All posts by Heather

About Heather

Heather is the Librarian II, Literacy and Readers' Advisory, with the Vaughan Public Libraries. Her job is to connect leisure readers and aspiring writers in the endless space of imagination and creation through words in all forms.  |  Meet the team

Poetry Lovers, Stay Tuned with Vaughan Poetry Map!

In celebration of National Poetry Month in April 2016 and the City of Vaughan’s 25th Anniversary, Vaughan Public Libraries (VPL) is creating a Vaughan Poetry Map as a platform for all local poets to share and showcase their poems about Vaughan.

The Vaughan Poetry Map will be an interactive map that celebrates Vaughan’s culture, heritage, and geographical beauty through poems and images. The map will link poems onto the map based on the locations mentioned in the poems.

VPL is currently inviting all poets and poetry lovers to submit poems about general or specific locations in Vaughan. All entries should be submitted by March 11, 2016. For detailed information on submission guidelines and to enter your submission please visit: http://www.vaughanpl.info/poetry_map_entry.

Looking forward to your entries!

For a listing of VPL’s poetry collection, please visit: Poems.

Fifteen Dogs by Andre Alexis, the 2015 Giller Winner

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Fifteen DogsWhat does it mean to be alive? To think, to feel, to love, and to envy? Do you think having our human consciousness is the premise of sustaining our happiness? Or does this human consciousness  trouble you sometimes?

I didn’t initiate these questions. The 2015 Giller Prize winner Andre Alexis did with his Fifteen Dogs. The story says two Greek Gods give a pack of fifteen dogs “human intelligence” to see whether “human intelligence” is a gift that makes creatures happy or “an occasionally useful plague”. So suddenly these dogs start to struggle with their new perspective on life and on themselves. Alexis is challenging the reader to examine our own existence and recall the age old question, “what’s the meaning of life”?

“What’s the meaning of life?” I would be too ambitious to discuss such a big philosophical question here. What I am trying to do here is just to share some reflections surrounding the topic. Some of my views may reflect some Stoicism and Buddhism theories. Continue reading →

The Girl on The Train by Paula Hawkins

The Girl on the TrainIf you usually keep up with the new items from the Library, you may realize how many holds we have on The Girl on The Train by Paula Hawkins – a debut has been staying on the bestseller list for more than 10 weeks … a psychological thriller that makes you bite your nail and sigh about what people’s lives are actually like when you look further … I am sure the Gone Girl effect had greatly impacted the popularity of this new title, but the book does have its own merit … I was impressed with the lonely atmosphere that the author tried to set at the beginning … It’s a feeling that everyone can relate to once in while and the description is so true …

Actually, I requested the audiobook instead to get hold of the story faster – a good narrator can usually immerse you in the story’s atmosphere so deeply and make your reading experience unforgettable. Continue reading →