Librarians' Bedside Table, March 2nd ISSUE

OSCAR GRADY PUBLIC LIBRARY

THE LIBRARIANS’

BEDSIDE TABLE

What your friendly librarians have been listening, reading, watching

& MUCH MORE!

Oscar Grady Public Library

Adult Book Discussion All are welcome to attend!

Tuesday, March 15th, 6:30 pm Cloud Cuckoo Land

By Anthony Doerr Limited copies of this book will be available at the circulation desk. All are welcome to attend!

www.oscargradylibrary.org Oscar Grady Public Library 151 S. Main Street Saukville, WI 53080 (262) 284-6022

Thirteen-year-old Anna, an orphan, lives inside the formidable walls of Constantinople in a house of women who make their living embroidering the robes of priests. Restless, insatiably curious, Anna learns to read, and in this ancient city, famous for its libraries, she finds a book, the story of Aethon, who longs to be turned into a bird so that he can fly to a utopian paradise in the sky. This she reads to her ailing sister as the walls of the only place she has known are bombarded in the great siege of Constantinople. Outside the walls is Omeir, a village boy, miles from home, conscripted with his beloved oxen into the invading army. His path and Anna’s will cross.

Five hundred years later, in a library in Idaho, octogenarian Zeno, who learned Greek as a prisoner of war, rehearses five children in a play adaptation of Aethon’s story, preserved against all odds through centuries. Tucked among the library shelves is a bomb, planted by a troubled, idealistic teenager, Seymour. This is another siege. And in a not-so-distant future, on the interstellar ship Argos, Konstance is alone in a vault, copying on scraps of

Oscar Grady Public Library

Is Money Tight?

Tuesday, April 5th, 6PM Do you want to learn more about FoodShare and the QUEST Card, find out if you are eligible, and get help submitting an application?

Join us for a informative session conducted FoodShare Outreach Specialist Nancy Arce-Aguilar, a FoodShare Outreach Specialist to learn more about this resource.

www.oscargradylibrary.org Oscar Grady Public Library 151 S. Main Street Saukville, WI 53080 (262) 284-6022

The QUEST card is a debit-like card that is loaded with your FoodShare benefits on the same day each month. It can be used at most grocery stores and some Farmers’ Markets to purchase groceries. It can even be used for qualified Community Support Agriculture (CSA) shares and Meals on Wheels!

This presentation is made possible thanks to a partnership with

FEEDING AMERICA EASTERN WISCONSIN. Registration is encouraged. Please, share this information with your family, friends, neighbors and anyone you think could benefit from this presentation.

Oscar Grady Public Library Mission Statement:

The mission of the Oscar Grady Public Library is to provide high interest, high demand materials and make them readily available from the Library’s collection or through interlibrary loan. The Library supports lifelong learning, information and recreational needs for people of all ages and abilities. Special emphasis is placed on stimulating children’s interests and appreciation for reading and learning. The integration of new technology with traditional library resources is used to expand service beyond the Library’s physical walls.

On this new issue of our “Librarians’ Bedside Table”, we compiled a list of really good titles recommended by your library friends. Each title can be accessed in electronic format for your convenience. Click or tap in the hyperlinks attached to each title that will take you right to them in the Monarch Catalog. We hope you enjoy this selection of books from your

librarians at the Oscar Grady Public Library!

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Jen Gerber, our Library Director, would like to recommend the following title:

Bel canto by Ann Patchett When terrorists seize hostages at an embassy party, an unlikely assortment of people thrown together, including American opera star Roxane Coss, and Mr. Hosokawa, a Japanese CEO and her biggest fan. From the bestselling author of "The Magician's Assistant" comes a marvelous novel of love, opera, and terrorism set in South America. Two couples, complete opposites, fall in love; sexual identities become confused; and a horrific imprisonment is transformed into an unexpected heaven on earth. Provided by publisher.

Oscar Grady Public Library

Spring Break Movie: Clifford the Big Red Dog

Tuesday, March 22, 10:15 a.m & 2:00 p.m.

Enjoy watching this new release on the big screen!

Rated PG 97 Minutes

When middle-schooler Emily Elizabeth meets a magical animal rescuer who gifts her a little, red puppy, she never anticipates waking up to find a giant ten-foot hound in her small New York City apartment. While her single mom is away for business, Emily and her fun but impulsive uncle Casey set out on an adventure.

Feel free to bring a snack.

Oscar Grady Public Library 151 S. Main Street Saukville, WI 53080 (262) 284-6022

See you there!

www.oscargradylibrary.org

Debra Jo, Library Assistant and ILL Specialist would like to recommend the following title:

The Girls with the louding voice: a novel

by Abi Daré.

A powerful, e motional debut novel told in the unforgettable voice of a young Nigerian woman who is trapped in a life of servitude but determined to get an education so that she can escape and choose her own future. Adunni is a fourteen-year-old Nigerian girl who knows what she wants: an education. This, her mother has told her, is the only way to get a "louding voice"--the ability to speak for herself and decide her own future. But instead, Adunni's father sells her to be the third wife of a local man who is eager for her to bear him a son and heir. When Adunni runs away to the city, hoping to make a better life, she finds that the only other option before her is servitude to a wealthy family. As a yielding daughter, a subservient wife, and a powerless slave, Adunni is told, by words and deeds, that she is nothing. But while misfortunes might muffle her voice for a time, they cannot mute it. And when she realizes that she must stand up not only for herself, but for other girls, for the ones who came before her and were lost, and for the next girls, who will inevitably follow; she finds the resolve to speak, however she can--in a whisper, in song, in broken English--until she is heard"-- Provided by publisher.

Hope would like to recommend this title:

The Snow Globe by Sheila Roberts The “Snow Globe” is a delightful short read about a magical snow globe. The original magic occurred for a German toymaker who grieving after losing his wife receives the globe as a gift. He sees a woman who will give his joy of living back to him.

A young girl happens into an antique store where she spots the globe and feels compelled to buy it. At first, she doesn’t think she can afford the price, but decides she must after she listens to the story. What she sees in the snow globe changes her life forever!

Later, she gives the globe to a friend who also sees a change in her future. You must read this book to discover the changes these people see in the snow globe.

What do you think you would see if you could look in this snow globe?

Some of the titles listed in these pages are available in electronic format through the Libby app.

Hope, our Collection Developer would like to recommend this title:

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

by John Berendt Shots rang out in Savannah’s grandest mansion in the misty, early morning hours of May 2, 1981. Was it murder or self-defense? For nearly a decade, the shooting and its aftermath reverberated throughout this hauntingly beautiful city of moss-hung oaks and shaded squares.

John Berendt’s sharply observed, suspenseful, and witty narrative reads like a thoroughly engrossing novel, and yet it is a work of nonfiction. Berendt skillfully interweaves a hugely entertaining first-person account of life in this isolated remnant of the Old South with the unpredictable twists and turns of a landmark murder case.

It is a spellbinding story peopled by a gallery of remarkable characters: the well-bred society ladies of the Married Woman’s Card Club; the turbulent young redneck gigolo; the hapless recluse who owns a bottle of poison so powerful it could kill every man, woman, and child in Savannah; the aging and profane Southern belle who is the “soul of pampered self-absorption”; the uproariously funny black drag queen; the acerbic and arrogant antiques dealer; the sweet-talking, piano-playing con artist; young blacks dancing the minuet at the black debutante ball; and Minerva, the voodoo priestess who works her magic in the graveyard at midnight. These and other Savannahians act as a Greek chorus, with Berendt revealing the alliances, hostilities, and intrigues that thrive in a town where everyone knows everyone else.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is a sublime and seductive reading experience. Brilliantly conceived and masterfully written, this enormously engaging portrait of a most beguiling Southern city has become a modern classic.

—From Publisher

Miss Julie would like to recommend this title:

Project Runway, DVD (Several seasons available) Project Runway is a reality competition where fashion designers fight for their big break in the fashion industry.

Designers compete in weekly challenges, presenting their work on the runway.

This reality show is one of my favorites and have no problem watching over and over again. I love seeing what the designers come up with for the different challenges and I think that the mentor to designers, Tim Gunn, is just wonderful. FUN FACT: I met him several years ago and when I told him I was a librarian, he told me that if he was ever going to get a tattoo, it would be the Library of Congress Catalog Control Number for his first book, Gunn's Golden Rules: Life's Little Lessons for

Making It Work.

Lynn, our Cataloging and Circulation Services Specialist, would like to recommend this title:

Dinner then Dessert by Sabrina Snyder "Learn how to make easy, practical, mouth-watering meals in this firstever cookbook featuring over 100 full-color photos from the genius chef behind the very successful, no -nonsense food website Dinner Then Dessert"- Provided by publisher.

Oscar Grady Public Library

It Happened in Wisconsin:

Firestorm at Peshtigo

Monday, April 25th, 6PM Join us for a discussion around the book:

Firestorm at Peshtigo: A town, it’s people and the deadliest fire in American history.

by Denise Gess Limited copies available for check out.

Calling all history buffs to join us for “It Happened in Wisconsin”, our very own history club at the library dedicated to

On October 8, 1871―the same night as the Great Chicago Fire―the lumber town of Peshtigo, Wisconsin, was struck with a five-mile-wide wall of flames, borne on tornado-force winds of one hundred miles per hour that tore across more than 2,400 square miles of land, obliterating the town in less than one hour and killing more than two thousand people.

Oscar Grady Public Library 151 S. Main Street Saukville, WI 53080 (262) 284-6022

www.oscargradylibrary.org

Martin, our Collection Developing and Adult Services Coordinator would like to recommend this title:

The Lightkeepers by Abby Geni Despite it’s underlying darkness, reading this book has been a pleasure for many reasons. For starters, it had on me one of the good collateral effects that I believe any book should have: it made me wander and it made me learn more about different aspects of nature and history, all framed by a wonderful setting as it is the Farallon Islands outside California’s shoreline, a place I have never heard of until reading this book.

Told from the perspective of its main character, Miranda (or Mel, Mouse Girl, Melissa) who narrates the book as diary entries in the shape of letters that will never reach their addressee, her deceased mother, we are exposed not only to the elements of what it seems a compactly unforgiven place, with a group of biologists each one keeping one secret or another about who they are, where they came from and what their true self is., but also to the raw nature of what self-preservation is.

After a horrific night in which Miranda is physically assaulted in the island, a seeming accident ending with the life of her attacker, adds more layers of mystery to this already wondrously mysterious book.

I will recommend this title to any one looking for a story about the different ways in which loss can be dealt with, the consequence of small and big actions and how we are all connected in some way because as the phrase says: “No man is an island”.

Rita would like to recommend these titles:

The two nonfiction books I am recommending in this issue share a theme of westward travel: Flight of Passage: A True Story (1997)

by Rinker Buck, details the summer of 1966 cross-country flight he and his brother, Kern, undertook in a 1948 Piper PA-11 they had restored the previous winter. Kern, 17, flew the plane most of the trip, and Rinker, 15, navigated the 85 horsepower Piper Cub (with no radio), from Basking Ridge, New Jersey to San Juan Capistrano, California.

Flight of Passage focuses on the relationships in the story, brother-tobrother, and brothers-to-father, as well as the aeronautical adventure, which makes the story relatable and enjoyable for most readers. The two brothers have different relationships with their father, but as the brothers’ confidence grows, they both experience the conflict of loving their strong-willed father, while at the same time chafing at his interference and needing independence from him.

Buck, a journalist and author, has written an interesting and thoughtful memoir. Readers will appreciate the challenges of the journey and gain a glimpse into life in the mid-1960s in the U.S.

Flight of Passage is available in book format through Monarch.

New Women in the Old West: From Settlers to Suffragists, an Untold American Story (2021) by Winifred Gallagher, discusses the variety of women who lived in, and settled, the west between 1840 and 1910 and the effect their experiences had on the national suffrage movement.

Gallagher tries to have a balanced approach in this history. She reminds readers of the effects the pioneers had on the indigenous populations, Hispanic and Native American, as well as the rights some of those women had within their own societies prior to pioneer settlement. Gallagher also is honest about the racism that motivated some supporters of women’s suffrage and the cringe-worthy historical attitudes about why women should/should not have the power to vote.

Gallagher is a freelance journalist, science writer and editor. New Women in the Old West is a much-needed addition to the HIStory of the west and the story of the U.S. suffrage movement.

New Women in the Old West is available in book format through Monarch.

Oscar Grady Public Library

Toddler & Preschool Dance Party

Tuesday, April 5, 10:30 a.m.

Get ready to dance the morning away!

Oscar Grady Public Library 151 S. Main Street Saukville, WI 53080 (262) 284-6022

Toddler & Preschool Dance Party is a fun, interactive music program featuring music, movement and more!

Children ages 2-5 and their caregivers are invited to listen, move, jump and dance with Miss Julie.

www.oscargradylibrary.org

Sharyn would like to recommend this title:

Before I Let You In

by Jenny Blackhurst "Obsession. It starts slowly, like a train pulling out of a station… then it starts to gain momentum...Colors start to blur, dark green bleeds into light, and you start to realize that if you don't find a way to get off now, you are going to spin off the track altogether"...or are you too late, already?

Jealousy. Paranoia. Delusion. Fear.

This international bestseller is a fast paced mesmerizing read filled with action packed plot twists that keep you guessing right up until the end. Blackhurst, an English author and crime novel enthusiast, shares a compelling story of a complex relationship between 3 women who have been best friends since childhood. They know everything about each other's lives, or at least they think they do; until a long buried secret is revealed that threatens not just their friendship, but their very lives. A page-turning psychological thriller, 'Before I Let You In' reveals a stunningly executed conspiracy, where some are hiding the truth, while others are hiding from it! Sometimes what is right in front of you is the only thing you cannot see!

Wanting to learn a new language?

Transparent Language Online provides a fun, effective, and engaging experience for learners of all levels looking to build their listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills in a foreign language. All you need is your library card barcode number and an e-mail address.

Steven would like to recommend this title:

Ghostbusters: Afterlife DVD & Blu-Ray, 2021 Created as a love letter to the original Ghostbusters movie, Afterlife is just that. Not only does this feel like a true Ghostbusters movie, but (without giving to much away) it contains elements that can only be found in the original.

From Ecto-1 all the way down to the classic jumpsuits, this movie will definitely leave you wanting more. So don’t forget to grab your proton pack, a bag of Stay Puff marshmallows , and get ready to bust some ghosts. I also recommend that you watch the special feature and all of the credits, you will be glad you did.

The Last Checkmate by Gabriella Saab The Last Checkmate might just be a work of fiction, but it also has a lot of elements of truth throughout.

This book is sure to hold your attention from beginning to end. I personally don’t always agree with, or pay much attention to, any of the book reviews that get printed on the back of a book, but in the case of this book, I agree 100% and I think you will too. Gabriella Saab’s debut as an author is definitely a page turner and a true testament to the power of research and imagination. So if you like suspense, history, intrigue, and a good story, I highly recommend that you read The Last Checkmate.

Now around town! Books for everyone.

The Oscar Grady Library with the support of The Friends of the Oscar Grady Library has purchased three Little Free Libraries, which have been installed at three convenient locations: Quade Park, The Oscar Grady Library, and Village Hall.

Check them out! Love them, enjoy them, treasure them.

www.oscargradylibrary.org