Akron Public Library

The magic treehouse takes Jack and Annie back two thousand years to ancient China where they must find the original copy of an old legend before the Imperial Library is burned down by the evil Dragon King.

Pearl S. Buck's epic Pulitzer prize-winning novel of a China that is now in a contemporary classics edition. Though more than sixty years have passed since this remarkable novel won the Pulitzer prize, it has retained its popularity and become one of the great modern classics. "I can only write what I know, and I know nothing but China, having always lived there," wrote Pearl Buck. In the Good Earth she presents a graphic view of a China when the...

Lily is haunted by memories--of who she once was, and of a person, long gone, who defined her existence. She has nothing but time now, as she recounts the tale of Snow Flower, and asks the gods for forgiveness. In nineteenth-century China, when wives and daughters were foot-bound and lived in almost total seclusion, the women in one remote Hunan county developed their own secret code for communication: nu shu ("women's writing"). They painted letters...

Violet Minturn, a half-Chinese/half-American courtesan who has honed her ability to become any man's fantasy since her start as a 'Virgin Courtesan' at the age of twelve, struggles to find her place in the world, while her mother, Lucia, tries to make sense of the choices she has made and the men who have shaped her. Violet is the privileged daughter of the American madam of the city's most exclusive courtesan house. But when the Ching dynasty is...

Li-yan and her family align their lives around the seasons and the farming of tea. There is ritual and routine, and it has been ever thus for generations. Then one day a jeep appears at the village gate--the first automobile any of them have seen--and a stranger arrives.In this remote Yunnan village, the stranger finds the rare tea he has been seeking and a reticent Akha people. . Li-yan, one of the few educated girls on her mountain, translates...

According to Confucius, "an educated woman is a worthless woman," but Tan Yunxian-born into an elite family, yet haunted by death, separations, and loneliness-is being raised by her grandparents to be of use. Her grandmother is one of only a handful of female doctors in China, and she teaches Yunxian the pillars of Chinese medicine, the Four Examinations-looking, listening, touching, and asking-something a man can never do with a female patient. From...

"Catherine Ling: raised on the streets of Hong Kong, she has been a shadowy CIA Operative since she was fourteen years old. Now, years later, Catherine is as lethal as she is beautiful. There are only a few things in life she cares for. One is her son. Kidnapped when he was only two, Catherine has only recently been reunited with him and the vow of her heart is never to let him face danger again. The other is her mentor, Hu Chang. Mysterious, brilliant,...

Magically transported to southwest China to find the final object needed to break the spell on the wizard Merlin's beloved penguin, Jack and Annie take a side trip to the world's largest giant panda reserve.

The members of the Sisterhood always stand together, and that includes aiding and protecting the men in their lives. Yoko's partner Harry Wong has received a phone call from his old schoolmate Jun Yu. Jun Yu resided at the same temple where Harry's daughter Lily was training, but they were all forced to evacuate. Jun Yu's managed to get his son out, but Lily is missing. And now Jun is trusting Harry to guard the most precious things in his life--...

Jack Ryan, Jr., is in a world of trouble. When a benign surveillance operation takes a deadly turn, Jack finds himself locked in a struggle with an unseen enemy bent on destroying The Campus. The chase leads Jack to the South China Sea, where a midair collision between aircraft from rival nations threatens to serve as a flash point for the entire region. As tensions escalate, Jack's mysterious adversary executes a brilliant campaign to paralyze the...