Did you know that 50 years ago, during the Nixon administration, the U.S. almost passed a bill creating a universal basic income? Test cases and studies had been done, all evidence supported the idea as feasible and universally beneficial, and it had widespread public and political support. Experts at the time were also predicting vastly reduced workweeks as machines replaced the need for human labor, so it made sense to provide income since there wouldn't be enough work to go around. Then the narrative changed.
Johnson County Library is pleased to announce that Marcia Hurlow has won our poetry writing contest on the theme of The Unknown with her piece "Lost on Callisto."
Sometimes a sci-fi novel comes along with such a knockout premise that even readers of other genres cross over to take a peek and see what the fuss is about. Take Andy Weir's 2011 breakout smash THE MARTIAN: what if one astronaut was stranded on a planet all alone after a botched Mars expedition, and the rest of Earth raced to save him? After ten years, a flopjillion copies checked out, and a Matt Damon movie later, we still get patrons at the library asking for readalikes who never normally ask for sci-fi.
LOVE & SAFFRON: A NOVEL OF FRIENDSHIP, FOOD, AND LOVE by Kim Fay might well be this year's word-of-mouth breakout novel - the sort of novel that never makes a big splash on the bestseller lists, but lurks just beneath the surface by building a slow, steady, and loyal following, recommended from patron to patron, and book club participant to book club participant. It has that kind of vibe. Plus, it's an epistolary novel, which, when done well, are special little slices of literary heaven for readers.
Welcome to the latest edition of #NewTitleTuesday, where we take a closer look at a new book that's hitting the shelves of bookstores (and libraries) across the nation. Since my bailiwick is fiction, I naturally stick to the fiction side of things in this space - thrillers, historical fiction, fantasy, romance, that sort of thing. But today a book caught my eye about a topic that a lot of our patrons are going to love, as it's a title that covers a lot of bases no matter what genre you like.
In Enduring Freedom we get the human side of war from two perspectives. The novel shares how two people from different backgrounds react to the same events. The setting takes place mainly in Farah, Afghanistan after 9/11. Joe, a U.S.
Welcome to 2022's first edition of #NewTitleTuesday, where we take a look at a new title released today that hits the publishing world - and patrons' holds lists. One of January's standouts, heralded by prominent literary voices including Publisher's Weekly and the New York Times, is FIONA AND JANE, a striking literary debut from Jean Chen Ho.
A good thriller isn't written so much as it's carefully constructed. Out of all the other literary genres - with the exception of romance - a thriller is a constant high-wire act, with the author having to carefully balance the drama on the page against what the reader expects. Not only does a good thriller keeps the reader guessing, but it also keeps the reader WANTING, hanging on every page, until the promise of the book is fulfilled, with the thing in these sorts of books that's always under threat is either saved or brought back to the light.
