Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Happenings

2007 Giller Prize Awarded Tonight



Canada's most lucrative literary prize is being awarded in a gala ceremony tonight. With a purse of $50,000 the Giller rivals the GGs for most coveted award among authors. Not lucky enough to be invited to the black-tie soiree? Curl up on the couch and watch the action live on Bravo! as well as on CTV. Seamus O’Regan will reprise his role as host of the broadcast.

Friday, November 02, 2007

Friday Trivia

Questions (card #284):

CH (Children's Literature) - What Margery Williams title character is brought to life by the nursery magic Fairy ?
CL (Classic Literature) - Whose 1952 novel Invisible Man has its hero proclaim: "I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me"?
NF (Non-fiction) - What 1993 tome was M. Scott Peck's second trek down his best-selling road?
BC (Book Club) - Whose novel Vida earned Abbie Hoffman's jibe: "This is not the fugutive life as I've observed it for more than six years?
AU (Author) - What grande dame of young-adult fiction is less well-known by her first two names, Susan Eloise?
BB (BookBag) - What Ian Frazier humor collection features a title essay that imagines a cartoon character's lawsuit over an unreliable rocket sled?

How did you do? See Comments for answers.

Thursday, November 01, 2007

New Books

Every week Georgina Public Libraries receives dozens of new books. Here's a sample of what's new today. To place these on hold, get copies delivered to your branch, or see what else we have, visit our online catalogue. Don't know how to place your own holds? Call or send me an e-mail.















Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Happenings

Evergreen author Giles Blunt will be in East Gwillimbury tomorrow evening.

Meet him on Wed. Oct. 24, 2007 at 7:30 pm in Sharon at the Civic Centre. Tickets ($10, members $8) available at the libraries in Mount Albert and Holland Landing.

Hosted by the Friends of the East Gwillimbury Public Library, award-winning Canadian Blunt will read from his newest novel, By the Time You Read This, and others. This is a fantastic opportunity to be up close and personal with one of Canada's leading mystery writers.

Giles Blunt grew up in North Bay, Ontario which is thinly disguised as Algonquin Bay in his John Cardinal mystery series. Several of his novels have won awards: Forty Words for Sorrow (British Crime Writers’ Macallan Silver Dagger), The Delicate Storm (Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel), and Black Fly Season (one of Margaret Cannon’s Best Mysteries of the Year). The most recent By the Time You Read This is a Globe and Mail Best Book and a nominee for the Duncan Lawrie Dagger the biggest crime fiction award of the world. He has also written scripts for Law & Order, Street Legal and Night Heat.

Friday, October 19, 2007

Happenings

The International Festival of Authors begins this week at the Harbourfront Centre. Running from October 17 to 27 the IFOA is the highlight of the literary year in Canada. This is great opportunity to attend readings and rub elbows with favourites like Margaret Atwood, Ian Rankin, Isabelle Allende, Elizabeth Hay, Peter Robinson, and more!

The IFOA includes readings, interviews, lectures and round table discussions as well as public book signings and a festival bookstore. The IFOA also presents a number of special events including readings by Scotiabank Giller Prize and Governor General’s Literary Awards finalists, as well as the highly anticipated awarding of the Harbourfront Festival Prize.

Literary fans in Georgina, a drive down to the city might be in order!

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Evergreen a Hit, Favourite a tie!

Wednesday night readers from all over Georgina gathered at the Peter Gzowski branch in Sutton to discuss the 10 Evergreen 2007 books, eat some yummy treats and take home some great prizes. Thank you to everyone who dropped in for the Party!

We'd like to thank our sponsors who graciously donated prizes: Canadian Tire, The Cookshop and Marketplace, Village Traditions, Apples of Gold, Swiss Chalet, The Stephen Leacock Theatre, Georgina Leisure Pool, Sutton Home Hardware, Gem Theatre, Confidente Spa and Salon, and The Simcoe Arms. Thank you!!

Congratulations to the winners of our grand prizes: Wendy Hardman of Pefferlaw, Bobbi Sabatini of Keswick and Tatiana Vernon of Jackson's Point.

Wednesday we also voted for our favourite Evergreen book. There was a tie between Absolute Honour and The Birth House.

Votes will be accepted until Thursday, October 25, so please contact me, or leave a comment with your choice, and it will be counted.

Friday, September 21, 2007

What I Read on Vacation...

What does a Librarian do on vacation? Well, read, of course! The Evergreen list provided great entertainment ideas to help pass many hours flying and waiting in airports. Here's what I read on vacation...

Dream Wheels by Richard Wagamese Joe Willie Wolfchild is about to become a World Champion rodeo cowboy when he is severely injured by a bull he is riding. As he comes to terms with the way his life has changed as a result of the injury, he is supported by his close family. Claire Hartley and her son Aiden have lived a nomadic life as Claire has moved from one unsuitable man to another. After Aiden is arrested as a result of a botched robbery, an Edmonton policeman helps them find a new beginning, but they both must still face their past and choose their futures for themselves. Ontario Library Association

A fantastic novel that's part Western, part family saga and all well-written!

Monday, August 27, 2007

Still Life is anything but still

If you like the intelligent mysteries of Ian Rankin, Peter Robinson or Anne Perry, but like the gentle style of Agatha Christie, Louise Penny is the author for you.
I liked Still Life so much that I had to rush out and read its sequel, Fatal Grace. I can only hope that there is soon more to come from this talented writer.
Here's a bit about Still Life:
The murder of a much loved and highly regarded woman in a small village in the Eastern Townships of Quebec brings Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec to the small village of Three Pines. As Gamache and his team investigate and discover whodunit, they meet a variety of the locals and learn that everyone in this picturesque village has a secret.
Reserve your copy of Still Life today! Since it's an Evergreen book, signing it out may win you a prize!

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

What We're Reading in Sutton...

Tuesday, September 25 7:30-8:30pm
Peter Gzowski Branch, Sutton (905) 722-5702
Join us to discuss The Way the Crow Flies, the second novel by award-winning Canadian author Ann-Marie MacDonald. It was first published by Knopf Canada in 2003, and went on to a finalist for the Giller Prize.

The plot of the novel revolves around a fictionalized version of the Steven Truscott case and is set for the most part at a real Royal Canadian Air Force station: RCAF Station Centralia.
At 720 pages long, it's not a light read, but it's well worth it. I have several copies available to borrow at the Sutton branch. Come in, e-mail me, or give me a call to reserve your copy.

Friday, August 10, 2007

My Favourite Evergreen So Far...

Cockeyed: A Memoir
Written by Ryan Knighton
This is a humorous, but thoughtful, memoir of a young man from British Columbia who is losing his sight. Part coming-of-age story, part travelogue, this book details Ryan Knighton’s adventures from his first driving experiences and relationships with girls to his college days in Vancouver and term teaching English in South Korea.
When most people would wave a red flag, retreat from society and label themselves "disabled", Knighton grabs his blindness by the horns and wrestles it into something comprehendible and manageable. One has to admire a guy who learns to drive, picks up women in a bar, and travels overseas, all while passing as sighted.
This memoir is at times heartwrenching, but overwhelmingly human and hilarious. Particularly funny is the passage where Knighton learns to walk with a white cane. Sound like a bad joke, but trust me- you'll laugh out loud. For more on Knighton's quirky style and fascinating life, check out his website: http://www.ryanknighton.com/
So this is my favourite Evergreen so far. I'm reading Still Life right now, and will report back next week.
What's your favourite Evergreen?

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Evergreen 2007



Evergreen 2007 is here!! This summer reading program for adults was a great success last year, and we look forward to an even better summer in 2007.

The shortlist this year contains a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction. From period pieces to incredible personal stories, there is something here for everyone. For the complete book list, click here, or visit your local library.

Readers who sign out these books between now and October will receive a ballot for some great prizes. The ambitious among you who read at least half of the list will become eligible for a grand prize draw at the end. Everyone is welcome to vote for their favourite book. Votes will be tabulated all across Ontario, and the winning author will be presented with a lovely award from the Ontario Library Association. There will be a great wrap-up party in October, featuring food, and a few surprises! Happy Reading!!

Friday, June 29, 2007

Friday Book Lover's Trivia

Questions (card #131):

CH (Children's Literature) - What does Admiral Drake send to Mr. Popper from Antarctica, in a classic Richard and Florence Atwater tale?
CL (Classic Literature) - What saga by William Makepeace Thackeray features the clever social climber Becky Sharp?
NF (Non-fiction) - What former managing editor of Time magazine was the first Henry Kissinger biographer to gain access to the diplomat's private papers?
BC (Book Club) - What 1996 Mario Puzo opus features a powerful Mafia leader who wants to go legit?
AU (Author) - What 19-year-old harmonica whiz played Bob Dylan tunes across India, before publishing his first novel, Such a Long Journey?
BB (BookBag) - What bestseller has park ranger Anna Pigeon investigate a possible Klan murder in Mississippi?

How did you do? See Comments for answers.

Friday, June 08, 2007

Friday Book Lover's Trivia

Questions (card #278):

CH (Children's Literature) - What chatacter's Guide to Life was subtitled: How to Eat, Dress, Travel, Behave and Stay Six forever?
CL (Classic Literature) - Who satirized London literary society in Cakes and Ale, the tale of two writers researching a biography of the fictitious Edward Driffield?
NF (Non-Fiction) - What host of The View holds court in You Have to Stand for Something, or You'll Fall for Anything?
BC (Book Club) - Who landed his second book, You Shall Know Our Velocity!, on bestseller lists despite publishing it himself and keeping it off chain store shelves?
AU (Author) - Whose tattling Tinseltown tales led Vanity Fair to dub her "Hollywood's own Marcel Proust"?
BB (BookBag) - What Scottish author features Professor Doctor Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld in Portuguese Irregular Verbs and The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs?

How did you do? See Comments for answers.

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Tuesday Book Lover's Trivia

Questions (card #155):

CH (Children's Literature) - What Winnie-the-Pooh character doesn't show up until the sequel, The House at Pooh Corner- Eeyore, Owl or Tigger?
CL (Classic Literature) - What novel introduced Kingsley Amis' popular antihero Jim Dixon?NF (Non-fiction) - What continent, remade by a meteor strike 65 million years ago, did Tim Flammery dub The Eternal Frontier?
BC (Book Club) - What epic novella treats readers to the elemental life of 19th-century frontiersman Tristan Ludlow?
AU (Author) - What midwestern university counts novelist Saul Bellow as a permanent member of its Committee on Social Thought?
BB (BookBag) - What mystery scribe created septuagenarian sleuth Henrie O to change folks' views of older women?

How did you do? See Comments for answers.

Friday, May 04, 2007

Friday Book Lover's Trivia

Questions (card #129):

CH (Children's Literature) - Who teaches Charms at Hogwarts?
CL (Classic Literature) - What taboo B-word in George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion sparked a scandal on the London stage?
NF (Non-fiction) - What nation's military coup did author Thomas Hauser explore, in The Execution of Charles Horman, later published as Missing?
BC (Book Club) - What Gloria Naylor novel focuses on sea island matriarch Miranda day?
AU (Author) - What author of Sally Hemings sculped Africa Rising, a monument ot slave trade victims that graces the lobby of a Manhattan federal building?
BB (BookBag) - What science-fiction author invited others into his Known Space universe, to write stories documenting the Man-Kzin Wars?

How did you do? See Comments for answers.

Friday, April 27, 2007

Friday Book Lover's Trivia

Questions (card #347):

CH (Children's Literature) - What type of bird showed Mary Lennox where the rusty key to The Secret Garden was buried?
CL (Classic Literature) - What novel sees ambulance driver Lt. Frederick Henry escaping execution by jumping into the Tagliamento River?
NF (Non-fiction) - What 20th-century trustbuster got the royal treament in Edmund Morris' Theodore Rex?
BC (Book Club) - What Texas town did Woodrow Call and Augustus McCrae meet up in, before starting a cattle drive to Montana?
AU (Author) - Who had already penned Player Piano by the time he became one of Saab's first U.S. dealers?
BB (BookBag) - What comic included the classic stand-up routine "A Place for My Stuff" in his collection of cerebral scat called Braindroppings?

How did you do? See Comments for answers.

Friday, March 30, 2007

Friday Book Lover's Trivia

Questions (card #34):

CH (Children's Literature) - What was the best-selling hardcover children's book ever, by 2001- Green Eggs and Ham, Pat the Bunny or the Poky Little Puppy?
CL (Classic Literature) - What novel spins the tale of the four March sisters?
NF (Non-fiction) - What rocker's famous excesses did Sandy Troy detail in his 1994 autobiography Captain Trips?
BC (Book Club) - What Margaret Drabble novel centers on a feminist author who turns up missing from her British seaside town?
AU (Author) - What Nobel Prize-winner no doubt pleased typesetters by abbreviating his first two names, Vidiadhar Surajprasad?
BB (BookBag) - What hard-boiled private investigator dates a feminist therapist named Susan Silverman?

Wow, a relatively easy card this week. I got 5 of the 6 right! How did you do? See Comments for answers.

Friday, March 23, 2007

Friday Book Lover's Trivia

Questions (card #93):

CH (Children's Literature) - What kind of creature is the grouchy Templeton, in Charlotte's Web?
CL (Classic Literature) - What was Jane Austen's novel Susan retitled when it was first printed, decades after she'd written it?
NF (Non-fiction) - What corporation's 2001 downfall does Fortune reporter Bethany McLean expose, in The Smartest Guys in the Room?
BC (Book Club) - What author of The Transit of Venus forced fans to wait 23 years for her next novel, The Great Fire?
AU (Author) - What Nobel-winning U.S. novelist wrote in the 1950s about raising a mentally handicapped daughter, in The Child Who Never Grew?
BB (BookBag) - What mystery author's stable of sleuths includes museum curator Elena Oliverez and art investigator Joanna Stark?

How did you do? See Comments for answers.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Friday, erm... Wednesday Book Lover's Trivia!

My sincerest apologies to readers who missed the promised trivia last Friday. Hope this helps to ease the pain a little!

Questions (card #142):

CH (Children's Literature) - What book by Robert K. Smith finds Henry Green chomping so much chocolate that his skin breaks out in sweet-smelling bumps?

CL (Classic Literature) - What James Baldwin novel describes the spiritual awakening of 14-year-old John Grimes?

NF (Non-fiction) - What Bruce Porter book bore the subtitle How a Small-Town Boy Made $100 Million with the Medellin Cocaine Cartel and Lost It All?

BC (Book Club) - What best-selling western finds Lt. John Dunbar ordered to command a deserted army outpost?

AU (Author) - What Londoner, born Richard Patrick Russ, ditched his first wife and kids to reinvent himself as an "Irish" nautical novelist?

BB (BookBag) - What John Jakes trilogy concludes in Reconstruction times with Heaven and Hell?

How did you do? I got three this time (yay me)! See Comments for answers.

Monday, March 19, 2007

Local Woman Tells her Story and Wins!

Janette Mann of Keswick entered TVO's Telling our Stories competition, and won $250 for Georgina Public Libraries!






Pictured here is Janette [right] and Head Librarian Mary Baxter, holding a copy of Janette's winning story.

To read Janette's heart-warming story, click here.

Friday, March 09, 2007

Book Lovers Trivia

Every Friday I will post questions taken from Trivial Pursuit's Book Lover's Edition.



This isn't a game for the literary faint of heart- it's really hard! On this first card, I only got 2 questions right. How did you do? Click on Comments for the answers.

Questions (card #21):

CH (Children's Literature) - What fictional character did author Barbara Park finally allow to graduate from kindergarten, after nine years and 17 books?

CL (Classic Literature) - Who wrote The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas?

NF (Non-fiction) - What 19th-century inventory did Kenneth Silverman profile in his biography Lightning Man?

BC (Book Club) - What Robert Stone novel, set during the last days of the Vietnam War, features a journalist whose drug deal goes horribly awry?

AU (Author) - Who retaliated for being dumped by Eddie Cantor by basing a pathetic character on him in her novel The Love Machine?

BB (BookBag) - Whose novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was adapted into the film Blade Runner?

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

And the Winner Is...



Lullabies for Little Criminals


Published in 2006 by HarperCollins


The narrator of Heather O'Neill's evocative novel is a 12-year-old named Baby, who is hovering between childhood and the temptations of the adult world. Her father, Jules, takes better care of his heroin habit than he does of her, and Baby learns not to depend on him. Though they live in poverty, she collects and covets the small crumbs of happiness she finds as she navigates the streets of Montreal's red-light district.
On the outside, Baby is whipsmart, wickedly funny and has a genius for survival; on the inside, she's as needy and as fragile as any girl entering puberty. She experiences highs and lows during stints in foster care and in a juvenile detention centre, all the while craving an injection of love and stability in her life.
Baby grows to depend on the charismatic predator Alphonse, a local pimp who is riveted by her blossoming beauty. At the same time, she nurtures a tender and naively passionate friendship with Xavier, a classmate who is clueless about his girlfriend's double life.
Lullabies for Little Criminals is a powerful debut novel, the coming-of-age story of a young woman who learns to adapt to heartbreaking circumstances, and about the young man who became her parent too early.

Defended by John K. Samson


To learn more, check out the Readers Guide (1332kb)

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Canada Reads

Canada Reads is at it again. The "All-Star" edition features panelists whose books have won previous Canada Reads contests.

Here are the books. Which one are you rooting for?



Friday, February 09, 2007

What we're reading in Sutton


Amir and Hassan are childhood friends in the alleys and orchards of Kabul in the sunny days before the invasion of the Soviet army and Afghanistan’s decent into fanaticism. Both motherless, they grow up as close as brothers, but their fates, they know, are to be different. Amir’s father is a wealthy merchant; Hassan’s father is his manservant. Amir belongs to the ruling caste of Pashtuns, Hassan to the despised Hazaras.This fragile idyll is broken by the mounting ethnic, religious, and political tensions that begin to tear Afghanistan apart. An unspeakable assault on Hassan by a gang of local boys tears the friends apart; Amir has witnessed his friend’s torment, but is too afraid to intercede. Plunged into self-loathing, Amir conspires to have Hassan and his father turned out of the household.When the Soviets invade Afghanistan, Amir and his father flee to San Francisco, leaving Hassan and his father to a pitiless fate. Only years later will Amir have an opportunity to redeem himself by returning to Afghanistan to begin to repay the debt long owed to the man who should have been his brother.Compelling, heartrending, and etched with details of a history never before told in fiction, The Kite Runner is a story of the ways in which we’re damned by our moral failures, and of the extravagant cost of redemption.

Friday, January 26, 2007

If you Liked The Greek for Love...

The Greek for Love is a passionate memoir about the Greek island of Corfu. Reading this book will make your feet itchy to travel. If, like me, you're stuck in chilly Canada for the forseeable future, these books may help to satisfy your wanderlust.








Ask for them next time you visit the Library.


Monday, January 15, 2007

What We're Reading this January

In our Book Club discussions this month:


What we're reading in Sutton


Many people can only dream about leaving everything to run off and live on a Greek island but for four years in the early 1980's James Chatto and his wife Wendy Martin did just that. This beautiful and touching memoir recounts not only the idyllic nature of Greece which initially seduced them to stay but also how they came to be accepted as locals following the birth of their first son and the tragic illness of their second.
The Sutton Book Club meets Tuesday, January 30th, 7:30pm at the Peter Gzowski Branch.

What we're reading in Keswick


Set in the first half of the twentieth century, but reaching back to Bavaria in the late nineteenth century, The Stone Carvers weaves together the story of ordinary lives marked by obsession and transformed by art. At the centre of a large cast of characters is Klara Becker, the granddaughter of a master carver, a seamstress haunted by a love affair cut short by the First World War, and by the frequent disappearances of her brother Tilman, afflicted since childhood with wanderlust. From Ontario, they are swept into a colossal venture in Europe years later, as Toronto sculptor Walter Allward’s ambitious plans begin to take shape for a war memorial at Vimy, France. Spanning three decades, and moving from a German-settled village in Ontario to Europe after the Great War, The Stone Carvers follows the paths of immigrants, labourers, and dreamers. Vivid, dark, redemptive, this is novel of great beauty and power.
The Keswick Book Club meets Tuesday, January 30, 7pm, at the Keswick Branch

What we're reading in Pefferlaw


Before his return to the U.S. after a 20-year residence in England, journalist Bryson (Made in America) embarked on a farewell tour of his adopted homeland. His trenchant, witty and detailed observations of life in a variety of towns and villages will delight Anglophiles. Traveling only on public transportation and hiking whenever possible, Bryson wandered along the coast through Bournemouth and neighboring villages that reinforced his image of Britons as a people who rarely complain and are delighted by such small pleasures as a good tea. In Liverpool, the author's favorite English city, he visited the Merseyside Maritime Museum to experience its past as a great port. Interweaving descriptions of landscapes and everyday encounters with shopkeepers, pub customers and fellow travelers, Bryson shares what he loves best about the idiosyncrasies of everyday English life in this immensely entertaining travel memoir. Author tour. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
The Pefferlaw Book Club meets, Thursday, February 1st, 1:30pm, at the Pefferlaw Branch.