01 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. Her mother dedicated her life to searching for her own brother, who disappeared decades ago, and enlisted daughter August in her obsessive research and in her driven questioning of even the most tangentially connected potential contacts in order to try to find out what happened. 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. The book revels in wonderful LGBTQ love and tons of sexiness; fantastic New York-centric details; and enough musical references that multiple Spotify playlists exist that are inspired by the songs in the book. For my full review of this book, check out One Last Stop . 02 The Last Magician by Lisa Maxwell In Lisa Maxwell's The Last Magician , a smart master thief bends time and finds her loyalties divided in turn-of-the-century New York. I appreciated the character of Esta as a smart master thief who can bend time, and I loved the 1901 New York setting, Dolph Saunders as a kindly magical mobster, Viola as a lesbian tough girl (with a heart of gold!) who's a genius with knives, and Harte Darrigan as a stage (and actual) magician whose loyalties are difficult to pin down. Add in the Brink as a method of controlling those with magic, the Book and its unclear powers, and the discriminatory, powerful, and dangerous Order and there's a steady, sinister underlying feel to the story. I don't think it benefited me to listen to The Last Magician , the first in Maxwell's series, as an audiobook, what with the jumps through time; varied points of view; layered disloyalties, misdirections, and motivations; and the extensive double-crossing. Some of the twists at the end felt implausible, but others wrapped up frustrating revelations in satisfying ways. For my full review of this book, check out The Last Magician . 03 Lost in Time by A.G. Riddle A.G. Riddle's time-travel story centers around reconciling the inability to change what has already occurred, but the necessity of doing so to save loved ones. With a twist! When we created Absalom, we weren't trying to build a time machine. We were trying to build a machine that saved our families. In A.G. Riddle's 450-page multiple-timeline story Lost in Time , a group of scientists have developed a device called Absalom. First intended to revolutionize shipping, its limitations and its vast possibilities lead to a new purpose: to send dangerous criminals back in time. When Sam, one of the creators of the system, is framed for the murder of another creator, he finds himself about to be sent back in his own creation as punishment. But his physicist friends are determined to try to get him back to the present again somehow. If only Sam had had time to do more than give himself a crash course in reading about the Triassic Period (weather, Pangea, dinosaur identification) or to hear his friends' ambitious plan for his return before being whisked back in time. For my full review of this book, check out Lost in Time . 04 Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister 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 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. Somehow she's reliving yesterday again. Can she shift the future by changing the past? 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. For my full review of this book, check out Wrong Place, Wrong Time . 05 This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub 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. 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. This was one of my favorite reads of the year last year. For my full review of this book, please see This Time Tomorrow . 06 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 in place mainly to serve as a structure to surround 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. This book appeared on the Greedy Reading List Six More Science Fiction Reads I Loved in the Past Year . Click here for my review of Mandel's Station Eleven . For my full review of this book, please check out Sea of Tranquility .

Six Great Bossy Nonfiction Reads I promise that this is the last roundup list of 2023 favorites, which seems appropriate now that we have entered the month of May, 2024, ahem. If you've read any of these books, I'd love to hear what you think! You can find some of my many other lists of favorite nonfiction and memoir roundups here: Six of My Favorite Nonfiction Reads from the Past Year Six Compelling Nonfiction Reads Six Illuminating Memoirs to Dive Into Six Musicians' Memoirs that Sing Six More Fascinating Memoirs to Explore And you can click here for other memoir titles and here for more nonfiction titles I've reviewed on Bossy Bookworm. What are some of your recent favorite nonfiction or memoir reads? 01 Solito: A Memoir 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 childhood journey. 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. 02 Being Henry: The Fonz...and Beyond by Henry Winkler Winkler is candid, charming, self-deprecating, and delighted by life and his experiences. I loved listening to him read the audiobook of Being Henry. I listened to Henry Winkler read his irresistibly candid, funny, and poignant memoir. Winkler explores his childhood and his critical, yelling, stressed parents, survivors of the Holocaust who were later concerned with wealthy appearances and often in terrible debt. He credits their appreciation for his fame but not for him as a person for his lifetime of insecurity, difficulty opening up emotionally, and need for ongoing therapy. He also shares his lifelong joy in putting on other personas and his professional ups and downs, including the luck, grit, and adventures of starring in Happy Days, Arrested Development, Parks and Recreation, and Barry. Winkler brings heart and honesty to the story of his life, and I loved it. I received a prepublication audiobook version of this title courtesy of NetGalley and Macmillan Audio. For my full review, check out Being Henry. 03 You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith Poet Maggie Smith's memoir traces the end of her marriage, and she weaves in history and hopes for the future while acknowledging 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 The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama I listened to this audiobook and highly recommend immersing yourself in Michelle Obama's voice as she shares calm, wise, funny, or poignant reflections, personal practices, and gems of advice regarding retaining hope and being your best self. I read Michelle Obama's wonderful book Becoming, but after my wise friend Katherine mentioned having listened to it, I immediately wished I had heard Michelle's calming voice read it to me too. So I decided to listen to The Light We Carry and was instantly sure audiobook was the right format for me. Rather than pretending there are quick fixes for life's challenges and difficulties, Obama opens up her "toolbox" of emotional, meditative, and optimistic methods of coping, reminding herself of what's what, and ways in which she carries on in the face of adversity. While her White House circumstances are unusual and some of her related recollections are unique, her methods translate to the rest of us and daily life. She builds her book around pivotal encounters with others or aims to answer questions that have been frequently posed to her, along the way sharing more of the story of her family, marriage, political life, friendships, frustrations, hopes, goals, and joys. Her writing--deep self-reflection with sometimes poetic phrasing--is just beautiful. I loved reading this and loved spending time with Michelle Obama. Please click here for my full review of The Light We Carry. 05 Unmasked: My Life Solving America's Cold Cases by Paul Holes with Robin Gaby Fisher I was fascinated by 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. 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. Holes 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 was captivated by the often slow, sometimes shockingly swift realizations and their implications. The development of DNA analysis and technological possibilities was fascinating. While the work almost certainly was tedious, Unmasked never is, and I never felt that Holes (with Fisher) was inserting drama that didn't inherently exist. For my full review, check out Unmasked. 06 A Fever in the Heartland by Timothy Egan In this narrative nonfiction, Egan explores the Klan's explosive growth and power in the 1920s in states like Indiana and beyond, while illustrating the unlikely heroine whose bravery began to bring justice to the evil leaders and implode the hate group. In 1922, the Ku Klux Klan was roaring through states like Indiana, adding tens of thousands of members so that its ranks swelled to 400,000 in that state. A Fever in the Heartland traces the horrifying and powerful growth of hate, buoyed by greed and intolerance, in the form of the Klan. The demonic con man at the heart of much of the Klan's spread is shown to be a monster with the worst imaginable faults of cruelty, ignorance, narcissism, and disregard for human life. My blood pressure was way up as I listened to the audiobook of the book and learned about the many shocking atrocities that took place during the course of events explored here. The Klan's eventual comeuppance takes up a comparatively small portion of the book, but offers a beginning to justice being served. For my full review, please check out A Fever in the Heartland. You can click here to find other books I've read and reviewed that explore issues of race and politics or social justice as well as other fascinating nonfiction titles.

Some Lighter Fiction Favorites What I love about a romantic, rom-com, lighter fiction read is that real, weighty issues can be raised within the satisfyingly sweet story: characters may cope with abuse or alcohol abuse; they may struggle to feel self-respect, a healthy body image, or to establish a true and real sense of self; and they might also find themselves capable of demonstrating strength in difficult circumstances. In a rom-com or lighter fiction story, all of these issues can be explored within a safe space--amid swirling attraction, burgeoning romance, self-discovery, some temporary heartbreak, and, typically, a satisfying ending. I love this balance. I'm due to create another Greedy Reading List of my more recently read light fiction favorites, but meanwhile, you can find other Bossy light fiction reviews here . I'm solidly in love with Christina Lauren's and Emily Henry's books, and I haven't yet read everything by the other authors listed here. What other lighter fiction authors or stories do you love? 01 Head Over Heels by Hannah Orenstein Nineteen-year-old Avery Abrams was set to be the next big gymnastics Olympic champion. She had the training, the talent, and the drive. But during the Olympic Trials, she sustained a career-ending injury. For the next few years she dabbled in college, she partied, she drifted, she dated a professional football player, but she didn't find peace and wasn't able to truly come to terms with her new reality. When she hits a version of rock bottom and moves home, Avery's former teammate and crush Ryan (who did become an Olympic champion) talks her into helping him coach Hallie, a young phenom at the gym where Avery spent much of her youth. With lots of gymnastics details that made the setting come to life, Head Over Heels was the engrossing, light fiction book I needed. Orenstein didn't hit any false notes for me and kept me satisfyingly wrapped up in the elite gymnastics world of the story. For my full review, see Head Over Heels . 02 Dear Emmie Blue by Lia Louis Sometimes in order to delve into a lighter fiction book I find that I have to suspend my disbelief about typical human behavior. But letting go of expectations about realistic cause and effect in order to buy into a romantic setup (see my review of What You Wish For ) is far more difficult for me than suspending my disbelief in order to buy into outlandish or supernatural aspects of a romantic but otherwise truly oddball book (see my review of My Lady Jane ). The premise of Dear Emmie Blue made me wonder if the story would feel too far-fetched. But Lia Louis's characters are appealingly faulted and sometimes selfish and foolish. Unlikely bonds are forged and reforged within the story. And there's a love triangle in this book that I adored. For my full review, please see Dear Emmie Blue . Lia Louis is also the author of Eight Perfect Hours and The Key to My Heart . 03 Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center This book hit the spot for me. Katherine Center's Cassie is a tough-as-nails firefighter who has closed herself off emotionally to protect herself. Her life is orderly and regimented and under control. So clearly everything is about to be upended so that Cassie will be forced to alter her plans and careful schedule and figure out how to come through it all. Although I saw some of the big plot events coming in Things You Save in a Fire , Center makes the journey so enjoyable that I just didn't care. This novel is satisfying escapism, but it's not silly or outlandish. Things You Save in a Fire is a quick read that addresses serious matters—betrayal, loyalty, duty, trust, and love, with a little sleuthing and romance to round out things. I thought it was great. For my full review of this book, please see Things You Save in a Fire . 04 Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating by Christina Lauren Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating totally fits the bill for light-fiction escapism--in this case, with lots of sexy talk and sexy scenes and sexy thoughts and sex. Hazel is a strong personality, and I found myself bristling at her questioning whether she's too much sometimes. Yet the authors clearly care deeply about their characters, the characters care deeply about each other, and I cared that they cared. All of this makes for a heartwarming read in which everyone is trying to love and live and be happy. You can see a satisfying version of happily ever after coming, but I didn't predict the circumstances. For my full review of this book, please see Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating . Click here for my reviews of Lauren's The Unhoneymooners , In a Holidaze , Love and Other Words , The Soulmate Equation (a favorite), and Autoboyography (another favorite and a young adult LGBTQ+ gem). 05 Beach Read by Emily Henry Is it fair for a person (me) with particular requirements for light fiction (ideally: not too outlandish of a hook and premise, characters who follow somewhat logical steps in their lives, inner voices that feel real, human connections that warm my heart, and a little romantic something-something) to continue reading rom-coms and lighter fiction while constantly kind of expecting disappointment? Yes. Yes, it is. Because I suspected that Emily Henry's Beach Read might be a major gem on my light fiction-escapism-pandemic-era reading list and a book that might bring me fully into the bosom of this genre. And fortunately, I was correct. The initial scene-setting didn't feel as authentic to me as the rest of the book. But after that, Beach Read met all of my criteria above and more; it's sweet and funny, it's about writing and books, there are wonderfully faulted love-crossed main protagonists with a shared history, and they share a sexy-playful-obsession that might lead to heartbreak or might lead to love. For my full review of this book, see Beach Read . And click here for my review of Emily Henry's People We Meet on Vacation . Stay tuned for my upcoming review of her newest, Book Lovers . 06 One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London In Kate Stayman-London's One to Watch , Bea Schumacher is a popular plus-size fashion blogger who has Instagram fame, wonderful friends--and an unhealthy obsession with a male friend who's attached to someone else. After she drunk-blogs scathing comments about the unrealistic body images of the stars of Main Squeeze (a reality TV show in which a single woman dates strangers hand-picked by the producers and aims to marry one of them), Bea is surprised when a show producer reaches out to her with an unexpected question: Would Bea consider starring in a season of Main Squeeze ? Bea finds the proposal laughable, then considers what it might mean for her career, for promoting body positivity, and maybe even for her lackluster romantic life. She decides that she's in--for a fantastic wardrobe, incredibly awkward moments, scripted romance, and a beautiful Malibu backdrop. What could go wrong? I was especially intrigued by how Bea navigated multiple suitors ( Bachelorette -style) and by her attempts to give each his due while simultaneously dating and honestly considering the others. She didn't lose sight of embracing each new experience while reflecting on what she wanted her future to look like after the show, above and beyond what others attempted to script or suggest. For my full review of this book, please see One to Watch .

The Robot Books I love a good artificial intelligence- or robot-focused story, and these six (plus, in several cases, their sequels) really captivated me. Have you read any of these books? I'd love to hear what you thought! Which other books should I add to my to-read robot book list? 01 The Murderbot Diaries series by Martha Wells You can click the links here to find my full Bossy reviews of Murderbot books 1 through 3 ( All Systems Red , Artificial Condition , and Rogue Protocol ), book 4, Exit Strategy , book 5, Network Effect , book 6, Fugitive Telemetry , and book 7, System Collapse . SecUnit is a company-supplied security android who accompanies corporate forays into planetary exploration. Unbeknownst to its clients, SecUnit has hacked its governor module--and secretly refers to itself as Murderbot. Privately disdainful of the weak, inefficient humans it protects, Murderbot is exploring who it is and what is possible. SecUnit is a fantastic main character; it's grumpily and charmingly obsessed with keeping its people safe and with not being touched or talked to about feelings. It gleans tips about holding conversations and functioning around others by watching its favorite show, The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon . Murderbot befriends other AI beings; it's constantly and cleverly problem-solving; it sulks and likes to veg out with its media; and it grudgingly becomes attached to certain humans in its orbit. The Murderbot series is funny and poignant and odd and wonderful. Click here for my glowing reviews of the first three books in this series and click here for my reviews of Exit Strategy and Network Effect . 02 Goddess in the Machine by Lora Beth Johnson This story features supporting AI and robot characters in an intriguing futuristic setting. Lora Beth Johnson hooked me immediately with the premise of Goddess in the Machine and with main protagonist Andra's voice. Teenage Andra wakes up after being cryogenically preserved for a century-long journey to a new planet. She's a little creaky and sore, sure, but she's ready to be reunited with the team, which includes her mother and the rest of her family, plus many others involved in the complex project. They'll begin the work of bravely populating and building a society on this new planet. But Andra soon realizes she wasn't sleeping for 100 years. She was asleep for 1,000. The people, terrain, and language are not what she studied for or expected, everyone she once knew has already lived and died--oh, and the general population, whoever they are, thinks she's a goddess, and they've been waiting excitedly for her to wake up and save them. There's a twist/double twist in Goddess in the Machine that I didn't see coming, and I found the whole story compelling. For my full review, please see Goddess in the Machine . The sequel to this book is Devil in the Device . 03 Machinehood by S. B. Divya In her debut novel, Machinehood , S. B. Divya sets the scene in the world of 2095. Humanity around the world is reliant on homemade and commercially manufactured pills--for health, for work focus, for managing bots, for healing, for sleep, and for transitioning between all of the above. The economy runs on robots, partially augmented humans, and humans desperately trying to compete with artificial intelligence and survive in the gig economy. Space! Robots! Artificial intelligence! I wished for more page time spent on everyday tasks and activities (cooking, shifting household modules, travel, and communicating), which were all carried out in Jetsons-level, fascinating, futuristic ways. But Divya is too busy crafting strong female main protagonists (complete with working mother guilt, which exists in the future too) as they: navigate ethical considerations such as pressures on workers and workload expectations; consider modifications to the body to enable faster or more strenuous work; manage the implications of a backlash against artificial enhancements; and face society's inability to extricate itself and the worldwide economy from a reliance on pills. The management of many large-scale issues and their side effects are shown in shades of gray rather than black-and-white, including the meaning and value of personhood; the definitions of health, autonomy, and freedom; sometimes-necessary compromises; and the promise for the future of the world. For my full review of this book, please see Machinehood . 04 Skyhunter by Marie Lu In Skyhunter , Lu offers a story about refugees desperately trying to escape becoming conscripted into the Federation army; elite Striker fighters trying to salvage their society despite the Federation's widespread and evil efforts; and the demonization of the "other." A mysterious prisoner from the front arrives who could be friend or foe, and our main protagonist Talin must figure out whether to destroy him or trust him with her life--before things unravel irrevocably for her and her fellow warriors. The surprising ending made my heart stop. Then I remembered that this was the first in a series and that the story would continue past the final complications and shocking events, so I did not hurl the book through the window. Complex motivations are at work here, as well as clashes between idealism and realism and editorialization about class and race. There is plenty of substance and depth in this young adult title to captivate adult readers. Skyhunter  made it onto this list because of the augmented humans in the book. For my full review of this book, please see Skyhunter . And check out my Bossy review of the sequel, Steelstriker . 05 An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green “We are each individual, but the far greater thing is what we are together, and if that isn't protected and cherished, we are headed to a bad place.” Green's An Absolutely Remarkable Thing is a gloriously oddball book with lots of heart. In the middle of the night on a New York City street, April and her friend Andy stumble across something truly weird--a giant metal soldier sculpture that reminds them of a samurai. They happily record a video with the sculpture, which they call Carl, and upload it to YouTube. The next day, the world is changed. Carls have cropped up in cities throughout the world. What is the meaning of these robotlike creatures? Are they neutral, are they sinister, or might they be here to save humanity? The faulted character of April May was wonderful, and I was fascinated by the way her actions and hopes allowed a peek into a fame- and attention-seeking existence. Also: Robin! And: Carl—! For my full review of both books in the Carls series, see An Absolutely Remarkable Thing and A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor . 06 Sleeping Giants (Themis Files #1) by Sylvain Neuvel A girl named Rose in rural South Dakota falls into a hole that has intricate carvings covering the walls and wakes up in the palm of an enormous robot hand. Where did it come from? What do the carvings mean? What is the purpose of any of this? Years later Rose is a world-renowned physicist working to unlock the secrets of the hand and the curious artifacts, but the mysteries persist. The interview structure keeps the characters at a distance from the reader, yet Neuvel allows their spoken-only participation in the book to express their growth, hopes, and fears. The characters are relating events that have already happened through the lenses of their own points of view, creating the potential for unreliable narrators, characters who are hiding important information, and many resulting twists and turns. Neuvel explores concepts of personal responsibility, how the possibility of life beyond Earth affects everything, and how manipulation and observation--potentially by other beings in the solar system--shape behavior. Also: the ending--! The next books in this series are Waking Gods and Only Human , and I enjoyed them both.

The Life-and-Death Books I've Loved Who's with me in having an obsession with reading about facing mortality? Does it stem from being in middle age? Is it because I have a cancer history? Is it simply morbid fascination? It's the human condition that we're all headed in the same eventual direction, and I'm captivated by explorations of what make up a meaningful life (or death, or both) and by stories, true or fictionalized, about facing mortality. If you're intrigued by facing the intertwined beauty and pain of our finite trips around the sun, you might also want to check out the memoirs I've loved on my first Greedy Reading List on the subject, Six Powerful Memoirs about Facing Mortality, which included the beautiful books The Unwinding of the Miracle; I Am, I Am, I Am; When Breath Becomes Air; Everything Happens for a Reason; The Bright Hour; and I've Seen the End of You. Have you read books in this vein that you'd recommend? (Or do you stay far away from such topics?) 01 In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss by Amy Bloom Amy Bloom writes with brutal honesty about her heartbreak and her determination to support her husband Brian Ameche's desire to end his life on his own terms. In her memoir In Love, author Amy Bloom shares the story of an impossible situation: the pending loss of her husband Brian Ameche, first mentally and then physically, to Alzheimer's disease. Ameche begins showing cognitive loss, and when a diagnosis is established of Alzheimer's disease, he considers the cases of those he has known who suffered for many years from the disease--and their caregivers alongside them. He becomes determined to participate in an assisted suicide program while he is still showing enough cognition to enter into the agreement. In Love includes dark humor; some self-flagellation and brutal honesty about what Bloom perceives as her own instances of weakness and pettiness; intense kindness from others in desperately needed moments; and the dogged determination from various individuals to help Ameche's vision of taking control of circumstances surrounding the end of his life occur. You can find my full review of In Love here. 02 No Cure for Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear) by Kate Bowler Touching, honest, raw, funny, and full of gritty reflections about life and faith, this was a read that I absolutely adored and gave five Bossy stars. THIS BOOK! Reading memoirs centered around cancer is not always a go for me, but this book was special. Divinity professor Kate Bowler offers meaningful insight, gritty truth-telling, and wry humor as she shares her experiences surrounding facing stage 4 colon cancer. I finished No Cure for Being Human in one evening, tabbed many, many passages, immediately bought my own copy, re-tabbed everything, and would have been perfectly willing to read the book again in its entirety right away. So many moments struck me, surprised me, or touched me as I read this lovely work, including Bowler's exploration of how our lives are largely shaped by choices out of our control and her reckoning with the way in which she considers her body after cancer treatment ("Who would fault a body that has survived so much and asked for so little?"). No Cure for Being Human is beautiful, funny, heartwarming, practical, and Kate Bowler is so wise and wonderful, I hugged this book to my chest when I finished reading it. For my full review, check out No Cure for Being Human. 03 This Shining Life by Harriet Kline Kline's poignant, lovely book explores a family's emotional missteps and enduring love after a painful loss, and their hard-fought resolutions and tentative steps forward. Young Ollie finds people confusing. They don't always say what they mean, and lately they're often crying. Harriet Kline's This Shining Life tracks Ollie's attempts to make sense of things after his father Rich's death from cancer; it follows his mother Ruth's adjustment to life without her free-spirited, joy-filled partner; and it tracks the grief and the resulting shifts within their close-knit extended family. Rich left small gifts to his loved ones, and Ollie becomes convinced that if he searches hard enough for meaning in these items, he'll uncover essential clues about the meaning of life and be able to understand what happened to his father. It's heartbreaking to witness various family members' attempts to do what they think is best for themselves and for others, often misreading what's needed or wanted. The examinations of mortality and of love and of living life fully are poignant and lovely, and the last ten percent of this book is so beautiful, it brought me to tears. You can find my full review of This Shining Life here. 04 Nobody Will Tell You This But Me: A True (As Told to Me) Story by Bess Kalb This is an irresistible tribute to Kalb's funny, opinionated, fiercely loving grandmother--a granddaughter's best friend and a wise and formidable character. I listened to Bess Kalb's irresistible love letter to her late grandmother, Nobody Will Tell You This But Me. The audiobook was wonderful and read by Kalb. The author saved every one of her grandmother's voicemails, and here she uses them--along with emails, letters, vividly recalled conversations, and her grandma Bobby's imagined thoughts from beyond the grave--to construct a picture of a formidable, tough-love, fiercely protective matriarch in Bobby Bell. of doubting his faith, God, his life’s work, and his vision of an afterlife. This is a heartwarming, funny, poignant, sassy tribute to a life fully lived and to a determination love freely, deliberately, and unwaveringly. It made me laugh out loud and brought me to tears. I just adored this gem. Click here for my full review of Nobody Will Tell You This But Me. 05 The Light of the World by Elizabeth Alexander Poet Elizabeth Alexander writes a gorgeous account of her love affair with her husband and the trauma of his sudden death in a heartbreaking, heartwarming account of moving through the darkness and holding tight to life's beauty and its pain. “The story seems to begin with catastrophe but in fact began earlier and is not a tragedy but rather a love story. Perhaps tragedies are only tragedies in the presence of love, which confers meaning to loss. Loss is not felt in the absence of love.” In The Light of the World, Elizabeth Alexander writes gorgeously about Ficre Ghebreyesus, the husband she lost suddenly; the elements that made him irreplaceable to her and to the world; and the impossibility and inevitability of adjusting to life without him. Alexander shares the trauma surrounding this enormous loss--which occurred days after Ghebreyesus's fiftieth birthday surprise party--and her personal journey toward finding peace. Much of the book explores the beauty of companionship, and with poetic gorgeousness Alexander lays out her unique love story. You can find my full review of The Light of the World here. 06 The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin Cronin's debut novel explores mortality, vulnerability, surprising moments of joy and reflection, an irresistible young protagonist, and a wonderful array of friends who are like family. Lenni and Margot was one of my top twelve reads of the year the year I read it. Seventeen-year-old Lenni Pettersson lives in the terminal ward at the Glasgow Princess Royal Hospital. Her life expectancy isn't long, but Lenni still has a lot she wants to do and be. In the hospital's arts and crafts class, she meets 83-year-old Margot, a spirited, rebellious new friend. Collectively they've been around 100 years, but this just doesn't feel like enough, and they each want to leave their mark on the world. With the help of Father Arthur, the hospital chaplain, and a kind palliative care nurse, the friends make a plan to create one hundred paintings, one to represent each of their years of life. This goal adds structure to the novel, but the story is far richer than the characters' mission to create art. Another novel I loved that involves a precocious, wise, reflective, tough young protagonist is This Is All He Asks of You. Click here for my full review of The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot.

Six Great Australian Reads Fridays are for highlighting books I've loved, and I have a thing for books set in Australia (this is illustrated by my demonstrated Jane Harper obsession alone; two of her books are listed here and I stand by this wholeheartedly). Side note: Am I using "fair dinkum" correctly? I have a feeling someone will correct me if I'm wildly off base here. Other books with Australian settings that I've been hooked by include Jess Kidd's The Night Ship; Christina Baker Kline's The Exiles; two more by Jane Harper, The Dry and Force of Nature; Bill Bryson's In a Sunburned Country; The Rosie Project; Big Little Lies; and What Alice Forgot. If you've read any of the books mentioned here, I'd love to hear what you think! Do you have any favorite reads set in Australia? 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 The Wife and the Widow by Christian White 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. 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. The amateur taxidermy was fascinating and horrifying. For my full review, check out The Wife and the Widow. 03 The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton Morton offers a Secret Garden-type tale for grown-ups, with twisty stories connected across time. Cassandra is devastated. Her beloved grandmother Nell has just died, and Cassandra's life has felt shaky since a terrible accident a decade earlier. When Cassandra learns that she has inherited a book of dark fairy tales from Eliza Makepeace—the Victorian authoress who disappeared mysteriously in the early twentieth century—she begins a quest to discover the truth about her history, her family, and everything she thought she knew about her life. The Forgotten Garden was over 500 pages and I was engrossed the whole way through. This was like a Secret Garden for grown-ups, with intertwined, mysterious stories from 1900, 1975, and 2005 and a vivid setting, interesting characters, and enough twists to keep you guessing. Morton is also the author of The House at Riverton, The Forgotten Garden, The Distant Hours, The Secret Keeper, The Lake House, The Clockmaker's Daughter, and Homecoming. 04 Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton The emotions and drives of the story feel real, but the tone is darkly playful. I loved spending time with main protagonist Eli as he navigated tough situations and emerged with hope. Eli Bell is a young man in a tough spot. His father's out of the picture, his mother's in jail, his stepfather is gone, and his best friend and most solid source of advice is a convicted felon and legendary prison escapee, Slim. Eli's beloved older brother August is brilliant, but he never speaks. Things are complicated. Oh, and there's a secret panel in the back of the wardrobe at Eli's house. Behind the panel is a tunnel, and at the end of the tunnel is a room. In the room is a red telephone, and the male voice on the line gives Eli advice. Who is the man? Can he be trusted? Is any of this even real? Eli lives in a bleak, distant suburb of Brisbane, Australia. He wants to grow up and become a journalist, but for now his main goal is trying not to attract too much attention or bring any trouble down on himself or his brother. Trent's debut novel sifts through everyday brutality, corruption, and the general neglect of people and possessions and reveals imperfect goodness and hope. Boy Swallows Universe has many larger-than-life characters, especially its villains. Despite the desperate behaviors of the adults in Eli's life (and the terrible consequences he suffers because of them), he emerges as a fantastic, oddball, singularly heroic character I loved spending time with. For my full review, check out Boy Swallows Universe. 05 Only Killers and Thieves by Paul Howarth This story was often brutal to read, but it was beautifully written, in a style that felt perfectly suited for the stark Australian outback setting. Only Killers and Thieves is set in the Australian outback at the end of the 19th century. It centers around one family’s conflicts with crooked and powerful neighbors; cruel and aggressive Native Police aiming to eradicate the aboriginal people; the killing drought; and each other. One poor judgment leads to another, foolish choices end in bloodshed, and one brother makes justifications for his actions and feels no remorse, while the other brother feels crushed by it all. Howarth explores questions such as: Can people really change? Is remorse useful, and does it make a person more redeemable? Can a person’s character or morality be decided in a moment, or in a series of defining moments? Toward the end of Only Killers and Thieves, we see messy second chances take shape, a little retribution, and an attempt at a changed existence—but the haunting memories of the past creep in relentlessly. For my full review, check out Only Killers and Thieves. 06 The Lost Man by Jane Harper Harper's mysteries read like twisty character-driven Westerns set in Australia, and things aren’t always what they seem. Nathan and Bub have always had their differences, but they come together to grieve the loss of their brother Cam. Cam had been bothered by something before he died unexpectedly in the Australian outback desert, but was his death really the out-of-character suicide it was meant to look like--or did someone kill him? Nathan is no detective, but he owes it to Cam not to give up until he figures out what happened. Harper skillfully builds the pool of potential culprits for Nathan to examine in this story of uncovering truths, family history, loyalty, stubbornness, and love. Her books read like Westerns to me, and her sometimes spare tone suits the setting, the stark situations in which she places her characters, and the straightforward characters themselves. Things aren’t what they seem in The Lost Man, but Harper isn’t manipulative or tricky, either. I thought this was great. For my full review, check out The Lost Man. I listed this book in the Greedy Reading List The Six Best Mysteries I Read Last Year.

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.

Lighter Fiction Set in Show Biz I love a peek behind the scenes, and each of the novels here provides a fictionalized version of a movie or TV backdrop for the romance at its center. Whether the stories explore reconciling one's body image, making nice with a costar nemesis, adapting to the shock of a media whirlwind, or another set of complications, each of these novels captivates with its plausible look inside a secret, "glamorous" world--and often a far-from-perfect reality--that's foreign to most of us. Have you read any of these books? Have you read other novels with a TV, movie, or other media backdrop? 01 Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld 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 . 02 The Villain Edit by Laurie Devore Laurie Devore's novel goes behind the scenes of a reality dating show, complete with sordid details, manipulation, and manufactured moments, all serving as a backdrop to a fearless contestant's creeping toward destruction--and her struggle to figure out if the love she feels is real. Jac Matthis is a romance novelist whose first book tanked (the main protagonist chose her career over a man, enraging readers who'd been counting on a different happy ever after), leaving little audience for her second published book and nonexistent demand for a third. In an attempt to boost her exposure and thereby resuscitate her writing career, the frank and cynical, unapologetically brutally honest, casual-sex fan Jac is set to appear as a contestant on a Bachelor -type reality TV show in which the ultimate goal is a proposal and marriage. After one last fling, Jac reports to the set--only to find out that her one-night stand is a producer on the show who had been absent during her auditions. Complications abound as the eligible TV bachelor seems to be falling for Jac, she makes enemies of multiple fellow contestants, she struggles with the staged and manipulated nature of every moment--and she realizes that she's being painted as the villain of the show. I found it fairly challenging to connect with Jac. For me, her pretending was frequently difficult to parse from what was real. Yet the cutthroat, often chilling behind-the-scenes dating-show dynamics and logistics seemed plausible and were horrifyingly fascinating. Devore offers a version of happy ever after, and of revenge, that was fun to watch take shape. For my full review, please see The Villain Edit . Laurie Devore is also the author of A Better Bad Idea, Winner Take All , and  How to Break a Boy . 03 Will They or Won't They by Ava Wilder Ava Wilder's rom-com takes us behind the scenes of a hit teen TV show whose lead characters once liked each other in real life but now can't stand each other. This was funny, sweet, steamy, and poignant--a fantastic summer light-fiction read that I loved. Lilah Hunter and Shane McCarthy are the stars of the popular paranormal television show Intangible , and for multiple seasons they've yearned for each other on screen, but their characters have never gotten together. Lilah has dreams of directing and of breaking into movies, but she's back for the sixth and final season of the show, in which her character and Shane's will finally get together. But in real life, Shane and Lilah detest each other. Their secret tryst at the end of season one ended badly, and they've been far from friendly ever since. I LOVED this. The premise sounded like a slam dunk for me, and the reality of the book was a funny, poignant, banter-filled, behind-the-scenes, realistically complicated, wonderful story. There's a ton of steaminess as Lilah and Shane at times can't deny their attraction and act upon it. I smiled a lot, I teared up, and I loved this romantic read! For my full review of this book, check out Will They or Won't They. 04 Better Than the Movies by Lynn Painter I LOVED this young adult book. It's perfectly charming, funny, quirky, and sweet, yet it deals with grief and fear, hope and forgiveness, being true to oneself and growing up, and of course love. Lynn Painter's adorable young adult rom-com Better Than the Movies is about Liz Buxbaum, a fabulously eccentric high schooler coping with the grief of having lost her mom--while navigating the sparkly idea--and messy reality--of romance, with the inspiration of her mom's favorite romantic comedies. Liz is a hopeless romantic who has been waiting her whole high school career to be swept off her feet in quintessential romantic-comedy fashion--with the perfect soundtrack playing in the background. But it looks like she may have to rely on her annoying next-door neighbor Wes to try to gain the attention of dreamy Michael with the perfect hair, who has just moved back to town. Better Than the Movies  is funny funny funny and so lovely and sweet, I adored the whole story, the characters, the growth, the banter, the heartbreaking, heartwarming growth, the fun--this is basically a perfect young adult romantic comedy. For my full review of this book, please see Better Than the Movies . 05 The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren The True Love Experiment is a wonderful, romantic read about forbidden attraction and heartwarming vulnerability, with steamy scenes, will-they/won't-they tensions, funny dialogue, behind-the-scenes televised moments, and loooooooove. I loved T he Soulmate Equation  from the writing team known as Christina Lauren. That book introduced the fantastic best-friend character of Felicity "Fizzy" Chen. The True Love Experiment is Fizzy's story. Fizzy is a straight talker, a sex-positive woman, and a successful romance writer, but she's never been in love, only in lust. Now she's beginning to feel like she's been selling her readers a lie. Connor Prince ( his last name is Prince! ) is a single dad and documentary filmmaker slated by his boss to create a reality TV program about finding love. He's completely out of his comfort zone and the pressure is on--but when he meets Fizzy, he just knows he's found the perfect star for the show. The True Love Experiment  is an irresistible exploration of a spark of feelings, impossible difficulties, terrifying vulnerability, and hard-won joy. The issues keeping the two love interests apart felt powerful and heartbreaking and offered tantalizing tension to the story. The happy ending made me tear up and also made me want to cheer. I loved this. For my full review, check out The True Love Experiment . 06 One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London One to Watch  is engrossing escapism into a world of reality TV, romantic possibilities, and luxurious fashion, where things don't always go according to plan. In Kate Stayman-London's One to Watch , Bea Schumacher is a popular plus-size fashion blogger who has Instagram fame, wonderful friends--and an unhealthy obsession with a male friend who's attached to someone else. After she drunk-blogs scathing comments about the unrealistic body images of the stars of Main Squeeze (a reality TV show in which a single woman dates strangers hand-picked by the producers and aims to marry one of them), Bea is surprised when a show producer reaches out to her with an unexpected question: Would Bea consider starring in a season of Main Squeeze ? Bea finds the proposal laughable, then considers what it might mean for her career, for promoting body positivity, and maybe even for her lackluster romantic life. She decides that she's in--for a fantastic wardrobe, incredibly awkward moments, scripted romance, and a beautiful Malibu backdrop. What could go wrong? I was especially intrigued by how Bea navigated multiple suitors ( Bachelorette -style) and by her attempts to give each his due while simultaneously dating and honestly considering the others. She didn't lose sight of embracing each new experience while reflecting on what she wanted her future to look like after the show, above and beyond what others attempted to script or suggest. For my full review of this book, please see One to Watch .

Thankful for Five-Star Bossy Favorites I've been thinking through my favorite books of the year for an upcoming year-end Greedy Reading List I'll be posting--and I'm always thankful for books and reading. So today I wanted to reshare some of my five-star reads from the past in case you need a great long-weekend read or book gift idea. I try to read books I'll enjoy, find interesting, and/or be entertained by, and a five-star read is a special one for me. It may make me feel all the feelings, and/or may be intriguing and make me think, and it's usually engaging enough that it's tough for me to put down. You might also like the books on the Greedy Reading List Six Five-Star Bossy Reads to Check Out. Or you can search the site for Five-Star Book Reviews. Which standout books have you read this year? What made them your favorites? 01 The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell This book! This book is about everything. Family, pain, love, music, influence, trust, wonder, brutality, invention, discovery, loyalty, and most of all, faith—in some cases, lost and found again. And also...aliens. In The Sparrow, humans find proof of extraterrestrial life, and the UN begins deliberating about those on Earth should proceed. Meanwhile, a small team from the Society of Jesus quickly strikes out on its own to approach the planet first. The life they find there is wondrous and overwhelming, and it forces them to rethink their assumptions about humanity and the universe. I don’t usually read books again, but I could use a copy of my own to highlight upon rereading. The Sparrow took a little time to get going for me, but then I was blown away. For my full review of this book, please see The Sparrow. 02 Autoboyography by Christina Lauren I adored this young adult LGBTQ+ love story by Christina Lauren (the pen name for the writing team Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings). The characters in Autoboyography are thoughtful and young and funny and defiant but good, and they make mistakes and pay for them and live within their awful messed-up moments and their painful consequences, and they try to figure out their lives as teenagers must. They feel first love and angst so deeply and talk about it so so SO much, and somehow it wasn’t insufferable to read about at all, it was just perfect and made me laugh (and at one point cry, ahem). The Autoboyography dialogue is fantastic and witty but feels effortless and like it comes from actual teenagers--a difficult tone to pin down. This is fantastic contemporary young adult fiction. Click here for my full review of Autoboyography. 03 When We Were the Kennedys by Monica Wood In 1963 the Woods were a typical Catholic immigrant family in Mexico, Maine. But when Monica's father dies suddenly, Monica and her three sisters begin to drift, and the family seems in danger of feeling unmoored forever. When We Were the Kennedys is a memoir 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. I loved this fantastic memoir! Wood's memoir is heartwarming and funny and tragic and vivid. I ate it up in a single day. For my full review, please see When We Were the Kennedys. 04 Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano Twelve-year-old Edward Adler is the sole survivor of a plane crash. He struggles to move forward, but he feels stuck, as though part of him will always be lost. Edward tries on the mantle of taking responsibility for every life lost; he wallows in the despair of others and their hopes that he will pursue their loved ones’ lost dreams and right their wrongs; then he messily works out how to create his own lucky, unshackled, truest life. Dear Edward was so much more than I expected, but thankfully Napolitano didn’t rely solely on her book’s promising premise. She wrote the hell out of this and created an irresistible and true-feeling character in Edward. Nothing is too easy here, nor is it ever melodramatic in Napolitano’s hands. I loved this book. I kept thinking about it while I was doing other things, and I just wanted to get back to Edward to find out how things were going. I read this book with my longtime book club. For my full review, please see Dear Edward. 05 The Gilded Hour by Sara Donati In The Gilded Hour, Donati shapes a historical fiction story about an eccentric family and a broad surrounding cast of characters--and it's all centered around independent women with unconventional women's roles in society in nineteenth century New York City. The Gilded Hour explores how these women's abilities and constraints intersect with women's rights of the time period, social responsibility, and conventions, all in an immensely readable book rich in period detail, great dialogue, and satisfying elements of love, mystery, and searches for justice. I felt that a couple of important underlying plot lines remained oddly unresolved at the end--even keeping in mind that there's a second book in Donati's Waverly Place series, Where the Light Enters. However, I just loved this story and Donati's storytelling too much to let it cloud my gleeful reading experience. I loved digging into this 750-page historical fiction wonder. For my full review, please see The Gilded Hour. 06 Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb I was going to be happy with a light, surface-level peek at therapy and at the ins and outs of a therapist's providing and receiving therapy. But Maybe You Should Talk to Someone quickly grows into a network of sometimes interconnected and consistently meaningful searches for purpose and peace that surprised me. Gottlieb says therapy is about asking, "Who am I? What do I want? What's in my way?" She also says "Everyone needs to hear that other person's voice saying, 'I believe in you. I can see possibilities that you might not see quite yet. I imagine that something different can happen, in some form or another. ' In therapy we say, 'Let's edit your story.'" I loved that, and this "editing of the story" is apparent in Gottlieb's own therapy experience and in her experiences with her patients. There's beautiful exploration in Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed of dying, death, appreciating the beauty of the impermanence of our lives, planning for loved ones after our death, and living life fully. For my full review, please see Maybe You Should Talk to Someone.

Do you love memoirs like I do? I love digging into the story of someone's life--notable because of chance, circumstance, or choice--and escaping into an eye-opening and fascinating memoir. If you love memoirs, you might also like the titles I listed on these Greedy Reading Lists: 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 A few other memoirs on my to-read list that I'm particularly excited about are: Pretty Baby by Chris Belcher; Raising a Rare Girl by Heather Lanier, Sometimes You Have to Lie: The Life and Times of Louise Fitzhugh, Renegade and Author of Harriet the Spy by Leslie Brody, Uncultured by Daniella Mestyanek Young, and Solito by Javier Zamora. I'd love to hear: What are some of your favorite memoirs? 01 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 daily column "Eric Reads the News," 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 made me laugh out loud, Thomas explores his sheltered youth, his growing realizations that he was different than most of the people he knew, his shame and fear about living as his authentic self, and his meandering path toward his current satisfying life circumstances. I listened to this as an audiobook, and I adored hearing Thomas's voice take me through his essays. His voice and delivery are fabulous. Here For It is refreshing and playful yet thoughtful. I loved spending time with the uproariously funny Thomas as he recounts how he's navigated situations large and small in his life. Thomas is also a host of The Moth storytelling podcast in D.C. and Philadelphia--and he certainly knows how to craft a compelling and full story out of a momentous moment. For my full review of this book, see Here For It. 02 Notes on a Silencing by Lacy Crawford Crawford thought the trauma of her assault at St. Paul's boarding school decades earlier was behind her. It had shaped who she was in many senses, but now she was a grown woman with a full life, and she was not regularly reliving the crushing weight of it as a vivid horror any longer. But when evidence of extensive sexual assault and new allegations at St. Paul's School came to light, she added her voice to the throng of the attacked and abused, opening her own long-closed (and hitherto unknown to her) file and seeing for the first time the brutal facts of her own attack, as well as the ensuing, elaborate efforts to keep secret the events surrounding her situation. Crawford's memoir lays bare systemic lies, gross injustices, horrifying abuses of privilege and power, and longstanding patterns of unprosecuted assaults at elite St. Paul's boarding school--as well as the persistent tragic, infuriating, shaming treatment of assault victims. The topic is crushing, but Crawford's writing is wonderful in its honest and unflinching reflections on society, her own experiences, the horrifying power of privilege, and the abhorrent treatment of assault victims. She tries to imagine the points of view of everyone involved, and she treats her young self with empathy. For my full review of this book, see Notes on a Silencing. 03 In Pieces by Sally Field Here's the list's celebrity memoir! I found Sally Field's discussion of her "craft" and how she grew and changed as an actor to be the most compelling aspect of the book--along with the politics of getting roles and how she finally began listening to her inner voice in all aspects of her life. Therapy (and acting, which also served as a sort of therapy) eventually allowed Field to come into her fully realized adult self, and this journey is satisfying to watch after living through the page time of her languishing and struggling for so long. I listened to this as an audiobook, and I loved hearing Field tell her story. I appreciate when a celebrity provides brutal honesty, and I also admit to sometimes becoming impatient with the navel-gazing necessary to create a memoir. Aaaand I realize that this is unfair since I chose to read this person's life story. For my full review of this book, see In Pieces. 04 Blood by Allison Moorer "I'm still trying not to be the daughter of a murderer. I'm still trying to redeem [my parents]. I carry the structure of their bones around my insides...and try to tell the world, '...They were more than that.'" Allison Moorer is a Grammy- and Academy Award-nominated singer-songwriter whose father killed her mother when Allison and her sister were young. A longtime musical storyteller, Moorer examines her parents, her youth, and that pivotal tragedy, considering how it has shaped her into her adult self and how much of her identity is separate from that horrifying event and its endless repercussions. There's a lot of pain here. But Blood doesn't read as though Moorer is flogging her significant sorrow and anger or highlighting dramatic events for memoir or record sales. I felt like I was following her on her honest, zigzagging, messy journey toward gaining more of an understanding of the people her parents were and the forces that shaped their lives (and their daughters' lives)--as though I was witnessing her step-by-step movement toward something that more closely resembles peace. The foreword was written by Allison's sister, singer and songwriter Shelby Lynne. Regarding their talking through their past together, Moorer says: "So many memories we share and purposely keep well-oiled. We keep them alive even if they hurt us and suck up all the air in the room. They are all we have of our folks and the family we were." For my full review of this book, please see Blood. 05 Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come by Jessica Pan Jessica Pan was an introvert out of a job. Her closest friends had moved away, and she found herself lonely, living in another country, and feeling too reliant on her husband for her entire social life. Pan decided to deliberately put herself into extremely uncomfortable social situations for a year, and she fully commits. She does improv, approaches strangers on the Tube, goes on friend dates, attends networking events, takes a vacation alone (to a destination she doesn't learn until she's at the airport), and more. She regrets her one-year plan almost instantly but feels compelled to continue her terrifying exercises. Her interviews and experiences with others who mentor her journey in different ways could have felt disruptive or jarring but didn't; they added a layer to her story that I found interesting and often revelatory. Pan is wonderfully honest, appealingly thoughtful, and often so so funny. I was so happy spending time in her point of view throughout this book. I loved it and I'd read another book by her in a second. For my full review of this book, please see Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come. 06 Wild Life by Keena Roberts Keena Roberts grew up splitting her time between a primate research camp in Botswana, where she felt at home, and an elite Philadelphia girls' school, where she did not. Wild Life's subtitle, Dispatches from a Childhood of Baboons and Button-Downs, felt whimsical and light. But Roberts's memoir doesn't merely explore her culture shock, as interesting as that is. She reflects upon her identity in a raw and genuine way that I found gripping. Her disparate life experiences ultimately led her to think deeply about her place in the world, her responsibility to humans and animals, and how she might better the lives of others. This memoir was more than I'd hoped for. I love a peek at wildlife and living in the wild, and I adored reading Roberts's account of her journey, from acting in a supporting role for her parents' research to discovering her own challenging, meaningful, and important career and calling. For my full review of this book, please see Wild Life.

Six Favorite Memoir Reads The Bossy memoir love continues! I've been posting roundups of my favorite reads from last year by genre. I recently posted about Six of My Favorite Fiction Reads 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, and Six Four-Star (And Up) Science Fiction Reads I Loved Last Year. You can check out My Very Favorite Bossy 2022 Reads for my overall favorite reads from last year. Now I offer you six of my favorite memoirish reads from last year. Not every title fits neatly in this category; one is a grandmother's story as told by a granddaughter, and David Sedaris's book includes essays but also a big chunk of memoir. Two other books I loved that could have possibly been included on this list were Amy Bloom's heartbreaking In Love (one of my favorite reads of last year overall) and Elizabeth McCracken's The Hero of This Book (altbough McCracken asserts that this is not a memoir, but fiction). If you've read any of these, I'd love to hear what you think! I'd also love to hear about some of your favorite memoir reads. Did you read any favorite memoirs last year or have you read any new favorites this year? And for more more more memoirs I've loved that you might want to try, check out these Greedy Reading Lists: 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 01 Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted by Suleika Jaouad Jaouad offers a powerful memoir about coping with leukemia and facing mortality, with thoughtful introspection and a road-trip journey. Suleika Jaouad had just graduated from college to pursue her career dreams of becoming a journalist. She was in love, she was living in Paris, and her future was bright. But she developed a strange itch in her foot. Then she began to feel fatigue she just couldn't shake, no matter how many hours-long naps she fell into. After long months of mystery and suffering, she received a diagnosis: acute myeloid leukemia and a rare blood disorder, myelodysplastic syndrome. Jaouad spent four years constantly fearing for her life; undergoing various procedures; living with intense pain; experiencing extreme lows, moments of desperate hope, and a few highs; choosing to end her long-term relationship, and writing a New York Times column about her experience. She emerged from spending years with her head down, fighting to survive, to realize that she needed to figure out how she wanted to live the rest of her days. Along with her adopted mutt Oscar, Jaouad embarked on a 100-day, 15,000-mile trip around the perimeter of the United States, visiting many of the people--until then, strangers--who had written to her during her cancer fight. The vast majority of page time is spent on Suleika's struggle with her physical disease. She offers hard-won insights and a rollercoaster of feelings and the desire to be independent even as she is irritatingly, deeply reliant upon the kindness and care she receives from family and friends. Click here for my full review of Between Two Kingdoms. 02 You Can't Be Serious by Kal Penn Penn's thoughtful memoir explores serious issues yet also made me laugh out loud. You Can't Be Serious is both thoughtful and playful, and I loved the audiobook. Kal Penn's smart, fun You Can't Be Serious explores his early struggles to make it in Hollywood as he straddles humorous roles and dramatic opportunities; attempts to deflect racism from casting heads and writers; and digs in to try to be one of what he hopes will be an ever-increasing number of diverse faces on television and movie screens. He takes the reader through his discovery of his passion for acting, his immigrant parents' early, practical resistance (they urge him, "at least get a real estate license"), the various early road bumps he encountered, and his dogged determination--which was admittedly shaken after landing very few and consistently stereotypical roles. Penn pulls his memoir into another gear when he adds the fascinating layer of accidental political activism that becomes a passion and, ultimately, a career, one for which he takes a sabbatical from his steady acting job at the time, his role on House. I laughed out loud multiple times; Kal is funny without trying too hard, and his tone is accessible even as he takes the reader deep into worlds most won't have experience with, Hollywood and the White House. Click here for my full review of You Can't Be Serious. 03 Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story by Bono Thoughtful, self-deprecating, earnest, and honest, Surrender is a captivating peek into the four decades (and counting) of U2. Bono explores his faith, family, loyalty, musical inspirations, and important activism efforts. I prefer listening to my memoirs read by the author, and I loved hearing U2's songwriter and lead singer Bono take us through the stumbles, pain, joy, and faith that have inspired his music and shaped his life. From treasuring friends he's had since childhood (one of whom was the inspiration for the song "Bad"), to exploring "growing up in Ireland in the seventies with my fists up (musically speaking)"; from digging into the difficult relationship with his father to sharing how he attempted to cope with the loss of his mother decades after the fact, Bono's Surrender is beautifully honest, self-deprecating, and fascinating. Details of Bono's activism make up much of the second half of the book. He is interested in the potential power of his celebrity to do good, in learning about worthwhile issues without ego, and in being actively involved in improving the lives of others around the world. For my full review (and for links to other musicians' memoirs I've loved), check out Surrender. 04 Happy-Go-Lucky by David Sedaris In and among Sedaris's oddball, incisive, skewering observations are poignant, funny, heartfelt, complicated moments from his personal life that add heart to the dark humor in this collection of essays. I like to listen to my David Sedaris books, and I listened to his newest, Happy-Go-Lucky--his first book of new essays since Calypso--as an audiobook as well. Here, Sedaris shares offbeat moments from living in Paris and Sussex, reflects on living in New York City during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, and, as always, pokes fun at himself and hilariously skewers others for various affronts. In and among these scenes, Sedaris shares strange, sweet, funny, pivotal moments with each of his living sisters, discusses his sister Tiffany, who died of suicide, and faces the decline of his nonagenarian father, with whom he has always had a complicated relationship. I love to laugh at Sedaris's darkly funny reflections about the world and society--and at his recognition of his own absurdities, strongly held views, and exacting expectations. But what offer depth to his work, and Happy-Go-Lucky is no exception, are Sedaris's unflinching observations of moments in time, desperate scenes, and emotionally charged issues in all of their gritty, messy, poignant, and sometimes hilarious glory. He takes the reader on a roller coaster of emotions, and I love every bit of it. For my full review, check out Happy-Go-Lucky. 05 I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy Former child actress McCurdy's account of her mother's narcissistic, harmful, abusive behavior and how it has shaped the author's life is disturbing, yet McCurdy's tone is wry and appealing in its brutal honesty. Jennette became a child actress at 6 in order to please her mother, pushing down her own anxiety and disinclination to be the center of attention--and eventually committing to her mother's idea of "calorie restriction," which started McCurdy on a path of constant struggling with food and eating disorders that lasted decades. Her mother's volatile emotions; upsetting and controlling actions; pushy manner; mental, emotional, and physical abuse; and disturbing codependence with her young daughter make for an uncomfortable read. Yet McCurdy is witty, often funny, and candid. She doesn't add drama to the often shocking and horrifying revelations she presents to the reader. She's most often matter-of-fact, because while she now has the benefit of age and increased wisdom, therapy and perspective, and distance from the situation, the various methods of constant abuse and control her mother exerted over her until her death were McCurdy's everyday life; for McCurdy, all of this was an unhappy but normal set of circumstances. Click here for my full review of I'm Glad My Mom Died. 06 Nobody Will Tell You This But Me: A True (As Told to Me) Story by Bess Kalb This is an irresistible tribute to Kalb's funny, opinionated, fiercely loving grandmother--a granddaughter's best friend and a wise and formidable character. The author saved every one of her grandmother's voicemails, and here she uses them--along with emails, letters, vividly recalled conversations, and her grandma Bobby's imagined thoughts from beyond the grave--to construct a picture of a formidable, tough-love, fiercely protective matriarch in Bobby Bell. Through Bell's voice we also learn what has shaped the other women of the family: we hear rich stories of Bell's own mother--who fled Belarus in her youth--and her hardships and determination; and we glimpse the difficult relationship between Bobby and her daughter (Kalb's mother) and how it affected each woman's life trajectory. Bobby's recounted memories don't paint her as anything close to a saint; she recounts the evidence of her faults as passionately as the recollections of her life's triumphs--many of which center around having made Bess feel safe and happy and seen. This is a heartwarming, funny, poignant, sassy tribute to a life fully lived and to a determination love freely, deliberately, and unwaveringly. It made me laugh out loud and brought me to tears. I just adored this gem. Click here for my full review of Nobody Will Tell You This But Me.

Six Four-Star Bossy Mystery Reads Doesn't the cold winter feel like the perfect time to cozy up with a mystery that hooks you with its twists and turns? Here are six of my favorite mystery and suspense reads of last year--with another list to come! A couple of these are historical fiction mysteries, one was jointly written by two authors, one was set in London, two have contemporary settings--and I rated each of these books four Bossy stars or more. 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 favorite mystery reads? 01 A Marvellous Light (Last Binding #1) by Freya Marske The first book in Marske's duology is full of Edwardian England detail, gay love, mystery, magic, wonderful dialogue and banter, and plenty of heart. I adored it. A Marvellous Light starts with a devastating ending (the demise of a character, caused by nefarious magicians) and a less-than-promising beginning. Robin is trying to keep the household afloat after the deaths of his parents, to support his bright, ambitious younger sister, and to date some handsome men along the way. Marske offers immersive Edwardian England detail in this adorable, captivating, queer book that involves elaborate magical schemes and evil plots. Robin and Edwin's love is romantic and sweet and heartbreaking and sexy; the mystery at the heart of the book seems only to be solvable by the biggest book nerd in existence; and the story's magical details are fascinating and odd. I was completely hooked by A Marvellous Light, and I tried to slow down my reading to make it last. The amount of heart in this book was exquisite. Stay tuned for my rave review of the sequel! For my full review, check out A Marvellous Light. 02 Greenwich Park by Katherine Faulkner Faulkner's debut mystery is twisty and turny, with various potential bad seeds and complications--and it ends in a satisfying whirl of revelation and resolution. Helen lives in her dream home, an old Victorian beauty where she grew up, with her architect husband, who has masterminded plans to change the house and make it even more grand. Her brother and sister-in-law live nearby, and when Helen becomes pregnant with a long-desired baby and her brother's wife announces she's pregnant as well, Helen feels sure that her life couldn't be any more full and happy. But when she meets Rachel, a single mother-to-be in her prenatal class, Helen begins to feel unsettled. The unpredictable Rachel is spontaneous and fun, but she seems to know things about Helen's life and family that she shouldn't. When she alludes to mysterious connections between the women--and a long-ago crime--her persistent presence threatens to unravel the rest of the group's perfect lives forever. An unreliable narrator setup can be hit or miss for me, but in this case, I felt Faulkner deftly crafted Helen as naive, overwhelmed, lonely, and, at times, medicated. Therefore the omissions and confusion on her part--which allow the tricky situations at the heart of the book to be revealed slowly--aren't too convenient, and they add layers to the mystery of who exactly the nefarious force in the story may be. Click here for my full review of Greenwich Park. 03 The Box in the Woods (Truly Devious #4) by Maureen Johnson The fourth mystery in Johnson's Truly Devious series delivers more smart, creative sleuthing from Stevie Bell and the gang, great dialogue, twisty events, unsolved elements from the past and present, and a denouement I didn't predict. “...hear me out. This whole thing is ticking a lot of the horror movie boxes. Murder at a sleepaway camp. A serial killer. A final girl. A kid who died because some teenagers were being irresponsible.” The Box in the Woods is another smart, funny, intriguing young adult mystery from Maureen Johnson. This stand-alone novel from the author of the Truly Devious trilogy (Truly Devious, The Vanishing Stair, and The Hand on the Wall) follows the irresistibly single-minded, gifted, wonderfully oddball Stevie Bell as she takes her sleuthing skills outside of Ellingham Academy for the first time. Johnson sets up a premise in which a number of Stevie's friends from Ellingham are reunited to work at the camp and be together. This allows for the cooperative problem-solving that I adore in the rest of the series. Her friends' talents and support buoy Stevie's unique ability to piece together details and see the truth. (And Nate might even be writing again, if his irritating young superfan camper Lucas has anything to do with it.) The secondary characters of Lucas(!), Allison, Nate, Janelle, and David--and their dialogue--are fantastic as always. Click here for my full review of The Box in the Woods. 04 Alias Emma by Ava Glass Alias Emma is a fast-paced cat-and-mouse chase across hidden London, led by Emma Makepeace, a resourceful, tough, new spy determined to thwart the Russians' deadly plans. Emma Makepeace, a brand-new British spy, is jumping into duty--and danger--with both feet. Barely out of basic training, she has just twelve hours to deliver her asset across London to safety--without being spotted by the Russians who have hacked the city's thousands of cameras, and their assassins, who are out to eliminate the person she has sworn to protect. And Emma would very much like to make it out of this alive as well. This fast-paced thriller tracks Emma and Michael, the distractingly handsome son of Russian dissidents who she has pledged to protect, on the longest night of their lives as they work to evade the thousands of cameras documenting London citizens' every move. I read this start to finish during a flight (and delay), and I loved Glass's cat-and-mouse chase through side streets and underground rivers in a peek at hidden London that's detailed and gritty and gripping. I was so happy to realize this is the first in a planned series. Sign me up for every bit of this! For my full review, check out Alias Emma. 05 What Happened to the Bennetts by Lisa Scottoline Scottoline's suspenseful mystery offers surprising depth in exploring grief while the main protagonist takes justice into his own hands to bring peace to his family. Jason Bennett is a suburban dad whose life takes a horrific turn when his car is hijacked–and his family with it. The FBI tells Jason he’s stumbled into the crosshairs of a drug-trafficking organization. Agents advise the family to enter witness protection immediately in order to save their lives. But Jason can't shake the fact that they've done nothing wrong, and the witness protection program is for criminals who have turned on those around them--not for law-abiding citizens who stumble into a sinister situation. I'm up for a renegade story and a good-over-evil, noble quest. But What Happened to the Bennetts is more than a suspense story. Scottoline offers surprising depth, particularly while exploring the bone-shaking grief that lies at the root of this story. Her treatment of this delicate issue within a solid, suspenseful mystery cemented my interest in reading more of her books. The mystery within What Happened to the Bennetts is twisty without being manipulative, and the denouement felt satisfyingly layered and complex. For my full review, please check out What Happened to the Bennetts. 06 State of Terror by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny This suspenseful collaboration between Clinton and Penny kept me on the edge of my seat through heart-stopping political conflicts, betrayals, suspicions, and discoveries. A new United States administration has been sworn in after a period of upheaval and upset. The shift has made for strange bedfellows—and a prickly partnership between our main protagonist, Ellen Adams, former multinational media conglomerate head and new secretary of state, and the president, a politician Adams has long criticized. Then a hastily sent, coded message comes through to an underling in the Oval Office--and it seems linked to violent terrorist attacks that soon begin taking place around the world. Who sent the message and why, and who is responsible for the attacks? I loved how Clinton and Penny made me question the loyalty and intentions of almost everyone in State of Terror while still making me feel invested in the story, Adams's family, and the ins and outs of the various complicated political conflicts, double-crossing players, grave American dangers, and immense potential worldwide effects. For my full review of State of Terror, please click here.

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.

Book club love! These are my favorite book club reads from the past year. We also read Betty, We Are Not Like Them, All Her Little Secrets, Cultish, Beautiful Country, and These Precious Days by Ann Patchett. I haven't read that last one yet, and it could turn this list upside down, because I do love me some Ann Patchett! For my favorite book club reads from the past, check out the Greedy Reading Lists Six Book Club Books I Loved Last Year and Six Book Club Books I Loved in 2021. 01 The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven by Nathanial Ian Miller "I’d long since learned that if you plan to survive in the Arctic, you must choose one of two paths: emulate the bear...by holding fast to yourself as the last reliable chunk of ice.... Or choose the fox instead: ...learn fast. Dig a hole and cling tightly to those who can stand you." It's 1916, and Sven Ormson has left the bustle of his life in Stockholm for solitude and quiet in the Arctic. In his self-banishment in remote Svalbard, his only company is the haunting, beautiful Northern Lights. Letters from family and friends get him through multiple winters--until an unexpected visitor changes everything, opens up Sven's world, and shows him a life and a future he could never have imagined or hoped for. The pacing of The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven is measured, as befits a story that is largely about daily life in the unforgiving, brutal cold and wild. There's a minor, secondhand, yet powerful focus on the brutality and destruction of war, but also significant attention to unspoken bonds, deep and unorthodox friendships, makeshift families, legendary dogs, and strong emotional ties to nature and the rhythms of the seasons. If you like books set in the unforgiving cold, you might also like the books on the Greedy Reading List Six Books with Cold, Wintry Settings to Read by the Fire. For my full review of this book, see The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven. 02 The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles As the young men in The Lincoln Highway face challenge after challenge, they grow, learn, and fight for resolutions to difficult situations. It's June 1954, and eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson has just served fifteen months on a juvenile work farm for involuntary manslaughter. The family farm in Nebraska has been foreclosed upon, his mother is gone, and his father has recently died. Emmett's planning to pick up his eight-year-old brother Billy and head west to start a new life. But when the warden drops him off at home, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm hitched a ride in the trunk, and they're set on having the group of boys light out for New York City instead. The boys and the members of their entourage each fight to tie up loose ends in their lives, explore new paths they might take, and learn about themselves. Click here for my full review of The Lincoln Highway. 03 The Maid by Nita Prose Nita Prose offers a surprising amount of heart and a unique main protagonist in this lighthearted murder mystery, her debut novel. In Nita Prose's novel The Maid, main protagonist Molly finds a hotel guest dead in his room, and her access to the room, her eccentric manner, and other's manipulations of her innocent vulnerability may mean that she's the prime suspect. Prose has built an interesting premise with Molly as an unreliable main protagonist. She's naive, she struggles with social cues and unplanned interactions, her way of speaking is formal, and her habits are rigid and inflexible. While Molly herself frequently misses the implications of the details she meticulously observes, the reader sees the truth of the various circumstances she witnesses. I was concerned that Molly's unique set of idiosyncrasies might be too central of a plot point in that it might allow for too-easy deception, and that seeing others take advantage of her innocence would make for nerve-racking, uncomfortable reading. But Prose offers some surprises, and Molly seems more than capable of extricating herself from suspicion by using the many personal qualities that have led others to underestimate her. The shifts in point of view and the revelations that were made possible by the bit-by-bit unveiling of information were intriguing. For my full review, see The Maid. 04 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. 05 Our Woman in Moscow by Beatriz Williams Williams's historical fiction mystery--based on real-life double agents in the Cambridge Spy Ring--is vividly set in Europe and Russia and was a rare five-star read for me. In Beatriz Williams's historical fiction, Our Woman in Moscow it's 1948 and Iris Digby, her American diplomat husband Sasha, and their two children have disappeared overnight. Those who knew and worked with them are shocked. Were the Digbys abducted by Soviet agents...or did they make their way by choice behind the Iron Curtain with a suitcase of American secrets to trade? The mystery skips back and forth in time, and four years later, Iris's twin sister Ruth finally receives a postcard from her estranged sister. Ruth is soon on her way to Russia to try to extricate Iris from danger--but the truth about Iris's marriage and past is more complicated and fraught than Ruth could have imagined. I loved this. Every heart-stopping moment; every exquisite detail; the characters' growth, emotional distance, and unforeseen connections to each other; the trick of teasing out what was actually happening; the characterization; the machinations--all of it. onderful lights in the (significant) darkness here. Click here for my full review of Our Woman in Moscow. 06 Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr Doerr's Cloud Cuckoo Land was a complex, heartbreaking, hope-filled, surprising, fascinating read. Young Anna lives in fifteenth-century Constantinople with her sickly sister, frustrated with endlessly stitching priests' robes--and secretly learning to read stories from the past. In twentieth-century Idaho, Zeno has lived a long life filled with yearning, war, and unexpected late-in-life academic satisfaction. He is directing a precious group of children in a farcical, heartbreaking play based on the stories Anna read five centuries earlier. And far in the future, Konstance is in a vault on the spaceship Argos, destined for a distant planet. She largely lives in a vivid virtual world but leaves to scribble scraps of information about the same ancient stories that touched the lives of Anna and Zeno. The stories in Cloud Cuckoo Land (which is the name of the book-within-a-book) connect these characters across space and time. Doerr's characters persist, each in their own way, in trying to make a positive mark on the world and in preserving what is precious to them--and what they imagine will be important to future generations. Even when all hope should be lost, each character in its own way continues to press on. "But what's so beautiful about a fool...," the text says at one point, "is that a fool never knows when to give up." Cloud Cuckoo Land was consistently beautiful, always interesting, and sometimes heartbreaking. Check out my full review of Cloud Cuckoo Land here.

Six Four-Star (and Up) Bossy Science Fiction Reads I realize I just said this last week regarding mysteries, but really, doesn't the cold winter also feel like the perfect time to cozy up with a science fiction story with fantastic characters and some space adventure or other-world escapism? Here are six of my favorite science fiction reads of last year--with another list to come! Two of these share one of my favorite setups (a ragtag crew with heart has adventures in space; The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet and Activation Degradation), and I've included a thought-provoking robot-focused story (A Psalm for the Wild-Built), the newest novel by the fantastic Blake Crouch (Upgrade), a strange, dark, captivating sequel (Harrow the Ninth), and one of my top favorite reads from last year (Project Hail Mary). I rated each of these books four Bossy stars or more. (Check out My Very Favorite Bossy 2022 Reads for all my best-of reads from last year.) 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 The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers #1) by Becky Chambers Chambers's science fiction is full of heart, heartbreak, and hope--with a fascinating backdrop of space travel and interspecies relations. This is one of two Becky Chambers books on this short list. In The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, the first science fiction title in Becky Chambers's Wayfarers series, young Rosemary feels lucky to have landed the job of clerk for the quirky, ragtag, but welcoming crew of the Wayfarer ship. The group is made up of various creatures from around the galaxy, and they've already built bonds through working together for ages. Yet they make room in the mix for Rosemary, who's grateful--and who's frankly glad to leave her significant personal troubles behind. Chambers's story is science fiction that's full of heart, heartbreak, and hope. The book feels much more focused on the characters--with a backdrop of space travel and otherworldly creatures--than on exploration or adventure. Much of the story is about acceptance and openness and finding ways to get along. Interspecies relations are prickly, comfortable, romantic, puzzling, or all of the above. I love that the crew of the Wayfarer feels like a close-knit group of summer camp counselors somehow, palling around, sometimes irritating each other, each with special gifts and the ability and desire to help crewmates reach their full potentials, emotionally or otherwise. I just adored this. For my full review, check out The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. 02 Activation Degradation by Marina J. Lostetter Lostetter's standalone science fiction is a story about robots, a ragtag space crew, friends like family, and reimagining one's place in the universe. Activation Degradation begins with Unit Four's initial activation. It has just become sentient, and like its robot sisters, it has been programmed to fight the aliens currently attacking its ship. But whether it's a glitch or instincts that shouldn't be possible, Unit Four realizes that the situation as its handler has explained it doesn't quite add up. When Unit Four is taken onto the enemy alien ship as a prisoner and is unable to communicate with its handler, it begins to understand that all is not black and white, and that it may need to rethink all it has been taught to believe. Lostetter's book started off with a lot of logistics that slowed things for me, but as of page 66 the action and character development and exploration of morality and friendship and life purpose began clicking along. Activation Degradation explores what makes a person worth saving--or simply existing--as well as unconventional love and relationships, personal responsibility, sacrifice and bravery, and staying open to revolutionarily new ideas and ways of looking at the world--and the universe. Click here for my full review of Activation Degradation. 03 Upgrade by Blake Crouch Main protagonist Logan was hard for me to emotionally connect to, but I was hooked by the heart-pounding action, the fascinating imagined power and scope of gene engineering, the world on the verge of collapse--and the most intense, high-stakes sibling rivalry imaginable. Upgrade presents a future version of our world in which humans are teetering closer than ever to extinction because of a crumbling environment. SoHo and southern Manhattan are underwater, eating synthetic meat is the norm, and geneticists who have tried tinkering with the human state in a desperate attempt to shift the future of homo sapiens have largely been punished and jailed. Logan Ramsey is in charge of investigating suspected gene scientists who are up to illegal activity, and while investigating a suspicious situation, he is injured by an odd explosion. In the hospital he has headaches, a fever, and body aches, then his symptoms subside. The stakes couldn't be higher for Crouch's protagonists--pending global destruction and the elimination of the human race. So everything that occurs is a Big Deal, and Upgrade offers detailed, heart-stopping chases; the most intense sibling rivalry imaginable, interesting scenes of superhumans' outsmarting each other; and noble desires to "save the world" that conflict with others’ similar desires in crucial ways--and with potential global consequences. You can find my review of Blake Crouch's Recursion (mentioned in the Greedy Reading List Six Riveting Time-Travel Stories to Explore) here and my review of Dark Matter here. Click here for my full review of Upgrade. 04 Harrow the Ninth (Locked Tomb #2) by Tamsyn Muir This sequel to Tamsyn Muir's Gideon the Ninth is a complex, fascinating, gruesome story full of action and shifts in reality as well as endless bad language, wicked barbs, and dark-as-night humor. At the start of Harrow the Ninth, Harrowhark Nonagesimus, the last necromancer of the Ninth House, wakes disoriented and without her full powers on the Emperor's space station. Trapped in the eerie space station with three grumpy, unwilling teachers trying to prepare her for the battle of all battles (which by all accounts will be unwinnable), Harrow has to determine whether someone is trying to kill her--and to figure out what she has to live for anyway. This is dark dark dark, with death, nefarious plotting, and gleefully gruesome elements (bone work, etc.). But Harrow the Ninth also offers fantastically bratty episodes on the parts of various characters; frenzies of double-crossing, long-term plans for destruction, and evil impulses; and endless moments of silly and dark humor that made me laugh. The strong, ruthless, intelligent women in Harrow the Ninth absolutely steal the show--which is saying something, since God of the Universe is a character in the story. For my review of the first book in this series, Gideon the Ninth, check out this link. (Gideon was also mentioned in my Greedy Reading List Six More Postapocalyptic and Dystopian Favorites.) The third book in this series, Nona the Ninth, was published in 2022, with the fourth book, Alecto the Ninth, to follow in fall 2023. For my full review, check out Harrow the Ninth. 05 Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir In one of my favorite overall reads of last year, Andy Weir offers the fascinating story of a desperate space mission, creative innovation, and enduring optimism, with an enormous amount of heart that surprised me. Ryland Grace wakes up as the sole survivor of a last-chance effort to save Earth and its inhabitants. But he doesn't know that yet. He seems to be in space and isn't sure what has happened, and not only does he not remember his own name or where he's from, he also doesn't remember his scientific expertise or anything else that could help him survive and succeed in his quest. The memories are beginning to slowly shift back into focus, but he needs them now. He's millions of miles from Earth, and he's got two dead crewmates, a chatty AI robot caregiver, a lot of complicated equipment, and a mysterious mission whose purpose and execution he'll have to unravel if he's to possibly survive--much less save humanity. In Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir has created another irresistible story of hope, resilience, wonder, and discovery. Andy Weir is also the author of The Martian and Artemis. One of my reading regrets from last year is not listening to this as an audiobook. For my full review, please check out Project Hail Mary. 06 A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk and Robot #1) by Becky Chambers Chambers's slim book explores a man's search for meaning--and how a robot's simple questions about maintaining the status quo might open up a world of new possibilities. Is this a second book by Becky Chambers on one short Greedy Reading List? Yes, yes, it is. In A Psalm for the Wild-Built, the robots vanished from Panga centuries ago, and accounts of a world where they existed are beginning to feel more and more like folklore. But tea monk Dex finds himself wandering and yearning--for long-lost crickets' nighttime noises, and for some deep connection he can't quite identify. When Dex wanders into the forest and encounters a robot, the traditional exchange must occur, of checking in, and the robot asks: What do humans need? Dex can't imagine being able to answer this enormous question, but the robot wonders if the matter is really so complicated after all. The story is full of heart and strange, captivating details of Chambers's imagined world--and of an unorthodox friendship that could save both monk and robot. For my full review of A Psalm for the Wild-Built, please click here. If you're interested in books about robots, you might also like the books on the Greedy Reading List Six Great Stories about Robots, Humans and Alien Life, and AI.

Funny and Sweet Light Fiction Is it really summer without some great rom-com reads teed up and ready to go by the pool, on the porch, at the beach, or anywhere you're soaking in a little bit of warm weather and (hopefully) a looser schedule? If you're into lighter fiction with some romance and laughs, you might also like the books on the Greedy Reading Lists Six Great Light Fiction Stories Perfect for Summer Reading and Six More Great Light Fiction Stories. Are there any stories you've loved recently that fall under the romantic comedy category? 01 Meet Me at the Lake by Carley Fortune Summertime is the backdrop to Fortune's Meet Me at the Lake, light fiction with an anchor in deeper issues, some steamy scenes, conflicting feelings surrounding coming home again, shifting dreams, and a satisfyingly layered resolution. 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 at her family resort...but while Fern showed up to their romantic meet-up, Will did not. Fern has moved on. Now she's coping with a tragedy--and guess who shows up to meet Fern, nine years late? Within the book's summertime setting Fortune explores heavy issues related to mental illness, sudden death, unplanned pregnancy, substance abuse--and also the complicated joy of having friends like family, facing responsibility and challenge, and acknowledging when long-held dreams have changed. The banter is fun, there are some steamy scenes, and I believed in the relationship and its ups and downs. Click here for my full review of Meet Me at the Lake. Carley Fortune is also the author of Every Summer After. 02 Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld 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 This Time It's Real by Ann Liang I was hooked by Liang's fake-dating, famous-everyday relationship duo setup, fantastically funny dialogue, and wonderfully imperfect characters with their hard-fought vulnerability and heartbreaking missteps. I devoured this in a rainy afternoon. In Ann Liang's young adult rom-com This Time It's Real, when seventeen-year-old Eliza's class essay about young love goes viral, it leads to the offer of a competitive internship and soaring popularity at her new school. She should be on cloud nine. The only problem is, she made it all up. She's never been in love. But the whirlwind around her pretend relationship is taking on a life of its own. So Eliza makes a desperate deal with a famous actor in her class: if he plays the role of her fake boyfriend at school, she'll help him write his college applications. He's already seen how convincing her writing can be, after all--she's got everyone fooled. When the line between acting and reality becomes blurred, will Eliza's grand plans end up in her own heartbreak? I love a fake-dating premise and a famous-everyday dating premise, and here they are combined. Ann Liang's funny dialogue, characters' various interpersonal challenges and victories, and messy family dynamics had me swooning. Yes to all of this! For my full review, please check out This Time It's Real. 04 Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez Jimenez's rom-com frequently had me laughing, made me tear up a little, and kept me hooked on the fake-dating, will-they-won't-they tension while also digging into some deep themes. Briana Ortiz's divorce from her cheater husband is about to be finalized, her brother Benny's health is failing, and she's living in her childhood home, complete with its original flowered couches and shabby carpet. At least she can pour energy into her work. She's busy as an ER doctor and is poised to become the next Chief. But when a new doctor relocates to the hospital, Bri's promotion is in jeopardy. She's set to detest this interloper--but then he sends her a letter that changes everything. Jimenez layers her characters with complex back stories, significant and interesting emotional baggage, and trauma from relationship disasters, all of which complicate their ability to be vulnerable. There's a health crisis and solution that involves the two main characters in key ways and which complicates things. There's a fake-dating situation that's designed to save the feelings of loved ones. And there's a professional environment to navigate within. It's not unusual for me to feel frustrated by a drawn-out will-they/won't-they tension, or by a fake-dating setup between two characters who should obviously be together. But this novel had me eating out of Jimenez's hand. For my full review of this book, check out Wrong Place, Wrong Time. 05 The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston This romantic light fiction story includes sibling conflicts, loss, betrayal, a love that seems impossible...and a ghostwriter who's literally haunted by ghosts. In Ashley Poston's The Dead Romantics, Florence Day is a ghostwriter for a famous reclusive romance writer. But she's gone through a breakup because of her partner's betrayal, and she's having a hard time getting her mojo back to write about flowery love and happy endings. She's starting to think that her handsome new editor might just be the inspiration she needs. Then Florence's beloved father dies, and she returns to her hometown for the first time in many years. In town, she'll always be known as The Girl Who Solved a Murder Mystery by Talking to Ghosts, with all the fascination and suspicion one might expect. Oh, and Florence's family runs the local mortuary business. And Florence really can communicate with ghosts. Oh, and then her cute editor shows up in town...as a ghost. I loved the playful tone, the ghost angle within this light fiction, romantic story, and the focus on writing and books. For my full review of this book, please see The Dead Romantics. 06 Happy Place by Emily Henry Six longtime friends gather for one last Maine vacation--but each of them has been keeping secrets that impact their relationships. I was impatient with the prolonged lack of communication but loved the main characters' interactions once they began. 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. 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. For my full review of this book, please check out Happy Place.