~ December Break Announcement~

Hello Bookenders!

Hope everyone if doing well. Thank you so much to those of you who were able to come out to our November meeting. It's a hectic time of year for many of us, so it meant a lot. Just a quick note on the month of December; due to exams and the break coming up, Bookends will resume when second semester commences. So everyone good luck on assignmnets and exams coming your way. And hope all of you have a great holiday! Enjoy the much deserved break and hope you all get a chance to read as well.

Happy Reading,

Thurga Ganeshamoothy
Director, Bookends
University of Toronto

~ November's Book of the Month ~

Hello Bookenders'!!

Votes are in and a book has been chosen. For the month of November we will be reading.............

Battle Royal by Koushun Takami

For this month we'll be focusing on the literature through both the written format and the illustrations as well. Can't wait to discuss this book. Below you will find information regarding our meeting date/location. Can't wait to see all of you. Until then Happy Reading!

- Meeting Information -

Date: Monday, November 30th, 2015

Time: 7:30 pm -8:15 pm

Location: Marvin Gerstein Room (main floor through the reading room doors) 

                  Address - 

               Gerstein Science Information Centre
               Sigmund Samuel Library Building
               9 King's College Circle, Toronto, ON M5S 1A5

Thurga Ganeshamoorthy

Director, Bookends

University of Toronto

~ November Nominations ~

Hello Bookenders!!!

Thank you so much for those of you that nominated books to be read this month. Below you will find the list of books you can choose from, the link to vote and also a doodle link to help decide when our next meeting will be. Can't wait to see which book gets chosen.

Nominated Books

1. Tokyo Ghoul, Vol. 1 by Sui Ishida

"Ghouls live among us, the same as normal people in every way—except their craving for human flesh. Ken Kaneki is an ordinary college student until a violent encounter turns him into the first half-human half-ghoul hybrid.Shy Ken Kaneki is thrilled to go on a date with the beautiful Rize. But it turns out that she’s only interested in his body—eating it, that is. When a morally questionable rescue transforms him into the first half-human half-Ghoul hybrid, Ken is drawn into the dark and violent world of Ghouls, which exists alongside our own. Trapped between two worlds, he must survive Ghoul turf wars, learn more about Ghoul society and master his new powers."

2. Battle Royale by Koushun Takami

 

"In an alternative future Japan, junior high students are forced to fight to the death! L to R (Western Style). Koushun Takami's notorious high-octane thriller is based on an irresistible premise: a class of junior high school students is taken to a deserted island where, as part of a ruthless authoritarian program, they are provided arms and forced to kill one another until only one survivor is left standing. Criticized as violent exploitation when first published in Japan--where it then proceeded to become a runaway bestseller--Battle Royale is a Lord of the Flies for the 21st century, a potent allegory of what it means to be young and (barely) alive in a dog-eat-dog world. Made into a controversial hit movie of the same name, Battle Royale is already a contemporary Japanese pulp classic, now available for the first time in the English language. A group of high school students are taken to small isolated island and forced to fight each other until only one remains alive! If they break the rules a special collar blows their heads off. Koushun Takami's brutal, high-octane thriller is told in breathless. blow-by-blow fashion. Battle Royale is a contemporary Japanese pulp classic now available for the first time in English."

3. Watchmen by Alan Moore

 

"This Hugo Award-winning graphic novel chronicles the fall from grace of a group of super-heroes plagued by all-too-human failings. Along the way, the concept of the super-hero is dissected as the heroes are stalked by an unknown assassin.One of the most influential graphic novels of all time and a perennial best-seller, Watchmen has been studied on college campuses across the nation and is considered a gateway title, leading readers to other graphic novels such as V for Vendetta, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and The Sandman series."

4. Death Note, Vol. 1 by Tsugumi Ohba, Takeshi Obata

"Light Yagami is an ace student with great prospects--and he’s bored out of his mind. But all that changes when he finds the Death Note, a notebook dropped by a rogue Shinigami death god. Any human whose name is written in the notebook dies, and now Light has vowed to use the power of the Death Note to rid the world of evil. Will Light's noble goal succeed, or will the Death Note turn him into the very thing he fights against?"

 

These are the nominations for this month, below you can find the respective links. Happy Reading and Don't forget to vote!

 

Link to Vote:

~ Vote Here ~ 

Link to Doodle:

~ Doodle for Meeting Date/Time ~

 

Thurga Ganeshamoorthy

Director, Bookends

University of Toronto

~Thank Yous and Themes~

Hello Bookenders'!

Hope everyone is doing well and looking forward to the upcoming weekend. First and foremost Thank You to those of you that were able to make it out to the last meeting; either the book discussion or the movie viewing or even both! I know we all have crazy schedules and those of you who couldn't make it, that's totally fine; hopefully you can all make it out to the next meeting. As one month ends and another is around the corner it means a new theme and a new book are to be picked! At our last meeting themes were discussed and it has been chosen; to look at literature through both words and illustrations. Meaning the theme of November is......... Comic Books/ Anime/ Manga! So send in your nominations for the upcoming month. Look out for a future email containing the voting poll and a doddle for the next meeting. Hope all you have a Spooktacular Halloween! Thurga Ganeshamoorthy Director, Bookends University of Toronto

~ Book of the Month ~

Hey Bookenders'!

Votes are in and the book of the month is.......................

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

 

     

 

 

We'll be reading Gone Girl for this month, then we will be watching the movie at the end of the month as well. The meeting is divided into two parts; first part being book discussion and the second part is the movie viewing. If you can't make both try to make it to whichever meets your convenience. The whole meeting will take place at the same location. Meeting information is below; happy reading and can't wait to discuss this book!

 

- October Meeting - 

 

When: Tuesday, October 27th, 2015

At: 5:00 pm - 5:30 pm (Book Discussion) & 5:30 pm - 8:00 pm (Movie Screening)

Where: Media Commons Room # 1 - Robrats Library  

 

Thurga Ganeshamoorthy

Director of Bookends

University of Toronto St. George

 

~October Nominations~

Hello Bookenders'!!!

Here are the book nominations for the month; below you will find the link to vote for the book you would like to read. Voting ends Monday and then you will find out which book we will be reading and which movie we will be watching as well. The date of the meeting will be announced then too. Happy Voting and can't wait to see which book is chosen for this month!

Nominated Books

1. Battle Royale by Koushun Takami

 

"In an alternative future Japan, junior high students are forced to fight to the death! L to R (Western Style). Koushun Takami's notorious high-octane thriller is based on an irresistible premise: a class of junior high school students is taken to a deserted island where, as part of a ruthless authoritarian program, they are provided arms and forced to kill one another until only one survivor is left standing. Criticized as violent exploitation when first published in Japan--where it then proceeded to become a runaway bestseller--Battle Royale is a Lord of the Flies for the 21st century, a potent allegory of what it means to be young and (barely) alive in a dog-eat-dog world. Made into a controversial hit movie of the same name, Battle Royale is already a contemporary Japanese pulp classic, now available for the first time in the English language. A group of high school students are taken to small isolated island and forced to fight each other until only one remains alive! If they break the rules a special collar blows their heads off. Koushun Takami's brutal, high-octane thriller is told in breathless. blow-by-blow fashion. Battle Royale is a contemporary Japanese pulp classic now available for the first time in English." 

2. Dune by Frank Herbert

"Here is the novel that will be forever considered a triumph of the imagination. Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, who would become the mysterious man known as Muad'Dib. He would avenge the traitorous plot against his noble family--and would bring to fruition humankind's most ancient and unattainable dream. A stunning blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism and politics, Dune won the first Nebula Award, shared the Hugo Award, and formed the basis of what it undoubtedly the grandest epic in science fiction".

3. The Double by José Saramago

"Tertuliano Máximo Afonso is a divorced, depressed history teacher. To lift his spirits, a colleague suggests he rent a certain video. Tertuliano watches the film, unimpressed. But during the night, when he is awakened by noises in his apartment, he goes into the living room to find that the VCR is replaying the video. He watches in astonishment as a man who looks exactly like him-or, more specifically, exactly like he did five years before, mustachioed and fuller in the face-appears on the screen. He sleeps badly.

Against his better judgment, Tertuliano decides to pursue his double. As he roots out the man's identity, what begins as a whimsical story becomes a "wonderfully twisted meditation on identity and individuality" (The Boston Globe). Saramago displays his remarkable talent in this haunting tale of appearance versus reality."

4. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

"On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer?"

5. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

"Few creatures of horror have seized readers' imaginations and held them for so long as the anguished monster of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. The story of Victor Frankenstein's terrible creation and the havoc it caused has enthralled generations of readers and inspired countless writers of horror and suspense. Considering the novel's enduring success, it is remarkable that it began merely as a whim of Lord Byron's."

"We will each write a story," Byron announced to his next-door neighbors, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin and her lover Percy Bysshe Shelley. The friends were summering on the shores of Lake Geneva in Switzerland in 1816, Shelley still unknown as a poet and Byron writing the third canto of Childe Harold. When continued rains kept them confined indoors, all agreed to Byron's proposal.
The illustrious poets failed to complete their ghost stories, but Mary Shelley rose supremely to the challenge. With Frankenstein, she succeeded admirably in the task she set for herself: to create a story that, in her own words, "would speak to the mysterious fears of our nature and awaken thrilling horror — one to make the reader dread to look round, to curdle the blood, and quicken the beatings of the heart."

 

 

Vote Here

~First Meeting of the Year; Bookends 2015-2016~

Hellooooo fellow Bookenders!!

Welcome to the new year, hope everyone's first month of school is going smoothly.

Just wanted to give a Warm Welcome to both old returning members and new members this year.

Get ready for a new year full of new adventures and great reads!  

We'll be starting the year off with a Meet and Greet Meeting, the first meeting of the year. Where questions will be answered, fellow Bookenders will be meet and great conversations are bound to happen! Can't wait to meet all of you. Below is more information on where and when the meeting will take place. All you need to bring to the meeting is yourselves, friends are welcome of course and your smiles. See you all there!

First meeting:  

Date: Tuesday, September 29th, 2015

Time: 5-7 pm

Location: Hart House (7 Hart House Circle Toronto, ON M5S 3H3 Canada)

              in the Board Room (on the second floor to the left)

Hope To See You There!

- Thurga

Director of Bookends

University of Toronto St. George