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

Over the Garden Wall, a Picture-Perfect Autumnal Feast 

, , ,

If you’re an autumn afficionado, you may have seen the cartoon masterpiece that is Over the Garden Wall, the 2014 children’s series that ran on Cartoon Network over the course of one week. Since then, the show has reached cult classic status among adult viewers who return to the short, 10-episode series yearly as the air turns cold and the leaves turn vibrant. Aside from the impeccable fall vibes, I’ve been thinking about what makes this one-off series so enduring. There are tons of fall-flavoured specials out there, but Over the Garden Wall seems to hit the bullseye—like teasing out the appealing elements of other media and combining them into the ultimate autumnal stew. It’s got the coziness we all crave this time of year without forgoing the spookiness of the season (maybe just a touch spookier than most children’s fare?), while pulling directly from cultural touchstones of yore. It also localizes the story to a pseudo-New England setting, in some vaguely post-Civil War/turn of the 20th century timespan. It’s a feast for Halloween fans, but also for big ol’ literature and history nerds (like myself).  

The plot of Over the Garden Wall is simple: two brothers Greg and Wirt find themselves lost in a strange land called the Unknown, a place out of time that is full of dark forests, strange inhabitants, and a sliding scale of sinister threats. As they try to find their way, they earn the help of a less-than-friendly bluebird named Beatrice who promises to take them to Adelaide of the Pasture, ostensibly their ticket home. Story-wise, Over the Garden Wall recalls familiar tropes of Western literature, especially the young person’s journey dotted with eclectic weirdos going all the way back to chivalric tales of Medieval Europe (a la King Arthur and his round table) and into the 20th century with the likes of The Wizard of Oz. OTGW pokes meta jokes at this (and its Hansel and Gretel fairytale structure) in episodes like Songs of the Dark Lantern, where the brothers come upon a tavern full of townsfolk who are known only by their occupation: the Butcher, the Midwife, the Tailor and the Apprentice. They prod Wirt until they discover his narrative function: he’s the Pilgrim, a “traveler on a sacred journey, a master of your own destiny!” 

Continue reading →

Coffee Shop Treats for Your Fall Reads

, ,

Is it technically still summer? Yes. Did we only recently come out of a brutal heatwave? Also yes. But these minor inconveniences won’t stand in the way of coffee shops purveying us autumn enjoyers with their fall-flavoured staples. It’s fall in our hearts, and that’s what matters. And what better way to enjoy a seasonal drink than to sip it alongside an excellent read? Below is a list of coffee shop staples paired with a matching book. Of course, my scientific metric for this is purely vibes, but as a connoisseur of café items this makes sense to me. If you need some fall reading inspo, find your favourite beverage below!

Pumpkin Spice Latte

Let’s start with the ever-iconic pumpkin spice latte (PSL), undefeated queen of the fall menu items (which other drink gets its own acronym?). Sweet, unchallenging, and universally appealing, I like to think of the PSL as the romantic comedy of the fall beverage lineup. It’s the drink you pickup on the way to an orchard for a wholesome (maybe even romantic?) day of apple picking, or to do a Caitlin Covington-esque autumn photoshoot. With that in mind, PSL lovers will want to check out You, Again by Kate Goldbeck. Luring in fans of both autumn and autumn-flavoured rom-coms a la Meg Ryan’s 90s oeuvre, they slapped a When Harry Met Sally inspired cover on the book and said come get your food! And if that’s not enough, it seems the plot is also a riff on the beloved movie: two people who initially didn’t get along accidentally  reconnect years later, spawning a friendship that just might develop into something more.

Flat White

Not technically a seasonal item, but it has the right spirit. Smooth, minimalist and dark (but not bitter), the flat white is the dark academia of beverages. It’s the drink to carry as you step onto campus–preferably a neo-Gothic one like the University of Toronto–amid the blowing leaves. It will also match perfectly with your neutral-toned plaids and sweater vests. And the perfect book to be reading while tucked into an aesthetic reading nook, sipping on a flat white, is Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, a novel I would also describe as smooth, minimalist, and dark. Like the architect after which it’s named, Piranesi features a labyrinthine “house” with endless rooms, statues, and flooding corridors. The protagonist Piranesi is the house’s caretaker and sole occupant–except when The Other visits. Told in epistolary format, Piranesi is a weird one for sure. But if you stick with it, you’ll unravel a compelling and haunting mystery.

Continue reading →

The Bountiful Benefits of Book Clubs

, ,

Interested in joining a book club? Check out VPL’s adult book club programs on Eventbrite!  

At the end of summer, I like to do a rewatch of one of my comfort films, The Jane Austen Book Club. I pick this time of year because the setting is crisp Northern California, seemingly perpetually at sunset. It’s a perfect transition into fall. It’s also a great example of what makes book clubs so appealing. In the film (and the book upon which it’s based), the Jane Austen Book Club is formed as a salve for a friend group going through various crises.

As the characters delve into the novels, they start recognizing themselves in Austen’s stories. They bring their own unique experiences and struggles to their understanding of Austen’s themes, leading to thoughtful discussions of characters and events with their own personal spins. Take, for example, the discussions of Mansfield Park’s Fanny Price (“I love Fanny. She puts her family’s needs before her own” “She’d probably be easier to like if she would allow some weakness in others”) or Pride and Prejudice’s Charlotte Lucas (“I kind of admire Charlotte for looking at her situation and deciding to marry Mr. Collins … She knows he’ll never be the love of her life, but that’s okay”).  

These kinds of nuanced discussions are the result of a group of disparate readers coming together over a shared book; a single reader might pick up on certain themes, or form certain ideas, but those ideas can be subject to the reader’s prejudice. Sharing them with other readers can open up a whole new world of ideas. One of my favourite aspects of books clubs is simply seeing what worked about a book (or didn’t work) for different readers and getting into why. Whether the group agrees or not isn’t the point—we’re just working those thinking muscles!  

Continue reading →