Why are we eliminating late fines? Library access is our main objective: we don’t want financial status to impact use of the Library. Daily late fines, while intended to incentivize the return of library material, unintentionally create a barrier for patrons to access critical library services. These barriers disproportionately impact families with young children, low-income households, and those in our community who need us the most. Research shows that fine-free libraries often have increased return rates and higher circulation. Please note that there will still be fees for damaged or lost items. Please see the details of this service change here.
If you are in a position to pay fines, we encourage you to consider making a donation to the library. You can donate directly in person using cash, credit or debit; mail a cheque or make an online donation via Canadahelps. Hope to see you at the Library!
]]>And I don’t think I’m the only one who likes to see what other people are currently fawning over or what they think is a “must see” or “must do”. We all need some inspiration or advice to spark that interest in… whatever topic that piques your fancy. And of course, for me at the library, the topic of choice is… BOOKS! (No surprise there.)
Which leads me to the real subject at hand (drum roll, please) : Our Top 10 Books in 2020. And for you Movie-Lovers out there: The Top 10 Kanopy Picks in 2020.
So now you can’t say, “I don’t know what to read!” or “I have nothing to watch!” No excuses, People! Read now. Thank me later. 🙂
Here’s where I add some caveats: this Top 10 lists the books that were checked out most often at our library in 2020, or what we Library Geeks call our “top circulations”, (or “top circs”, if you want to talk extra fancy-like.) The books that EVERYBODY was checking out of our library last year. (Personally my favourite was American Dirt, and yes, that’s on the list. A Must Read, for sure!) These are the book titles you can whip out at your next dinner party (when Dr. Bonnie gives us the nod) and say, perhaps in a faux British accent and wearing your best ballgown and tiara, “Darling, you absolutely MUST read this book. It’s positively mahvelous!” That’s what I plan on doing, anyway.
Oh, and stay tuned next month for another juicy list: the BEST Books of 2020. (And I’ll give you a hint – the books on that list are completely different. What’s popular – our “top circs” – and what’s best, aren’t always the same, right? Some overlap, but not all. See? You gotta love lists. There’s some fun for everyone!)
Looking for something to watch? Look no further! Here are the Kanopy Superstars of 2020. And when you get so intrigued that you feel simply compelled to watch these yourself, log into Kanopy with your Gibsons Library card here.
10. The Hours Three women (Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore) in different times are related by a parallel in their personal lives. One throwing a party for a friend suffering from AIDS. Another in 1949, suffering as a young wife. The last, Virginia Woolf, writing “Mrs. Dalloway” |
9. Capital in the 21st Century Based on the international bestseller by rock-star economist Thomas Piketty, this captivating documentary is an eye-opening journey through wealth and power, a film that breaks the popular assumption that the accumulation of capital runs hand in hand with social progress, and shines a new light on today’s growing inequalities. |
8. You Are (Not) Small Two fuzzy creatures can’t agree on who is small and who is big, until a couple of surpise guests show up, settling it once and for all! An original and very funny story about size – it all depends on who’s standing next to you. |
7. Edie Following the death of her husband, EDIE (Sheila Hancock) breaks free from years of his control and rebels against her daughter’s wish for her to move into assisted living by embarking on an adventure she and her father had always longed for: a trip to the Scottish Highlands to climb the world famous Mt. Suilven. |
6. Zodiac A chilling crime thriller based on the Robert Graysmith books about the real life notorious Zodiac, a serial killer who terrorized San Francisco with a string of seemingly random murders during the 1960’s and 1970’s. |
5.Paterson |
4. Arab Blues |
3. Boy Acclaimed director Taika Waititi presents a creative coming-of-age comedy set in 1984, following an eleven-year-old Michael Jackson fanatic nicknamed “Boy” (James Rolleston). With his mother dead and father AWOL, Boy becomes the head of a household full of kids when his Nana leaves town for a funeral. Out of nowhere, Boy’s Dad (Waititi) rolls up in a vintage car with his “gang”, and turns Boy’s life upside down. |
2. Europe on the Brink of the Black Death |
1. Stash Short Film Festival: Comedy Spanning a spectrum of filmmaking styles, tones, and techniques, these seven films all have one goal common: to lighten your day with humor. From whimsical and ridiculous to dry and ironic, you’ll find the hit of comedy you need in this collection from the editors of Stash Magazine. |
Thanks to Kanopy for all images and descriptions.
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A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara: One of my favourite books. It’s not an uplifting read but so well written & the characters are so well developed that you’ll begin to think of these people as your friends. |
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What the Psychic Told the Pilgrim by Jane Christmas: A travelogue about the author’s experience on the Camino. This book played a part in inspiring me to walk the Camino Portugues last year. You can plan your Camino for when this is all over 🙂 |
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The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian: Historical fiction about the Armenian genocide. Very well researched and haunting read. |
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The Light in the Ruins by Chris Bohjalian: A family saga set in war-ravaged Tuscan in the 1940s. |
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The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff: Historical fiction combined with a modern murder mystery. Delves into the mysteries of the fundamentalist Mormon church in Utah. |
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Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See: Set in 19th century China, the story of a friendship where they share experiences such as foot-binding, their arranged marriages, and the joys and tragedies of motherhood. |
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Room by Emma Donoghue: A haunting novel narrated by five-year-old Jack. ‘ Room’ is Jack’s entire world: it’s where he was born and where he spends all of his time with Ma. Except when he is locked in the closet when Old Nick visits. |
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Five Quarters of the Orange and Chocolat by Joanne Harris: This author’s books have been described as a ‘feast for the senses’. She combines fiction with delicious descriptions of food! |
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If you like Barbara Kingsolver’s novels why not try her non-fiction: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is her family’s experience after they vowed for one year to: ‘only buy food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves, or learn to live without it’. This is an often hilarious and always heartwarming read. |
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Do you have the new Bill Bryson book, The Body on hold? Bill has many other entertaining books available to borrow such as: A Walk in the Woods, A Short History of Nearly Everything and At Home: a Short History of Private Life. |
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Do you have Michael Crummey’s new novel The Innocents on hold? Why not try some of his older works such as: Sweetland or River Thieves? |
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Looking for something light? |
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One Day by David Nicholls: A friendship that begins in the 1980s. Each chapter is a snapshot of where the two main characters are in their lives on one day every year. |
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Anything by Marian Keyes: There are several titles available in Overdrive and many in print at the library. All her books are highly entertaining. Jocelyn is reading Keyes’ latest, Grown-ups. Although hefty at over 600 pages, she says it’s a lot of fun. |
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~Amanda
For Kids and Teens:
If you are looking for books to teach your kids about diversity, Danielle has created a whole list just for children and teens.
For Adults:
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
Find it on Overdrive
A national bestseller when it first appeared in 1963, The Fire Next Time galvanized the nation and gave passionate voice to the emerging civil rights movement. At once a powerful evocation of James Baldwin’s early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice, the book is an intensely personal and provocative document. It consists of two “letters,” written on the occasion of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, that exhort Americans, both black and white, to attack the terrible legacy of racism. Described by The New York Times Book Review as “sermon, ultimatum, confession, deposition, testament, and chronicle…all presented in searing, brilliant prose,” The Fire Next Time stands as a classic of our literature.
So You Want to Talk About Race by Oluo Ijeoma
Find it in the library or on Overdrive
Widespread reporting on aspects of white supremacy—from police brutality to the mass incarceration of African Americans—have made it impossible to ignore the issue of race. Still, it is a difficult subject to talk about. How do you tell your roommate her jokes are racist? Why did your sister-in-law take umbrage when you asked to touch her hair—and how do you make it right? How do you explain white privilege to your white, privileged friend?
In So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo guides readers of all races through subjects ranging from intersectionality and affirmative action to “model minorities” in an attempt to make the seemingly impossible possible: honest conversations about race and racism, and how they infect almost every aspect of American life.
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Find it in the library or on Overdrive
In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden?
Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son.
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
Available on Overdrive
Once in a great while a book comes along that changes the way we see the world and helps to fuel a nationwide social movement. The New Jim Crow is such a book. Praised by Harvard Law professor Lani Guinier as “brave and bold,” this book directly challenges the notion that the election of Barack Obama signals a new era of colorblindness. With dazzling candor, legal scholar Michelle Alexander argues that “we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it.” By targeting black men through the War on Drugs and decimating communities of color, the U.S. criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system of racial control—relegating millions to a permanent second-class status—even as it formally adheres to the principle of colorblindness. In the words of Benjamin Todd Jealous, president and CEO of the NAACP, this book is a “call to action.”Called “stunning” by Pulitzer Prize–winning historian David Levering Lewis, “invaluable” by the Daily Kos, “explosive” by Kirkus, and “profoundly necessary” by the Miami Herald, this updated and revised paperback edition of The New Jim Crow, now with a foreword by Cornel West, is a must-read for all people of conscience
How to be an Anti-racist by Ibram X Kendi.
Find it on Overdrive
Antiracism is a transformative concept that reorients and reenergizes the conversation about racism—and, even more fundamentally, points us toward liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other. At it’s core, racism is a powerful system that creates false hierarchies of human value; its warped logic extends beyond race, from the way we regard people of different ethnicities or skin colors to the way we treat people of different sexes, gender identities, and body types. Racism intersects with class and culture and geography and even changes the way we see and value ourselves. In How to Be an Antiracist, Kendi takes readers through a widening circle of antiracist ideas—from the most basic concepts to visionary possibilites—that will help readers see all forms of racism clearly, understand their posionous consequences, and work to oppose them in our systems and in ourselves.
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Find it on Overdrive
A first novel by an unknown writer, it remained on the bestseller list for sixteen weeks, won the National Book Award for fiction, and established Ralph Ellison as one of the key writers of the century. The nameless narrator of the novel describes growing up in a black community in the South, attending a Negro college from which he is expelled, moving to New York and becoming the chief spokesman of the Harlem branch of “the Brotherhood”, and retreating amid violence and confusion to the basement lair of the Invisible Man he imagines himself to be. The book is a passionate and witty tour de force of style, strongly influenced by T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, Joyce, and Dostoevsky.
Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward
Find it on Overdrive.
In five years, Jesmyn Ward lost five young men in her life-to drugs, accidents, suicide, and the bad luck that can follow people who live in poverty, particularly black men. Dealing with these losses, one after another, made Jesmyn ask the question: Why? And as she began to write about the experience of living through all the dying, she realized the truth-and it took her breath away. Her brother and her friends all died because of who they were and where they were from, because they lived with a history of racism and economic struggle that fostered drug addiction and the dissolution of family and relationships. Jesmyn says the answer was so obvious she felt stupid for not seeing it. But it nagged at her until she knew she had to write about her community, to write their stories and her own.
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard to Talk to White People About Racism by Robin J. DiAngelo
Find it in the library or on Overdrive
In this “vital, necessary, and beautiful book” (Michael Eric Dyson), antiracist educator Robin DiAngelo deftly illuminates the phenomenon of white fragility and “allows us to understand racism as a practice not restricted to ‘bad people’ (Claudia Rankine). Referring to the defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially, white fragility is characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and by behaviors including argumentation and silence. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium and prevent any meaningful cross-racial dialogue. In this in-depth exploration, DiAngelo examines how white fragility develops, how it protects racial inequality, and what we can do to engage more constructively.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Find it in the library or on Overdrive
Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right. Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide.
Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local “powhitetrash.” At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age—and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned.
I am Not Your Negro Directed by Raoul Peck – DVD
Find it in the library on DVD or stream it on Kanopy
Master documentary filmmaker Raoul Peck envisions the book James Baldwin never finished. The result is a radical, up-to-the-minute examination of race in America, using Baldwin’s original words and a flood of rich archival material. A journey into black history that connects the past of the Civil Rights movement to the present of #BlackLivesMatter.
A Call to Conscience – The Landmark Speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. edited by by Clayborne Carson and Kris Shepard
Find it on Overdrive
A powerful collection of the most essential speeches from famed social activist and key civil rights figure Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Oslo, August 31st
Directed by Joachim Trier (Norway, 2011)
A Norwegian anti-fairy tale about a young recovering heroin addict taking stock of his past, present and future. “Un certain regard” award winner at Cannes, 2011.
Life Feels Good (Chce sie zyc)
Directed by Maciej Pieprzyca (Poland, 2013)
An emotional powerhouse of a film based on a true story of a boy wrongly labelled as “mentally retarded” in early childhood and kept from participating in the outside world. As viewers, we are witness to his struggle to communicate his sentience in a body that constantly betrays him. Jury and audience prize winner at the Montreal film festival in 2013.
Gutland
Directed by Govinda Van Maele (Germany, 2017)
A German “surrealist noir” about a brutish drifter with a shady past who slowly gains acceptance and eventual domestication in a small town awash in secrets of their own. Multiple jury prize nominee.
Teddy Bear
Directed by Mads Matthiesen (Denmark, 2012)
The (albeit rare) “feel good” foreign film in Amanda’s repertoire, features a gentle giant of a body builder trying to break free from an emotionally entangled relationship with his mother. A Sundance film “official selection” for 2012.
The Banishment
Directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev (Russia, 2007)
An obvious ode to Ingmar Bergman, this slow-paced but beautifully shot film follows a family on a trip to a father’s childhood home in the Countryside that results in Dostoevsky-esque disaster.
All images courtesy of Kanopy
]]>Last week my 12 year-old son created a hilarious science experiment to determine, once and for all, if the light goes off when he closes the fridge door. It was simple and goofy but had us all in stitches. The week before that, my 8 year-old daughter orchestrated an equally hilarious obstacle course involving a target made out of a bath mat hanging on the clothesline, and the challenge of untying a knot with a baseball bat!
My point? Our kids are getting up to some amazingly creative stuff in their abundance of time. So the library is launching Imaginations on Fire – an initiative to share, celebrate, and generally show-off the creative awesomeness that kids get up to when their lives aren’t orchestrated up to the brim.
Here’s how it will work.
Each Thursday the library will post a new Imaginations On Fire prompt on our Instagram, Facebook and Twitter pages. You and your kiddos, or older kids on their own, will have until the following Tuesday to enact the prompt – creative and wacky interpretations most welcome! When your response is done, post a picture of it on social media using #ImaginationsOnFire.
We will gather up as many of your images as possible and feature them in a weekly virtual celebration of kids’ collective awesomeness, but in order for that to be possible you need to tag us @GibsonsLibrary when you post your response.
The first prompt will be posted on June 4th. Can’t wait to see what your imaginations cook up.
Before I sign off, let’s talk Takeout. I want to tell you that you don’t need to know exactly which titles you and your kiddos want to read, to be able to take part in the Library Takeout service. We can make grab bags of books for you instead.
Just give us a few details at the bottom of the request form about how old your child is and what they like, so we’ll be able to make better guesses about what books to put in your grab bag. It also helps if you specify the type of book you want, for example: early readers, beginner chapter books, phonic sets, picture books, chapter books, non-fiction books, etc.
We know you are itching to hold real, physical books in your hands again but we also know that you are busy being great parents. So we’re making it easy for you to get back to the good old-fashioned pleasure of snuggling up to a book together.
~Danielle
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Is it accurate? If, for example, the data shared is contrary to the entire collective body of scientific evidence on Coronavirus gathered from around the globe, then the chances are good that it is inaccurate.
Is it authoritative? Are the authors specialists in the field in which they are writing? What are their credentials?
Is there an inherent bias? Unfortunately, this point is very important in relation to the former, as there have been videos circulating with actual medical experts in their fields that have now been debunked due to a severe conflict of interest. So one must ask, does the original content creator stand to profit in any way from the information they’ve presented? For example, paid speaking engagements, or purchased shares in a company peddling a “cure-all”?
Is it current? Information is being collected and changes daily, if not hourly in some cases. Is the information up to date?
Has this information been verified by multiple, credible sources? Has it passed “peer review”?
With opinions, fears and COVID abound, it’s now more important than ever to remain vigilant in the spread of misinformation. If you doubt the veracity of an article or video, research it! We no longer have the privilege of taking things at face value. Try the following sources to separate fact from fiction:
General fact checking websites:
Coronavirus-specific websites:
Government of Canada – Coronavirus information
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
~Amanda
]]>A pandemic seems like the perfect opportunity to learn about the topics of history and medicine! Here are a few of my picks. (All available on Overdrive!)
~Amanda
Wages of Rebellion by Chris Hedges: Policy changes are often initiated when people speak out against the status quo. With worsening economic inequality, politicians sowing the seeds of division, and the ever-present challenge of complete environmental collapse – this book is needed now more than ever. From personal stories related to whistleblowers, the Occupy movement and activists dedicated to ending Apartheid, learn why it truly is our moral imperative to “revolt”.
Speaking of accurate medical information, did you know you can access scholarly journal articles through the library? Using your library card, you can search thousands of articles all aggregated into the “Ebscohost” database. You can find Ebscohost in the “online databases” section of the library’s website!
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Most of you know me as the Children’s Librarian but I’m a mom too and that means that, like you, my plate of responsibilities is stacked really high right now. Just as the hopeful buds of spring were working their way up through the dark earth and I was feeling like this was going to be “my best gardening year ever”, our world did a sudden loopty-loop and now I find myself working two jobs from home while schooling my two kids from home (not to mention all the relational dynamics that go along with that), and those seedlings I bought in early April are still sitting on my gardening table, unplanted.
Like many of you, ‘overwhelmed’ is a word I find myself saying a lot these days so I am offering this blog as a way to wade through the overwhelm, rather than create more of it.
The suggestions and resources I feature here will be a direct response to a friend or patron’s expressed need. My intention is to keep the blog sparse by limiting my posts to only what I have heard people ask for, because doesn’t a ‘little less’ feel better than a ‘little more’ right now?
Feel free to let me know what library-related things you are struggling with too. There are a lot of us at GDPL who would love to try to help.
~ Danielle
Writing to you from home, after the kids have gone to bed.
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