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On the final day of 2017, I wrote a short list of people and topics I wanted to know more about, authors I wanted to sample but somehow never did, and unfinished reading challenges: what i haven't read and what i'm not reading (again, a post that had a fair number of comments... still hoping to restore them).** From there, I dubbed 2019 The Year of the Biography (just for my personal reading, of course). I ended up reading three massive tomes on the lives of Frederick Douglass , Jackie Robinson , and Muhammad Ali . I also read three graphic biographies: the graphic adaptation of Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl (which I hope to write about), and biographies of Muhammad Ali and Emma Goldman. These weren't the only books I read in 2019, but they dominated my reading time. Social distancing and the absence of library books inspired me to purchase three more biographies, and continue the trend for 2020: Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline

When I wrote my beyond-rave review of The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma , by Bessel van der Kolk, I purposely omitted some personal reaction and connections I had to the book. Here they are. Moving forward with my own healing On the list of physical issues that can result from trauma, fibromyalgia is one of the most common -- along with depression, anxiety, stomach issues, and chronic fatigue. I've long ignored the connection between my past experiences and fibromyalgia, but now I feel ready to take it on. After resisting this for years, I want to try EMDR , for its potential to reduce my fibromyalgia symptoms. When I made this decision, I thought it might be futile, as I assumed I wouldn't be able to find a practitioner. To my surprise, there are many, not far away! Not in our town or region, but in the closest more populous area. That's about three hours away, but doable. (Funny how a three-hour drive now seems like no big deal! It

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma is famous among trauma survivors and the professionals who treat them. I can say without hyperbole or exaggeration that it's one of the most fascinating and meaningful books I've ever read. The Body Keeps the Score is divided into two parts. The first part of the book examines the brain's and body's physical response to trauma. There are essentially two kinds of trauma: the sustained, multiple traumas of childhood abuse and neglect, and adult trauma from a specific event. Many people, of course, survive multiple traumas, as both children and adults. For me, this part of the book was absolutely revelatory. Bessel van der Kolk explains the neuroscience of trauma -- and the many scientific studies and clinical observations that have led to this understanding -- in clear, plain language, using lots of analogies and examples. I am not a fast reader, and I struggle with poor concentration from fibromya

This ran after the library was closed... and it's about a resource that can only be accessed in our branches! Ancestry Library: Your Library Can Help You Discover Your Roots Many Canadians are interested in learning about their family background. After all, unless you're an Indigenous person, your ancestors were once newcomers to this land. Where did they come from, and what was life like there? Why did they decide to leave their original country, travel to a strange place, often on the other side of the globe? And where did they all go? You probably know some of their stories, but you may have family in Canada or elsewhere that you've never even heard of. For some people, genealogy becomes an absorbing fascination, even an obsession. Folks travel around the world to see what remains of a family village, or learn a new language so they can read original letters. For others, just a dip into the information now and again is enough – interesting and fun. Whatever your level of

This ran shortly before the library closed. Reading to your children is one of the best and most important things you can do to help them succeed in school – and in life. Storytimes – coming to the library so someone else reads to your children – are another important tool to build literacy and reading readiness. In the small Vancouver Island Regional Library (VIRL) branches here in the North Island, we are fortunate to work with the Mt. Waddington Family Literacy Society, who hire and train people to be "Mother Goose" storytime leaders. Thanks to the Literacy Society's generosity and commitment to the community, the Port Hardy Library now offers Mother Goose Storytimes twice each week: Tuesday mornings 10:00-10:30, and Wednesday afternoons 3:30-4:00. In our Port McNeill and Port Alice branches, Mother Goose visits every-other Saturday morning at 11:00. In our Sointula and Woss branches, Mother Goose is on a break right now, but will be back soon. You can ask at the libra

1. Wealthy urbanites are fleeing to their second homes -- buying out grocery stores, expecting personal shoppers and home delivery, swelling vacation towns' size to summer proportions. This is the epitome of the egocentric, classist arrogance that often pervades the United States. 2. In India , a planned lockdown of more than a billion people is expected to leave millions dead of starvation. As people become desperate, there will inevitably be rioting, police shootings, and all forms of rampant violence. In this case the response seems far worse than the pandemic itself. 3. Many people seem to have forgotten that the majority of COVID-19 case are not fatal. I'm not minimizing the potential, but numbers of confirmed cases does not equal the same number of deaths. 4. Our experience of the pandemic often depends on our employment situation. For me right now, it's a vacation. Health care workers have so much added risk and all the stress that comes with it. Supermarket workers

Removed from all context, I am loving social distancing. I was very disappointed to cancel our planned vacation to visit west-coast family and friends. But other than that, I am having a great time. Reading. Writing. Practicing piano . Doing jigsaw puzzles. Watching movies and series. Walking outside. Stretching and meditating inside. Playing with our dogs. They are loving having me around all the time. Cooking. The Instant Pot is working overtime! Getting things done around the house. Poor Allan, because he works from home anyway, he's not getting a vacation, and his alone time has disappeared. But for me, it's a guilt-free staycation. That's quite a contrast with the outside world. It's horrendous. Illness, death, income loss, ordinary employment becoming dangerous. So much uncertainty, and so much fear. I can't seem to lose the feeling of surreality. Is this really happening? Where is it going? How bad will it get? I'm not looking for answers. I stay in the m

I'm taking piano lessons! I'm really happy and excited about it. I'm using an amazing site called Pianote , which combines traditional lessons with seamless, user-friendly technology. * * * * If you're just picking up this story, please read this . (Comments are still missing. Blogger was (finally) working on it ... now, who knows.) Ever since writing that post above, piano lessons has been on my to-do list. Now social distancing has given me the perfect opportunity to get started. But how to begin? Simple sheet music wouldn't be enough. I knew I would need actual lessons to guide me through the process. And I wanted an app or online course so I wouldn't have to schedule anything or, to be honest, deal with another human. When I started surveying piano-learning apps, I discovered a deluge of options, and most of them looked awful. Many are geared to children. These are mostly "gamified" (yuck) and involve teaching basic songs by rote (double yuck). I

I've read that the recent border closures, part of the effort to slow the spread of COVID-19, have raised concerns in the agricultural sector. Farmers are worried that there will be a shortage of the seasonal workers they employ -- and depend on -- at harvest time. Farmers normally apply for workers through Canada's Temporary Foreign Worker Program . There are many problems with the TFW system, including a lack of oversight that opens the door for all kinds of abuses. But leaving that aside, right now a great many Canadians suddenly find themselves unemployed, as their employers have shut down or are severely limiting services during the public health crisis. This leads me to an inescapable question. Couldn't local workers pick crops? They would need protective equipment, of course. And their hiring and any training would have to conform to health protocols. But so would hiring temporary foreign workers. Surely Canada is not going to bring in busloads of migrant workers

As waves of shelter-in-place orders sweep over the continent, Canada and the US must figure out how to support an entire population thrown into unemployment and in need of food, fuel, shelter, and in the US, health care. A brief dip into recent history provides two very simple answers. Demand corporations pay their share. The corporate tax rate is at an all-time low (for modern times), offshore tax havens are rampant, and as if that's not enough, in the US the largest corporations are now receiving tax rebates to the tune of $79 billion. Nearly 100 Fortune 500 companies effectively paid no federal taxes in 2018 , according to a new report. The study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning think tank, covers the first year following passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act championed by President Donald Trump, which was signed into law in December 2017. The report covers 379 companies from the Fortune list that were profitable in 2018 and finds that 91 paid an

A reader pointed out that my previous post is very negative, and doesn't mention any of the very positive responses to the pandemic that are being rolled out. So: A prohibition on evictions. Water and electricity not being cut off for nonpayment. Student loan forgiveness. A relaxation of rules for employment insurance, and emergency funds for those who don't qualify. In some cities, free public transit. Paid sick leave. A suspension of rules about needing doctors' notes for sick days. And Every single one of these decent, humane responses to this health crisis injects a piece of socialism into our world. When the crisis has passed, governments will have to work overtime to erase our memories and return to ruthless business as usual.

We're all struggling to take in the magnitude of coping with a global pandemic. Personally I've had to cancel a long-awaited vacation to vist family, and with libraries closed, I may soon be applying for EI. The shelves at our local supermarket are empty; we're hoping folks who did the right thing, remained calm and didn't hoard, won't be repaid with severe shortages. And of course I'm hoping that the relatively fast and decisive actions taken by Canada and my own province of BC will protect us from the worst. But I'm also acutely aware that my personal inconvenience is nothing compared to the misfortunes of so many others. I don't mean those who are necessarily sick with COVID-19. I'm thinking of those who simply cannot prepare, and those who are suddenly faced with a total loss of income. All the families who live paycheque to paycheque, cobbling together an income from various part-time and casual jobs, who suddenly find themselves unemployed. All

I've never cancelled a trip because of external circumstances. Until now. In 1994, we were heading to Mexico -- to travel through the country, not to stay in a resort -- when revolution broke out in the state of Chiapas. We went anyway. In 2001, we were booked on a flight to Ireland, two months after September 11, and less than 24 hours after a plane crashed immediately after takeoff from the same NYC airport. We went anyway. In 2017, we were finally going to Egypt, when a bomb went off in a Cairo church. We went anyway. In about a month from now, we were to take a road trip with our dogs, to visit family and friends in Oregon and California. We've cancelled. Travel in the US seems ill-advised right now, even more so because we would be seeing my 88-year-old mother who already has respiratory issues. What if were exposed to the coronavirus and then infected her? It was a simple decision, yet such a painful one. I am so disappointed! I haven't seen my west-coast nieces and n

Is your reading stuck in a rut? Do you read the same authors all the time? Do you ever search for something new (to you) and different to read? I’m suggesting a little reading challenge for readers of this column: this year, read three books that take you out of your comfort zone. In my last column, I was singing the praises of graphic novels – books for adults that look like comic books. Graphic novels bring a whole other dimension to reading by using images to convey plot and emotions. Another type of reading that I frequently recommend is narrative nonfiction. Many people read nonfiction books without even realizing. Three of the most popular kinds of nonfiction are cookbooks, self-help, and how-to. In your library, you’ll find how-to books about gardening, knitting, carpentry, drawing, engine repair, jewelry-making – you name it. Self-help comes in many flavours, from how to combat stress to how to get your children to go to bed, and just about every human issue you can think of. T

One of the most frustrating and sad things we encounter at the library are people we can't help, who don't understand why we can't help them -- and who blame us. These are generally people with minimal or no digital literacy (i.e. tech skills). Here's a typical scenario. A customer cannot access their email account because they have forgotten their password. It's likely they changed the password at some point but don't remember doing that, so they're using the old password, or that they're typing it in wrong. They claim they know their password, but it's not working. The password reset function requires a verification text sent to the phone number on file -- but that phone no longer exists. There are several ways this plays out. The customer blames the library computers, claiming that this never happened when they used the computers at [place where they used public computers in the past]. The customer blames library staff for being unwilling to help