Exceptional resources, services, spaces, technology and people...
The Big Trip: your ultimate guide to gap years and overseas adventures
by Lonely Planet Publications
It’s nearly summertime – are you planning your first big trip abroad? The Big Trip: your ultimate guide to gap years and overseas adventures can help you prepare for your trip with helpful suggestions and info on volunteer organizations, jobs and educational programs. The book is also loaded with colourful photography that will get you excited for your travels overseas!
Name: Mari-Anne Dansereau
Position: Interlibrary Loans and Media Technician
Which book did you choose?
Girl Runner by Carrie Snyder
As a young runner, Aganetha Smart defied everyone’s expectations to win a gold medal for Canada in the 1928 Olympics. It was a revolutionary victory, because this was the first Games in which women could compete in track events—and they did so despite opposition. But now Aganetha Smart is in a nursing home, and nobody realizes that the frail centenarian was once a bold pioneer.
When two young strangers appear asking to interview Aganetha for their film about female athletes, she readily agrees. Despite her frailty, she yearns for adventure and escape. And though her achievement may have been forgotten by history, her memories of chasing gold in Amsterdam remain sharp. But that triumph is only one thread in the rich tapestry of her life. Her remarkable story is colored by tragedy as well as joy, and in Girl Runner Carrie Snyder pulls back the layers of time to reveal how Aganetha’s amazing athleticism helped her escape from a family burdened by secrets and sorrow.
However, as much as Aganetha tries, she cannot outrun her past or the social conventions of her time. As the pieces of her life take shape, it becomes clear that these filmmakers may not be who they seem
Can you tell us why you chose this book?
I liked that it was based on some true facts about women in the Olympics and the book was easy to get in to.
We’d love to hear more about the books you have read in the past. Could you share a few favorites?
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
What do you like to do in your spare time?
Relax, relax, relax.
Can you tell us 3 items on your bucket list?
Travel, travel and more travel.
Burnaby Campus Library summer hours are now in effect:
May 29 – June 25
Monday – Thursday | 8am – 7pm
Friday | 8am – 5pm
June 26 – September 4
Monday – Friday | 8am – 5pm
Check the website for a complete list of hours for all campus libraries.
Save
It Gets Worse: a collection of essays
by Shane Dawson
Don’t be fooled by the title, this book is sure to get you laughing. A collection of hilarious essays filled with real-life cringe-worthy moments from the author’s life, It gets Worse: a collection of essays, is a humour-filled follow-up to Dawson’s original book about millennial life, I Hate Myselfie.
Lori Pederson, Hagar Toy
Name: Lori Pederson, Library Coordinator – ATC Campus
Hagar Toy, Public Services Assistant – ATC Campus
Which book did you choose?
Tomboy Survival Guide by Ivan Coyote
Ivan Coyote is a celebrated storyteller. The Globe and Mail newspaper called Coyote “a natural-born storyteller” and the Ottawa Xpress once said that “Coyote is to Canadian literature what kd lang is to country music: a beautifully odd fixture.” Ivan often grapples with the complex and intensely personal issues of gender identity in their work, as well as topics such as family, class, social justice and queer liberation, but always with a generous heart, a quick wit, and the nuanced and finely-honed timing of a gifted raconteur. Tomboy Survival Guide is a funny and moving memoir told in stories, about how they learned to embrace their tomboy past while carving out a space for those of us who don’t fit neatly into boxes or identities or labels.
Lori, can you tell us why you chose this book?
I like memoirs and fiction, particularly when the person has overcome difficulties in their lives with not fitting in to society in some way.
Lori, we’d love to hear more about the books you have read in the past. Could you share a few favorites?
Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
How to Talk to a Widower by Jonathan Tropper
One on One by Tabitha King
The Dinner by Herman Koch
Summer House with Swimming Pool by Herman Koch
The Vacationers by Emma Straub
Get Scrappy: Smarter digital marketing for businesses big and small
by Nick Westergaard
Are you interested in developing a digital strategy that rivals those of the big brand companies? Get Scrappy: Smarter digital marketing for businesses big and small provides practical and innovative ideas for building your brand on a shoestring budget.
Available online as an ebook.
Name: Cathy Hyska
Position: Learning Commons Administrative Coordinator
Which book did you choose?
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
A dazzlingly rich vision of the pain, loveliness, mystery, and promise of New York City in the 1970s.
Can you tell us why you chose this book?
This author is so very clever bringing what seem to be short stories together to form an amazing story.
We’d love to hear more about the books you have read in the past. Could you share a few favorites?
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod
Late Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay (available at BCIT)
All the Light we Cannot See by Anthony Doer (available at BCIT)
They Left us Everything by Plum Johnson (available at BCIT)
The Chosen by Chaim Potok (available at BCIT)
What do you like to do in your spare time?
Read, cook, listen to music, knit, be outdoors, and spend time with family & friends.
Can you tell us 3 items on your bucket list?
by Anne Enright
Since it’s Mother’s Day on the weekend, why not read a novel with a matriarch as the main character?
The Green Road is a story of four Irish siblings who leave their mother, Rosaleen, and their small hometown in west Ireland to start new lives in big cities across the globe. When the children return one Christmas, they find out their mother has sold the family home. The children feel their past is being erased and sold off along with their childhood home.
Name: Sherry Crawford
Position: Public Services Assistant
Which book did you choose?
Here be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman
Thirteenth-century Wales is a divided country, ever at the mercy of England’s ruthless, power-hungry King John. Llewelyn, Prince of North Wales, secures an uneasy truce by marrying the English king’s beloved illegitimate daughter, Joanna, who slowly grows to love her charismatic and courageous husband. But as John’s attentions turn again and again to subduing Wales—and Llewelyn—Joanna must decide where her love and loyalties truly lie.
The turbulent clashes of two disparate worlds and the destinies of the individuals caught between them spring to life in this magnificent novel of power and passion, loyalty and lies. The book that began the trilogy that includes Falls the Shadow and The Reckoning, Here Be Dragons brings thirteenth-century England, France, and Wales to tangled, tempestuous life.
Can you tell us why you chose this book?
I love historical fiction. I have read a few of Sharon Kay Penman’s books and I loved them.
We’d love to hear more about the books you have read in the past. Could you share a few favorites?
The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman
What do you like to do in your spare time?
Play pool, cook, travel and read.
Can you tell us 3 items on your bucket list?
Travel to Italy, Spain and Eastern Europe.
Drop by the Burnaby Campus Library for some mini-workshops to help you prepare for exams with bonus healthy snacks and de-stress stations.
