My book club, IWBC (Interesting Women Book Club), chose a book about a very interesting woman this month. Interesting, but all but forgotten, Jessie Carson was a librarian who stepped out into the unknown to help bring the love of reading to a war torn world. Her story is told in Miss Morgan’s Book Brigade by Janet Skeslien Charles. I loved this book with all its references to classic literature and the unassuming main character’s unwavering determination. Really, all the characters were great, and I loved that most were based on real life people. I have read my fair share of books set in WWI, but never really read about the life of civilians so close to the front. In a world where women and children lived in bombed out shells of buildings and were exposed to conditions deemed unfit for human habitation, a small but important group of American women made sure that those left near the fighting received as much care as possible. And isn’t it wonderful that a reading life was as important as vegetables to eat and water to drink?! I can’t wait to discuss this book with my group — there really is so much to talk about.
If you love books and reading and libraries and history, then you really need to pick up Miss Morgan’s Book Brigade. Please note this is a general market offering, so there is some adult situations. I skipped over one of those — it really didn’t add or take away from my enjoyment of the book.
Recommended.
Great for Book Clubs.
Audience: Adults.
(I purchased the ebook from Amazon. All opinions expressed are mine alone.)
1918: As the Great War rages, Jessie Carson takes a leave of absence from the New York Public Library to work for the American Committee for Devastated France. Founded by millionaire Anne Morgan, this group of international women help rebuild destroyed French communities just miles from the front. Upon arrival, Jessie strives to establish something that the French have never seen—children’s libraries. She turns ambulances into bookmobiles and trains the first French female librarians. Then she disappears.
1987: When NYPL librarian and aspiring writer Wendy Peterson stumbles across a passing reference to Jessie Carson in the archives, she becomes consumed with learning her fate. In her obsessive research, she discovers that she and the elusive librarian have more in common than their work at New York’s famed library, but she has no idea their paths will converge in surprising ways across time.
Janet Skeslien Charles is the New York Times bestselling, USA Today bestselling, and #1 international bestselling author of The Paris Library, Moonlight in Odessa, and Miss Morgan’s Book Brigade (called The Librarians of Rue de Picardie in the UK). Her essays and short stories have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, The Sydney Morning Herald, and Montana Noir. Her work has been translated into 38 languages. Janet was born and raised in Montana. After graduating from the University of Montana, she got a job teaching English in Ukraine. She later went to France intending to teach for a year, and has been there ever since. Place is at the heart of every story she has ever written. She loves traveling, spending time with friends and family, and researching stories of forgotten people and places. She is currently working on the final installment of her library trilogy.
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