Photo credit Mindy Schwartz Sorasky
Wednesday, April 17, at 6pm, a reading and book signing with Pam Jenoff, author of THE LOST GIRLS OF PARIS.
1946, Manhattan…
After taking the world by storm with her compelling and absorbing USA Today and New York Times bestseller, THE ORPHAN’S TALE, Pam Jenoff, returns with a story of bravery, intrigue, and sisterhood in the Second World War. THE LOST GIRLS OF PARIS investigates the forgotten history of a female spy ring whose agents changed the course of the war before disappearing, and the widowed American woman determined to uncover their fates.
Widowed during the war, Grace Healy is slowly rebuilding her life in 1946 Manhattan. One morning while passing through Grand Central Terminal on her way to work, she finds an abandoned suitcase tucked beneath a bench. Unable to resist her curiosity, Grace opens the suitcase, where she discovers a dozen photographs–each of a different woman. In a moment of impulse, Grace takes the photographs and quickly leaves the station.
Grace soon learns that the suitcase belonged to a woman named Eleanor Trigg, leader of a ring of female secret agents who were deployed out of London during the war. Twelve of these women were sent to Occupied Europe as couriers and radio operators to aid the resistance, but they never returned home–their fates confidential. Setting out to learn the truth behind the women in the photographs, Grace finds herself drawn to a young mother-turned-agent named Marie, whose daring mission overseas reveals a remarkable story of friendship, valor, and betrayal.
Based on the Secret Operations Executive, this vividly rendered story of mystery and survival shines a light on the much-overlooked role that women played in the Allied victory. THE LOST GIRLS OF PARIS is a suspenseful and inspiring read about the brutality of war, the scars left on its survivors and the inspiring tenacity of the human spirit.
Pam Jenoff is the author of several novels of historical fiction, including the New York Times bestseller THE ORPHAN’S TALE. She holds a bachelor’s degree in international affairs from George Washington University and a master’s degree in history from Cambridge, and she received her Juris Doctor from the University of Pennsylvania. Jenoff’s novels are inspired by her experiences working at the Pentagon and also as a diplomat for the State Department handling Holocaust issues in Poland. She lives with her husband and three children near Philadelphia where, in addition to writing, she teaches law school.
Praise for The Lost Girls of Paris
“Pam Jenoff’s meticulous research and gorgeous historical world-building lift her books to must-buy status… An intriguing mystery and a captivating heroine make The Lost Girls of Paris a read to savor!”
—Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Alice Network
“In The Lost Girls of Paris, Pam Jenoff has used her finely honed story-telling skills to give us a smart, suspenseful, and morally complicated spy novel for our time. Eleanor Trigg and her girls are every bit as human as they are brave. I couldn’t put this down.”
—Jessica Shattuck, New York Times bestselling author of The Women in the Castle
“Pam Jenoff deftly brings to life the history of ordinary women who left behind their home front lives to do the extraordinary—act as secret operatives in occupied territory. Fraught with danger, filled with mystery, and meticulously researched, The Lost Girls of Paris is a fascinating tale of the hidden women who helped to win the war.”
—Lisa Wingate, New York Times bestselling author of Before We Were Yours
Friday, April 19, at 6pm, a presentation and book signing with Jason Dewees, author of DESIGNING WITH PALMS.
The book includes beautiful photos of gardens and native palm habitat in South Florida from Miami to Key West to Naples, as well as in California, South Carolina, Georgia, and Hawai`i. Celebrated Miami landscape architect, Raymond Jungles, said about the book, “Contains virtually everything you need to know about these plants and their usage in gardens. This is the go-to book.”
Tuesday, April 9, at 6pm, a book launch party and book signing with Ann Beattie, author of 
At a boarding school in New Hampshire, Ben joins the honor society led by Pierre LaVerdere, an enigmatic, brilliant, yet perverse teacher who instructs his students not only about how to reason, but how to prevaricate. As the years go by, LaVerdere’s covert and overt instruction lingers in his students’ lives as they seek some sense of purpose or meaning. Ben feels the pace of his life accelerating and views his intimate relationships as less and less fulfilling; there seems to be a subtext he’s not able to access. And what, really, did Bailey Academy teach him?
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Thursday, March 28, at 6pm, a reading and book signing with Joan Jacobs Brumberg, author of FASTING GIRLS & THE BODY PROJECT. Join us for a fascinating and timely discussion about women, girls, body image and social change.
Winner of four major awards, the updated edition of Joan Jacobs Brumberg’s FASTING GIRLS, presents a history of women’s food-refusal dating back as far as the sixteenth century. Here is a tableau of female self-denial: medieval martyrs who used starvation to demonstrate religious devotion, “wonders of science” whose families capitalized on their ability to survive on flower petals and air, silent screen stars whose strict “slimming” regimens inspired a generation. Here, too, is a fascinating look at how the cultural ramifications of the Industrial Revolution produced a disorder that continues to render privileged young women helpless. Incisive, compassionate, illuminating, FASTING GIRLS offers real understanding to victims and their families, clinicians, and all women who are interested in the origins and future of this complex, modern and characteristically female disease.
A hundred years ago, women were lacing themselves into corsets and teaching their daughters to do the same. The ideal of the day, however, was inner beauty: a focus on good deeds and a pure heart. Today American women have more social choices and personal freedom than ever before. But fifty-three percent of our girls are dissatisfied with their bodies by the age of thirteen, and many begin a pattern of weight obsession and dieting as early as eight or nine. Why?
ABOUT THE BOOK: Avery Bloom, who’s bookish, intense, and afraid of many things, particularly deep water, lives in New York City. Bett Devlin, who’s fearless, outgoing, and loves all animals as well as the ocean, lives in California. What they have in common is that they are both twelve years old, and are both being raised by single, gay dads.
Tuesday, January 29, at 6pm, a meet & greet and book signing with Key West designer Debra Butler, contributing designer to SOME LIKE IT HOT.
From the widely praised author of Paris Was the Place — a shattering new novel that bravely delves into the darkest corners of addiction, marriage, and motherhood
Wednesday, February 6, at 6pm, a reading, discussion and book signing with Andrew Furman, author of GOLDENS ARE HERE.
In GOLDENS ARE HERE, Andrew Furman imagines with great empathy the individual members of the Golden family, their unique struggles and dreams, during a single tumultuous citrus season. Isaac Golden must reckon between his ambition to create the perfect fruit and the business realities bearing down upon him given the booming postwar demand for cheap frozen concentrate. His beautiful wife, Melody, finds herself testing the boundaries that had so clearly governed her more conventional life in suburban Philadelphia, and their chronically ill son, Eli, wishes only to muster his strength so that he might enjoy the wide-open outdoors and see a bobcat.