Tag Archives: Non-fiction

Something Old and Something New For 2025

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Happy 2025 readers! I and our HOTS bloggers are hoping you’ve had a stellar start to the new year, perhaps with a new (or old) New Year’s resolution under your belt. We’re probably all familiar with the less than positive statistics that most resolutions aren’t built to last, but we’re optimistic that whatever it is you’ve made your thing of the year is something achievable and something you can work towards with conviction. Maybe whatever you’ve decided on lands somewhere in between trying to go to the gym more often or going on that wild adventure you’ve always been planning on, but mine and many of our library staff (like Sumayyah) revolve around reading. Surprise, surprise. Whether it’s pages, words, or titles, we’re challenging ourselves to finally tackle and conquer our forever towering mountain of books or our endlessly long to-read list, which is, of course, a good and very achievable goal for 2025 and will probably not also be our resolution coming into 2026.

In the spirit of our very ambitious reading resolution, and in case you were missing our year-round-up post, I’ve polled our staff across the system to gather their favorite reads of last year (though not exclusively published in 2024) and what they’re most looking forward to reading in 2025. In case your reading list isn’t a full city block long and you’re looking for something to pick up at your next library visit, see below for what my colleagues have to say about how they’re kicking off 2025 with a bang satisfying page turn!

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Why Do We Tell Stories?

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“Why do we tell stories? To try to make sense of a world that can be terrifying and enormous.” – Brennan Lee Mulligan

It’s a quote that comes back to my mind every so often, as someone who works in a house full of stories (aka the library) and as a writer. You could say it’s a favorite quote of mine (and I promise it has nothing to do with the fact it comes from one of the best Dungeons & Dragons live play sessions I’ve ever watched). Every time I get struck by the dreaded writer’s block and every time I start fretting over the words in my blog posts for more hours than can actually be healthy, I hear those same words in the back of my head.

Why do we tell stories? Because the world can be terrifying, and enormous, and so hard to make sense of.  

Mulligan’s answer is one of many, but don’t worry, I’m not going to delve into more horror picks this month as much as I want to focus on the “terrifying” part. His words usually get me thinking about the question itself. Why do we tell stories? The habit of storytelling is as old as recorded history, if not older, and yet we still do it, from amateur weavers to lauded professionals. We have places where you can buy stories and places where you can get them for free. Even the internet has curated spaces and websites specifically meant for telling stories (here’s looking at you, fanfiction auteurs).

With November coming up, which for the past eight years has been Buckle In and Get Writing Month to me, I was going to make this post about the usual writing guides, tips, and tricks that the library and the internet have to offer. Instead, I would like to shift gears and make a miniature investigation into storytelling, with you readers as my honorary Watsons. I hope you all have your deerstalkers on.

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Instant Gratification with Hoopla

The cover of The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

We’ve all been there: it’s 2:00am, you’re fighting a losing battle with insomnia and decide it’s time to give up and do some reading. But alas and alack! You finished your book earlier that night!1 You don’t worry, though, you know Vaughan Public Libraries has you covered with digital resources. You check Overdrive, but everything you want to borrow is already checked out. While you’d love to learn French, you’re not there yet, so you give Cantook Station a pass for the moment. And because it’s just one of those nights, your headphones are in another room, and bed is too cozy to leave, so an audiobook from AudioBookCloud is out. TumbleBook Library and TeenBookCloud are aimed a little young for your tastes that evening. So your next place to check is Hoopla to see what they’ve got in the Instant Borrow category and… oh! You’ve heard of this The Midnight Library book, and instant borrow means there’s no wait to get it, perfect! And then, suddenly you’re halfway through the book and it’s time to get up for the day. This has happened to everyone, right? I’m not alone? Eh, fine, my readers know I embrace my weirdness.

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