Tag: #bookevent

Book Event With Liv Constantine at B&N in Milford CT

It was wonderful that I got to meet the two sisters, Liv Constantine, while they are touring for their newly released book, The Next Mrs. Parrish. I’m currently reading The Last Mrs. Parrish, my review will be coming soon.

Goodreads Blurb

Amber Patterson is fed up. She’s tired of being a nobody: a plain, invisible woman who blends into the background. She deserves more—a life of money and power like the one blond-haired, blue-eyed goddess Daphne Parrish takes for granted.

To everyone in the exclusive town of Bishops Harbor, Connecticut, Daphne—a socialite and philanthropist—and her real-estate mogul husband, Jackson, are a couple straight out of a fairy tale.

Amber’s envy could eat her alive . . . if she didn’t have a plan. Amber uses Daphne’s compassion and caring to insinuate herself into the family’s life—the first step in a meticulous scheme to undermine her. Before long, Amber is Daphne’s closest confidante, traveling to Europe with the Parrishes and their lovely young daughters, and growing closer to Jackson. But a skeleton from her past may undermine everything that Amber has worked towards, and if it is discovered, her well-laid plan may fall to pieces.

With shocking turns and dark secrets that will keep you guessing until the very end, The Last Mrs. Parrish is a fresh, juicy, and utterly addictive thriller from a diabolically imaginative talent.

Goodreads Blurb

Amber Patterson Parrish has come a long way from being an invisible wallflower. Her hard work and immaculate planning have paid off now that she’s a prominent socialite, but that doesn’t mean there haven’t been bumps along the way. Less than a year since her husband Jackson’s tax-evasion scandal, Amber is still at the top of the Bishops Harbor community pecking order, free to do as she wishes while Jackson sits in prison. But that freedom is quickly coming to an end. With Jackson getting released from prison, Amber’s time—and money—is vanishing.

Meanwhile, Daphne Parrish left Bishops Harbor after her divorce from Jackson Parrish, swearing she would never go back. But when one of her daughters runs away from home, desperate to see her father, Daphne agrees to return for the summer to allow him supervised visits. Once out of prison, Jackson swears he’s a changed man, but Daphne knows all too well that he can’t be trusted.

When a ghost from Amber’s past emerges looking for revenge, the three of them find unlikely allies in one another, but who is playing who? When all is said and done, they’ll have to fight tooth and nail for everything they have left in this zero-sum game.

With shocking turns and entertaining characters, The Next Mrs. Parrish will make you rethink everything you thought you knew about duplicity and betrayal.

Author Biography

Liv Constantine is the pen name of sisters Lynne Constantine and Valerie Constantine. Lynne and Valerie are national and international bestselling authors with over one and a half million copies sold worldwide. Their books have been translated into 29 languages, are available in 34 countries, and are in development for both television and film. Their books have been praised by The Washington Post, USA Today, The Sunday Times, People Magazine, and Good Morning America, among many others. Their debut novel, THE LAST MRS. PARRISH, is a Reese Witherspoon Book Club selection. Visit Liv at http://www.livconstantine.com

Author Mary Beth Keane at Suffern Library

Mary Beth is a local author. The event took place at the Suffern Free Library, which is absolutely beautiful. It was great learning more about her career and how she came up with the different book ideas.

Goodreads Blurb

Francis Gleeson and Brian Stanhope, two rookie cops in the NYPD, live next door to each other outside the city. What happens behind closed doors in both houses—the loneliness of Francis’s wife, Lena, and the instability of Brian’s wife, Anne—sets the stage for explosive events to come.

Ask Again, Yes is a moving novel about two families, the bond between their children, a tragedy that reverberates over four decades, the daily intimacies of marriage, and the power of forgiveness.

Author Biography

Mary Beth Keane attended Barnard College and the University of Virginia, where she received an MFA. She was awarded a John S. Guggenheim fellowship for fiction writing, and has received citations from the National Book Foundation, PEN America, and the Hemingway Society. She is the author of The Walking People, Fever, and Ask Again, Yes, which was a New York Times Best Seller and was translated into twenty-two languages.

Upcoming Book Event With Author Riley Sager

On June 27th at 7 pm, Riley Sager will be talking about his upcoming book Middle of the Night at the Barnes and Noble in Princeton, NJ.

Goodreads Blurb

The worst thing to ever happen on Hemlock Circle occurred in Ethan Marsh’s backyard. One July night, ten-year-old Ethan and his best friend and neighbor, Billy, fell asleep in a tent set up on a manicured lawn in a quiet, quaint New Jersey cul de sac. In the morning, Ethan woke up alone. During the night, someone had sliced the tent open with a knife and taken Billy. He was never seen again.

Thirty years later, Ethan has reluctantly returned to his childhood home. Plagued by bad dreams and insomnia, he begins to notice strange things happening in the middle of the night. Someone seems to be roaming the cul de sac at odd hours, and signs of Billy’s presence keep appearing in Ethan’s backyard. Is someone playing a cruel prank? Or has Billy, long thought to be dead, somehow returned to Hemlock Circle?

The mysterious occurrences prompt Ethan to investigate what really happened that night, a quest that reunites him with former friends and neighbors and leads him into the woods that surround Hemlock Circle. Woods where Billy claimed monsters roamed and where a mysterious institute does clandestine research on a crumbling estate.

The closer Ethan gets to the truth, the more he realizes that no place—be it quiet forest or suburban street—is completely safe. And that the past has a way of haunting the present.

Book Event with Author Alex Hortis

Upcoming event hosted by @newburghhistoricalsociety. Author @alexhortis5 will be discussing his new book, The Witch of New York. Below, you will find more information on this upcoming Sundays event. I will also share a post on my blog. You can find the link in my bio. #bookevent #booksigning #thewitchofnewyork #alexhortis #booklover
#booknerd #nybookevents

Come to this FREE presentation on the 1846 Newburgh trial of Polly Bodine–the “Witch of New York”–for the murders of her sister-in-law and niece.  America’s attention was focused on Newburgh for this sensational trial, including Edgar Allan Poe and Walt Whitman.  This event is being held inside the historic old courthouse where the original trial took place in April 1846.  See you there at 3:00 pm, Sunday, April 21, 2024!

Goodreads Blurb

Before the sensational cases of Amanda Knox and Casey Anthony—before even Lizzie Borden—there was Polly Bodine, the first American woman put on trial for capital murder in our nation’s debut media circus.

On Christmas night, December 25, 1843, in a serene village on Staten Island, shocked neighbors discovered the burnt remains of twenty-four-year-old mother Emeline Houseman and her infant daughter, Ann Eliza. In a perverse nativity, someone bludgeoned to death a mother and child in their home—and then covered up the crime with hellfire.

When an ambitious district attorney charges Polly Bodine (Emelin’s sister-in-law) with a double homicide, the new “penny press” explodes. Polly is a perfect media villain: she’s a separated wife who drinks gin, commits adultery, and has had multiple abortions. Between June 1844 and April 1846, the nation was enthralled by her three trials—in Staten Island, Manhattan, and Newburgh—for the “Christmas murders.”

After Polly’s legal dream team entered the fray, the press and the public debated not only her guilt, but her character and fate as a fallen woman in society. Public opinion split into different camps over her case. Edgar Allen Poe and Walt Whitman covered her case as young newsmen. P. T. Barnum made a circus out of it. James Fenimore Cooper’s last novel was inspired by her trials.

The Witch of New York is the first narrative history about the dueling trial lawyers, ruthless newsmen, and shameless hucksters who turned the Polly Bodine case into America’s formative tabloid trial. An origin story of how America became addicted to sensationalized reporting of criminal trials, The Witch of New York vividly reconstructs an epic mystery from Old New York—and uses the Bodine case to challenge our system of tabloid justice of today.

Author Biography from his website

Alex Hortis is a constitutional lawyer and historian of crime. He has appeared on

national television as an on-screen personality for AMC’s The Making of the Mob

(2015), Hortis has been interviewed on NPR stations across the country and for true

crime podcasts. He has also been a featured speaker at the New York Public Library, the

Enoch Pratt Free Library, and the Mob Museum in Las Vegas.

Hortis’s first book, The Mob and the City: The Hidden History of How the

Mafia Captured New York (Prometheus, 2014), was praised by Jerry Capeci, the dean

of mob reporters, who wrote: “If there’s a better book on the early history of

Cosa Nostra in America, I haven’t seen it.”

Malcolm Gladwell quoted Hortis’s book in “The Crooked Ladder:

The criminal’s guide to upward mobility” New Yorker, Aug. 3, 2014. The New York

Post also featured Hortis’s groundbreaking work on the Mafia’s control of gay bars, in

“How NYC’s gay bars thrived because of the mob,” New York Post, May 3, 2014.

Hortis is a former federal law clerk for the United States Court of Appeals for the

Eighth Circuit. He is a graduate of New York University School of Law, where he was a

member of the Law Review. His writings have appeared in New York University Law

Review, New York Law School Review, and in book anthologies on crime.

Alex lives with his family in Maryland.

Review: The Reservoir by David Duchovny

Goodreads Blurb

THE RESERVOIR follows an unexceptional man in an exceptional time. We see our present-day pandemic world and New York City through the eyes of a former Wall Street veteran, Ridley, as he looks back upon his life in his enforced quarantine solitude, wondering what it all means and who he really is.
Sitting and brooding night after night, gazing out his huge picture window high above the Central Park Reservoir, Ridley spots a flashing light in an apartment across the park as if a lonely quarantined person is signaling him in Morse code. His determination to find out who this mystery woman is leads him on an epic quest that will ultimately tempt him with either delusional madness or the fulfillment of his own mythic fate.
Is he a dying man going mad or an everyman metamorphosing into a hero? Or both? We accompany Ridley as he leaves the safety of his apartment window to save the Fifth Avenue femme fatale and descends into a dangerous, increasingly surreal world of global conspiracies, madness, and sickness of this viral time. As Ridley’s actions grow more and more uncharacteristic, he realizes the key to all the mysteries of now, and even all of history, seem to lie deep beneath the freezing waters of the reservoir.
The Reservoir is a twisted rom-com for our distanced time, when the merest touch could kill and conspiracy theories propagate like viruses—a contemporary union of Death in Venice, Rear Window , and The Plague .

My Review: Rated 3 out of 5 stars

COVID-19 caused fear and dread to everyone all over the world. This story hits close to home with Ridley, who lives alone in his home in NYC while the pandemic has caused everyone to stay locked away. This story is about a man who sees lights flicker from an apartment building a few blocks away. He starts obsessing about what this Morse code means and who the person trying to reach him is. He starts leaving his house at night with no face masks, trying to find this woman he believes is trying to get his attention. You start living this obsession with Ridley and do not know if this is real or a dream-like state. David’s storytelling drags you into what Ridley was feeling and going through and makes you believe it’s happening for real, only to find out he was infected and trying to fight for his life. I could feel the fear and dread Ridley experienced in the last moments on this earth.

There was a short story at the end of the book called The Scare Owl, which was another interesting story. It was a story about nature, finding acceptance, revenge, raising an animal not from the same bird breed, and trying to bring peace to someone who views them as enemies. It was a sad story at the end, but I feel that the owl thought he did the right thing and went head-on into the danger that awaited.

Author Biography

Born and raised in New York City David Duchovny earned an A.B. in English literature from Princeton University, and an ABD in English literature from Yale University. He was on the road to earning his Ph.D. when his interest in playwriting led him to acting. Subsequently, he emerged to become one of the most highly acclaimed actors in Hollywood.

Globally known for his roles in the Fox Television’s monster hit The X-Files and Showtime’s Californication, David has made his way into our pop culture lexicon. David Duchovny remains the only actor to have won a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Television series in both the Comedy and Drama categories.

David Duchovny has published four novels, Holy Cow: A Modern-Day Dairy Tale (2015), a New York Times Bestseller; Bucky F*cking Dent (2016); Miss Subways (2018) and Truly Like Lightning (2021).

Additionally, David Duchovny has completed two studio albums, Hell or Highwater (2015) and Every Third Thought (2018), and his third album is slated for release in summer 2021.

Book Signing Event

This past December, Bookends in Ridgewood, NJ, invited David to sign books for everyone. It was wonderful finally getting to meet the X-Files actor.

Come Meet Alex Michaelides at Books and Greetings

My review of The Fury

Another mind-boggling psychological thriller written by Alex Michaelides. His storytelling features a Greek tragedy, obsessive love story, a twisted storyline, and revenge that will leave you wanting to figure out who killed Lana Farrar. Who is Elliot Chase really? The actors surely were each playing their own act. The narrator slowly gives you a glimpse of the story being told, but which story is the real truth? Well, you will need to read it to find out. This will be an epic thriller for 2024.

My review of The Silent Patient

The thriller of a century with a frightening twist. I am as silent as Alicia. I can not fathom the words to speak after running to save Alicia and keeping my sanity. Alex truly created a master piece that will drag you through each corner with intense detail but with hidden tips. It will leave you thinking who the killer is, what the truth is, and why keep silent. At the end, you will be stunned from your silence and be awaken to the terror of the truth. Don’t walk to the bookstore but rather run to get this mind-blowing story. Will you be silent in the end?

My Review of The Maidens

The people you love and you feel safe with can sometimes be the ones that will tear your heart apart. Mariana, with her many losses, will not see what is coming right at her. Mariana receives a call from her niece Zoe because one of her friends was found dead. Mariana decides to investigate the murder and un-masquerade professor Edward Fosca, who Mariana believes is the murderer. Prof. Fosca is fascinated with Greek tragedy. The maidens who are a group of elite privileged girls are the ones that are being murdered and who also have a very close relationship with Prof. Fosca.

As you read the story, you will think that the murders can either be caused by a Greek goddess, just like Mariana believed is how her husband was killed. You start wondering if it’s Prof. Fosca or Mariana’s newfound friend, Fred. Alex will keep your mind spinning, trying to make it so obvious that it must be Prof. Fosca, but what lurks in the dark will you leave you stunned. You will find out that Mariana herself was living a Greek tragedy, one that she didn’t even suspect. Sometimes, you just don’t know even those closest to you.

I loved the story, but it definitely wasn’t as good as The Silent Patient. The story keeps you guessing until the very end. Your heart will shatter for Mariana when the sinister secrets unravel. I loved that Alex included Theo Faber the criminal psychotherapist in his first book The Silent Patient in this book. To have both stories run at the same time is brilliant. Mariana told Theo about the available position at the Grove. If you are looking to read a good murder mystery filled with Greek tragedy at Cambridge University, then look no further.

If you are a fan of the book The Silent Patient, you have to come meet Alex Michaelides in person. He will be at Books and Greetings in Northvale, NJ, on January 15 at 6 pm. He will be signing his latest book, The Fury, which was fantastic, and he will also be signing his previous books.

Here is the link to purchase a ticket for the event https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-silent-patient-author-alex-michaelides-jan-15th-6pm-tickets-735589767797

Review/Book Event: Tom Felton Beyond The Wand

I had the pleasure of meeting Tom Felton at Paramus Barnes & Noble. He was down-to-earth and charismatic.

Goodreads Blurb

From Borrower to wizard, Tom Felton’s adolescence was anything but ordinary. His early rise to fame saw him catapulted into the limelight aged just twelve when he landed the iconic role of Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter films.

Speaking with candour and his own trademark humour, Tom shares his experience of growing up on screen and as part of the wizarding world for the very first time. He tells all about his big break, what filming was really like and the lasting friendships he made during ten years as part of the franchise, as well as the highs and lows of fame and the reality of navigating adult life after filming finished.

Prepare to meet a real-life wizard.

My Review: Rated 5 out of 5 Stars

I enjoyed reading this book and also had a chance to meet Tom at B&N for his book tour. I loved how funny, charismatic, playful, fun, and truthful he was in this book. He wasn’t shy about sharing his happy moments and those times he was in his lowest moment. It was great hearing about the fun times he had filming Harry Potter and his other movies. He loves acting, but he wasn’t dead set on fighting to get a part. He is free-spirited and was happy with any gig he could get. Acting for Tom is something he enjoys doing but has never been crazy about being famous for it. He learned a lot from the actors he spent his childhood recording films. This story also delves into mental illness, alcohol, and drug abuse. In Tom’s worst moments, when he fell down the rabbit hole, he fought to overcome this terrible situation. The readers will feel his pain, confusion, and fight to save his career and life. This book will appeal to readers because of the fun chapter titles and how Tom’s childhood and career shaped him as a person.

Author Biography

om Felton is an English actor, best known for playing Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter films. He has also appeared in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Belle, The Flash, A United Kingdom, The Forgotten Battle and 2.22 A Ghost Story in London’s West End. He lives in London with his dog Willow.

His memoir, “Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard” is to be released in Autumn 2022.

Downton Abbey Fans: Hugh Bonneville is Coming to Montclair, NJ

If you are a Downton Abbey fan like I am, then you don’t want to miss this fantastic opportunity to meet Hugh while he speaks about his new book which he is also signing.

Here is all the information from Succeed2gether’s.

Join us for a night of entertainment with one of today’s best-loved British actors, Hugh Bonneville, whose credits include Downton Abbey, Notting Hill, and Paddington. 

Hugh will be live and in person talking about his memoir Playing Under the Piano: From Downton to Darkest Peru with CBS News senior national correspondent Jim Axelrod. 

Tuesday, November 15, 2022

7 p.m. In Person!

Tickets cost $35 and include a copy of the book Playing Under the Piano (value $29). Books will be signed at the event.

Here is the link to purchase your ticket https://www.flipcause.com/secure/cause_pdetails/MTYwODQx

Lisa Jewell Book Signing

Harlan Coben in conversation with Lisa Jewell

In August, Barnes and Noble in Paramus, NJ, hosted a book event featuring Harlan Coben in conversation with Lisa Jewell. My last in-person book event at B&N was with Lisa during her book release of The Family Upstairs. The book was part of the B&N Book Club. After so many events were canceled due to COVID, it is great to see a good turnout this year. It is recommended that you read The Family Upstairs before continuing with The Family Remains. Lisa is one of my favorite psychological thriller authors that write captivating stories with real-life issues that readers can relate to.

Goodreads Blurb

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jewell comes an
intricate and affecting novel about twisted marriages, fractured families, and
deadly obsessions in this standalone sequel to The Family Upstairs.

Early one morning on the shore of the Thames, DCI Samuel Owusu is called to
the scene of a gruesome discovery. When Owusu sends the evidence for
examination, he learns the bones are connected to a cold case that left three
people dead on the kitchen floor in a Chelsea mansion thirty years ago.

Rachel Rimmer has also received a shock—news that her husband, Michael, has
been found dead in the cellar of his house in France. All signs point to an
intruder, and the French police need her to come urgently to answer questions
about Michael and his past that she very much doesn’t want to answer.

After fleeing London thirty years ago in the wake of a horrific tragedy,
Lucy Lamb is finally coming home. While she settles in with her children and is
just about to purchase their first-ever house, her brother takes off to find
the boy from their shared past whose memory haunts their present.

As they all race to discover answers to these convoluted mysteries, they
will come to find that they’re connected in ways they could have never
imagined.

In this masterful standalone sequel to her haunting New York Times bestseller, The
Family Upstairs, Lisa Jewell proves she is writing at the height of her
powers with another jaw-dropping, intricate, and affecting novel about the
lengths we will go to protect the ones we love and uncover the truth.

Author Biography

Her first novel, Ralph’s Party, was the best-selling debut novel of 1999.
Since then she has written another twenty novels, most recently a number of
dark psychological thrillers, including The Girls, Then She Was Gone, The
Family Upstairs, and The Night She Disappeared.

Lisa is a New York Times and Sunday Times number one bestselling author who
has been published worldwide in over twenty-five languages. She lives in north
London with her husband, two teenage daughters, and the best dog in the world.