Week 42

100 Greatest Books
of All Time.

Week 42

What is your favourite book of all time?
Cast your vote by commenting here at the bottom of this post,
posting a note on our facebook page or adding it to our in-house ballot box.
Each Friday we will tabulate the votes and post them on our
Facebook, Twitter and Blog accounts.

One vote per week please.
The final Top 100 will be announced at the end of December.

The top three contenders are:

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

29 votes

The Stand by Stephen King

24 votes

Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
15 votes

This week's nominees: 

 J.K. Rowling

 S.E. Hinton

 Stephen King

 Eric Litwin

John Grisham

 

Each Friday we will tabulate the votes and post them on our
Facebook, Twitter and Blog accounts.

One vote per week please.
The final Top 100 will be announced at the end of December.

Olga Cookson has been a valued member of the Sylvan Lake Municipal Library team for a long time. A total of 25 years to be exact, and because of that, Olga recently received a recognition from the Sylvan Lake Municipal Library as she was presented with a service pin by Library Director Shannan Sword this month. According to Olga, the pleasant staff and patrons make her work a joy.

Thank you for your dedication Olga, you make the Library a happy place to be. Congratulations for reaching this important service milestone.

Week 41

100 Greatest Books
of All Time.

Week 41

What is your favourite book of all time?
Cast your vote by commenting here at the bottom of this post,
posting a note on our facebook page or adding it to our in-house ballot box.
Each Friday we will tabulate the votes and post them on our
Facebook, Twitter and Blog accounts.

One vote per week please.
The final Top 100 will be announced at the end of December.

The top three contenders are:

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

28 votes

The Stand by Stephen King

23 votes

Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
14 votes

This week's nominees: 

 Ivy and Bean

 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

 The Stand

 The Outsiders

 The Man Who Went to the Far Side of the Moon

Each Friday we will tabulate the votes and post them on our
Facebook, Twitter and Blog accounts.

One vote per week please.
The final Top 100 will be announced at the end of December.

Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize 2013

The winner of the Rogers Writers' Trust has been announced. The prize goes to:

A Beautiful Truth by Colin McAdam

Told simultaneously from the perspective of humans and chimpanzees, set in a Vermont home and a Florida primate research facility, "A Beautiful Truth"--at times brutal, other times deeply moving--is about the simple truths that transcend species, the meaning of family, the lure of belonging, and the capacity for survival. A powerful and haunting meditation on human nature told from the dual perspectives of a Vermont family that has adopted a chimp as a surrogate son, and a group of chimpanzees in a Florida research institute. Looee, a chimp raised by a well-meaning and compassionate human couple who cannot conceive a baby of their own, is forever set apart. He's not human, but with his peculiar upbringing he is no longer like other chimps. One tragic night Looee's two natures collide and their unique family is forever changed. At the Girdish Institute in Florida, a group of chimpanzees has been studied for decades. The work at Girdish has proven that chimps have memories and solve problems, that they can learn language and need friends, and that they build complex cultures. They are political, altruistic, get angry, and forgive. When Looee is moved to the Institute, he is forced to try to find a place in their world. " A Beautiful Truth "is an epic and heartfelt story about parenthood, friendship, loneliness, fear and conflict, about the things we hold sacred as humans and how much we have in common with our animal relatives. A novel of great heart and wisdom from a literary master, it exposes the yearnings, cruelty, and resilience of all great apes.

Colin wins $25 000 as well as the statue. For more information on the prize winner and the finalists check out The Writers' Trust of Canada.

Colin McAdam on A Beautiful Truth

Week 40

100 Greatest Books
of All Time.

Week 40

What is your favourite book of all time?
Cast your vote by commenting here at the bottom of this post,
posting a note on our facebook page or adding it to our in-house ballot box.
Each Friday we will tabulate the votes and post them on our
Facebook, Twitter and Blog accounts.

One vote per week please.
The final Top 100 will be announced at the end of December.

The top three contenders are:

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

27 votes

The Stand by Stephen King

  22 votes

Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
12 votes

 This week's nominees:  

Monster High

 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

 Slaughter House Five

 Sycamore Row

 The Stand

The Outsiders

 

Each Friday we will tabulate the votes and post them on our
Facebook, Twitter and Blog accounts.

One vote per week please.

The final Top 100 will be announced at the end of December.

Governor General's Literary Award Winner 2013

The Governor General Literary Awards for 2013 were announced last night. The winners are:

For English fiction -  The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton

Winner of the 2013 Man Booker Prize, and set during the heady days of New Zealand's Gold Rush, " The Luminaries" isa magnificent novel of love, lust, murder, and greed, in which three unsolved crimes link the fates and fortunes of twelve men. Dickens meets "Deadwood "in this internationally celebrated phenomenon. In January 1866, young Walter Moody lands in a gold-mining frontier town on the west coast of New Zealand to make his fortune and forever leave behind a family scandal. On arrival, he stumbles across a tense gathering of twelve local men who have met in secret to investigate what links three crimes that occurred on a single day: the town's wealthiest man has vanished. An enormous fortune in pure gold has been discovered in the home of a luckless drunk. A prostitute has supposedly tried to end her life. But nothing is quite as it seems. As the men share their stories, what emerges is an intricate network of alliances and betrayals, secrets and lies, that is as exquisitely patterned as the night sky. Part mystery, part fantastical love story, and full of diabolical twists and turns, "The Luminaries" is a richly imagined novel that brilliantly weaves together the changing fates and fortunes of an entire community, one where everyone has something to hide. Full of character and event, it is a gripping page-turner -- and a unique, atmospheric world - in which readers will gladly lose themselves.

For English poetry- North End Love Songs by Katherena Vermetter

Not available in the Parkland Regional Library System at this time.










For English drama - Fault Lines: Three Plays by Nicolas Billon

Not available in the Parkland Regional Library System at this time.








For English Non-fiction: Journey with No Maps: A Life of P. K. Page by Sandra Djwa

Not available in the Parkland Regional Library System at this time.







For English Children's Text: The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B by Teresa Toten

Teresa Toten is back with a compulsively readable new book for teens! When Adam meets Robyn at a support group for kids coping with obsessive-compulsive disorder, he is drawn to her almost before he can take a breath. He's determined to protect and defend her--to play Batman to her Robyn--whatever the cost. But when you're fourteen and the everyday problems of dealing with divorced parents and step-siblings are supplemented by the challenges of OCD, it's hard to imagine yourself falling in love. How can you have a "normal" relationship when your life is so fraught with problems? And that's not even to mention the small matter of those threatening letters Adam's mother has started to receive . . . Teresa Toten sets some tough and topical issues against the backdrop of a traditional whodunit in this engaging new novel that readers will find hard to put down.



For English Children's Illustration: Northwest Passage by Matt James

Award-winning artist Matt James takes the iconic song Northwest Passage by legendary Canadian songwriter and singer Stan Rogers and tells the dramatic story of the elusive route through Canada's North to the Pacific, which for hundreds of years and once again today, nations, explorers and commercial interests have dreamt of conquering, often with tragic consequences. For hundreds of years explorers attempted to find the Northwest Passage - a route through Canada's northern waters to the Pacific Ocean and Asia. Others attempted to find a land route. Many hundreds of men perished in the attempt, until finally, in 1906, Roald Amundsen completed the voyage by ship. Today global warming has brought interest in the passage back to a fever pitch as nations contend with each other over its control and future uses. The historic search inspired Canadian folk musician Stan Rogers to write Northwest Passage, a song that has become a widely known favorite since its 1981 release. It describes Stan's own journey overland as he contemplates the arduous journeys of some of the explorers, including Kelsey, Mackenzie, Thompson and especially Franklin. The song is moving and haunting, a paean to the adventurous spirit of the explorers and to the beauty of the vast land and icy seas. The lyrics are accompanied by the striking paintings of multiple award-winning artist Matt James. Matt brings a unique vision to the song and the history behind it, annotating his illustrations with marginalia about the explorers, including the native peoples of the North. The book also contains the music for the song, a note on the Northwest Passage, maps, information about Stan Rogers (as well as a final verse of the song that was never recorded), mini-biographies and portraits of the principle explorers, and a note on the illustrations. Following on the success of Canadian Railroad Trilogy, this is another beautiful book in which a memorable song illuminates a fascinating history that has taken on new resonance today.


For English Translation: The Major Verbs by Donald Winkler

Not available in the Parkland Regional Library System at this time.








For further information on the short-listed books as well as the French winners check out their website - GG 2013