Sedaris's first collection of essays in four years offers his delightfully jarring observations and rejection of social niceties, including a hilarious emotional reliance on Duolingo, various entertaining and nerve-racking encounters, and powerfully poignant reflections on his decades-long friendship with his best friend. In David Sedaris's latest book of essays, The Land and Its People, his first in four years, he brings his offbeat humor, acerbic observations, and surprisin

Lex Croucher's foray into dark academia is fantastic, with angst, mature themes, magical adventure, sinister plots, far-reaching repercussions, and a childhood heartbreak that is revisited and revised in heartbreaking, satisfying form. Briar and Sebastian are childhood best friends, but when Sebastian is accepted into the renowned nearby magic school at age 11 and Briar is not, the two have a heartbreaking, fraught split. Briar has always dreamed of attending the Temple Schoo

Kamali's powerful story of enduring friendship spans decades and is shaped by years of political turmoil in Iran. The childhood best friends at the heart of the novel grow apart, then reunite in complicated circumstances. This is wonderful. I feel as though I've been hearing rave reviews of this book for so long, it must have been published five years ago. (It actually came out in August 2025.) Marjan Kamali's The Lion Women of Tehran is historical fiction that begins in 1950

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading the newest novel by the author of The Light Between Oceans, M. L. Stedman's Australia-set A Far-Flung Life; I'm listening to Lauren Okie's play on romance tropes, Tropesick; and I'm listening to David Sedaris's newest book of oddball, edgy, and heartwarming essays, The Land and Its People. What are you reading, bookworms? 01 A Far-Flung Life by M. L. Stedman A Far-Flung Life is an epic family story of generations carving out existence in

Bossy Favorites of the Month I had a solid reading month, including a five-star read by one of my all-time favorite authors. Spoiler alert: that title will also appear in my Bossy Favorite Reads of the Year So Far, a list of six books I'll post next Friday. Meanwhile, here are my six favorite reads of June. I like to post my Greedy Reading Lists on Fridays, and this one is a little early (the month doesn't end until Tuesday, after all) so that I can schedule the aforementione

This is a story about sisters coping with past trauma and resentments trying to find their way back together, with a missing-persons story in the background. The tone of the novel felt difficult for me to settle into, but I appreciated the realistically complicated elements of addiction, abuse, and neurodivergence. “True crime scratches that itch,” she says. “It gives shape to the darkness. It makes the senseless feel—if not understandable, at least real. Like I’m not crazy f