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Janet Skeslien Charles, author of Miss Morgan's Book Brigade

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. 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. Eventually she discovers that they 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.

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Week of March 31, 2025

Paperback releases for the week of March 31st include the #1 global bestseller and inspiration for the hit Apple TV+ series of the same name, LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY by Bonnie Garmus, which introduces readers to Elizabeth Zott, a one-of-a-kind scientist in 1960s California whose career takes a detour when she becomes the star of a beloved TV cooking show; TOM LAKE, a beautiful and moving novel from Ann Patchett about youthful love, married love, and the lives parents have led before their children were born; Janet Skeslien Charles' MISS MORGAN'S BOOK BRIGADE, a brilliant work of historical fiction based on the true story of Jessie Carson, the American librarian who changed the literary landscape of France; and the paperback original THE FOURTH GIRL by Wendy Corsi Staub, a twisty suspense novel in which three friends face a deadly hometown reunion on the anniversary of a teen’s disappearance.

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