In 2019 Mead debuted a book recommendation tool named Your Next Five Books. You tell us your favorite books, authors, and genres, we give you a list of five books that might float your boat. Take a look HERE if you are curious. Give it a try while you’re at it!
Four years later and we have done it again. I would like to draw everyone’s attention to our newest service: Your Next Five Movies. This is the brainchild of our fabulous library assistant, Aubrey, and here’s how it works: you tell us your favorite films, actors, directors, and genres and within a few days you will receive a list of five movies via email we hope you will love. Recommendations will include DVDs and BluRay available in the Monarch catalog. If you are lucky enough to be a City of Sheboygan resident, we will also include films available for streaming on Hoopla and Kanopy.
Below, I have listed some popular favorites and what we might recommend in each case:



Favorite movie: Star Wars
What we might recommend:
Moon (2009) starring Sam Rockwell
The Last Starfighter (1984) starring Lance Guest
Alien (1979) starring Sigourney Weaver



Favorite director: Kathryn Bigelow
What we might recommend:
Baby Driver (2017) directed by Edgar Wright
Three Kings (1999) directed by David O. Russell
Munich (2005) directed by Steven Spielberg



Favorite genre: documentary
What we might recommend:
Grizzly Man (2005) directed by Werner Herzog
Grey Gardens (1975) directed by David Maysles
Hoop Dreams (1994) directed by Steve James
The examples I provided are only to give everyone an idea of what we’re trying to do with Your Next Five Movies. If your tastes run a little more on the esoteric side, we still have you covered, and happily so.
This is a service for our patrons aged 18 and up, and it is up to the recipient to check suitability of media for a younger audience, not to mention personal comfort levels. Part of the joy of cinema is experiencing the unfolding of an unfamiliar narrative, but I know for me, there are certain themes that ensure I will be skipping a particular film, such as depictions of child or animal abuse. We recommend the following tools to evaluate film media for yourself:
These are not the only resources of this nature around, but between the three of them, we feel confident anyone can check to make sure the media they are consuming will not offend or traumatize.
Call us at 920-459-3400 option 4 or email us at publicservices@meadpl.org with any lingering questions. We are always happy to help request materials or troubleshoot tech stuff, as well. In the meantime, I will wait with great anticipation to receive and answer everyone’s Your Next Five Movies queries.
