Miss Morgan’s Book Brigade by Janet Skeslien Charles

Title: Miss Morgan’s Book Brigade
Author: Janet Skeslien Charles
Publication: Atria Books, hardcover, 2024
Genre: Historical Fiction
Setting: France

Description: Jessie Carson, a children’s librarian at the New York Public Library (NYPL) in 1918, is flattered when Anne Morgan, daughter of the most powerful financier in America's history, J.P. Morgan, invites and pays her way to France to help with war relief work.

My April 2024 Reading

Lots of good books in April, including some for the #1937Club, a spine-tingling Orphan X book, a book by Nicholas Stuart Gray I’d always wanted to read, and Mrs. Quinn’s Rise to Fame, which was the most delicious read of the month - I'm surprised I didn't gain weight just reading it!

How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin

Title: How to Solve Your Own Murder
Author: Kristen Perrin
Publication: Dutton, hardcover, 2024
Genre: Mystery
Setting: Britain

Description: In 1965, Frances Adams was at a fair with teenage friends when a fortune teller warns her she will be murdered. Over the years, this changes a lovely, outgoing young woman into a neurotic person who alienates everyone she knows, including her own relatives.

Six Degrees of Separation – from The Anniversary to A Killing of Innocents

It’s time for #6degrees, inspired by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. We all start at the same place as other readers, add six books, and see where you end up. This month’s starting point is The Anniversary by Stephanie Bishop (2023), a mystery in which the protagonist’s husband falls overboard while they are on a cruise celebrating their wedding anniversary (hello, I can sense an unreliable narrator from a distance).

The Night War by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Title: The Night War
Author: Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Maps: Juliet Percival
Publication: Dial Books, hardcover, 2024
Genre: Juvenile Historical Fiction (with a little fantasy)
Setting: 1942 France

Description: Miri and her parents fled Germany for Paris after Kristallnacht (the Night of Broken Glass), when the Nazis accelerated their persecution of German and Austrian Jews in November 1938. They have settled in a Paris neighborhood that welcomed many Jews and have made friends.

The First Law by John Lescroart

Title: The First Law
Author: John Lescroart
Publication: Signet, paperback, first published in 2003
Genre: Mystery/Suspense

Description: There is a neighborhood in San Francisco that uses a security firm called Patrol Specials to protect private businesses. When Sam Silverman, an elderly pawnshop owner, can no longer afford its rates, he turns down the protection and hopes for the best, then is murdered during an apparent robbery.

The Road to Oz by L. Frank Baum - Ozathon24

Title: The Road to Oz
Author: L. Frank Baum
Illustrator: John R. Neill
Publication: Dover, paperback, originally published in 1909
Genre: Children’s fantasy/series

Description: When a shaggy man asks Dorothy Gale to show him the road to Butterfield, she should probably yell, “Stranger danger!” instead being beguiled by the twinkle in his eye.

WWW Wednesday – April 24

WWW Wednesday is hosted by Taking on a World of Words.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

Gilbert & Sullivan Set Me Free is an unusual and appealing young adult book set in a women’s prison outside Boston in the early 1900s, based on a real occurrence.