Audacity Book Club: February Read

By Celeste Daniels

TW: Racism

 Hello, audacious readers!

The beginning on the year hit like a tsunami but now it’s time to start getting things together. Last month, we sailed the Indiana Ocean in The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty. This month, we’re celebrating the idea of belonging and defiance with The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray.

In turn of the century New York, Belle da Costa Greene is granted the opportunity of a lifetime. She was chosen to manage and develop the personal library of J.P. Morgan, what would eventually become the Morgan Library & Museum. The position is prestigious and immediately launches Belle into high society. She quickly becomes one of the most powerful people in the art and book world, a place that would secure a better life for her and her family—but there’s one dangerous secret that hangs over her.

While the world sees her as a white woman, tan from her Portuguese heritage, she’s actually African American. Born Belle Marion Greener, she grew up the daughter of the first Black Harvard graduate, a well-known advocate for equality. However, a choice made when she was too young to understand the consequences, forced Belle into a lie that not only threatens her career but also her life.

Belle must wrestle with the cost of this lie while making history, walking a tightrope of hiding her identity as she climbs a ladder meant for only a privileged few. Hard hitting and insightful, The Personal Librarian forces us to ask the question, when being ourselves is a threat. what do we lose to survive?

This book is available wherever books are sold and as well as at your local library or library app. I hope you guys enjoy it and I’ll see you in March for the full review. Until then, don’t forget to read audaciously!