Greetings, salutations, and welcome back to another woo-hoo there's snow on the ground, undrunk eggnog finally expired and tossed, fifteenth-effort-is-the-winner edition of the High Demand Hold Digest - your keyhole into the dreams, desires, and hopes for our beloved patrons.
Welcome to Level-23!  Being a man closing out his 40s faster than I care to admit, the year 2023 strikes me as some unattainable future date that exists beyond the horizon in the future - yet here we are.  Despite the advanced year, again my fingers drift over this keyboard to hammer out the introduction that will take the High Demand list into its ninth year of existence.
 The fact that this list continues to exist means that the remarkably unique ideas that form the foundations of our business are alive, well, and prove we continue to serve our users.  Our existence and our continued use prove communities can band together for the common good, that the vast majority of people are trustworthy, that people can still have privacy as they pursue answers, that information and resources should not be accessibly only to those who can afford it, and that our adaptation to the new and maintenance of the old still strike those sparks of evolution in those we serve.
And as we hold hands and march into 2023 together, we also move along stronger.  I want to take this self-created space to sing the praises to Maine InfoNet, the Maine InfoNet Board of Directors, and everyone and everything that helped play a role in the recently unveiled updated MaineCat lending policies.  The stated policies lay a solid groundwork for clear understanding of responsibilities when dealing with other libraries' items, provide timelines for action in recurring situations, and give clear guidance on how to make material lending a non-zero sum game for all.  While I still think there is room for improvement (dare I dream of a day where there is State support for local collections?), I've set aside my decade old resistance to some forms of INN-Reach lending and have made all items from the Gray Library more than three months old open to request for any library in the State of Maine on van delivery.  So anyone who has a hankering for 180-gram vinyl, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, and PS4+5 video games, music CDs, Amish romances, or bloody remastered horror films, or collection is now fully open.
But - for the fine print - what you hold in your inbox is a list of the top high demand items in the Minerva consortium of libraries where there are at least twice as many holds as there are items in the system.  The list is "published" on a "monthly" basis using the various Maine State Library list-servs.  If you received this list through cosmic coincidence and synchronicity and want more, but do not want to subscribe to any listservs, please send me an email so you may be added to a direct distribution list.
So onwards we go.  Take pride in every beep of a scanned item, rejoice every time the door opens, let the bliss of the universe flow through you with every reference question, and celebrate with every new card registration because, in the kind words of Malcom "Mal" Reynolds, "we done the impossible... and that makes us mighty."
Be well my brothers and sisters, and I'll see you in the stacks.
Best,
Josh
Fiction Books

  1.  A World of Curosities (Penny) - 415 holds on 124 items
  2.  Demon Copperhead (Kingsolver) - 285 holds on 79 items
  3.  Lessons in Chemistry (Garmus) - 183 holds on 64 items
  4.  Mad Honey (Picoult & Boylan) - 143 holds on 69 items
  5.  Foster (Keegan) - 64 holds on 20 items
  6.  The Cloisters (Hays) - 62 holds on 27 items
  7.  Lessons in Chemistry (Barns & Noble edition) (Garmus) - 51 holds on 1 item
  8.  Checkout 19 (Bennett) - 40 holds on 13 items
  9.  The Years (Ernaux) - 29 holds on 9 items
  10. Trespasses (Kennedy) - 28 holds on 11 items
  11. The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida (Karunatilaka) - 27 holds on 11 items
  12. The Perfect Marriage (Rose) - 20 holds on 2 items
  13. The Villa (Hawkins) - 18 holds on 8 items
  14. Sleep No More (Krentz) - 18 holds on 8 items
  15. Robbed Blind (Boyle) - 18 holds on 4 items
  16. The Household (McFadden) - 16 holds on 7 items
  17. A Heart That Works (Delaney) - 15 holds on 7 items
  18. Code 6 (Grippando) - 15 holds on 6 items
  19. Blaze Me a Sun (Carlsson) - 15 holds on 3 items
  20. NYPD Red 7 (Karp) - 11 holds on 5 items
Nonfiction Books

  1.  G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making the American Century (Gage) - 22 holds on 9 items
  2.  Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America (Philip) - 17 holds on 6 items
  3.  Your Table is Ready: Tales of a New York City Matre d' (Cecchi-Azzolina) - 14 holds on 5 items
  4.  Flour Power: The Practice and Pursuit of Baking Sourdough Bread (Jensen) - 13 holds on 4 items
  5.  Sailing at the Edge of Disaster: A Memoir of a Young Woman's Daring Year (Garber) - 12 holds on 2 items
  6.  Ways of Being: Animals, Plants, Machines: The Search for Planetary Intelligence (Bridle) - 11 holds on 4 items
  7.  Plant-based India: Nourshing Recipes Rooted in Tradition (Shukia) - 11 holds on 3 items
  8.  Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male is Struggling, Why It Mattes, and What to Do About It (Reeves) - 11 holds on 2 items
  9.  Revenge: Meghan, Harry, and the War Between the Windsors (Bower) - 10 holds on 2 items
  10. Bad Vibes Only: and Other Things I Bring to the Table (McInerny) - 9 holds on 3 items
Pre-order

  1.  Spare (Prince Harry) - 70 holds
  2.  Storm Watch (Box) - 54 holds
  3.  Encore in Death (Robb) - 37 holds
  4.  The Cabinet of Dr. Leng (Preston) - 37 holds
  5.  The House of Wolves (Patterson) -35 holds
  6.  Simply Lies (Baldacci) - 33 holds
  7.  Unnatural History (Kellerman) - 32 holds
  8.  I Will Find You (Coben) - 31 holds
  9.  The White Lady (Winspear) - 30 holds
  10. A Killing of Innocents (Crombie) - 30 holds
Large Print

  1.  Desert Star (Connelly) - 48 holds on 20 items
  2.  Demon Copperhead (Kingsolver) - 46 holds on 17 items
  3.  Lessons in Chemistry (Garmus) - 39 holds on 15 items
  4.  The Light We Carry (Obama) - 25 holds on 9 items
  5.  The Twist of a Knife (Horowitz) - 16 holds on 6 items
  6.  Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (Zevin) - 15 holds on 3 items
  7.  The Perfect Assassin (Patterson) - 15 holds on 5 items
  8.  November 9 (Hoover) - 12 holds on 3 items
  9.  Righteous Prey (Sandford) - 10 holds on 3 items
  10. Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America (Habermann) - 8 holds on 2 items
Audiobooks

  1.  Hatchet Island (Doiron) - 17 holds on 4 items
  2.  Racing the Light (Crais) - 7 holds on 3 items
  3.  Lessons (McEwan) - 4 holds on 2 items

  1.  The Year of Lear (Shapiro) - 2 holds on 1 item

  1.  With a Mind to Kill (Horowitz) - 2 holds on 1 item
  2.  The Swedish Art of Aging Exuberantly (Magnusson) - 2 holds on 1 item
  3.  Second Nature: A Gardner's Education (Pollan) - 2 holds on 1 item
Graphic Novels

  1.  Tomi (Ito) - 2 holds on 1 item
  2.  Splatoon: Squid Kids Comedy Show 5 (Goto) - 2 holds on 1 item
  3.  Five Nights at Freddy's: Fazbear Frights collection 1 (Cawthon) - 2 holds on 1 item
  4.  Everything is Ok (Tung) - 2 holds on 1 item
  5.  Catwoman: Lonely City (Chiang) - 2 holds on 1 item
  6.  Batman / Catwoman (King) - 2 holds on 1 item
  7.  The Art of Sushi (Alarcon) - 2 holds on 1 item
  8.  Adventure Time Comics, vol. 2 - 2 holds on 1 item
Misc A/V

  1.  Ticket to Paradise (DVD) - 35 holds on 11 items
  2.  Tar (DVD) - 18 holds on 6 items
  3.  The Banshees of Inisherin (DVD) - 17 holds on 6 items
  4.  Murdoch Mysteries: Season 15 (DVD) - 10 holds on 3 items
  5.  Blue Bloods: Season 12 (DVD) - 9 holds on 3 items
  6.  Death in Paradise: Season 11 (DVD) - 7 holds on 2 items
  7.  NCIS: Hawaii (DVD) - 6 holds on 2 items
  8.  Top Gun: Maverick (4K) - 6 holds on 2 items
  9.  Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (DVD) - 6 holds on 1 item
  10. Recipes for Love and Murder: Series 1 (DVD) - 5 holds on 1 item
  11. Paradise City (DVD) - 5 holds on 1 item
  12. Annika: Season 1 (DVD) - 5 holds on 2 items
  13. Operation Seawolfe (DVD) - 4 holds on 2 items
  14. Van der Valk Mysteries: Set 1 (DVD) - 3 holds on 1 item
  15. Fall (Blu-ray) - 3 holds on 1 item
  16. The Worst Person in the World (Blu-ray) - 2 holds on 1 item
  17. Infinite (Blu-ray) - 2 holds on 1 item
  18. Excalibur (Blu-ray) - 2 holds on 1 item
  19. You, Me, & Them (DVD) - 2 holds on 1 item
  20. Tokyo Story (DVD) - 2 holds on 1 item
Video Games

  1.  Pokemon: Violent - 9 holds on 4 items
  2.  Pokemon: Scarley - 9 holds on 4 items
  3.  Nintendo Switch Sports - 6 holds on 3 items
  4.  Pokemon: Let's Go Pikachui - 2 holds on 1 item
  5.  NBA 2K22 Take Two - 2 holds on 1 item
  6.  Madden NFL 23 - 2 holds on 1 item
  7.  Let's Build a Zoo - 2 holds on 1 item
  8.  Disney Classic Games Collection - 2 holds on 1 item
  9.  Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion - 2 holds on 1 item
  10. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion - 2 holds on 1 item


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