Strange, fascinating, moving, disturbing, challenging, poignant, and human. Oh, so very human.
Lincoln in the Bardo is a book that delves deep into the human condition and the particular human penchant for storytelling. It presents a myriad cast of characters, each obsessed with telling his or her own story to others. And to living it out, over and over. They are stuck in their stories. Limited by them. Blinded by them. Stories of regret, sorrow, and unfinished lives. Unhappy stories.
I am sometimes late to the party. I saw The Good Place getting rave reviews pretty much as soon as it started, but it wasn't until it was more than halfway through season two that I began watching season one. I should have realized that because it was created by Michael Shur, who co-created two of my favorite shows (Parks and Recreation and Brooklyn Nine-Nine), I would adore it. And I do.
Johnson County Library and The Writers Place are pleased to announce that Timothy Tankard has won the open category of our writing contest on the theme of MUSIC with "The Crawdad Song".
I've reread Mariana Zapata's The Wall of Winnipeg and Me more times than I could count and I've laughed out loud every single time. This quirky romantic comedy tells the story of Vanessa, the ex-assistant/housekeeper/fairy godmother to Aiden, the top defensive end of the National Football Organization. For the two years that Vanessa worked for the man known as "The Wall of Winnipeg," he lived and breathed football, leaving no room for common decency or polite human interaction with Vanessa. Now?
Hello and welcome to this month's look at the new releases at the Johnson County Library, where we look at five fiction titles making their debut that we think you should know about. You might not find these books on the bestseller lists, but that's okay, as we love putting the spotlight on books you might not have heard about. Give one - or more - of these titles a chance to make it in your hold list. We hope you find something new and unexpected.
Helen Abell runs four CIA safe houses for the Berlin Station in 1979. While performing routine microphone inspections she captures two important conversations that will change the course of her life. Helen knows her clearance does not allow her to investigate these agents, however a series of events leads her to uncover sinister cover ups within the CIA. In 2014, Helen and her husband are murdered in their Maryland farmhouse by their son. Anna goes home to bury her parents and discover what lead her brother to this horrific act.
Groundhouse Coffee Shop in Gardner Kansas is hushed but lively on a Monday night. The air is rich with the smell of fresh ground coffee. The rolling murmur of voices from the various tables is punctuated by the occasional hiss from the machine behind the coffee bar. At the very back table, by the fireplace, we sit together silently reading, all seven of us. We are each reading our own book, wrapped in the splendor of our own private world, but we are together. As 7:30 rolls nearer, we stretch and put our bookmarks in our books. I ask one
You can get a good sense of what we at the Lackman Library have been reading, watching, and listening to by looking at our Staff Picks display. But that doesn't always tell the whole story. Sure, Leslie recommends a particular book, but why does she recommend it? Is it as simple as "it's really good"? Or is there more of a story behind it? Plus, the things we put out on the display aren't always what we're into right now, it's an audiobook Shannon listened to last year or a movie Josh watched five years ago.
