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Hello and welcome to #NoWaitWednesday, where we shine a spotlight on a book in the New Release section of one of our Library branches that's just sitting there ready for a lucky patron to check it out. Since we're getting deeper into November, some of you might be looking for a title that will bring some warmth into your lives, since the winter months are growing both shorter and darker. Esme Cahill Fails Spectacularly by Marie Bostwick, this week's pick, will please readers who love warm, syrupy, emotional southern fiction novels by the likes of Mary Kay Andrews, Jill Shalvis or Susan Mallery.

The novel begins with Esme believing that she has, indeed, failed spectacularly - she was recently fired from her high-profile big city publishing gig and just went through a tough divorce. In short, her life is completely different than what she expected it to be. When she hears about the sudden death of her grandmother, Adele, Esme packs her belongings and seizes on an opportunity to return to her childhood home in North Carolina to both help her family and to lick her wounds.

There, she discovers that the previously bustling lakeside resort run by her family is falling apart, bit by bit, as her grandfather is unable to keep up with repairs. Esme soon rolls up her sleeves and gets to work, not only helping her grandfather restore the small resort, but reestablishing tentative ties with her estranged mother, Robyn, with whom she has a checkered relationship and discovering that the new mysterious yet talented chef, who is living out of his van, might be more than he appears. 

She also discovers a box full of museum-quality vintage quilts left over from her late grandmother, along with some letters that shed much-needed light on long-thought-forgotten family lore. The narrative then shifts, telling the story from Adele's point of view, filling in many of the cracks in the family's history. Does Esme finally get some sort of redemption and find a path forward? Esme Cahill Fails Spectacularly is a heartwarming novel about different kinds of family - both the natural and found types - and how the decisions we make can still lead us home. Marie Bostwick lovingly paints the picture of an Asheville, North Carolina, that readers will fall in love with and excels at the gentle humor, wit and exploration of the deep personal relationships that tug at the heartstrings and make readers feel both comforted and enlightened. Brew yourself a nice, tall glass of sweet iced tea - well, since this is November in the Midwest, maybe a mug of hot tea will have to do - and place this one on your holds lists if you can't snag it off the New Release shelf. 

Thanks for checking in with us on #NoWaitWednesday, and we'll see you next week!

Overview of upcoming dates for voters in the November 7th General Election: 

• Nov. 6, 2023 – Advance voting in person closes at noon 
• Nov. 7, 2023 - General Election - Polls open 7 a.m. - 7 p.m. 

If you're looking for information on candidates, advanced voting, and polling locations, check out our FAQ »

I donate and volunteer for the Johnson County Library Foundation because libraries and books have always played an important role in my life. I want to help provide that opportunity for others. My first memory of a library is of the one from my grade school, where the librarian, Mrs. Sanchez, nurtured my love of reading and learning. She and my teachers realized that as long as I had a book in my hand, I was less likely to cause trouble. So, I always had a book in my hand. (And I was even allowed to shelve books as a reward!)

Those educators along with my parents also nurtured my desire to learn about all types of topics. No topic was off limits, but they created a safe opportunity for me to ask questions about and discuss any topic. This directly impacted my analytical and critical thinking skills. And, my ability to think for myself. I am so grateful they gave me these opportunities and think they should be available to every child.

Libraries serve many roles; I feel like I am always learning new things. For me, at this stage of my life, it’s about being a meeting place for the community. I go to the library for meetings for other groups I am involved with almost as much as I go to pick up books. Not too long ago we invited some family friends to join us for a library event. They ran into several friends, including a beloved staff member I also know well. In that moment the library was the mutual friend that brought us all together.

I am currently finishing Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Mind and on deck are Entre Guadalupe and Malinche: Tejanas in Literature and Art and Book Collecting Now: The Value of Print in a Digital Age. I always have a “next up” pile of books going. I will even start carrying around my next book before I finish the one I’m reading.

Railroad-Inspired Johnson County Placenames

For anyone who hasn’t had the chance to visit the Johnson County Museum’s special exhibit, TRAINS: Transportation and the Transformation of Johnson County, you might be thinking: how much change did railroads really bring to a county that today has a modern, suburban, automobile-centered landscape? The TRAINS exhibit makes it clear that railroads transformed elements of Johnson County’s landscape, economy, society, and population. Access to the railroads held the fate of whole towns – including town names. Here are five examples of Johnson County, Kansas towns (past and present) named as a direct result of the railroads.

Read the full story on the JoCoHistory blog »

Hello and welcome to #NoWaitWednesday, where we turn the spotlight on a book on the New Release shelf that's hot, available, and ready for a lucky patron to check it out. No one likes waiting in line for the newest bestseller, but there's always quality authors that are lurking just under your nose at your local Library. 

Patrons love a good police procedural, and patrons really love a good rural police procedural, where the action is taken out of a big city with all of the security cameras and state-of-the-art forensic equipment and into a more rural setting, where resources are scarce and law enforcement cover a larger area with little help, armed only with their own skills, their knowledge of the community, and a deep sense of right and wrong. It's a situation rife with storytelling potential, and fans of C.J. Box's Joe Pickett novels, Craig Johnson's Longmire series, or Jane Harper's excellent Aaron Falk novels know that small towns often hide big secrets.

Joshua Moehling's novel Where the Dead Sleep features small-town Minnesota sheriff Ben Packard. Correction - make that acting sheriff, as Packard is really a deputy who is elevated to the top spot when the sheriff of the small town of Sandy Lake falls ill. Packard grew up in the community and is familiar with many of the local players, but left when he was younger and is now back after a personal tragedy, bringing a bit of an outsider's perspective to his job. The novel begins with an early-morning call when a local man, Bill Sanderson, is found shot while in his bed. Even though Bill is a respected, high-profile banker known by pretty much everyone in the community, he's also the sort of person who always has drama swirling around him: he's a known gambler who's previously stolen from a business partner, and he is also recently divorced - and then turned around and married his ex-wife's sister directly afterward. Not to mention his poker buddies who all say the right things to the police but seem to be hiding something. We quickly learn that plenty of locals have some sort of grudge against Bill, but clear and definitive evidence is hard to find, and Packard must sort through the different levels of lies, secrets, and cover-ups to find the real story, which spans generations of greed and corruption, rotting the community from both above and below.

Also, Packard must decide his own career path - does he fade into the background, continuing on as a local deputy, or does he run for sheriff himself, potentially opening up his personal life as a gay man in a very traditional small town, but also giving him the ability to find out what happened to his missing brother from long ago? Moehling shines when balancing the procedural part of the novel where we follow Packard's investigation and unraveling of Sanderson's death with Packard's interior thoughts as he considers revealing more of himself to those around him. The novel, like all great mysteries, jumps between the technical and the personal, and the small-town Minnesota setting with its sprawling cast of (sometimes) eccentric locals and tourists is fuel for a nice long series of novels.

Where the Dead Sleep is technically the second book in this series, but can easily be read as a stand-alone. (Curious readers can check out 2021's And There He Kept Her as a proper introduction.) Thanks for reading, and we'll see you next week!