Hot This Week: March 19

There are some huge new movies on this week's list, which also sees the animated hit Coco jump into the number one spot. In music, the Black Panther soundtrack reigns supreme again, with a new album from Tory Lanez making its debut. Brad Meltzer's latest thriller leads the way in non-fiction, with a couple of blockbuster movie novelizations joining as well. And in non-fiction, a memoir from theatre legend Andrew Lloyd Webber comes in at #7.

Movies

1. Coco (Blu-ray | 4K)
2. Thor: Ragnarok (Blu-ray | 4K)
3. Murder on the Orient Express (Blu-ray | 4K)
4. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Blu-ray | 4K)
5. Daddy's Home 2 (Blu-ray | 4K)
6. Wonder (Blu-ray | 4K)
7. Lady Bird (Blu-ray)
8. Darkest Hour (Blu-ray)
9. A Bad Moms Christmas (Blu-ray)
10. Just Getting Started (Blu-ray)

CD

1. Black Panther: The Album
2. The Greatest Showman Soundtrack
3. Tory Lanez, Memories Don't Die
4. Migos, Culture II
5. Ed Sheeran, Divide
6. Post Malone, Stoney
7. Imagine Dragons, Evolve
8. Camila Cabello, Camila
9. Kendrick Lamar, DAMN.
10. Bruno Mars, 24K Magic
    

Fiction

1. The Escape Artist, Brad Meltzer
2. Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Jason Fry
3. The Great Alone, Kristin Hannah
4. Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng
5. The Woman in the Window, A.J. Finn
6. Fifty Fifty, James Patterson and Candice Fox
7. An American Marriage, Tayari Jones
8. Burn Bright, Patricia Briggs
9. Still Me, Jojo Moyes
10. The Shape of Water, Guillermo del Toro and Daniel Kraus

Non-Fiction

1. Fire and Fury, Michael Wolff
2. I'll Be Gone in the Dark, Michelle McNamara
3. Educated, Tara Westover
4. Enlightenment Now, Steven Pinker
5. Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, Neil deGrasse Tyson
6. The Last Black Unicorn, Tiffany Haddish
7. Unmasked, Andrew Lloyd Webber
8. The Future of Humanity, Michio Kaku
9. Killers of the Flower Moon, David Grann
10. Leonardo da Vinci, Walter Isaacson

Come See Us at PLA!

Next week we’ll be at the PLA 2018 Conference in Philadelphia, and we’d love to see you there! You can find us at Booth #837 from March 20-24. Here’s what you can expect when you come by our booth.

Golden Ticket Giveaway

Free candy AND a chance to win…who can resist? Stop by our booth anytime to pick up a chocolate bar and a chance to win a great prize! This offer is only good while supplies last, so come early to make sure you don’t miss out.

Author Signings

Three popular authors will be making appearances at our booth. Visit our booth during the times listed below to get a book signed, and spread the word about their incredible work to your patrons!

Wednesday, March 21

4:00 – 5:00 p.m.

LAURIE MORRISON

Co-author of the middle-grade novel Every Shiny Thing

Thursday, March 22

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

CLAIRE LEGRAND

Author of the YA fantasy novel Furyborn

Thursday, March 22

1:00 – 2:00 p.m.

BEATRIZ WILLIAMS

Author of the historical novel The Summer Wives

Champagne Toast

We’re looking forward to celebrating hoopla’s five-year anniversary with our library partners. We’ll be hosting a champagne toast at our booth on Thursday, March 22, at 3:00 p.m. Join us!

Alexa, Meet hoopla!

We’re excited to announce a cool new bit of hoopla functionality—integration with Amazon’s personal assistant, Alexa! We’ll have a number of devices at our booth, so be sure to come get a full demonstration of all the ways Alexa will allow patrons to interact with hoopla just with their voice.

Come by our booth for any or all of these events, or to learn more about all the ways Midwest Tape and hoopla can benefit your library. We hope to see you there!

Hot This Week: March 12

What's hot this week is movies! There are four new ones, led by the latest Disney-Pixar blockbuster, the Academy Award-winning Coco. A new tour announcement helps to land Bon Jovi's latest album back on the chart well over a year after its release. A pair of new novels make the list in fiction, while the late Michelle McNamara's final true-crime exploration makes its debut in non-fiction.

Movies

1. Daddy's Home 2 (Blu-ray | 4K)
2. Coco (Blu-ray | 4K)
3. Wonder (Blu-ray | 4K)
4. Darkest Hour (Blu-ray)
5. Just Getting Started (Blu-ray)
6. A Bad Moms Christmas (Blu-ray)
7. Hangman (Blu-ray)
8. Geostorm (Blu-ray)
9. The Star (Blu-ray)
10. Only the Brave (Blu-ray)

CD

1. Bon Jovi, This House Is Not for Sale
2. Black Panther: The Album
3. Migos, Culture II
4. The Greatest Showman Soundtrack
5. Ed Sheeran, Divide
6. Post Malone, Stoney
7. Imagine Dragons, Evolve
8. Kendrick Lamar, DAMN.
9. Vance Joy, Nation of Two
10. Justin Timberlake, Man of the Woods

Fiction

1. The Great Alone, Kristin Hannah
2. Fifty Fifty, James Patterson and Candice Fox
3. The Woman in the Window, A.J. Finn
4. An American Marriage, Tayari Jones
5. Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng
6. Raspberry Danish Murder, Joanne Fluke
7. Still Me, Jojo Moyes
8. The Hush, John Hart
9. Origin, Dan Brown
10. The Wife Between Us, Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

Non-Fiction

1. Fire and Fury, Michael Wolff
2. I'll Be Gone in the Dark, Michelle McNamara
3. Educated, Tara Westover
4. Enlightenment Now, Steven Pinker
5. Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, Neil deGrasse Tyson
6. Killers of the Flower Moon, David Grann
7. The Last Black Unicorn, Tiffany Haddish
8. Born a Crime, Trevor Noah
9. Leonardo da Vinci, Walter Isaacson
10. The Future of Humanity, Michio Kaku

Hot This Week: March 5

The Will Ferrell/Mark Wahlberg comedy sequel Daddy's Home 2 comes in atop this week's movie list. The Black Panther soundtrack has another strong week in music to match the movie's strong showing at the box office, while Nipsey Hussle and Brandi Carlile land new albums on the chart. James Patterson's new collaborative novel with Candice Fox is the top newcomer in fiction, while new audiobooks from Tara Westover and Michio Kaku make their non-fiction debut.

Movies

1. Daddy's Home 2 (Blu-ray | 4K)
2. Wonder (Blu-ray | 4K)
3. A Bad Moms Christmas (Blu-ray)
4. The Star (Blu-ray)
5. Geostorm (Blu-ray)
6. Only the Brave (Blu-ray)
7. Roman J. Israel, Esq. (Blu-ray)
8. Blade Runner 2049 (Blu-ray | 4K)
9. It (Blu-ray | 4K)
10. Boo 2! A Madea Halloween (Blu-ray)

CD

1. Black Panther: The Album
2. Migos, Culture II
3. The Greatest Showman Soundtrack
4. Nipsey Hussle, Victory Lap
5. Brandi Carlile, By the Way, I Forgive You
6. Justin Timberlake, Man of the Woods
7. Ed Sheeran, Divide
8. Kendrick Lamar, DAMN.
9. Post Malone, Stoney
10. Fifty Shades Freed Soundtrack

Fiction

1. The Great Alone, Kristin Hannah
2. Fifty Fifty, James Patterson and Candice Fox
3. The Woman in the Window, A.J. Finn
4. An American Marriage, Tayari Jones
5. Still Me, Jojo Moyes
6. Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng
7. Look for Me, Lisa Gardner
8. Origin, Dan Brown
9. The Rooster Bar, John Grisham
10. Dark in Death, J.D. Robb

Non-Fiction

1. Fire and Fury, Michael Wolff
2. Educated, Tara Westover
3. Enlightenment Now, Steven Pinker
4. Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, Neil deGrasse Tyson
5. The Future of Humanity, Michio Kaku
6. All-American Murder, James Patterson, Alex Abramovich, and Mike Harvkey
7. The Last Black Unicorn, Tiffany Haddish
8. When, Daniel H. Pink
9. Killers of the Flower Moon, David Grann
10. Leonardo da Vinci, Walter Isaacson

Joan Baez Takes a Bow

Written by Jon Williams

Iconic folk singer Joan Baez has had a long and illustrious career, commemorated with her induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017. Now she’s ready for her swan song. The legendary artist has a new album out today, Whistle Down the Wind, her first in ten years. To go along with it, she has embarked on an extensive world tour, starting today in Stockholm and running through November in California. Aptly named the Fare Thee Well tour, it will be her final time going out on the road.

Baez was interested in music from an early age, and was set on her path young when she attended a Pete Seeger concert in 1954. She gave her own first performance in 1958, and a pair of duets with Bob Gibson at the Newport Music Festival in 1959 led to a record deal. Her self-titled debut album was released the following year. She followed it up with Joan Baez, Vol. 2 in 1961. Those albums both attained gold status, as did her 1962 live album, Joan Baez in Concert. Other albums to reach this sales mark are Any Day Now (1968), Blessed Are… (1971), and Diamonds and Rust (1975).

Throughout her career, Baez was influenced by such artists as Pete Seeger and Odetta, and she passed that influence on to a number of other musicians. Her performances with and recording of songs by Bob Dylan were a major factor in his career taking off, and she has been cited as an influence by such artists as Joni Mitchell, Bonnie Raitt, and Emmylou Harris. Although Baez is a songwriter, she is quite well known for songs written by others, including the Band’s “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” and Phil Ochs’s “There but for Fortune.”

She experienced her peak popularity during the tumultuous 1960s, when her music was associated with the civil rights movement and protest of the Vietnam War. Although she slowed down some as the years went on, Baez has continued to record and perform in the intervening years, releasing a total of 25 studio albums, as well as a number of live albums, compilations, and soundtracks. Her previous most recent, Day After Tomorrow, came out in 2008. What has not slowed down is her involvement with a number of causes and issues, including LGBT rights, the environment, and opposition to the death penalty. In 2011, she was honored by Amnesty International with the naming of the annual Joan Baez Award, recognizing artists in any media who “contribute to the advancement of human rights.”

With her work being so closely associated with protest, it is certainly fitting for her to be in the limelight one final time in our current environment. Make sure you have Whistle Down the Wind on your shelves for longtime Joan Baez fans to check out and enjoy, and shed light on her illustrious career with copies of her previous albums as well. SmartBrowse her name on our website to find more, and make sure your patrons know that her new album and her extensive discography are available 24/7 with no waiting on hoopla!