March Wrap-Up: My Favorite Reads of the Month

My very favorite Bossy March reads!

I'm taking a break from social media for Lent, and while I love to talk books on Instagram and Facebook and to peruse other people's reads, it's no surprise that I've been loving putting my extra time into reading great books. Here are six of my March favorites.

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 Time of the Child by Niall Williams

Time of the Child feels like poetry in prose form, and Williams richly shapes a small-town Irish community's everyday and extraordinary events in this poignant, gorgeous literary fiction novel.

In 1962 in the small Irish town of Faha, it's Christmastime, and Dr. Jack Troy and his oldest daughter Ronnie are coping with complicated family dynamics in their drafty, rural Irish home when an unexpected discovery turns everything upside down.

During the annual, chaotic community fair preceding this holidays, which this year is a rainy business full of haggling, disappointments, and triumphs, an infant is left by the church gates. Young Jude and Faha's grown twins, Tim and Tom, bring the baby girl to Dr. Troy and Ronnie, believing her dead but not sure what else to do. And she does seem to have passed on to another realm, until Dr. Troy is able to revive her. In an impulsive pact, the four men agree not to share the news of the baby with anyone.

Meanwhile Ronnie quickly falls in love with the infant girl, who she begins to call Noelle, and Jack opens his heart with the same devotion to the baby. As weeks go on the two of them care for her and go to extremes to try to keep Noelle's existence a secret. When her presence is revealed, they form desperate plans to keep her. But an unwed mother in that time and place has little chance of keeping a child once the Church has a hold of it.

What really shines in Time of the Child is the power of the small-town Faha community--gossipy and desperate for dirt as its citizens may largely be. The miracle of unity brought about by a baby's presence is poignant without feeling too easy. This story is beautiful and powerful.

Williams's writing feels like a poem in prose structure; no word is wasted, and I read this novel slowly in order to savor the world the author so gorgeously created.

For my full review of this book please see Time of the Child.

02 Show Don't Tell: Stories by Curtis Sittenfeld

In Curtis Sittenfeld's wonderful second short-story collection, we meet imperfect characters, often fortysomething women, in moments large and small that push them to determine what they're made of as they consider friendship, betrayal, fear of failure, the power of memory, art, parenthood, and more.

In Curtis Sittenfeld's first short-story collection, You Think It, I'll Say It, she offered ten stories of fully realized, fascinating characters that stuck with me. I loved it and rated the collection five stars.

In her second fantastic short-story collection, Curtis Sittenfeld explores middle age, fame, friendship, artistry--and "Lost but Not Forgotten" is a story featuring Lee Fiora, a character from Sittenfeld's novel Prep, in which Lee attends an alumni event at her boarding school.

My favorite writing often turns expectations on their heads, and In Show Don't Tell, Sittenfeld draws us into crucial stages of faulted characters' lives, in which they figure out what they're made of.

Throughout the book, characters, often middle-aged women, consider art, expression, love, respect, friendship, and limitations as they live their fascinatingly imperfect lives. This is more excellent Curtis Sittenfeld; I'm a forever fan.

You can click here for my review of Sittenfeld's Romantic Comedy, here for my Bossy take on American Wife, and here for You Think It, I'll Say It: Stories.

If you enjoy short story collections, you might like to check out Six Short Story Collections to Wow You and Six More Short Story Collections I Loved.

Click here for my full review of Show Don't Tell.

03 Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live by Susan Morrison

Lorne is a thorough, 650-page look at Michaels's creation of and steering of SNL. What I found most fascinating were the behind-the-scenes peeks at assembling a cast; the show's evolving vision, sketches, and position in society; and the incredibly hectic manner in which a weekly show is put together and performed live.

Susan Morrison was given unfettered access to Lorne as well as SNL and its past and present players, and in Lorne, she shares the deeply researched story of how Lorne Michaels developed SNL, his ups and downs, his vision, and how he created the institution that would change comedy forever.

I was intrigued by Michaels's role in creating SNL, growing it, and adapting it, as well as his taste-making, often inspired casting, hands-on production--and hands-off avoidance of many interpersonal conflicts. But Lorne's fascination with his celebrity friends came off as somewhat insufferable, then kind of tiresome, and ultimately so intertwined with his manner and lifestyle that I became resigned to the incessant name-dropping as just how Michaels is.

The fascinating behind-the-scenes peek at a week shaping a show (Jonah Hill is the host for the featured episode) are interspersed with past evolutions of the show, its cast, and Lorne's personal life.

After five decades, it feels surprising that the hectic schedule and method by which the show's sketches are discussed, tinkered with, tried out, shortened (or abandoned) in dress rehearsal, then finalized just before air continue to occur so seemingly haphazardly and last-minute, yet a show always comes out of the mayhem.

Please click here for my full review of Lorne.

04 Dungeons and Drama by Kristy Boyce

In Kristy Boyce's young-adult charmer, high schoolers Riley and Nathan, coworkers who have nothing in common, end up in a fake-dating drama as they try to win over their love interests.

High schooler Riley has a grand plan to become a Broadway director. But the always-epic school musical has been canceled because the school thinks there isn't enough support for it. So first she wants to get the spring musical set, then she'll mastermind her future.

But when she borrows her mom's car without permission (to go see Waitress out of town with her best friend, so: worth it) and gets grounded, she suddenly has to spend afternoons working at her father's game store instead.

Determined not to give up on the musical, Riley sneaks and works on a master plan for a performance--and talks her unfriendly teen coworker, Nathan, into making his gamer crush jealous by doing some convincing flirting with him. Meanwhile, she agrees to take part in some nerdy game play.

But role-playing in Nathan's Dungeons & Dragons game turns out to be...fun. And liking Nathan is starting to feel like less of an act than simply a reality.

I love a fake-dating premise, and the Nathan-Riley setup is irresistible. I was hooked on their ups and downs--and the reasons for their "downs" are plausible enough that I loved rolling with them. The supporting characters and their side plots are funny and oddball and cute. This was a sweet world that I loved spending time in, and the fact that absolutely everything works out is immensely satisfying.

For my full review of Dungeons and Drama, please check out this link.

05 The Favorites by Layne Fargo

I loved the behind-the-scenes peeks at the drama, punishing hard work, sequins, and mind games of competitive figure skating. The backdrop for Kat and Heath's tumultuous mutual obsession was a series of destructive forces trying to tear them apart. The interview format and multiple perspectives add to the layers of the story.

Young Katarina Shaw always felt that she was meant to become an Olympic champion. Heath Rocha was stuck in the foster care system. When he and Kat met, they made a connection that first built into a best-friendship between two lost young people, then love.

Their mutual obsession ultimately translated into a powerful partnership on the ice, and when they eventually advanced to the Olympics, a dramatic event stopped their journey to the gold medal--and broke them up for good.

Ten years later, we join the voyeuristic public and the insider news bursts in exploring what really happened years earlier. The delving into the past draws Kat and Heath back into each others' orbits--and reveals secrets they never could have imagined.

The Favorites is heavy on the skating--which I loved. (The prominent sports element reminded me of the tennis-focused novel Carrie Soto Is Back.) I love a peek behind the scenes, and I loved the politics, rivalries, determination, mind games, and sabotage in the story.

The relentless pacing, romantic obsession, twists and turns, dramatic setbacks, exhilarating success, and sometimes over-the-top sabotage within The Favorites is immersive and irresistible.

Johnny Weir is a standout audiobook narrator in the role of Ellis Dean, a mischievous rival of Kat and Heath's and an attention-grabbing behind-the-scenes reporter with redemptive, golden moments of loyalty.

For my full review please check out The Favorites.

06 Famous Last Words by Gillian McAllister

The author of the fantastic Wrong Place, Wrong Time is back with a smart, twisty mystery that's wonderfully heavy on character development and a story that hooked me.

Famous Last Words is another smart, twisty mystery from Gillian McAllister.

Camilla is a new mother who has just dropped off her baby for her first day of daycare when the police arrive at her London office. It seems that her fun, carefree ghostwriter of a husband is involved in a hostage situation--as the one wielding the gun.

Camilla, shocked, mostly cooperates with the police and the negotiator--until the hostages are shot and her husband escapes--then disappears.

But in the ensuing years, Camilla can't stop obsessing over the unusual aspects of the siege: the violence is so out of character for Luke, the hostages are never identified, and Luke was behaving strangely beforehand and left her a cryptic note the morning of the horrifying events. Are the strange coordinates she's receiving on her phone after seven years a message from Luke? And if they are and could lead her to Luke, would her love possibly overcome her devastation at knowing that somehow her beloved partner became a coldhearted killer?

McAllister's Wrong Place, Wrong Time relied on an intriguing time-travel element as its twist. I thought that element would crop up and be in play here too, and I set myself on some early and wild mental goose chases trying to figure out how. But Famous Last Words doesn't use--or require--that structure; the twist is largely internal.

I loved this smart mystery that relies heavily on character development and mental agility for our narrator. I saw some plot points coming but not others, and a couple of essential details worked quite conveniently, but I didn't mind. The ending offers answers and resolution. Sign me up for all the Gillian McAllister books, please.

Camilla is a literary agent, and I loved her escapes into books and her love for them.

For my full review, please see Famous Last Words.