Book of the Month March 2017 + Games Night

[UPDATE: 28 MARCH 2017]

Hey Bookends! 

Hope you're surviving the last couple of weeks. The book of the month for March 2017 is...

The Housekeeper and the Professor
Yoko Ogawa

I'm guessing it had something to do with the fact that it was the shortest book on the list :D Nevertheless, here are the details for our final meeting of the year!

Date: Friday, March 31, 2017
Time: 4:00-5:00pm
Place: Hart House, Committees Room

Also, I was hoping we could have another Games Night to cap off the school year. Please email me with the best times for your schedule (I'm thinking the week of April 3-7, before exams start, but if before / after works for you, let me know!) I will bring this up at the meeting as well.

Enjoy the book!

Best,

Taneeta

March 2017 Nominations

Hey everyone!

Sorry about the delay, school stress! This month's theme wasn't decided at the last meeting, so I randomly picked one: Books Under 300 Pages!

Here is the link to the Doodle, as usual.

And here are the nominations:

Still Alice / Lisa Genova

Alice Howland is proud of the life she worked so hard to build. At fifty years old, she’s a cognitive psychology professor at Harvard and a world-renowned expert in linguistics with a successful husband and three grown children. When she becomes increasingly disoriented and forgetful, a tragic diagnosis changes her life--and her relationship with her family and the world--forever.

[292 pages]

Interpreter of Maladies / Jhumpa Lahiri

Some of these nine tales are set in India, others in the United States, and most concern characters of Indian heritage. Yet the situations Lahiri's people face, from unhappy marriages to civil war, transcend ethnicity. As the narrator of the last story, "The Third and Final Continent," comments: "There are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept." In that single line Jhumpa Lahiri sums up a universal experience, one that applies to all who have grown up, left home, fallen in or out of love, and, above all, experienced what it means to be a foreigner, even within one's own family.

[198 pages]

Euphoria / Lily King

Inspired by events in the life of revolutionary anthropologist Margaret Mead, Euphoria is the story of three young, gifted anthropologists of the 1930s caught in a passionate love triangle that threatens their bonds, their careers, and, ultimately, their lives.

[256 pages]

The Incomparable Atuk
Mordecai Richler

Transplanted to Toronto from his native Baffin Island, Atuk the poet is an unlikely overnight success. Eagerly adapting to a society steeped in pretension, bigotry, and greed, Atuk soon abandons the literary life in favour of more lucrative – and hazardous – schemes.

[192 pages]

Peril at End House / Agatha Christie

Hercule Poirot is vacationing on the Cornish coast when he meets Nick Buckly. Nick is the young and reckless mistress of End House, who has recently narrowly escaped a series of life-threatening accidents. 

Something tells the Belgian sleuth that these so-called accidents are more than just mere coincidences. It seems all too clear to him that someone is trying to do away with poor Nick, but who? And, what is the motive? In his quest for answers, Poirot must delve into the dark history of End House. The deeper he gets into his investigation, the more certain he is that the killer will soon strike again. And, this time, Nick may not escape with her life. 

[287 pages]

The Housekeeper and the Professor
Yoko Ogawa

He is a brilliant math Professor with a peculiar problem--ever since a traumatic head injury, he has lived with only eighty minutes of short-term memory.  She is an astute young Housekeeper, with a ten-year-old son, who is hired to care for him.  And every morning, as the Professor and the Housekeeper are introduced to each other anew, a strange and beautiful relationship blossoms between them. The Housekeeper and the Professor is an enchanting story about what it means to live in the present, and about the curious equations that can create a family.

[180 pages]









Vote:

Create your own user feedback survey

Feb 2017 Meeting & Movie Final Details

Here are the details for our February 2017 meeting:

Date: Thursday, March 2, 2017
Time: 6:30 pm
Place: Boardroom, Hart House (second floor)

The meeting will be from 6:30-7:30ish, and then we'll start the movie. You're welcome to stay if you like, but you don't have to :) We'll be watching The Grand Budapest Hotel!

See you then!

February 2017 Book of the Month & Pick a Movie!

Reading Week is finally here! And with it, you have the chance to relax - and, well, read. Our book of the month is...

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling.

The meeting date/time is Thursday March 2, at 6:30 pm. I'll post again about the place (which will most likely be at Hart House). 

Here is the survey for our Movie Night (also March 2, right after the meeting):

Create your own user feedback survey

February 2017 Nominations

Hey everyone!

February's theme is Humour. (After January's somewhat depressing book, and considering it's the middle of winter, we all need this!) 

Here's a link to the Doodle for our meeting date & time.

The February nominations are:

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole,
Aged 13 3/4 | Sue Townsend

Adrian Mole's first love, Pandora, has left him; a neighbor, Mr. Lucas, appears to be seducing his mother (and what does that mean for his father?); the BBC refuses to publish his poetry; and his dog swallowed the tree off the Christmas cake. "Why" indeed. [source]

The Sellout | Paul Beatty

Paul Beatty's The Sellout showcases a comic genius at the top of his game. A biting satire about a young man's isolated upbringing and the race trial that sends him to the Supreme Court, it challenges the sacred tenets of the United States Constitution, urban life, the civil rights movement, the father-son relationship, and the holy grail of racial equality—the black Chinese restaurant. [source]

The Indifference League
Richard Scarsbrook

Sexy, racy, hilarious, and even moving, The Indifference League is a story of what happens when the starry-eyed optimism of the Greatest Generation crashes into the obsessions and fears of the New Lost Generation. 

Under the faded banner of Superman, Wonder Woman, and other heroes past steps the Indifference League: The Statistician, Time Bomb, Hippie Avenger, SuperKen, SuperBarbie, Miss Demeanour, Mr. Nice Guy, Psycho Superstar, The Drifter, and The Stunner. All archetypes of Generations X and Y, they are here to show us just how much things have changed.

Sex and love. Religion and politics. Left and Right. Right and Wrong. Can anyone be a hero in an age where the lines are so blurred? When they meet again at The Hall of Indifference for a long weekend together, The Indifference League will fight to find out. Or not. [source]

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?
(And Other Concerns) | Mindy Kaling

Mindy Kaling has lived many lives: the obedient child of immigrant professionals, a timid chubster afraid of her own bike, a Ben Affleck–impersonating Off-Broadway performer and playwright, and, finally, a comedy writer and actress prone to starting fights with her friends and coworkers with the sentence “Can I just say one last thing about this, and then I swear I’ll shut up about it?” 

In Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, Mindy invites readers on a tour of her life and her unscientific observations on romance, friendship, and Hollywood, with several conveniently placed stopping points for you to run errands and make phone calls. Mindy Kaling really is just a Girl Next Door—not so much literally anywhere in the continental United States, but definitely if you live in India or Sri Lanka. [source]

Weird Things Customers Say
in Bookstores | Jen Campbell

This Sunday Times bestseller is a miscellany of hilarious and peculiar bookshop moments: 'Can books conduct electricity?' 'My children are just climbing your bookshelves: that's ok... isn't it?'

A John Cleese Twitter question ['What is your pet peeve?'], first sparked the 'Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops' blog, which grew over three years into one bookseller's collection of ridiculous conversations on the shop floor. 

From 'Did Beatrix Potter ever write a book about dinosaurs?' to the hunt for a paperback which could forecast the next year's weather; and from 'I've forgotten my glasses, please read me the first chapter' to 'Excuse me... is this book edible?: here is a book for heroic booksellers and booklovers everywhere. [source]

Wake Up, Sir! | Jonathan Ames

Alan Blair is a young, loony writer with numerous problems. He's also quite skilled at getting into trouble. But luckily for Alan, he has a personal valet, a wondrously helpful fellow named Jeeves, who does his best to sort things out for his young master.

Our tale begins in Montclair, New Jersey, where Alan gets into a scrape with his uncle Irwin, a gun-toting member of the NRA. So Alan and Jeeves flee New Jersey and take refuge at a Hasidic enclave in Sharon Springs, New York. Unfortunately, more trouble ensues, so Alan and Jeeves again take flight, this time landing at a famous artist colony in Saratoga Springs, New York. There Alan encounters a femme fatale who is in possession of the most spectacular nose in the history of noses. Such a nose can only lead to a wild disaster for someone like Alan, and Jeeves tries to help him, but... [source]


Vote below:

Create your own user feedback survey

January 2017 Meeting Details

Hey Bookenders! 

Here are the details for our January meeting /

Book: Ghosted / Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall

Date: 26 January 2016

Time: 6:30-7:30 pm (time changed, scheduling conflict)

Place: Committees Room, Hart House

Also, we're thinking of doing a games night at Snakes and Lattes. Here is a Doodle for some possible dates. Please let us know if you prefer the Bloor/Spadina location or the College/Spadina location via email, the Discord app, or by replying to this post!

Best,

Taneeta

November Meeting Details

Hey Bookenders! 

Ahhh only 2.5 weeks til the end of the semester! I hope you're rising above all the stress :D

Here are the details for our November meeting /
Book: The Book Thief / Marcus Zusak (as you know)
Date: 25 November 2016
Time: 4:00-5:00 pm
Place: Koffler House, 569 Spadina Ave
             Quiet Room (3rd floor) -- we won't need to be quiet, don't worry

Also, a last reminder about our movie night / 
Film: V for Vendetta
Date: 22 November 2016 (this Tuesday)
Time: 6:30-9pm (ish)
Place: Hart House, North Dining Room

Hope you can come!

Best,

Taneeta

November 2016 Book of the Month

Hey Bookenders!

Thanks to everyone who voted for the book of the month. The two top choices were very close (just 1 vote separated them!) but ultimately there was a winner...

The Book Thief, by Marcus Zusak.

Click here to vote for the time/date for our November meeting. Hope you enjoy the book!

Best,

Taneeta

Update - October Meeting

Helloooo Bookenders!

I was supposed to post this last week, so I'm very sorry for the delay! Hope your midterms have been swell and are winding down now that we're getting to November.

1. Meeting Date & Time
2. Add us on Facebook (and join the Social Committee!)
3. Discord app/website
4. Social Events - November and December

1. Meeting Date & Time
The room has finally been booked! Our meeting will be:

Monday, October 31, 5:00-6:00 pm
Hart House
North Dining Room (2nd floor)

There will be food, so if you can make it and would like to partake, please let me know of your dietary restrictions (vegetarian, vegan, lactose-intolerant, etc.).

2. Add us on FB & Join the Social Committee
Our Social Committee member, Khushnuma Nafis, has set up a Facebook page and group. She will be posting info about our meetings and social events! If you want to be an admin, message her directly (and let me know too, if you want to be on the Social Committee but don't have Facebook!)

3. Reminder about Discord
We also have a discussion group on Discord. You don't need an account to join the conversation!

4. Social Events - Nov & Dec
Our two social events this semester will be (you guessed it) November and December! For November, we will have a Movie Night (TBD), and December, bring your favourite board game (and friends) to our Games Night! If you want to help plan either of these events, please message Khushnuma or reply to this email! (Dates, times, and places are forthcoming.)

Hope to see you on Monday!

Best,

Taneeta

October 2016 Book of the Month

Hope you had a great week. It's time to start reading, because the votes are in! The book for October is...

"Gerald's Game," by Stephen King.

Thanks for voting, and if you didn't get a chance, you can still vote for the time and date of our meeting until next Saturday, Oct 15, at 12:00 pm at this link. Join our discussion (if you haven't already) on Discord as we read! I'm looking forward to chatting with all of you.

Enjoy your long weekend!

Best,

Taneeta

September 2016 Meeting

Hey Bookenders!

Thanks so much for your patience this past week. I've finally pinned down the time and place for our meeting, and I'm happy to announce that there will be food! It'll be some snacks and drinks, but still - FOOD!

Meeting Details:

Date Friday September 30, 2016

Time 5:30-6:30 (approx.)

Place Alumni Hall, rm. 105 (So sorry about that. It's the nicest place I could find that allows non-catered food!)

If you're looking for Alumni Hall, it's right beside Kelly Library, and it's a five-minute walk from Museum subway station. You don't need to bring anything except yourselves.

Hope to see all of you there!

Sincerely,

Taneeta Doma
Director, Bookends

Welcome to a new year of Bookends!

Hey Bookenders!

Hope you all had a great (first) week! My name is Taneeta, and I’ll be your Director for the 2016-2017 year. I’m so excited to kick off another year of reading, discussing, and socializing with all of you!

Our first meeting of the year will be for introductions (and a little club business), so new and returning members can get acquainted. Feel free to bring your friends! It’ll be Friday, September 30.

I'm still in the process of a booking a room (and a time), mostly because it's difficult to find one that allows food. If you have any recommendations, I'd really appreciate it! I'll send out an email later on this month with the official details, but I wanted to kick off the year first!

If you can't make it to the meeting, I'll be sending out a follow-up email to summarize everything we talk about. All other meetings of the year will be decided democratically, through polls.

If you have any comments or concerns about accessibility before/during/after meetings, please let me know, whether in person or by email. It is important to me that you feel comfortable and welcomed at our meetings.

I’d also love to get your ideas about how to make this year of Bookends our best yet, so talk to me at the meeting or shoot me an email to get it all started! I’d particularly like your feedback on:
-    ideas for social events (free/inexpensive ones preferred)
-    whether you prefer afternoon or evening meetings, and on which days
-    themes of the month!

See you at the meeting! I’m looking forward to meeting all of you.

Best,

Taneeta Doma
Director, Bookends

January movie + meeting details

The votes are out!

Thanks to everyone who voted. The rooms are all booked, so here are the details for our first meeting this semester:

Movie: Up

We're starting off the semester by screening Up, a heartwarming tale of 78-year-old Carl who ties thousands of balloons to his home, and sets out to fulfill his lifelong dream to see the wilds of South America. Russell, a wilderness explorer 70 years younger, inadvertently becomes a stowaway.

When: 4:00 PM on Friday, Jan 17
Where: Room 1, Media Commons at Robarts Library, 3rd floor

Meeting

When: 6:00 PM on Friday, Jan 17

Where: Sammy's Student Exchange, Hart House

We will hold our meeting after the movie screening, so if you can't make it to the movie, but would like to join us for the meeting, you're more than welcome! We will be walking over from Robarts to Sammy's around 5:45 so if you are around Robarts and would like to join us, meet us in Media Commons.

I look forward to seeing old and new members this Friday!

- Aditi

Welcome back! Book of January + meeting

Book of January

January is upon us , so that means time for a new book! For this month, we wanted to go with theme of "new years resolutions" or "to-do list". I know all of us have books that we have always wanted to read but never quite gotten to it, or have resolutions which can be helped by reading certain books. Anything you think will help you improve yourself, that's the book we want you to read for January. And since everyone is different, we've decided to let you guys choose your own book and read it this month.

Not sure where to start? Here are some suggestions (courtesy of Goodreads)!

• "The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference" by Malcolm Gladwell
• "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change" by Stephen R. Covey
• "How to Win Friends & Influence People" by Dale Carnegie
• "How to Find A Job: When There Are No Jobs" by Paul Rega (for those of us graduating! :P)
• "My Age of Anxiety: Fear, Hope, Dread, and the Search for Peace of Mind" by Scott Stossel
• "Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness" by Susannah Cahalan
• "A Gift of Fire: Social, Legal, and Ethical Issues for Computers and the Internet" by Sara Baase

These are just some suggestions. I know these are all non-fiction books, but you are free to read whatever you want (including fiction). If there's a book you think everyone should read at some point, email us and we'll pass it along!

This month's meeting

Our next meeting will be two-folded. At our actual meeting, we will be getting together to meet new members and discuss the books we read in January. Additionally, we will also be hosting a movie night this month!

Click here to vote for a day / time: http://www.doodle.com/4rch5u4s57bc7h94To suggest a movie, comment below or email us at bookendsuoft@yahoo.com

Happy reading!

- Aditi.

October movie night - final details!

Playing: The Shining
Location: Board Room, Hart House
Date: Oct 25, 2013
Time: 6:30pm - 9:30pm

Note: drinks should be okay, but food is not allowed in the Board Room.

First meeting details

Thanks to everyone who voted in the doodle! Here are the details for the meeting:

Where: Bickersteth Room, Hart House
When: Friday, September 13, 5:30pm - 6:30pm

Don't forget to vote for your favourite book for this month.

See you all there!

Welcome to 2013-2014!

Hello Bookenders!

Welcome to a new year of Bookends. School is right around the corner and I hope everyone's excited to be coming back. We are looking forward to having an amazing year filled with great books, discussions and movies.

A few announcements:

• Amina - our previous co-director - has graduated and will not be returning to Bookends this year.
• Our new co-director is Anoo. Some of you might have met Anoo at our meetings last year. She has been a member of our club for a few years now and served on the social committee last year. So please join me in welcoming her to the Bookends exec team. I look forward to working with her!
• We are now looking for a new social committee for the upcoming school year! If you are interested, please email me (Aditi) at bookendsuoft@yahoo.com with a little blurb about yourself and your ideas for social events.
• Nominations for Book of September are now open! The theme for this month is "fresh" - interpret this as you will. It can be anything from a "new beginnings", coming of age story to a fantasy adventure to delight your inner child. Pick something you think others might enjoy :)
• To submit a nomination, send us an email at bookendsuoft@yahoo.com

Our first meeting will be held on Friday, September 13. Since this will be the first meeting of the month, there is no book discussion. Instead, we will have ice breakers to try and get to know one another and discuss our ideas for the book club this year. You will also have a chance to vote on the Book of September at the meeting.

Please go to this doodle to choose your preferred time for the meeting: http://doodle.com/k9mmtsm2dya3m2hs

See you there!

-Aditi

January Nominations + meeting!

Hi everyone, 

The January nominations are in! Here are the 3 books nominated for this month are: 

1) "A Whole New Mind" by Daniel H. Pink

The future belongs to a different kind of person with a different kind of mind: artists, inventors, storytellers-creative and holistic "right-brain" thinkers whose abilities mark the fault line between who gets ahead and who doesn't.

Drawing on research from around the world, Pink (author of To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Motivating Others) outlines the six fundamentally human abilities that are absolute essentials for professional success and personal fulfillment--and reveals how to master them. A Whole New Mind takes readers to a daring new place, and a provocative and necessary new way of thinking about a future that's already here.

2) "Imagine: how creativity works" by Jonah Lehrer

Did you know that the most creative companies have centralized bathrooms? That brainstorming meetings are a terrible idea? That the color blue can help you double your creative output?

From the New York Times best-selling author of How We Decide comes a sparkling and revelatory look at the new science of creativity. Shattering the myth of muses, higher powers, even creative “types,” Jonah Lehrer demonstrates that creativity is not a single gift possessed by the lucky few. It’s a variety of distinct thought processes that we can all learn to use more effectively.

Lehrer reveals the importance of embracing the rut, thinking like a child, daydreaming productively, and adopting an outsider’s perspective (travel helps). He unveils the optimal mix of old and new partners in any creative collaboration, and explains why criticism is essential to the process. Then he zooms out to show how we can make our neighborhoods more vibrant, our companies more productive, and our schools more effective.

3) "Sex at Dawn" by Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethá

Since Darwin's day, we've been told that sexual monogamy comes naturally to our species. Mainstream science--as well as religious and cultural institutions--has maintained that men and women evolved in families in which a man's possessions and protection were exchanged for a woman's fertility and fidelity. But this narrative is collapsing. Fewer and fewer couples are getting married, and divorce rates keep climbing as adultery and flagging libido drag down even seemingly solid marriages.

Ryan and Jethá's central contention is that human beings evolved in egalitarian groups that shared food, child care, and, often, sexual partners. Weaving together convergent, frequently overlooked evidence from anthropology, archaeology, primatology, anatomy, and psychosexuality, the authors show how far from human nature monogamy really is. Human beings everywhere and in every era have confronted the same familiar, intimate situations in surprisingly different ways. The authors expose the ancient roots of human sexuality while pointing toward a more optimistic future illuminated by our innate capacities for love, cooperation, and generosity.

Vote for the books here:

December 2012 Meeting

Hi guys!

I hope everyone's exams are going well. Now that we're into December and exams will be over before you know it, we would like to plan this month's meeting and/or movie night!

But in order to plan that, we need to know how many people can make it this month!

Please take the time to vote in the poll below. If you don't see a date you like, feel free to comment with your preferred date/time below!

December 2012 Meeting
	Dec 21, 2012
	Dec 22, 2012
	Dec 23, 2012
	Other (please specify in comment below)
pollcode.com free polls

http://poll.pollcode.com/b43dmy

Thanks!

November meeting and nominations!

Hi guys!

It's mid-November already! The leaves have almost all fallen off, the weather is getting cold, and Bookends is ready for another meeting ;)

This month, due to previous commitments on my part, I will not be able to host an in person meeting. However, I WILL be hosting an online meeting - chatroom discussion for those of you who would like to discuss our October novel "John Dies At The End". If you are unable to make it to our online meeting, we will also create a forum thread for you to contribute your thoughts to.

Also, we are looking for nominations for our November book. The theme is: Holidays! I know it's not Christmas yet, but this way, we can read ahead and watch a Holiday-themed movie at our December meeting. Preferrably, we are looking for books that have been turned into movies or classics. Something like A Christmas Carol, though more modern books are of course also welcome. 

Please submit your nominations by commenting on this posting or emailing us at bookends06@gmail.com.

And now, please vote for the time you would like our online meeting to be!

November Online Meeting

Looking forward to chatting with you!

-Aditi.