The Books I'm Reading Now
It's the first Bossy list of 2022!
I'm starting the year off reading two brand-new (published tomorrow!) books, The Maid by Nita Prose and Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins, and I'm listening to the audiobook version of A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, a science fiction book I've had on my to-read list since a smarty librarian suggested it to me during the pandemic.
What are you reading and enjoying these days, bookworms?
01 Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins
In Reckless Girls, the newest novel by Rachel Hawkins (author of The Wife Upstairs), Lux is a frustrated young woman who's just done what she said she never would: she followed a boy.
But to be fair, she's emerging from a fog of trauma after her mother's death, her father has abandoned her, and she dropped out of college to take care of her mom when she was sick, so Lux is drifting. And Nico is handsome, charming, adoring of Lux--and he promised adventure and new-found freedom that she can't resist.
But the couple's grand plans to sail the world have come to a standstill. Nico's boat is damaged, and he and Lux are working menial jobs in Hawaii so they can get it repaired and get on their way.
When a wealthy pair of recent college graduates show up and offer to pay for the boat's repairs and want to hire Lux and Nico to take them to a remote atoll for a couple of weeks, Nico is sure their troubles are behind them.
But Lux has a bad sense about all of this, and while the reader has the benefit of flashes forward in time to intense danger, Lux herself can't figure out why she's feeling so hesitant to go on a trip to a remote paradise.
I received an advance digital edition of this book--which comes out tomorrow--courtesy of NetGalley and St. Martin's Press.
02 The Maid by Nita Prose
In Nita Prose's novel The Maid, main protagonist Molly finds a hotel guest dead in his room, and her eccentric manner--and other's manipulations of her innocent vulnerability--may mean that she's the prime suspect.
Prose has built an interesting premise with Molly as an unreliable narrator. She's naive, she struggles with social cues and unplanned interactions, her way of speaking is formal, and her habits are rigid and inflexible. While Molly herself frequently misses the implications of the details she meticulously observes, the reader sees the truth of the various circumstances Molly witnesses.
Yet Prose allows some surprises, and Molly may end up being more than capable of extricating herself from suspicion by using the many personal qualities that have led others to underestimate her.
This lighthearted aspect of this mystery reminds me a little bit of Finley Donovan Is Killing It, but The Maid offers more heartwarming connection, whereas Finley Donovan was darkly funny.
I received a prepublication electronic copy of this book--which will be published tomorrow--courtesy of Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley. The Maid is a book my book club is set to read this year.
03 The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers #1) by Becky Chambers
I'm listening to this as an audiobook and really enjoying it.
In this first science fiction title in Becky Chambers's Wayfarers series, young Rosemary feels lucky to have landed the job of clerk for the quirky, ragtag, but welcoming crew of the Wayfarer ship.
The group is made up of various creatures from around the galaxy, and they've already built bonds through working together for ages. Yet they make room in the mix for Rosemary, who's grateful--and who's frankly glad to leave her significant personal troubles behind.
Just as she's adjusting to life on board, the crew gets a lucrative opportunity: to tunnel wormholes through space to a distant planet. But things quickly take a turn as pirates and other dangers threaten the makeshift family on the Wayfarer. They each have reasons to mistrust others, but they'll have to trust and rely on each other more than ever before in order to survive.
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