Our (Cindy’s!) Favourite Resources in the Collection: Part 3
I enjoy writing these “favourite resources” posts because it gives me a chance to recommend books to read for fun, interest, or enjoyment. I do a lot of that kind of reading myself, so I hope I can find a nice variety of books that could appeal to different people.
Feel free to also take a look at part 1 and part 2 of my favourite resources.
Montgomery, L. M. Anne of Green Gables. 1st Canadian ed., Ryerson, 1942.
A Canadian classic and favourite of many, I think. Anne is an orphan and is mistakenly sent to PEI to be adopted by elderly Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, who actually wanted a boy to help with the chores at Green Gables. Red-haired Anne is so vivacious and charming that she wins them over, anyway (although she does have a temper!). This is also one of my all-time favourite movies (the CBC mini-series, starring Megan Follows.
Hill, Lawrence. The Book of Negroes. HarperCollins, 2007.
***Possible spoilers***
In the mid-1700s, Aminata is only 11-years old when her parents are murdered and she is kidnapped from her village in Africa. She is forced to walk for months to the ocean where she boards a ship to cross. She arrives in South Carolina, where she is sold to an indigo plantation owner and works there until she is then sold to another man and his wife, where she helps keep their home. After a number of years, “Meena” escapes to New York, and after a time, she finds herself in “The Book of Negroes” – a real list of Negroes who want to escape New York and the rebels for Nova Scotia as British Loyalists. All her life, Meena has really just wanted to go home, back to her village in Africa.
Bouchard, David. If You’re Not from the Prairie. Illustrated by Henry Ripplinger, Raincoast Books, 2003.
This is a picture book/book of poetry that celebrates the North American prairies. The poetry describes the sun, the wind, the grass, the snow and more. David Bouchard went to school in a small town in Southern Saskatchewan and the words really bring the place back to life, as do the illustrations.
Starr, Douglas P. The Killer of Little Shepherds: A True Crime Story and the Birth of Forensic Science. 1st ed., Vintage, 2011.
In the late 19th century in France, Joseph Vacher was roaming the countryside. He mostly stuck to rural areas. He had a violent streak and definitely killed 11 people (he later confessed to these), but is actually suspected to have killed around 25 people. Because he was a vagabond, however, it took a while for someone to put together the pieces to figure out it was the same person doing the killings in all these different places.
Meanwhile, a scientist/doctor named Lacassagne was trying to put science together with the law to help convict criminals, using early forensic science. The book alternates chapters between Vacher and Lacassagne.
Genova, Lisa. Still Alice. 1st Gallery Books Trade Pbk. ed., Gallery, 2009.
Told from Alice’s point of view, Alice is a 50-year old Harvard professor of psychology who is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s. She and her family have to learn to live with this degenerative disease, knowing that Alice will only get worse.
Gruen, Sara. Water for Elephants. Harper Perennial Trade Pbk. ed., Harper Perennial, 2007.
Jacob is 90 (or maybe 93, he can’t quite remember!) years old, living in a nursing home and the circus has come to town. This brings back a flood of memories from when he was in his early 20s, an almost-veterinarian, and working for the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth, a travelling train circus, in the early 30s.
Anderson, Laurie Halse. Wintergirls. Speak, 2010.
Lia is 18 and struggling with anorexia. Her best friend, Cassie, was bulemic and has just died. Lia is trying to deal with Cassie’s death (difficult with Cassie’s ghost haunting her) and the guilt she feels because she didn’t pick up the phone any of the 33 times Cassie called the night she died. Lia lives with her father and his new wife, Jennifer, and her daughter, Emma. Lia’s mother is trying to mend their relationship while also making sure Lia is eating.
Blog Post Written By: Cindy Wiebe, Cataloging & Collections Specialist
Cindy has been working at St. Mary’s since 2001, mostly in the back room as the STMU Cataloguer Extraordinaire. She has three cats and volunteers for the MEOW Foundation. She is on LibraryThing, GoodReads, and she is a voracious reader!