Author: Anneliese

Posted in Adult, Biography & Memoir, Fiction, Nonfiction

While You Wait IV: The Hotel Nantucket and Left on Tenth: A Second Chance at Life

Posted on by Anneliese

Did I actually write at the beginning of April that it felt like spring? I take everything back. But you can at least pretend you’re on a nice vacation with The Hotel Nantucket, one of the most popular upcoming releases here at the library. On the non-fiction side, we have a memoir by Delia Ephron – if the name is familiar, she’s Nora Ephron’s sister, and together they wrote the screenplay for You’ve Got Mail. And as always, since both of these books have waitlists, I’ve put a few read-alikes together as well!

The Hotel Nantucket by Elin Hilderbrand

Fresh off a bad breakup with a longtime boyfriend, Nantucket sweetheart Lizbet Keaton is desperately seeking a second act. When she’s named the new general manager of the Hotel Nantucket, a once Gilded Age gem turned abandoned eyesore, she hopes that her local expertise and charismatic staff can win the favor of their new London billionaire owner, Xavier Darling, as well as that of Shelly Carpenter, the wildly popular Instagram tastemaker who can help put them back on the map.

And while the Hotel Nantucket appears to be a blissful paradise, complete with a celebrity chef-run restaurant and an idyllic wellness center, there’s a lot of drama behind closed doors. The staff (and guests) have complicated pasts, and the hotel can’t seem to overcome the bad reputation it earned in 1922 when a tragic fire killed nineteen-year-old chambermaid Grace Hadley. With Grace gleefully haunting the halls, a staff harboring all kinds of secrets, and Lizbet’s own romantic uncertainty, is the Hotel Nantucket destined for success or doom?

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Posted in Adult, Fiction, Mystery, Nonfiction, Thrillers

While You Wait III: The Investigator and Keep the Memories, Lose the Stuff

Posted on by Anneliese

April is finally here, and it even feels a little bit like spring today! And with the new month comes another pair of popular upcoming books. This time, John Sandford has a new book coming out (and it’s the beginning of a new series!). On the non-fiction side, it looks like de-cluttering hasn’t gotten any less popular. And since both of these books have waitlists, I’ve put a few read-alikes together as well!

The Investigator by John Sandford

By age twenty-four, Letty Davenport has seen more action and uncovered more secrets than many law enforcement professionals. Now a recent Stanford grad with a master’s in economics, she’s restless and bored in a desk job for U.S. Senator Colles. Letty’s ready to quit, but her skills have impressed Colles, and he offers her a carrot: feet-on-the-ground investigative work, in conjunction with the Department of Homeland Security.

Letty is partnered with a DHS investigator, John Kaiser, and they head to Texas. When the case quickly turns deadly, they know they’re on the track of something bigger. Lorelai and her group have set in motion an explosive plan . . . and the clock is ticking down.

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Posted in Adult, Fiction, Mystery, Nonfiction, Thrillers

While You Wait II: The Paris Apartment and From Strength to Strength

Posted on by Anneliese

I’m back with two more popular upcoming books, one in fiction and one in non-fiction! They both have waitlists, of course – but I’ve included a few similar titles that you could grab while you wait!

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

Jess needs a fresh start. She’s broke and alone, and she’s just left her job under less than ideal circumstances. Her half-brother Ben didn’t sound thrilled when she asked if she could crash with him for a bit, but he didn’t say no, and surely everything will look better from Paris. Only when she shows up—to find a very nice apartment, could Ben really have afforded this? —he’s not there.

The longer Ben stays missing, the more Jess starts to dig into her brother’s situation, and the more questions she has. Ben’s neighbors are an eclectic bunch, and not particularly friendly. Jess may have come to Paris to escape her past, but it’s starting to look like it’s Ben’s future that’s in question.

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Posted in Adult, Biography & Memoir, Fiction, Mystery, Nonfiction

While You Wait: The Maid and Enough Already

Posted on by Anneliese

Two of the most popular upcoming books are the novel The Maid by Nita Prose and the memoir Enough Already by Valerie Bertinelli. You can check them out below – but while you’re waiting (because they do both have waitlists), also check out a couple of similar books that you might enjoy!

The Maid by Nita Prose

Molly Gray is not like everyone else. She struggles with social skills and misreads the intentions of others. Her gran used to interpret the world for her, codifying it into simple rules that Molly could live by.

But Molly’s orderly life is upended the day she enters the suite of the infamous and wealthy Charles Black, only to find it in a state of disarray and Mr. Black himself very dead in his bed. Before she knows what’s happening, Molly’s unusual demeanor has the police targeting her as their lead suspect.

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Posted in Adult, Poetry

Recent Poetry I’ve Loved

Posted on by Anneliese

I guess I should start by saying that this isn’t necessarily “recent poetry” – it’s poetry that I’ve discovered recently and loved. But I’ve been trying, for the past few months, to read at least a little poetry every day (which also means working through my backlog of unread poetry books), and I’ve run across some books that I’ve really thought were great. So here we go, four recommendations from me for books that are objectively (my opinion is objective, right?) great books of poetry.

The Darkness Around Us Is Deep by William Stafford

I am not sure how I had never run into William Stafford before in my reading – I didn’t know anything about him. But he was the Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1970 (the position that is now Poet Laureate), so he’s hardly obscure. I actually had this book on my bookshelf, and when Robert Bly died recently, I noticed that he had written the introduction to this, so it caught my eye.

It’s a fantastic book that also has the bonus of a very good introduction (I always like to hear poets talking about other poets, especially when they knew each other as in this case). And Stafford’s poems are clear yet deep; he looks at the world around us, but he also makes those beautiful leaps that leave you feeling not confused but awed.

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Posted in Adult, Audience, Fiction, Romance

Love and Romance!

Posted on by Anneliese

One of the book displays on the first floor of the library right now is on diverse romance novels, and it’s pretty amazing to see the variety of covers on there! Of course you have your books that are just some model’s shirtless torso – but romance novels are a lot wider than that, too! We see a lot of popular romance books here at the library with protagonists and love interests of different races, sizes, orientations, so I wanted to highlight some of them here!

A Bollywood Affair by Sonali Dev

This book is not Sonali Dev’s latest, but a little older (2016) – which is great, because it means that if you like it, you have a bunch more books by her just waiting for you!

Mili Rathod hasn’t seen her husband in twenty years—not since she was promised to him at the age of four. Yet marriage has allowed Mili a freedom rarely given to girls in her village. Her grandmother has even allowed her to leave India and study in America, all to make her the perfect modern wife. Which is exactly what Mili longs to be—if her husband would just come and claim her.

Bollywood’s favorite director, Samir Rathod, has come to Michigan to secure a divorce for his older brother. Persuading a naïve village girl to sign the papers should be easy for someone with Samir’s tabloid-famous charm. But Mili is neither a fool nor a gold-digger. And before he can stop himself, Samir is immersed in Mili’s life—cooking her dal and rotis, escorting her to her roommate’s elaborate Indian wedding, and wondering where his loyalties and happiness lie.

Heartfelt, witty, and thoroughly engaging, Sonali Dev’s novel is both a vivid exploration of modern India and a deeply honest story of love, in all its diversity.

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Posted in Adult, Nonfiction, Science, Teen & Young Adult

Fall Reading Challenge: Conservation!

Posted on by Anneliese

Starting September 1 and running through September 30, Mead Library is teaming up with the Glacial Lakes Conservancy on their 25th anniversary for a fall Reading Challenge! Watch for it to appear in Beanstack (the same website/app our Summer Reading Program uses). Read books, explore the outdoors, and earn tickets for prize drawings! And mark your calendar, because the challenge will wrap up with an outdoor anniversary celebration from 10am-2pm on Saturday, October 9 at the Willow Creek Preserve.

Below, I’ll share some books pulled together by my coworker, Erica, that would be perfect for this challenge. There are separate sections for adult books and teen books; descriptions have been taken from our catalog or the publisher. If you’re looking for children’s books, check out this previous blog post by Bree, Love Your Mother Earth!

Books For Adults

Wild Wisconsin Notebook by James Buchholz

Featuring 144 short and fascinating nature essays grouped by season, this beautifully illustrated volume serves as a trailside companion year-round. Find out about black bears and blackbirds, walleyes and woodchucks, snow geese and snow fleas, all in your own backyard. Nature lovers of all ages will appreciate Buchholz’s breezy style and wealth of outdoor knowledge.

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Posted in Film

Movie Geek Boxes: Movies PLUS MORE!

Posted on by Anneliese

So you might not be aware, but not too long ago, Mead added a new thing to our collection: what we call a Movie Geek Box! What is that, you ask? Well, it’s a movie, of course – and then it’s additional related stuff to go along with it, like related movies, the soundtrack, a board game based on the movie, the book the movie is based on… let me give you just a few examples!

I should also add – in addition to looking in the catalog (you can search for “Movie Geek Box” and they should come up), their current location is on the first floor of the library next to the DVDs.

The Princess Bride Geek Box

The Princess Bride is a classic (I’ve had a friend call it the ultimate date movie, give that a shot!), but with this you could throw a whole Princess Bride party! In addition to the movie itself, you also get the soundtrack, a party game called The Princess Bride: Prepare To Die!, the original book by S. Morgenstern, a cookbook called The Princess Dessert Book, and a behind-the-scenes book titled As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales From the Making of The Princess Bride.

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Posted in Adult, Fiction

What’s Sheboygan Reading in 2021?

Posted on by Anneliese

Today, after seeing that Where the Crawdads Sing was still showing up on various trending/bestseller lists, I began to wonder – what had been Mead’s most popular titles so far in 2021? So I looked at which books had been checked out the most times so far this year. Below, you can find the top five – if you like talking about books with other people, you’re likely to find a lot of people in Sheboygan who have read these! (Descriptions taken from catalog/publishers.)

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

Texas, 1934. Millions are out of work and a drought has broken the Great Plains. Farmers are fighting to keep their land and their livelihoods as the crops are failing, the water is drying up, and dust threatens to bury them all. One of the darkest periods of the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl era, has arrived with a vengeance.

In this uncertain and dangerous time, Elsa Martinelli—like so many of her neighbors—must make an agonizing choice: fight for the land she loves or go west, to California, in search of a better life. The Four Winds is an indelible portrait of America and the American Dream, as seen through the eyes of one indomitable woman whose courage and sacrifice will come to define a generation.

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