William Kent Krueger writes the New York Times bestselling Cork O’Connor mystery series, which is set in the great north woods of Minnesota.  His latest book, The River We Remember, will be released September 5, 2023. 

The New Rules is a memoir of a 38-year career as a practicing criminal defense attorney and legal writer. For sixteen months, John Burns finds himself caught in the crossfire between the highly conservative Republican Legislature and governor on one side and, on the other, a Supreme Court struggling to remain the last independent check on the unfettered power of the other two branches. John’s story seems to be a small one, but it opens a window to the way politics are played in Iowa in 2022 and 2023.

 New York Times bestselling author J. A. Jance returns to her Southwestern roots and unites popular characters from her Joanna Brady Mysteries and Walker Family thrillers in a gripping mystery centered on a serial killer who targets notoriously overlooked victims: young Indigenous women.   

A travel memoir that ventures from his smalltown upbringing to vastly different cultures around the globe, Tom Montgomery Fate comes to define “home” not as a physical location, but as a way of belonging.

Retired Des Moines Register opinion columnist Rekha Basu will talk with Carol Roh Spaulding about her Korean American background and the family roots that inspired this collection of stories.
This collection of linked stories follows four generations of the Songs, a Korean American family, beginning in 1924 just prior to the Immigration Act and extending to near the end of the century. With these stories, Carol Roh Spaulding charts shifting definitions of “Americanness” across time through the arc of a family narrative that centers on the life experiences of Gracie Song.

Three Minutes with God features hundreds of inspiring reflections and prayers that will remind you to rejoice and praise God! Each day’s entry includes a scripture passage, a thoughtful reflection, and a brief prayer to revive your spirit.

Saving Democracy is the companion book to Pepper's earlier book, Laboratories of Autocracy. It details how we all can and must play a role in saving democracy at this fraught time.  It explains how all levels of the pro-democracy side, from national political leaders to grassroots activists to everyday Americans, must switch to offense. It explains how to stay on offense and win on offense. Immediately, and everywhere.

Moranville’s captivating and vulnerable prose explores the ways in which addiction’s ripple effects pass through generations and how familial bonds can remain unbreakable through the most difficult circumstances. Expertly grappling with difficult topics at an age-appropriate level, this novel is a sensitive, nuanced exploration of children’s enduring resilience and optimism.   

An attack from a most unexpected source intensely complicates matters. Left unchecked, it threatens to bring down the whole community and once again, Jean Moreau must be up to the task.

As this suspenseful story unfolds, it also becomes evident how this man of spirit continues to think outside the box, in encountering his humanity and all of its challenges. He invites the reader to look at life’s problems and the spiritual life in new ways…his ideas about life, love, and traditional religion will often surprise…but they offer the reader pathways to awareness, the key to happiness.

Join us on Saturday, October 7 from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. as we celebrate the Freedom to Read!  Planning...

Where the Trees Dance is many things: a love story, an ode to adoption, a reflection on growing up Irish-Catholic in Des Moines, a father’s gift to his sons, and a kinder ending to a birth-mother’s story; all disguised as a memoir. From his earliest memories to middle-age, the author relates that which is most intimate, most personal, sad, humorous, glorious, and ignoble in his life as he journeyed from being an adoptee, adrift, wondering where he fit in in the world, to finally finding home.

Flora and horticulture have had an outsize influence on the mystery genre: motive, means, opportunity, victims, villains, and detectives. Join Marta McDowell, a writer, gardener, and avid mystery reader, in exploring the many ways in which writers—from Edgar Allen Poe and Wilkie Collins to Agatha Christie and some of today’s top crime fiction authors—have found inspiration in the sinister side of gardening.