**PLEASE NOTE THIS IS A VIRTUAL PROGRAM THAT WILL TAKE PLACE VIA ZOOM. Registrants will receive a link to access the Zoom Webinar via email.**  

Bestselling author Brianna Labuskes will discuss her new historical fiction novel, The Boxcar Librarian, in this installment of "Author Hour in Massachusetts."

Register directly on Zoom HERE

RECORDING NOTE: This program will be recorded. All registrants will receive the recording via email within 48 hours of the program.

About Brianna: Brianna Labuskes is the USA Today bestselling author of the historical novels The Librarian of Burned Books and The Lost Book of Bonn as well as nine thrillers. For the first decade of her career, Brianna worked as a journalist for national news organizations covering politics and policy.

About The Boxcar Librarian: Inspired by true events, a thrilling Depression-era novel from the author of The Librarian of Burned Books about a woman’s quest to uncover a mystery surrounding a local librarian and the Boxcar Library—a converted mining train that brought books to isolated rural towns in Montana.

When Works Progress Administration (WPA) editor Millie Lang finds herself on the wrong end of a potential political scandal, she’s shipped off to Montana to work on the state’s American Guide Series—travel books intended to put the nation’s destitute writers to work.

Millie arrives to an eclectic staff claiming their missed deadlines are due to sabotage, possibly from the state’s powerful Copper Kings who don’t want their long and bloody history with union organizers aired for the rest of the country to read. But Millie begins to suspect that the answer might instead lie with the town’s mysterious librarian, Alice Monroe.

More than a decade earlier, Alice Monroe created the Boxcar Library in order to deliver books to isolated mining towns where men longed for entertainment and connection. Alice thought she found the perfect librarian to staff the train car in Colette Durand, a miner’s daughter with a shotgun and too many secrets behind her eyes. 

Now, no one in Missoula will tell Millie why both Alice and Colette went out on the inaugural journey of the Boxcar Library, but only Alice returned.

The three women’s stories dramatically converge in the search to uncover what someone is so desperately trying to hide: what happened to Colette Durand.

Inspired by the fascinating, true history of Missoula’s Boxcar Library, the novel blends the story of the strong, courageous women who survived and thrived in the rough and rowdy West with that of the power of standing together to fight for workers’ lives. And through it all shines the capacity of books to provide connection and light to those who need it most .

 About Author Hour in Massachusetts: "Author Hour in Massachusetts" is a series of virtual author talks this winter featuring some of the publishing industry's top trending writers. These webinars -- held from 7pm (ET) to 8pm (ET), Monday through Friday -- are free and open to all. This series, which runs through March 20, 2025, is being promoted by more than 50 public libraries in Massachusetts.

If interested, please click HERE to purchase a copy of this book from the event's bookstore partner, Wellesley Books. Book sales will help support future virtual author events.

Please register for this event and you'll receive the link in the confirmation and reminder emails - make sure to check your spam folder for them, the email will be coming from Zoom.

This program is hosted by the Tewksbury Public Library, is brought to you in collaboration with a multitude of MA & NH libraries,, and is sponsored by the Friends of the Ashland Public Library

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