The Books I'm Reading Now
I'm reading Ava Glass's newest Emma Makepeace spy mystery, The Trap; I'm listening to Miss Morgan's Book Brigade, Janet Skeslien Charles's historical fiction in two timelines, focused on a World War I-era NYPL librarian who makes waves in France; and for my book club I'm reading Jesmyn Ward's novel, set in the years before the Civil War and told from the point of view of an enslaved young woman, Let Us Descend.
What are you reading these days, bookworms?
01 The Trap by Ava Glass
In the newest Emma Makepeace suspense novel from Ava Glass, The Trap, Emma must work at breakneck speed to prevent a high-profile assassination by the Russians in the days leading up to the momentous G7 summit in Edinburgh.
Emma's efforts are significantly complicated by the fact that the potential victim is unknown--and by the fact that those in charge of her own spy network have discounted the Russian threat and are no longer supporting efforts to unravel its source or its possible impact.
But Emma and her small team are convinced that if the Russians' plan is allowed to take shape, it will be disastrous. They must determine how many boundaries they can push and how many lines they're willing to cross in order to uncover the truth in time to thwart the deadly plan.
I received a prepublication edition of this book, which was published September 3, courtesy of Ballantine and NetGalley.
Ava Glass is also the author of Alias Emma and The Traitor.
02 Miss Morgan's Book Brigade by Janet Skeslien Charles
I love a book about scrappy librarians, and Janet Skeslien Charles's historical fiction novel Miss Morgan's Book Brigade takes that setup farther into favorable Bossy territory, by sending an idealistic, headstrong young librarian from the US to Europe and into a World War I setting.
Basing the past timeline (there's also a modern timeline of discovery that allows for context beyond the original sequence of events) on the real-life NYPL librarian Jessie Carson, Charles tracks Carson's journey to work for the American Committee for Devastated France. There she not only helps rebuild communities destroyed by war, but establishes something never before seen in France: children's libraries, where kids in war-torn communities can dream, lose themselves in fictional worlds, and try to recapture some carefree hours of their youth.
I'm listening to Miss Morgan's Book Brigade as an audiobook.
Janet Skeslien Charles is also the author of The Paris Library.
03 Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward
Annie lives on the Carolina rice plantation of her white enslaver, and when he turns his attention to her in lascivious ways, she fears that new horrors are in store for her.
But her troubles are about to grow in ways she hadn't anticipated: she's separated from her mother, sold, and forced to begin walking in a trail of roped women many miles toward the slave markets of New Orleans.
Without her mother's protection--and tales of their warrior-woman ancestors--Annie is left with only the ghost of her fierce grandmother, who seems to be following her path south.
Ward's language is frequently poetic, and the cruelties throughout the story are difficult to read.
I'm reading Let Us Descend for my book club.
Jesmyn Ward is also the author of Sing, Unburied, Sing.
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