My very favorite Bossy February reads!
February is the shortest month, but I squeezed in some great reading: compelling historical fiction based on a real-life figure; a beautiful, haunting story told in three timelines; a captivating celebrity memoir from a larger-than-life performer; a comedian's funny memoir; a fast-paced WWII-set mystery for young readers that came out of a writing collaboration; and historical fiction with a touch of magical realism about a brave young enslaved woman in the South.
If you've read any of these titles, I'd love to hear what you think!
And I'd also love to hear: what are some of your recent favorite reads?
01 Isola by Allegra Goodman
Isola, based upon the story of a real-life sixteenth-century woman, shifts between details of a life of moneyed ease and an abandonment on an unforgiving, uninhabited island after our main protagonist falls in love with the wrong person.
Marguerite is heir to a fortune, but after she is orphaned, she grows into a young lady while her guardian Roberval squanders her inheritance.
As Marguerite enters into her early teens, she begins to fear that her cousin views her as a creepy match for himself. At the very least it becomes clear that he will pay no dowry in order to make another match for her. Instead, in a somewhat shocking turn of events, he forces her to sail with him to New France. But on the way, Marguerite falls for her guardian's servant.
When their relationship is discovered, Roberval cruelly punishes them by abandoning them on an uninhabited island to perish. Marguerite, once a privileged, protected child of wealth and opportunity, must learn to survive in the wild.
I was fascinated by each aspect of this tale, and Goodman transported me into the details and (often infuriating) dynamics of life at the time.
Isola is inspired by the story of the real-life sixteenth-century heroine, Marguerite de la Rocque de Roberval.
For my full review of this book please see Isola.
02 There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak
There Are Rivers in the Sky weaves together three stories set in three timelines, featuring disparate characters, to explore interconnectedness, the power of water, echoing tragedies, and the timelessness of the written word.
Water remembers. It is humans who forget.
In 1840 in London, young Arthur lives near the sewage-filled River Thames, desperate to escape poverty and his abusive household.
In 2014 Turkey, ten-year-old Narin is living near the Tigris and is affected by a disorder that will cause her to go permanently deaf.
And in 2018 London, Zaleekah, a hydrologist, moves into a houseboat on the Thames when she and her husband break up, but she can't shake her thoughts of suicide.
Shafak makes what could have been an unwieldy or disjointed-feeling set of complex situations into a tragically beautiful intertwined novel that shines a light on weighty issues at three points in space and time. I was haunted by this and fascinated as well.
Elif Shafak also wrote the lovely The Island of Missing Trees.
Click here for my full review of There Are Rivers in the Sky.
03 Cher: The Memoir, Part One by Cher
Cher's lack of agency in her relationship with Sonny Bono came through in passive, reactive behavior, but as she grew older, she found her voice, rode a roller coaster of personal and professional adventures, overcame difficulties, and set her sights on an even bigger, more fulfilling life than ever. I'm alllll in for book two.
Early on, the memoir felt like more of a factual account of what occurred in her life than it felt like illuminating self-examination. I was curious to find out if Cher would provide more reflection around events as she grew older and more emotionally mature within her own story.
Her relationship with Sonny Bono (eleven years older) began when she was a teenager, and his control over her professional and personal life grew stronger and stronger without Cher's recognizing her limitations, her lack of knowledge about finances and business, and her squashed self-esteem about her performance ability.
As she recounts the ups and downs of her early relationships and rides the roller coaster of success and failure, Cher begins to want to express her own voice and to become assertive, and this is when she starts to show more vulnerability and growth--and when I felt drawn into her story.
This is part one of two, and toward the end of this installment she has made her way through the nurturing link with David Geffen, her complicated relationship with Gregg Allman, as well as her connection to her children, her career, and her creativity. She has her eye on diving into becoming a serious actress. And I am hooked.
Please click here for my full review of Cher: The Memoir.
04 What in the World?! A Southern Woman's Guide to Laughing at Life's Unexpected Curveballs and Beautiful Blessings by Leanne Morgan
Comedian Leanne Morgan's memoir traces her path from an attention-seeking, beloved young girl to a young adult facing missteps and disappointment, through her unlikely journey to stand-up, to the embracing of her Southern mama persona and her wild success.
Leanne Morgan hit it big as a middle-aged comic from rural Tennessee talking about her kids' T-ball, her adoration of her grandchildren, and her big, comfortable panties.
Her voice is a striking, uniquely nasal Southern drawl, and her Netflix special "I'm Every Woman" features Morgan's signature plaintive looks at the audience, accompanying stories that sometimes end in such mock-despair that she says she just "wanted to take to the bed." (She also steals the show in a supporting role in the recent movie starring Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon, You're Cordially Invited.)
What in the World?! offers current-day takes on her life that will feel familiar to fans--I'd already seen online video clips of stand-up versions of a few of the anecdotes shared here. But her memoir also traces her youth (when she imagined that she would find fame in some way), her first, brief marriage, her emotional growth, her grit, and, ultimately, her second, steady relationship and marriage to her current husband, the birth and joy of her kids, her rocky start in entertainment--and the world-rocking entrance of her grandbabies.
I was particularly intrigued by the fits and starts of Morgan's younger years, her struggles to find her way, and her unlikely path to fame. I love to hear people's stories, and I found all of this endearing.
I listened to What in the World?! as an audiobook.
05 The Bletchley Riddle by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin
This middle-grade writing collaboration inserts a clever young protagonist into the behind-the-scenes World War II British codebreaking of Nazi messages, along with a rich back story and mysterious elements, adventure, and intrigue. I loved this.
I love a World War II story, and in this middle-grade collaborative work by Ruta Sepetys (Salt to the Sea) and Steve Sheinkin (Bomb), the young protagonist Lizzie Novis becomes an unlikely asset to the British wartime codebreaking center of Bletchley Park.
Nineteen-year-old Jakob Novis is engaged in top-secret work alongside other bright minds, trying to crack the Nazi Enigma code. But after his younger sister Lizzie evades her grandmother's attempts to bring her from England to the United States to avoid the Nazis' nearing destruction, there's nowhere for Lizzie to stay but with her big brother.
When Lizzie finds a secret notebook of her mother's, she becomes more determined than ever to solve the mystery of her disappearance. But a suspicious, tenacious MI5 investigator arrives at the Novises' boarding house, demanding to know everything about their mother--and implying that she had been a double agent betraying England.
The Sepetys-Sheinkin writing venture felt seamless, with adventure, interesting detail, wonderful character dynamics, and intrigue. The authors included real-life figures like Alan Turing and shaped a fascinating scenario for the Novis kids' mother--as well as what felt like plausible, valuable roles in the Bletchley efforts for the children themselves.
This was enjoyable, interesting, well paced, and charming. I loved it. I listened to The Bletchley Riddle as an audiobook.
For my full review please check out The Bletchley Riddle.
You can find my reviews of other World War II-focused books here, and you can also check out my review of Kate Quinn's great codebreaking historical fiction for adults, The Rose Code.
06 Junie by Erin Crosby Eckstine
Erin Crosby Eckstine's richly detailed historical fiction explores the life of Junie, an enslaved young woman in rural Alabama haunted by her sister's speaking, demanding ghost while she dares to dream of love and maybe even a life of freedom.
The Civil War is looming, and Junie is a sixteen-year-old who has spent her whole life enslaved on an Alabama plantation. She works alongside her family, caring for the plantation owners' daughter Violet, who is her own age, and gaining cursory exposure to Violet's studies of poetry and knowledge.
But Junie wanders restlessly at night, haunted by her sister Minnie's sudden death not long ago and by Minnie's ghost, which is demanding that Junie complete dangerous tasks and face truths she never imagined.
Erin Crosby Eckstine balances the horrors of living in an enslaved situation with the complex interpersonal relationships Junie forges. Without shying away from the often hopeless lack of autonomy, lack of power, and lack of say-so and constant fear of the enslaved, Eckstine builds a rich story of detail of life at the time. She also explores the complicated Violet-Junie dynamic, in which Junie is Violet's only company for many years, yet is at her mercy for all opportunities to learn, explore, and pause from backbreaking work.
For my full review, please see Junie.