Digital Books and More to Enjoy over the Holidays!

The library may be closed over the holidays, but you can always visit our online collections!

Stay cozy and warm inside while delighting in free music, magazines, eBooks, eAudiobooks, and more – all available through your library website with your library membership.

There are hundreds of popular fiction and non-fiction downloadable eBooks and eAudiobooks available from the ORL eBooks collection.

Hungering for more eAudiobooks? Check out OneClickdigital, our newest collection featuring thousands of popular eAudiobooks.  It is a great way to find books to listen to while you are travelling to see family.

Catch up with the latest in politics, business, entertainment and wit your favourite hobbies by checking out the digital magazines available from Zinio for Libraries.

These collections may require the creation of an account to use the service or an initial software set-up. Learn how to get started with these collections on the eResources Help page of the ORL website.

But that is not all! There is more!

If you would like to enjoy books with your kids, check out the TumbleBook collections. There are no waitlists and the books play right in the browser of your computer. TumbleBookCloud is great for tweens and teens. There are even quite a few books for high school Language Arts curriculums -- just in case you have a teen who wants get a head-start on their school work over the break. The TumbleBook Library for Kids features animated, talking picture books as well as puzzles and games, based on books in the collection. The TumbleBook Library for Kids collection can even be enjoyed on tablets and mobile devices. 

Ready to explore the online collections? You can find quick links to access some of these collections right on the ORL homepage. You can also discover these and all the other online collections the ORL has to offer by clicking on the “View all Digital Resources” button on the library homepage, www.orl.bc.ca .

Enjoy your holidays – we can’t wait to see you when the library system re-opens on January 2nd!

Bring Up the Bodies - Perfect for a Cold Winter's Night of Reading!

On a cold winter’s night there is nothing quite like leaning back in a comfortable armchair beside a glowing fire and reading the kind of book that is almost impossible to put down.

 Bring Up the Bodies (2012) by Hilary Mantel is that kind of book. It is the sequel to Wolf Hall (2009), a brilliant work that won the prestigious Man Booker Prize. The author, a remarkably gifted novelist with few peers, continues the compelling story of Thomas Cromwell, the lowborn man who rose to become one of Henry VIII’s closest advisers. The hero of the story, a historical enigma with a vague background, is fleshed out by Mantel as a boy who fled his father’s beatings to fight for the French, study law and become fluent in French, Latin and Italian.

 Three years earlier Cromwell helped Henry annul his marriage to Katherine so he could marry the younger Anne Boleyn--a direct challenge of the church’s power that set off a tsunami of religious, political and societal turmoil that reverberated throughout 16^th-century Europe. But Anne has committed two unforgivable errors: she has failed to give the king a son and grown gaunt and shrewish. He wants to be rid of Anne and it is up to Cromwell to give the king what he wants.

 Bring Up the Bodies, like its predecessor, is written in the present tense. It is an excellent choice because telling the story in the active tense allows the events to unfold before us. This approach ratchets up the tension and heightens the suspense with every page: all it takes is one wrong move and all could be lost.

 This novel more than stands on its own. It might even be a more compelling read than the award-winning Wolf Hall. Mantel does not just make Cromwell powerful but sympathetic—a remarkable feat for a character described in the first volume as “like a murderer”. And she accomplishes it without violating the historical record. Bring Up the Bodies just might be the best historical novel of 2012.  

 

Review by Peter Critchley from the Vernon Branch

Christmas is for Kids, and Kids love Books!

 Snowy days and Christmas cheer await families this year!  In “When It Snows” by Richard Collingridge, you will discover the magic of snow by following a boy and his teddy bear on a wondrous snowy adventure to a surprising place. “Santa Is Coming to Canada” details his cross-country visit! In the fractured fairytale, “Santa Claus and the Three Bears” by Maria Modugno, Santa plays the role of Goldilocks with hilarious results!  Join young Zoomer in “Zoomer’s Out-of-This –World Christmas” by Ned Young as he celebrates the festivities with a goofy space family.  If your preschoolers are doing a Christmas show at school, you may wish to read “The Perfect Christmas Pageant” by Joyce Meyer. In this book, Hayley, the Hippo, when asked to direct the annual Christmas pageant for Everyday Zoo, has one challenge after another. Christmas carols are lots of fun to sing!  Try the junior kit “Frosty the Snowman” by Steve Nelson in which children can sing along to a CD, while looking at the beautiful illustrations in the picture book. Great for road trips!  If your kids like to make their own Christmas gifts and cards, have them get into the Christmas spirit by using  “The Duct Tape Book:  25 Projects to Make with Duct Tape” by Jolie Dobson and “A Christmas Drawing Wonderland” by Jennifer M. Besel.
    
      Snow and penguins unite in “The Chilly Little Penguin” by Russell Punter where Perry the Penguin, who lives at the South Pole, tries to get warm! Perfect for beginning readers, while chapter book readers will enjoy “The Life of Ty: Penguin Problems” by Lauren Myracle, which follows mischievous Ty, a second-grader, as he becomes a big brother! For older children, a new Transformer book called “Switching Gears” by Ryder Windham will have them loving robots! Teens will enjoy “Winter White” a Belles novel by Jen Calonita where Izzie enjoys the magnificent Cotillion Ball in Emerald Cove. So get warmed up with a good wintery book!

Recommendations by Linda Youmans, Youth Collections and Systems Librarian for the ORL