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

Adult Summer Reads: CanLit

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The world needs more Canada. Support our homegrown authors by checking out these remarkable Canadian reads.

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We’re nearing the end of summer….which means it’s time to do quintessentially Canadian things like drive up to the cottage, take a boat out on a lake and curl up by a campfire. And why not grab some great Canadian reads for your last lazy hazy days of August? We’re keeping the Canada 150 celebrations going by reading a selection of CanLit! I’ll be discussing Rupi Kaur, an Indian-Canadian woman from Toronto, and Will Ferguson, an Alberta-bred Scot, for a broad scope of modern Canadian writing.

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Adult Summer Reads: Fantastic Worlds

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Take a break from reality by delving into these unique, magical, out-of-this-world reads.

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Reading fantasy novels is often seen as a way to escape real life—and that’s definitely a big draw. There’s always some current event happening that makes us want to stick our heads in the sand and ignore it all. But sometimes fantasy can be used as a way to explore real issues, just using a different, carefully-controlled lens. I tend to read a lot of fantasy written by women, because I find that female fantasy authors use their writers’ magic to create worlds where female characters are given all the agency they wouldn’t have in, say, a realistic historical novel. So naturally, when I put together our Fantastic Worlds reading list, the ones I was personally drawn to all made me analyze their different representations of female characters.

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Adult Summer Reads: Page to Screen

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Was the book better? Read before you watch, and see for yourself!

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How many times have you said “the book was better”? I know I’m guilty of this. But recently there have been some excellent book adaptations that are not only as good as their source material, they may even improve on it (blasphemy? Perhaps). In 2017 especially, we’ve seen a number of adaptations take off in popular culture and dominate social media. I’ll discuss some of the biggest newsmakers below, but I also recommend checking out our Page to Screen reading list, so you can get a jump on the year’s biggest adaptations.

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