Reviews with content warning for Abandonment - The Personal Librarian

A beautiful life story! I enjoyed reading this book. Bell is the personal Librarian of JP Morgan. She is responsible for curating most of his collection. Bell has a secret she is black and is passing for white in New York.

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readbycarina's review against another edition

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emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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chloemakesbooks's review

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inspiring medium-paced

Pros: good work "aging" the character, interesting premise, some good characterization, book p0rn
Cons: dragged out ending, anti-climactic, suffers from historical fiction's cardinal sin, name-dropping, barely passed the Duvernay test

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beabates's review

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emotional hopeful sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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bookcasey's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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ashleyreads88's review

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challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

The Personal Librarian is the story of Belle da Costa Greene. It's heartbreaking but hopeful. Belle was a young Black woman who passed as white. The Personal Librarian tells Belle's story as the librarian of J.P. Morgan. It's about her professional and personal life as Morgan's librarian, and the challenges she faced being a woman in a man's world. The way Belle navigated auctions and negotiated was inspiring. Were there times when she was manipulative? Yes, but it was to get deals done for the rare manuscripts for the library. I loved how strong and fearless Belle was, I loved watching her growth, how she loved the library and wanted what was the best for it. She had great attention to detail in making the library what it was. After reading this book, it made me want to go visit the library to learn more and see firsthand what Belle did. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it.

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remie's review against another edition

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emotional informative inspiring tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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plathandpoetry's review

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This was a very fast, intriguing read about a Black woman, Belle Marion Greener, passing as a white woman and working for a white tycoon under the name Belle de Costa Greene. Belle is lovable, and three-dimensional in her debate between living life as she wants socially with a career that she wants, and the desire to be honest about her roots. Though, Belle was a real person, she destroyed all evidence of her thoughts and feelings towards her internal debate, leaving the authors to pull from personal experiences, interviews with other people, fiction, etc. I felt as though they created a well-rounder character whose feelings felt authentic.

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