big issues of race, loss, anger, lies and betrayal, and underneath it all, the constant, stressful push Zamora keeps us in his nine-year-old perspective, which also serves to keep us focused on moment-by-moment Physical discomfort (he is tired, cold, hot, burned, thirsty, hungry), emotional turmoil (he feels loneliness They've shared the good, bad, and the ugly; endless painfully mundane and thrilling cliffhanger moments

feels caught between existences, and the book pulls to a powerful but understated end in which this push

are unredeemable buffoons, at best ignorant and rigid and at worst neglectful and cruel--and always holding The female characters are often strong, and there's often lush historical fiction detail.

France; and for my book club I'm reading Jesmyn Ward's novel, set in the years before the Civil War and told They must determine how many boundaries they can push and how many lines they're willing to cross in But her troubles are about to grow in ways she hadn't anticipated: she's separated from her mother, sold

retelling of the Mark Twain novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , we hear a version of that novel's story told connection built by Everett is unexpected and intriguing, but the real heart of the book is James: the crushing Wounded , The Trees , and other books. 03 Margo's Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe Margo is a 19-year-old She is told she will receive zero support from the baby's father; she loses two roommates due to the

Deepti Kapoor The city is bad, they say, it’s full of con men, criminals, it’s ugly and dirty, it’s no good It's 1980, and diver Billy Western plunges into the cold darkness of the ocean to a sunken jet with the

A., her beautiful goodness. storylines and the varied, complicated set of characters' influences and motivations, Joella explores the crushing

In Hartman's Tess of the Road, Tess doesn't fit the mold of an obedient, quiet young woman in her medieval Tess is irresistibly faulted and headstrong; she is full of wonder and desperate for adventure; she is pushing Yet the heart of this book is based upon timeless issues, a search for justice, and pushing traditional

The author explores her lifelong adoration of her mother, her mother's limitations (Erica often told just 14), and her longtime desire to have a more fulfilling relationship with her mother--with the crushing

It's winter, it's cold, and it's tough to simply survive. Anderson's beautifully spare writing about the brutal winter and the pressing crises of hunger, cold,

Different characters reckon with aging and physical changes, ailments, the end of life rushing toward them--and regrets about avenues they have pursued or avoided, or lies they have told themselves.

The impossible, frustrating push and pull of tourism and preservation are a tension throughout the story

In Johnson's book, fifteen-year-old Jennifer struggles with an eating disorder and enters a residential Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi It's been a year since the events of 9/11, and Shirin, a sixteen-year-old The ending felt rushed, but my love for this book outweighs any disappointment about the ending by a And I realize that I am therefore old. everyone--Eli's angry twin sister with her attempts to freeze out Carver at school; Mars's father with his push

McBride's father always taught her to be self-sufficient, to hunt, to stay tough, and to never drive Cold When Beth Chevalier arrives in Cold Creek to try to track down her sister, who disappeared from the area

But the push to shift production to meet current-day wine trends and demands; the disconnect between Women explore traditional roles and push back against infuriating chauvinism; characters consider their

Emma's mother shows up, will the potentially serious feelings between them stand a chance against the push

perspectives from those who stand outside the stadiums to loudly protest the brutality and inhuman bargain pushed

01 The Cold Millions by Jess Walter Rye and Gig Dolan are brothers in Spokane, Washington, trying to Us is Grande's memoir about her childhood in 1980s Mexico, living in poverty with her siblings and a cold

But when her husband pushes her too far, Del hops a train and dives into the transient community riding

The characters' feelings of anger, crushing grief, and hope feel real in both realities she's created

But in taking on the first cold case of his career, Strike doesn't bargain for the current-day twists

He constantly feels that he must disguise and push down his personal and professional desires, and this push and pull affects his life path and his intense drive to achieve.

The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War is a wonderfully paced and skillfully recounted Cold War-era story of spy intrigue, paranoia, bravery double agent for Britain’s MI6, to be appointed Resident in the KGB—and to ultimately help end the Cold He does an excellent job of immersing the reader in Cold War-era mindsets, priorities, and sometimes A 2020 New York Times article, "Is Ronan Farrow Too Good to Be True?"

Harley's middle-grade story about love, duty, self-discovery, disappointment, and pushing through the Harley's newest work, the middle-grade novel Now You Say Yes, we follow newly orphaned fifteen-year-old Mari and her nine-year-old stepbrother, Conor, who is on the spectrum, as they strike out on a cross-country Harley's story about love, duty, self-discovery, disappointment, and pushing through the discomfort of

Whitaker's story builds into a tale of heartbreak and desperate hopes for redemption that folds back 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 little slowly for me, then built into a tale of heartbreak and desperate hopes for redemption that folded

Her inner thoughts and secretly shared feelings concerning the ways in which her whiteness is holding The reader is also party to the fully racist thoughts and assertions June holds. reviewers' comments that despite June's belief that Athena merely laid the groundwork and June secretly pushed

You can be a good girl, a good horse, you can obey, you can love, but don't expect that if you do right Victoria is the glue holding the family together, and she's never considered doing anything but her duty other reason than the excruciating and beautiful way we grow piece by unpredictable piece, falling, pushing

Burst is told from both Viva and Charlotte's points of view, and Otis manages to nail each. secretly reads, and resents--that Charlotte's drinking and flakiness were always something for Viva to push

(The fictional band focus reminded me, in a good way, of Daisy Jones & the Six, mentioned below.) You’ve taken a big, black, bold line and you’ve made it a little bit gray. might possibly get tiresome, but Reid skillfully builds the story, the complex relationships, and the pushes He's almost 40, he works at a law firm, and he's given up his old dreams. But when an old friend calls, he's faced with the classic "getting the band back together" temptation

many senses, but now she was a grown woman with a full life, and she was not regularly reliving the crushing The topic is crushing, but Crawford's writing is wonderful in its honest and unflinching reflections

He is interested in the potential power of his celebrity to do good, in learning about worthwhile issues He played an important role in the push to cancel debt for African countries and in the battle to bring

But Emmy hasn't told anyone that her ADHD impulsiveness led her to pack up and leave her barrel-racing Luke's desire continues to seem to be centered around dominating her, what she can do for him, and pushing

When a documentary shines a light on Margot again, Billy's longtime crush on the musician is renewed.

Lepucki When Ursa was a child she was horribly abused by her father, and while she feels that she's pushed

More Memoirs I've Loved I find a good memoir irresistible, as evidenced by the bajillions of memoirs children as possible in order to earn God's approval. After Ruth's father was killed by his brother in a grab for power, Ruth's mother married another member and her memoir details the former American intelligence officer's true story of her family during the Cold For more nonfiction spy stories about the Cold War, check out two great books by Ben McIntyre, the gripping

ICYMI: thirteen-year-old Frank Dunn experiences crises of faith during the unforgettably complicated In small-town Minnesota in 1961, thirteen-year-old Frank Dunn is focused on following the inaugural season of The Twins, reading comic books, and drinking cold root beer floats from the local soda fountain. The "grace" of the title refers to the grace of God that Frank experiences during the crises and uncertainty

The city is bad, they say, it’s full of con men, criminals, it’s ugly and dirty, it’s no good, only rich leadership and citizens who suffer deeply because of it; hopes for a glittering future and the poor who are pushed

wreak havoc on the Soviet Union, she joins the Night Witches, an all-female regiment of night bombers pushing I thought the character-driven post-WWII story was wonderful, with compelling and lush detail about tough the desperate young Alva likely had with appearances and others’ opinions in order to grasp and keep hold Fowler also wrote A Good Neighborhood, which I had some issues with, although the topics at its heart hopeful mindset of a young woman forced to grow up too quickly--a woman who for years feels she must push

He relates with starry-eyed enthusiasm his brushes with countless musicians he admires--and his collaborations

Jennette became a child actress at 6 in order to please her mother, pushing down her own anxiety and

residential River Valley School for the Deaf are trying to get through finals, have typical teenage crushes

I felt a familiar, powerful truth being beamed into me by a vast, benificent God, in the form of this Saunders might have pursued this concept of unconditional forgiveness from God within Vigil . To consider, as Doll does--apparently as a directive from God--that Boone, a key figure in the destruction particularly low bar) feels like a shocking, undeserved erasing of his decades of knowing, lie-filled, greedy pushing and, presumably, the others tasked with similar deathbed jobs, which apparently comes directly from God

convinces a nerdy teen coworker, Nathan, to cover her shifts, and in return she promises to make his gamer crush

And it isn't just that being in her teen body again shocks her, or that seeing her high school crush

Chenneville's vengeance spurs him on, and he pushes forward despite encountering setbacks, grave injuries

In One Step Too Far, she turns her attention to a cold case in Wyoming: a man who went missing in a national

The push and pull of Ginny's strong preferences and opinions and how she is unswayed by consequences

With humor, heartbreak, and the constant push and pull between two cultures, Maame explores Maddie's

I'm Reading Now I'm reading The Guncle author Steven Rowley's upcoming novel, The Celebrants, about old friends holding living funerals for each other to cope with difficult periods in life; I'm listening But Alexei's parents pushed him so ruthlessly, he never made friends or developed a life outside of music

Is it possible that Marcellus somehow holds the key to finding answers about her son's mysterious disappearance An overly convenient situation and moment of chitchat pushes the main mystery of the story to a head-