Three Books I'm Reading Now, 10/26/26 Edition
The Books I'm Reading Now
I'm listening to Lisa Kleypas's Victorian-set novel about independent women, Queen of Lombard Street; I'm reading Alan Murrin's debut novel about two women and unlikely allies in small-town 1994 Ireland, The Coast Road; and I'm reading Vincent Delecroix's slim, powerful novel based on devastating real events, Small Boat.
What are you reading, bookworms?
01 Queen of Lombard Street by Lisa Kleypas
As the illegitimate daughter of a fierce, Spanish-born mother, Reina Martin understands the importance of having control over your own life. But Victorian society refuses women's voices and choices at every turn.
Reina is having difficulty convincing a bank manager to allow her to open a sizeable account without a man's signature. But the young economist takes her independence much farther--she becomes determined to establish England's first women's bank with her help of her mentor William Farlow.
When Reina realizes that the household of recently paroled workers that she relies on includes an undercover investigator looking into her trusted friend Farlow, she is faced with impossible decisions around loyalty, morality, and her own ambitious goals for those who desperately need a boost.
The novel's characters are based upon real-life figures such as Mary Paley Marshall, Britain’s first female economist, and the financial giant Hetty Green.
I received a prepublication edition of this novel courtesy of NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager, and I received an audiobook version (narrated by Mary Jane Wells and Joe Jameson) courtesy of Libro.fm and Avon.
02 The Coast Road by Alan Murrin
It's 1994 in a small town in Ireland. Izzy is a housewife increasingly impatient with her husband's controlling nature and public-focused persona. Colette is a poet who left her husband and sons for love with a married man in Dublin, but who has now returned--to a mix of resentment and fascination.
When the women become unlikely friends, their lives intersect in unexpected ways. Izzy is the avenue by which Colette hopes to have access to her children again, and Colette's bravery might inspire Izzy to break free of her unsupportive husband.
The Coast Road is Alan Murrin's debut novel.
03 Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix
Vincent Delecroix takes a grueling set of real-life events and builds a powerful novel that plunges the reader into its plausible, gripping details.
In 2021, an inflatable boat carrying migrants from France to the United Kingdom capsized in the English Channel, and all but two of the 29 people on board died.
The vessel contacted French authorities with desperate please for help. They were told they were in British waters and must ask the UK for help--but that was untrue.
Small Boat is told from the fictionalized point of view of the French navy officer who refused the passengers' pleas for help. Delecroix imagines the moral dilemma, justifications, and aftermath of the greatest loss of life in English Channel history.
Comments