Where to Find Harry Potter Author J.K. Rowling’s New Book in Cedar Falls

Harry Potter may have vanished into the past, but author J.K. Rowling is still around, with her for-adults book, The Casual Vacancy, due out Sept. 27.

In Cedar Falls, you can find the book at the Cedar Falls Public Library, but you may have to wait a while or have lucky timing to get a copy. The library should be getting eight copies of the book, including three for regular circulation and five for express check-out, said Sheryl McGovern, the library director.

"We generally get the high-demand titles a day or two before the official release, so we can get it processed and on the shelf on the release date," she said in an email.

You can't reserve express copies. Those seven-day loans are available on a first-come, first served basis. Meanwhile, eight reservations have been placed on the regular circulation copies, which are for 21 days, and there will be "a lot more in the next week," said Aleta Anderson, a public services librarian.

Still, the book is no more anticipated than other best sellers such as Danielle Steele or James Patterson, Anderson said.

McGovern agreed.

"I don't believe the interest is as intense as it was with the HP books," McGovern said. "When people were waiting for those, we would have maybe two or three dozen reserves. This may grow, once people read the book and start talking about it. But the HP book appealed to both children and adults, where this one just seems to be for the adult market, which will eliminate some of the demand."

The new book by the creator of Harry Potter is aiming this book at a grown-up audience.

More than 2 million hardcover copies of her novel are set to be released simultaneously in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Germany.

According to USA Today, the story is set in the little English town of Pagford, and revolves around an election held after a member of the parish council unexpectedly dies. Despite the Miss Marple terrain, press materials describe The Casual Vacancy as "blackly comic … Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty facade is a town at war."