fiction

Hello and welcome to #NoWaitWednesday, where we spotlight a book that's ready and available on the New Release shelf at one of our Library branches. Hot, ready, and best of all - no waiting!

"Scent of a Garden" by Namrata Patel introduces us to Asha "Poppy" Patel, daughter of a family of successful hoteliers in Napa Valley, California. When Poppy was young, she discovered that while tending her grandmother's garden, she has a special gift for identifying scents - so much so, that as she grows up, her family steers her away from the family business and into a prestigious career working as a

Lone Women by Victor LaValle blends the best of several genres, giving us western, historical fiction, horror, thriller, and plenty of social commentary to boot. The year is 1914 and our heroine, Adelaide Henry, is fleeing California – her parents are dead and all she has with her is a suspiciously heavy locked steamer trunk. She makes her way to Montana where, thanks to the Homestead Act, single women were able to claim plots of land, work it for three years, and then “prove up” to owning the land. The harsh Montana environment is difficult enough for anyone to survive, let alone a young

On Wednesdays we put a spotlight on a book on our Adult Fiction New Release shelf that's absolutely worthy of your attention. We call it #NoWaitWednesday, and we hope you take a closer look at any of our New Release shelves at your local Library branch the next time you come in, as there's always tons of great titles just waiting for you to check them out. 

Last week we looked a title that's a bit moodier and darker to match the approaching fall season. We're continuing the trend this week with an atmospheric psychological thriller for patrons who love novels from authors like Alice Feeney or R

Hello and welcome to #NoWaitWednesday, where we take a look at a title that's available on the New Release shelves at one of our branch libraries, just waiting for some lucky patron to place a hold on it.

With the official start of fall finally in the rearview mirror, some patrons might be looking for a novel that's a bit darker than some of the titles we've previously discussed in this space - something more moody to fit the changing weather, perhaps. Something that's written with an elegant yet gripping prose, with the kind of story where you never really know where it's going but it grabs

Part Willy Wonka, part The Westing Game, a little reverse Notting Hill and ALL heart! I loved this gentle charmer about Lucy, a kindergarten aide and Christopher, the lonely boy she wants to adopt if only their wishes could make it so. Hope springs eternal in the pages of the bestselling Clock Island kid's books that Lucy and Christopher read together. Some adult themes bring depth to the story but don't distract from the overall feeling of wonder. The ending won't be a surprise but you will race to get there, smiling all the way!

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR LITERATURE 2023

Imagine you want to write about the opioid epidemic in Appalachia, a place you are from and have loved your whole life. Then imagine you are on a book tour in England and stay in Charles Dickens’s house, Bleak House, and you sit at his desk and lay your head down and ask the master writer, how? And you receive the answer, “let the orphan tell the story.” And with that, Demon Copperhead, a retelling of David Copperfield, is born. 

This is the origin story of Barbara Kingsolver's newest book, Demon Copperhead. The author of numerous stunning works

R. F. Kuang is known for her fantasy novels but steps outside of the genre in this satirical, unreliable-narrator novel. Yellowface is, if nothing else, a compulsively interesting read. Some of the Goodreads reviews are pretty divided on it, which I think is testament to the complexity of the satire that R. F. Kuang has introduced. Kuang, who is Chinese-American, writes from the perspective of a white woman whose friend is a successful Asian writer. When that friend dies in a freak accident, the narrator steals her manuscript and publishes it as her own work. What follows is a critique of

What a perfectly sinister, unsettling little book. Well, not so much a "little book," more a little amount of unease. A mildly sinister and unsettling book--in the best possible way. It is subtle. A tickle. Something not quite right gnawing at the edges, never openly stated, never resolved. Ambiguous and open to interpretation, with no interpretation feeling like a good one.

This is a fictional memoir set in a fictional though familiar world, ours with an alternate history the last century or so. Something like World War I happened, then grew and spread to literally involve every part of the

“Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

The Seventh Wish, by Kate Messner, interweaves fantasy and real life.  This middle-grade fiction novel focuses on magic, empathy, overcoming obstacles, and family/friend relationships. 

Charlie Brennan, twelve-years-old, is ice fishing when she catches her first fish.  The fish offers her a wish in trade for its freedom. 

Charlie takes up ice fishing to pay for the perfect solo dress for her upcoming Irish dancing competition.  She desperately wants to move up

Six contestants compete to win the Golden Spoon in a baking competition TV show, but nobody can guess the outrageous events in store for them. There's an unspoken rivalry between the established baking judge Betsy Martin (and owner of the grand Grafton Manor house where the TV show is filmed) and the smarmy new judge, Archie Morris. Tensions rise as the pressure to create the best bake and keep the show relevant are all on the line. Some contestants have secret reasons for wanting to be on the show, and someone seems to be tampering with competitor's ingredients (Gasp! Sabotage!). I was

The end of the world.

"The end of the world." It's a phrase that gets used a lot. In a lot of different contexts. So just what does it mean? The dinosaurs experienced the end of the world--but the world itself didn't end, did it? For millennia people have worried the end of the world is imminent. Natural disasters, war, disease, famine, climate change, artificial intelligence, aliens, and so much more. For millennia people have told stories about what life will be like after world's end. What life will be like for those who survive the end of the world. Because in every scenario we imagine

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. Rich sensory details make both versions of events feel believable, and as the novel progresses and Cassandra grows older, many more

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*.)

In Small World by Laura Zigman, two divorced, childless sisters who have lived apart for over twenty years, Lydia and Joyce, move in together to try to rebuild a relationship that was strained and, honestly, never really

Witch trials are already a thing of the past in this historical novel set in Salem, Massachusetts during the lifetime of Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of The Scarlet Letter. Witch trials are over; but their memory lives on in Hawthorne’s nineteenth century, with tensions lingering amongst the old Salem families and Hawthorne himself bearing ancestral guilt over his own great-great-grandfather's role in sentencing accused women to death more than a century earlier.

But Hawthorne is not front and center here. He is upstaged by a new immigrant from Scotland, Isobel Gamble, who becomes his lover

We all have secrets, but some people are better at hiding them. Mari learns this firsthand when she accepts an offer to professionally photograph Yanagi Inn in Kyoto, Japan. She grew up in Japan before her parents split up and her mother moved Mari and her sister to the United States. Upon her return, she adjusts to the familiar culture of her childhood and initially enjoys exploring the grounds of the inn, especially photographing the overgrown garden. However, supernatural elements soon reveal secrets from the inn's history that touch upon her own past.

I loved the atmospheric

Welcome to #NewTitleTuesday, where we take a peek at a new title that hits the publishing world this week!

At the very height of summer, with outdoor temperatures at their peak, some patrons might need a book with a slightly slower pace.  Not a romance that burns up the pages with passion, or a thriller that burns up the pages with an edgy page. No, some patrons want something a bit cooler, a bit slower, something that immerses them in a story that serves as a cool, comfortable bath to take the edge off during these summer months. Your public library - and author Viola Shipman - has just

True Biz by Sara Nović is a book that taught me so much about Deaf culture and the breadth of deaf experiences. The narrative follows several characters at the fictional River Valley School for the Deaf. In between chapters, Nović includes excerpts of nonfiction about Deaf history and American Sign Language (ASL), complete with drawn diagrams of signing. This spotlight on Deaf culture is what makes True Biz a gem of a book, even if I thought some of the storytelling was less than perfect.

Nović has given us several characters who all experience deafness in different ways; there are three

“Those who are born in darkness always return.”

A Wish in the Dark meshes fantasy and adventure, set in a place similar to Thailand.  The journey begins for Pong, an orphan who was born in Namwon Prison, when he makes his escape when he’s 12-years- old.  The next four years Pong lives in a temple with monks, which is in a village outside the city of Chattana.  Father Cham becomes his father figure and mentor.  He teaches Pong about trusting himself and how to navigate his new freedom.

The Governor of Chattana powers the city with magic orbs that give light, heat, and power.  Who

Hello and welcome to #NewTitleTuesday, where we take a look at a new release in the publishing world that will hopefully be a welcome addition to your holds lists.

Today marks the debut of THE HACIENDA by Isabel Cañas, a dark, glittering gem of a debut novel that's already drawing comparisons to Daphne du Maurier's REBECCA by way of Silvia Moreno-Garcia's MEXICAN GOTHIC. This novel, a gothic suspense thriller with hints of the supernatural, is delightfully atmospheric and perfect for those who like thrills and chills that tiptoe up to the line to horror bet never actually crosses that line

Slough House is the dumping ground of the British Secret Services. Left a briefcase filled with state secrets on the bus, accidentally punched the Prime Minister's wife or nearly blown up a major metropolitan train station during a training exercise? Then Slough House is where you end up; doing stultifying and demeaning administrative tasks under the baleful eye of station commander Jackson Lamb (think a bitter and burned out James Bond).

The Slow Horses are only around until they can be made to quit, or get back into the good graces of their higher ups at MI6.

The first in a series of

This is Grant Morrison’s superhero swan song, as they bow out of writing DC and Marvel superheroes after decades of producing some of the weirdest, most colorful, most imaginative mainstream comics. Superman and the Authority makes a good finale for their time with DC. An aging Superman, his powers waning as he gets older, his idealism tempered somewhat by a sense of practicality, assembles a group of younger, edgier supers (including one of his biggest detractors, the villain/anti-hero Manchester Black) to help him save the world in ways the Justice League would probably avoid.

Superman is

I have not loved a book this much in a very, very long time. I have to be careful about saying that though because it immediately sets the bar at an almost impossible level. This book landed in my hands at exactly the right time. It was the first book I’d been able to read read (as opposed to listen to on audio) since having a baby. With my daughter finally sleeping through the night and in her own room, I was once again able to curl up with a book in bed and let my not-quite-as-sleep deprived brain travel to another place.

This book immediately brought up the same emotions I felt while

Welcome to #NewTitleTuesday at the Johnson County Library where we take a closer look at a new book that's hitting the shelves. In THE LAST CONFESSIONS OF SYLVIA P., author Lee Kravitz constructs a dazzling literary mystery revolving around the perspectives of three characters, all with a connection to author and poet Sylvia Plath, who died tragically by suicide in 1963. Interweaving fiction and reality from different times of Plath's life, Kravitz's novel is going to be in heavy demand from book groups.

The book kicks off with the story of Estee, a historian and curator of a small Boston

Light Years From Home by Mike Chen is a family drama with science fiction flavor. If you’re looking for hard sci-fi with intricately plotted space escapades, this is not the book for you. What this book is instead is a very real, intimate tale of a family with a lot of issues - only one of which is aliens.

The Shao family was always a little dysfunctional, but the real turning point in their lives is when Jakob Shao goes missing for 15 years. Jakob’s father claims that he was abducted by aliens and hopes to bring him home. Little sister Evie is drawn into this “conspiracy,” working with

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. They draw us into a magical, insulated world that's only inhabited by the communication between

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 novel in stories centered around the friendship of two young Taiwanese-American women that stretches over twenty years as they navigate love, relationships, careers, and ambition as they begin as friends in grade school and grow up over remarkable

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.

Thrillers used to be the domain of crime and

Welcome back to our (mostly) weekly series, #NewTitleTuesday, where we take a brief look at a book that's released out into the world. We usually don't spotlight books destined to hit the New York Times bestseller list or books already claimed by celebrities with online book clubs, as they already have enough attention. (But seriously, Reese, if you're reading - call us! We'll talk books!) Instead, we like to spotlight books just slightly under the radar. Books with reasonable holds lists that are less than, say, five hundred people long.

Happy book birthday to TELL ME HOW TO BE by Neel

Welcome to #NewTitleTuesday, where we take a brief look at a new title that's hitting the shelves - and patrons' holds lists - at your library.

I always love spotlighting fantasy novels, however it can sometimes be a difficult thing, as fantasy novels often come in a series, so patrons rarely want to jump in to the third book in a series if they haven't read the first two yet, but in this particular case, the series is so strong, I might have to make an exception. Or, better yet, point you toward the FIRST book in the series to get you set up for the latest installment. Today markes the

We have plenty of patrons here at the Johnson County Library who love a good thriller. Sure, domestic and psychological thrillers still dominate the bestseller lists, but patrons are not always looking for secrets and lies set amongst deteriorating marriages and otherwise-idyllic suburban settings. We're talking old-school thrillers, where one person - or several people - are on the run from bad people with even worse intentions. Novels like these are great at keeping the pages turning and the plot humming along; with a good thriller that's fast-paced, stocked with memorable characters, and