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Johnson County motorists recognize 87th Street as a key thoroughfare, but it’s also a vital corridor that connects residents to the Central Resource Library and many other nonprofit services.

That’s one reason people like Johnson County Commissioner Janeé Hanzlick are thrilled about the new bus route that Johnson County Transit launched in early August. Another proponent is Lisa Womack, senior manager of mobility innovation for Johnson County Transit.

Route 487 runs between the Lenexa City Center on the west and the Mission Transit Center on the east, traveling through downtown Overland Park and Prairie Village along the way and bringing riders close to the Library’s Corinth and Cedar Roe branches. The zero-fare route runs from around 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, with buses scheduled an hour apart.

As the county commission’s liaison to the Library Board, Hanzlick knows the importance of making Library services available through public transit. Providing computer access is especially important.

“For some of us, we love having the library, love having the programs,” she said. “But for some people, it means whether they can find a job, it means whether they can access the internet, it means whether they can have their kids do their homework.”

One only needs to look at the strip center across 87th Street from the Central Resource Library to see a couple of important resources along the new route. Catholic Charities has a family support center there and Johnson County Community College runs adult education courses in office space at the center.

Hanzlick served for many years as the CEO of Safehome, a domestic violence agency in Johnson County, and the establishment of Route 487 fulfills one of her longtime goals.

“To not have transit in this area just did not make sense to me,” she said, “and I am thrilled that we now have this route.”

The county commission is piloting Route 487 with federal COVID-19 relief funding. It costs about $325,000 a year to run the route, and Womack is confident the county can finance the route long-term if it proves as popular as transit officials believe it will be.

The route logged 452 riders in its first 30 days. Womack said the goal is to increase ridership by 10% per year. Peak ridership has come on Wednesdays. The new route is a great partnership opportunity for the Library and Johnson County Transit, Womack said.

“I think it will open up some doors if we collaborate together and remind people that we're both still here,” Womack said.

She would like to borrow an idea from Kansas City, Missouri, where the library has read-alongs on the bus. Womack also envisions some programming using children’s characters from the Library.

Womack agreed with Hanzlick that Saturday service would be a big improvement for the route, allowing riders more access to farmer’s markets. Having the bus run later would also benefit workers who work nontraditional hours, she said.

Womack said transit planners love it when they can connect community resources, and as a “library girl” who grew up in suburban St. Louis, she is personally pleased that the route serves several branches.

She has carried a passion for libraries into adulthood from a time when summers meant books and the pool.

“I like all the digital and I like all the technology,” Womack said, “but to me, there's something kind of special about being able to touch the books and use your imagination and go into the library and hear a story or see the characters.”

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, The Forgetting, for patrons who love novels from authors like Alice Feeney or Ruth Ware - novels with intricate plots that often involve hidden secrets in a domestic suburban setting written with compelling prose that keeps pages turning until well after bedtime.

"The Forgetting" by Hannah Beckerman involves two women who are each victims of gaslighting in their own way. Anna, a London housewife,  wakes up in a hospital bed with a severe concussion from a car accident. She doesn't recognize the man at the end of the bed who introduces himself as Stephen and who gently informs her that he's her husband. As Anna recovers and undergoes physical therapy, he fills her in on her entire life, including their twelve-year marriage, a career as a librarian, and a nice home. Anna feels disoriented and confused as she remembers absolutely none of this and begins to wonder if Stephen - her seemingly perfectly supportive husband - is being completely truthful to her.

Meanwhile, in a city not that far away, another woman, Livvy, is going through a different situation. After six months of maternity leave after having a newborn, she's eager to get back to work, however childcare is proving difficult to find, since her husband Dominic frequently goes out of town for work. Dominic's estranged mother suddenly pops back into the picture, wanting to connect with a family she's never known, throwing Livvy's life into chaos. Is there something Dominic isn't telling her?

The novel bounces back and forth between these two storylines until about halfway through, when the novel pulls a shocking and devious twist and links the two together. (No spoilers!)  

The best domestic thrillers work when they scrape away the surface layer of seemingly perfect suburban lives to reveal the rotten foundation underneath. The perfect house, the perfect marriage, the perfect career, the perfect relationship - all of them at risk under the unbearable weight of secrets and lies that, if exposed, brings the whole facade crashing down. Characters must decide if knowing the truth and tearing down the image of what they knew so well is worth that risk, and readers are, of course, along for the ride.

Do you like domestic thrillers? Love the roller-coaster ride of secrets, lies, betrayal, and gaslighting? Strap in, then, and enjoy "The Forgetting" by Hannah Beckerman. Get these and more domestic thrillers at your local Library branch!

When Darlene Jerome offered to present a lecture at this year’s Writers Conference on how to write your own obituary, we were immediately intrigued! Writing your own obituary is a great writing exercise. At first you may feel uncomfortable writing about yourself, but a few moments of reflection reveal your personal history is rich with stories and inspiration for characterization. 

Darlene Jerome has long been an advocate of writing your own story so future generations have an accurate account of your life. After all, no one knows your life as well as you do. Darlene is the past president of the Johnson County Genealogy Society (JCGS). For eight years, she was the editor of the Johnson County Kansas Genealogist, a 32-page quarterly publication by JCGS. Darlene currently facilitates the society’s Special Interest Writing Group. The group attendees focus on writing their own life stories in small chunks or their ancestors’ stories.

We are thrilled to have Darlene on faculty for the 2023 Writers Conference. You can register for the conference here. Registration isn’t required but is appreciated, and your RSVP includes both days of the conference, Nov. 3 and 4. Sessions are available on a first-come first-serve basis. We will also be hosting a Writers Conference Kickoff on Thursday, Nov. 2.

We are thrilled to have Johnson County Library’s very own Anna Madrigal at this year’s Writers Conference. Anna is a library branch manager who has dabbled in poetry, prose, and creative nonfiction since her teenage years. The written word has always offered her a way to explore and process the chaotic, bittersweet world we all find ourselves in. 

I’m especially excited to have Anna at the conference because she is my branch manager. Over the past several years Anna has guided and encouraged me and our team through some big challenges and changes. She’s always a friendly face and a supportive listener.

Anna will be providing a drop-in activity at this year’s conference: Metaphor Dice! This writing tool is a fun way to experiment with language and come up with surprising combinations to spice up your writing. If you’ve never tried using these fun dice, make sure to stop by Anna’s table during the conference!

You can register for the conference here. Registration isn’t required but is appreciated, and your RSVP includes both days of the conference, Nov. 3 and 4. Sessions are available on a first-come first-serve basis. We will also be hosting a Writers Conference Kickoff on Thursday, Nov. 2.

Inspired by this year’s conference book, By the Book: Writers on Literature and the Literary Life from The New York Times Book Review, we asked Anna a few questions to get to know her better:

1. What's in your TBR pile? 

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

How to Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas  (I know, I'm so behind on this one!)

2. What are you reading right now? 

Thin Skin by Jenn Shapland

3. Do you have a favorite book you love to recommend? 

I'll never not have Hanya Yanagihara's A Little Life in my mind, although I only recommend it to those who like very, very dark subject matter.

4. Do you have a favorite bookstore?

Prospero's, Dusty Bookshelf (Lawrence), and BLK + BRWN

Johnson County Library and BikeWalkKC have cultivated a positive partnership for more than five years, educating patrons about how to maintain bikes and enjoy the health and environmental benefits of bicycling.

Now that partnership is blossoming into even more enriching programming, leading up to a day-long Women’s Bike Summit Sept. 30.

The summit, offered free of charge with the Library’s support, will feature activities, workshops and rides to encourage and enhance women’s bicycling experience and to help promote networking and a supportive biking community. Participants will gather in the large Carmack Community Room at Central Resource Library.

Participants are also encouraged to attend the keynote address 6:30-7:30 p.m. August 15 in the Carmack Room. Registration is required and is available here. The keynote event will feature Sarah Farsace, an inspiring advocate who has overcome physical challenges and is a tremendous mentor to her North Kansas City School District PE students.

The Library and BikeWalkKC have also collaborated on warm-up classes and events, which have resulted in short YouTube videos that people can revisit, highlighting bike handling skills, group rides and helpful technology.

BikeWalkKC has sponsored these summits in the past, but this will be the first one since 2018, and the first one that’s free of charge and hosted with Johnson County Library. Nick Ward-Bopp, a Johnson County Library MakerSpace facilitator who commutes by bike and helped forge the relationship with BikeWalkKC years ago, was delighted for this summit to come to fruition.

“It’s the culmination of all these educational programs we’ve been doing,” Ward-Bopp said. “It made so much sense to bring it here.”

Johnson County is an ideal summit location, Ward-Bopp said, because the county leads the region with 98 miles of already-built bicycle infrastructure and 315 additional miles planned. Meanwhile, e-bike sales are exploding, up more than 250 percent from 2021 to 2022, according to market research. Sustainability and healthy living are core Johnson County values, which the bike summit certainly supports.

Johnson County Library’s bicycle maintenance classes, offered in conjunction with BikeWalkKC in recent years, are quite popular. A bike fix-it stand outside Central Library is well used.

The Library is all about access, Ward-Bopp said, so empowering people through education to get bikes into their hands and to provide bike maintenance skills and information about safety and safe routes is all part of that mission.

Laura Fox, BikeWalkKC Director of Education, agreed the partnership has been excellent. “We have very clear communication,” she said. “We have set expectations and the Library is super easy to work with. I think they are setting the standard for resource sharing among all Libraries.”

BikeWalkKC’s Development Director, Amy Scrivner, noted that the organization’s membership actually grew 60 percent from 2019 through 2021, as people turned to biking and walking to cope physically and mentally during the pandemic.

“BikeWalkKC’s goal is to provide activities like the Women’s Bike Summit that encourage more people to ride so they see the benefit of supporting an organization like ours,” she said.

Fox observed that women often safeguard the health of a family, so the Women’s Bike Summit is a catalyst for getting even more women involved in this wholesome and fun activity. Men are very welcome at the summit, but it is geared to women.

Age brings wisdom — even for a stellar teen debater. 

Clare Bradley took occasional childhood trips to the Johnson County Library with family or a babysitter. But the 2023 Shawnee Mission South High School graduate didn’t gain a full appreciation of the Library until she gravitated to the Lenexa branch and Central Resource Library when she began driving. 

She recognized the importance of Library services, such as providing tax forms. But the pretty, peaceful surroundings also provided the perfect atmosphere for school work. The Library was a home away from home. 

“It’s just a good place to reset my brain,” she said. 

That focus paid off in a big way when Bradley and partner Brooklynn Hato came away champions in the policy debate category at the National Speech & Debate Association tournament in June. 

The competition in Phoenix involved more than 6,000 high school students from more than 1,300 schools. The question Bradley and Hato tackled concerned security cooperation within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. 

The two young women were partners for three years, and they entered their final season coming off a win at the National Catholic Forensic League national tournament in Washington, D.C., at the conclusion of their junior year. 

Fittingly enough, the partners met at the Central Resource Library for a confab going into their senior year competition. 

“We had the time and space and that little side room to be like, ‘Here’s what we want to do, and here's how we're going to get it done,’” Bradley said, “which we couldn't exactly anticipate the big finality it led up to.” 

The Library provided Bradley a much-needed separation from a bedroom that had doubled as a classroom and personal space during the pandemic. 

“I felt like I developed a healthier balance between — here's the time and space where I need to be working and be productive — and then when I'm at home, I know I can be like, ‘This is my me time. This is my chill time.’” 

Bradley has a friend group that shares her love of the Library. Even during the summer, she had a chance encounter with some friends. They were all heading into the Library to check out books before heading to work. 

Bradley is attending the University of Southern California on a debate scholarship. (Hato is attending the University of Kansas on a debate scholarship.) 

Bradley is happy with the campus libraries. One has floors differentiated by the noise level of the users, and another has multiple below-ground levels to house its collection. Bradley said it would be cool to get a library job. 

Bradley can see planting roots in Southern California because of the job opportunities and natural surroundings. She entered her freshman year planning on majoring in chemical engineering with an eye toward a career in environmental advocacy. 

“But I’m very indecisive,” she said. “So we'll just see where the world takes me.”