Book

Close your eyes for a moment and remember the gang. You know, the one from your old neighborhood. Those kids you ran wild with when it was OK to be kids outdoors. Now imagine an act of violence by an unidentified assailant against one of those friends, and you’ve got M.O. Walsh’s My Sunshine Away.

I strongly identify with our narrator. He’s completely honest in his youthful self-absorption and total lack of insight. Alternately a suspect in the investigation, then absolved, a suspect once again, he himself never quite denies this guilt or claims innocence. And the struggle for truth is

Fans of Mary Berry, Paul Hollywood and all of the season 5 contestants will enjoy the “bakes” outlined in this photo-filled cookbook. The Great British Bake Off Big Book of Baking will show you, step-by-step, how to make the breads, pastries, biscuits, and cakes from the show, including some of the showstoppers and signature bakes. In between the recipes are short interviews with the contestants, hosts, and judges. It appears that the recipes have been modified to be easier, since they were under a huge time crunch while baking on the show. Also of note is that many of these recipes use

This starts off deep, but maybe faux deep. Then it gets heavier and heavier. In the best possible way. It gets authentic. As Nanette digs deeper and deeper to find her authentic self.

I gather from what I've learned and read that everyone was insecure in high school, felt they didn't fit in and relate, that any popularity was based on falsity and pretense. Yet I can't shake the belief that I didn't fit in and relate more than my peers, that my views and values and aspirations were somehow different despite that insecurity. I really do believe I was different in a way that only a small

When Le Cirque des Reves appears out of thin air, in the middle of the night, you can't help but be curious about what is inside. And once you step inside, you will not be disappointed. Intricately organized as an elaborate stage for two magicians - Marco and Celia - to compete on, the various tents and stages amaze the nightly visitors. However, the magicians don't know the full details of their competition, nor who they are competing against, and the story that unfolds is one of romance, magic and heartbreak. 

Erin Morgenstern has written a mesmerizing tale of forbidden love. The Night

I must have been hiding under a rock, because I had not heard of Tig Notaro before she appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show to talk about her newly released book. I'm Just a Person mostly revolves around what happened to her in the year 2012, but what I should actually say is what DIDN'T happen to her that year. Just in that year, she was diagnosed with an aggressive bacterial infection called c.Diff, from which she almost died. Immediately after this her mom died suddenly, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and her relationship with her girlfriend dissolved. But through all of these

Have you ever begun reading a book, and by the first few lines already accepted the fact that you probably will not sleep until the book is finished? All the Light We Cannot See is one of those books for me. I thoroughly enjoy historical fiction books, and this was no exception.

The city in which much of this story takes place- St. Malo, France- is such a beautiful place, and provides an excellent backdrop for many of the events in this book. The story centers around Marie, a sharply intelligent French girl, and Werner, a German boy with the unique talent of working with radios. The story

Laura McHugh's second novel does not disappoint. Set in Keokuk, Iowa, this novel tells the story of Arden Arrowood, who has inherited her family's stately old home, where she hasn't set foot since she was a child. Arden's grandparents have owned the house and held it in a trust for years, keeping it maintained and intact. Now that her father has passed away, the house is Arden's. Her mother doesn't think it's a good idea to move back, but Arden can't resist. She's stuck, and she has no way to move forward without starting at Arrowood - the house her sisters disappeared from so many years ago

If you have any doubt that growing clean food, and sustainable farming takes a special person, Kimball will set you straight. Especially since she didn’t start out a passionate grower. She was, in fact, a New Yorker. A Manhattanite even. A vegetarian Manhattanite living in a shabby cool exposed-brick apartment.

“And [she] fell in love . . . over a deer’s liver”. She met Mark on assignment and got to know him while researching a piece on young farmers bucking the industrial agricultural complex by growing organic food. During her stay, Mark shot, killed and butchered a deer that had been

Jim Brodie conveniently runs an antique business in San Francisco and a security company in Tokyo. He also speaks Japanese and is a martial arts expert. When a family is gunned down in San Francisco, Brodie is hired by the brother of the victim to find out who did it. The reader learns that Brodie lost his wife, who was Japanese, in a suspicious fire and that the same kanji (Japanese language character) was left at the scene of each crime. When the Japanese linguist he hired to research the kanji doesn’t return, Brodie and his assistant follow his path to a certain village where death and

It's the summer of 1938 and Layla Beck is a well-off, young Senator's daughter who has just had the rug pulled out from under her. Because she won't marry her father's choice of a husband, she is forced to find work for the first time in her life. Her uncle sends her to Macedonia, West Virginia through the Federal Writer's Project to help the local government write their town's history for their sesquicentennial celebration. Shocked and horrified, Layla tries desperately to get out of it to no avail. She can't possibly imagine living in West Virginia and what on earth will they have to talk

Have you taken a stroll through the 745s lately? While I do enjoy cruising Pinterest for neat craft ideas, some days it's easier to step away from the computer and browse the shelves of the library. Would you like to make your own temporary tattoos? Perhaps you'd like to revisit crafts of your childhood by fusing some beads or making some bracelets. What I picked up today was Make & Give.

Authors Erin Jang and Steph Hung met while working at Martha Stewart Living. Their goal for this book is that it "will inspire you to make and give something, and make someone smile." I think that is why I

A mysterious, transdimensional library that sends its librarians to alternate Earths to procure rare books? Brilliant! A clever, witty librarian and her new assistant, who is clearly hiding something, sent to find a collection of Brothers Grimm fairy tales? Cool! A steampunk/gaslight fantasy alternate Earth that operates along the lines of narrative drama and comes complete with sharp-as-tacks consulting detective and a host of conspiratorial secret societies? Wonderful! Faeries, dragons, and weird magic? Fantastic!

The Invisible Library, first book in Genevieve Cogman's new series, presents

I picked up this book because I had liked The Chocolate Money by the same author. Norton has a talent for brutal honesty, holding back nothing about her protagonists’ motives and thoughts. In The Chocolate Money we witness the fraught relationship a privileged young woman has with her eccentric heiress mother. An heiress herself, Norton writes what she knows, and in If You Left, she continues that trend by exploring a wealthy woman’s relationship with her family as she struggles with mental health issues, which Norton has opened up about in various interviews.

It is easy to sympathize with

Back in the 50’s many of the rivers that salmon swam up were dammed to create cheap energy for the surrounding communities. The Indian villages were against changing the countryside and they also used salmon fishing as a way of making a living. The Dalles Dam is now 50 years old with a commemoration during the month that Cal Claxton moves to Oregon.

Cal Claxton, a retired Lawyer from the Prosecutors office in Los Angeles, has retired to Oregon. Cal blames himself and his fast track lifestyle for the suicide of his wife and he’s now trying to recover from the loss. His small pension, plus

What would you do if your house was falling into the ocean, you had just lost your job, and your long-lost sister appeared out of thin air from the circus? Well, if you are Simon, you would become entranced with an old, worn-out book that was mysteriously left on your doorstep. Convinced that his sister is doomed to die in a couple of weeks and that there is something off about his dead mother's relationship with his neighbor, he tries his hardest to follow the clues laid out in this book in order to save his family (past and present). But what lies in the book is an even more interesting

For those who closely follow basketball, the loss of Pat Head Summitt last month hit hard. Summitt's nearly 30-year coaching career for the University of Tennessee Lady Vols--starting when she was just out of college herself--revolutionized NCAA basketball play. By the end of her career, Summitt had led an undefeated season, taken 10 NCAA titles, and racked up more wins than any other coach in NCAA basketball history.  Still, most would say her coaching time was cut short when, in 2012, an Alzheimer's diagnosis led to her stepping down from the Lady Vols.

Sum It Up is a memoir that weaves in

Titling anything the "bible" of its subject is long overdone--in fact, we have several "bread bibles" in our collection--but I'm in the market for what this book claims to be: a reliable, go-to recipe book for all things bread. The introduction has several overarching tips on bread making, including instructions on the basics of bread, different methods of mixing a variety of doughs, an analysis of each basic ingredient and what role it plays in the process, and some in-depth explanations behind the science of bread. I found this section very useful, and read it in its entirety. Several things

It’s the middle of July and we’re getting right into the heart of summer. It’s hot. It’s sticky. We know you’re looking for good books to take to the pool, the beach, or just to read while sitting on your porch. Johnson County Library has you covered – not only can you visit and get suggestions from your friendly neighborhood librarian, we also can give you sneak peeks into books that aren’t quite out yet, so you can get on the hold list and fill up that beach bag with stuff we know you’ll love.

Blake Crouch absolutely needs to be on your radar. Dark Matter is a fast-paced, emotionally packed

​Popular Sookie Stackhouse author Charlaine Harris has just finished a trilogy set in Midnight, Texas. Midnight Crossroad introduces the small town and the people that live there; a vampire, a witch, a spiritualist, weretigers and angels, with just a few people thrown into the mix.

Midnight is an old town with lots of boarded up windows; it's a place where some secrets will never see the light of day. When strangers wander into the crossroads and start killing themselves in increasingly brutal ways, the Midnighters rally together to figure out why. Lemuel acquires help translating ancient

Detective Robicheaux finds a body floating in the bayou while he's on vacation. While out of his jurisdiction, he feels some responsibility to make sure that things are taken care of. Unfortunately for him, his persistence has ruffled all the wrong feathers, but he doesn't know whose or why this should be. As Robicheaux looks for more information, he is further entangled into a seedy web of crime. Sorting through all those threads seems to just bring more trouble, and less understanding. First, Robicheaux finds that he has been targeted, which is OK by him. But his contact with an FBI agent

On the morning of May 6, 1963, Jeff Thompson and his sisters, Margaret, Patty, and Amy, departed for school. By that afternoon, their lives had irreparably changed. Their mother had been murdered, and their father soon was a suspect. Events leading up to the murder, as well as the immediate aftermath, are presented in the first half of the book, in the section titled Carol and Cotton. The relationships between family and friends following the murder provide the background for the second half of the book, Brother and Sisters, which tells of Carol and Cotton’s children’s lives after the murder. 

Women in Clothes is a mélange of interviews, conversations, photos, illustrations, and other miscellanea on the subject of--you guessed it--women in clothes. While I don’t think it’s meant to be read cover-to-cover, that’s what I did. I was fascinated by what women had to say about their relationship to clothes, to dressing, to image, to practically all imaginable facets of the subject. It’s such an intimate and yet mundane subject; whether or not we choose to actively engage with clothes, we are making choices every single day on how to present ourselves and how we want to feel.

The editors

I really wasn’t expecting to like this book, but there I sat, reading page after page, anxious to find out what happens next. It has a bit of a Bridget Jones likeness. Louisa Clark is in her mid-twenties and still floundering through life, living with her quirky parents, comparing herself to her intellectually superior sister, and in a long term relationship that seems to be going nowhere.  She also has an unconventional sense of style. However, she is happy and optimistic which are valuable qualities needed to assist Will Traynor, a young, wealthy quadriplegic who wishes to end his life.

Alt

After Tanya Dubois finds her husband's dead body at the bottom of the stairs she decides to run. Not because she's guilty, but because she is living under an assumed name and hiding from the past. She needs a new identity and the only way to get one is to call the man she's hated for 15 years. Roland Oliver has connections and money, two things Tanya needs. His reason for helping her? He has secrets of his own. "I want a clean identity, a name that's prettier than my own and if possible, I'd like to be a few years younger." Thus, Amelie Keen is born. 

Through a succession of events, Lutz

I was immediately charmed by Ferry’s first chapter, which begins “Sometimes I try to show my students the power of the story by telling them one.” He then continues to do so, complete with Princess Bride-esque interruptions by his students.

One night while driving home, Ferry drives alongside and behind a woman who can’t quite keep her car on the road. Before he can decide what, if any, action he should take, she crashes and dies. Obsession ensues, as Ferry embarks on an amateur investigation into her death. He attends her funeral, tracks down her friends, and intercepts medical reports. Or

Flynn Berry's Under the Harrow is a murder mystery turned inside-out, where "Whodunnit?" is overshadowed by "How do you process tragedy and loss?" It's a dark, haunting ride, with a few twists you may not see coming. (I didn't.)

When Nora goes to an English village to visit her sister, only to find her brutally murdered, she immediately decides to investigate the murder herself, despite the police doing everything they can to solve the murder. What Nora doesn't realize, but what quickly becomes apparent to the reader, is she's in no psychological state to do this. The book flashes back and

"I've always been a monster," begins the jacket flap of Drift & Dagger. Mal keeps that a secret, though. More openly, he's something of a cross between a pirate, thief, smuggler, archeologist, and bounty hunter. He is a world-traveling adventurer who specializes in acquiring and selling magical artifacts, often through underhanded means. He frequents ports and bazaars, black markets and bars, dense slums and dense jungles and everything in between. He's lived his teen years in underworlds across the world learning how to survive, and lives only for the present.

It's the middle of the

What a fun novel! There's a lot of double dealing, a lot of humor at everyone’s expense and a lot of action!

Neal Graham is hired by his father to hide the mistress of a man who is the other half of a famous television couple, who purport to be happily married. When the mistress decides to end the relationship, the man refuses to take no for an answer and she brings charges of rape. She goes into hiding until the trial and Neal is charged with babysitting her. The television husband’s business partners start looking for her and it is not to bring her flowers!

A private jet takes off from Martha's Vineyard for the New York City area with a family of four aboard, plus another couple, a security guard, a crew of three, and a forty-something painter who was invited along on a kindly impulse. Eighteen minutes later the plane has crashed into Long Island Sound, killing everybody on board except for the painter, Scott Burroughs, who swims through the night with the only other survivor, a four-year-old boy, on his back. He is, of course, hailed as a hero.

There are ample reasons either of the two tycoons on the flight might have been targets. David

A few facts about Glory O’Brien:

• Her mother, Darla O’Brien, killed herself by sticking her head in an oven.
• It was on the letter “N” day at school
• Glory is the one who found her
• Darla was a photographer, Glory has followed in her mother’s footsteps
• Glory’s best friend is  Ellie, she lives on a hippie commune across the street
• Ellie has crabs from her boyfriend Rick
• Glory isn’t so sure she wants to be best friends with Ellie any more
• Glory and Ellie celebrate graduation by drinking a petrified bat Glory has named Max Black
• Max Black gifts them with the ability to see the past and