"…adults should feel embarrassed about reading literature for children." So wrote Ruth Graham in an article for Slate, which was recently republished in the Toronto Star. The article tries to shame adults who read literature written for young people – not for children, as the quote above indicates, but for teenagers. Graham focuses on realistic […]
I like to match my vacation reading to my vacation destination. My pleasure in the book is enhanced, and my appreciation for the scene around me is deepened. Recently, I brought Joseph Boyden’s The Orenda with me on a trip to the rocky shores of Georgian Bay, the setting for much of the book. The […]
While we waited for the elevator, a colleague asked me, “What are you reading these days?” It’s just the sort of question you’d expect one librarian to ask another, and it should have been easy to answer. But I did some quick math and realized I had six books on the go! Wild: from lost […]
Shaman and disciplesPlease join us at North York Central Library on Wednesday June 4 at 7:00 pm for a presentation on First Nations artist Norval Morrisseau and The Woodland School of Art. Call 416-395-5639 to register for this free program. As a child, Norval Morrisseau made drawings in the sand at the lakeshore and watched […]
Imagine a future in which your blanket conspires with your curtains while you sleep. All night “blanky” has been monitoring and recording your every breath and movement, standing guard against the grim reaper, ready to call an ambulance if you suddenly fall dangerously ill. Your curtains check your schedule, noting that you have an early […]
After reading the novel Longbourn, by Jo Baker, I decided to put an intriguing cleaning method used by Sarah, the novel’s main character, to the test. Just to be clear, Longbourn is not a novel about cleaning, although a great deal of cleaning happens in it, including laborious hand-scrubbing of petticoats which have dragged through […]
Question: what do a 1980s science fiction book, a comical Swedish picaresque tale, an Italian novel steeped in sadness, a tough guy thriller, a history of the native peoples of North America, a teen romance, a true story about a deadly trip into the Alaskan wilderness, a vegan cook book, and a ghost story from […]
Please join us at North York Central Library on Wednesday January 22 at 7:00 p.m. for our first opera talk of 2014. Wayne Gooding, the editor of Opera Canada magazine, will give a talk on Giuseppe Verdi's opera Un Ballo in Maschera (A masked ball). The talk will include guided listening, images, opera history, and […]
I was delighted to learn that Canadian Alice Munro, “master of the contemporary short story,” won’the 2013 Nobel Prize for literature. Short fiction has long been obscured by the imposing shadow of the novel. I’ve met people who say they won't read short stories – they will only read novels. When I hear this sentiment […]
One night I went in search of a shiver up the spine and got more than I’d bargained for. I’d been deeply terrified by the movie The Exorcist years before. To this day, if I chance upon the movie while channel surfing my thumb murders the remote control in a desperate effort to exorcise The […]