Author event! Jacqueline Friedland x Rochelle B. Weinstein

Zibby's Bookshop is excited to welcome authors Jacqueline Friedland and Rochelle B. Weinstein to celebrate their new books! The conversation will be moderated by author Leslie Zemeckis.

About Counting Backwards by Jacqueline Friedland:

A routine immigration case, a shocking legacy. Jessa Gidney's quest for justice draws her into the heart of an abhorrent conspiracy. As she uncovers her personal ties to a heartbreaking past, her life takes a dramatic turn, in this emotionally riveting novel inspired by true events.

New York, 2022. Jessa Gidney is trying to have it all--a high-powered legal career, a meaningful marriage, and hopefully, one day, a child. But when her professional ambitions come up short and Jessa finds herself at a turning point, she leans into her family's history of activism by taking on pro bono work at a nearby ICE detention center. There she meets Isobel Pérez--a young mother fighting to stay with her daughter--but as she gets to know Isobel, an unsettling revelation about Isobel's health leads Jessa to uncover a horrifying pattern of medical malpractice within the detention facility. One that shockingly has ties to her own family.

Virginia, 1927. Carrie Buck is an ordinary young woman in the center of an extraordinary legal battle at the forefront of the American eugenics conversation. From a poor family, she was only six years old when she first became a ward of the state. Uneducated and without any support, she spends her youth dreaming about a different future--one separate from her exploitative foster family--unknowing of the ripples her small, country life will have on an entire nation.

As Jessa works to assemble a case against the Pr*son and the crimes she believes are being committed there, she discovers the landmark Supreme Court case involving Carrie Buck. Her connection to the case, however, is deeper and much more personal than she ever knew--sending her down new paths that will leave her forever changed and determined to fight for these women, no matter the cost.

Alternating between the past and present, and deftly tackling timely-yet-timeless issues such as reproductive rights, incarceration, and society's expectations of women and mothers, Counting Backwards is a compelling reminder that progress is rarely a straight line and always hard-won. A moving story of two remarkable women that you'll remember for years to come.

About We Are Made Of Stars by Rochelle B. Weinstein:

Secrets, lies, and second chances are served up beneath the stars at a picturesque mountain getaway in this powerful novel about love and family by the bestselling author of This Is Not How It Ends.

At the Vis Ta Vie inn, Reneé and Jean-Paul De La Rue face the daunting decision to close their beloved home for good.

They’re not the only ones going through a season of change, though. Their guests include three couples in crisis: Hollywood celebs Leo and Penny are spending their silver anniversary together while on the cusp of divorce. Lucy, a practical-minded therapist, and Henry, an astronomer with his head in the stars, are struggling to find common ground. And former lawyer and current stay-at-home mom Sienna and charismatic sports agent Adam look perfect but are hiding rifts of their own. Thrown into the mix are self-absorbed single mother Cassidy and her sullen fifteen-year-old daughter, Rosalie.

The stage is set for a week of betrayals, regrets, and shocking truths that can rend the heart or heal it. Vis Ta Vie―live your life―captures what it means to love through the darkness, and to find the light even after the magic fades.

About the speakers:

Jacqueline Friedland holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and a JD from NYU Law School. She practiced as an attorney in New York before returning to school to receive her MFA in Creative Writing from Sarah Lawrence College. She lives in New York with her husband, four children, and a tiny dog.

Rochelle B. Weinstein is the USA Today and Amazon bestselling author of What You Do To Me, When We Let Go, This Is Not How It Ends, Somebody’s Daughter, Where We Fall, The Mourning After, and What We Leave Behind. A former entertainment industry executive, she splits her time between sunny South Florida and the mountains of North Carolina. Rochelle is a voracious reader who has shared monthly book picks on Miami's NBC-6 and is currently the book contributor for Miami's AQUA Magazine and literary salon Women Writers, Women's Books. This champion of writers also teaches publishing workshops at Nova Southeastern University's Alvin Sherman Library. Her eighth novel, We Are Made of Stars, releases February 2025. She is already plotting out books nine and ten.

Leslie Zemeckis is a best-selling author, actress, and award-winning documentarian. Critically acclaimed films include Behind the Burly Q, the true story of old-time burlesque in America which ran on Showtime; the award-winning Bound by Flesh, and Mabel, Mabel, Tiger Trainer and Grandes Horizontales. She has acted in film and television opposite Steve Carell Tom Hanks, Richard Lawson, Colin Firth and Mickey Rourke. Nov 2024 she will be seen in Miramax’s highly anticipated film Here.

Zemeckis is the author of three best-sellers, Behind the Burly Q, the definitive oral history of burlesque (an Amazon Editor’s Pick), Goddess of Love Incarnate; the Life of Stripteuse Lili St. Cyr and Feuding Fan Dancers (a SCIBA finalist for best bio of the year), about Sally Rand, Faith Bacon and the golden age of the showgirl.

She writes a monthly book column in the Montecito Journal a sought-after newspaper with both hardcopy and online reach (weekly distribution of 12,000+), and has contributed to Huffington Post, Medium, Talkhouse, W Magazine and Stork Magazine. She is also the founder of the program “Stories Matter,” sponsored by Santa Barbara International Film Festival and ENTITY Magazine, with professional female authors mentoring the next generation of female storytellers. Her TEDx talk was “Forgotten to Forever: Immortalizing Women Through Stories.”

She was honored for her work inspiring women, in 2023 with the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in part for “sharing and preserving stories of women who were once marginalized and stigmatized . . .” but due to her work “these women are now celebrated for their independence and personal agency.” The Medal is officially recognized by both Houses of Congress and is one of our nation’s most prestigious awards. Past recipients include Presidents Clinton and Reagan, Elie Wiesel, Sen. John McCain and HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco.

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