What readers think of The Personal Librarian, plus links to write your own review.

There are two kinds of readers: Those who finish every book they start—no matter what. After all, you never know what wonderful surprise awaits if you don't slog your way through it. And then there are those who say life is too short for a boring book. I am, for better or worse, in the first group. In the case of this book, I finished it so you don't have to start it!

This book about Belle da Costa Greene (aka Belle Marion Greener) is a hybrid between historical fiction and biography; it fails because it is neither.

It is billed as a novel, but there is no plot. Events trudge along but there is no dramatic story arc that we all expect in a novel, even historical fiction. If it were a straight-up biography, it would not be so insipid, trying to be something it is not. But it's a novel with imagined conversations and feelings that just come off as banal and even trite. The result? It's a boring 350-page book. The suspense, the drama, the magic that keep readers turning pages just isn't there. It's flat. And what is there is a glorified (made-up) soap opera. Yawn.

Written by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray, this is the true story of Belle da Costa Greene, who served in the early 1900s as the personal librarian for J.P. Morgan at his Pierpont Morgan Library in New York City. It was Greene, working in a man's world, who was responsible for filling this library with priceless books—from rare illuminated medieval manuscripts to the Le Morte Darthur printed by Caxton in 1485, as well as original scores by Beethoven, Mozart, and Chopin and prints and drawings by Leonardo da Vinci and other Renaissance artists.

But Greene harbored a big (big!) secret: She was Black and passed as White. As a Black woman, she would never have been hired for this position. She, her mother, three sisters, and one brother moved from Washington, D.C. to New York City where her mother, Genevieve Ida Fleet Greener, decided the best way for them to live was to deny who they were and pass as white. They changed their last name to Greene. Her father, Richard Theodore Greener, the first Black student and graduate of Harvard who was light enough to pass as well, was so angry with this decision that he left the family. To account for her slightly darker skin, Belle changed her middle name to da Costa and created a fake story about a Portuguese grandmother. And it worked. After years in the job, Belle was declared the most successful career woman in the world.

All this is true. Benedict and Murray conducted extensive research to write this novel, but since Greene was never "outed" in her life, never married, although she did have lovers, and devoted her existence to work, there isn't a flashy or remarkable storyline with which to work. It wasn't until 1999—nearly 50 years after Greene died—that a biographer revealed her true identity.

I am being generous with three stars, which I am only giving because of the prodigious and impressive amount of research that went into the book. Unfortunately, this hybrid of historical fiction and biography just doesn't succeed. Skip it.

I'm sorry to be a spoilsport, but The Personal Librarian didn't live up to its hype. While it probably was well-researched, I just couldn't seem to care about the main character - she was way too self-centered.

I really wanted to like this book, because it combines favorite topics: history, libraries, New York. But it tries too hard to cram in facts, with a writing style that swings from simplistic to overwrought. Overall, a disappointment, but it did inspire me to learn more about Belle da Costa Greene.

I'm very glad I read The Personal Librarian. My knowledge of J. P. Morgan was very limited & sketchy. My knowledge of Belle da Costa Greene (Belle Marion Greener) was nonexistent. Enhancing my knowledge of these two people in addition to gaining a better understanding of a fascinating era are enough reasons to have enjoyed this book.
I know this book is fiction but I didn't realize it is based on facts with well documented circumstances & people. I found it somewhat unbelievable and the characters never came alive to me. I believe a historical prologue would have been helpful. After reading the epilogue & historical notes I did gain more appreciation and I understand why the two authors collaborated.
Although the writing fell short for me there was value in discovering Belle & her story.
I would recommend this book to friends & it would be an interesting book club recommendation.

The Personal Librarian is a very good account of the life of Bella da Costa Greene, the librarian at the John Pierpont Morgan library in NYC. She had a background of art history, but no formal education in this field. She was innately talented in recognizing and purchasing the art, manuscripts etc that so interested Mr. Morgan. The book is rich with factual information about this singular person in history. She want on to direct the library when it was converted to a public institution now known as the Morgan Library and Museum in 1924. The overwhelming secret of Belle's life what that she was a colored woman passing as white. Her entire career rested on this fact being hidden. Her racial identity was not uncovered until 1999, when a JP Morgan biographer found her birth certificate which recorded her father as Richard Theodore Greener, the first black man to graduate from Harvard, and a prominent scholar.

The problem I had with this book was the divergent writing styles within it. Perhaps this was because it is written by two authors, though I have no way of knowing how they divided their participation. The parts of the book dealing with Bella's life verged on the melodrama at times, describing her long affair with Bernard Berenson and a couple of liaisons during her life. It was almost unseemly to me to relegate her personal life to this level, though, of course, she was a human being.

The parts of the book which dealt with her struggle with her race and the political scene during that time like suffragism is written in a lecturing, dry style. According to all accounts, Ms. da Costa Greene seldom mentioned race, and in her attempts to stay "under the radar", probably stayed away from any controversial social issues of the day. I recognize this part of the book as an attempt to make it relevant to its time in history, but I felt it it detracted from Belle's story, which needed no help to make her interesting and fascinating.

This book for me was just OK. I didn't feel a connection with the characters and for me, that is very important. Because of this, I gave the book three stars. The plot wasn't bad, I just couldn't connect with the protagonist.

I confess to being a librarian so I would have liked more details about her work, especially the organization and description of the cataloged works. She is a fascinating subject but I thought the book a little superficial because of the emphasis on how she looked and who she knew. She has a fascinating story to tell, but I am not sure this is it. Almost a 4 star but not quite.

In a rather heavy-handed tone, this historical fiction lays out many serious big themes in the first two chapters, frequently in authors' message dialogue: racial prejudices and misogyny; people of colored ancestry passing as whites and the attendant stress and fear of exposure that choice generates in daily life; walking away from who one is, betraying oneself; hidden identities; the value of family, but also the burden of family; the value of the printed word and the near holiness of rare books; and fine arts appreciation. (I found it ironic that the black Fleet family is much more cultured than its white neighbors.) Add to that weighty list the debilitating laws of segregation, the deceptive rules of society, nontraditional lifestyles and how distressful emotions must be buried. It's a lot to cover, particularly since the story is based on true events and historical characters.

I did not find a way into Belle's emotional life to adequately engage my even caring about her much. I found the irascible J.P.Morgan more accessible in multiple scenes, but Belle remained elusive and cold. That the story is embedded in a world of high society and art adds interest, culture and beauty to the novel's atmosphere. It's an extremely fascinating tale; I just wished Belle could come more alive to me. But perhaps that is at the very heart of her dilemma: always a careful actor on stage and never simply a woman.