All posts by Alyssia

About Alyssia

Alyssia is an Adult Services Librarian at the Vaughan Public Libraries. Nothing makes her happier than a great book and a great cup of coffee. She loves fiction in all formats - books, movies, television, you name it - and is always on the lookout for awesome new music.  |  Meet the team

Home in the Time of Quarantine

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Remodelista: The Organized Home - Workman PublishingHow does the design of your home make you feel? If you’re typically someone who is rarely home, maybe spending most of your time there asleep, you may not have ever given it much thought. If you’re a homebody and maximize your time there, you’re probably at least unconsciously aware of the effects interior decorating can have on your psyche. There have been plenty of studies on the effects of beauty and aesthetics on the human mind. So since we’re all stuck looking at our own walls 24 hours a day, now is the perfect time to reconsider how our decorating decisions make us feel.  

Ever since Netflix released a televised version of Marie Kondo’s The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, the push towards minimalism has been unavoidable. Remember all the jokes about “sparking joy”? But the value in minimalism goes beyond trendy platitudes. It goes hand in hand with another very trendy buzzword, mindfulness. Put together, these lifestyles are meant to promote mental clarity and reduce stress. Think about how much better you feel being in a freshly cleaned and decluttered space. It’s not a coincidence! Luckily, since this trend blew up, there are tons of e-resources for checkout on Hoopla and Overdrive, from Kondo’s seminal series to The Minimalist Home. For very hands-on, practical advice, books like Remodelista are packed full of useful tips, from creative storage solutions and one of my favourite, super simple but surprisingly ignored ideas: hide your cords! It’s incredible how such a small change can make such a big difference in your home. These e-books usually come with the same photos you’d find in the print versions, and honestly sometimes just looking at photos of beautifully organized homes is enough to get inspired (if you have a Pinterest board related to decorating, you know what I mean). Oh, and since books on minimalism are quite popular and tend to be checked out, a reminder: with your VPL card, you can also access Markham and Richmond Hill’s Overdrive library! Between the three, you’re likely to find what you’re looking for. 

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National Poetry Month: Instapoetry and Beyond

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How to Cure a Ghost by Fariha RoisinAs art forms go, poetry is probably one of the most misunderstood. When you think of poetry, what comes to mind? Boring, incomprehensible gibberish? Maybe. Particularly with older versions, it’s almost impossible to appreciate without someone guiding you through it. But poetry is one of the oldest methods of artistic expression—think of Gilgamesh, an ancient Mesopotamian poem and the oldest known surviving piece of literature— and it’s still around, so it must be doing something right. April is National Poetry Month, so to honour this literary practice I want to share some current poets who might make you change your mind about poetry, and show how you can get into it yourself!

The great thing about poetry is that it’s adaptive. Some forms rely on specific structures (sonnets, haikus) while others are free verse. It doesn’t matter! A poem can be what you believe it to be, as long as it expresses some truth. One of the most popular poets working today is Brampton’s own Rupi Kaur, whose debut collection Milk and Honey sold over 2.5 million copies (as of 2017, so more by now!). Kaur’s voice and distinct style is so recognizable that it has gotten the inevitable meme treatment. She’s part of a new wave of poets dubbed, perhaps a bit disparagingly, “Instapoets”, owing to the social media channel that launched their success. An Instapoem uses the small, square image format of Instagram, resulting in quick, bite-size poems that are easy to consume. They are minimalist in design, a few lines carefully organized in an aesthetically appealing way. There is a lot of handwringing over this format, but I wouldn’t be too quick to dismiss it—after all, isn’t brevity the soul of wit? If these writers are able to form a connection with readers in the span of a few seconds, why should we discredit that? Rupi Kaur has four million Instagram followers—that’s four million people her work has presumably spoken to.

In fact, Instapoetry has been described as “gateway poetry”. The fact that Kaur’s work does not translate solely into likes but also into seven-figure book sales speaks volumes; people are literally buying what she’s selling! And they’re stepping into a world that may have seemed intimidating before. As The Atlantic puts it, “Social media seem to have cracked the walls around a field that has long been seen as highbrow, exclusive, esoteric, and ruled by tradition, opening it up for young poets with broad appeal, many of whom are women and people of color.”

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Music to Get You Up and Get You Through It!

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What to do when you’re cooped up inside? Across the globe, our regular routines have been completely decimated. For a lot us, that might mean the simple fact of moving your body around or stimulating your mind is happening at a drastically reduced rate. I’m sure we’re all desperate to latch onto something to keep us sane. Blessedly, we live in a time of ample streaming, and with a simple few clicks we can get a book or a movie or a TV show up and running within a matter of seconds. Truly, I would like to apologize to technology for anything bad I may have said about it in the past. So yes, we can get all the sit-on-the-couch content our hearts desire, but what about something to get you moving? Personally, what’s keeping me from going stir-crazy is music. Is there a better feeling than finding a song that vibes with your very soul, or makes you want to jump around in your bedroom, or maybe even inspires you artistically? Luckily, Hoopla gives you access to all sorts of music to stream on your computer or a mobile device—and all you need is your library card. And bonus: the per-month checkout limit has been raised from 5 titles to 10! All the better to get your groove on.  

I have been listening to a few albums on repeat this quarantine season (sorry, neighbours!). First on the list: the masked cowboy, Orville Peck. If you haven’t heard of him, you’re welcome. I always forget that I actually really like country music, because most of it is just so….ugh. But when a country song slaps, it slaps (I’m still waiting on Beyoncé to make a country album ever since she put out “Daddy Lessons”). Peck’s version of country is a far cry from whatever passes as a hit in Nashville these days—in fact, it’s practically a genre reset. A callback to when country wasn’t just about trucks and beer (or, if you’re a woman, killing your husband) but was instead the refuge of outsiders: outlaws, rebels, misfits, wayward souls. It was Johnny Cash singing to prisoners, and Willie Nelson championing marijuana in the red states. Peck, then, is a return to form, and his version of “outsider” is being an openly gay crooner with a heightened, Dolly Parton-esque camp aesthetic and a voice that could melt butter. His music has all the twang and warble of old country, but is softened by influences like new wave synth and dreamy shoegaze. Think of The Smiths sung by Elvis, with lyrics by Lana Del Rey, and you’re halfway to Peck. Never seen without his cowboy hat and mask, he’s the sort of enigmatic figure that inspires immediate and intense devotion—I know, because I’m living it.  

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