I Dream Books: literature rating

London Culture Review July 14, 2012

Launched earlier this week, I Dream Books allows users to view amalgamated critical reviews to see how well received their next read has been. Essentially, Rotten Tomatoes for books!
With happy and sad clouds being used to indicate the reception which a book has received, the site gives readers an easy insight into the views of a wide range of critics (much easier than trawling the Sunday papers!)

Although they’re just starting out, the site looks like it could be a good way of finding your next good read.

Jill's update:

One of the creators, a University of Waterloo Engineering grad, was on CBC Radio One's Fresh Air program on July 22.  He indicated that the website is now including books from the Top 6 U.S. publishers, e.g. Random House, Penguin, etc.  He is hoping to include more Canadian content and Canadian publishers in the future.

Check it out at this link:  http://www.idreambooks.com/

Stunning Life of Pi trailer released

Published on Wednesday July 25, 2012

 

Jennifer Pagliaro
Staff Reporter
Toronto Star

The first trailer for the anticipated movie adaption of author Yann Martel’s Life of Pi features stunning special effects to help tell the survival story of a lost boy and a Bengal tiger.
Pi, directed by the acclaimed Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) tells the story of Pi Patel, son of a zookeeper, who is lost at sea along with a menagerie of animals after a shipwreck en route to Canada.
Martel’s tale is a fantastical journey of how Patel, played by newcomer Suraj Sharma, learns to cope with the surviving animals in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
If the trailer released today is any indication — showing a life-like snarling Bengal tiger, an almost dreamlike Pacific Ocean setting and a stunning closing shot of a humpback whale breaching alongside Patel’s boat — the movie is set to capture the visceral and poetic elements of the book.
Martel, who spent time in Canada as the son of diplomats and now lives in Saskatoon, has won several awards for the fantasy novel, including the Man Booker Prize in 2002.
U.S. President Barack Obama is reported to have written and signed a letter to Martel calling Pi “an elegant proof of God, and the power of storytelling.”
Life of Pi is set to be released Nov. 21, 2012.

Downton Abbey Season Three Sneak Peek

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - A "Downton Abbey" sneak peek of season three reveals that fireworks will fly between matriarchs played by Maggie Smith and newcomer Shirley MacLaine.

The aristocratic Crawley family endures a financial crisis. And, despite the engagement of Matthew and Mary at the end of last season, all is not well — gasp! — with the pair portrayed by Dan Stevens and Michelle Dockery.

PBS showed brief clips from next season to the Television Critics Association on Saturday before a panel discussion with cast members and producers of the international hit. They took a break from taping in London to meet reporters in Beverly Hills, Calif.

"Downton Abbey" returns in September in the U.K. and next January on PBS.

By Lynn Elber, Canadian Press

Why Toronto West Detention Centre inmates can’t read library books

There has been alot of talk recently on the cutbacks at school libraries and Library and Archives Canada.  This article is a reminder of another cut from earlier times which is still resonating - the removal of funding for prison librarians in Ontario.  The prison population has limited access to books and other library type materials and dependance on volunteers to provide a vital service is depressing.

Published on Thursday July 12, 2012

 

Lesley Ciarula Taylor
Staff Reporter
Toronto Star

 

Inmates at Toronto West Detention Centre have been denied books for much of the last two years because a volunteer who ran the library retired.
At the Toronto East Detention Centre, library service has been sporadic for 16 years because of a lack of volunteers, said Brent Ross, a spokesman for the Correctional Services ministry. Student volunteers have filled in occasionally during the last two years, he said, adding that jails have relied on volunteers since 1996 when the province laid off all librarians in correctional institutions.
The locked-up library carts came to light when Alex Hundert, jailed for his role as an organizer of the G20 protest two years ago, wrote a blog this week about not being able to get a library book at Toronto West.
“Other than a few Bibles and Korans I haven’t seen a book since I got here,” wrote Hundert, who was sentenced June 26.
“When I requested to have the library cart sent to the range so I could borrow a book, the guards told me they haven’t seen the cart in ages.”
Hundert said he was told the last time a student volunteer was delivering books was about four or five months ago.
“Since then, those of us locked up here, most not yet having been convicted of any crime, have had no access to books to read.”
Toronto West and East are the only two of Ontario’s 29 detention centres without library volunteers, Ross said. Toronto West is scheduled to close in the next few years.
“Each institution has a volunteer co-ordinator who works to ensure the continuance of services,” he said.
“From my conversations with the captains, it would appear that if there were a new crop of volunteers to push the book cart, then people in here could have access to books again,” Hundert said.
Volunteers with the John Howard Society of Toronto, who are already inside the two jails, would be happy to push the cart, said executive director Greg Rogers.
“I believe in the power of books,” he said.
Recruiting volunteers for prison work is difficult, Rogers warned.
“A lot of people try to get into a prison not for altruistic reasons. If you let the wrong person in there, it could cause a lot of problems.”
He also offered the society’s services to help “recruit, train or schedule” volunteers alongside the volunteer co-ordinators.
Rogers said he hadn’t known the volunteers had left.
“Why inmates from the work range, where prisoners who work kitchen, laundry and janitorial duties are held, can’t push the cart, I don’t know,” Hundert wrote.
“It seems to me that it is in all of our best interests to make sure that books are available to prisoners who want to read them.”
Hundert was sentenced to 13½ months in prison (two years minus time served since 2010) as the last of a group of six who struck a deal with the Crown last November. He pleaded guilty to counselling to commit mischief and counselling to obstruct police.
The 31-year-old Kitchener man was moved from Toronto West on Monday to another provincial jail.

Ghost Towns of Ontario

On Sunday July 8's CBC's Fresh Air program, Ron Brown, the author of various books on Ontario, including a couple on Ghost Towns, was a guest.  I find the history of Ghost Towns fascinating, especially the reasons why they developed and then disappeared.

The Town of Lincoln has a high profile one - the community of Balls Falls.  We are fortunate that some of the buildings have been preserved in a conservation area.  Many Ghost Towns end up to be just a few foundations and rubble.

Here is the description of the community of Balls Falls from http://www.ghosttowns.com/

There is a reason for the town's unusual name.  It was founded in 1809 by the Balls brothers, George and John.  As for the "Falls", the town was located by a double waterfalls on Twenty Mile Creek and supported a gristmill, a sawmill and a five storey high woolen mill.  During the 1840s, the town was referred to as the industrial heart of the Niagara Peninsula.  But that was not to be as Great Wester Railway laid tracks a considerable distance from the Town during the 1850s. Balls Falls began to fade as an industrial centre as new businesses located next to the new railway and it soon became a ghost town.  However, much to the credit of local officials, the woolen mill has been preserved as a museum. 

Mr. Brown also mentioned Grimsby Beach during the July 8 broadcast as a place to visit in Ontario.

The library carries all of Ron Brown's books.  Check them out!