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More Books by this Author and Other Bossy Reviews of Retellings If you like retellings, you may want

Percival Everett's James is a fascinating retelling of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the point In James , Percival Everett's retelling of the Mark Twain novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , we hear

ICYMI: This five-star retelling of the story of Rumpelstiltskin offers kickass female protagonists, haunting

ICYMI: Uprooted is a thoughtful, satisfying, grown-up fairy tale with gloriously imagined details. I ate it up and gave it four Bossy stars. Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful. Agnieszka has grown up in a quiet village, surrounded by people she loves. But evil lurks in the nearby Wood, with the dark presence of the wizard they call the Dragon looming over all of them. The Dragon keeps them safe from the Wood, but at a high price: each year he demands one young woman from the village. She is taken for ten years to serve him. The next choosing is coming up quickly, and Agnieszka is sure that her best friend Kasia will be next to go. She considers every desperate plan she can to try to save Kasia from this horrible fate, knowing all the while that she cannot prevent what is to happen. Naomi Novik creates captivating reimaginings of fairy tales (check out my review of Spinning Silver). Uprooted is a thoughtful, satisfying grown-up fairy tale with gloriously imagined details. I ate it up. I feel compelled to also mention that Novik has a series of nine books about dragons, the Temeraire series. The dragons talk and are haughty and greedy and intensely loyal to their riders, and Novik explores world politics and the intricacies of nations' relationships and airborne dragon battles within the books' alternate history, and the human protagonists are wonderfully faulted and fantastic. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? I mentioned Uprooted (and Novik's Spinning Silver) in the Greedy Reading List Six Magical Fairy Tales Grown-Ups Will Love. Check out my reviews of Lessons One and Two in the Scholomance series, A Deadly Education and The Last Graduate--and stay tuned for my review of Lesson Three, The Golden Enclaves.

Grossman's reimagined Arthurian legend gives center stage to a ragtag band of misfits, celebrates diversity, and builds a patchwork of adventures, discovery, and widened horizons culminating in a satisfying new, reimagined path forward. Collum is an instinctually gifted, strong knight who has literally fought for sword training as a lowly ward; his family has little use for him; and his heart is set upon joining King Arthur's court. But when he finally makes his way to the Round Table, only elderly, impaired, has-been knights are left, and he learns that Arthur was killed weeks earlier. But Collum refuses to believe that a life as a knight is no longer possible for him. Along with Merlin's apprentice, Nimue, he becomes determined to usher in a new age, where Excalibur will be reclaimed, Camelot will be secure from would-be usurpers, and the kingdom will be inspired again by bravery and might. I loved the twist on Arthurian legends, in which an unlikely young upstart and a ragtag group of aging, grumbling, disillusioned knights try to do right by Camelot and by their idol, Arthur. I appreciated the epic length of the book (688 pages), in which each remaining knight gets page time and a recounting of key adventures. But the many points of view and meandering stories also felt a little broad at times, and I wished for more focus on Collum, while understanding that his early-days position didn't warrant the majority of the storytelling. The Nimue-Merlin-Morgan le Fay conflicts were an intriguing side plot, and I enjoyed Grossman's unexpected take on the (misunderstood) Lancelot-Guinevere dynamic--and Guinevere's own power and promise as a leader. Grossman addresses issues of diversity in satisfying fashion; a transgender knight, a Muslim knight, and a gay knight are all represented. The full roster of knights--and the women who hold important roles in the tale--are all misfits who don't inspire great confidence, but collectively, they fight to find a path forward in a world that is changing around them. I listened to The Bright Sword  as an audiobook (it was twenty-three hours long). More from Lev Grossman Lev Grossman is also the author of the Magicians trilogy. I read the first in that series, The Magicians , for but me it was short on magic and fantastical elements and long on unsympathetic characters' entitlement and malaise.

Allision Epstein shapes Charles Dickens's greedy criminal mastermind Jacob Fagin into a character with a rich backstory, showing him to be a man shaped by personal and societal circumstances in mid-1800s London and imagining his efforts to teach thievery to his wards as valuable survival instincts that allow for a desperate survival. Men and women pass by in the street, shadows that avert their gaze and adjust their paths. Maybe they don’t hear him. Maybe they do. Just as his survival depends on hiding his tears until it’s safe to drop them, maybe theirs depends on not taking any grief that isn’t their responsibility. Children have been orphaned before today. More will be orphaned tomorrow. It’s only to him that the pain feels unprecedented. In Allison Epstein's version of mid-nineteenth-century Dickensian London, the traditional villain of Jacob Fagin acquires a rich backstory. Jacob has been scrabbling for existence since he was a young boy. When his father was murdered as a thief in the Jewish quarter, the family's situation became increasingly desperate. His beloved mother Leah kept her son fed and supplied with books, and she worked relentlessly at menial jobs to keep them afloat--until her own untimely demise from disease. Now Jacob's options for survival are limited, and he begins to train as a pickpocket, soon eclipsing his teacher and the other thieves in the area, beginning to be known as Fagin--and gradually, driven by a measure of empathy, taking in and training young people who are also fighting for a chance in a tough world. I haven't read Oliver Twist in many years, yet Fagin has remained ingrained in my head as a selfish, greedy, detestable character. In the Dickens novel, he sings, " In this life, one thing counts / In the bank, large amounts / I'm afraid these don't grow on trees, / You've got to pick-a-pocket or two / You've got to pick-a-pocket or two, boys, / You've got to pick-a-pocket or two." Epstein's textured story imagines what shaped the figure of Fagin into a ringleader of young thieves in that place and time: personal tragedy, societal and class prejudices and limitations, and a strength of will alongside the need to eke out a living. She reworks his gleeful thievery from Dickens's original story, instead showing his emotional connection to other colorful characters living hand-to-mouth in the same slum; his acting through reluctant necessity in training and putting a roof over the heads of young boys who have no other options; and the poverty, strong will, and lack of options that drove him. In Fagin the Thief , Oliver Twist is a minor character (and an irritating, careless, selfish one who might be the undoing of them all). Fagin's motivations and character development inspire empathy for Dickens's traditionally wily, cutthroat, notorious exploiter of young children. Epstein's writing is lovely, and she skillfully evokes details of the place and time, exposes Victorian London's stark class contrasts, and presents the filthy rabbit warren of streets, alleys, and squares flanking the polluted Thames where the band of thieves scrape by, care for each other, sometimes betray one another, and live their complicated lives. More from this Author Allison Epstein is also the author of A Tip for the Hangman and Let the Dead Bury the Dead . You might also be interested in these Bossy reads that are also set in the 1800s.

Hester is richly imagined historical fiction with connections to themes and characters from The Scarlet Letter. It's magical and intriguing, and I loved it. They say witch, but what do they mean?... Witch is a reason to kill you; witch might be someone to heal you; witch can be the Devil, or witch can be a woman so beautiful she makes you lose your sense. They've got so many ways of calling you a witch, they just change it to how it suits them. In Hester: A Novel, Laurie Lico Albanese reimagines the woman who inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne's Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter as recent Scottish immigrant Isobel Gamble. Talented needleworker Isobel and her husband leave Scotland for America in the early 1800s. But when her addict of a husband abruptly leaves her penniless and alone, jumping on a ship departing Massachusetts shortly after they arrive, Isobel is desperate and must make her way in an unfamiliar country all alone. As she hides the vivid colors she has always seen associated with letters, voices, and emotions--which she has always been told to ignore, for fear of being branded a witch like her great grandmother, also named Isobel--she encounters Nathaniel Hathorne, a romantic, aspiring author who is struggling to cope with his family's dark legacy of having sent suspected witches to the gallows in generations past. The two enchant each other within an unconventional, unacceptable relationship and a swirl of irresistible connection. The heart-healing hawthorn flower stitched upon a white handkerchief with a tiny red A, for Abington. Keep your powers hidden and use them when it's your time. Race issues are explored through Isobel's lifesaving Black neighbors--who share resources, offer advice, and otherwise keep to themselves--and their mysterious goings-on, which Isobel suspects may be related to the runaway slaves she hears tell of in town. Often in Albanese's Salem, classes who are underestimated or dismissed may be achieving hidden changes in the community, while families who are upheld as upper-crust may be involved in darkness and corruption. What's true is often hidden from sight--religious fervor disguises cruelty, dark desires hide behind a mask of conformity. What else is slipping through the spaces that I don't see? What other dark secrets is the city hiding? Isobel's needlework and the colors she sees in the world are captivatingly described, and the tenuous situation for a woman at the time without a man in the household is conveyed in chilling fashion. I loved the connections to The Scarlet Letter and the book within a book, the witchy focus, the renegade feminism, and the details of life at the time. I received a prepublication copy of this book courtesy of St. Martin's Press and NetGalley. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Laurie Lico Albanese is also the author of Stolen Beauty. If you're interested in books about witches, you might like the books on the Greedy Reading Lists Six Wonderfully Witchy Stories and Six More Wonderfully Witchy Stories to Charm You.

Natalie Haynes's mythological retellings put women at the center of many scenes surrounding the Trojan If you enjoy retellings of mythology and you haven't yet read Madeline Miller's Circe (which I gave five Are there other mythological retellings you've loved?

Vaishnavi Patel's debut is a captivating retelling of the Indian epic Ramayana, with immersive details The retelling swirls with family drama, intrigue, bravery--all centered around a young woman determined If you enjoy retellings, you might also like some of the books on the Greedy Reading List Six Magical

A friend recommended actress Rebel Wilson's memoir Rebel Rising , and I listened to the Australian's Rebel Wilson starred in the Pitch Perfect movies as well as in Bridesmaids .

Kingfisher novel, the fantasy story and retelling of the Grimm Brothers' Goose Girl , A Sorceress Comes Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon's pen name) read, and so far, I love this retelling of the Grimm Brothers'

Michelle Moran's novel Maria: A Novel of Maria von Trapp ; I'm listening to James , Percival Everett's retelling also the author of Cleopatra's Daughter. 02 James by Percival Everett In James , Percival Everett's retelling

Madame Restell is compelling nonfiction about an ambitious feminist in pre-Gilded Age New York and her and Resurrection of Old New York's Most Fabulous, Fearless, and Infamous Abortionist, and in Madame Restell Restell is an intriguing, controversial, strong-willed, entrepreneurial figure. But Restell's story also swirls with weighty issues still relevant today--women's rights and autonomy Madame Restell is a feminist account of an audacious, contentious figure.

Stories to Charm You , and again in my review of Natalie Haynes's A Thousand Ships , a woman-centered retelling

Kingfisher (this is Ursula Vernon's pen name) read, and I loved this retelling of the Grimm Brothers'

I loved the premise, in which a golden girl and barrel-racer returns home to small-town Wyoming to figure out her future. I was looking for more assertiveness from Emmy and less of a dynamic in which men solve women's problems, but this was entertaining, spicy, and sets up Lyla Sage's Western romance series. In Done and Dusted , the first book in Lyla Sage's modern-day Western romance series, Clementine "Emmy" Ryder is the golden girl of Meadowlark, Wyoming. Her unexpected return to her hometown delights her sassy best friend, protective older brothers, grizzled and loving father, and the rest of the town. But Emmy hasn't told anyone that her ADHD impulsiveness led her to pack up and leave her barrel-racing career after a bad fall that shook her confidence and made her question everything in her life--except her home, Meadowlark. Luke Brooks is a local bar owner, a recognized womanizer, Emmy's brother's longtime best friend, and an honorary member of the Ryder family. He and Emmy have always irritated each other, and their age difference meant they were in different worlds as teenagers. But Luke and Emmy are older and wiser than when they last saw each other--and Luke and his muscle tees seem to be cropping up everywhere these days. Can Emmy overcome her secret fears of riding and get back to her love of horses again? And in the meantime, can Luke help get her mind off her troubles with his handsome face and irresistible bad-boy attitude? I love the novel's p remise, in which Emmy returns home to rethink her life and figure out her future while working hard and getting back to her roots. The family r anch is an irresistible setting for potentially entertaining dynamics with her brothers and father, and for outdoorsy activity and tough-girl demonstrations of knowledge and ability as Emmy gets back on her feet. The men in Done and Dusted , particularly Luke, are largely determined to show that they are capable and in charge, strut their muscles, and save little ladies from themselves. This is not a dynamic I'm totally comfortable with, but I loved the promise of Emmy's reinvigorated, independent new outlook--and I acknowledge that a rugged ranch setting might very well involve strong characters demonstrating their strength. Spoiler: there are, fairly promptly in the book, highly detailed intimate scenes between Luke and Emmy. And within these (then also within everyday encounters), Luke frequently calls Emmy "Sugar." This seems like a minor point, but it felt both condescending and potentially (creepily) fatherly to me within their very verbal sexual encounters--and unfortunately, it comes up often. I'm not looking to nitpick sex scenes, but Luke felt so immediately bossy and in charge during their passionate encounters (while making demands of "Sugar"), I was instantly annoyed. I was looking for more of Emmy's assertiveness and hoped for a turning of the tables. Ultimately their dynamic feels egalitarian in the bedroom--and if he is more domineering, Emmy's fine with it. But Luke's desire continues to seem to be centered around dominating her, what she can do for him, and pushing her to tell him how much she wants all of this, versus his focusing on serving Emmy, and I was increasingly irritated by this. For example, his fantasies upon seeing her wearing red lipstick take an instantaneous, (for me) alarmingly dominating turn, and I strongly wanted him to take it down a notch in general. It's possible that I might  have processed the sexual and general power dynamic more generously if I'd realized that Sage envisioned Luke Brooks as a grown-up Tim Riggins-type of character ( Friday Night Lights ), which she mentions in her notes at the end. (But even so, the "Sugar" nickname was a nonstarter for me.) It's not fair for me to want a Western romance to be less romance and more Western, but I did, and even more so, I wished that Emmy held more of her fate in her own hands. The trauma of Emmy's getting back on a horse feels quite easily addressed--and, somewhat unsatisfyingly, the transformation from fear to confidence largely relies upon Luke. I yearned for Emmy to take charge of facing her own horse-related fears, ideally while taking charge of Luke in private moments, but this isn't quite the dynamic Sage builds in the novel. Yet Done and Dusted is entertaining, spicy, and sets up a long-term Emmy-Luke romance. I read Done and Dusted  as an audiobook. There are three more books in this series. For more romantic books you might like, please check out the books at this link . And for Western books I've liked, check out these titles .

I read Mary Sharratt's Revelations over the course of this "school year" with my women's group. In Revelations, Sharratt offers an immersive historical fiction novel that includes thoroughly researched I've underlined many, many meaningful passages in Revelations, and I found exploring this time through The book's blurb on Goodreads describes Revelations as "a kind of fifteenth-century Eat, Pray, Love."

This month my favorite reads were a retelling of a Mark Twain story; historical fiction set in North full review of Long Live Evil . 04 James by Percival Everett Percival Everett's James is a fascinating retelling In James , Percival Everett's retelling of the Mark Twain novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , we hear

delay is that now all three of the books in the Lady Janies trilogy (each is a stand-alone, creative retelling Are you interested in a historical fiction retelling of the story of King Edward, Lady Jane Grey, and I don't always enter willingly into reading a retelling of a well-known story, but this one is bonkers

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading Eilish Quin's upcoming debut, a retelling of the story of the most

Sometimes, one cannot know until retelling what was right and what was wrong.

and I recently mentioned it again in my review of Natalie Haynes's A Thousand Ships, a woman-centered retelling

The retelling swirls with family drama, intrigue, bravery--and a young woman determined to make her mark

delay is that now all three of the books in the Lady Janies trilogy (each is a stand-alone creative retelling Are you interested in a historical fiction retelling of the story of King Edward, Lady Jane Grey, and

check out Carrie Soto Is Back. 04 Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel Vaishnavi Patel's debut is a captivating retelling The retelling swirls with family drama, intrigue, bravery--all centered around a young woman determined

also listed a great nonfiction book by Bill Browder, a fascinating science fiction read, a feminist retelling 01 A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes Natalie Haynes's mythological retellings put women at the center

station church after being struck by lightning in his late teens and developing a knack for dramatic retellings

Fairy Tales and Retellings For this list, I focused on books with fantastical elements; clear good-and-evil

Kingfisher (this is Ursula Vernon's pen name) read, and I loved this retelling of the Grimm Brothers'

Fearless Girls offers retellings of well-known fairy tales, some visible racial diversity in its illustrations

What are some of your favorite fairy tale-type books or retellings?

Ninety-one-year-old Gretel Fernsby is living out her days in a posh flat in London. She's friends with her younger across-the-hall neighbor Helen, who is coping with dementia, and Gretel's three-times-married-and-divorced grown son lives in the city, but otherwise Gretel keeps to herself. When a couple and young son move into the flat below her, Gretel begins to worry that the man of the Haunted by the past and threatened in the present, Gretel shapes the novel with disturbing memories from

01 All the Broken Places by John Boyne Ninety-one-year-old Gretel Fernsby is living out her days in a She's friends with her younger across-the-hall neighbor Helen, who is coping with dementia, and Gretel's three-times-married-and-divorced grown son lives in the city, but otherwise Gretel keeps to herself. When a couple and young son move into the flat below her, Gretel begins to worry that the man of the Haunted by the past and threatened in the present, Gretel shapes the novel with disturbing memories from

England and opening up after heartbreak by David Nicholls; and I'm listening to Australian actress Rebel Wilson's memoir, Rebel Rising . I'm listening to You Are Here as an audiobook. 03 Rebel Rising by Rebel Wilson I love to read a memoir A friend recommended actress Rebel Wilson's memoir Rebel Rising , and I'm listening to the Australian's Rebel Wilson starred in the Pitch Perfect movies as well as in Bridesmaids .

controversial, self-taught surgeon providing birth control and abortions in pre-Gilded Age New York, Madame Restell edition of this title, published November 21, courtesy of NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company. 02 Madame Restell and Resurrection of Old New York's Most Fabulous, Fearless, and Infamous Abortionist, and in Madame Restell But Restell's story swirls with weighty issues still relevant today--women's rights and autonomy; the Madame Restell is a feminist account of an audacious, controversial figure.

West African city, but I didn't feel very connected to or invested in the fantastical elements or the revelations I was taken with the premise of this novel, but I found the revelations slow, and I because Bouba comprehended

A select few fellow members of the rebel Uprising are aware that she is psychic, but no one but her adoptive way into Silver Elite, a small unit sure to access more sensitive information that could assist the rebels

A select few fellow members of the rebel Uprising are aware that she is psychic, but no one but her adoptive way into Silver Elite, a small unit sure to access more sensitive information that could assist the rebels The country is reeling from economic troubles; Brandon's older brother deeply resents his presence; and

series of events leads from disaster to recovery, to connection and secrets, to a surprising set of revelations The country is reeling from economic troubles; Brendan's older adoptive brother deeply resents his presence A select few fellow members of the rebel Uprising are aware that she is psychic, but no one but her adoptive way into Silver Elite, a small unit sure to access more sensitive information that could assist the rebels

the Bright Edge of the World  is a story of discovery, adventure, tedious slogging, danger, and self-revelation

I loved the matter-of-fact acceptance of some of these revelations (those that didn't emotionally or The podcast element was engaging--I loved how it allowed for layers of interpretation, revelation, and

events around the death for which she's imprisoned, but she recalls other events from her youth, and she revels

Some of main protagonist Mikey's revelations and growth aren't completely satisfying, but the tone and

procedure, dogged determination, and her intuitive hunches to force a dangerous confrontation and to offer revelations

resolving complicated questions about his romantic life, career, and his future at an East London commune; Revelations received a prepublication digital edition of this book courtesy of Ballantine Books and NetGalley. 02 Revelations by Mary Sharratt I've been reading Mary Sharratt's Revelations over the course of this "school year" In Revelations, Sharratt offers an immersive historical fiction novel that includes thoroughly researched

I was hoping for a similar revelation while reading Jonathan Haidt's 2012 book The Righteous Mind . performative shows of force, nonsensical declarations, and willful ignorance, I didn't experience the revelation

Other historical fiction books with faith elements that I've loved include Revelations and Illuminations

This revelation opens the door to the discovery of and the discussion of various characters' newly realized

the slow build of mystery in two timelines, the privilege and working class disparities, the eventual revelations

The ending section is lovely, with heartwarming promise, hope, resolution, and a fig-tree-related revelation