Debra Mann

Kick off 2021 by joining readers across the country for One eRead Canada, the first national, bilingual (English and French) digital eBook club, featuring the exquisite and celebrated novel Vi by Kim Thúy. Readers from St John’s to Nanaimo to Whitehorse, along with more than 600 public libraries, will be taking part in this simultaneous reading party. From January 1 to 31, 2021, 85 per cent of all public libraries in Canada, including ours, will offer free, unlimited access to Vi in eBook and eAudiobook formats. The book will be available in both languages, without holds or waitlists, to everyone with a CPL library card.

Vi is a masterful novel about the lives and experiences of Vietnamese refugees in Canada. It was a finalist for the 2019 Governor General’s Literary Award in translation and longlisted for the 2018 Scotiabank Giller Prize. This is your chance to have a taste of Vi’s life, a journey of self-discovery that will take you across the globe from Vietnam to Canada to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

So how to take part? You’ve got a few options. The main one is to grab a digital copy of the book from our Overdrive collection. From Jan. 1-31, Vi is available in eBook or eAudiobook format, in English or French, with no waitlists and no holds. Borrow it on your computer, or download the Libby app (App Store | Google Play) to read on your tablet or phone. If you’ve never used Overdrive or Libby before, here’s a tutorial to help you get started. If you don’t have a library card, fill out this form to request a temporary digital card.

If you’re not able to download or prefer a print book, you can join us at our newest book club, Reading Other Lives. It meets for the first time via Zoom on Jan. 15 at 1pm (registration is now open), and you can place a hold on a copy of the book to pick up at your nearest branch.

You can start connecting with readers across the country right away by joining the One eRead Canada Facebook Group or by using the hashtag #1eReadCanada. Every week in January, you’ll be invited to discuss a question on the themes, characters, and overall impressions of the eBook. Then, join book lovers from coast to coast to coast on the One eRead Canada Facebook group  on January 19 (in English) and January 20 (in French) at 7 pm for a live Q&A with the author to discuss some of the many themes that arise from this profoundly moving work.

In addition to being a bilingual, cross-country simultaneous reading experience, One eRead Canada underlines the Canadian Urban Libraries Council’s ongoing campaign, eContent for Libraries. Libraries want to work with the big publishers to establish fair pricing models that can benefit everyone and ensure equitable access to digital content such as eBooks and eAudiobooks. Collaborative library initiatives like One eRead Canada introduce readers and listeners to new books and authors, positively impacting sales of digital content – to the benefit of publishers, authors, and readers.

We hope you’ll enjoy Vi and this unique country-wide reading experience.

There’s no doubt about it – the holidays are going to be super weird this year. All of our fun family gatherings and meetups with friends are firmly on hold, and that means fewer opportunities for holiday noshing as well. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t cook up a storm just for your own household! Remember in the spring when we all rediscovered banana bread and sourdough? I predict the same thing is going to happen with our festive favourites. Now that you don’t need to make a massive turkey for 34, there’s absolutely no reason you shouldn’t try something really different, and really exciting, instead. Your library has a ton of fantastic cookbooks that are sure to inspire you. Here are a few ideas to get you started!

Vegan Holiday Cookbook: Festive Plant-Based Meals and Desserts for the Thanksgiving and Christmas Table, Katie Culpin

“Holiday feasts have always been contentious for vegans and  their nonvegan family members–when a supposedly welcoming season of loved ones dining together becomes divisive when animal products are cooked as part of tradition. Vegan Holiday Recipes addresses this issue head-on and unites family and friends, vegan or not, over simply delicious, easy, healthy, seasonal food.”

My Drunk Kitchen Holidays! How to Savor and Celebrate the Year, Hannah Hart

“In the style of her first hit humorous cookbook, My Drunk Kitchen, which has sold close to 100,000 copies, My Drunk Kitchen Holidays! will celebrate holidays from Valentine’s Day to Graduation to Pride Month to International Bacon day (really!). The book will cumulate with the fall holidays that get so much deserved attention: recipes for Oktoberfest, Halloween, Thanksgiving with a twist, and a celebration of Hanukah/Kwanzaa/Christmas that is celebratory, inclusive, and incredibly hilarious.”

Set for the Holidays with Anna Olson, Anna Olson

“When does the festive season begin for you? For Anna Olson, it’s when she bakes her first pumpkin pie of the year. Pumpkin pie isn’t something she bakes on any old Tuesday evening, so it signifies something very special when she does- the start of the holidays! For Anna, the holidays are a time for spending with family and friends, for coming together, celebrating traditions and, of course, cooking delicious food! In this festive cookbook, Anna shares the recipes she loves to make during the holiday season (and, really, almost every day).”

The Artisanal Kitchen: Gluten-Free Holiday Cookies, Alice Medrich with Maya Klein

“Holidays are the time for baking and enjoying cookies and treats, and those with gluten sensitivities shouldn’t have to miss out. Baking with flavor flours–oat flour, sorghum flour, teff, coconut flour, and nut flours, like almond and hazelnut–means that everyone can enjoy holiday treats, from the classic Chocolate Chip Cookie to the decadent Peanut Crunch Brownies. Alternative flours make these cookies and bars gluten-free. And rather than simply adding starch and structure to a dessert (as is the case with wheat flour), these flours elevate the taste of every cookie and bar too. With seasonal favorites like Quince and Orange-Filled Chestnut Cookies, Chocolate Sablés, and Brown Sugar Pecan Cookies, these recipes–adapted from Alice Medrich’s Flavor Flours–make a must-have mini compendium of decadent gluten-free holiday desserts.”

The Unofficial Hogwarts for the Holidays Cookbook, Rita Mock-Pike

“What better way to celebrate any occasion than by whipping up a magically delicious meal in your kitchen? From sumptuous autumn and winter feasts to delectable desserts and tea-time treats, this book has all of your holidays and special occasions covered, with an extra magical twist. Celebrate in true wizarding world style with recipes like: Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes, Exploding Bon Bons, Licorice Wands, Chocolate Frogs, Rock Cakes, Pumpkin Tarts, and many more!”

(Summaries provided by Novelist Plus)

Literature has an amazing ability to help us understand, develop empathy, and transport us to places and times that are not our own. As we observe Remembrance Day, great works of literature can remind us why it is crucial that we pause and remember. Here are a few titles to get you started:

Wake, by Anna Hope, follows three women in the days leading up to the interment of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey in 1920. Each has survived the war but experienced unthinkable loss, and as the nameless soldier’s body makes its way from the battlefields of France to London, the women struggle to adapt to the new reality of their lives and society at large after the fighting has ended.

All Quiet on the Western Front, the classic novel by Erich Maria Remarque, still has the power to stun modern audiences with its unflinching description of life in the German trenches of World War 1: “We are not youth any longer. We don’t want to take the world by storm. We are fleeing. We fly from ourselves. From our life. We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces”.

If you prefer a non-fiction read, Death So Noble: Memory, Meaning, and the First World War by military historian Jonathan Vance uncovers the ways in which Canadians memorialized the dead of World War 1. Drawing from media and popular culture of the time, he compares the romantic ideal of a noble war to the cold realities of trench warfare, and describes how the “war to end all wars” shaped the development of Canadian culture and identity.

If you like these, be sure to try these other titles you might enjoy: A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks, and Pat Barker’s Regeneration trilogy.

If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that a little bit of prevention saves us from a whole lot of trouble. But while you’ve been washing hands, wearing masks, and sanitizing high-touch surfaces, have you given any thought to your cybersecurity?

October is Cyber Security Awareness Month, and it’s the perfect time to give your digital life a health check-up, especially if you’ve been working away from the office or using your devices more than usual. Your first stop should be the Get Cyber Safe website, where you’ll find all kinds of great tips and features on how to protect your accounts, devices, and connections.  They’ll be featuring different resources each week of the month on their Cyber Security Awareness Month page, and there’s even a contest you can enter via their social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram).

Then, if you’re interested in learning more, or if you’re not yet convinced that this is something you really need to care about, check out these books that investigate the concept of cyber security from a variety of perspectives:

Data and Goliath by Bruce Schneier

You might recognize this author and academic from his website Schneier on Security or from his work with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. In this book, he “reveals the unsettling ways in which corporations and governments track and monitor everyday activities, profiling the technological, legal, and social solutions available for enabling better privacy and avoiding cybercrime.”

Tools and Weapons by Brad Smith

To get an industry perspective, Brad Smith, the president of Microsoft, offers “frank insights into the responsibilities of companies that create technology to work with governments, keep pace with innovation and safeguard their innovations from being used as weapons.”

Exploding Data by Michael Chertoff

Providing a government perspective is former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, who “outlines powerful arguments for new laws and policies to protect society and individual autonomy from cyber-security threats.”

(descriptions provided by Novelist Plus)

Music festivals, once a staple of the summer season, are largely on hold or have moved to a screen or drive-in near you. But you can still get that music festival feeling with these fiction and non-fiction titles that are all about the music:

Daisy Jones & the Six
by Taylor Jenkins Reid

“When singer Daisy Jones meets Billy Dunne of the band The Six, the two rising 70s rock-and-roll artists are catapulted into stardom when a producer puts them together, a decision that is complicated by a pregnancy and the seductions of fame.”

Twilight of the Gods : a Journey to the End of Classic Rock
by Steven Hyden

“The author of the critically acclaimed Your Favorite Band Is Killing Me presents a frank and revelatory assessment of the current state of classic rock, assessing its past and future, its enduring impact and what its loss could mean in economic and cultural arenas.”

Space Opera
by Catherynne M. Valente

“A century ago, the Sentience Wars tore the galaxy apart and nearly ended the entire concept of intelligent space-faring life. In the aftermath, a curious tradition was invented by the remnants of civilization…something to bring the shattered worlds together in the spirit of peace, unity, understanding, and the most powerful of all social bonds: excluding others. Once every cycle, the great galactic civilizations gather for Galactivision–part gladiatorial contest, part beauty pageant, part concert extravaganza, and part, a very large, but very subtle part, continuation of the wars of the past. Thus, a fragile peace has held. This year, a bizarre and unsightly species has looked up from its muddy planet-bound cradle and noticed the enormous universe blaring on around it: humanity. Where they expected to one day reach out into space and discover a grand drama of diplomacy, gunships, wormholes, and stoic councils of grave aliens, they have found glitter. And lipstick. And pyrotechnics. And electric guitars. A band of human musicians, dancers, and roadies have been chosen to represent their planet on the greatest stage in the galaxy. And the fate of Earth lies in their ability to rock.”

A Visit from the Goon Squad
by Jennifer Egan

“Working side-by-side for a record label, former punk rocker Bennie Salazar and the passionate Sasha hide illicit secrets from one another while interacting with a motley assortment of equally troubled people from 1970s San Francisco to the post-war future. By the National Book Award-nominated author of Look at Me.”

There You Are
by Mathea Morais

“Octavian Munroe is haunted by the life and death of his older brother in one of the most racially segregated cities in the country. Mina Rose has never quite fit in and wishes she was anything but white. Once lovers, now estranged, they both left St. Louis for fresh starts in the wake of grief and heartbreak. Octavian and Mina travel homeward in the aftermath of Michael Brown’s death and the awakening of the Black Lives Matter movement. In search of answers, they seek out the music that once gave their hearts a steady beat and their lives a sense of direction. The record shop where they fell in love as teenagers is closing for good, sparking a desire for closure. This raw, powerful story of love and loss reckons with how fear shapes even the most fleeting collisions between friends, neighbors, and strangers”

Utopia Avenue
by David Mitchell

“The members of a music band in 1967 London navigate the era’s parties, drugs and politics as well as their own egos and tragedies while exploring transformative perspectives about youth, art and fame. By the award-winning author of Cloud Atlas.”

(book descriptions provided by Novelist Plus)

Hopefully you are discovering phenomenal Indigenous writers all year long, but Indigenous History Month in June is a perfect time to catch up on new authors on the scene and established names you might not know yet.  Check out these articles to get you started:

Several years ago, the Festival of Literary Diversity posted this graphic on Twitter bearing the names of Indigenous authors, along with a challenge: “Find them. Read them. No excuses.”. They then invited their followers to tweet names of other authors people should know about, and the list grew to include over 100 recommended Indigenous authors. CBC Books compiled the list into a single resource that’s well worth a read. Some of my favourites are represented here, including Seasons of Hope by James Bartleman and Seven Fallen Feathers by Tanya Talaga.

In celebration of Indigenous History Month last year, and as a challenge for Canadian readers in the days leading up to Canada Day, BookNet Canada compiled a list of bestselling indigenous books in fiction and non-fiction, for adult and juvenile/YA audiences. The titles on the list are quite well-known and include classics like Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell and A Promise is a Promise by Robert Munsch and Michael Arvaarluk Kusugak, as well as newer hits like There There by Tommy Orange and Starlight by Richard Wagamese. If you’re new to Indigenous writers, this is a great resource.

If you’re looking for something hot off the presses, check out author Erika T. Wurth’s list of recently published and soon-to-be published books by contemporary Indigenous writers. The one I’m most excited about on this list is the horror novel The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones, but if you want something on the lighter side, you can’t go wrong with Drew Hayden Taylor. He’s currently on the shortlist for this year’s Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour for his latest book, Cottagers and Indians.

If you’re still stumped after all of these recommendations, let us make it easy for you. We’re reading Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice for our June Virtual Book Club – it’s freely available on Hoopla, and you’re welcome to join us!

What are you waiting for? Find them! Read them! No excuses.

We’re in uncharted territory, aren’t we? Our regular routines have been put on pause, and everybody is learning to adapt. Your library is no different – as much as we’d love to see your smiling faces heading through the front doors, we understand how important it is to keep you safe, and that means keeping proper social distance. It also means, though, that we get to be creative in how we connect with you, and how we can help you pass the time until things get back to normal.

First up, you know how much librarians like trustworthy information, so of course we suggest you connect with the Town of Caledon to get updates on the latest COVID-19 news.  You can even download an app to get emergency alerts straight to your phone – visit caledon.ca/app  to find out more. We’re working with the Town and the Region to keep you up to date so feel free to follow us on social media as well; we’re on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Have you visited our digital library? You’ll find a massive collection of books, magazines, movies, comic books, lifelong learning tools, and much more, all available 24/7 from your computer or mobile device. No need to go out your front door – you can do it all in your pajamas! Best of all, we’re finding ways to make even more great stuff available to you. Our friends at Kanopy are building a free list of movies that won’t count towards your monthly borrowing limit, and everything in their Kanopy Kids section is freely available right now. We’ve also increased the number of monthly borrows you can enjoy on Hoopla to 10 per card, just like we do at Christmas.  If you’ve never used either of these resources before, now is a great time to try them out.

You can also use this time to do something good for your brain.  Learn a new language with Mango, hit up Creativebug to find some crafts you can do with the kids, follow international news with Pressreader, and of course, grab a never-been-coughed-on eBook or eAudiobook in our Overdrive, Hoopla, and Tumblebooks collections. Don’t have a library card yet?  Not a problem!  Create a temporary card and start borrowing right away.  Throw us a quick text or email if you need help – we’re still working behind the scenes Monday to Friday from 10am-5pm to take your questions.

We’ll get through this together, friends.  Be good to one another, chill at home if you can, find ways to help, and take care.

CPL is hosting a series of workshops on Modern Homesteading, featuring sessions on beekeeping, raising backyard chickens, and producing maple syrup.  Here are some books from our library collection that will get you thinking about life on the land.

Modern Homesteading: Advice and Inspiration for Cultivating a Better Life, by the editors of Living the Country Life Magazine, is chock full of ideas and projects for the urban dreamer. The book reads like a magazine, with each project gorgeously photographed and steps laid out clearly. Start with gardening and preserving, and work your way up to small livestock and outdoor projects.

Think you can’t be a homesteader in the city?  The Urban Homesteading Cookbook, co-written by an ecologist and marine biologist, dares you to think otherwise.  From foraging to microlivestock to growing and fermenting food, this book will inspire you to think about ways you can eat well and responsibly in an urban environment. The recipes are a ton of fun to experiment with; if you’re feeling brave, try out their Dark and Stormy Chocolate Cupcakes made with cricket flour.

Perhaps you’d like to take things a step further, and are considering starting a life off the grid.  The Doable Off-Grid Homestead provides practical tips on managing water, energy, and soil outside of your municipal setup.  Projects range from goat milking platforms made of wood pallets to what they call the ‘Inside Outhouse’.  Even if you’re not interested in going off-grid, you’ll find ideas to try at the cottage, or use at home to maintain a healthy environmental footprint.

(And because I’m the one doing the maple syrup presentation, let me slide in some self-promotion and recommend Ken Haedrich’s Maple Syrup Cookbook, available as an ebook on hoopla.  If this book can’t convince you to give maple syrup a try, nothing will!)