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Yesterday was a mess, so have a Reading Thursday instead. I haven't gotten much reading done lately with work and real life and a fic series consuming my life (I've written 6,000 words in three days for this AU, whoops), but here you go!

Recently Finished

I've read three books this month. The first was Invisible: The Forgotten Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down America's Most Powerful Mobster by Stephen L. Carter. It was a very interesting read about a fascinating family, though sometimes I wished it didn't focus quite so much on the family and went into more detail about the woman, Eunice Hunton Carter, herself.

Then, while sitting around for jury summons, I read The Pinks: The First Women Detectives, Operatives, and Spies With the Pinkerton National Detective Agency by Chris Enss and Any Old Diamonds by K.J. Charles. The first book wasn't particularly well-written, but it was definitely interesting! I loved learning about Kate Warne, the first female Pinkerton agent, and some of her major cases, especially the one where she helps solve a murder by sprinkling blood around a house and going "Ghost? What ghost?" as her fellow male agent dressed up as the ghost of the murdered man and kept walking around the murder suspect until the killer confessed. Crime-solving in the 1860s was a wild time! Also I hadn't realized that there were black and biracial Pinkerton agents during the Civil War spying on the Confederacy.

Any Old Diamonds was a great read! Sometimes K.J. Charles' id and mine don't match (though I still generally enjoy the book), but the relationship in this one worked for me a lot! I loved the secondary cast as well, including a few familiar faces from her earlier series, which I hadn't realized would happen and were a lovely surprise.

Currently Reading

I'm between books at the moment, though with 20 books checked out of the library and a three-day weekend coming up next week, that should change.

What's Next

Probably whatever's due back at the library, so probably either Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou or Iris Chang's The Chinese in America: a Narrative History. I also really want to read Radiant Days, Haunted Nights: Great Tales from the Treasury of Yiddish Folk Literature by Joachim Neugroschel soon.