BC Book Prize Winners for 2010

For the winners of this year's BC Book Prize go to
http://www.bcbookprizes.ca/winners/2010

Pemberton author Carrie Mac won the Sheila A. Egoff Prize for The Gryphon Project.

The book, as well as others by Carrie Mac, is available in the library.

Synopsis:
Phoenix envies her brother Gryphon. The daredevil and sports hero has all of his recons left: three more chances at life. But she is left with only one, and learns that her beloved brother is responsible for one of her deaths. When Gryphon himself has an accident, the governing body Chrysalis refuses to recon him, deeming his death to be a suicide. His friends’ code of silence makes it difficult to find out what happened, but Phoenix is determined to unravel the mystery and save her brother. Carrie Mac is the author of nine novels including Charmed, Crush, the Triskelia series and Pain & Wastings. Her novel The Beckoners won the Arthur Ellis YA Award, is a CLA Honour book, and has been optioned for film. She was raised in small-town British Columbia and now lives in Vancouver. More

Author Lawrence Hill Appearing at Squamish Lil'Wat Cultural Center in Whistler, May 8, 2010

 Lawrence Hill is appearing at the Squamish Lil'Wat Cultural Center at 4584 Blackcomb Way, Whistler, B.C. on May 8, 2010.  He will be giving a reading and a question and answer session will follow.  Information regarding tickets can be found at The Vicious Circle (Whistler Writers Group),

Hill, of course, is the author of The Book of Negroes, winner of numerous literary prizes, including the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book.  For those of your interested in reading the books it available in the library.

Check Out Shelfari for Newest Books at Constance Rulka Library

Check out Shelfari on the Library Web Site at
www.hsslibrary.com or on the HSSS Reader's Blog at http://hsssreadersblog.blogspot.com
for the latest new books in the library.
New books are added frequently during the school year.    Colin 

2010 Pulitzer Prize Just Announced

The Pulitzer Prize has been awarded by Columbia University since 1917.  The awards are chosen by a board of jurors for Journalism, Biography and Autobiography, History and Fiction.

Pulitzer Prize for History
Lord of Finance:  The Bankers Who Broke the World - Liaquat Ahamed

Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction
The Dead Hand:  The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and It's Dangerous Legacy - David E. Hoffman

Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
Versed - Rae Armantrout

Pulitzer Prize for Biography
The First Tycoon:  The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt - T. J. Stiles

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 
Tinkers - Paul Harding

Go to
http://www.pulitzer.org
for further details.     Colin

Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver

I recently read and very much enjoyed the book Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver.  Kingsolver is keeny socially and environmentally conscious; she weaves this awareness smoothly into much of her writing, and Animal Dreams is no exception.  It is about a woman who finds herself returning to her small hometown to take care of her aging father, only to realize that her perceptions and even memories, of the town and her own past are not what she thought.  Part love story, part family drama, Kingsolver brings her characters to life in a world that is slowly realizing the consequences of its actions, both past and present.  Sara

National Poetry Month in Canada (April 2010)

April is National Poetry Month.  This year's theme is Climate Changes.
To find out more go to
http://www.youngpoets.ca/
The library has just purchased three of the nominated poetry titles for this year's BC Book Prize--the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize.  They are Automaton Biographies (Larissa Lai), Red Nest (Gillian Jerome), and The Fly in Autumn (David Zieroth). Colin

B.C. Book Awards Nominees 2010

The finalists have been announced for the 2010 B.C. Book Awards. Go to
http://www.bcbookprizes.ca/winners/2010
for a list of those nominated.  The winners for each of the categories will be announced on April 24, 2010.

Of particular interest are those titles nominated for the Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize:
Counting on Hope - Sylvia Olsen
The Gryphon Project - Carrie Mac
Inferno - Robin Stevenson
Return to Bone Tree Hill - Kristin Butcher
The Ship of Lost Souls - Rachelle Delaney

The library has The Gryphon Project and has just purchased  Inferno and Return to Bone Tree Hill.  You might want to check these out.   Colin

New Easybib Features

Many of you are familiar with EasyBib as you use it to create bibliographies or Works Cited (MLA), for your research projects.
The library now subscribes to the service which means that there are many new features. With EasyBib you are able to create bibliographies in MLA, APA, or Chicago formats. Students can create an account where their bibliographies are saved. Once they are saved, you can go back and edit them if necessary. The service now is able to create a footnote or a parenthetical citation (in-text citation)for any of the citations you create.
Take a look at the tutorial at
http://www.easybib.com/help/intro
This is really helpful in getting you started and pointing out major features available.
More later...

Electronic Book Readers

In the last six months I've purchased two Sony Readers. A good example of compulsive buying. Do I really need them? The first was the Reader Pocket Edition which lets you access up to 350 books from anywhere. It has a 5 inch screen and is very easy to read even in direct sunlight. I was surprised though that it doesn't light up at night, so you have to have an external power source to read. You can purchase books from the Sony Reader Store, but also can download free public domain titles from Google Books, and there are over one million. The Sony Store has many new releases, but it doesn't contain too many previously released books which is somewhat of a disappointment. The positive is that prices for books are 40 to 60% cheaper than purchasing the printed edition.
Recently, I purchased the Sony Reader Touch Edition. One of the advantages with this edition is you can not only download 350 books, but it has memory expansion card slots so many more books can be downloaded. Quite the little library one can carry around on a device that is thinner, smaller, and lighter than most magazines. This one has a 6 inch touchscreen and with a stylus one can highlight text and write in annotations. Again, you need an external light to read in the dark although with this model they've attached one of those little reading lights you can buy in bookstores.
They, despite some limitations, are cool to use and it's easy to download books. But I didn't mention that neither Reader has colour print or visuals. At $199.00 and $299.00 How come? Maybe someone can explain that one. Economics?
Will I stop reading print books? No way. First of all, content is limited with the Readers. No where near everything in print can be purchased electronically. And like all electronic devices, when was the last time I charged it up on the computer's USB. Like my cell phone, I forget sometimes and, alas, nothing to read.
Will I continue to use my Sony Readers? Absolutely.
And while I have been playing away with my two Readers, I notice that Sony now has a Daily Edition Reader on the market. A 7 inch screen and you can download books (and daily newspapers) wirelessly.
I think I'll hold off on that one for awhile.
Anyone in the school is welcome to take a look at my Sony Readers.
Has anyone had a chance to look at Amazon's Kindle which is now available in Canada? It would be interesting to make some comparisons.

New Books Coming Soon

New Books Coming Soon