Fang Zhenghui (left), vice-president of China International Publishing Group; Wu Shangzhi (center), vice-minister of China's State Administration of Press, Publications, Radio, Film and Television; Zhao Fan (third from right), president of Party Building Books Publishing House and other guests present copies of China Today: Understanding the Communist Party of China at the Javits Convention Center in New York on Thursday. Zheng Xin / China Daily

Imagine a book being the life of a party.

The five-book series China Today: Understanding the Communist Party of China has been getting a warm reception at the 2015 BookExpo America in New York.

"This unprecedented series is a milestone, marking the CPC's dual commitment to domestic renewal and international outreach, a confluence that is not coincidental," said Robert Lawrence Kuhn, an international corporate strategist and author, during a launch for the series at the Javits Convention Center in New York on Thursday.

"Many do not understand the CPC - particularly its historic transformation from a 'revolutionary party' seeking power to a 'ruling party' exercising power," said Kuhn.

"China is at a crossroads, with its outcome to affect the entire world, and the only way to grasp China's current conditions and to anticipate China's future prospects is to understand the CPC."

These real-life expositions are what the CPC wants the world to know. Understanding the CPC is the story of the Party told by the Party. This is how the Party thinks, he said.

Comprised of five volumes - The Good Fight, Serving the People, Governing China, Exploring the Miracle and China and the CPC - the series documents how the CPC led China to realize its present economic miracle, said Zhang Qiyue, China's consul general in New York, at the launch.

It gives a comprehensive, in-depth analysis of the challenges the CPC faces and how it is responding to them, while documenting China's recent efforts to combat corruption, she said.

The series attempts to explain the CPC - its philosophy and policies, organization and governance, vision and challenges - while explaining the governance philosophy and the governance system that puts the philosophy into practice, Zhang said.