Category Archives: Books and reading

Little Free Library (#7) – Milwaukee Fire Department, Engine House 32

Posted on June 9, 2016 by Katherine Wikoff

Found in the neighborhood just northeast of 35th and Vliet in Milwaukee. Saving lives in more ways than one 🙂  

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Fallen Petals in Wet Grass

Posted on May 10, 2016 by Katherine Wikoff

When the spring rains come, the litter of magnolia petals and crab apple blossoms somehow reminds me of the Ezra Pound poem, “In a Station of the Metro”: The apparition of these faces in the crowd: Petals on a wet, … Continue reading →

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Norman Rockwell’s The Bookworm Redux

Posted on February 19, 2016 by Katherine Wikoff

There’s a special gallery two doors away from my office in the Grohmann Museum that houses a collection of paintings by a 19th-century German painter, Carl Spitzweg. On the wall outside that gallery is a painting by American painter Norman … Continue reading →

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Little Free Library #6 – London Calling

Posted on October 12, 2015 by Katherine Wikoff

This mini-library replica of a British red telephone box . . . . . . is at its best during the night, when it is lit up by a focused spotlight. Its red glow can be seen from a few … Continue reading →

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Little Free Library (#5) – Stained Glass

Posted on October 7, 2015 by Katherine Wikoff

Milwaukee’s older homes are characterized by beautiful woodwork and built-in cabinetry, often accented with leaded stained-glass windows. This mini-library box mimics what is probably a standard feature in the neighborhood it occupies.  

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Thoughts on Patti Smith

Posted on October 4, 2015 by Katherine Wikoff

Patti Smith was a little before my time. Definitely WAY outside the bounds of my Midwestern sensibilities by the time I became aware of her during my high school years. Smith was that punk performer, the one in New York who urinated onstage and … Continue reading →

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Little Free Library (#4) – Haunted Schoolhouse

Posted on October 2, 2015 by Katherine Wikoff

This “schoolhouse” mini-library asks that people leave only children’s books for others to borrow. Right now the library box is decorated for Halloween, so you can’t see it very well  beneath the cottony spider webbing—but there’s a school bell up in … Continue reading →

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Little Free Library (#3) – “Miss Kris”

Posted on September 24, 2015 by Katherine Wikoff

Saw this mini-library box on my way to work and had to get a picture. Don’t you love the shushing librarian, “Miss Kris,” at her desk safeguarding the “stacks”? Very imaginative!

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Little Free Library (#2)

Posted on July 22, 2015 by Katherine Wikoff

A couple years ago—hard to believe I’ve been blogging that long!—I wrote a post on the Little Free Library phenomenon.  (Here’s the link to that post if you’d like to read it: https://katherinewikoff.com/2012/06/29/little-free-library/) I’ve been meaning to follow up that post … Continue reading →

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Brian Williams, Jonah Lehrer, and kleptomania

Posted on February 10, 2015 by Katherine Wikoff

By now, who hasn’t heard the news about NBC anchor Brian Williams? That he lied multiple times, over a period of many years, about his helicopter being hit by ground fire in Iraq. That he apparently lied about many other … Continue reading →

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