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Meet Libby: The Overdrive App

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Hi, nice to meet you,  I’m Libby! 

I’m the new Overdrive app where you can access some amazing ebooks and audiobooks in the McGill Library collection. By the end of this year, I will be the only app available to access the collection.  I’m available for iOS and Android, and am super easy to set-up. All you have to do is login in with your McGill ID and username. It is very worth it to have me in your pocket, because once you do you’ll have access to sooooo many collections. Whether you want to learn French, read a mystery book on the bus ride to school, or read a poem, I have everything you need.

You can borrow my books for 7,14, or 21 days, renew them, and even decide the timing of your holds. My interface is super user-friendly, and makes discovering new books a breeze.

While you’re  in school, and especially for the winter and summer breaks, I’m the perfect friend to have around when you want a little break from your normal routine.  

You can learn more about me and Overdrive here. I look forward to being friends soon! 

Toodles 🙂

Your literary best friend, Libby 

Goodbye November, Hello Cozy Cooking.

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The McGill Farmer’s Market is the source of our community’s local fresh food and goods located right outside of McLennan-Redpath Building Complex. While we said goodbye to the wonderful vendors in the fall, they are BACK! At the end of this week is the McGill Winter Farmer’s Market, hosted in the SSMU Building. ❄️ After you get all your goodies, crack open an online cookbook in our catalogue and enjoy.

@mcgillfarmersmarket on instagram

Highlighted below are just a few of the contemporary recipe & cookbooks we have in our collection to make nourishing ourselves during this time a little more exciting. ROARr also has a special collection of older cookbooks that are very fun to look through. 

The new Mediterranean Jewish table : Old World recipes for the modern home by Joyce Esersky Goldstein.

For thousands of years, Jewish people have lived in a global diaspora, carrying culinary traditions bound by kosher law. For many, Ashkenazi and Sephardic cooking define Jewish cuisine today, but in The New Mediterranean Jewish Table, Joyce Goldstein expands the repertoire with a comprehensive collection of over 400 recipes from the greater Mediterranean, including North Africa, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Spain, Portugal, and the Middle East. By bringing Old World Mediterranean recipes into the modern home, Joyce Goldstein will inspire a new generation of home cooks as they prepare everyday meals and build their Shabbat and holiday menu

The Hakka cookbook : Chinese soul food from around the world By Linda Lau Anusasananan

Veteran food writer Linda Lau Anusasananan opens the world of Hakka cooking to Western audiences in this fascinating chronicle that traces the rustic cuisine to its roots in a history of multiple migrations. Beginning in her grandmother’s kitchen in California, Anusasananan travels to her family’s home in China, and from there fans out to embrace Hakka cooking across the globe-including Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Canada, Peru, and beyond. More than thirty home cooks and chefs share their experiences of the Hakka diaspora as they contribute over 140 recipes for everyday Chinese comfort food as well as more elaborate festive specialties.

Where people feast : an indigenous people’s cookbook By Dolly Watts & Annie Watts

The food traditions of North America’s indigenous peoples are centuries old and they endure to this day. For almost two decades, Dolly Watts and her daughter Annie have served native cuisine that is both traditional and modern; for them, Where People Feast, one of very few indigenous cookbooks available, is the culmination of a lifetime dedicated to introducing people to extraordinary foods that are truly North American. Recipes include Smoked Salmon Mousse, Indian Tacos, Venison Meatballs, Alder-Grilled Breast of Pheasant, Blackberry-Glazed Beets, Wild Rice Pancakes, and Wild Blueberry Cobbler. Includes sixteen full-color photos and 120 recipes.

You can also check out the few recipes the McGill Farmer’s Market has curated on their website for an extra treat. The whole list can be consulted here as well. 

We hope this inspires you for the next dinner party! Another great idea is to pick a recipe and cook it as a treat once you finish your next big assignment. You got this!

Happy Cooking!

Sci-Fi Break from Midterms

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It is time to break up your readings with some sci-fi. I may be a couple years behind, but I finally got around to finishing Love, Death & Robots on Netflix. The bite-sized episodes are so well-produced leaving you wanting more, and provide the perfect escape from midterms. If you’d like to have a similar experience and lean into spooky futures, this book list is sure to broaden your imaginations. 

You can find all of this and more on the McGill Library website.

Bloodchild and Other Stories by Octavia E. Butler

Bloodchild and Other Stories is renowned author Octavia E. Butler’s only collection of shorter work and features the Hugo and Nebula award-winning stories “Bloodchild” and “Speech Sounds.” These works of the imagination are parables of the contemporary world. Butler proves constant in her vigil, an unblinking pessimist hoping to be proven wrong, and one of contemporary literature’s strongest voices.”–Publisher’s description.

The Machine Stops and Other Stories by E.M. Forster 

The collection provides a fascinating glimpse into Forster’s abiding interest in paganism and mythology, the mysteries of nature and the possibilities of magical transformation. Here too are fantasies of the afterlife … an ambitious experiment in science-fiction … [and] a realistic study of self-delusion and compromise.”–Jacket.

A Martian Odyssey : & other classic science fiction stories by Stanley G. Weinbaum

‘A Martian Odyssey’ is a profoundly influential story notable for its touching alien human friendship and fascinating descriptions of unusual aliens.  In the 21st century mankind has landed on Mars via atomic powered spaceships.–sciencefictionruminations.com

Just like being there : a collection of science fiction short stories by Eric Choi

This is the first collection of science fiction stories by award-winning author and aerospace engineer Eric Choi spanning his 25 year writing career. The stories are “hard” science fiction in which some element of engineering or science is so central there would be no story if that element were removed. Story topics include space exploration, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, cryptography, quantum computing, online privacy, mathematics (statistics), neuroscience, psychology, space medicine, extra-terrestrial intelligence, undersea exploration, commercial aviation, and the history of science. A special feature of the book is that each story is followed by an “Afterword” that explains the underlying engineering or science. This collection will entertain and inform all aficionados of science and science fiction.

Octavia’s brood : science fiction stories from social justice movements edited by Walidah Imarisha and Adrienne Maree Brown

“Whenever we envision a world without war, without prisons, without capitalism, we are producing speculative fiction. Organizers and activists envision, and try to create, such worlds all the time. Walidah Imarisha and adrienne maree brown have brought twenty of them together in the first anthology of short stories to explore the connections between radical speculative fiction and movements for social change. The visionary tales of Octavia’s Brood span genres–sci-fi, fantasy, horror, magical realism–but all are united by an attempt to inject a healthy dose of imagination and innovation into our political practice and to try on new ways of understanding ourselves, the world around us, and all the selves and worlds that could be. The collection is rounded off with essays by Tananarive Due and Mumia Abu-Jamal, and a preface by Sheree Renee Thomas.”–Amazon.com.

Land/space : an anthology of prairie speculative fiction edited by Candas Jane Dorsey and Judy Berkyne McCrosky.

See the prairies in a whole new light, in this groundbreaking anthology of speculative fiction and poetry, exploring the prairie and the space above it, expressing prairie themes, visions, reality – and unreality! Land/Space includes short fiction by Alexandra Merry Arrvin, John Baillie, Martha Bayless, Ven Begamudre, Renee Bennett, Steven Michael Berzensky (a.k.a Mick Burrs) Donna Bowman, Tobias Buckell, Ron Collins, Alyx Dellamonica, Candas Jane Dorsey, Carolyn Ives Gilman, Geoff Hart, James A. Hartley, Mark Anthony Jarman, Darren K. Latta, David Levine, Sophie Masson, Judy McCrosky, Derryl Murphy, Carole Nomrahas, Holly Phillips, Ursula Pflug, with concluding essays by the editors.

Catch Minitales : Short Science Fiction stories with a sting!. by Steve Bowkett

This book is part of an educational package called StoryMaker Catch Pack, which uses fiction as a resource for learning. What does Peeta do when aliens invade his planet? Why does Kane watch the skies every night of his life? How does Hector F. Payne save the world? Where can you find robots, giant rats, alien invaders, supercomputers … Catch Minitales – the Science Fiction Collection Here are 26 very short stories to fill you with wonder and excitement. Do you dare to journey through time and space?

If you have any questions about how to access these books or others let us know at hssl.library@mcgill.ca.