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March Madness 2023 in the Library – Week 1

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This year the Humanities and Social Sciences Library is celebrating March Madness with our very own book bracket. We’ve taken the top rated books from the Goodreads Choice Awards 2022 to put together the ultimate challenge on McGill’s favourite reads.

Week 1 begins March 6th and will be up from Monday – Sunday. Folks can vote for their favourite books by adding a tally next to their choice. Our preliminary bracket consists of sixteen contenders hoping to make it to our Elite Eight in Week 2.

Want to vote? Head to the McLennan-Redpath Library Building mainfloor near our Redpath Exhibition Case and Book Display to find the March Madness boards!

March Madness book brackets, full list of titles with hyperlinks available below.

Meet the Competitors

  1. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
  2. The Maid by Nita Prose
  3. Corrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid
  4. House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J. Maas
  5. Book Lovers by Emily Henry
  6. Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
  7. Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak
  8. I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
  9. Bad Gays: A Homosexual History by Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller
  10. Heartstopper (Volume 4) by Alice Oseman
  11. Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman
  12. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
  13. The Final Gambit by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
  14. Gallant by V.E. Schwab
  15. The Invisible Kingdom by Meghan O’Rourke
  16. Tracy Flick Can’t Win by Tom Perrotta

Join us March 13th for Week 2!

Canada Reads 2023 at McGill

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The 2023 list of Canada Reads finalists are out and we can’t wait to get our hands on these books. If you feel the same, check out the list below. Five of the titles will be championed by Canadian media personalities in a series of rounds to determine which of these books can truly change the way we see and interact with the world. More information about Canada Reads can be found on their website.

Book cover for Hana Khan Carries on by Uzma Jalaluddin. The cover is a soft light blue with the faded outline of a women in a head scarf with pink lip stick kisses next to a old fashioned microphone. All you can see on her face on bright red lips.
Book cover for Blood Scion by Deborah Falaye. The cover features a powerful coloured women in profile, her skin is a mix of blues, her dark hair in braids. She wears a head dress made on white shells and she is surrounded by fire.
Book cover for All the Seas of the World by Guy Gavriel Kay. The cover features a cosmic landspace of blues, oranges, and pinks on the horizon. A large blue wave with white caps crashing in the sea and in the foreground is a faded green frame.
Book Cover for We Were Dreamers by Simu Liu. The cover features Simu Liu sitting on a stool. He is a handsome Asian-Canadian man wearing light grey pants, a white shirt, and navy/dark grey jacket. His hands are crossed in front of his lap.
Book cover for dandelion by Jamie Chai Yun Liew. The cover features a sketch of the black of someone's head, the person has long hair flowing in the wind. A larger white dandelion looms over the left side of the page and the entire background is yellow with white dandelion fluff floating about.
Book cover for Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. The cover features a Latina woman sitting in a large maroon coloured dress. The top of her head is out of frame. Her hands are crossed in her lap and she is holding a small bouquet of flowers. Behind her is green patterned wallpaper.
Book cover for We Spread by Iain Reid. The cover features veins or roots of orange and red emerging from the text of the title and spread over the beige background of the cover.
Book cover for Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. The cover features a prominent dark starry sky and in the bottom third of the image there is a camp site surrounded by a brick fence or vibrant green grass.

Books not immediately available can be requested via InterLibrary Loan in print format.

Open Access to Climate Justice

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By Kimberly White and Ana Rogers 

Climate change does not affect everyone equally. The term “climate justice” was coined to acknowledge that the effects of climate change “will not be borne equally or fairly, between rich and poor, women and men, and older and younger generations” (UN, 2019). Access to information is a key part of connecting communities across disciplines and understanding the vast and imminent impacts of climate change. Sharing information openly and freely provides an opportunity to address the inequitable impacts of climate change and shape the global response.  

This year’s International Open Access Week (October 24-30, 2022) will focus on Climate Justice to raise awareness around how Open Access can support climate justice. “Open Access” refers to the “free, immediate, online access to the results of scholarly research, and the right to use and re-use those results as you need” (Open Access Week, 2022). 

In conjunction with International Open Access Week, McGill Library has curated a physical and virtual display at the Redpath Complex for the entire month of October, featuring books, films, and music that grapple with the inequities surrounding the climate crisis.  

In the spirit of Open Access, our virtual collection includes only Openly accessible materials and links to books which are held in print and can be accessed onsite by users outside the McGill community. Here are some of the highlights from our collection: 
 
 

Book cover for Silent Spring by Rachel Carson - The classic that launched the environmental movement. Introduction by Linda Lear, Afterward by Edward O. Wilson. The cover is a soft green with a red veiny leaf. Inside the leaf is the cutout image of a bird in flight. The title and author are overlayed in large white text.

Silent Spring by Rachel Carson

No list of environmental publications would be complete without this groundbreaking 1962 book by Rachel Carson which details the harms caused by pesticide use and the negative impacts on communities exposed to these chemicals. 

Book cover for Voices of Drought by Michael B. Silvers. The politics of music and environment in Northeastern Brazil. Image includes a bare tree in the foreground and a grey sky with transparent music score in the background.

Voices of Drought by Michael B. Silvers

Voices of Drought takes a unique ethnomusicological approach to Climate Justice by demonstrating how ecological crisis affects musical culture by way of and proportionate to social difference and stratification.

Book cover for Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants. "A hymn of love to the world" as quoted by Elizabeth Gilbert. The image is of a single braided grass laying horizontally across the a plain beige background.

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

In this book, Indigenous author and botanist Robin Wall Kimmer explores how indigenous wisdom about human interactions with nature, harmonizes with modern scientific knowledge of ecology and sustainable living. 

Cover image for Climate Justice Y'All. The word's and large and sitting on a field of grass with flowers, plants, clouds, etc, emerging from the letters.

Climate Justice Y’All

This ongoing podcast centers on Climate Justice movements in the Southern United States, focusing on Climate Justice leaders and stories from communities in the South where climate change is already having significant impacts. 

Find these and our other selections through the Open Climate Justice Virtual Exhibit or in person in the McLennan Library lobby.