
Miss Morgan's Book Brigade
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Marin Ireland
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Sarah Gadon
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Jackie Sanders
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Cassandra Campbell
About this listen
From the New York Times bestselling author Janet Skeslien Charles and based on the true story of Jessie Carson—the American librarian who changed the literary landscape of France—this is “a moving tale of sacrifice, heroism, and inspired storytelling immersed in the power of books to change our lives” (Patti Callahan Henry, New York Times bestselling author).
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.
Based on the extraordinary little-known history of the women who received the Croix de Guerre medal for courage under fire, Miss Morgan’s Book Brigade is a “rich, glorious, life-affirming tribute to literature and female solidarity. Simply unforgettable” (Kate Thompson, author of The Wartime Book Club).
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Story
After 12 years of marriage and two kids, Merit has begun to feel like a stranger in her own life. She loves her husband and sons, but she desperately needs something more than sippy cups and monthly sex. So, she returns to her career at Jager + Brandt, where a brilliant and beautiful Danish architect named Jane decides to overlook the “break” in Merit’s résumé and give her a shot.
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Been there
- By M. Barn on 05-11-22
By: Lauren McBrayer
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The Last Garden in England
- By: Julia Kelly
- Narrated by: Shiromi Arserio, Marisa Calin, Danielle Cohen, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Present day: Emma Lovett, who has dedicated her career to breathing new life into long-neglected gardens, has just been given the opportunity of a lifetime: to restore the gardens of the famed Highbury House estate, designed in 1907 by her hero Venetia Smith. But as Emma dives deeper into the gardens’ past, she begins to uncover secrets that have long lain hidden.
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Lovely and slow but warning 1 narrator is horrible
- By E. Read on 06-30-21
By: Julia Kelly
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The Library of Legends
- A Novel
- By: Janie Chang
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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China, 1937: When Japanese bombs begin falling on the city of Nanking, 19-year-old Hu Lian and her classmates at Minghua University are ordered to flee. Lian and a convoy of more than 100 students, faculty, and staff must walk 1,000 miles to the safety of China’s western provinces, a journey marred by hunger, cold, and the constant threat of aerial attack. And it is not just the student refugees who are at risk: Lian and her classmates have been entrusted with a priceless treasure, a 500-year-old collection of myths and folklore known as the Library of Legends.
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Wonderful and Umique!
- By D. Fields on 02-18-22
By: Janie Chang
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Women of the Post
- By: Joshunda Sanders
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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1944, New York City. Judy Washington is tired of having to work at the Bronx Slave Market, cleaning white women’s houses for next to nothing. She dreams of a bigger life, but with her husband fighting overseas, it’s up to her and her mother to earn enough for food and rent. When she’s recruited to join the Women’s Army Corps—offering a steady paycheck and the chance to see the world—Judy jumps at the opportunity.
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Enlisted personnel are not officers!
- By Amazon Customer on 05-22-25
By: Joshunda Sanders
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Entitlement
- A Novel
- By: Rumaan Alam
- Narrated by: Nicole Lewis
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Brooke wants. She isn’t in need, but there are things she wants. A sense of purpose, for instance. She wants to make a difference in the world, to impress her mother along the way, to spend time with friends and secure her independence. Her job assisting an octogenarian billionaire in his quest to give away a vast fortune could help her achieve many of these goals. It may inspire new desires as well: proximity to wealth turns out to be nothing less than transformative. What is money, really, but a kind of belief?
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so disappointing
- By K. Wagner on 09-22-24
By: Rumaan Alam
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The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau
- By: Kristin Harmel
- Narrated by: Madeleine Maby, Kristin Harmel
- Length: 11 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Colette Marceau has been stealing jewels for nearly as long as she can remember, following the centuries-old code of honor instilled in her by her mother, Annabel: take only from the cruel and unkind, and give to those in need. Never was their family tradition more important than seven decades earlier, during the Second World War, when Annabel and Colette worked side by side in Paris to fund the French Resistance. But one night in 1942, it all went wrong.
By: Kristin Harmel
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A Daughter of Fair Verona
- By: Christina Dodd
- Narrated by: Suzy Jackson
- Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Once upon a time a young couple met and fell in love. You probably know that story, and how it ended (hint: badly). Only here’s the thing: That’s not how it ended at all. Romeo and Juliet are alive and well and the parents of seven kids. I’m the oldest, with the emphasis on ‘old’—a certified spinster at twenty, and happy to stay that way. It’s not easy to keep your taste for romance with parents like mine. Picture it—constant monologues, passionate declarations, fighting, making up, making out … it’s exhausting.
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I enjoy the story
- By Amazon Customer on 03-08-25
By: Christina Dodd
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The Story She Left Behind
- A Novel
- By: Patti Callahan Henry
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan, Theo Solomon
- Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1927, eight-year-old Clara Harrington’s magical childhood shatters when her mother, renowned author, Bronwyn Newcastle Fordham, disappears off the coast of South Carolina. Bronwyn stunned the world with a book written in an invented language that became a national sensation when she was just twelve years old. Her departure leaves behind not only a devoted husband and heartbroken daughter, but also the hope of ever translating the sequel to her landmark work. As the headlines focus on the missing author, Clara yearns for something far deeper and more insatiable: her beautiful mother.
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Outstanding
- By KAH on 05-16-25
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The Codebreaker's Secret
- By: Sara Ackerman
- Narrated by: Jennifer Robideau
- Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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A brilliant female codebreaker. An “unbreakable” Japanese naval code. A pilot on a top-secret mission that could change the course of WWII. The Codebreaker's Secret is a dazzling story of love and intrigue set during America’s darkest hour.
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false advertising
- By Bird Miller on 09-14-22
By: Sara Ackerman
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The Booklover's Library
- By: Madeline Martin
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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In Nottingham, England, widow Emma Taylor finds herself in desperate need of a job. She and her beloved daughter Olivia have always managed just fine on their own, but with the legal restrictions prohibiting widows with children from most employment opportunities, she’s left with only one option: persuading the manageress at Boots’ Booklover’s Library to take a chance on her with a job.
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excellent & historically accurate.
- By Kindle Customer on 10-19-24
By: Madeline Martin
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When the Summer Was Ours
- A Novel
- By: Roxanne Veletzos
- Narrated by: Imani Jade Powers, Jacques Roy
- Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Hungary, 1943: As war encroaches on the country’s borders, willful young Eva César arrives in the idyllic town of Sopron to spend her last summer as a single woman on her aristocratic family’s estate. Longing for freedom from her domineering father, she counts the days to her upcoming nuptials to a kind and dedicated Red Cross doctor whom she greatly admires. But Eva’s life changes when she meets Aleandro, a charming and passionate Romani fiddler and artist.
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A story of hope and struggle.
- By holly clark on 04-29-25
By: Roxanne Veletzos
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The Author's Guide to Murder
- A Novel
- By: Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, Karen White
- Narrated by: Angus King, Saskia Maarleveld, Brittany Pressley, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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There’s been a sensational murder at historic Castle Kinloch, a gothic fantasy of grey granite on a remote island in the Highlands of Scotland. Literary superstar Brett Saffron Presley has been found dead—under bizarre circumstances—in the castle tower’s book-lined study. Years ago, Presley purchased the castle as a showpiece for his brand and to lure paying guests with a taste for writerly glamour. Now it seems, the castle has done him in…or, possibly, one of the castle’s guests has.
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Couldn’t finish
- By TdelaT on 11-28-24
By: Beatriz Williams, and others
The impact of the written word.
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What a great escape.
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Who were the CARDS?
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WONDERFUL history and accurate description of the Women that helped France in WWI
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Hero’s Among Us All
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Easy to listen to and flowed well.
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When telling people about the story I described the writing style to a beautiful singer who’s voice and heart paint such a picture you are drawn in.
Well that is what happened with this story... this a one that I will never forget...!
So very good
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Heartbreakingly Beautiful
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In my review of THE PARIS LIBRARY, I noted that the book was a reminder that there were many unsung heroes and heroines doing extraordinary things and making extraordinary sacrifices during World War II. The same holds true for MISS MORGAN'S BOOK BRIGADE, but it enlightened me to a completely unknown-to-me chapter of World War I. I learned so much about the roles served in France by women from all different countries during the war and about some French history I hadn't learned in my many years of French coursework. Several of the things I read about prompted me to learn more (including about CARD, JP Morgan's daughter Anne, and France's Zone Rouge), and I think that's always the mark of great historical fiction: make me want to learn more.
There is a wide cast of characters in MISS MORGAN'S BOOK BRIGADE, and each of the two timelines have more than one storyline happening. It's a lot, and given the length of the book, there just wasn't time to fully flesh out them all. I enjoyed the dual storylines and points-of-view and how parallels in the lives of Kit and Wendy, some eighty years apart, are revealed. The author does a terrific job of connecting their paths and wrapping up the loose ends, though I was left wanting a bit more about a couple of the main threads.
And HOLY COW. Kit's Readers' Advisory and books she handed out in 1918 are still some of the best, must-read titles of all time (and a nod to the author's librarian skilz). Included were so many beloved titles that I've read, recommended, or still have on my TBR. I really wish I had started writing a list of them as they popped up in the book. Maybe another reader has compiled one? Or perhaps, when I re-read/re-listen, I will make the list myself! (Because retired! And because I can't remember diddly squat. Please don't ask me to tell you any of them.)
I was certain I would like this book, and once I started reading it on NetGalley just before it published, the day it published, I not only bought it in hardcover (from BookPeople in Austin), but also as an audiobook, and those are the formats I primarily used. I'm very glad that I indulged in buying both because it allowed me to go back and forth between formats so I could keep reading -- but with my ears -- when I had other tasks to take care of while wearing my domestic goddess hat (that old chestnut).
I ended up finishing the book -- I thought -- with the audio version, but I wanted to double check something and picked up the hardcover copy to find it. And it's a good thing I did! The print version has an Author's Notes section that is twelve FASCINATING pages long; had I only had the audiobook, I would have missed it entirely. The author's thorough and thoughtful research is even more apparent after reading this section, and it also brought Charles's personality and passion to the page. She's my favorite Francophilian & bibliophilian (I might have created those words just now?) author, and I'm thrilled there's a third book planned in her library trilogy. *grabby hands*
ABOUT THE AUDIOBOOK: There were four narrators, and unfortunately, I don't know which was which! All of them had great pacing, and each character had a distinct voice. Naturally, I really enjoyed the characters who spoke with French accents, and in both the print and audio, I LOVED, LOVED the inclusion of French words and phrases (a nod to the author's French skilz). However, in the audiobook, it was disappointing to hear mispronunciations of French words by characters who were supposed to be fluent/well-schooled in French. And there were some peculiar and clunky English pronunciations scattered in the mix as well. So the audio left a bit to be desired, and the narration faux pas in addition to the omission of the Author's Notes section lead me to recommend reading with your eyes, not your ears, malheureusement.
Overall, reading MISS MORGAN'S BOOK BRIGADE was time very well-spent between the pages, and I anxiously await whatever's next from Janet Skeslien Charles. Her writing is pure gold.
This is what defines great historical fiction
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A genuinely beautiful book so worthy to read as well as listen to on Audible
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