Tag Archives: Adult Summer Reads

September Reading Challenge

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September Reading Challenge: Read a book by an author you’ve never read before

You know at first, I was pretty stumped on how to make a list and post for a challenge so…subjective. After all, no matter how well-known a book might be, there are always plenty of people who’ve never read it before, which means theoretically, I could talk about any book.

Thankfully my coworker had the fantastic suggestion to list books by debut authors as well as newly translated books, so here we go! As per usual, all the titles featured in this post will be available at Vaughan Public Libraries, though as they are new, many are on order. Get your holds in now!

DEBUT AUTHORS

Cover of When We Were Birds by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo

When We Were Birds by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo

A mythic love story set in Trinidad & Tobago, Ayanna Lloyd Banwo’s radiant debut introduces two unforgettable outsiders brought together by their connection with the dead.

A masterwork of lush imagination and immersive lyricism, shot through with the rhythm of the island, When We Were Birds is a spellbinding novel about inheritance, loss and love’s seismic power to heal.

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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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