This year’s choice for the One eRead Canada campaign is Hotline by Dimitri Nasrallah. First, a little bit about One eRead Canada. It’s a yearly initiative started by the Canadian Urban Libraries Council (CULC) to promote digital literature and eAudiobooks (electronic audiobooks) as formats for reading. For that reason, every year, one book by a Canadian author is made available as an eBook (in English and in French) and an eAudiobook with no restrictions on access, no need to place a hold, and no waiting lists for the month of April. For us at Vaughan Public Library, that means you can downlo ..read more

International Theater Day was established on March 27th, 1961 by the UNESCO International Theatre Institute (ITI). On this day, various national and international theatre events take place, including a circulation of the World Theatre Day International Message. At the invitation of the ITI, a notable figure will share their reflections on ‘the theme of Theatre and a Culture of Peace’, which is then translated into more than 20 languages. This year’s author of the message is Jon Fosse, a Norwegian writer and playwright, who you can read about here. Of his works, we have his Septology ..read more

Credit: cbc.ca It’s over! The yearly competition to determine which book penned by a Canadian author is ‘the one that all Canadians need to read right now’ has concluded and a victor has been chosen. If you’re not familiar with the format, here’s how it breaks down. Five luminaries on the Canadian cultural scene decide to “champion” one of 15 longlisted books in a debate that’s broadcast over radio and televised across the country. Between March 4-7, daily debates took place, with a round of voting to eliminate one of the books at the conclusion of each discussion. Long-running host Ali Hassan ..read more

While Leap Year is a fun rom-com (which I recommend for anyone who’s a fan of rom-coms, Ireland, or Matthew Goode) and a great way to wrap up February-the-month-of-love…this post is only tangentially about it. In my last post, I talked a bit about the Lunar New Year, and it would be remiss of me if I didn’t also talk about our solar calendar and it’s fun quirk: the leap year. What is a leap year, why is a leap year, and what does it do besides give February an extra day? Well, I did some digging and it turns out the leap year exists partly because of the sun, partly because of Julius Caesar ..read more

I’m too late for a Valentine’s Day post and too early for a Leap Year post. Daniela covered Freedom to Read Week, and Family Day already happened. I’m left to my own devices for a post, and when that happens, you know you’re in for something nerdy. However, I still feel like I want to get in on the holiday posting, so I’m extending Family Day a bit because it doesn’t have to be a provincial holiday to be a family day. And, of course, family day for me means gaming! My bio mentions no space for my board games, and even though that’s been true for a while, I continue to buy new ones. I may have ..read more

According to the Chinese Lunar calendar, 2024 is the Year of the Dragon, and I am a huge fan of dragons. They’re just very cool, and I find it fascinating and mysterious that almost every culture in the world has a dragon or dragon-esque creature in their legends, mythologies, and hagiography. I wonder if they came about in response to dinosaurs… Funnily enough, I just finished reading The Book of Dragons, an anthology of short stories all about dragons by some of my favourite authors, and so I thought I’d combine those two coincidences into a fun, dragon-themed post! (You can read my respons ..read more

It’s that time of year again. The time when algorithms and the multinational corporations who employ them encourage us to look back. At the pictures we’ve taken, the music we’ve listened to, and the digital lives we’ve led over the past year. We inevitably start to draw conclusions. What kind of year has it been? ‘Have I listened to a lot of emotional music this year?’ Or, ‘Should I start taking more pictures of my friends?’ It feels as if we’re being prepped to make our new year’s resolutions starting from the end of November, and resolutions have never been my friends. I don’t find it helpf ..read more

This post is a shameless excuse to tell you about an excellent movie by the name of Past Lives. I was lucky enough to see it at the TIFF Bell Lightbox Theatre in September, and it was the perfect venue. That being said, the TIFF theatre is pretty much the perfect venue for anything. It’s a gorgeous, glamourous, multi-story affair that screens untold cinematic gems. The biggest difference between a theatre like the TIFF and your neighbourhood cinema is that the movies shown are curated by experts in the field. It’s not just the latest films to hit the big screen after distributors secure the r ..read more

The one Ring. Image Copyright New Line Cinema. Before anything else, thanks, Sumayyah, for the inspiration for this post! I’ve quickly gotten used to wearing a ring, which, thankfully, doesn’t attract the attention of any evil entities. It also doesn’t turn me invisible, which is a bummer, but that’s life I suppose. It doesn’t even have an inscription on the inside, though maybe that was a missed opportunity. Aaaand there I go, referencing The Lord of the Rings1. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before on the blog, and maybe as a librarian, I shouldn’t be admitting this… but I liked the mov ..read more

image via Variety On October 5th, part three of the acclaimed Lupin series will finally air on Netflix. One of my favourite shows, Lupin is retelling of Arsène Lupin by Maurice Leblanc, a classic French story about a world-famous gentleman thief and master of disguise. (Heads up: the show is also in French, but since I’m pro-subtitles even for my native English, I don’t mind this.) Lupin had me thinking about the allure of gentlemen thieves—criminals with hearts (and motives!) of gold—and I thought it’d be fun to feature media of similar noble crooks. But first, let’s define the term. Accordin ..read more