The Books I'm Reading Now
I'm listening to The Bodyguard, Katherine Center's newest light fiction about Hannah Brooks, an innocent-looking bodyguard for a superstar action hero; I'm listening to The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, Kim Michele Richardson's historical fiction about a traveling rural Kentucky librarian who was one of the "Blue People" of rural Kentucky; and I'm reading Weather Girl, Rachel Lynn Solomon's light fiction about a TV meteorologist who tries to set up her two bosses, who are exes.
What are you reading and enjoying these days, bookworms?
01 The Bodyguard by Katherine Center
I'm listening to The Bodyguard by Katherine Center.
Hannah Brooks looks like the young woman next door--but she's actually an Executive Protection Agent--a bodyguard. And her client is the Jack Stapleton, action star, household name--and, in recent years, a recluse.
Someone is stalking Jack, and Hannah is bound to protect him. But Jack's mother is sick, he wants to return home to Texas, and he doesn't want his family to know he's got a stalker. So against her better judgment, Hannah agrees to pose as his girlfriend. Only...the longer she pretends, the more their fake relationship seems like it might have promise.
I received a prepublication audiobook version of this book courtesy of MacMillan Audio and NetGalley.
02 The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson
Kim Michele Richardson's The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek is historical fiction set in 1936 in the rural Appalachians, centering around Cussy Carter, who in this tale is one of the rare, real-life "Blue People" of Kentucky (those with the blood disorder methemoglobinemia, which causes the appearance of blue-tinted skin).
Cussy is a librarian through the Pack Horse Library Project of Kentucky, and she rides her mule Eugenia through all the hollers and up through the mountains, delivering sought-after newspapers and books to families who rarely emerge from the woods but for whom the written word is a window to the greater world.
The book's sequel is The Book Woman's Daughter, published earlier this year.
03 Weather Girl by Rachel Lynn Solomon
Ari Abrams has always been fascinated by the weather, and now she's got her dream job: she's a junior meteorologist on TV.
But her two bosses, Torrence and Seth, who are exes, seem more concerned with their long-term petty arguments and with airing personal grievances than with running the station, mentoring younger staff members, or creating professional opportunities.
When Ari and kind, quiet sportscaster Russell close down the company's holiday party, they joke about Parent Trapping Seth and Torrence in order to create harmony in the TV station and allow them to better do their jobs.
As they mastermind a plan to bring the exes together in Rachel Lynn Solomon’s light fiction story, Russell and Ari realize they have more in common than they thought.