Search Results

The Autoboyography dialogue is fantastic and witty but feels effortless and like it comes from actual This is fantastic contemporary young adult fiction. I loved this fantastic memoir! Wood's memoir is heartwarming and funny and tragic and vivid.

The two disparate stories intersect in an unlikely way in 1890s Arizona Territory, and fantastical elements Jess's voice was fantastic.

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading Woman of Light, Kali Fajardo-Anstine's upcoming fantastical, indigenous historical fiction about the secrets of an Old Hollywood starlet; and A Marvellous Light, Freya Marske's fantastical

This was funny, sweet, steamy, and poignant--a fantastic summer light-fiction read that I loved. That book introduced the fantastic best-friend character of Felicity "Fizzy" Chen.

I was hooked by Liang's fake-dating, famous-everyday relationship duo setup, fantastically funny dialogue

Boulley weaves fantastically fluid and frequent details of indigenous tradition into Daunis's everyday between action, thought, and feeling, especially in the earlier sections of the book, but Boulley weaves fantastically

Namesake was fantastic, and I wish more books were coming in this series. Namesake was fantastic--although I didn't completely buy the wrap-up at the end regarding Saint and his

Divya is also the author of Machinehood, a book I listed on the Greedy Reading List Six More Fantastic

I'm listening to Funny Story as an audiobook (narrated by the fantastic Julia Whelan) courtesy of Libro.fm

The Moonstruck references were fantastic. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book?

He's a fantastic character I loved. This great book by C.A. also want to read Carey's The Boy on the Bridge, which is a standalone book in the same series, is fantastic

I will, after all, happily read stories about talking dragons, or fantastical worlds, or time travel,

in the titles that make up the Greedy Reading Lists Six Royally Magical Young Adult Series and Six Fantastic

That book introduced the fantastic best-friend character of Felicity "Fizzy" Chen, and The True Love

I mentioned Station Eleven in the Greedy Reading List Six Fantastic Dystopian and Postapocalyptic Novels

, Allison, Nate, Janelle, and David and their dialogue are fantastic as always.

Kate Quinn is the author of the fantastic titles The Diamond Eye, The Huntress, The Rose Code, and The

extended family--including a stolid patriarch and matriarch, a free-spirited daughter, a spunky and fantastic Cosby This is a fantastic blend of realistic complications, mistakes, adjustments, and spunk.

#fantasyscifi, #youngadult, #series, #robots, #postapocalypticdystopian, #timetravel, #fourstarbookreview

#fantasyscifi, #youngadult, #series, #postapocalypticdystopian, #robots, #timetravel 02 Beach Read ​

Elliott offers a fantastic, boy-crazy, British story about missteps, facing change, accepting the past

The details of princess life, privilege, and pressures are fun and fantastic, including elaborate clothing

The Autoboyography dialogue is fantastic and witty but feels effortless and like it comes from actual This is fantastic contemporary young adult fiction. I loved this fantastic memoir! Wood's memoir is heartwarming and funny and tragic and vivid.

This series invites comparisons to another fantastic Victorian-era-set mystery series featuring a strong

The unlikely Jaryk-Lucy connection captured my heart, the Misha-Jaryk friendship was fantastic, and Chakrabarti's

#timetravel, #mystery, #fantasyscifi, #fourstarbookreview 02 Here and Now and Then ​ Kin Stewart was #timetravel, #fantasyscifi, #alternatereality, #fourstarbookreview 03 In Five Years ​ Dannie is on the #timetravel, #alternatereality, #fantasyscifi, #fourstarbookreview 05 The Bone Clocks ​ Teenager Holly #timetravel, #alternatereality, #fantasyscifi, #fourstarbookreview 06 All Our Wrong Todays ​ There are #alternatereality, #timetravel, #fantasyscifi, #fourstarbookreview What are your favorite time travel

#fantasyscifi, #alternatereality, #mysterysuspense, #fourstarbookreview

#fantasyscifi, #series, #youngadult, #russia, #fourstarbookreview

#fantasyscifi, #russia, #youngadult, #series, #fourstarbookreview

#russia, #fantasyscifi, #youngadult, #series, #fourstarbookreview

#alternatereality, #timetravel, #fantasyscifi, #fourstarbookreview

#timetravel, #alternatereality, #fantasyscifi, #fourstarbookreview

#timetravel, #alternatereality, #fantasyscifi, #fourstarbookreview

#timetravel, #fantasyscifi, #alternatereality, #fourstarbookreview

#robots, #series, #fantasyscifi, #fourstarbookreview

#youngadult, #fantasyscifi, #dysfunctionalfamily, #twostarbookreview

ICYMI: I've been thinking lately about robot books and specifically about this great series by Neuvel, in which a girl stumbles upon pieces of a giant robot and makes solving the mystery her life's work. A girl named Rose in rural South Dakota falls into a hole that has intricate carvings covering the walls, and she wakes up in the palm of an enormous robot hand. Where did it come from? What do the carvings mean? What is the purpose of any of this? Years later Rose is a world-renowned physicist working to unlock the secrets of the hand and the curious artifacts she stumbled across as a child, but the mysteries persist. The Sleeping Giants story is shown through interviews and journal entries. The interview structure keeps the characters at somewhat of a distance from the reader, yet Neuvel allows their spoken-only participation in the book to express their growth, hopes, and fears. The characters relate events that have already happened through the lenses of their own points of view, creating the potential for unreliable narrators, characters who are hiding important information, and many resulting twists and turns. Neuvel explores concepts of personal responsibility, how the possibility of life beyond Earth affects everything, and how manipulation and observation--potentially by other beings in the solar system--shape behavior. Also: the ending--! Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Neuvel was reportedly inspired to write this book after his son asked him to build a toy robot and requested a full back story for the creature. The next books in this series are Waking Gods and Only Human, and I liked them both.

#fantasyscifi, #oldnewyork, #magic, #historicalfiction, #timetravel, #threestarbookreview

#fantasyscifi, #southern, #booksaboutbooks, #fourstarbookreview

#timetravel, #robots, #epistolary, #fantasyscifi, #LGBTQ

The book revels in wonderful LGBTQ love and tons of sexiness; fantastic New York-centric details; and

Jackson's sequel to the young adult mystery The Good Girl's Guide to Murder, which again features the fantastic answers but many fascinating gray areas to consider. 03 Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson Yay, the fantastic

This was funny, sweet, steamy, and poignant--a fantastic summer light-fiction read that I loved. That book introduced the fantastic best-friend character of Felicity "Fizzy" Chen.

But the books in the series also offer fantastically bratty episodes on the parts of various characters

McManus offers a little of everything in a fantastic mix of teamwork, a health scare, sibling tensions

The banter is fantastic, and I laughed many times while reading this one. I listened to Funny Story  as an audiobook (narrated by the fantastic Julia Whelan).

In her second fantastic short-story collection, Curtis Sittenfeld explores middle age, fame, friendship review please check out The Favorites . 06 Famous Last Words by Gillian McAllister The author of the fantastic

This is a fantastic blend of realistic complications, mistakes, adjustments, and spunk. This is a fantastic blend of realistic complications, mistakes, adjustments, and spunk.

Each life Nora tries on changes her in some way, whether by erasing her regrets about a path not taken, showing her that she's capable of bravery and discovery or commitment, or by emphasizing that the flip side of joy in any life will always be sadness. Humans are fundamentally limited, generalising creatures, living on auto-pilot, who straighten out curved streets in their minds, which explains why they get lost all the time. Nora Seed feels like she can't go on. Life is too much, there's no hope for anything better, and her future contains nothing more for her. Her despair leads her to try to end her life. But she finds herself transported to an in-between state that is not life and not death, in the form of a library that exists outside of time and holds shelves full of the "books" of all of her possible lives, from that frozen moment (midnight) forward. Each possibility of a present and future is built upon different combinations of decisions Nora could have made in her life in the past. Some lives are notable, others comfortable, and still others are full of pain. "The thing you have to remember is that this is an opportunity and it is rare and we can undo any mistake we made, live any life we want. Any life. Dream big... You can be anything you want to be. Because in one life, you are." A trusted figure from her childhood serves as her guide to the library, advising her to review her Book of Regrets and plunge into alternate lives to see if a different set of circumstances might fit--and might save Nora from ending it all. There's a lot to unpack from within Haig's fascinating premise. He explores shifting realities and asks how much of a person's happiness and life course is determined by circumstance, by choice, and by chance--as well as how much of what makes someone who they are is inherent and how much is shaped by the web of decisions that make up a life. Maybe there was no perfect life for her, but somewhere, surely, there was a life worth living. Nora dips in and out of different lives, trying on careers, love lives, travel adventures, fame and fortune, and a settled family life. But not having experienced and remembered each moment that led to her various life options--which she joins in medias res-- keeps Nora at a distance from them. Her mind begins to fill in gaps to help her exist in that life, or to help her find her way around a new town, or to understand how she ended up where she finds herself, yet she's altogether missed her own decision-making, private jokes, clarifying moments, sadness, and joys that made her that person in that life with those people on that path. She enters each journey in progress, leaping into an existence without having built any of it, and she revels in the possibilities while also feeling empty because she didn't lay the foundation. “The trouble was that eventually Nora began to lose any sense of who she was. Like a whispered word passed around from ear to ear, even her name began to sound like just a noise, signifying nothing.” Yet each life Nora tries on changes her in some way, whether by erasing her regrets about a path not taken, showing her that she's capable of bravery and discovery or commitment, or by emphasizing the ups and downs of any life--in one life she might have an exciting career, but she may have devastatingly lost a loved one. She may find a path in a cozy life, but without a deep romantic love. Her rock-star self may seem impressive, but that Nora also seems despondent. Nora begins to understand that none of these situations is perfect, and that the flip side of joy for anyone in any life will always be sadness. It may very well feel like oversimplifying for those familiar with mental illness to watch the character of Nora, who in her original life is experiencing crushing emotional turmoil, be able to "learn" herself out of despair. But I was taken by her journey of discovery leading to the realization that sad times make joyful moments all the sweeter. I also particularly enjoyed Haig's exploration into the impacts Nora had on those around her--who was alive and thriving in certain life threads because of Nora's care or attention, and who was missing from another life thread, seemingly because she hadn't taken time with them. No pressure, Nora, but everyone is depending on you! Haig presents a captivating hook, and I enjoyed his storytelling. The setup keeps Nora at a distance from her possible lives and thereby keeps the reader at a distance from Nora. This meant that I didn't feel emotionally invested in Nora's story although I appreciated the implications of her experiences and was very interested in what would happen. The ending isn't unexpected, but it does feel hard-fought and satisfying. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Haig is also the author of How to Stop Time, his memoir Reasons to Stay Alive, and other books. I read The Midnight Library at the same time my mom did; as part of an online book club for March; and in preparation for my in-person book club. Trifecta! If you like books that play with time and alternate realities, you might also like the books on the Greedy Reading List Six Riveting Time-Travel Escapes. I mentioned this book (along with Two White Queens and the One-Eyed Jack and The Arsonists' City) in Three Books I'm Reading Now, 3/3/21 Edition.

01 Machinehood by S.B. Divya In her debut novel, Divya offers a society set in 2095. Humanity is reliant on homemade and commercially manufactured pills--for health, for work focus, for managing bots, for healing, for sleep, and for transitioning between all of the above. Using pills is the only way humans can compete with artificial intelligence in the gig economy. Welga Ramirez is an elite bodyguard, former special forces, and on the verge of retirement. Like everyone, Welga has constant feeds allowing anyone who's interested to see what she's doing. She keeps her virtual tip jar up, and her biggest challenge lately has been shifting her angle or slightly manipulating a situation during her bodyguard jobs in order to maximize tips. Then the unthinkable happens: her team's client is murdered. Violent crimes really don't happen anymore, and society is thrown into a tailspin. A new terrorist group, The Machinehood, takes responsibility. They're attacking and killing major pill funders, and they threaten more widespread destruction if society doesn't immediately stop using pills as the basis for everyday tasks and as the foundation for the worldwide economy. In the midst of a global panic, Welga is drawn back into intelligence work in order to identify and fight this new enemy--an enemy that may turn out to be a new incarnation of an old nemesis. This book will be published March 2, 2021. I received a prepublication copy of this book courtesy of Gallery Books and NetGalley. 02 We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker Walk is the chief of police in the small coastal California town where he grew up. He made the heartbreaking decision decades earlier to tell the truth and send his best friend Vincent to prison, and now Vincent is 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, he disrupts the tenuous peace and calm that Duchess and her steady family friend Walk have been able to secure. Can Walk and Duchess--an unlikely pair on the surface, but both used to disappointment and relying on themselves--somehow prevent Vincent and Star from destroying themselves and everyone and everything around them? I received a prepublication copy of this book, scheduled for publication March 2, 2021, courtesy of Henry Holt & Co. and NetGalley. 03 The Arctic Fury by Greer Macallister It's 1853, and longtime California trail guide Virginia Reeve is offered the opportunity to take charge of an unlikely expedition. A benefactor wants her to lead a team of twelve women into the Arctic to locate the missing Franklin Expedition. Each of the women brings unique skills and strengths to the team, but each also holds secrets of her own. In timelines alternating between the expedition and the events of a year and a half afterward, Macallister pieces together what really happened to the brave, motley crew of women out on the wild, dangerous ice. If you like books with wintry settings, you might also like the books on the Greedy Reading List Six Books with Cold, Wintry Settings to Read by the Fire. What are you reading these days? This mix is working well for me: science fiction with themes about society's reliance on attention and outside stimulation; a gritty modern-day, small-town mystery with beautifully imperfect characters bringing it all to life; and a woman-powered historical fiction story of an expedition to the coldest of destinations, the Arctic. Which books are you reading and enjoying these days, bookworms?