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More Recent Book Club Reads

Lifestyle Columns

A few months ago, I shared some books that our three book clubs had recently read and discussed. I also talked about the origins of book clubs and some of the benefits they provide. Here are a few more recent book club picks to get you thinking about trying a new author, a new genre, or about joining a book club! The Lit Wits Book Club recently read author Veronica Roth’s “Poster Girl.” Veronica Roth is best known for her dystopian young adult Divergent series, which were made into movies. “Poster Girl” is a book that is instead set after a dystopian regime has already fallen ...

Strike by pilots meant problems for some New Ulm travelers

Health

By SALLY DU FOUR Staff writer The Northwest Airlines pilot strike which idled 8,500 NWA employees also had its effect on New Ulm area traveler. Mary Karl of the Travel Fun Tours office in New Ulm said 45 people left New Ulm Wednesday, flying to Seattle to start a tour of the Pacific Northwest and Canadian Rockies. The tour had been scheduled to fly Northwest but the strike Monday meant hours and hours and hours of long-distance calls to make other arrangements. THE TOUR was rescheduled to fly via Western with a transfer at Denver, instead of direct to Seattle, which meant a ...

The final chapter

Lifestyle Feature

For nearly three decades 123 N. Minnesota St. has been home to Bookshelves & Coffeecups. The store is a true mom-and-pop shop as it is owned and run by husband and wife duo Gerome (“Jerry” or “Jer”) and Pam Chamberlain, who also live above the store. For 28 years, they have been a ...

More is better when it comes to vase decorations

Lifestyle Columns

For art glass collectors, a peachblow vase can be as much of a treat as a perfectly ripe peach at the peak of its season. Peachblow is one of the many types of two-tone art glass popular in the late Victorian era. The shaded glass craze began with Amberina, shading from amber to ruby, patented in 1883. Burmese glass, shading from pink to yellow, was registered in 1885. In 1886, tonal pink shades came into vogue, thanks to the sale of a famous antique Chinese ceramic vase, today called the Morgan vase, with a mottled pink glaze described as “peachblow” or “peach bloom.” By then, ...

While you wait: Readalikes for ‘Great Big Beautiful Life’

Lifestyle Columns

Are you tired of waiting in the hold line for “Great Big Beautiful Life,” the newest Emily Henry book? Or maybe you are not waiting because you have already read the book and now you want more romantic comedies? Either way, the library can help! Here is a list of newer readalikes available at the library, with descriptions from the publishers. “It’s a Love Story” by Annabel Monaghan. “Jane Jackson spent her adolescence as ‘Poor Janey Jakes,’ the barbecue-sauce-in-her-braces punch line on America’s fifth-favorite sitcom. Now she’s trying to be taken seriously as a ...

Combining tin packaging and tin toys

Lifestyle Feature

Biscuit tins, first made about 1830, were some of the earliest commercial food packages. The first tin toys were made about the same time. It wasn’t too long before clever designers found ways to combine the two. Tin packaging with colorful images always caught customers’ attention, and, while fashionable art styles and scenes of foreign countries appealed to adults, children were drawn to tins shaped and decorated like their favorite playthings. In the late 19th to early 20th centuries, many companies packaged their products in tins shaped like buildings, vehicles, animals, and ...