Betty is based on the author's family stories of difficulties, abuse, tragedies, and a hardscrabble life in the Appalachian foothills of Ohio. In Tiffany McDaniel's novel Betty--set in the foothills of Appalachia and based upon her own family's stories--a young woman comes of age surrounded and shaped by poverty and violence. Betty Carpenter is the sixth child of eight born to a white mother and Cherokee father, and her life in rural Breathed, Ohio, is tough for her and her family. But Betsy is resilient. She revels in the wonders of the natural world, soaks in her father's rich stories, loves her sisters loyally and eternally, and uses her imagination to escape the hardships of her life. I admit that at first I felt frustrated with her father's frequent tale-telling and often-discussed folklore-based beliefs about life, curses, demons, and home remedies in the face of the practical problems that threaten the family. Yet he's optimistic and loving. His unwavering acceptance of others (particularly the love he shows regarding son Lint’s challenges and difficulties) along with his view of his children as individuals with gifts and bright futures was all so absolutely precious, I began to appreciate his unorthodox thinking. Betty is a gem, a sensitive, strong spitfire of a girl. Betty's sister and two youngest brothers were written as vivid, individualized characters (with tragic life trajectories). Her other family members were consistently difficult to read about--a horrifically, criminally abusive brother, a cruel and selfish sister, and a mentally ill mother capable of enacting frequent emotional and physical destruction on her children. There's excruciating, relentless pain for almost the entirety of Betty's story. What feels like her mother Alka's descent into madness threatens the safety of the whole family, both through Alka's active acts of abuse toward the children and--with her husband-- an inability to keep track of them and their goings-on and the impossibility of seeing to their safety. There are numerous (largely unpunished) horrors perpetuated in Betty. Abuse, rape, cycles of aggression and emotional coldness, misogyny--her childhood is an avalanche of horrors. It felt as though for much of the story, every character was teetering on the edge of destruction, and plenty of them tip over the edge. Betty copes with witnessing many of the upsetting situations, and as the child who most resembles her father, Betty often copes with racism and bullying (while her father is cruelly beaten and treated badly because of his Cherokee heritage). Once you get into the meat of the early story and experience the ongoing, snowballing trauma, you might imagine that things couldn’t get worse. But you’d be incorrect. There's a serial killer aspect to the story that left me reeling throughout (and that Betty didn't ever address head on). I was waiting for a brutal, swift kick of justice for the person responsible, the person who held a horrifying amount of crushing power within the family. Family members also frequently offer each other life-and-death, destructive advice, which puts them in danger of drowning, falling from great heights, and other disasters, plus there are threats of retaliatory suicide--and sometimes things end horribly as a result of these casual suggestions. I found it extremely disturbing to read. There's also a Horrific Animal Incident that I won't soon recover from reading. McDaniel's fanciful language is sometimes tragically beautiful, and other times frustrating when it means characters aren’t facing or coping with reality so that they may save each other or save themselves. I appreciated the details of country life, the slog of boredom, the grave necessity of scraping together sustenance, the kids' imaginations and the dangerous explorations they pursue for entertainment, and the endless days with only spiraling thoughts for company. The pacing of the book is frenetic; it feels like it runs along in great leaps, then it jumps and skips. This distracted me, but in a way it also suited the story. Betty was often painful to read, but isn't a book I'll soon forget. This was my book club's first read of 2022. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Tiffany McDaniel was inspired to write Betty by hearing her own family's stories going back generations. From what I've read of the background of the story, McDaniel generally stayed close to the facts as presented to her in family stories and as told to her by her mother (the real Betty) and her grandmother Alka. I'm not sure how much she departed from facts into fiction, and I'd be curious to know more about that.

Chambers's science fiction is full of heart, heartbreak, and hope--with a fascinating backdrop of space travel and interspecies relations. "But brothers. Brothers never go away. That’s for life. And I know married folks are supposed to be for life, too, but they’re not always. Brothers you can’t get rid of. They get who you are, and what you like, and they don’t care who you sleep with or what mistakes you make, because brothers aren’t mixed up in that part of your life. They see you at your worst, and they don’t care." 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. Just as she's adjusting to life on board, the crew gets a lucrative opportunity: to tunnel wormholes through space to a distant planet. But things quickly take a turn as pirates and other dangers threaten the makeshift family on the Wayfarer. They each have reasons to mistrust other creatures, but they have to trust and rely on each other more than ever before in order to survive. 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. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Becky Chambers's Wayfarers series includes The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet; A Closed and Common Orbit; Record of a Spaceborn Few; The Galaxy, and the Ground Within; and a series prequel, A Good Heretic. She's also the author of a A Psalm for the Wild-Built (the first in the Monk & Robot series) and its upcoming sequel, A Prayer for the Crown-Shy. She also wrote To Be Taught, If Fortunate, a standalone novella.

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading two more brand-new (to be published tomorrow!) books, Out Front the Following Sea (a title that I admit I keep misremembering) by Leah Angstman and Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves by Meg Long, as well as Jo Ann Beard's book of essays and short stories, Festival Days. What are you reading and enjoying these days, bookworms? 01 Out Front the Following Sea by Leah Angstman In Out Front the Following Sea, upcoming historical fiction by Leah Angstman, it's 1689 and King William's War is in full force between the French and English settlers in Ruth Miner's New England town. Ruth is an independent thinker, which is a dangerous thing in this time and place. When Ruth is accused of witchcraft and of killing her parents, she flees the rigid rules of the stifling town she's always known. She stows away on a ship where her longtime, trusted friend Owen has secured a job. But tensions on board the ship soon come to a head, and Ruth may have to choose between her loyalty to Owen and her own safety. I received an advance digital edition of this book--which comes out tomorrow--courtesy of NetGalley and Regal House Publishing. 02 Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves by Meg Long In Meg Long's debut young adult novel Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves, young Sena has lost both of her mothers to the brutal sled races on her frozen planet. She's had to be tough to survive since then. When she angers a local warlord and must escape her world, she's relieved to secure promises of transport out--but those who would help her have one condition. She must first be willing to use her trusted fighting wolf, Iska, to help her win the planet's most infamous sled race. In Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves, Long offers a story about survival, loyalty, friendship, and overcoming danger. I received a prepublication electronic copy of this book--which will be published tomorrow--courtesy of Wednesday Books and NetGalley. 03 Festival Days by Jo Ann Beard In the nine essays and short stories that make up Festival Days, Jo Ann Beard explores the tiny moments that make up a day and ultimately make up a life, as well as enormously important moments of life-and-death balance that can define everything. Festival Days is not light reading: "Cheri" delves into the last days of a woman who is terminally ill with cancer; "Last Night" relates the final moments of the author's beloved dog's life; and the backbone of the collection is the title piece, "Festival Days," which centers around a trip through India that explores mortality and love. But Beard's writing feels like long-form poetry in a way--evocative and anchored in wonderfully wrought detail--and despite the sometimes difficult subject matter, she injects humor and beauty into the disparate scenes and situations she relates. Beard is also the author of In Zanesville as well as a collection of autobiographical essays, The Boys of My Youth.

Book club love! My book club has been together in some form for thirteen years, and for a good while I've been (surprise!) the Bossy Final Decider of the books on our annual book list. I ask for book suggestions from my fellow book clubbers, add my own ideas, make sure early reviews look solid enough for us, establish when an intriguing book is likely to be generally widely available from the library, vary our genres throughout the year, try to give us lighthearted reads for the summer, and adhere to our 400-page-ish page limit. Here are my personal book club favorites from last year. I also enjoyed two of my favorite authors' newest books, Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet and Matt Haig's The Midnight Library, but in both cases my expectations were sky-high and I was left wanting a little more. For my favorite book club reads of 2020, check out the Greedy Reading List Six Book Club Books I Loved Last Year. 01 The Girl from Widow Hills by Megan Miranda Miranda uses the framework of a famous fictional rescue story to imagine the characters' turmoil and desperate coping mechanisms, crafting a fascinating look at the depths beneath their surfaces. Olivia (then called Arden) was a small child when she sleepwalked into a storm and was washed away. Three days later, she was recovered in a miraculous series of events that ended up with her rescue and removal from a storm drain. Now someone from her past has resurfaced, and he could reveal her carefully hidden secrets and ruin everything. When evidence of brutal violence emerges close to home, Olivia wonders if someone is protecting her or possibly seeking some kind of revenge--and if that someone might even be Olivia herself. I found the ending of the book gloriously terrifying. The last few pages felt a little disjointed from the story. But the familiar echoes of a story like "baby Jessica in the well," the media frenzy, and the public's emotional investment were a intriguing framework for Miranda's story. For my full review of this book, see The Girl from Widow Hills. 02 Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy Migrations features a tragic ecological setup of a world in which wild animals are largely nonexistent, with a cold and relentless ocean setting and frequently dramatic, sometimes tragic character interactions--but also glimmers of hope. Franny is taking her research equipment and heading to Greenland to track the last Arctic terns in the world, during what might be their final migration to Antarctica. She manages to talk her way onto a fishing boat and falls in with the crew, and it soon becomes clear that she's not only on a mission to document the critically endangered birds' journey. She's also conveniently left behind many complications and some dark secrets. Migrations follows Franny as she travels farther from civilization and safety--and as she considers what it would mean to try to cobble together some version of personal redemption and possibly even some semblance of peace with what she's done, what she's seen, and what she's lost. Click here for my full review of Migrations. 03 Today Tonight Tomorrow by Rachel Lynn Solomon Solomon offers a sweet, romantic young adult story with emotions that feel authentic; the book showcases competition, honesty, youthful exploration, and valuable self-discovery. It's the last day of high school, and senior nemeses Rowan Roth and Neil McNair have battled bitterly for every title, position, honor, and moment of recognition during their high school careers. They wake up texting each other their usual taunts and challenges. But today will be different: they'll find out which of them has earned the title of class valedictorian. Today Tonight Tomorrow is a sweet, ultimately romantic story that celebrates essential teenage touchstones: academic achievement and competition; cultivating and appreciating meaningful friendships; facing and expressing even challenging feelings; and appreciating the wonderfully precious, fleeting moments that make up each day in a life. For my full review, see Today, Tonight, Tomorrow. 04 Don't Look for Me by Wendy Walker Walker offers a terrifying, disturbing premise--but I was fascinated with the character depth, explorations of grief, and the twist I never saw coming in this suspenseful book. Molly Clarke is dealing with bottomless grief. Her youngest daughter died in an unthinkable accident, and for Molly, making her way through each day is like wading through floodwaters threatening to drown her. So she walks away--from her distant husband, her always-furious oldest daughter, her absent middle son, her broken life, and her relentless pain. At least, that's what the clues left behind seem to indicate. But the truth of what has occurred is horrible, terrifying, twisty--and absolutely fascinating. Yet I was pleasantly surprised by the generous character depth, explorations of grief, and self-actualization Walker offers within her suspenseful, gripping story. Situations aren't black-and-white, and terrible pain sometimes leads to intense realizations in what feel like realistically messy routes toward closure. For my full review, check out Don't Look for Me. 05 The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline Many of her characters find themselves in despairingly difficult situations, but Kline offers glimmers of hope as well. Christina Baker Kline deftly exposes the raw truths of tough situations in her character-driven historical fiction. In The Exiles, she writes a story of friendship, despair, and emergences of hope with a richly drawn Australian backdrop--while laying bare the country's often-painful history. The women's discoveries of their inner strength during their desperation are wonderful lights in the (significant) darkness here. Kline offers uncomfortably vivid details of prison life, sea voyage, male-female power structures, the tiny glimmers of hope characters try to kindle into sustaining flames, and the deadly influence of negative societal judgment. Christina Baker Kline also authored Orphan Train (which I really liked) and A Piece of the World (which I loved). Click here for my full review of The Exiles. 06 Red Notice by Bill Browder Browder takes the reader deep into the intrigue and terror of the corrupt Russian political and business systems he uncovered. Despite some small moments that felt heavy-handed, this is a powerful, fast-paced, compelling nonfiction read. The subtitle of Browder's nonfiction book is A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice, and in Red Notice, Browder traces his path from Wall Street to the Soviet Union after its breakup--and the crimes, mysteries, and political machinations that he witnessed and helped uncover. The story Browder shares is so compelling, so shocking, and so intriguing, I didn't mind skimming over some moments that felt heavy-handed. Browder brought me along into the thick of situations of which I had little or no prior understanding in a way that assured that I never felt lost. He's specific without getting bogged down in the details, and the pacing of the book is appealingly quick and compelling. For my full review, see Red Notice. If you like nonfiction books that read like fiction, you might try the books on the Greedy Reading Lists Six Compelling Nonfiction Books that Read Like Fiction and Six of the Best Nonfiction Books I've Read This Year.

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. Voiceless and alone, Shiori searches for her brothers--and discovers a dark, twisted conspiracy to take over the throne. In order to save her kingdom, she'll need to rely on her instincts, her power, and her smarts--oh, and a shapeshifting dragon, plus the boy she was supposed to (unwillingly) marry. Meanwhile there are odd creatures doling out questionable advice, a mysterious stepmother, a land struggling with the power and acceptance of magic, roots in East Asian folklore, and siblings who have grown apart--and whose enormous ordeal just might make them closer than ever. The detailed magical realism is vivid and I was in for all of it, and I found the hints at young love absolutely irresistible. I can't wait for the second book. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Lim was a film and video game composer who always loved to write. She's also the author of The Blood of Stars series and multiple Twisted Tales books. The Dragon's Pearl, the second and final book in the Six Crimson Cranes duology, is expected to be published in August 2022.

This fast-paced suspense read is the ultimate "trouble in paradise" story, with twist and turns that kept me hooked throughout the drunken excess of the largely self-obsessed characters. In Reckless Girls, the newest novel by Rachel Hawkins, Lux is a frustrated young woman who's just done what she said she never would: she followed a boy. But to be fair, she's emerging from a fog of trauma after her mother's death, her father has abandoned her, and she dropped out of college to take care of her mom when she was sick, so Lux is drifting. And Nico is handsome, charming, adoring of Lux--and he promised adventure and new-found freedom that she can't resist. But the couple's grand plans to sail the world have come to a standstill. Nico's boat is damaged, and he and Lux are working menial jobs in Hawaii so they can get it repaired and get on their way. When a wealthy pair of recent college graduates show up and offer to pay for the boat's repairs and want to hire Lux and Nico to take them to a remote atoll for a couple of weeks, Nico is sure their troubles are behind them. But Lux has a bad sense about all of this, and while the reader has the benefit of flashes forward in time to intense danger, Lux herself can't figure out why she's feeling so hesitant to go on a trip to a remote paradise. Reckless Girls swirls around issues of money, class, misogyny, anger, suspicion, revenge, dashed hopes, a desire for adventure, people aren’t who they seem to be, mercenary impulses, and, ultimately, the survival of the fiercest. Characters repeatedly make ill-advised choices and largely stay in drunken, sunburned fogs of excess and denial, and they do it all against a luxurious, eerie backdrop of the ultimate deserted island setting. The point of view shifts between first person and third person and the storytelling switches from past to present, and both of these structural decisions allow for interesting manipulations of accounts of events and of identities. I'm not sure how the details work with the ending and identities and a certain boat, and I didn't feel particularly emotionally connected to the characters, but I was more than willing to roll with whatever Hawkins was laying out for readers in the fast-paced, entertaining suspense story Reckless Girls. I received an advance digital edition of this book--which was published yesterday--courtesy of NetGalley and St. Martin's Press. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Rachel Hawkins is also the author of The Wife Upstairs--another solid suspense read with magnetic twists and turns--as well as the Hex Hall, Rebel Belle, and Royals series.

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 brand-new novel (published today!) 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 allows 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. I received a prepublication electronic copy of this book courtesy of Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Nita Prose is a longtime book editor, and The Maid is her first book. The lighthearted aspect of this mystery reminds me a little bit of Finley Donovan Is Killing It, but The Maid offers more heartwarming connection--I was surprised by how much, and by how touching it felt to me--whereas Finley Donovan was darkly funny.

The Books I'm Reading Now It's the first Bossy list of 2022! I'm starting the year off reading two brand-new (published tomorrow!) books, The Maid by Nita Prose and Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins, and I'm listening to the audiobook version of A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, a science fiction book I've had on my to-read list since a smarty librarian suggested it to me during the pandemic. What are you reading and enjoying these days, bookworms? 01 Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins In Reckless Girls, the newest novel by Rachel Hawkins (author of The Wife Upstairs), Lux is a frustrated young woman who's just done what she said she never would: she followed a boy. But to be fair, she's emerging from a fog of trauma after her mother's death, her father has abandoned her, and she dropped out of college to take care of her mom when she was sick, so Lux is drifting. And Nico is handsome, charming, adoring of Lux--and he promised adventure and new-found freedom that she can't resist. But the couple's grand plans to sail the world have come to a standstill. Nico's boat is damaged, and he and Lux are working menial jobs in Hawaii so they can get it repaired and get on their way. When a wealthy pair of recent college graduates show up and offer to pay for the boat's repairs and want to hire Lux and Nico to take them to a remote atoll for a couple of weeks, Nico is sure their troubles are behind them. But Lux has a bad sense about all of this, and while the reader has the benefit of flashes forward in time to intense danger, Lux herself can't figure out why she's feeling so hesitant to go on a trip to a remote paradise. I received an advance digital edition of this book--which comes out tomorrow--courtesy of NetGalley and St. Martin's Press. 02 The Maid by Nita Prose In Nita Prose's novel The Maid, main protagonist Molly finds a hotel guest dead in his room, and 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 narrator. 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 Molly witnesses. Yet Prose allows some surprises, and Molly may end up being more than capable of extricating herself from suspicion by using the many personal qualities that have led others to underestimate her. This lighthearted aspect of this mystery reminds me a little bit of Finley Donovan Is Killing It, but The Maid offers more heartwarming connection, whereas Finley Donovan was darkly funny. I received a prepublication electronic copy of this book--which will be published tomorrow--courtesy of Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley. The Maid is a book my book club is set to read this year. 03 The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers #1) by Becky Chambers I'm listening to this as an audiobook and really enjoying it. In this 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. Just as she's adjusting to life on board, the crew gets a lucrative opportunity: to tunnel wormholes through space to a distant planet. But things quickly take a turn as pirates and other dangers threaten the makeshift family on the Wayfarer. They each have reasons to mistrust others, but they'll have to trust and rely on each other more than ever before in order to survive.

My very favorite reads this year! I post a monthly wrap-up of my favorite reads, and now that 2021 is almost over, it's time to share the best books I've read during the calendar year. In no particular order, here are my absolute favorite reads of the year. Have you read any of these? All of these? What are some of your recent favorite reads? Let's do some Bossy book talking! 01 Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner In her memoir Crying in H Mart, Michelle Zauner takes unflinching looks at her family, herself, and her potential future, all while exploring the rich flavors, traditions, and challenges of the Korean meals intertwined with her identity and her past. Crying in H Mart is a complicated, layered love letter to Zauner's mother, who is dying of colorectal cancer over the course of the book. The book is also an exploration of the author's Korean-American heritage, her feelings of being caught between two cultures, and, largely, her deep and growing connection to Korean food. Zauner delves into her intense love for the complex flavors, the frequently time-consuming and sometimes meditative preparations required, and her many emotional associations with certain dishes. The author takes unflinching looks at her life, choices, and feelings. Her story is compelling and intriguing--whether or not you're familiar with her or her indie band Japanese Breakfast. (She mentions her musical journey, but the band is not the focus of the book.) Crying in H Mart is beautiful, painful, and evocative. 02 The Space Between Worlds by Micah Johnson In The Space Between Worlds, Micaiah Johnson offers a wonderfully imperfect heroine and her fascinating journeys through the multiverse, her various lives, and her alternate selves. I loved this science fiction debut. Cara is one of a dwindling number of traversers. She can travel through the multiverse, but only to worlds where another version of herself no longer exists. Her other selves seem uncannily apt to die, so Cara is able to visit 372 other Earths where her counterparts are no longer living. But when one of Cara's eight remaining selves mysteriously dies while she is world walking, shocking secrets are revealed that connect various worlds and shake Cara to her core. She must cobble together the various bits of knowledge and savviness she's gained through tracing the steps of her many other selves if she's going to stand any chance of outsmarting the canny and intelligent Adam Bosch--a man who will otherwise almost certainly be the source of her undoing. 03 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, elderly Zeno has lived a 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. Even when all hope should be lost, each character continues to press on. "But what's so beautiful about a fool...is that a fool never knows when to give up." It took me a little bit of page time to sort out the various settings and characters at the start, but Cloud Cuckoo Land was consistently beautiful, always interesting, and sometimes heartbreaking. I received a prepublication digital edition of this book courtesy of NetGalley and Scribner. For my full review, check out Cloud Cuckoo Land. 04 A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green The ending to Green's duology has tremendous heart without ever flirting with sappiness, offers deep meaning without being pedantic, and it felt blissfully, naturally, and gloriously quirky and lovely. A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor is Hank Green's sequel to An Absolutely Remarkable Thing and is the final book in his Carl saga. It features the fantastic characters from book one, and the plot picks up with a new version of the fight to save humanity from interfering extraterrestrials. I just love love loved A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor so much. My son is reading it and isn't quite as enamored of it as I am, but he does think it's really good. Fun fact: the author is brothers with the prolific and talented young adult author John Green, and the two also put out science videos on YouTube. For my full review of this book, please see A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor. And for my review of An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, click right here. 05 We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker Walk is the chief of police in the small coastal California town where he grew up. Decades earlier his account of a terrible event sent his best friend Vincent to prison. Vincent has tried to make his own suffering as great as possible behind bars by eschewing distraction and comfort, and now he's about to be released. Duchess is a thirteen-year-old girl trying to keep her family together. Her mother Star is old friends with Walk and Vincent, and when Vincent reappears, the tenuous peace and calm Duchess and her steady family friend Walk have been able to secure for her household are disrupted. Walk and Duchess are an unlikely pair, a milquetoast cop and a defiant young teen. But both of the longtime family friends are used to disappointment and both are used to relying on themselves. Can they somehow prevent Vincent and Star from destroying themselves and everyone who cares about them, or are Walk and Duchess inadvertently adding to the collapse? For my full review of this book, please see We Begin at the End. If you like character-driven suspense and mystery books, you might also like John Hart's (grittier) books; for my review of his book The Unwilling, click here. Another (also grittier) author I like in this vein is S.A. Cosby; I loved Blacktop Wasteland last year (it was one of my Six Favorite Summer Reads) and I just read and enjoyed his newest book, Razorblade Tears. 06 Broken Horses by Brandi Carlile In Broken Horses, Brandi Carlile shares a beautifully open, poignant, tough, rich, gorgeous account of her life and career so far. The audiobook includes over thirty songs, and I highly recommend it. I listened to Broken Horses: A Memoir by Brandi Carlile, and I can't imagine feeling the full emotions involved and the immersive experience of this book without hearing Carlile's voice tell it--and without all of the music Carlile offers here. She weaves songs into her stories and personal history, and the placement of the music feels seamless and illustrative. She shares the pressures of the music business, the difficult matter of taking care of her voice and her body while trying to create and push and perform, and her magical encounters with idols who have become friends--including Elton John, Dolly Parton, Joni Mitchell, and Tanya Tucker. Carlile intersperses songs with stories about their impact on her or the influences that led her to write and create them. The music is all included again at the very end of the book, by which point the listener understands its import. Her songs felt incredibly powerful as a closure to her story. 07 Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead Maggie Shipstead's story spans the wilds of Prohibition-era Montana, the blustery Pacific Northwest, the unforgiving chill of Alaska, the glitz and glamour of Hollywood and the movie-making business, and the stark, brutal dangers of Antarctica, from the early twentieth century to modern day. In interconnected stories--which felt equally compelling to me--Shipstead brings to life these disparate places and times and focuses on various colorful characters within them. The author has created two independent, defiant, appealingly strong young women split by time (and, secondarily, complex male characters the women love as family or romantic partners). Shipstead is a wonderful writer, and I loved every word of this. Both of the timelines had me hooked. I received a prepublication copy of Great Circle courtesy of Knopf Publishing Group and NetGalley. For my full review of this book, please see Great Circle. 08 The Best of Me by David Sedaris This collection of previously published Sedaris works is a gold mine of discomforting, edgy, offbeat observations--with more heart than I expected. I loved this audiobook. I was drawn in by the mix of tones represented here, and by the introspection and vulnerability Sedaris intermingles with the off-kilter, singular, sometimes excruciating moments he draws readers into. I hadn't read (or listened to) a good number of these selections, and I was repeatedly surprised and delighted with Sedaris's depth...then often cringed at an eccentric, discomforting observation that promptly followed. I enjoyed the roller coaster and was taken with this collection. Whether Sedaris is reliving specific, offbeat memories and mining them for poignancy and also laughs, or presenting his own distorted versions of morality plays, he does so with dark humor but also, frequently, with heart. For my full review, check out The Best of Me. 09 Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren The Soulmate Equation is the latest book from the writing pair known as Christina Lauren, and I loved it. Single mom Jess is a data analyst. She's good at crunching the numbers for work, taking care of her daughter, and leaning on her grandparents (who raised her) for help, but she's not comfortable with the idea of dating again. But then her daring best friend (who writes sexy romance novels!) pushes her to consider a DNA-based, data-driven dating program that makes sense to her--and she receives an unheard-of 98 percent compatible romantic match with an unlikely partner. The story is steamy and romantic at times without being dramatic. I love the tone the writing team of Christina Lauren struck with this one! I received a prepublication digital edition of this book courtesy of Gallery Books and NetGalley. For my full review of this book, please see The Soulmate Equation. 10 The Great Mistake by Jonathan Lee Andrew Green has been shot dead in front of his stately New York City home at the age of 83. He was elderly but remained an opinionated spitfire who hadn't felt he'd finished making incredibly significant contributions to society. The real but forgotten figure of Green was involved in a gloriously and absurdly extensive array of essential projects—the creation of Central Park, the founding of the Met Museum and the Natural History Museum, putting Boss Tweed behind bars, securing a more equitable New York public school system, establishing the New York Public Library, and combining Manhattan with Brooklyn and Queens into a greater New York. Lee's detail is just fantastic in terms of Green's emotions, hopes, dreams, everyday life at the time, and everything else in this epic story. The Great Mistake feels like a love letter to turn-of-the-century New York and a captivating story. I received a prepublication digital edition of this book courtesy of Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group and NetGalley. For my full review of this book, please see The Great Mistake. 11 Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney Rooney's characters engage in extensive self-reflection while struggling to open up emotionally to each other. Their vulnerabilities feel hard-won and powerful. Although successful young novelist Alice just met Felix, a young man working in a warehouse in the seaside town where she's staying temporarily, she invites Felix to travel to Rome on a book tour with her. Meanwhile, Alice's best friend Eileen is questioning her life path, working at a literary magazine and feeling generally adrift. She's just gone through a breakup and is growing closer to a childhood friend she's always secretly loved. The best friends and their love interests delve into their complex connections with each of the others, and through an omniscient viewpoint, Beautiful World Where Are You tracks the characters' romantic fits and starts, power shifts, and the roots and growth of their emotional connections. Click here for my full review of Beautiful World, Where Are You. 12 Five Tuesdays in Winter: Stories by Lily King King builds each story within Five Tuesdays in Winter to be full, rich, and full of pain and poignancy. I loved this collection. In Lily King's new story collection, she turns her eye for detail and for wonderfully faulted characters on explorations of love, desire, loss, and tragedy. From a bookseller closed off emotionally from the world who begins to consider letting someone in again to the complicated, tragic reunion of former college roommates; from a mourning elderly man faced with disaster to a writer who has been silenced for too long, King mines uncomfortable or joyful, sometimes tiny moments that shape her characters' lives in profound ways. With masterful storytelling, King builds a world within each short story that feels immediate, sometimes poignant, and which repeatedly surprised me with the amount of heart involved. I received a prepublication digital edition of this book courtesy of Grove Atlantic and NetGalley. For my full review of Five Tuesdays in Winter, click here.

My very favorite books from December! It's that time of year: it seems everyone has an opinion about the year's best books and their personal favorites, and they offer their own lists in all kinds of configurations. Because I love a list and I love books, this era of List Mania is my sweet spot! My own Favorite Books of 2021 comes out on December 31. But let's take a look at some great books I read this month, shall we? I'd love to hear: what are some of your recent favorite reads? 01 Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci The author shares his love of food, cooking, and sharing meals in this irresistible memoir that's also filled with joys and losses, humor, and an enthusiasm for life. In this memoir, the charming, food-obsessed cookbook author and actor shares the stories behind his Italian-American culinary origins; his experiences starring in the food-focused movies Big Night and Julie and Julia; and varied food adventures from five-star meals to burned, inedible disasters. In Taste, Tucci shares his enthusiasm for Italian food, cooking processes, and gustatory exploration, and he revels in what feels like an almost sacred communal sharing of food. I loved listening to audiobook version as his soothing voice extolled the virtues of dishes that were familiar to me and many that were not-. But Taste is also a memoir. The author shares stories of his wife and children, his first wife and her untimely death, and his own health crisis of cancer, which affected his digestion, ability to chew, and his taste--at the time, he was unsure how long-term the effects would be. Food is interwoven through all of these shared stories, and it always feels natural, never a forced construct for the sake of the book. For my full review, check out Taste: My Life Through Food. 02 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. Click here for my full review of The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven. 03 Pretty Funny for a Girl by Rebecca Elliott Elliott's book for young readers offers a boy-crazy, truly funny main protagonist in Haylah Swinton. I delighted in watching her come into her own, missteps and victories included. In her novel from my favorite publishing company for young people, Peachtree Publishing, Rebecca Elliott offers an irresistible heroine in Haylah Swinton. Haylah is an excellent friend, she's patient with her incredibly frustrating four-year-old brother, and she's learned to make light of everything from cracks about her full figure to her mother's cringey new boyfriend. Haylah also has a big secret: she's going to be a stand-up comedian when she grows up. When cool Leo at school reveals that he's into comedy too, Haylah jumps at the chance to write material for his sets--and, against her friends' advice, she sets her sights on him romantically as well. The situation seems destined to lead to personal and career frustration for Haylah--and maybe even heartbreak. Elliott offers a fantastic, boy-crazy, British story about missteps, facing change, accepting the past, sticking up for one's self, finding inner strength, and settling into an identity. It's also truly funny, and I can't wait to read the next book. I received an advance digital copy of this book courtesy of Peachtree Publishing and NetGalley. Click here for my full review of Pretty Funny for a Girl. 04 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. “...those who are given something of value without having to earn it are bound to squander it.” 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. Towles crafts a solid historical fiction adventure for his young-men protagonists, balancing weighty consequences and satisfying resolutions. For my full review of The Lincoln Highway, click here. 05 Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith I'm all in for the Cormoran Strike series. The slow build and complex details build to satisfying resolutions and keep me hooked despite grisly crimes and details. In the fifth installment of the mystery series by Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling's pen name), grumpy Cormoran Strike is visiting his ill aunt when he's approached on the streets of Cornwall. A woman recognizes him and impulsively spills the story of her mother Margot Bamborough's mysterious disappearance--back in 1974. Strike, Robin, and their quirky, imperfect, sometimes insufferable investigator employees have enough surveillance work to keep them busy, but Strike can't shake the story of Margot, her potential link to a famous serial killer, and all the ways the original investigation seems to have gone wrong. Troubled Blood explores issues of identity, the strength of a person's nature as compared to experiences that may shape their behavior, and the power of assumptions. As always in the world of Cormoran Strike, the details of the crime are often grisly and disturbing. I didn't anticipate the details of the denouement, and I enjoyed Robin's and Strike's smart discoveries as well as the hints at what's to come. For my full review, check out Troubled Blood. 06 The Distance from Four Points by Margo Orlando Littell Littell explores deep human connections, grief, womanhood, what strength means, the power of origins, and the concept of home in this slim novel. Robin Besher's husband has died, and she's desperately trying to come to terms with the tragedy. But she's soon faced with issues beyond missing him: he had secretly sunk all of their savings into ramshackle rental houses in her Appalachian hometown, which she'd fled decades earlier. She has no clue as to what his intentions were, or why he would go against what he must have known she would have wanted. Angry, confused, and filled with dread, Robin drags her daughter Haley back to Four Points in hopes of renovating the houses quickly, selling them, and cutting ties to the town forever. But Robin unexpectedly and inadvertently connects to the unlikeliest of people in the town, some of whom were part of her dark, frequently pain-filled youth. In The Distance from Four Points, Littell explores deep human connections, grief, womanhood, what strength means, the power of origins, and the concept of home. For my full review, check out The Distance from Four Points.

Conley's book explores a mother's emotional struggle to care for her wild teenage sons and to cope in the wake of her husband's serious accident, all on a tiny island in Maine. Susan Conley's novel Landslide offers a portrait of a family in a remote fishing village in Maine after an accident throws father Kit out of work. Mother Jill is left to take care of her teen sons--they're so wild she thinks of them as "the wolves"--on their tiny island as Kit recovers far away in Nova Scotia. Jill feels utterly alone as she struggles to understand teenaged dramas, to manage brotherly conflict, to attempt to impart life lessons, to impart values related to drugs and sex, and to cope with the boys' dangerous tests of luck and fate. She does all of this in the frequently unforgiving Maine climate on the isolating island where the family has made their home. While facing what feels like disaster after disaster, Jill struggles to give her boys what they need--while navigating complicated emotions, fears about the state of her marriage, and her own persistent, often unmet need to forge an identity separate from that of wife and mother. Much of Landslide consists of Jill trying to keep herself together emotionally while feeling powerless and, often, without a plan. She feels she should make sure her boys and husband feel seen and known, but she's deeply wishing to feel seen and known herself. The atmosphere is sometimes frenetic and frequently claustrophobic, and characters' ineffectual conversations often hit dead ends before they even begin. Characters rely on misdirection and avoidance and offer few straightforward answers, and the resulting frustration and panic made me feel immersed in Jill's unpleasant swirl of doubts, worries, fears, and desperation. Underlying all of the family's stresses is the grim, haunting specter of the imploding fishing business and bleak conditions. These not only complicate Jill and Kit's finances, but threaten Kit's identity and shake the family's sense of personal history and the legacy that's been held by generations. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Conley is also the author of the novels Kelsey Come Home and Paris Was the Place, as well as the memoir The Foremost Good Fortune.

I was intrigued by the Chinese folklore influences and the story's feminist leanings, although I felt bogged down at times by explanations of how the power, qi, and magic worked. “Shame. That was their favorite tool. A tool to corrode me from the inside until I believed I could only accept whatever lot they threw at my bound feet. It didn't work. Despite their best efforts, I find myself worthy of happiness.” In Iron Widow, Xiran Jay Zhao blends Chinese folklore with science-fiction robots and aliens in this feminist young adult action story. Chrysalises are giant robots used to battle the aliens beyond the Great Wall, and the girls who pilot them undergo great strain--and can unleash great power. But they're subsumed by the male-dominant battle system and their qi is used to boost the men's efforts, often at enormous cost to the women. Zetian's spirit has been crushed by her family for years and her feet systematically broken in order to increase her potential value as a bride--in the end, to benefit her brother and raise his chances of a profitable marriage match. But she's determined to avenge her sacrificed sister's death and not to have lived in vain. She is made a concubine warrior and is expected to die in her first battle, but Zetian instead shows herself to have incredible psychic strength. She is paired with male pilots, and because of her immense power, she begins to be called the Iron Widow. Feared and mysterious, Zetian is matched with the most controversial, deadly male pilot around, Li Shimin. But Zetian is secretly determined to use her power not to battle the enemy Hunduns, but to elevate the female pilots who have been treated unfairly for so long. And she hasn't yet exacted her revenge on those who killed her sister--or on those who perpetuate the broken, male-dominated system itself. Zetian begins to suspect that none of the fighters know the true hierarchy of pilot qi power and believes the women's actual aptitude has never been revealed, and she even questions whether the invaders she's been set up to destroy are actually the enemy after all. I was most intrigued by the Chinese folklore and by the feminist power in the story; Zetian's tearing down of the patriarchal destruction was satisfying to watch. Things weren't always what they seemed, and Zetian was pivotal in bringing injustices to light. And I was interested in the story's love triangle, although we got only a cursory look at the promise and potential of it. I felt a little bogged down initially by what felt like extensive explanations of systems, the workings of qi power, and the details of necessary cooperation, and later I was a little taken aback by unexpected transformations, by what felt like frequently shifting abilities, and by some abrupt changes in how things worked--and distracted by asides letting the reader know why initial explained rules no longer applied. I didn’t mind, but some of this was hard for me to follow at times, so I just rolled with it. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? I received a prepublication electronic copy of this book courtesy of Penguin Random House Canada and NetGalley. Iron Widow is Xiran Jay Zhao's first novel, and it's labeled as the first in the Iron Widow series, so stay tuned for a sequel.

ICYMI: Bossy Bookworm's Very Favorite Books of 2020! I love an end-of-year, best-of, favorite books list, and I loved putting together my very first year-end list (which is not precisely in order of most to least favorite, although the titles are numbered for reading ease) on The Bossy Bookworm! A year later, I stand by all of these titles as favorites! If you've read these or if you give any of these a go, please let me know what you think! You might also like some of the books on the other Greedy Reading Lists I posted in 2020: Six Historical Fiction Books I Loved This Year Six of the Best Nonfiction Books I've Read This Year Six Lighter Fiction Stories for Great Escapism Six Historical Fiction Mysteries to Intrigue You Six Illuminating Memoirs I've Read This Year The Six Best Mysteries I Read Last Year My Six Favorite Summer 2020 Reads Six More Great Fiction Titles I Loved This Year Thank you so much for checking out The Bossy Bookworm. Cheers to another year of reading--and discovering wonderful new books! 01 This Is All He Asks of You by Anne Egseth Egseth's debut novel has remained largely under the radar since its publication last June, but I adored it and would love for more readers to pick it up. I just loved This Is All He Asks of You. The character of Luna has a unique and lovely voice and is an irresistibly odd bird of a twelve-year-old girl. She's facing her mother’s decline in health and exploring her own identity and meaning in her life, and she shapes her sometimes practical but often mystical thoughts and reflections through writing letters to her father, who she has never met, in the conversational tone of a pen pal writing to someone who will love her and her words unconditionally. Luna stumbles into encounters that shape her life dramatically, in unorthodox and heartbreakingly meaningful ways. I simultaneously wanted to scoop her up and take care of her and to follow the lead of this wise-beyond-her-years, intensely spiritual young person. I received a copy of this book through John Hunt Publishing and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This book made the Greedy Reading List My Six Favorite Summer 2020 Reads. For my full review of this book, see This Is All He Asks of You. 02 The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave I loved The Mercies. The majority of page time in the historical fiction title is spent showing the tasks of daily life (and almost-claustrophobic interconnectedness) within a tiny, very northern Norwegian community in the early 17th century. But there are witch hunts at hand, and dabbling in the Sami traditions of runes, poppets, or the playing of drums—or simply being a strong-willed woman helping to feed a village by manning fishing boats when the men are all lost—is enough to lead to terrible consequences. Hargrave allows some light into the darkness and cold in the form of love, and important realizations, and some brutal justice, but ignorance and pettiness lead to other horrific and undeserved consequences. One standout for me was the strength of the women in the face of men's abuses of power and physical cruelty. The setting was vivid and Hargrave's richly described landscape has stayed with me. This is Hargrave's first book for adults, but she has several other young adult and children's books I'd love to read, including The Girl of Ink & Stars and The Deathless Girls. This book is part of the Greedy Reading List Six Captivating Nordic Stories. For my full review, see The Mercies. 03 Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell ​ In the novel Utopia Avenue, Mitchell takes us through the twists and turns of a fictional psychedelic British sixties band on its rocky rise to popularity, through exploring its members' crises, joys, fears, and triumphs. Utopia Avenue contains endless imagined cameos, fictional adventures, and gems of wisdom from real-life musicians like David Bowie, Joni Mitchell, Jerry Garcia, and members of the Rolling Stones, as well as authors and artists--not to mention wild parties, betrayals, leaps of faith, breakups, and tragedy. But Mitchell expertly builds the four band members--Jasper, Elf, Griff, and Dean, plus their beloved manager Levon--into rich characters you're rooting for through their individual ups and downs as well as through the triumphs and setbacks of the band Utopia Avenue. If you like Mitchell's beautiful, offbeat, sometimes meandering and tough to pin down stories, you'll likely also love this almost 600-page book. As always, there are references to other parts of the David Mitchell universe, and the links to other books felt cozy, like I was coming home to more very welcome Mitchell madness and delving into another layer of his imagination. Reading his other books isn't important in enjoying this novel, whose focus on music loosely reminded me of Daisy Jones & The Six. Mitchell doesn't provide too easy or neat of an ending, but it felt fitting and left me satisfied. Utopia Avenue was a really captivating book that kept me intrigued throughout. I received an advance copy of this book through NetGalley and Random House in exchange for an unbiased review. For my full review, see Utopia Avenue. 04 Long Bright River by Liz Moore Long Bright River is a mystery set in Philadelphia and centers around two sisters in disparate but linked situations—Mickey is a cop and Kacey is a defiant addict Mickey's keeping an eye on and trying not to scare away. When Kacey disappears and a string of murders rock the community, everyone is suspect and Mickey's desire to solve the mystery becomes relentless and personal. Situations aren’t resolved too easily or cleanly, but Moore finds a way to satisfy the reader as well. Things aren’t as they initially seem, yet I didn’t feel manipulated. This is a smart, compelling story that totally had me hooked. Liz Moore’s writing is thoughtful and the story in Long Bright River is character-driven. Yes to this. I’m in for anything Moore is putting down on paper at this point. For my full review, please see Long Bright River. 05 When We Were Vikings by Andrew David MacDonald ​ Zelda is obsessed with Vikings. She uses Old Norse words in her speech and thoughts; she frequently mentions bravery, combat, wisdom, and other elements of Viking legends to anyone she encounters; and she models her life after the factors she considers essential to a Viking legend. She’s eager to learn how to be more independent, and she’s smart and accurate with so many of her pure and good instincts and actions, it just made my heart swell. She’s also gloriously selfish and flawed and impatient sometimes. But there’s a dark undercurrent throughout When We Were Vikings: when Zelda becomes caught up in sketchy business of her brother’s, she finds that her situation is a lot more complicated than sorting out her love life with Marxy from the community center, playing matchmaker with Gert and his wonderful ex Annie, or securing a job at the library. She has to figure out what it means to live her own legend, and whether she can save Gert or even save herself. I loved this. The characters, the story arc that isn’t too easy but leaves you in a promising place after all, and the dialogue—love love love. This is Andrew David MacDonald's first book. I'm all in for the next one. This title was listed in Six More Great Fiction Titles I Loved This Year. For my full review, please see When We Were Vikings. 06 Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots ​ Anna doesn't put up with any good old boy chauvinism from anyone, and she's so smart, her talents are probably going to waste in her profession. She's an expendable part of a data entry pool and works boring temp jobs...for villains. Then she's unexpectedly and accidentally involved in a violent clash of good and evil and is badly injured by a gallingly shiny superhero. She doubles down on her contempt for the good guys and her annoyance at how others see them as infallible when they're far from blameless. She sets out to reveal the details of the dark side of the superhero myth. (This premise reminded me somewhat of the TV series "The Boys.") I loooooved this book. Walschots hooked me immediately and completely with her character-driven, superhero-focused, smart, wicked, and action-packed book. I read a prepublication copy of Hench courtesy of NetGalley and William Morrow. For my full review of this book, see Hench. 07 A Star Is Bored by Byron Lane ​ Author Byron Lane was Carrie Fisher's personal assistant in real life, and in this novel, Byron's main protagonist Charlie is assistant to a sci-fi-blockbuster-famous actress who played the iconic Priestess Talara. Kathi Kannon is a character with a big, wacky personality who also struggles with addiction. She's Hollywood royalty, and her former movie star mother lives in a home on the same compound. So I was definitely picturing Carrie Fisher as Kannon throughout this story. Charlie is searching for meaning and direction--and he doesn't much mind the social cachet of being assistant to a high-profile celebrity. Kathi tends toward outrageous excess and could use a loyal companion who cares enough to set limits toward a goal of her self-preservation. We see practical Charlie learning to roll with and embrace Kannon's spicy banter and often outrageous wishes. The story is zany and wonderful, with lots of glimpses into glamorous (and often tedious) celebrity details. There are fun and frenetic scenes about meeting the varied demands of an enormous star, and Lane explores the characters' challenges of striving to maintain balance in an odd employer-assistant relationship that blurs the lines of the professional and personal. I was surprised by how much heart and reflection Lane injected into the story to flesh out a deep, poignant relationship. I very much cared about Kathi and Charlie's struggles together and as individuals, and I laughed a lot. I adored this. For my full review, see A Star Is Bored. 08 The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd ​ This was so interesting: a story from the point of view of an imagined wife for Jesus, which includes an exploration of gender roles and the reimagining of a rigid faith, marriage/child/parental/educational expectations for women, adventure, strong female loyalty and friendship, love, and lots of fascinating details of life at the time. Much of the fever pitch of support and hatred for Jesus occurs when the main character of Ana is off having other experiences (and often-dangerous adventures). Jesus' role in Ana's story is as a faithful man who disagrees with the politics of the faith at the time, but primarily as a person who cares for and understands and supports his wife. This title was listed in Six Historical Fiction Books I Loved This Year. For my full review, please see The Book of Longings. 09 Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker ​ Robert Kolker retraces the lives of Mimi and Don Glavin as they raise their ten sons and two daughters. Over time their eldest boys begin to fracture the family with unrelenting violence, destruction, and constant tension. One by one, six siblings develop schizophrenia. For many years Mimi desperately insists on keeping the family’s troubles private, clinging to the preservation of her idea of a perfect family. But there’s no permanently hiding the wandering, ranting, furious young men. The family descends into chaos; there is secret abuse, and there is always the dark, disturbing force of unchecked mental illness shaping their lives. The scientific community studying schizophrenia locks onto the family; with the help of the brothers and their now-willing parents, researchers begin to pick apart genetic factors that might contribute to the development of schizophrenia. The family's vast amount of genetic material--from both those affected by and those free from mental illness—begins to bear out valuable breakthroughs in understanding and treatment of the condition. These significant advancements wouldn’t have been possible without the genetic material from and the cooperation of the Glavin family, and Kolker explores the scientific ins and outs of all of this in a manageable way for the reader. Hidden Valley Road is a fascinating, disturbing, heartbreaking, but ultimately hopeful book. This book was listed in the Greedy Reading List Six of the Best Nonfiction Books I've Read This Year. For my full review, see Hidden Valley Road. 10 The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue ​ In early eighteenth-century France, 23-year-old Addie LaRue makes a Faustian bargain in order to live freely--until she's ready to surrender her soul. But each day Addie wakes up a stranger to everyone around her. She can make no mark on the world--she cannot write or draw, she cannot disturb the snow by walking through it, she cannot even say her true name to another person. Yet she begins to eke out an existence around the edges of the oppressive rules of her existence. She can serve as a muse; she can inspire music and art in others; she can learn what others want or need and be that for them for a day. She can borrow, steal, indulge, and then disappear. I found Addie's workarounds to be one of the most fascinating parts of this story. Then Addie meets a young man in a hidden-away bookstore--and he's the first person in almost three hundred years to remember her after she walks out the door, the next day, and every day afterward. At long last, she can say her true name to someone; she could even tell him her preposterous story of eternal life. But why is she able to break the rigid rules of the Darkness with him? And what secrets is he keeping from Addie? For my full review of this book, please see The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. 11 The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue ​ Set in Ireland in 1918, The Pull of the Stars follows a nurse, Julia; a doctor, Kathleen Lynn (a real-life, formidable figure); and a young volunteer, Bridie, over the course of three tumultuous days as the fiery, complex, capable women work desperately to help the patients at their understaffed hospital who are about to give birth while suffering from the devastating new influenza. Our heroines are sometimes trapped by the chauvinistic framework they're working within, and we see them try to create their own solutions to crises, choose to follow tradition or improve upon it, and frequently fly under the radar to instinctively and knowledgeably help their patients rather than rely on, for example, young, untested, book-smart male doctors. Donoghue weaves a good amount of fact into this story. She offers sometimes horrifying particulars of early twentieth century medical care and exquisitely detailed glimpses into daily life and the workings of society at the time. Donoghue immersed me so fully in the moment-by-moment health and emotional crises; the women's determined, sometimes desperately creative attempts to preserve lives; and the occasional triumphs that the rest of the world fell away for me as I was reading. I couldn't wait to get back to this book when I wasn't reading it. For my full review of this book, please see The Pull of the Stars. 12 When These Mountains Burn by David Joy ​ Ray, a gruff, tough, burly, stubborn, but kind man, has outlived his beloved wife in the mountains of North Carolina. He has a precious old girl of a dog, a fascination with (and healthy fear of) coyotes, a love of reading, and a no-nonsense manner that makes clear he doesn't brook fools. He has almost resigned himself to the heartbreaking idea that his addict son is too lost to be saved. There's an undercover cop nearby who's trying to help take down a robust drug ring, and then there's Ray, who uses old-fashioned methods and his knowledge of mountain terrain to address injustices in a straightforward way. When These Mountains Burn isn't always easy to read, but imperfect characters offer surprising hope here. Joy's characters are fascinatingly faulted and keep you humming right along. I read this in 24 hours while also wishing I were making it last longer. I received an advance reader's copy of this book from NetGalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons in exchange for an unbiased review. This title was also listed in My Six Favorite Summer 2020 Reads. For my full review of this book, see When These Mountains Burn.

Robinson's 1971 classic for young readers is a wonderful read-aloud during the Christmas season. "Hey! Unto you a child is born!" We read aloud Barbara Robinson's 1971 holiday classic every Christmas season around here, and I love it every single time. There are some old-fashioned elements, but for me, the big heart of this story outweighs the outdated aspects. The trouble-making Herdmans (they're known for shoplifting, brutalizing and intimidating classmates and teachers, smoking cigars, and drinking jug wine, among other things) appear on the scene of the Sunday School Christmas pageant because it's rumored that refreshments are served there. Their participation in the pageant causes an uproar in the staid, traditional production and in the community that expects the same version year after year. But the Herdmans' lack of context for the Christmas story means they ask probing questions. Where is the King Herod character, and does he (fingers crossed) die a grisly death at the end? Why does someone besides Mary get to name Jesus, and why wasn't his name something reasonable like Bill? And why would a baby want gifts of oil and gold--wouldn't a ham be better and more useful? The Herdmans' challenges to the story and the traditional pageant roles--as well as to the community's expectations--bring out heartwarming truths and unexpected reflections. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? We saw our local children's theatre production of this story a few years ago, and it was a true joy watching an actress play the role of tough, questioning Imogene Herdman as she plays gruff, protective new mother Mary. Gladys Herdman's shouted "Hey! Unto you a child is born!" is a favorite moment in the story.

As the young men in The Lincoln Highway face challenge after challenge, they grow, learn, and fight for resolutions to difficult situations. “...those who are given something of value without having to earn it are bound to squander it.” 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. Things continue to go awry for Emmett and Billy as they meet hiccup after hiccup in their plan, and they have problematic, sometimes dangerous encounters requiring quick thinking, sacrifice, and forgiveness. The boys and the members of their entourage also each fight to tie up loose ends in their lives, explore new paths they might take, and learn about themselves. I was curious about what would happen to the boys collectively and individually, although I didn't feel any emotional connection to their plights. Towles crafts a solid historical fiction adventure for his young-men protagonists, balancing weighty consequences and satisfying resolutions. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Towles is also the author of A Gentleman in Moscow, which I really liked, and Rules of Civility, which I was even more taken with--the old NYC setting was so vivid, it felt like its own character.

I'm all in for the Cormoran Strike series. The slow build and complex details build to satisfying resolutions and keep me hooked despite grisly crimes and details. In the fifth installment of the mystery series by Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling's pen name), grumpy Cormoran Strike is visiting his ill aunt when he's approached on the streets of Cornwall. A woman recognizes him and impulsively spills the story of her mother Margot Bamborough's mysterious disappearance--back in 1974. Strike, Robin, and their quirky, imperfect, sometimes insufferable investigator employees have enough surveillance work to keep them busy, but Strike can't shake the story of Margot, her potential link to a famous serial killer, and all the ways the original investigation seems to have gone wrong. But in taking on the first cold case of his career, Strike doesn't bargain for the current-day twists, dark turns, and the mortal danger he'll bring upon his team. I listened to the audiobook version of this book, which runs 32 hours (!), but I plowed through at 1.75 speed, so, math: 18+ hours? It was nicely paced, and I liked having time to dig into the characters' evolution and the mystery's twists and turns. Troubled Blood explores issues of identity, the strength of a person's nature as compared to experiences that may shape their behavior, and the power of assumptions. As always in Cormoran Strike world, the details of the crime are often grisly and disturbing. I didn't anticipate the details of the denouement, and I enjoyed Robin's and Strike's smart discoveries as well as the hints at what's to come. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? I'm all in for this series. The slow build and complex details build to satisfying resolutions and keep me hooked. For my reviews of books one through four, check out Review of the Cormoran Strike Series books 1-4.

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading Tiffany McDaniel's Appalachian-set novel Betty with my book club, Xiran Jay Zhao's young adult blend of Chinese history and science fiction in Iron Widow, and Susan Conley's slim, powerful novel Landslide, about a modern Maine family in a remote fishing village coping with challenge after challenge. What are you reading and enjoying these days, bookworms? 01 Betty by Tiffany McDaniel In Tiffany McDaniel's novel Betty, set in the foothills of Appalachia, a young woman comes of age surrounded and shaped by poverty and violence. Betsy Carpenter was the sixth child of eight born to a white mother and Cherokee father, and life in rural Breathed, Ohio, is tough for her and her family. But Betsy is resilient. She revels in the wonders of the natural world, soaks in her father's rich stories, loves her sisters loyally and eternally, and uses her imagination to escape the hardships of her life. McDaniel was inspired to write Betty by generations of her own family's stories. This is my book club's first read of 2022. 02 Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao Xiran Jay Zhao blends Chinese folklore with science fiction robots and aliens in this feminist young adult action story that's fascinating me so far. In Iron Widow, Chrysalises are giant robots used to battle the aliens beyond the Great Wall, and the girls who pilot them undergo great strain--and can unleash great power. Zetian shows herself to have incredible--possibly deadly--psychic strength, and she begins to be called the Iron Widow. Feared and mysterious, Zetian is paired with the most controversial male pilot around, Li Shimin. But Zetian is secretly determined to use her power to elevate the female pilots who have been treated unfairly for so long. I received a prepublication electronic copy of this book courtesy of Penguin Random House Canada and NetGalley (but I'm just now reading this fall 2021 title). 03 Landslide by Susan Conley Susan Conley's novel Landslide offers a portrait of a modern family in a remote fishing village in Maine after an accident throws the father out of work. Jill is left to take care of her teen sons--"the wolves"--on her own, coping with all of the teenaged dramas, important life lessons, dangerous tests of luck and fate, and unforgivingly icy, sometimes dangerous surroundings complicating everything. While facing what feels like disaster after disaster, Jill struggles to give her boys the support, structure, positivity, reality, guidance, and love they need--while navigating so much herself and as she desperately tries to protect her precious family.

Elliott's book for young readers offers a boy-crazy, truly funny main protagonist in Haylah Swinton. I delighted in watching her come into her own, missteps and victories included. In her novel for young readers--from my favorite publishing company for young people, Peachtree Publishing--Rebecca Elliott offers an irresistible heroine in Haylah Swinton. Haylah is an excellent friend, she's patient with her incredibly frustrating four-year-old brother, and she's learned to make light of everything from cracks about her full figure to her mother's cringey new boyfriend. Haylah also has a big secret: she's going to be a stand-up comedian when she grows up. When cool Leo at school reveals that he's into comedy too, Haylah jumps at the chance to write material for his sets--and, against her friends' advice, she sets her sights on him romantically as well. The situation seems destined to lead to personal and career frustration for Haylah--and maybe even heartbreak. Elliott offers a fantastic, boy-crazy, British story about missteps, facing change, accepting the past, sticking up for one's self, finding inner strength, and settling into an identity. It's also truly funny, and I can't wait to read the next book. I received an advance digital copy of this book courtesy of Peachtree Publishing and NetGalley--and was woefully late in reading and reviewing this gem! Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? The next book in this series is Pretty Rude for a Girl. Elliott is also the author of the Owl Diaries series and over twenty picture books.

The Cormoran Strike-Robin Ellacott Saga I've been listening to the fifth installment in this series, Troubled Blood, and during my many glorious hours listening to the audiobook version of the 944-page book so far, I've had time to reflect upon the fact that I haven't yet posted reviews of the other books in the series on Bossy Bookworm. Which brings us to...this post! These are generally deep dives into mysterious, often creepy situations. This isn't a fast-paced series, yet I've consistently felt hooked on how the cases build--and on the will-they-won't-they tension between the opposites-attract duo of Strike and Robin. Plus, I find the supporting cast of imperfect, oddball, lovely characters absolutely irresistible. 01 The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith First of all, I don't want to talk about this cover, or about movie or television tie-in covers in general. I haven't watched any adaptation of these books and I am afeared of feeling disappointed about them. Thank you for your support regarding this delicate matter. Here's the basic premise of The Cuckoo's Calling: Cormoran Strike spent a couple of years at Oxford before enlisting in the British Army, Special Investigation Branch, Royal Military Police. After he lost his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, he returned to London, where he's cobbled together a career as a private investigator. When new client John Bristow asks him to investigate the circumstances of the death of his famous sister, the supermodel Lula Landry, Strike must sift through the sordid details of the ultrarich, famous, depraved, and desperate circles that surrounded Lula. Meanwhile, the newly engaged Robin Ellacott has started work as a temporary secretary to Strike, and she brings her own emotional baggage, her natural ability for investigation, and her power as a source of begrudging personal fascination for the grumpy, closed-off Strike. I really enjoyed this. It's a slowly built, character-driven whodunit. Galbraith's pacing pulls you along without cheap twists, and the writing is precise and wonderful, with great dialogue and character development. The ending felt set up for a sequel, which it was. 02 The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith In The Silkworm, Cormoran Strike is asked to investigate the disappearance of novelist Owen Quine. But the short getaway his wife suspects he was seeking turns out to be something else entirely. Quine had recently finished a new, damaging manuscript which excoriated almost everyone he knew and could have upended the lives of many people around him. Which meant there were lots of people who might want Quine to stay quiet. Quine is found brutally murdered, and Strike must rush to determine what has happened and who was behind the killings. Meanwhile, the Cormoran Strike-Robin Ellacott bond is strengthening; her fiance is insufferable; his ex-girlfriend is emotionally unbalanced; and it's all very intriguing. I do love me some Cormoran Strike. I confused a few of the players a little bit there in the middle of this one. I was glad that the potential work romance between Strike and Robin was hinted at but not consummated. 03 Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith In the third mystery of the Cormoran Strike series, Career of Evil, Robin is horrified to receive a disturbing package...containing a severed leg. It seems to be a message for Cormoran, and he must work to determine which of four potential people from his past are responsible. Strike thinks the police are on the wrong track, so he and Robin dive into the pasts of the other three suspects--but more upsetting events unfold. I didn't often listen to audiobooks back when I read this one, and Career of Evil was a compelling story to take in this way--if a little tough because there was no read-skimming the gory details of the serial killer procedures and destruction. Eeeee! I love the characters of Cormoran, Robin, and Shanker, and reading this third book cemented the fact that I'm in for this series as long as it goes. I like that the books are long enough to delve into various twist and turns and to slowly develop the characters and their relationships without rushing or jumping into things in an unlikely rush. 04 Lethal White by Robert Galbraith At the start of Lethal White, a young man named Billy comes to Cormoran Strike's detective office asking for help. He believes he witnessed a crime when he was a little boy, and while Billy can't recall many of the details, he's clearly been shaped by this trauma ever since its occurrence. You might guess that Strike and Robin--now Strike's equal business partner and an indispensable member of the detective agency--can't resist trying to help Billy and working against the formidable challenge of time to uncover the truth of what occurred many years earlier. Well, you'd be correct. They take the job, which leads them through dark elements of society, government, society, and the underbelly of London. Meanwhile, the tensions between Robin and Strike continue to bubble. They're such excellent partners, they couldn't ever jeopardize the career setup so important to each of them by becoming romantically involved--could they? Lethal White is another solid installment in the Cormoran Strike series of twists and turns and double-crossing and disguises...all with the endearing undercurrent of true affection between Cormoran and Robin. This also felt less gruesome than it might’ve been, which I deeply appreciated. I didn’t see the denouement coming, but I didn’t feel manipulated either. Well done, again! I'm currently listening to the fifth book in this series, Troubled Blood. Stay tuned for my review of that book.

St. John Mandel weaves together the past, present, and future in this post-apocalyptic story about a pandemic (which has been made into a limited series I have high hopes for). My smarty friend Laura recently told me that Station Eleven has been adapted into a limited HBO series that begins this Thursday. One reviewer calls it "a beautifully wrought piece of storytelling" (Vulture). I'm excited to give this a go...despite the fact that Station Eleven is centered around a pandemic. Station Eleven tracks an interconnected web of lives--of a Hollywood star who meets his demise at the start of the devastating pandemic, through the lives of others who knew and loved him, and back and forth to the past where the actor got his start and to the future, where a traveling troupe of performers wanders the wastelands. Meanwhile, a self-proclaimed prophet wields dangerous power. St. John Mandel's post-apocalyptic story offers various minor, intriguing aspects that come together in an unexpected way. I was taken with her writing style and loved how smoothly the shifts in time and chronology worked. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? I mentioned Station Eleven in the Greedy Reading List Six Fantastic Dystopian and Postapocalyptic Novels as an additional book that could fit into that list. St. John Mandel is also the author of The Glass Hotel as well as other novels, and her novel The Sea of Tranquility is slated for publication in the spring of 2022.

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading Amor Towles's almost-600-page historical fiction story Lincoln Highway, listening to Robert Galbraith's 944-page fifth installment in the Cormoran Strike series, Troubled Blood, and reading Six Crimson Cranes, Elizabeth Lim's first book in her newest young adult duology. What are you reading and enjoying these days, bookworms? 01 The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles 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. Towles is also the author of A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules of Civility. 02 Troubled Blood by Robert Galbratih In the fifth installment of the mystery series by Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling's pen name), grumpy Cormoran Strike is visiting his ill aunt when he's approached on the streets of Cornwall. A woman recognizes him and impulsively spills the story of her mother Margot Bamborough's mysterious disappearance--back in 1974. Strike, Robin, and the their quirky, imperfect, sometimes insufferable investigator employees have enough surveillance work to keep them busy, but Strike can't shake the story of Margot, her potential link to a famous serial killer, and all the ways the original investigation seems to have gone wrong. But in taking on the first cold case of his career, Strike doesn't bargain for the current-day twists, dark turns, and the mortal danger he'll bring upon his team. I'm listening to the audiobook version of this book, which runs 32 hours (!). I'm plowing through at 1.75 speed, so, math: 18+ hours? So far it feels nicely paced, and I like having time to dig into the characters' evolution and the mystery's twists and turns. 03 Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim In this young adult novel, the first in a duology from Elizabeth Lim, Shiori is trying desperately to hide the forbidden magic coursing through her veins. But when her power is revealed before her betrothal ceremony, she is banished, her 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. (How is Lim going to make this plot construct work? I can't wait to find out.) Voiceless and alone, Shiori searches for her brothers--and discovers a dark, twisted conspiracy to take over the throne. In order to save her kingdom, she'll need to rely on her instincts, her power, and her smarts--oh, and a shapeshifting dragon, plus the boy she was supposed to marry.

Harris's action-packed World War II story moves between the terrors of 1930s Germany and the glamour of Hollywood, and it details the heroic measures taken by a brave few characters who are determined to bring down Hitler. In the newest World War II-set novel by Tessa Harris, it's 1930, and Jewish ballet dancer Lilli Sternberg is anxious to leave the troubled city of Munich. She becomes heartbroken when a whirlwind romance with a young German army officer, Marco Zeiller, is complicated by wartime events and ends in heartbreak. Leaving feels even more essential now. Harris winds her tale through Lilli's journey to the United States and her glamorous years dancing in Hollywood--where she rubs elbows with famous figures ranging from Fred Astaire to Prince Edward. But Lilli must cope with the punishing physical demands of constant, grueling dancing and a potential permanent disability from performing with unhealed injuries. Meanwhile, she has bigger concerns than her career--her family is in grave danger, a man from her past may be terrorizing them, and her homeland is roiling with cruelties, turmoil, and destruction. Then Lilli's path leads back to Marco, who has in recent years risen through the ranks to work for Goebbels. She and Marco have the chance to help the effort to bring down the Nazis, but at enormous potential cost to themselves. Harris's book is fast-paced, without a lot of page time spent setting a background or lingering on self-reflection. It's action-driven World War II intrigue, and it's a quick, compelling read. I received a prepublication digital copy of this book courtesy of Harper 360 and NetGalley. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Tessa Harris is also the author of the Dr. Thomas Silkstone series and the Constance Piper Mystery series as well as The Light We Left Behind. If you like World War II-set books, you might also like the titles on the Greedy Reading List Six Great Stories about Brave Women During World War II.

Which books are you gifting this holiday season? This is my fourth book gift list of the season, and I hope the ideas on the site will help you with ideas for beautiful book gifts for anyone on your list! The gift idea lists I've already posted this year can be found here: Shhh! Book Gift Ideas for the Holidays Shhh! Six More Book Gift Ideas for the Holidays, and Shhh! Nonfiction and Hobby Book Ideas for the Holidays And for even more ideas, check out my past book gift guides on the site! Shhh! Books I'm Giving As Gifts This Holiday Shhh! More Book Gift Ideas for the Holidays Shhh! Books I'm Giving Kids and Teens This Holiday Shhh! More Book Gifts for Kids and Teens 01 Games of Deception by Andrew Maraniss In Maraniss's nonfiction Games of Deception, published earlier this year, the author explores the story of the first-ever United States Olympic basketball team, which played at the 1936 Olympics--in Hitler's Germany. The athletes and their fellow competitors were greeted by a carefully constructed façade of peace and prosperity in Berlin, but cracks were evident to many who were alert to hints of the horrifying truth. Maraniss shares details of the time, explains the complicated economic, political, and social forces at work, and offers an intriguing account of this fraught moment in time, using carefully researched information to bring to life the story as seen through the lens of our US men's team experience. 02 Pretty Funny for a Girl by Rebecca Elliott In this young adult novel (ages 12 to 16) that's one of my current reads--and published by my favorite publisher for young people, Peachtree Publishing--Rebecca Elliott offers an irresistible heroine in Haylah Swinton. Haylah is an excellent friend, she's patient with her incredibly frustrating four-year-old brother, and she's learned to make light of everything from cracks about her plus-sized figure to her mother's new boyfriend. She also has a big secret: she's going to be a stand-up comedian when she grows up. When cool Leo at school reveals that he's into comedy too, Haylah jumps at the chance to write material for his sets--and, against her friends' advice, she sets her sights on him romantically too. The situation may lead to personal and career frustration--and maybe heartbreak. The next book in this series is Pretty Rude for a Girl. Elliott is also the author of the Owl Diaries series and over twenty picture books. 03 Subpar Parks: America's Most Extraordinary National Parks and Their Least Impressed Visitors by Amber Share If you've missed the hilarious Subpar Parks phenomenon, it may be time to get on board. In this book, Amber Share offers illustrations of scenes from our nation's majestic national parks, accompanied by the text of real-life one-star reviews left by disappointed or disgruntled visitors who frequently miss the parks' glorious beauty--and the point of immersing yourself in nature--altogether. You can also buy posters and postcards of your favorites--in our laundry room we have a poster of a grumpy Yosemite review that always makes me laugh ("Trees block view and there are too many rocks") . 04 The Complete Cookbook for Young Scientists by America's Test Kitchen I've mentioned cookbooks for kids in prior gift lists, but this book combines a couple of things I love for a young person: America Test Kitchen's tested recipes and sciiiiiience! Why does popcorn pop? What is umami and how does it work? What's the difference between cooking with egg whites and egg yolks? Why do some cheeses melt better than others? This cookbook offers doable and fun science experiments and interesting facts to train a budding young chef in the "why" of cooking--as well as kid-friendly recipes to deliciously illustrate key points. 05 Daughter of the Deep by Rick Riordan Are any kids on your gift list at the age where "the new Rick Riordan book" is a slam-dunk idea? If so, this fall's Daughter of the Deep from this prolific author may need to go on the shopping list. Riordan's modern take on Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea offers up his signature fast-paced adventure and formidable young protagonists, plus tragedy, self-reflection, looming danger, and teamwork that's sure to overwhelm the bad guys. 06 Do Your Laundry or You'll Die Alone by Becky Blades I'll admit I'm a sucker for a practical book couched in terms that increase the likelihood of its being read. And this ominous title might just be the impetus a teen needs to learn how-to tips about living life. Blades presents her mainly simple, straightforward, lighthearted ideas with humor and heart. This is a version of the "book" Blades made for her daughter upon her departure for college, making it a great gift to consider for graduation as well. A Bossy book-buying suggestion: If you're buying books this holiday season, please support your local independent bookstore. They need and appreciate our business now more than ever! My local favorite is Park Road Books, and their smarty staff can get you the books you want--or recommend many wonderful books you might not have considered! Clicking on the book covers beside each Bossy Bookworm blurb will link you to Bookshop, a site that supports the beloved indies that keep readers swimming in thoughtful book recommendations and excellent customer service all year round.

Royalty, intrigue, and magically wonderful stories--even if no magic is involved (see number 1 below)! 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 remembering what the heck happened in book one. But each of these series is complete, so if you haven't read them yet, you won't have to wait years for sequels! Yes, that is correct! 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. What other series that have to do with court, queens, and royalty would you include on this list? I've got enough other favorites in this vein to make a second list sometime. Happy reading, bookworms! 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. 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. 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, Johansen 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.

Jansson offers a vivid Finland isle setting, a wonderfully grumpy grandmother-granddaughter relationship, and the complexities of carving out a life in an unforgiving place. This week my book club is doing something new for our holiday gathering: we'll each wrap a book we read and loved and write a brief, not completely illuminating description on it, then exchange, swap, and come away with a promising new read. Shhh, this is the book I'm taking! The vivid setting of The Summer Book is a mostly wild island off the coast of Finland where a small family is living, and the grandmother and young granddaughter characters share a beautifully grumpy and wonderfully close relationship. I was hooked by their dialogue and discussions that were about nothing at all and everything all at once. Tove Jansson captures the wonderful tension--of the alternating wonder and crushing boredom of many consecutive days spent wandering and observing the weather and the wild; the work necessary to carve out a space for themselves on a rugged island while desperately wanting things to remain undisturbed; the intensity of love and annoyance of either being with the same two other people or alone for months on end. I delighted in every bit of Jansson's book and loved it so, so much. I could easily have read it in one night. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Jansson is also the author of the fanciful children's books in the Moomin series as well as the short stories and novels Sculptor's Daughter, Sun City, The Winter Book, and Fair Play. You might also be interested in the books on one of my earliest Greedy Reading Lists on the site, Six Captivating Nordic Stories.

In case you're in the market for books I think are just great and you missed (gasp!) my summer post on the topic, here are my favorite reads from the first half of the year! My year-end list of 2021 favorites is coming soon! My very favorite reads so far this year! I post a monthly wrap-up of my favorite reads, but now that 2021 is halfway over, it feels like time to share the best books I've read in the past six months. Great Circle is my favorite book of the year so far! I also loved A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor (see my five-star review below). Reading and adoring that book requires initially reading the first book in the series--which I recommend that you do. I loved Soulmate Equation for solid light fiction. It's fun and romantic with great characters. We Begin at the End is a great character-driven, suspenseful mystery. I was late to the reading game on Normal People because I thought I didn't want to read it--clearly I was wrong. The television adaptation was gorgeously heartbreaking as well. The Great Mistake feels like a beautiful love letter to turn-of-the-century New York and at times its tone reminded me of the lovely A Gentleman in Moscow. Have you read any of these? What are some of your recent favorite reads? Let's do some Bossy book talking! 01 We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker Walk is the chief of police in the small coastal California town where he grew up. Decades earlier his account of a terrible event sent his best friend Vincent to prison. Vincent has tried to make his own suffering as great as possible behind bars by eschewing distraction and comfort, and now he's about to be released. Duchess is a thirteen-year-old girl trying to keep her family together. Her mother Star is old friends with Walk and Vincent, and when Vincent reappears, the tenuous peace and calm Duchess and her steady family friend Walk have been able to secure for her household are disrupted. Walk and Duchess are an unlikely pair, a milquetoast cop and a defiant young teen. But both of the longtime family friends are used to disappointment and both are used to relying on themselves. Can they somehow prevent Vincent and Star from destroying themselves and everyone who cares about them, or are Walk and Duchess inadvertently adding to the collapse? For my full review of this book, please see We Begin at the End. Fun fact: Whitaker is eager to be in contact with his readers and will comment on Instagram if you mention his books! He seems like a kind fellow. If you like character-driven suspense and mystery books, you might also like John Hart's (grittier) books; for my review of his book The Unwilling, click here. Another (also grittier) author I like in this vein is S.A. Cosby; I loved Blacktop Wasteland last year (it was one of my Six Favorite Summer Reads) and I just read and enjoyed his newest book, Razorblade Tears. 02 A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green The ending to Green's duology has tremendous heart without ever flirting with sappiness, offers deep meaning without being pedantic, and it felt blissfully, naturally, and gloriously quirky and lovely. A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor is Hank Green's sequel to An Absolutely Remarkable Thing and is the final book in his Carl saga. It features the fantastic characters from book one, and the plot picks up with a new version of the fight to save humanity from interfering extraterrestrials. I just love love loved A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor so much. My son is reading it and isn't quite as enamored of it as I am, but he does think it's really good. Fun fact: the author is brothers with the prolific and talented young adult author John Green, and the two also put out science videos on YouTube. For my full review of this book, please see A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor. And for my review of An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, click right here. 03 Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead Maggie Shipstead's story spans the wilds of Prohibition-era Montana, the blustery Pacific Northwest, the unforgiving chill of Alaska, the glitz and glamour of Hollywood and the movie-making business, and the stark, brutal dangers of Antarctica, from the early twentieth century to modern day. In interconnected stories--which felt equally compelling to me--Shipstead brings to life these disparate places and times and focuses on various colorful characters within them. The author has created two independent, defiant, appealingly strong young women split by time (and, secondarily, complex male characters the women love as family or romantic partners). Shipstead is a wonderful writer, and I loved every word of this. Both of the timelines had me hooked. I received a prepublication copy of Great Circle courtesy of Knopf Publishing Group and NetGalley. For my full review of this book, please see Great Circle. 04 Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren The Soulmate Equation is the latest book from the writing pair known as Christina Lauren, and I loved it. Single mom Jess is a data analyst. She's good at crunching the numbers for work, taking care of her daughter, and leaning on her grandparents (who raised her) for help, but she's not comfortable with the idea of dating again. But then her daring best friend (who writes sexy romance novels!) pushes her to consider a DNA-based, data-driven dating program that makes sense to her--and she receives an unheard-of 98 percent compatible romantic match with an unlikely partner. The story is steamy and romantic at times without being dramatic. I love the tone the writing team of Christina Lauren struck with this one! I received a prepublication digital edition of this book courtesy of Gallery Books and NetGalley. For my full review of this book, please see The Soulmate Equation. 05 Normal People by Sally Rooney In Rooney's novel Normal People, Marianne, a solitary young woman in a cold, neglectful, abusive family, and Connell, a popular athlete whose mother cleans Marianne's house, grew up together in small-town Ireland but were essentially strangers. Toward the end of high school they begin to hesitantly connect. This intersection of their lives ultimately leads to broken hearts, self-realization, true love, devastating misunderstandings, betrayals, and a strongly forged link between them. Marianne and Connell's bond and the roots of their relationship aren't straightforward or simple, but their draw to each other becomes essential to each of them in feeling like their true selves. Toward the end of the book, Marianne reflects on a potential fracture in their situation--it isn't clear whether it's a temporary break or permanent--yet she is able to sit within the feeling that Connell and their years together (and apart) are an anchor of sorts, regardless of their status: “He brought her goodness, like a gift, and now it belongs to her.” The connection between Marianne and Connell is the beautiful, haunting, swirling source of misery, heartache, and joy and fulfillment in the book. Their link promises more than it ultimately delivers on the page, as they spend long period apart and confused, lonely or hurt, yet are deeply tied to one another. The ending is ambiguous but Rooney manages to convey peace within it. For my full review of this book, please see Normal People. Rooney has a new book scheduled for publication this fall, Beautiful World Where Are You. 06 The Great Mistake by Jonathan Lee Andrew Green has been shot dead in front of his stately New York City home at the age of 83. He was elderly but remained an opinionated spitfire who hadn't felt he'd finished making incredibly significant contributions to society. The real but forgotten figure of Green was involved in a gloriously and absurdly extensive array of essential projects—the creation of Central Park, the founding of the Met Museum and the Natural History Museum, putting Boss Tweed behind bars, securing a more equitable New York public school system, establishing the New York Public Library, and combining Manhattan with Brooklyn and Queens into a greater New York. Lee's detail is just fantastic in terms of Green's emotions, hopes, dreams, everyday life at the time, and everything else in this epic story. The Great Mistake feels like a love letter to turn-of-the-century New York and a captivating story. I received a prepublication digital edition of this book courtesy of Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group and NetGalley. For my full review of this book, please see The Great Mistake.

The author shares his love of food, cooking, and sharing meals in this irresistible memoir that's also filled with joys and losses, humor, and an enthusiasm for life. I've been on an audiobook memoir kick, and Stanley Tucci's Taste is the latest love of mine on that list. In this memoir, the charming, food-obsessed cookbook author and actor shares the stories behind his Italian-American culinary origins; his experiences starring in the food-focused movies Big Night and Julie and Julia; and varied food adventures from five-star meals to burned, inedible disasters. In Taste, Tucci shares his enthusiasm for Italian food, cooking processes, and gustatory exploration, and he revels in what feels like an almost sacred communal sharing of food. I loved listening to his soothing voice extol the virtues of dishes that were familiar to me and many that were not--as well as listening to him relate various cooking sagas. But Taste is also a memoir. The author shares stories of his wife and children, his first wife and her untimely death, and his own health crisis of cancer, which affected his digestion, ability to chew, and his taste--at the time, he was unsure how long-term the effects would be. Food is interwoven through all of these shared stories, and it always feels natural, never a forced construct for the sake of the book. Listening to the author read his favorite recipes rather than reading them myself didn't leave me with the information I'd need to recreate anything, but I found it irresistible to hear Stanley Tucci calmly list ingredients, make a few corny-but-funny jokes, poke fun at himself or other cooks in his family, and relate his swirling, chopping, and estimating. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Stanley Tucci is also the author of The Tucci Cookbook and The Tucci Table. For more memoirs you might like, check out the Greedy Reading List Six Fascinating Memoirs to Explore. It also links to five more memoir lists, including a foodie memoir roundup!

Which books are you gifting this holiday season? This is my third book gift list of the season (the first two were Shhh! Book Gift Ideas for the Holidays and Shhh! Six More Book Gift Ideas for the Holidays), and I hope the ideas here (and those to come) will help you with ideas for beautiful book gifts for anyone on your list! For even more ideas, check out my past book gift guides on the site: Shhh! Books I'm Giving As Gifts This Holiday Shhh! More Book Gift Ideas for the Holidays Shhh! Books I'm Giving Kids and Teens This Holiday, and Shhh! More Book Gifts for Kids and Teens 01 Storey's Curious Compendium of Practical and Obscure Skills How do you cope with a swarm of bees? How do you properly darn a sock? How do you navigate using the stars? How do you create a butterfly garden? How do you carve a turkey? Storey's Curious Compendium is a useful and beautifully photographed book of how-tos of all types that also feels fun to simply flip through and consider. If you've wondered about how to make, grow, build, or cope with any of the over 200 items or situations in this book (or if your interest is purely theoretical--and you also like to look at pretty photos), Storey Publishing will walk you through practical, outlandish, and always-interesting scenarios with enough detail that you just might feel like a newly minted expert. 02 Humans by Brandon Stanton Stanton is also the author of Humans of New York and Humans of New York: Stories, both of which I have gifted to loved ones before, and he's the creator of the immensely popular blog Humans of New York. In Humans, Brandon Stanton turns his attention to meeting everyday people and hearing their compelling, singular stories from forty countries around the world. As always, he presents intimate, touching, poignant, funny moments and glimpses into the shared human experience through the snapshots-of-life stories he shares. 03 Saveur: The New Classics Cookbook In this newly updated doorstop (656 pages) of a cookbook published just this week, editors of the global magazine Saveur share over 1,100 global recipes, tips, and stories. From cocktails and tapas to plant-based modern twists and one-pot meals; from suggested ingredients for a stocked Mexican kitchen to an exploration of tomato varieties; from how to fold an empanada to extensive holiday menu ideas--if you want to cook a variety of tested recipes and learn about food and cooking (or, even better, if someone else in your household wants to do these things while you test their creations), The New Classics Cookbook would make a great gift to request or to give. 04 The Backyard Birdwatcher's Bible by Paul Sterry, Christopher Perrins, and Sonya Patel Ellis Where are my birdwatcher bookworms and the people who love them? This is the first of two bird-focused books on this gift list, so buckle up for some bird love! My smart sister-in-law gave this book to the birdwatcher in my household as a birthday gift, and it's been living prominently in the family room ever since. The Backyard Birdwatcher's Bible is great for beginner or intermediate birdwatchers, with practical tips for identifying and attracting backyard birds, information about bird behavior and the bird life cycle, and how to craft bird-friendly gardens. And the illustrations and photos included in this hefty (416 pages) book are gorgeous. Last year I mentioned another great book for birders (which was a big hit with my own bird lovers), The Bird Way, on this gift list. 05 Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991 by Michael Azerrad “MacKaye never told anyone to get off the stage. Sometimes this encouraged a rapid and irreversible descent into chaos, but usually it just meant a steady stream of stage divers and kids who just wanted a few seconds of attention while they did some silly dance for their buddies. Anarchy, it seemed, could work.” Azerrad's book isn't new, but it is perfect for anyone on your gift list who loves punk-influenced rock from bands like Dinosaur Jr., The Replacements, Black Flag, Sonic Youth, Husker Du, and more. I mentioned the music-focused book Music Is History in an earlier book gift list this season and included One Last Song in this book gift list. 06 A Most Remarkable Creature by Jonathan Meiburg The subtitle of Meiburg's bird-focused book is The Hidden Life and Epic Journey of the World's Smartest Birds of Prey. Almost two hundred years after Darwin discovered the striking, social, crow-like falcons confined to the Falkland Islands, Jonathan Meiburg studies the rare striated caracaras, their origins, their story, their demonstrated capabilities for memory and problem-solving, and their possible future. Part memoir, part travelogue, and part science writing, A Most Remarkable Creature is a book that feels sure to fascinate someone on your gift list. I've already bought a copy to give this holiday season. A Bossy book-buying suggestion: If you're buying books this holiday season, please support your local independent bookstore. They need and appreciate our business now more than ever! Clicking on the book covers beside each Bossy Bookworm blurb will link you to Bookshop, a site that supports the beloved indies that keep readers swimming in thoughtful book recommendations and excellent customer service all year round.

In The Distance from Four Points, Littell explores deep human connections, grief, womanhood, what strength means, the power of origins, and the concept of home. In Margo Orlando Littell's slim novel The Distance from Four Points, Robin Besher's husband has died, and she's desperately trying to come to terms with the tragedy. But she's soon faced with issues beyond missing him: he had secretly sunk all of their savings into ramshackle rental houses in her Appalachian hometown, which she'd fled decades earlier. She has no clue as to what his intentions were, or why he would go against what he must have known she would have wanted. Angry, confused, and filled with dread, Robin drags her daughter Haley back to Four Points in hopes of renovating the houses quickly, selling them, and cutting ties to the town forever. The story frequently hearkens back to dark, disturbing, haunting scenes from Robin's youth in Four Points, and much of her present-day energy is spent coping with filth, brokenness, her continued desperation about money, and her never-ending scrabbling to make ends meet. Robin comes face to face with some of her most enduring past horrors, juggles her abandoned past and carefully curated present identities, and must make peace with the idea that her "old" and "new" selves are one and the same, and that without her past desperation, she wouldn't have found the strength to persist and take care of her daughter now. Robin inadvertently connects to the unlikeliest of people in the town, some of whom were part of her dark, frequently pain-filled youth. In The Distance from Four Points, Littell explores deep human connections, grief, womanhood, what strength means, the power of origins, and the concept of home. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Margo Orlando Littell is also the author of Each Vagabond by Name, which is suspenseful fiction that's set in small-town Pennsylvania as this novel is.

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm listening to Stanley Tucci's memoir Taste: My Life Through Food; I'm reading Alex White's science fiction novel A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe; and I'm reading the young readers' book Pretty Funny for a Girl by Rebecca Elliott from my favorite publishing company for young people, Peachtree Publishing. What are you reading and enjoying these days, bookworms? 01 Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci I've been on an ongoing audiobook memoir kick, and Stanley Tucci's Taste is the latest love of mine on that list. In this memoir, the charming, food-obsessed cookbook author and actor shares the stories behind his Italian-American culinary origins; his experiences starring in the food-focused movies Big Night and Julie and Julia; and varied food adventures from five-star meals to burned, inedible disasters. He is also the author of The Tucci Cookbook and The Tucci Table. 02 A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe by Alex White In Alex White's science fiction novel A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe, the first in White's Salvagers series, a group of outcasts bands together to locate a legendary ship before it falls into the hands of the wrong people, people who would use it as a weapon. The greatest warship ever built has been lost for so long, some say it's merely a legend. But a hotshot racer, a has-been treasure hunter, and others in their secret society know that the ship is real--and that whoever controls the ship will control the fate of the universe. I'm in love with the title of the second book in this series, A Bad Deal for the Whole Galaxy. The third book is titled The Worst of All Possible Worlds. 03 Pretty Funny for a Girl by Rebecca Elliott In her novel for young readers from my favorite publishing company for young people, Peachtree Publishing, Elliott offers an irresistible heroine in Haylah Swinton. Haylah is an excellent friend, she's patient with her incredibly frustrating four-year-old brother, and she's learned to make light of everything from cracks about her plus-sized figure to her mother's new boyfriend. She also has a big secret: she's going to be a stand-up comedian when she grows up. When cool Leo reveals that he's into comedy too, Haylah jumps at the chance to write material for his sets--and, against her friends' advice, she sets her sights on him romantically too. The situation may lead to personal and career frustration--and maybe something closer to heartbreak. The next book in this series is Pretty Rude for a Girl. Elliott is also the author of the Owl Diaries series and over twenty picture books.

My very favorite books from November! These are the books I most loved reading during the past month. The Best of Me, a funny David Sedaris collection with plenty of heart; Beautiful World, Where Are You, Sally Rooney's newest triumph; Isabel Wilkerson's disturbing, fascinating, and important nonfiction work Caste; Five Tuesdays in Winter, Lily King's newest collection of stories; Jessica Anya Blau's 1970s-set story of a young woman figuring out her place in the world, Mary Jane; and Dave Grohl's irresistible music-mania memoir The Storyteller. I'd love to hear: what are some of your recent favorite reads? 01 The Best of Me by David Sedaris This collection of previously published Sedaris works is a gold mine of discomforting, edgy, offbeat observations--with more heart than I expected. I loved this audiobook. I was drawn in by the mix of tones represented here, and by the introspection and vulnerability Sedaris intermingles with the off-kilter, singular, sometimes excruciating moments he draws readers into. I hadn't read (or listened to) a good number of these selections, and I was repeatedly surprised and delighted with Sedaris's depth...then often cringed at an eccentric, discomforting observation that promptly followed. I enjoyed the roller coaster and was taken with this collection. Whether Sedaris is reliving specific, offbeat memories and mining them for poignancy and also laughs, or presenting his own distorted versions of morality plays, he does so with dark humor but also, frequently, with heart. For my full review, check out The Best of Me. 02 Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney Rooney's characters engage in extensive self-reflection while struggling to open up emotionally to each other. Their vulnerabilities feel hard-won and powerful. I wasn't sure if I was ready for another Sally Rooney book after reading Conversations with Friends so recently. But I was taken with Beautiful World, Where Are You. Although successful young novelist Alice just met Felix, a young man working in a warehouse in the seaside town where she's staying temporarily, she invites Felix to travel to Rome on a book tour with her. Meanwhile, Alice's best friend Eileen is questioning her life path, working at a literary magazine and feeling generally adrift. She's just gone through a breakup and is growing closer to a childhood friend she's always secretly loved. The best friends and their love interests delve into their complex connections with each of the others, and through an omniscient viewpoint, Beautiful World Where Are You tracks the characters' romantic fits and starts, power shifts, and the roots and growth of their emotional connections. Click here for my full review of Beautiful World, Where Are You. 03 Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson Caste is consistently powerful, profound, disturbing, and absolutely necessary nonfiction reading from the brilliant Isabel Wilkerson. In Caste, Wilkerson explores the unspoken, entrenched caste system in the United States--a hierarchical system that has dictated the fates of those in our country more powerfully than traditionally considered factors such as race or class. I read Caste with a group and met every other week to discuss it--and we went months past our original end date because there was so much to consider and reflect upon. I was in danger of using up all my highlighters while endlessly trying to mark small portions of Wilkerson's consistently profound reflections. Wilkerson is exceptional at laying out absurdities, horrors, disturbing historical events, shocking trends, and problematic tendencies without layering emotion or drama on top of any of it, leaving the reader to bring the appropriate emotion and discomfort to the matters the author presents. Click here for my full review of Caste. 04 Five Tuesdays in Winter: Stories by Lily King King builds each story within Five Tuesdays in Winter to be full, rich, and full of pain and poignancy. I loved this collection. In Lily King's new story collection, she turns her eye for detail and for wonderfully faulted characters on explorations of love, desire, loss, and tragedy. From a bookseller closed off emotionally from the world who begins to consider letting someone in again to the complicated, tragic reunion of former college roommates; from a mourning elderly man faced with disaster to a writer who has been silenced for too long, King mines uncomfortable or joyful, sometimes tiny moments that shape her characters' lives in profound ways. With masterful storytelling, King builds a world within each short story that feels immediate, sometimes poignant, and which repeatedly surprised me with the amount of heart involved. I received a prepublication digital edition of this book courtesy of Grove Atlantic and NetGalley. For my full review of Five Tuesdays in Winter, click here. 05 Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau In Blau's gleefully 1970s-set novel, Mary Jane doesn't merely shift from emotional innocence to young adulthood, she comes into her own, and it's a joy to watch it all unfold. In Jessica Anya Blau's novel Mary Jane, we're in 1970s Baltimore (with all of the glorious, immersive details of the era), and straitlaced teen Mary Jane has landed a nanny job in the neighborhood. The Coneses are a "respectable" family, her mother says approvingly, and the father of the family is a psychiatrist. The doctor has only one current--and secret--patient, a famous rock star with addiction problems. In an unorthodox approach, the musician and his equally famous wife move in with the doctor's family while the star struggles with his issues. Sheltered Mary Jane suddenly has a front-row seat to wild behavior, musical experimentation, group therapy, and all sorts of other eye-opening events. The details of the ending were fun and so satisfying I delighted in them and didn't mind any implausibility. Blau explores interesting gray areas and provides lots of heart and unexpected elements in Mary Jane. Because of the music involved in the story, Mary Jane reminded me of the books on the Greedy Reading List Six Rockin' Stories about Bands and Music. For my full review, check out Mary Jane. 06 The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music by Dave Grohl Grohl is funny, self-deprecating, and irresistibly tender-hearted as he recounts his musical influences, the twists and turns of his life, and his enthusiasm for music and musicians. I listened to Dave Grohl's memoir, in which he tracks his youth in Springfield, Virginia; through his stint in the band Scream; his incredible rise to fame as the drummer for Nirvana; through his grief and various losses; to the incarnation and growth of his band Foo Fighters and beyond. His funny, self-effacing, thoughtful, sensitive, music-obsessed tone makes for captivating listening, and he recaptures his encounters--many feel to him like lucky flukes--with his musical idols in a way that feels genuine and appealing. He relates with starry-eyed enthusiasm his brushes with countless musicians he admires and his collaborations with many of them. His excitement is contagious, and his many superlative descriptions of big events, pivotal moments, and people are endearing. For my full review, check out The Storyteller.

The wilderness and isolation of the story combined with the looming dangers posed by the outside world make These Silent Woods feel claustrophobic as it builds to an unexpected resolution. In the northern Appalachian mountains, Cooper and his young daughter Finch live in complete isolation. They have no electricity, no family, and almost no connection to the outside world. Which is just how Cooper wants it, because he knows it's the only way they'll be safe. But lately Finch is starting to push back, increasingly unsatisfied with their solitary lifestyle. And when one of their tenuous links to essential supplies--and survival--breaks, Cooper and Finch realize they may be in danger greater than they'd ever imagined. Then a stranger wanders near their remote cabin, and Cooper's longtime struggle to stay hidden seems increasingly impossible. His secrets feel sure to unravel. This series of unexpected events upends everything for Cooper--some in the best ways and others in the worst imaginable. Chance encounters, assumptions, and suspicions could ruin his long-held, desperate plans. The premise is a slam dunk for me, and Grant does a nice job of slowly unfurling the truth of what occurred in years past and led Cooper to his extreme lifestyle. I felt a little frustrated that Cooper didn't spend more energy during their years of isolation thinking about potential exit strategies for him and especially for his beloved Finch in order to ensure that her best interests would be considered if things went sideways. (And what was the plan to save Finch if something had happened to Cooper during the brutal years in the woods, leaving Finch vulnerable?) This feels like a tricky story to bring to a close, and I had mixed feelings about the sacrifice at the heart of the ending as well as the somewhat neat resolution of certain matters. But I very much enjoyed my time in the woods with Cooper and especially Finch. I received a prepublication digital edition of this book from St. Martin's Press and NetGalley. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Kimi Cunningham Grant is also the author of Silver Like Dust, a memoir about her Japanese-American grandparents and their experiences in an internment camp during World War II, as well as the novel Fallen Mountains, a mystery set in rural Pennsylvania.

Which books are you gifting this holiday season? This is my second book gift list of the season (the first was last week's Shhh! Book Gift Ideas for the Holidays), and I hope the ideas here (and those in the lists to come) will help you with ideas for beautiful book gifts for anyone on your list! For even more ideas, check out my past book gift guides on the site: Shhh! Books I'm Giving As Gifts This Holiday Shhh! More Book Gift Ideas for the Holidays Shhh! Books I'm Giving Kids and Teens This Holiday, and Shhh! More Book Gifts for Kids and Teens 01 Gastro Obscura: A Food Adventurer's Guide by Cecily Wong “Eating may be the most immersive, visceral travel experience. It requires an engagement of every sense.... Humans around the world are bound by the necessity and pleasure of eating, and there is no faster way to glimpse the heart of a place than by experiencing its food.” I mentioned another title (The World's Most Adventurous Kid) from the Atlas Obscura series last year in my gift list Shhh! Book Gifts for Kids and Teens. This series of books is so beautiful and odd and captivating, I just love giving them as gifts. 02 Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr Doerr's Cloud Cuckoo Land was a complex, heartbreaking, hope-filled, surprising, fascinating read. It feels unfair to compare Cloud Cuckoo Land to Doerr's beloved and quite different book All the Light We Cannot See, and the stories are exceedingly different. But in both novels, Doerr demonstrates the ability to bring a reader deep into disparate situations and create emotional investment. I didn't feel immediately connected to Doerr's story because of the various timelines and characters, but as he began to deeply interweave the stories across time, he also set up rich glimpses into characters' lives at different points in history. I quickly began to be fascinated by the interconnectedness, and I adored this book. For my full (rave) review, please click here. 03 Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law by Mary Roach Science writer Mary Roach has a way of immersing readers in what may be unfamiliar or mysterious environments, and her newest book, Fuzz, promises to do this again for the world of animals in what feels like a great gift for animal lovers. In Fuzz, Roach explores animal behavior, wildlife biology, and the complexities of modern human-animal conflicts. Roach is also the author of Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers; Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal; Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void; Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex; and Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War. 04 Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, and Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake Is this a niche gift idea? The cover is so gorgeous, and since I saw it I can't stop thinking about this book, so maybe it's best that I receive this book gift? I'm just thinking out loud here. Entangled Life is Merlin Sheldrake's enthusiastic ode to the supremely important and mysterious life form of fungi--which are neither plant nor animal, live for millenia, and are microscopic yet make up the largest organisms ever recorded. Sheldrake's incredible facts and explorations of the incredible abilities of fungi (they can digest plastics and explosives; they can manipulate animal behavior; and they're involved in the essentials of bread, alcohol, and life-saving medications--who's with me in my obsession for this book now?) make for what is sure to be contagious fascination. 05 These Precious Days: Essays by Ann Patchett “Any story that starts will also end.” I have high hopes for Patchett's newest book, essays published just this week that explore friendship, home, writing, reading, connection, and life. Some book club friends and I preordered this book through our local bookstore Park Road Books and watched a fun virtual author event on the evening of its publication. Patchett is also the author of The Dutch House, Bel Canto, The Patron Saint of Liars, Commonwealth, The Magician's Assistant, This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage, and other books. She is also, famously, the co-owner of Nashville's Parnassus Books. 06 A Course Called America by Tom Coyne Coyne spent a year traveling the United States in search of the greatest golf experience available, playing every course ever to host a US Open as well as 200 other well-known and much-beloved courses and hidden gems. Coyne sets himself the goal of determining which of these many contenders deserves the title of the Great American Golf Course. Along the way, Coyne connects with people across the country, all of whom share a love for golf--and pride in the course he is visiting. I'm not a golfer, but I do have gift recipients who are, and I've got my eye on this book for them. A Bossy book-buying suggestion: If you're buying books this holiday season, please support your local independent bookstore. They need and appreciate our business now more than ever! Clicking on the book covers beside each Bossy Bookworm blurb will link you to Bookshop, a site that supports the beloved indies that keep readers swimming in thoughtful book recommendations and excellent customer service all year round.

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading Tessa Harris's recently published World War II-set story Beneath a Starless Sky; Nathanial Ian Miller's atmospheric novel The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven; and Kimi Cunningham Grant's recent novel set in the remote forest of Appalachia, These Silent Woods. What are you reading and enjoying these days, bookworms? 01 Beneath a Starless Sky by Tessa Harris In the newest World War II-set novel by Tessa Harris (author of the Dr. Thomas Silkstone series and the Constance Piper Mystery series as well as The Light We Left Behind), it's 1930 and Jewish ballet dancer Lilli Sternberg is anxious to leave Munich. She becomes heartbroken when a whirlwind romance with a young German army officer, Marco Zeiller, doesn't work out. Harris winds her tale through Lilli's journey to the United States and her glamorous years dancing in Hollywood--where she rubs elbows with famous figures ranging from Fred Astaire to Prince Edward. Then Lilli's path leads back to Marco, who has in recent years risen through the ranks to work for Goebbels. Now Marco plays a role in potentially terrorizing her family, and Lilli has a choice to make. If you like World War II-set books, you might also like the titles on the Greedy Reading List Six Great Stories about Brave Women During World War II. 02 The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven by Nathaniel Ian Miller 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. This is Nathanial Ian Miller's first novel. 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. 03 These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant In the northern Appalachian mountains, Cooper and his young daughter Finch live in complete isolation. They have no running water, no electricity, no family, and almost no connection to the outside world. Which is just how Cooper wants it, because he knows it's the only way they'll be safe. But Finch is starting to push back, increasingly unsatisfied with their solitary lifestyle. And when one of their tenuous links to essential supplies--and survival--breaks, Cooper and Finch realize they may be in danger greater than they'd ever imagined. After a stranger wanders near their remote cabin, Cooper's longtime struggle to stay hidden seems increasingly impossible and his secrets feel sure to unravel. This chance encounter could ruin his long-held, desperate plans to keep his family safe.

May explains her own yearning to power down and turn inward during difficult times, and she connects with other interesting people who "winter" to nourish themselves during cold or unforgiving periods. In Katherine May's nonfiction ode to settling in, stepping back, and slowing down, she explores her own experiences with times of her life in which this unique approach has not only felt called for, but valuable in various ways. When May's husband became ill, her son's spirit flagged in school, and her own work stress began taking its toll on her physically and emotionally, she yearned to make changes--then increasingly felt that doing so was imperative and beneficial for herself and her family. Through her own introspection as well as her exploration of other's experiences, the author posits that when grief, worry, or challenges feel overwhelming, shifting your schedule and your pace to reflect what would naturally occur in winter can allow you to sleep more, turn inward, adjust expectations, and nurture your body and soul, nourishing yourself in essential ways. May speaks to others who have undergone periods of severe challenges and by choice or necessity powered down and retreated into themselves, as well as individuals who live in bitterly cold, dark, and sometimes remote settings and how they cope with and flourish in these environments. These forays into various lifestyles and locations were fascinating, and I felt May yearning to connect with others and their stories in a way that felt immensely appealing to me. Wintering is a calming, reassuring look at listening to your own body rhythm, reducing pressure on yourself, and finding satisfaction in less, regardless of how straightforward or complicated the roots of one's challenges may be. It also feels like a celebration of winter and of the shifts the season necessitates. I listened to Wintering as an audiobook and very much enjoyed Rebecca Lee's narration. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? May is also the author of The Electricity of Every Living Thing as well as other books. You might also like the titles on the Greedy Reading List Six Books with Cold, Wintry Settings to Read by the Fire.

In Blau's gleefully 1970s-set novel, Mary Jane doesn't merely shift from emotional innocence to young adulthood, she comes into her own, and it's a joy to watch it all unfold. In Jessica Anya Blau's novel Mary Jane, we're in 1970s Baltimore (with all of the glorious, immersive details of the era), and straitlaced teen Mary Jane has landed a nanny job with a nearby family. The Coneses are a "respectable" family, her mother says approvingly, and the father of the family is a psychiatrist. The doctor has only one current patient, a famous rock star with addiction problems, and in an unorthodox shift, the musician and his equally famous wife move in with the doctor's family while the star struggles with his issues. Sheltered Mary Jane suddenly has a front-row seat to wild behavior, musical experimentation, group therapy, and all sorts of other eye-opening events. Mary Jane lies to her conservative, protective, socially focused parents in order to immerse herself in the Cones' world, yet she is exceedingly responsible and level-headed as she cares beautifully for Izzy. She serves as a foil to the impulsive, emotional, passionate adults she's surrounded by. Mary Jane eagerly learns about varied music and musical expression, about sharing raw emotions, and about feeling more easy and relaxed in her skin. Yet she doesn't abandon her love of singing in the choir, she loves her parents even as she disagrees with them on some points (and is now brave enough to say so), and she doesn't rebel as much as she blossoms into her true self. Her emotional growth didn't feel too easy. The character of Mary Jane doesn't merely shift from innocence to young adulthood in various ways; she comes into her own and also makes valued contributions to the complicated, loving, volatile household community. It's a joy to watch it all unfold. By the time summer is over, Mary Jane understands how many more possibilities there are for her future than she's ever dreamed of, and she has in turn changed those around her. The details of the ending were fun and so satisfying I delighted in them and didn't mind any implausibility. Blau explores interesting gray areas and provides lots of heart and unexpected elements in Mary Jane. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Blau is also the author of six other books. Because of the music involved in the story, Mary Jane reminded me of the books on the Greedy Reading List Six Rockin' Stories about Bands and Music.

King builds each story within Five Tuesdays in Winter to be full, rich, and full of pain and poignancy. I loved this collection. In Lily King's new story collection, she turns her eye for detail and for wonderfully faulted characters on explorations of love, desire, loss, and tragedy. From a bookseller closed off emotionally from the world who begins to consider letting someone in again to the complicated, tragic reunion of former college roommates; from a mourning elderly man faced with disaster to a writer who has been silenced for too long, King mines uncomfortable or joyful, sometimes tiny moments that shape her characters' lives in profound ways. With masterful storytelling, King builds a world within each short story that feels immediate, sometimes poignant, and which repeatedly surprised me with the amount of heart involved. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Lily King is also the author of Writers & Lovers and Euphoria. I received a prepublication digital edition of this book courtesy of Grove Atlantic and NetGalley.

Which books are you gifting this holiday season? I already offer many of my fiction and nonfiction book recommendations through this blog. But I love love love to give books as gifts, so they tend to be books that can be read in short bursts and/or books related to a specific interest of my giftee's (cooking, comedy, music, or science, for example). I hope the ideas here (and those in the lists to come) will help you with ideas for beautiful book gifts for anyone on your list! Fun fact: These all look so appealing as I preview them, I'd like them on my own bookshelf. Actually, I could title this list Books I'd Like to Give and Receive This Holiday Season. Ahem! ;) For more ideas, check out my past book gift guides on the site: Shhh! Books I'm Giving As Gifts This Holiday, Shhh! More Book Gift Ideas for the Holidays, Shhh! Books I'm Giving Kids and Teens This Holiday, and Shhh! More Book Gifts for Kids and Teens. 01 The Comfort Book by Matt Haig "It is a strange paradox, that many of the clearest, most comforting life lessons are learnt while we are at our lowest. But then we never think about food more than when we are hungry and we never think about life rafts more than when we are thrown overboard." The Comfort Book is the newest book from Matt Haig, author of the novel How to Stop Time and the memoir Reasons to Stay Alive. This slim book of lists, notes, stories, and facts and scientific research from around the world make up Haig's personal set of reminders to his future self about taking heart, and they serve as an uplifting collection of reassurances that are perfect for giving as a gift. 02 Time to Eat by Nadiya Hussain Nadiya Hussain, former winner of The Great British Baking Show, hosts a Netflix cooking show, Time to Eat, and this is the companion book to that series. (She also has a newer show, Nadiya Bakes, also on Netflix.) In Time to Eat, Hussain offers weeknight meal solutions, ways to streamline meal preparation, precise instructions, and make-ahead and freezer tips for recipes as varied as Marmalade Haddock, Chorizo Fish Stew, Raspberry Cheesecake Croissants, and Burnt Butterscotch Bananas with Ice Cream and Rice Pudding. Hussain has written multiple other cookbooks, the memoir Finding My Voice, and a trilogy of novels in her Amir Sisters series. 03 The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green John Green, the author of Turtles All the Way Down and The Fault in Our Stars, here entertainingly reviews various inventions, the natural world, and aspects of human behavior on a five-star scale, from the QWERTY keyboard to sunsets to whispering. Inspired by his podcast of the same name, in The Anthropocene Reviewed, Green offers short snippets and thoughts about a topic, then--often absurdly--assigns a rating (sorry, Canada Geese: two stars). Green's observations are fun, often oddball, and sometimes poignant, with short sections that are easily digested separately and in small doses. 04 Music Is History by Questlove Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson is a DJ, author, member of The Roots, musical director for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and director of the documentary Summer of Soul, which explores the legendary 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival. In Music Is History, Questlove examines the last half century of music, providing context in the form of snapshots-in-words glimpses of the turning events of a year or so, then exploring aspects of the musical developments of the time. The structure here is all shaped by Questlove's impulses and perspective. For example, in the Falling Out of History section, he sets the scene for the concept of forgotten songs, and then lists various songs from different eras that he feels weren't given enough attention and recognition. The book includes an index of every song listed inside. 05 Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village by Maureen Johnson This slim, stocking-sized book from Maureen Johnson outlines the many ways to emerge from a cozy weekend quaffing pints and wandering charming country lanes with your life, in case you find yourself in the middle of an English Murder Village straight from a quaint mystery series. Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village features Edward Gorey-type pen and ink illustrations from Jay Cooper. 06 Strange Planet: The Sneaking, Hiding, Vibrating Creature by Nathan W. Pyle I mentioned Nathan W. Pyle's Stranger Planet (as well as Strange Planet) in one of my gift guides last year (Shhh! More Book Gift Ideas for the Holidays), and he has a new book out in time for the holiday gift-giving season this year. Pyle draws yet again from his popular Instagram comics to point out our absurd habits, traditions, fears, and joys by viewing our lives through the lenses of cartoon alien creatures trying to make sense of us. He's spot on and so so funny. A Bossy book-buying suggestion: If you're buying books this holiday season, please support your local independent bookstore. They need and appreciate our business now more than ever! Clicking on the book covers beside each Bossy Bookworm blurb will link you to Bookshop, a site that supports the beloved indies that keep readers swimming in thoughtful book recommendations and excellent customer service all year round.

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. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? I received a prepublication digital copy of this book courtesy of Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley. This is Harriet Kline's first book.

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading Jessica Anya Blau's 1970s-set music-focused story Mary Jane; I'm listening to Katherine May's nonfiction study of settling in and turning inward, Wintering; and I'm reading Margo Orlando Littell's novel The Distance from Four Points. What are you reading and enjoying these days, bookworms? 01 Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau In Jessica Anya Blau's novel Mary Jane, it's 1970s Baltimore, and straitlaced teen Mary Jane has landed a nanny job with a nearby family--a "respectable" family, her mother says approvingly--whose father is a psychiatrist. The doctor has only one current patient, a rock star with addiction problems. The musician and his wife move in with the doctor's family while the star struggles with his issues, so in the household, Mary Jane suddenly has a front-row seat to wild behavior, musical experimentation, group therapy, and all sorts of other eye-opening events. By the time summer is over, Mary Jane will understand how many more possibilities there are for her future than she's ever dreamed of. 02 Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May In Katherine May's nonfiction ode to settling in, stepping back, and slowing down, she explores her own experiences with times of her life in which this unique approach is not only called for, but beneficial. When grief, worry, or challenges feel overwhelming, treating your schedule and your pace as though it is winter can allow you to sleep more, turn inward, adjust expectations, and nurture your body and soul. She includes examples from others who have undergone periods of severe challenges and by choice or necessity powered down and retreated into themselves as well as the author's own found benefit in doing so. So far this is a calming, reassuring look at listening to your own body rhythm, reducing pressure on yourself, and finding satisfaction in less. 03 The Distance from Four Points by Margo Orlando Littell In Margo Orlando Littell's slim novel The Distance from Four Points, Robin Besher's husband has died, and she's desperately trying to come to terms with the tragedy. But she soon finds that he had secretly sunk all of their savings into ramshackle rental houses in her Appalachian hometown, which she fled decades earlier. She has no clue as to his intentions, or why he would go against what he must have known she would have wanted. Angry, confused, and filled with dread, Robin drags her daughter Haley back to Four Points in hopes of renovating the houses quickly, selling them, and cutting ties to the town forever. But Robin inadvertently connects to unlikely characters in the town, and Littell explores this human connection, grief, womanhood, the power of origins, and what home means.

Grohl is funny, self-deprecating, and irresistibly tender-hearted as he recounts his musical influences, the twists and turns of his life, and his enthusiasm for music and musicians. I listened to Dave Grohl's memoir, in which he tracks his youth in Springfield, Virginia; through his stint in the band Scream; his incredible rise to fame as the drummer for Nirvana; through his grief and losses; to the incarnation and growth of his band Foo Fighters and beyond. His funny, self-effacing, thoughtful, sensitive, music-obsessed tone makes for captivating listening, and he recaptures his encounters--many feel to him like lucky flukes--with many of his musical idols in a way that feels genuine and appealing. He relates with starry-eyed enthusiasm his brushes with countless musicians he admires--and his collaborations with many of them. His excitement is contagious, and his many superlative descriptions of big events, pivotal moments, and people are endearing. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Grohl eagerly credits his varied and numerous musical influences in The Storyteller, and the feel is reminiscent of the fervor and intensity of his conversations in the fascinating documentary series Foo Fighters: Sonic Highways.

Migrations features a tragic ecological setup of a world in which wild animals are largely nonexistent, a cold and relentless ocean setting, and frequently dramatic, sometimes tragic character interactions--but also glimmers of hope. "...I think there is meaning, and it lives in nurturing, in making life sweeter for ourselves, and for those around us." In the world of Franny Stone, wild animals are largely extinct, mere rumors and fabled wonders of the past because of human ecological destruction. Now Franny is taking her research equipment and heading to Greenland to track the last Arctic terns in the world, during what might be their final migration to Antarctica. She manages to talk her way onto a fishing boat and falls in with the crew, and it soon becomes clear that she's not only on a mission to document the critically endangered birds' journey. She's also conveniently left behind many complications and some dark secrets. Migrations follows Franny as she travels farther from civilization and safety--and as she considers what it would mean to try to cobble together some version of personal redemption and possibly even some semblance of peace with what she's done, what she's seen, and what she's lost. As increasingly jarring and illuminating personal events unfold in fluid-feeling flashbacks, we see Franny's impulsiveness, her frantic seeking, her often-tragic mistakes and decisions, and her yearning to experience what seems increasingly impossible for her: simple love and acceptance. A melancholy undercurrent sweeps through Migrations, although small glints of hope exist in and among the grim ecological disasters, and glimmers of human connection and love persist amid personal failings and weaknesses. Franny’s restless nature and drive to keep moving echoes the birds’ instinctive migration, and her desperate need to see the birds succeed reflects her own clawing attempt at survival. The interpersonal relations in Migrations are emotional and the storyline sometimes feels quite dramatic, while the atmospheric background is gray, cold, and alternates between dull and relentless. It's an interesting dichotomy that kept me uneasy and on edge. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Australian author McConaghy is also the author of Once There Were Wolves as well as The Chronicles of Kaya series, The Cure series, and the series Strangers of Paragor.

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading Lily King's newest, her recent short story collection Five Tuesdays in Winter; I'm listening to Dave Grohl's immersive memoir The Storyteller; and I'm reading Harriet Kline's This Shining Life. What are you reading and enjoying these days, bookworms? 01 Five Tuesdays in Winter by Lily King In Lily King's new story collection, she turns her eye for detail and for wonderfully faulted characters on explorations of love, desire, loss, and tragedy. From a bookseller closed off emotionally from the world who begins to consider letting someone in again to two tragically reunited former college roommates; from a mourning elderly man faced with disaster to a writer who has been silenced for too long, King mines uncomfortable or joyful, sometimes tiny moments that shape her characters' lives. Lily King is also the author of Writers & Lovers and Euphoria. I received a prepublication digital edition of this book courtesy of Grove Atlantic and NetGalley. 02 The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music by Dave Grohl I'm listening to Dave Grohl's memoir, in which he tracks his youth in Virginia through his incredible rise to fame as the drummer for Nirvana, a band said to have defined a generation, and through his grief to the incarnation of his band Foo Fighters and beyond. His funny, self-effacing, thoughtful, sensitive, music-obsessed tone makes for captivating listening, and he recaptures his starry-eyed introductions--many feel to him like flukes--to many of his musical idols in a way that feels genuine and appealing. Grohl credits his varied and numerous musical influences and it feels reminiscent of his conversations in the documentary series Foo Fighters: Sonic Highways. 03 This Shining Life by Harriet Kline 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; follows his mother Ruth's adjustment to life without her free-spirited, joy-filled partner; and 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.

The book's pace felt halting at times and its substance somewhat light at points. The strongest aspect for me was Evans's ongoing exploration of her doubts and hard-fought realizations. Rachel Held Evans was the author of multiple books about Christian faith, and she spoke across the country about her conservative upbringing, her ongoing search for answers, and her striving toward openhearted love when she died suddenly at age 37 in 2019. Wholehearted Faith is a posthumously published collection of some of Evans's essays, talks, and anecdotes, including some previously unpublished. The book centers around Evans's reflections related to seeking spiritual wholeness and living as a genuine, faulted, wonderfully imperfect child of God. Evans's friend and fellow author Jeff Chu compiled the pieces of Evans's work, shaping them into this collection, which asks questions about belief, belonging, doubts and questions, scripture, and the exploration of faith. Evans considers her conservative evangelical faith beginnings and her evolution into the liberal Episcopalian author and speaker she became as an adult. She reflects upon exhortations to observe the Sabbath and what doing so means to her; she considers alternative interpretations regarding some of the women in the Bible; and she rejects some evangelical views that go against the idea that we are enough and we are loved just as we are. The pace of the book is sometimes halting and its sections about scripture at times felt a little light or too quickly wrapped up, which I imagine is a result of the circumstances of its completion. But Evans was an open, loving, inclusive, curious faith leader, and it was a pleasure spending time with some of her last written thoughts about--and some of her lingering hopes for realizing--a fully realized, well-rounded faith. Wholehearted Faith was most powerful to me when it centered around Evans's personal anecdotes and experiences. I received a prepublication digital edition of this book courtesy of HarperOne and NetGalley. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Rachel Held Evans was the author of Jesus Feminist, Faith Unraveled, A Year of Biblical Womanhood, Searching for Sunday. and Evolving in Monkey Town: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask the Questions.

ICYMI: Forty Autumns offers fascinating, wonderfully detailed perspectives in a rich, layered family memoir that reads like fiction. The subtitle of Willner's Forty Autumns is A Family's Story of Courage and Survival on Both Sides of the Berlin Wall, and her memoir details the former American intelligence officer's true story of her family during the Cold War. Nina's mother Hanna fled from East to West Germany in a harrowing escape at age twenty. While yearning to see her eight siblings and parents again, Hanna eventually settled in the United States--an ocean away from her family, but a whole world apart in terms of freedom, living conditions, and opportunity. Hanna raised a family in the United States. And in an intriguing turnabout within the family, her daughter Nina, the author of this book, became the first female Army Intelligence Officer to lead intelligence operations in East Berlin at the height of the Cold War, spying in a more oppressive, dangerous East Germany than the one her mother had so desperately run from decades earlier. The book's stories are largely set within an increasingly isolated East Germany that relentlessly persecutes its citizens behind the Wall, but they also follow Nina in the United States and as she spies for the United States government in West Berlin. The book's many moving parts and family characters are fluidly shaped into compelling reading by Willner, and the pacing and tone are wonderful. I thought it read like fiction. Forty Autumns offers fascinating, wonderfully detailed perspectives in this rich, layered family memoir. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? For more nonfiction spy stories about the Cold War, check out two great books by Ben McIntyre, the gripping Agent Sonya and a book I loved even more, The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War. For historical fiction about female spies, you might want to check out the Greedy Reading List Six Books about Brave Female Spies.

ICYMI: Shattuck offers faulted protagonists and a fascinating, complicated set of factors in her World War II historical fiction. Jessica Shattuck's The Women in the Castle felt different to me than many of the other World War II books I've read. Her historical fiction story hooked me. For me, much of the story’s depth lay in its exploration of conflicting elements of morality and necessity, and of the play between ignorance and damning knowledge. The desire for redemption is powerful. Shattuck poses the question: Can love redeem past horrors? If a person pleads ignorance or credits terrible actions to the power of fear, can such acts ever be pardoned? Can a person--or a nation--ever truly move on from evil? (Or does moving forward from horrors sometimes feel unforgivably easy?) The female protagonists in Shattuck's tale are far from perfect. They're trying to cobble together their lives during and after World War II, and the tone and the angle of The Women in the Castle offered a new-to-me angle on the events and surrounding circumstances of the time. I listened to the audiobook, and Cassandra Campbell was wonderful as the narrator. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? For more World War II stories, check out the titles on the Greedy Reading List Six Great Stories about Brave Women During World War II and search the blog for many other World War II titles.

You may see much of this young adult story coming, but Warcross is an action-packed quest to right wrongs in an immersive video game and beyond--with some romance! “...sometimes people kick you to the ground at recess because they think the shape of your eyes is funny. They lunge at you because they see a vulnerable body. Or a different skin color. Or a different name. Or a girl. They think that you won't hit back--that you'll just lower your eyes and hide. And sometimes, to protect yourself, to make it go away, you do. But sometimes you find yourself standing in exactly the right position, wielding exactly the right weapon to hit back.” Emika Chen is an orphaned young woman in a futuristic New York City. She's gifted when it comes to computers, but she's been driven by desperate circumstances to become a bounty hunter seeking out those who bet illegally on the worldwide phenomenon Warcross game. She's hacked into the game plenty of times and glitched the system to work in her favor. But when she accidentally disrupts a high-stakes championship and draws the attention of the game's creator, she finds herself in Tokyo considering an invitation she could never have dreamed of: a job working for Hideo Tanaka himself. If she accepts, she'll never have to worry about money again. But seeking to uncover the identity of those trying to destroy the game--and figuring out the other elements at work--turns out to be more high-stakes and dangerous than Emika ever dreamed. Warcross is a teen dream: the intersection of immersive video gaming (à la Ender's Game) and romaaaaaantic moments, a noble quest, a reluctant heroine, and complications that upend everything just in time for the second and final book in this duology (Wildcard). You may be able to see much of this one coming, but the action-packed fight for justice coupled with the promise of a clever, ragtag group of heroic characters entering book two for an even higher stakes battle make for a satisfying Marie Lu experience. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? I've been putting Marie Lu series (Legend, The Young Elites, and Warcross) into my son's hands for years, but I've only read Skyhunter (which I really enjoyed; the sequel is Steelstriker, which I haven't yet read) and her stand-alone historical fiction story with elements of science fiction, The Kingdom of Back.

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading Natasha Pulley's The Kingdoms, which involves historical fiction and time travel; I'm listening to Marie Lu's young adult science fiction book Warcross, the first in the series, which centers around an unlikely futuristic heroine of a bounty hunter and an immersive online game; and for my book club I'm reading Charlotte McConaghy's Migrations, about a woman tracking the last Arctic terns on what may be their final migration--and escaping dark secrets of her own. Which books are you reading and enjoying these days, bookworms? 01 The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley Joe Tournier has amnesia, and the few clues he can piece together about his past and his identity aren't that helpful. He holds vivid memories of life in 1900s London--and he holds a postcard a century old, sent to him from Scotland and simply signed "M." But Joe's irresistible impulse to track down the postcard's author--and try to find out more about his own life in the process--will lead him through rebel-controlled Scotland, through plenty of adventure, and into grave danger. Natasha Pulley is also the author of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, another historical fiction story with science fiction elements. The Kingdoms is her second book. 02 Warcross by Marie Lu Emika Chen is an orphaned young woman in a futuristic New York City. She's gifted when it comes to computers, but she's been driven by desperate circumstances to become a bounty hunter seeking out those who bet illegally on the worldwide phenomenon Warcross game. She's hacked into the game plenty of times and glitched the system to work in her favor. But when she accidentally disrupts a high-stakes championship and draws the attention of the game's creator, she finds herself in Tokyo considering an invitation she could never have dreamed of: work for Hideo Tanaka himself. If she accepted, she'd never have to worry about money again. But seeking to uncover the identity of those trying to destroy the game may turn out to be more high-stakes and dangerous than Emika ever dreamed. 03 Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy Frannie Stone is taking her research equipment and heading to Greenland to track the last Arctic terns in the world during what might be their final migration to Antarctica. She manages to talk her way onto a fishing boat and falls in with the crew, and it soon becomes clear that she's not only on a mission to document the critically endangered birds' journey. She's also conveniently left behind many complications and some dark secrets. Migrations follows Frannie as she travels farther from civilization and safety--and as she considers what it would mean to try to cobble together some version of personal redemption. McConaghy is also the author of Once There Were Wolves.

Leky's book is full of magical realism, friends who are like family, some absurd, fablelike elements, and an ongoing exploration of mortality and of living a full life. Selma has dreamed of an omen, an okapi (a real animal sometimes called a "forest giraffe"). The omen traditionally means that someone in her small West German village is about to die. As each of her neighbors imagine that they may be destined to end their earthly stay, they struggle with unresolved issues, unspoken desires, secrets, and lies. Those around Selma work to quickly come to terms with their finite existence, and young and old members of the community consider their lives with new eyes. Yet somehow the village's loss, when it does occur, takes everyone by surprise, and Selma's granddaughter, Luisa, is forever changed by the events that follow. There are some absurd elements, magical realism, fables, superstition, and romance in this translation from Leky's original German coming-of-age story. While there is extensive exploration of mortality in the text and there are allusions to intimacy, the tone of the book feels geared toward young people. Leky writes about love, loss, grief, and understanding in a lighthearted yet poignant way in What You Can See from Here. I received a prepublication digital copy of this book courtesy of Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? None of Leky's other books have been translated from German into English. What You Can See from Here reminded me somewhat in tone--and in its exploration of mortality --of Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune.

Rooney's characters engage in extensive self-reflection while struggling to open up emotionally to each other. Their vulnerabilities feel hard-won and powerful. “Maybe we're just born to love and worry about the people we know, and to go on loving and worrying even when there are more important things we should be doing. And if that means the human species is going to die out, isn't it in a way a nice reason to die out, the nicest reason you can imagine?... Because we loved each other too much and found each other too interesting. And I love that about humanity, and in fact it's the very reason I root for us to survive--because we are so stupid about each other.” I wasn't sure if I was ready for another Sally Rooney book after reading Conversations with Friends a few weeks ago. But I was taken with Beautiful World, Where Are You. Although successful young novelist Alice just met Felix, a young man working in a warehouse in the seaside town where she's staying temporarily, she invites Felix to travel to Rome on a book tour with her. Meanwhile, Alice's best friend Eileen is questioning her life path, working at a literary magazine and feeling generally adrift. She's just gone through a breakup and is growing closer to a childhood friend she's always secretly loved. The best friends and their love interests delve into their complex connections with each of the others, and through an omniscient viewpoint, Beautiful World Where Are You tracks the characters' romantic fits and starts, power shifts, and the roots and growth of their emotional connections. Some of the book is epistolary--Eileen and Alice write long emails to each other questioning their own motives and missions and concerns and pondering those of the people around them. The characters' sometimes hard-fought expressions of their vulnerabilities were poignant and powerful, and this was my favorite element of the book. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? I was taken with Rooney's sometimes discomforting book Normal People last year--and was all in for the TV series based upon it. I didn't feel connected to the characters or their motivations in the same way while reading the author's Conversations with Friends.