Skip navigation
Milwaukee Public Library Hours & Locations Close

Now@MPL

Now@MPL

Edith Wharton's New York - Day 1

By MPL Staff on May 16, 2014 3:38 PM

MPL Library Director Paula Kiely has sent her first missive back from the Friends of the Milwaukee Public Library tour of Edith Wharton's New York City  - "We arrived safely in Manhattan, ready to discover all it offers and to peek into the world in which Edith Wharton and her characters lived. First on our agenda, the beautiful Beaux-Arts New York Public Library on Fifth…

Read more

Happy Mother's Day

By MPL Staff on May 9, 2014 12:12 PM

 Check out these great novels and stories about motherhood.               Where'd Yo Go Bernadette? by Maria Semple "The first annoying thing is when I ask Dad what he thinks happened to Mom, he always says, 'What's most important is for you to understand    it's not your fault.' You'll notice that wasn't even the question." Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout "The real problem, of course, was that she and her mother…

Read more

Once you’ve heard an Alex Chilton song, it’s hard not to fall in love with it.

By MPL Staff on May 7, 2014 11:14 AM

“Children by the million sing for Alex Chilton when he comes 'round They sing ‘I'm in love. What's that song? I'm in love with that song.’ “  --The Replacements, “Alex Chilton” Once you’ve heard an Alex Chilton song, it’s hard not to fall in love with it. As the leader of the Box Tops (“The Letter”) and the seminal Big Star, Alex Chilton, who died in 2010,…

Read more

Bemoaning the Lack of a French Spouse, 1964 Style.

By MPL Staff on May 5, 2014 12:46 PM

Our apologies for adding the censor bar on the '1964 look' of Oh, for a French Wife. While we librarians often balk at the idea of censorship, in this instance we felt that while sharing the cover of this unique find in our collection is important, perhaps some things are best left seen by those intrepid researchers who come to look at the book in…

Read more

In time so long ago begins our play, In star-crossed galaxy far, far away.

By MPL Staff on May 3, 2014 11:51 AM

There’s been an odd trend of ‘literary mash-ups’ in the past few years, exemplified by Pride and Prejudice and Zombies among others. While many of these are books are just shoe-horning some ridiculous genre element into various literary classic (Android Karenina, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters), there are some nice and more creative efforts that grace the shelves of your local Milwaukee Public Library.…

Read more

Downton Abbey fans--take note!

By MPL Staff on Apr 24, 2014 1:32 PM

You may enjoy reading Mollie Moran's Minding the Manor: The Memoir of a 1930s English Kitchen Maid. It's an entertaining account of her true story and adventures while in domestic service as a scullery maid, then kitchen maid and cook for wealthy British aristocrats. Photos, recipes and household hints help evoke the atmosphere of a time long since passed and a way of life that…

Read more

Iran is on the verge of making a nuclear bomb.

By MPL Staff on Apr 24, 2014 1:22 PM

In The Death Trade by Jack Higgins an eminent Iranian scientist has made a major breakthrough in nuclear weapons research. Iran wants his research, but he doesn't want his country owning this weapon. He cannot flee as they have his mother and sister. In steps Dillon and Company to devise a plan to protect the scientist and his research. This is book twenty in the…

Read more

Worms are disgusting little creatures.

By MPL Staff on Apr 17, 2014 10:18 AM

Big worms are really disgusting creatures. Big worms eating your innards and crushing your vertebrae while you wallow with an insatiable hunger are totally disgusting. In short, The Troop by Nick Cutter is a pretty disgusting book. A group of Canadian scouts are visiting a remote, uninhabited island off the coast when a very hungry, very sick man appears at their cabin door. Chaos…

Read more