At the end of the second century, the lands of ancient China are thrown into turmoil when the Han Dynasty collapses, and when a tyrant overthrows the weak emperor, a group of regional lords forms an army to restore the nation. But bravery and valor are soon stifled by ambition and cunning, and the coalition dissolves before the battle is even won. Now, a new group of heroes must emerge if China is to survive.
My Review: Rated 3 out 5 stars
This comic was good. It was a book about chaos, war, and power for land. It was great to know more about China and its history. It is a great book for young children. It has great illustrations. The names and characters were not easy for me to keep up with.
Do you love action-packed adventure? Are you ready for the thrill? You’re invited to a riveting conversation with New York Times bestselling author Gregg Hurwitz as he chats with us about his Orphan X series and his life as a writer of suspenseful storytelling.
Orphan X, the series opener, introduces the world to the Nowhere Man. He is a legendary figure spoken about only in whispers. It’s said that when he’s reached by the truly desperate and deserving, the Nowhere Man can and will do anything to protect and save them.
But he’s not merely a legend.
Evan Smoak is a man with skills, resources, and a personal mission to help those with nowhere else to turn. He’s also a man with a dangerous past. Taken from a group home at twelve, Evan was raised and trained as part of the Orphan Program, an off-the-books operation designed to create deniable intelligence assets—i.e. assassins. Evan was Orphan X. He broke with the Program, using everything he learned to disappear and reinvent himself as the Nowhere Man.
Now ten books in, fans cannot get enough of the Orphan X world and Hurwitz can’t wait to tell us all about it. Register now for a conversation you just cannot miss!
About the Author: GREGG HURWITZ is the New York Times #1 internationally bestselling author of 24 thrillers including the Orphan X series. His novels have won numerous literary awards and have been published in 33 languages. Gregg currently serves as the Co-President of International Thriller Writers (ITW). Additionally, he’s written screenplays and television scripts for many of the major studios and networks, comics for AWA (including the critically acclaimed anthology NewThink), DC, and Marvel, and poetry. Currently, Gregg is actively working against polarization in politics and culture. To that end, he’s penned op-eds for The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The Bulwark, Salon, and others, and has produced several hundred commercials and creative content which have gotten several hundred million views on digital TV platforms. He also helped write the opening ceremony of the 2022 World Cup.
Dreams We Chase: An Author Talk with Novelist Jennifer Weiner Wednesday, March 26th at 7:00 PM EDT
Information was taken from the Mahwah Library.
You’re invited to a glimmering conversation with New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Weiner as we chat about the signature emotional depth of her books that have been inspiring readers toward self-discovery for decades. Hearing from the queen of fun herself, we’ll chat with the author about her New York Times bestselling novels, Good In Bed, In Her Shoes, Big Summer, The Breakaway and many more.
Additionally, in a special preview, Weiner will briefly discuss her forthcoming novel (due out on April 8, 2025) The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits. Set in the world of pop music, The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits is about sisters, motherhood, young love, and the dreams we chase.
Sisters Cassie and Zoe Grossberg were born just a year apart but could not have been more different. Zoe, blessed with charm and beauty, yearned for fame from the moment she could sing into a hairbrush. Cassie was a musical prodigy who never felt at home in her own skin and preferred the safety of the shadows.
On the brink of adulthood in the early 2000s, destiny intervened, catapulting the sisters into the spotlight as the pop sensation the Griffin Sisters, hitting all the touchstones of early aughts fame—SNL, MTV, Rolling Stone magazine—along the way.
But after a whirlwind year in the public eye, the band abruptly broke up.
Two decades later, Zoe’s a housewife; Cassie’s off the grid. The sisters aren’t speaking, and the real reason for the Griffin Sisters’ breakup is still a mystery. Zoe’s teenage daughter, Cherry, who’s determined to be a star in spite of Zoe’s warnings, is on a quest to learn the truth about what happened to the band all those years ago.
As secrets emerge, all three women must face the consequences of their choices: the ones they made and the ones the music industry made for them. Can they forgive each other—and themselves? And will the Griffin Sisters ever make music again? Register now for what will most certainly be a dazzling conversation!
About the Author: Jennifer Weiner is a #1 New York Times bestselling author whose books have spent over five years on the New York Times bestseller list, with more than 11 million copies in print in 36 countries. She is the author of the novels Good in Bed (2001) and In Her Shoes (2002), which was turned into a major motion picture starring Cameron Diaz, Toni Collette and Shirley MacLaine. And the author of That Summer (2021); The Breakaway (2024); and The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits (forthcoming 2025) . She is also the author of The Littlest Bigfoot middle-grade trilogy, Her nonfiction collection Hungry Heart: Adventures in Life, Love, and Writing (2016), was a finalist for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay.
Step into Spring with us as we chat with the highly acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult about her newest novel, By Any Other Name.
In 1581, Emilia Bassano—like most young women of her day—is allowed no voice of her own. But as the Lord Chamberlain’s mistress, she has access to all theaters in England and finds a way to secretly bring her work to the stage. And yet, creating some of the world’s greatest dramatic masterpieces comes at great cost: by paying a man for the use of his name, she will write her own out of history.
In the present, playwright Melina Green has just written a new work inspired by the life of her Elizabethan ancestor Emilia Bassano. Although the challenges are different four hundred years later, the playing field is still not level for women in theater. Would Melina—like Emilia—be willing to forfeit her credit as author, just for a chance to see her work performed?
Told in intertwining narratives, By Any Other Name is a sweeping tale of ambition, courage, and desire that asks what price each woman is willing to pay to see their work live on—even if it means they will be forgotten. Register now to join the wondrous conversation!
About the Author: Jodi Picoult is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of twenty-nine novels, including By Any Other Name, Mad Honey (co-authored with Jennifer Finney Boylan), Wish You Were Here, The Book of Two Ways, A Spark of Light, Small Great Things, Leaving Time, and My Sister’s Keeper, and, with daughter Samantha van Leer, two young adult novels, Between the Lines and Off the Page. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband
A Parisian department store, a mysterious necklace and a woman’s quest to unlock a decade-old mystery are at the center of this riveting novel of love and survival, from New York Times bestselling author Pam Jenoff
London, 1953. Louise is still adjusting to her postwar role as a housewife when she discovers a necklace in a box at a secondhand shop. The box is marked with the name of a department store in Paris, and she is certain she has seen the necklace before when she worked with the Red Cross in Nazi-occupied Europe —and that it holds the key to the mysterious death of her friend Franny during the war.
Following the trail of clues to Paris, Louise seeks help from her former boss Ian, with whom she shares a romantic history. The necklace leads them to discover the dark history of Lévitan—a once-glamorous department store that served as a Nazi prison, and Helaine, a woman who was imprisoned there, torn apart from her husband when the Germans invaded France.
Louise races to find the connection between the necklace, the department store and Franny’s death. But nothing is as it seems, and there are forces determined to keep the truth buried forever. Inspired by the true story of Lévitan, Last Twilight in Paris is both a gripping mystery and an unforgettable story about sacrifice, resistance and the power of love to transcend in even the darkest hours.
My Review: Rated 5 out of 5 stars
It’s a captivating historical fiction that transports readers to WWII, a time filled with uncertainty. It’s a story of love amidst war, new friendships, survival of the fittest, adventure, forgiveness, courage, and mystery.
Pam Jenoff is a captivating storyteller who skillfully weaves two narratives into a remarkable and unforgettable tale. She takes readers on a journey between the past and the present, unraveling the mystery behind the death of a courageous woman.
Helaine’s story transports us back to Paris in 1943, where she is a fragile young woman confined to her home due to an illness she experienced as a child. As someone who loves the outdoors and despises being indoors, I truly empathized with her longing to escape and explore the world like everyone else.
Her life takes a dramatic turn when she meets Gabriel, a cellist. She leaves her secluded life for the freedom she finds with him, and they marry. However, when war breaks out, both of their lives are forever altered.
In the present day, we meet Louise in Henley-on-Thames, 1953. Her story unfolds in two timelines: the present and the past in London/France during 1944 when she volunteered for the Red Cross to help others during those terrifying times. The entire narrative centers around the mysterious death of her friend Franny and a necklace. Before Franny is found dead, a prisoner gives Franny the necklace with instructions to deliver it to his wife in Paris. This necklace resurfaces in present-day London, triggering memories of Franny and the circumstances surrounding the necklace. Louise decides to investigate who the original owner of the necklace is to uncover the mystery behind Franny’s death.
Louise’s commitment to uncovering the truth behind Franny’s unexpected death will ultimately lead her to shocking revelations about trust during wartime. Readers will be deeply engaged as the characters navigate terrifying moments while forming strong attachments to each of them and will feel the urgency to fight for their survival. In a world where freedoms and personal comforts are stripped away, love and friendship become essential as a source of strength. Ultimately, hope empowers them to persevere in their struggle for survival.
This historical fiction novel is a must-read. I’m glad I picked it up because it shed light on the story behind Levitan, a former furniture store located in a large mall-like space. The Germans used this space to store household items stolen from Jewish families they had captured. They targeted Jews who held prominent positions or came from influential families, forcing them to work and live in the mall, which functioned like a work camp. It is within this setting that Helaine is taken during her capture. Those who worked in these camps experienced some freedoms, such as the ability to have visitors and attend doctor appointments.
Author Biography
Pam is the author of several novels, including her most recent The Woman With The Blue Star, as well as The Lost Girls of Paris and The Orphan’s Tale, both instant New York Times bestsellers. Pam was born in Maryland and raised outside Philadelphia. She attended George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and Cambridge University in England. Upon receiving her master’s in history from Cambridge, she accepted an appointment as Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Army. The position provided a unique opportunity to witness and participate in operations at the most senior levels of government, including helping the families of the Pan Am Flight 103 victims secure their memorial at Arlington National Cemetery, observing recovery efforts at the site of the Oklahoma City bombing and attending ceremonies to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of World War II at sites such as Bastogne and Corregidor.
Following her work at the Pentagon, Jenoff moved to the State Department. In 1996 she was assigned to the U.S. Consulate in Krakow, Poland. It was during this period that Pam developed her expertise in Polish-Jewish relations and the Holocaust. Working on matters such as preservation of Auschwitz and the restitution of Jewish property in Poland, Jenoff developed close relations with the surviving Jewish community.
Having left the Foreign Service in 1998 to attend law school at the University of Pennsylvania, Jenoff practiced law at a large firm and in-house for several years. She now teaches law school at Rutgers.
📚 PREORDER ALERT! 📚 Grab your sleuthing notebook and some sweet tea because Cliffs, Clues, & Conspiracies is now available for PREORDER! 🎉
🏕️ Small-town secrets. 👒 Southern sass. 🔍 A murder at the Climb the Cliffs Festival. 🐾 And a whole lot of nosy neighbors.
Mae West just wanted a peaceful weekend at Happy Trails Campground, but when the festival’s star climber ends up deader than a fried pickle at the bottom of the Cascades, Mae’s plans take a sharp turn. Armed with her sleuthing notebook, the Laundry Club Ladies, and a trusty hound or two, Mae’s out to solve the case faster than you can say “bless your heart.”
But with cryptic coordinates, a suspicious handprint, and a killer who knows the trails better than a hiker in new boots, this mystery has more twists than a butter churn. Can Mae piece it all together before the killer strikes again?
✨ PREORDER NOW for a page-turning cozy mystery filled with: 🍑 Sassy southern humor 🏞️ Breathtaking trails and small-town charm 📚 Clues, secrets, and plenty of suspects 💖 And a little romance to make things extra sweet!
📌 Tap that preorder button faster than Dottie can bedazzle a cigarette case!
Seamus Heaney’s tenth collection – and his first of the new century – struck out for new imaginative territory, in poems that travel widely in time and space, visiting the sites of the classical world and revisiting the poet’s childhood. In its pages, the poet contemplates origins – not least the origins of words – and oracles: the places where things start from, whether in Arcadia or Anahorish, Epidaurus or the Bann Valley. Also included are elegies for friends – ‘On His Work in the English Tongue’ and ‘Audenesque’, in memory of Ted Hughes and Joseph Brodsky respectively – and later love poems such as ‘The Clothes Shrine’ and ‘Red, White and Blue’.
‘The late work of a master poet’ New York Times
My Review: Rated 3 out of 5 stars
It’s not a book for me at all. I was lost in each verse. Nothing made sense to me. Some words were in another language with words that didn’t give me a picture of what the author was getting at. I know it is very difficult to write in this form, so I thank him for writing these poems. I just wish I was able to figure them out.
Author Biography
Works of Irish poet Seamus Justin Heaney reflect landscape, culture, and political crises of his homeland and include the collections Wintering Out (1972) and Field Work (1979) as well as a translation of Beowulf (1999). He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1995.
This writer and lecturer won this prize “for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past.”
In the days of the Song Dynasty, government corruption is rampant, and the enemies of a ruthless schemer named Qui Gao are driven out of power and into the untamed countryside of China. There they encounter 108 mischievous spirits who have taken root in the form of bandits and thieves who are about to make life very difficult for Qiu Gao.
My Review: Rated 4 out of 5 stars
Great adaptation of Chinese literature. I enjoy the story, which is the first time I have read about it, and the illustrations worked perfectly with the story. It is a great story for all to enjoy.
I had a great time meeting up with a book lover friend, Justin. I also had a great time hearing more about Laurie’s books and how some of the book ideas came to fruition. I am looking forward to starting this fun book series. The event to place at the Clifton, NJ Barnes & Noble.
FabulousReader4Ever 