JMV's comments
(member since Jan 29, 2009)
JMV's comments from the New West Readers group.
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If you missed the original broadcast like me, here's the video: http://vimeo.com/7789739
"David Suzuki talks about his childhood, and the twists and turns of life that made him into the person we know today: how his father helped him become a public speaker, how his mother felt when he chose to study fruit flies instead of medicine, and the book that inspired his passion to protect nature."
Hey everyone, it's been a blast moderating this forum, posting book polls, and rearranging books on the group shelf.
I am officially resigning as a 'moderator' this month, and hereafter, admin messages will come from Barb!
I think it's good practice to pass the reigns from person to person every now and then, and I'm sure Barb will take good care of this group into the new year and beyond.
I expect I'll still be attending the group meetups for the near future, I just won't have the lofty 'admin' status anymore! :)
Best wishes to all!
Till next time!
Jas
12 days ago, 11:52PM
I must say, I do love this newspaper article title:
"A book so good, they even like it in Finland!
IMPAC longlist; Steven Galloway beloved by the world's librarians"
By Mark Medley, National Post
November 3, 2009
http://www.canada.com/news/story.html?id...
Props to local New West resident Steven Galloway, author of The Cellist of Sarajevo!
We'll have to wait till the shortlist is announced on April 14, 2010, and have champagne ready for the winner's announcement on June 17, 2010.
Heads up!
Robson Reading Series presents four emerging BC poets Thursday, November 12 at 7pm.
Daniela Elza, Peter Morin, Onjana Yawnghwe and Al Rempel reading from "4 Poets" the first book in a new series by Mother Tongue Publishing, which features poetry, writing drafts, interviews, poetics, short biographies, art and photographs.
The poets will read their poems in English, as well as poems in the anthology that have been translated into French, Thai, Bulgarian and Tahltan.
Admission is free. Tea, coffee and cookies will be served.
At the UBC Bookstore/Library
Robson Square
Vancouver, BC
Check it out; David Suzuki is hosting his very own online book club event next week! From: http://www.davidsuzuki.org/BookClub/
Their current book selection is appropriately enough, The sacred balance Rediscovering our place in nature by David Suzuki, with Amanda McConnell and Adrienne Mason
Book Club exclusive: ‘An intimate portrait of David Suzuki’
Join our first live online event Tuesday, November 9, 2010 at 4:30 PST, including never-before-seen-in-public footage of David Suzuki speaking about his childhood and the twists and turns of life that made him the person we know today.
Wait...when is this happening...? 2010? I believe this is a slight typo, meaning Tuesday, November 10, 2009, and not November 9, 2010!!!
Sign up today!
Actually, along the same lines as Life After People, the film "The Age of Stupid" looks at a similar pretense, but in a slightly more comical, yet cataclysmic manner. via tenthtothefraser.ca:
New Westminster Environmental Partners will present the only encore screening of the critically acclaimed film The Age of Stupid http://www.ageofstupid.net following its premiere at the Vancouver International Film Festival. The screening follows a ‘Green Carpet’ event that NWEP promises will be attended by politicians, environmentalists and movie stars (oh, do name names, NWEP …).
The film is a “drama-documentary-animation hybrid” starring Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite as an old man living in the devastated world of 2055, watching ‘archive’ footage from 2008 and asking: why didn’t we stop climate change while we had the chance?
The screening will take place at Douglas College’s New Westminster Campus (700 Royal Ave), room 1614 on Thursday October 22nd at 7:30pm. Tickets are $5 in advance or $6 at the door and can be purchased through the NWEP website at http://www.nwep.ca Pre-purchase is encouraged as seating is limited.
ok, as per Linda's discussion, I found the first episode of the History Channel series: Life After People on Google Video. Pretty good stuff! FYI: http://video.google.com/video...
Spencer, where were you!?Further to this discussion, at the last meetup, we reconsidered the Wednesday / Tuesday / sameday debate. In the online poll, myself, Andrea, and Dean all voted for Wednesday, and Megan selected Tuesday.
However, at the meetup, myself, Andrea, and Dean unanimously decided that in fact, Tuesday is just as good if not the better day to consistently meet, so for the future, I will aim to schedule all events on the LAST TUESDAY of the month! (New West Bookcrossing meetup doesn't usually meetup on the last week of the month; typically, the second last week, so there's not much of a conflict there, in case you wish to catch both events!)
http://www.meetup.com/bcbooks/calendar/
It does appear that The World Without Us has won the title for the month of November hands down! And once again, for December, you may pick a book without voting! (though you can see some folks have alluded to their December picks here :)
Ok, in the spirit of accommodation, I will reschedule the event so that Andrea can attend (as it's her book selection!). We'll meet TUESDAY, the 29th, but I would like to propose that we try to establish the LAST Wednesday of the month as the fav meetup date for our group.
If you think that's a good idea, place your vote in the current poll on the homepage!
For those of you who have RSVPed for Wed and can't make the new Tues date, I will have to personally make it up to you some how!
Happy September, everyone!
I would say no, Thursday is not possible.
Did you mean just this once, or do you always prefer Tuesdays? I created a poll to see if we should stick with a day of the month (ie: last Tuesday of the month, last Wednesday of the month, etc) just to keep things a bit more consistent / less ambiguous. Which day do you like to meet?
Originally, I thought Wed would be better, as the New West Book Crossers meetup on Tuesdays, but it now appears they don't always meet on the last week of the month...
http://www.meetup.com/bcbooks
So far, I can do either Tuesday or Wednesday, but I'm not sure about other folks. We would need more of a consensus here before switching the date...anyone else care to comment?
Sep 08, 2009 09:59PM
via Twitter:
@Museumofvan: MOV Blog: First book in our series "Books Every Vancouverite Should Read" is now live. What did we select?
Vancouver Matters is less a book than a bound exhibit, which may partly explain its appeal to us. Using photographs, illusrations, and short essays, the various writers (mostly artists, and students and faculty from UBC’s School of Architecture + Landscape Architecture) present Vancouver as an unfinished work rather than an accomplishment (a subtle dig at “Vancouverism” proponents?).
Each of the 16 chapters explores a particular material condition—stucco, hedge, sugar, blackberry—and explores its imprint on the city’s built-form and culture. The opening chapter on andesite stone, for example, details the history of the Haddington Island quarry—stay with me—and how the stone was brought to Vancouver and used to clad key financial and government buildings that called for a resilient, permanent character. Picture the Royal Bank building at 675 West Hastings St., the former Provincial Court House (now the Vancouver Art Gallery), and City Hall. That many of these structures still stand in a city where redevelopment is very much a part of our identity, may indicate their intended goal has been met.
Beyond history lessons, it’s a beautifully rendered portrait of the city that presents the familiar in a bright new way.
Vancouver Matters was published in the fall of 2008 by Blueimprint, a division of the local publishing house, Simply Read Books.
http://www.museumofvancouver.ca/blog.php?...
ps: as for my November book selection, I must say, these titles all sound rather foreboding, eerie, and surreal!I'm going to pick 3. The World Without Us, as I recall this CBC Quirks and Quarks radio interview with the author. Spooky good!
http://www.cbc.ca/quirks/archives/07-08/sep08.html
I thought that is what was decided by general consensus at the last meeting. Do we want to meet in person on December 30th? Should we all read the same book in December?I like the idea of leaving the book choice open, if we are in fact, not going to meet in December. If we aren't going to meet, voting I think becomes unnecessary.
However, if someone has lots of Christmas leftovers, and would like to host a Christmas party, feel free to make the suggestion!!
The Douglas Coupland Video Podcast, now free on iTunes!via Twitter:
@jmv free Doug Coupland Video Podcast! RT @DougCoupland: I think you need an iTunes app for this: http://bit.ly/v96Qj
Ok, we have a couple more months left to select a couple more books for 2008, and then we're on to a whole new year with Monthly Themes! We'll finalize those themes at the next meetup. We have one more round of voting for November, and
1. The Flying Troutmans
2. The Book of Negroes
3. The White Tiger
4. A Raven in My Heart Reflections of a Bookseller
Once again, don't vote for December books here; you will keep your choice a secret and let us know which book you chose at the meetup!
Right now we are voting for a book in November, and these four books were nominated:
1. Saturday
2. Vanishing Acts
3. The World Without Us
4. The Broom of the System
Happy reading!
And so, Outlander is the outcast this month with no votes! Catch-22 gets the prize with 5 votes!
A Raven in My Heart got 2 votes.
The Book of Negroes / Someone Knows My Name got one vote; perhaps at Andrea's request, "Someone Knows My Name" will get nominated again this evening?! We shall see!!
See you soon!
Correct, next week we'll nominate November's book...in September, we can nominate December's book in our usual carefree manner, but coming in 2010, our monthly themes begin! I will create 'themed events' in advance for the entire year, and then update/edit them with the book nominees as we go along. We'll see how it goes!Remember too, the day before our meetup next week, Bookcrossing group meets at Waves!
http://www.meetup.com/bcbooks/calendar/1...
Oh ya, I haven't voted yet; I'd like to read "Raven in My Heart", but it looks like I'll be outvoted! :)
Methinks dethroning Coupland from July is a bit too contentious! And do we REALLY need to read any American Authors?!!
Splitting Comedy and Romance while sacrificing Dead Canadians is less of an issue; are there those who wish to revive a few Dead Canadians in our group?
