Book

Told in alternating perspectives of members of the Dane family from both the past and the present, McHugh builds a twisted and disturbing portrait of a family with deep, dark secrets.

Lucy never knew her mother; she walked into a cave when Lucy was one and never came out. Then, at sixteen, Lucy’s developmentally disabled friend, Cheri, goes missing, leaving Lucy wondering what part her lack of enthusiasm for the friendship played in the disappearance. When Lucy starts working at the family store, she discovers a clue that puts her on the trail of not just Cheri’s final moments, but her long

Lane is just fifteen when her mother commits suicide. She is sent from New York City to western Kansas to live with her grandparents. Even though she’s never met them, they claim to love and want her. As Lane adjusts to life away from the dysfunction of her mentally ill mother, her idealistic image of the farm blends with her mother’s version to form a reality she wants no part of.

But home and family are hard to root out, and when her cousin Allegra goes missing, Lane is dragged back into the dysfunction she thought she had escaped when she left Osage Flats ten years before.

There’s a lot

I first heard about the “Driving Miss Norma” Facebook page a few months ago and was excited to see that a book was in the works. At first glance, I thought the book might be too sentimental for my tastes, but I ended up loving it and its message, and I would really recommend it to anyone.

At 90 years old, Norma Bauerschmidt lost her husband of 67 years and within days received a diagnosis of stage 4 uterine cancer. Faced with a future of surgery, chemo and radiation, she decides instead to “hit the road” in an RV with her son and daughter-in-law and try to enjoy the time she has left. In

Raven Girl is the story of a girl-raven child produced by a lonely postman and the raven he fell in love with. It's a uniquely illustrated, dark, short novel—similar to Niffenegger's The Three Incestuous Sisters. The story opens with a postman rescuing a young raven who has fallen from her nest. After bringing her home and restoring her to good health, the two begin a life together and eventually fall in love. They produce a child, a girl. Though she appears human, she communicates in squawks and screeches and endlessly yearns for the sky. The story follows her as she approaches adulthood and

Hello and welcome to our monthly look at the new releases that will be hitting your library’s shelves – and hopefully, hitting your holds list. Summer is here, and we love it when we see library books by the pool, or at the lake, or even on the porch. (The kiddos have Summer Reading to do – why should THEY have all the fun?)

First up is a debut novel by Karen Dionne: The Marsh King's Daughter. Taking place in the remote swamps of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, this smart, engrossing thriller is about a young woman, Helena, whose mother was a victim of an Elizabeth Smart-style kidnapping by the

On the surface, this book is about a small towns obsessed with ice hockey. Under the surface, it is so much more.

Beartown is a small, dying town where everyone struggles to survive. But they do have a junior hockey team that just might make the state finals and the whole town is relying on them to bring Beartown back to life. The residents believe that a victory will bring much-needed investment and publicity to revitalize the area. When one of the players commits a horrendous crime, who will the town side with - the criminal or the victim? One thing is for sure, life will never be the same

The In Death murder mystery series is based on Lieutenant Eve Dallas solving homicides in 2058 New York City. Eve, with her troubled past and guarded demeanor, works tirelessly to give the dead the justice they deserve. Coupled with Roarke, Eve's billionaire and tech savvy husband, she often finds herself digging through cases with his help. Along with standing for the dead, Eve must face the demons in her own past. These futuristic crime novels will keep you guessing until the last page!

You can read any book out of order for a suspenseful murder mystery, or read in order to follow the

There's a long tradition of stories about children who stumble into another world, a fantastic world that works in completely different ways from our world. The children follow a talking rabbit down a rabbit hole or walk through the back of an old wardrobe or are swept up by a tornado and dropped onto an evil witch. At the end of the story, the child returns to our world a little wiser, but none the worse for wear. Seanan McGuire's Every Heart a Doorway, recently given a Nebula award for Best Novella, plays with and expands on this tradition, and the results are wonderful and frightening.

Ele

In Dead Dancing Women, Emily Kincaid has moved to northern Michigan to get a fresh start and some distance from her ex-husband. Emily is a freelance journalist who dreams of writing mystery novels. The trouble starts when she goes for a walk and finds the head of an old woman in her trash can. How did it get there? Who would do such a thing in this small town? Emily teams up with Deputy Dolly so she can write for the newspaper about the current event and help solve the mystery before someone else is murdered.

This is the first book in the Emily Kincaid series, and Emily gets a cute sidekick

How do you raise a feminist? This little book offers 15 suggestions for taking on the task and offers insight into how we can tackle living as feminists in our everyday lives. Dear Ijeawele is powerfully short and gets to the point, as a manifesto should. Her recommendations include; “ 'Because you are a girl' is never a reason for anything”; “teach her to love books”; and “teach her about difference. Make difference ordinary.”

Written as a letter to a friend, Dear Ijeawele, is a fast read with the potential to start conversations about what it means to be a woman today. 

Thomas Hawke is a troubled boy, whose mother died in childbirth. His father, tired of his bad behavior, tells him that his great-grandfather who was once a wise knight is still alive and lives on a hill. Thomas goes there to ask his great grandfather, "Everyone claims you are the wisest man in the realm. Please tell how I should live." The old man answers, "Would you like some tea?" Thomas's great grandfather was expecting him. Thomas becomes his great grandfather's apprentice  to help him become a better person and maybe a knight. There was much to learn and he was given a list of 20 rules to

Welcome to yet another edition of our monthly look at new titles we think should be on your radar for the month of May. Obviously, we can’t read every single book that comes out – contrary to popular belief, librarians can’t sit around and read books all day. (We tried that once, but then we got yelled at.) But, we do hear things, and when we hear those things, we like to pass them along to you.

First up is a literary and moving debut novel by Bryn Chancellor, Sycamore. The disappearance of a seventeen-year-old girl in a small Arizona town in 1991 seems long in the past until remains are

In July of 2007, Catherine Tidd lost her husband, Brad, in an accident and suddenly found herself a 31-year-old widow with three small children. In Confessions of a Mediocre Widow, Tidd chronicles her experience with sudden widowhood and the journey of self-discovery her husband's loss prompted. 

The first half of the book focuses on the loss and immediate aftermath of Brad's death. Tidd discusses her last moments with Brad, the shock of his death, how her mind (like so many other widows) could only process the loss in pieces, the crowds of people in the days after, and her new relationship

4 Blood Types, 4 Diets, Eat Right 4 your Type offers individualized diet plans based on blood type. Dr. D’Adamo uses history and scientific research to explain how differences in blood type can affect how different people respond to food and exercise. Using meal and exercise plans you can achieve your best health.

D’Adamo, a second-generation naturopathic physician, followed in his father’s footsteps, studying the correlation between blood type, diet and health. Where the senior D’Adamo subjectively linked blood type to diet, the younger confirmed the connection using objective, scientific

The Roanoke Girls is a disturbing, compelling read. While the “big, dark secret” is revealed early on, the story still draws the reader in. I had to find out what happened to the Roanoke girls, the sisters, aunts, cousins. They seemed to be such studies in contrast: darkness and fire, guilt and defiance, innocence and desire.

When Lane left Roanoke, the family home in rural Kansas, she never thought she would willingly return. Only one person could bring her back – her cousin Allegra, whose disappearance draws Lane back to a place she fled after learning her family’s dark secret.

The book

Somewhere far away from earth, six crew members wake aboard a spaceship bound for a new colony. As clones, the crew members are accustomed to waking up in new bodies, usually with their memories intact. This time, though, decades of memories are missing. And worse, someone has murdered the old bodies of the crew members. Without any record of what happened and why, the crew must fight to solve a murder in which they are all prime suspects, even to themselves.

Six Wakes is a locked-room murder mystery that takes place on a generation starship. If that sounds awesome to you, then you will

This offers a complex, rigidly hierarchical society and a protagonist stuck right in the middle of it, with plenty of tense action resulting.

Before the story begins, Jessamy's life has been rigidly dull. Her military father is a common man from the ruling race who has climbed as high in the social order as his station allows. Her mother is his faithful companion from the conquered race--which would normally be a dirty secret to sweep under the rug--but she and her four daughters have lived such impeccably perfect, honorable lives that his household is allowed a bottom rung on the noble

Here at Johnson County Library we're always on the lookout for insightful words about writing. Sarah Manguso's latest book, 300 Arguments, contains quite a few. At its most basic level, the book is a collection of aphorisms. And, since Manguso is a professional writer and writing teacher, some cover that topic. Here are a few to mull over:

Nothing is more boring to me than the re-re-restatement that language isn't sufficiently nuanced to describe the world. Of course language isn't enough. Accepting that is the starting point of using it to capacity. Of increasing its capacity.

-----

I

Alaska. I imagine it’s the most remote you can get while remaining on American soil. If you’ve ever wondered what it might be like to pack your bags and move there, save yourself the trip and read Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs first.

Lende, an obituary writer in the small town of Haines, brings her friends, family, and neighbors to life. And life is different there. Short growing seasons, the speed with which a “moose can turn a ten-year-old apple orchard into a few stumpy sticks or the way even a very young bear can rip the branches right off of a loaded cherry tree, not to

This is a book of ideas. A slight character story overlaid on a world of big ideas. Amusingly sad; sadly amusing. Consider, for instance, its beginning:

Sexual Responsibility is boring.

It isn't Ms. Brody's fault. She's a good teacher. She switches channels at appropriate moments, tases students who need tasing--zizzz-ZAAPPP!--and she only once got stuck in the garbage can beside her teaching station. She was a teeny bit weepy that day, but no drunker than normal . . .

Zoe lives in a near future world where capitalism and corporatism have run amok. In school, we learn not only Sexual

"There were little white boys with complete collections of football cards, and their only want was a popular girlfriend, and their only worry was poison oak." - Ta-Nehisi Coates, 'Between The World and Me'

 In this 152 page letter to his teenage son, Coates shares his experiences of the street, the school and the family and the exhausting job of being a black man in America.  Coates is a master at making you understand.  It doesn't matter what adjectives you attach to your name - smart, educated, wealthy, worldly, loving, etc the only one that truly matters is that you are black.  

I believe

If science fiction isn’t your favorite genre, but you’re willing to dip a toe in, All Our Wrong Todays is a highly entertaining read about self-discovery, family and love; with a time machine and alternate realities. 

The story begins with Tom Barren, present day, as he's writing a book describing his experience with time travel. His voice is witty, sarcastic and feels like a friend who's relaying their crazy dream. The future Tom comes from exists because in 1965 a man invented a machine that creates endless clean energy. That machine transformed the whole world into something like the

Growing old isn't easy and caring for your loved ones as they grow old is even harder. The everyday stress of eldercare is beyond hard. How to Care for Aging Parents is considered the number one resource in print that will help with caring for a loved one and making decisions that are right for you. The book covers everything: survival tips for the caregiver, how to get help, when to get help, handling the paperwork, the array of housing options when your loved ones can no longer live alone, nearing the end advice, and how to deal with grief. The advice and guidance well help make troubled

Have you ever questioned the reliability of your own memory? Do you wish you had a record of everything you encountered so you could refer to it later? What if having this capability meant that other people had access to information about you without your consent?

In Forest of Memory, Katya locates items of value and sells them to clients with information about the items’ origins. She looks at an object’s “wabi-sabi,” which is a Japanese term for beauty that is “imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete.” The items she finds for clients are not in pristine condition; they have evidence of use

Whether you love or hate Eat, Pray, Love—Gilbert actually addresses this dichotomy—Big Magic should not be ignored. She begins by defining creative living as “the hunt for the strange jewels the universe has buried in each of us,” and then provides examples of people she knows who have found their jewels. She acknowledges that jewel hunting can be scary, and helps deconstruct the fear that prevents us from living our best creative lives.

Gilbert shares the importance of inspiration and our responsibility to it, as well as what happened to her when her response to inspiration wasn’t timely

We have all taken personality tests that put us into one box or another in an attempt to better understand ourselves. In Susan Cain’s book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking, Cain analyzes the introvert/extrovert dichotomy with a particular focus on how introverts think and what motivates them. Cain argues that we live in an extrovert-centric society that values and praises the high achieving socialites over the less outgoing thinkers. Cain speaks up for and defends those whose voices have gone unheard for far too long.

Quiet reads like a text book, analyzing

Hello, welcome, and join us - won’t you? - for this month’s look at some new releases to keep on your radar.

Our first selection is David Grann’s Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI. Grann, who also wrote the brilliant book-club favorite The Lost City of Z, returns with his characteristic non-fiction-that-reads-like-fiction books as he tells the tale of a remote part of Oklahoma that held some of the wealthiest people in America – members of the Osage tribe of Native Americans who lived on oil-rich land. However, the Osage began to be found murdered, with

What a delightful book. It is spare and quirky and dryly humorous. Though it includes numerous fantastical occurrences, I wouldn't quite call it magic realism; more like metaphorical absurdity. Surreal things happen, and the characters grapple with them just like anything else that happens, because sometimes life feels absurd.

Of Things Gone Astray is about people who--none of whom realize--have lost themselves. Their routines have become habits of action without thought, and they've lost track of who they once aspired to be and to what might give their lives more meaning. They don't realize

Sometimes you begin a book, and you know after a few chapters that the book is "reading you" instead of you reading the book. It hits your core hard and churns stuff up, compelling you to turn pages. All That's Left to Tell is such a book, and it's Daniel Lowe's debut at that. From its first sentence to its last, it doesn't let go--making you question your own life and choices. Do we choose? Or does life choose for us? Is there a difference? What motivates a hostage? Or a kidnapper?

Marc and Claire are a father and a daughter. Josephine is both a truth-teller and a liar. Set in the chaotic

There has never been a conflict-free time in Israel. The times between wars carry their own tensions, disputes, incidents and attacks. While there are numerous books about the larger wars and about the relationship between Israel and the Arabs who surround her, little has been written about Israel's presence in Southern Lebanon in the 1980's and '90's. Until now.

Matti Friedman draws from his own and other soldiers’ experiences when writing about Israel’s outposts in Southern Lebanon, in particular, the outpost known as the Pumpkin. These outposts were deemed necessary at the time to protect