Mastai provides a fascinating story with time travel, alternate realities, love, loss, humor, bravery And perhaps most confusingly of all, in this second life she's lost some of her original, lifelong, rigid Now she's coming to terms with the recent and tragic loss of the person she loved and the future she

structure, dark humor, and deeply flawed characters as main protagonist Lucy works to resolve her memory loss

, in the war, with his divorce and his remarriage, his beloved blended family, and his unimaginable loss

When he begins to have memory loss and other odd symptoms, he realizes it’s linked to his past time travel

I felt as though the later sections glossed over some major issues (consorting with the gruesomely brutal control, torture, and death—even with a promise of potential change; fast emotional movement past the loss

in, in case their feelings aren't reciprocated and their fragile hearts can't take another round of loss

themes of race, relationships, identity, the fallibility of those shaping historical "fact," grief, and loss review of this book, please see Outlawed. 04 The Arsonists' City by Hala Alyan Characters cope with lost multigenerational story with plenty of secrets, messy interpersonal family interactions, love, and loss Characters cope with lost dreams, fading possibilities, boredom, and disappointment, but they also clumsily

Spooky tales are passed down through doubting generations, and characters persistently suffer losses

05 The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston This romantic light fiction story includes sibling conflicts, loss

01 Lost in Time by A.G. Riddle A.G. Riddle's 450-page multiple-timeline story Lost in Time, a group of scientists have developed a device For my full review, check out Lost in Time. 02 The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton This was my favorite digging into the difficult relationship with his father to sharing how he attempted to cope with the loss

respectively, and when Rule of Wolves picks up with these characters for book two, they're all coping with loss is a motivator for action in Rule of Wolves, but Bardugo also delves into the complicated aftermath, lost

a private school where he can thrive--and have better prospects than Opal herself has had since the loss

as hypothetical looks into Lincoln's frame of mind and motivation as he struggled with his personal losses and feelings of responsibility for the significant loss of life on both sides during the Civil War.

, independent woman trapped in the Victorian age, a time in which women have little choice and even less The author explores her own wonder, joy, loss, and peace as she reflects on her formidable mother after and fiction allows the true heart of the book, a daughter's wonder, grief, joy, and yearning for her lost

within McConaghy's Wild Dark Shore , but the story is largely an atmospheric story of isolation and loss

For a time, Wizenberg is at a loss to explain much more than the power of her shifted desire.

young hotshot Dominic Yun shows up and, as a male, automatically has the ear of their misogynistic boss offers poignancy, an exploration of grief, and the impossible-seeming prospect of going on after deep loss Which means setting Patrick and his beloved (but sometimes foreign-to-him) Maisie and Grant loose in This is especially interesting as related to the two lost loved ones for which Patrick is not officially

When he begins to have memory loss and other odd symptoms, he realizes it’s linked to his past time travel And perhaps most confusingly of all, in this second life she's lost some of her original, lifelong, rigid Mastai provides a fascinating story with time travel, alternate realities, love, loss, humor, bravery

to go on despite few options; and the surprise of new determination and hope after years of pain and loss

Permanent holes have been created in families, and the loss of men has left medical and other support

is a shockingly talented artist who abandoned the creation of new work after an incredibly painful loss in at her high school, she can't quite figure out social conventions, and she constantly feels at a loss

by Cold Mountain author Charles Frazier; Meet Me at the Lake, Carley Fortune's rom-com novel about loss She must be losing her mind. But she knows that last night was real.

Memoirs to Dive Into Six Illuminating Memoirs I've Read This Year Six More Illuminating Memoirs to Lose stint in the band Scream; his incredible rise to fame as the drummer for Nirvana; through his grief and losses

Your Own Fool Self, offers short stories centering around themes of race, relationships, grief, and loss

05 The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston This romantic light fiction story includes sibling conflicts, loss

The loss and redemption here are tragic and beautiful. Wilf, whose wife is losing her memories at the same time vivid memories of past events come rushing back

to go on despite few options; and the surprise of new determination and hope after years of pain and loss

In Blood, Moorer, after years of therapy, reflection, and working through her enormous rage and loss,

their two daughters while she and Molner were frantically building their careers, and the horrible loss Memoirs to Dive Into, Six Illuminating Memoirs I've Read This Year, Six More Illuminating Memoirs to Lose

Memoirs to Dive Into Six Illuminating Memoirs I've Read This Year Six More Illuminating Memoirs to Lose digging into the difficult relationship with his father to sharing how he attempted to cope with the loss

themes of race, relationships, identity, the fallibility of those shaping historical "fact," grief, and loss

issues--of what it means to be a family, of secrets and vulnerability, of constricting gender roles, of loss

bitterness, confusion, petty thoughts, life-and-death issues, trivial concerns, and intense love and loss In Meg Long's Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves, young Sena has lost both of her mothers to the brutal

For my full review of this book, see The Witch Elm. 02 The Lost Man ​ Nathan and Bub come together to grieve the loss of their brother Cam. Things aren’t what they seem in The Lost Man, but Harper isn’t manipulative or tricky, either.

He increasingly loses his grasp on the facts but urgently reconnects with pivotal figures from his past

Even when all hope should be lost, each character continues to press on. Maxwell explores loss, tragedy, the rich inner lives of children, the ripple effects of betrayal and

They're each coping with loss, facing danger, and are bracing for destruction as they grapple with their

love of food, cooking, and sharing meals in this irresistible memoir that's also filled with joys and losses

Evie copes with loss and some heavy issues, but Instructions for Dancing was also romantic, sweet, fun

strange exploration of a post-plague world, coping with death, and how to live in the face of constant loss

I felt as though the later sections glossed over some major issues (consorting with the gruesomely brutal control, torture, and death—even with a promise of potential change; fast emotional movement past the loss

Even when all hope should be lost, each character continues to press on. projects—the creation of Central Park, the founding of the Met Museum and the Natural History Museum, putting Boss she turns her eye for detail and for wonderfully faulted characters on explorations of love, desire, loss

Niven offers a lovely, wonderfully odd, sometimes sad story, with vivid characters, hope, devastating loss

tragedy and dives into solving the disappearances of young women in her hometown; The Book of Delights, Ross For my full review of this book, please see When the Stars Go Dark. 02 The Book of Delights by Ross Gay Ross Gay resolved to write about a joy or delight, large or small, every day for a year, beginning on This was my first Ross Gay book, and I really like how his mind works, so I'm in for all of his books the coast of Tasmania, the story centers around a tightly knit community, complicated expressions of loss

is plunging the party down through layers of reality, through echoes of time in which strange events loosely echo world-building, in which things are similar to yet different from earlier versions, creatures lose I was repeatedly left wondering who was who, much less what their motivations, pasts, and realities might

Starter Villain shows a grumpy-seeming cat's head on a human torso clad in a suit with "Meet the new boss Then he inherits his long-lost uncle's parking-garage empire. this novel calls to my mind another book, which I loved, Natalie Zina Walschots's Hench, as well as loose

Benjamin's speculative fiction sets two members of a heartbroken couple in an unforgiving climate, facing an unexplained phenomenon, and seeking the impossible: to turn back time and undo a tragedy that upended their lives. This is intriguing--as well as science-heavy, unique, patiently paced, and without a neat and tidy ending. In Chloe Benjamin's haunting, beautiful novel Under Story, Laurel is a biologist who studies fungi and is running from her past. She's hurting, and she's gotten as far away as possible from her home. Now she's working long hours outside of her profession, toiling in a kitchen at McMurdo Station in Antarctica. But as she settles into a new community, she is fascinated by an inexplicable glowing apparition in the Antarctic snow, which McMurdo residents call the Arc. Is the Arc simply a light, visible energy, or, as Laurel is beginning to imagine, possibly a portal to another time? When Laurel's lifelong love and ex-husband Eli arrives unexpectedly with other physicists to explore the Arc, Laurel wonders if he and she might find their way to each other again--at least in order to understand the mystery of the Antarctic phenomenon. Up to this point, I was completely hooked on the story and the mystery of the Arc as well as the past tragedy that collectively pull in Laurel and Eli. They enter into an unprecedented adventure, facing danger of the unknown and a significant call to bravery. Parts of the story are science-heavy, as the scientist-main protagonists try to understand a universe/antiuniverse structure they dream about and attempt to prove real; I ultimately didn't grasp portions of this reasoning, but that didn't diminish my enjoyment of the story. Conceptually, the next phases of the novel are intriguing; Eli and Laurel spend extensive page time in a Benjamin-created, unique world in which they grow younger and everything moves backward as compared to the universe where they were born. This premise felt surprisingly unmoored and unsettling, but it was certainly interesting. They share the hope of reversing time and then traveling back to their original world, thereby undoing the tragedy that occurred when Laurel and Eli were originally married. That intense desire to rework history carries them through various difficulties and surprising challenges. There are fascinating, strange elements (for example, the existence of another version of Eli and Laurel; and the manner in which humans are born and die in reverse--shiver shiver). But for me, the pacing of this section felt uneven as the story jumped around, and I struggled at times to continue reading. Ultimately, Laurel and Eli's quest yields mixed results. This felt realistic but also disappointing; as I read this hefty, 512-page book I had actively cheered on the outrageously ambitious, complicated roller coaster of a love-inspired if ill-fated plan. The couple's exploration of their past and revelations about their own relationships and key moments was a poignant and powerful aspect of the story. I received a prepublication version of this title courtesy of NetGalley and Putnam. More Books to Explore Chloe Benjamin is also the author of The Immortalists and The Anatomy of Dreams. You might want to also check out these other Bossy reviews of books that play with time.

Patrick Radden Keefe took a subject I wasn't initially captivated by and crafted another work of his signature masterful narrative nonfiction. He hooked me with details, then astounded me with the order he was able to impose upon the chaos of secrets, lies, and the still-unknown elements of the story. I shared in a recent book talk that this book topic wasn't inherently a hook for me, but that in my view, Patrick Radden Keefe can do no wrong, so I dove in. London Falling is about the disappearance of a young man, Zac. Zac’s dogged parents won’t give up on finding out the truth of what happened to their son, and when the reactions from London police feel disappointing and lackluster, Zac’s parents approach the media directly. Then Patrick Radden Keefe crafts this nonfiction work that reads like a novel. The book delves into Zac's astounding, long-held personal secrets; into the implications of the increased presence and power of Russian oligarchs in London; into the pressures and alternate universe of high society and extreme wealth; and into the many sinister tendrils crisscrossing the city’s dark underbelly. “[Bob Dylan] created all sorts of elaborate tales about himself.” He was a trickster who confected a mysterious persona that may have been ridiculous but ultimately served him well. If you mentioned those adolescent fibs to Dylan today, he would probably “laugh about it,” Matthew ventured. “But there are lots of people out there who have created a fantasy existence for themselves...." Keefe shares incredible key details of the disturbing circumstances of Zac's disappearance, such as an MI6 camera that happened to be positioned across the river and captured a crucial moment in Zac’s life. He also unravels a complicated web of lies and discovers the extent of Zac’s alter ego, including a sometimes-Russian accent that apparently fooled grown men and made them believe he was the son of a Russian oligarch. Later, Keefe explores the actions of depraved, horribly evil, destructive individuals that Zac was unlucky enough to become involved with--as well as mounting evidence that their lack of prosecution is linked to their secret informant status. As he always seems to do, Patrick Radden Keefe takes a complex, tangled situation and shapes it into intriguing narrative nonfiction that you can latch onto. There are so many branches of this story, and so many complicated implications of the main players’ actions, lies, and secrets, I can’t imagine anyone but Patrick Radden Keefe successfully imposing this much order on so much chaos and so many unknowns. More Patrick Radden Keefe and Other Nonfiction Gems Patrick Radden Keefe is also the author of the powerful Empire of Pain and Say Nothing, one of my favorite nonfiction books. For more nonfiction titles I've reviewed, please check out the books at this Bossy link.

Depression rages, orphaned Italian immigrant Grace rises through the ranks of the Near North Ballet Company--losing As Nocturne became less anchored in emotions and motivations that I could grasp, I lost my connection There are twists, and I enjoyed Grace's strong stand at the end, but by that point I had lost my feeling

Characters come off as less realistic than their fictionalized versions (who are main protagonists of unorthodox approach to benefiting from it was driven by a genius of a woman (who had to work though her far less Strikingly, she is able to retain her conscience, while he loses any he once had.