Reviews

Staff Review
A white house on a hill with a woman on a broomstick flying above. There is a yellow car in the driveway and a man in yellow standing in the lower right corner looking up at the woman.

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

By Sangu Mandanna
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Michelle H
Mar 13, 2023

I loved The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches sooooo much! Everything about it sparkles with stardust. Found family, sweet romance, slow-smile humor and magical mayhem are all here for your enjoyment. The main characters are wonderfully developed and even with their secrets and flaws you want to serve them tea, give them hugs and wrap them up in soft blankets.

Staff Review
smiling woman with shoulder length grey hair in a blue short sleeved top with one hand in her jeans pocket

Cycles Writing Contest Winner

By Lori Stratton
Star Rating
★★★★★

Rated by Helen H.
Mar 1, 2023

Johnson County Library is pleased to announce that Lori Stratton has won our writing contest on the theme of Cycles with her piece "Seasons."

Lori Stratton is a high school English teacher, writer, mother, grandmother, wife, and daughter. Find more of her work on Medium at https://medium.com/@ljstratton50, and at lorijstratton.com.

Seasons

I appreciate the way the seasons melt together

and the way we never really know where

Staff Review
Cover image of the head and shoulders of a boy emerging from deep blue water, with a blue sky above

The Furrows

By Namwali Serpell
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Alice Pi
Feb 15, 2023

The line between everyday truth and emotionally generated, alternative truth thins with every page turned in this new literary novel about a twelve-year-old girl, Cassandra, who loses her younger brother to undertow while swimming alone with him on a Delaware beach. But even at the beginning of this book, all is not as it seems. A few chapters in, Cassandra loses her brother again: this time, to a careless driver in their home neighborhood of suburban Baltimore.

Staff Review
Saba walking across the wasteland with a mountain behind her

Blood Red Road

By Young, Moira
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Anne G
Jan 27, 2023

This book by Canadian author Moira Young stands out in the crop of dystopian/post-apocalyptic fiction.  The action-packed storyline throws many obstacles and adventures ahead of our protagonist Saba.

Staff Review
blond woman with shoulder length hair and glasses in a jean jacket with red shirt with field and sky behind

Ekphrasis Contest Winner

By Heather G. Taylor
Star Rating
★★★★★

Rated by Helen H.
Jan 13, 2023

Johnson County Library is pleased to announce that Heather G. Taylor has won our writing contest on the theme of Ekphrasis with her piece "The Pieces."

Heather G. Taylor is a life-long fan of poetry. Her greatest poetry-related achievements include meeting former US Poet Laureate, Ted Kooser, and winning $5 in a dental-themed poetry contest. But she doesn't like to brag. She lives in Olathe, Kansas, with her husband, Rion, and their Golden Retriever, Jasper.

The Pieces
Inspired by Patti Streeper’s Ruth Wilson Gilmore

Teen Review
Book Cover

Travelers Along the Way: A Robin Hood Remix

By Aminah Mae Safi
Star Rating
★★★★★

Rated by Chris K.
Jan 11, 2023

Just excellent. Action, suspense, wit, an amazing setting, and great characters.

Safi reimagines the Robin Hood legend during the height of the Third Crusade in "the Holy Land, with all its names for God and all its pilgrims and all its war" with a female Muslim protagonist.

Staff Review
Cover of Small World by Laura Zigman. The cover is a closeup of a Massachusetts house with the lights on

Small World by Laura Zigman

Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Gregg W.
Jan 9, 2023

Hello and welcome to the 2023 edition of New Title Tuesday, where we look at a new release that hits the publishing world. While most of us love to read best-sellers, fewer of us like to wait in line for them, so in this particular space we tend to focus on books that might not have the 800+ or so holds on them like, you know, some others. (*cough* Prince Harry *cough*.)

Staff Review
Cover for Decision to Leave

Decision to Leave

By Park Chan-wook
Star Rating
★★★★★

Rated by Zachary C
Jan 9, 2023

A man is found dead at the base of a mountain peak.  Was it a suicide?  Could it be murder?  With the deceased's wife as the prime potential suspect, the investigator in charge of the case begins to tumble down a rabbit hole of obsession as he investigates her.