Beyond the Desk

Episode 41: Manga

Librarian Desirae and library patron Bryan discuss the ever-widening world of manga, including manga basics, their favorite series, and tons of reading recommendations!

Also mentioned: Manga/Anime – Bleach, Cat Massage Therapy, Death Note, Delicious in Dungeon, Fist of the North Star, Frieren, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Joshiraku, K-On!, A Man & His Cat, My Hero Acadamia, Naruto, Nichijou, One Piece, Spy x Family, and The Way of the House Husband. Movies – Dune and My Neighbor Totoro. TV Shows – League of Legends and Star Wars: The Bad Batch. Check out books and movies at countycat.mcfls.org, wplc.overdrive.com and hoopladigital.com. For more about WAPL, visit westallislibrary.org.

Music: Tim Moor via Pixabay

Sarah talks with local author Hannah Morrissey about her thrillers Hello, Transcriber; The Widowmaker; and When I’m Dead. They comprise the first three books in the Black Harbor series set in a fictional Wisconsin city along Lake Michigan.

Librarians Desirae and Sarah discuss The Hunter, Tana French’s latest novel which follows characters introduced in The Searcher. In The Hunter, Trey’s long-absent father reappears, bringing along an English millionaire and a scheme to find gold in the town.

Also mentioned: In the Woods, The Likeness, The Witch Elm and Faithful Place by Tana French; True Grit by Charles Portis; Shane by Jack Schaefer; the movies Kill Bill, Tombstone and Maverick; the TV shows Westworld and Dublin Murders; the Jackson Brodie mysteries, including Case Histories, by Kate Atkinson; and The Family Upstairs and The Family Remains by Lisa Jewell.

Check out books and movies at countycat.mcfls.org, wplc.overdrive.com and hoopladigital.com. For more about WAPL, visit westallislibrary.org.

Music: Tim Moor via Pixabay

Staffers Sarah, Meagan and Tiffany chat about Come and Get It, Kiley Reid’s follow-up to her bestseller Such a Fun Age. Come and Get It is a campus novel about money that follows a resident assistant in the dorms, a professor with questionable ethics, and a transfer student with a complicated history.

Also mentioned: Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid, Paying for the Party: How College Maintains Inequality by Elizabeth A. Armstrong and Laura T. Hamilton, and Everything’s Fine by Cecilia Rabess.

Check out books and movies at countycat.mcfls.org, wplc.overdrive.com and hoopladigital.com. For more about WAPL, visit westallislibrary.org.

Music: Tim Moor via Pixabay

Librarians Meagan and Sarah talk about what they’ve been reading, including nonfiction books about history, ambition, happiness and spies as well as a couple of novels.

Titles discussed in this episode include: The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith, Four Shots in the Night by Henry Hemming, Build the Life You Want by Arthur C. Brooks and Oprah Winfrey, All the Gold Stars by Rainesford Stauffer, The Sisterhood: The Secret History of Women at the CIA by Liza Mundy, Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson, and The Palace by Gareth Russell.

Also mentioned: Cultish by Amanda Montell, the TV series C.B. Strike, Tana French, Kate Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie mysteries, Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe, Belfast Diary by John Conroy and A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell.

Check out books and movies at countycat.mcfls.org, wplc.overdrive.com and hoopladigital.com. For more about WAPL, visit westallislibrary.org.

Desirae and library assistant Kate discuss chilling horror stories, including author Jonathan Edward Durham's debut novel, Winterset Hollow.

Also mentioned: Skin Thief by Suzan Palumbo; Breakable Things by Cassandra Khaw; Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff; Watership Down by Richard Adams; What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher; and Bunny by Mona Awad.

Check out books and movies at countycat.mcfls.org, wplc.overdrive.com, and hoopladigital.com. For more about WAPL, visit westallislibrary.org.

Music: Tim Moore via Pixabay

Are you looking for inspiration to make the next year your best? Librarians Sarah and Meagan discuss “year of” books, or project books that involve making a change over the course of a year.

Titles discussed in this episode include: Coop by Michael Perry, Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes, The Year of Miracles by Ella Risbridger, The Moneyless Man by Mark Boyle and Year of Yoga by Kassandra Reinhardt.

Also mentioned: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver; Population 485 and Truck by Michael Perry; the Lonely Planet guide to Peru; A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg; and Yoga with Adrienne.

Check out books and movies at countycat.mcfls.org, wplc.overdrive.com and hoopladigital.com. For more about WAPL, visit westallislibrary.org.

Music: Tim Moor via Pixabay

Librarians Sarah and Desirae talk about Nita Prose's new novel The Mystery Guest, a sequel to The Maid.

Also mentioned: Cassandra in Reverse by Holly Smale.

Check out books and movies at countycat.mcfls.org, wplc.overdrive.com and hoopladigital.com. For more about WAPL, visit westallislibrary.org.

Music: Tim Moor via Pixabay

Librarians Sarah and Meagan talk about the delightful novel Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. In it, a former actress recounts her summer with a famous actor, as she and her adult daughters pick cherries during the pandemic shutdown.

Also mentioned: Our Town by Thornton Wilder; Bel Canto, The Dutch House, Truth and Beauty, and State of Wonder by Ann Patchett; Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy; The Sentence by Louise Erdrich; and Our Country Friends by Gary Shteyngart.

Check out books and movies at countycat.mcfls.org, wplc.overdrive.com and hoopladigital.com. For more about WAPL, visit westallislibrary.org.

Music: Tim Moor via Pixabay

West Allis residents and library book clubbers Jen and Jessi join Sarah for a discussion of what they’ve been reading. They also talk about why they enjoy book clubs, how they choose what to read next, odd jobs they’d like to pursue, and more.

Titles discussed in this episode include: How Can I Help You by Laura Sims, Murder Is a Piece of Cake by Valerie Burns, the Fox and O’Hare series by Janet Evanovich, Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan, Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor, The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont, and Afterlives by Abdulrazak Gurnah.

Also mentioned: My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite, the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich, Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult, The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix, How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan, Tom Lake by Ann Patchett, Burnt by Clare Frank, Toni Morrison, the Dead-End Job mysteries by Elaine Viets, and the Chloe Ellefson mysteries by Kathleen Ernst.

Check out books and movies at countycat.mcfls.org, wplc.overdrive.com and hoopladigital.com. For more about WAPL, visit westallislibrary.org.

Music: Tim Moor via Pixabay