Having trouble keeping pace with our blog? Simple solution is to subscribe to our XML feed. What is that?

XML or RSS feeds automatically inform readers of when your favorite blog has been updated without you having to check back on the blog on a regular basis. Still unsure? Check out this simple video called RSS in Plain English that explains what they are and how easy it is to subscribe to a website or blog.

Intrigued? Then click on the following image located on the left hand side of this blog to subscribe. Your feeds can then be sent to a RSS reader such as Google Reader or Bloglines.

Or if you like, you can also receive the RSS feed via your email account through a simple service as FeedMyInbox. (Note: you will need to use the blog's actual url http://www.reginalibrary.ca/blogs/index.php?blog=26 to use this service).

Having trouble keeping pace with our blog? Simple solution is to subscribe to our XML feed. What is that?

XML or RSS feeds automatically inform readers of when your favorite blog has been updated without you having to check back on the blog on a regular basis. Still unsure? Check out this simple video called RSS in Plain English that explains what they are and how easy it is to subscribe to a website or blog.

Intrigued? Then click on the following image located on the left hand side of this blog to subscribe. Your feeds can then be sent to a RSS reader such as Google Reader or Bloglines.

Or if you like, you can also receive the RSS feed via your email account through a simple service as FeedMyInbox. (Note: you will need to use the blog's actual url http://www.reginalibrary.ca/blogs/index.php?blog=26 to use this service).

As you may be aware, RPL has moved to a new province wide consortium (One Province One Library Card), which also means a new catalogue.

This new system provides access to MANY more books - everything from the new to the hard to find, as well as to out of print editions, are now only a simple click of the Request button away.

Links for older blog posts will have broken, but we will try to restore as many of them as we can (although our first priority is to ensure that new posts are properly linked to the new catalogue).

Something else you may notice - there is not just one, but two versions of the catalogue:

1) Encore (with a Google-like search bar and interface and Amazon-like layout, including the option to "tag") and

2) the Classic (the more traditional looking catalogue where you can access your account, re-new items, check on your holds list, etc.)

If you have any questions or concerns about these changes, please do not hesitate to fill out the following online Comments form:
http://www.reginalibrary.ca/contactus.html

The Regina Family Literacy Day Read In is taking place this week, and they are trying to beat their record of 5,223 participants in Southern Saskatchewan. For more information, click here to go to their website.

Canadian poet P.K. Page passed away on Thursday. She was a companion of the Order of Canada and Governor General's Literary Award winning poet. To read more about her life, visit the CBC website or check out Hand Luggage: A Memoir in Verse.

Frank McCourt (19 August 1930 - 19 July 2009)

Beloved Irish-American memoirist Frank McCourt, passed away Sunday, July 19th, at the age of 78. McCourt, who had spent his working career as a high school English teacher in New York City, arrived at fame late in life; he was 66 years old when Angela's Ashes was published -- his bestselling and Pulitzer prize-winning account of an impoverished Irish Catholic childhood in Limerick. McCourt had been battling a type of skin cancer, and succumbed to his illness at a Manhattan hospice.

McCourt also published a follow-up to Angela's Ashes -- 'Tis -- as well as an account of his teaching years, called Teacher Man.

Click here to find Frank McCourt in the RPL catalogue.

Cancer strikes us all, directly or indirectly. An exhibition of photographs currently on show in Victoria Park reminds us of this truth in a powerful and poignant way.
Check out the exhibit, running until June 28th. (Link to information on the exhibit at http://www.cancer.ca/canada-wide/about%20us/media%20centre/cw-media%20releases/cw-2009/photosensitives%20cancer%20connections%20in%20partnership%20with%20the%20society%20%20launches%202009%20tour%20on%20june%2010.aspx?sc_lang=en)) The following book titles may also be of interest.

The colon cancer survivor's guide: living stronger, longer by Curtis Pesmen, 2009
"Based on an award-winning series of Esquire magazine articles on his battle with colon cancer, Pesmen shows how a person stops becomng a patient and starts becoming a survivor. Incluses a chorus of survivors' voices, and casts light on the physical, emotional and psychological needs of those striving to move forward confidently with their lives. New, revised second edition updates treatments and adds new survivors' voices and surveys treatments on the horizon." (Amazon.ca)

After the cure: the untold stories of breast cancer survivors by Emily K. Abel and Saskia Subramanian, 2008

"An in-depth exploration of the symptoms experienced by some women after breast cancer treatment, giving voice to a neglected aspect of the breast cancer experience.... This book calls important attention to the plight of these women." (Patricia A. Ganz, University of California, Los Angeles, Schools of Medicine and Public Health)

Everyone's guide to cancer survivorship: a roadmap for better health by Ernest H. Rosenbaum, 2007

"The growing number of people approaching life post-cancer will find solace, understanding, and opportunity with information specifically geared to managing the lingering effects of cancer treatment, such as: lifestyle changes to improve health and longevity; what survivors need to know following anticancer therapy; how to manage the side effects of chemotherapy and radiation therapy; how to set goals for the future." (Amazon.ca)

The chemotherapy survival guide by Judith McKay, 2009
"This fully revised and updated edition of The Chemotherapy Survival Guide provides chemotherapy patients with everything they need to know about treatment, including what they can expect at each stage and what they can do to prevent or minimize side effects." (From the publisher.)

Cancer: 50 essential things to do by Greg Anderson, 2009

"Informative and inspiring, Cancer: 50 Essential Things to Do goes hand-in-hand with the patient's medical treatment and is an invaluable roadmap to recovery. Filled with practical, healing "action steps" that have been used by thousands of cancer survivors, the revised edition also contains important new information--including recently approved medical treatment options, updated cancer research, and Internet resources--geared toward making sense of the fast-changing world of cancer treatment and recovery." (Amazon.ca)

How we survived prostate cancer: what we did and what we should have done by Victoria Hallerman, 2009

"Finally, a much-needed voice for the spouses and partners of prostate cancer survivors--an unflinchingly honest and beautifully written memoir about one couple's struggles and transformation that serves as a guide for others dealing with the disease." (From the publisher.)

The mercy papers: a memoir of three weeks by Robin Romm, 2009

Romm expands on the themes of grief and loss she began in her collection of stories, The mother garden (coming soon to RPL), this time by relating her experience of her mother's death. "With a striking mix of humor and honesty, Romm ushers us into a world where an obstinate hospice nurse tries to heal through pamphlets and a yelping grandfather squirrels away money in a shoe-shine kit. Untrained dogs scamper about as strangers and friends rally around death, offering sympathy as they clamor for attention. The pillbox turns quickly into a metaphor for order; questions about medication turn to musings about God. The mundane and spiritual melt together as Romm reveals the sharp truths that lurk around every corner and captures, with great passion, the awe, fear, and fury of a daughter losing her mother." (Amazon.ca)

Lopsided: how having breast cancer can be really distracting by Meredith Norton

"Lopsided is not your ordinary cancer memoir. Meredith Norton chronicles every step of her experience, starting with her bizarre symptoms while living in Paris to moving back home to California and living with her compulsive parents and their five television sets. Irreverent and incredibly funny, Norton rails against self-pity and victimhood and rants about the innumerable copies of Lance Armstrong's cancer survival book pressed on her by well-meaning family and friends...Alongside the harrowing portrait of her treatments, Norton offers equally amusing memories from her offbeat life." (Amazon.ca)

Everything changes: the insider's guide to cancer in your 20s and 30s by Kairol Rosenthal, 2009

"On a shoestring budget and with tape recorder in hand, Kairol Rosenthal emerged from treatment and hit the road in search of other twenty- and thirtysomething cancer survivors. From the Big Apple to the Bible Belt, she dusted the sugarcoating off of the young adult cancer experience, exposing the gritty and compelling stories of twenty-five complete strangers. The men and women in Everything Changes confess their most vulnerable moments, revealing cancer experiences they never told anyone else—everything from what they thought about at night before going to bed to what they wish they could tell their lovers but were too afraid to." (Barnes & Noble)

Pride '09 - a week of events in which our GLBT (gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered) community celebrates diversity, equality and tolerance - kicks off on June 14th and runs for the whole week, culminating in a joyous and boisterous parade on June 20th.
The Regina Public Library supports the GLBT community by providing recreational and resource collections. Throughout the week we will highlight some books and DVD selections on our non-fiction that we hope will be of interest to the community.

Bulletproof faith: a spiritual survival guide for gay and lesbian Christians by Candace Chellew-Hodge, 2008.

Chellow-Hodge, a United Church of Christ minister, founder of the online magazine Whosoever by GLBT Christians, and former television and radio journalist, guides the reader through a process of becoming "bulletproof" - calm and assured when condemned and persecuted by "the other side", the voices of the religious right. She describes the bulletproof "vest" as a "shield of faith" that must be strong enough repel these vitriolic attacks.

Androphilia: a manifesto: rejecting the gay identity and reclaiming masculinity, by Fack Malebranche.
Malenbranche, who has been, by turns, an office manager, burger

flipper, go-go dancer and nightclub promoter (to name only a few), articulates a rejection of gay identity in favour of an “apolitical sexual desire and the sexualized appreciation for masculinity as experienced by men”. Believing that “gay” has never described homosexuality, but rather a “prepackaged, superficial persona”, his manifesto urges a greater appreciation of a more manly and self-reliant gay male image.
Intriguing and controversial…

Muscle boys: gay gym culture by Erick Alvarez.
This is an inside look at the world of

the most influential of gay male sub-cultures – the gym scene. The author examines the history and influence of bodybuilding, male body image and “beefcake media”, and it’s role in modern gay life.

Boyfriend 101: a gay guy’s guide to dating, romance, and finding true love,by Jim Sullivan.

In a humourous, chatty style, Sullivan leads the reader through the steps necessary to finding a man. There are practical tips, from icebreakers to first-date protocols to negotiating safe sex. The author is a dating and relationship coach with degrees in counseling and religions studies.

The future of marriage by David Blankenhorn.

Blankenhorn, founder and president of the Institute for American Values, argues that same-sex marriage will change parenthood for all families, weaken culture and eliminate the idea that children need a mother and a father. He asks the reader to decide, on the basis of his argument, if the social institution of marriage will become weaker or stronger, and if we as a society regard the preservation of traditional marriage as a “worthy and urgent goal”.

Gay marriage: why it is good for gays, good for straights, and good for America by Jonathan Rauch.

The argument here is that marriage between two people who love and care for each other strengthens community and the institution of marriage. He grounds this argument in mainstream values, articulating why the institution of marriage gains strength when it is available to all citizens. His position provides a contrast to that of conservatives, who while defending marriage, would make it available only to a specific segment of the population.

Commitment and healing: gay men and the need for romantic love by Richard A. Isay.

Psyciatrist Isay has worked for many years with gay patients, and has found that the issue of romantic love almost always arises. By relating case histories drawn from his experience, Isay examines the origin of the issues gay men may have with expressing a need for love. He writes of the long-term loving relationship as “the antidote for the loneliness and the rejection most gay men have experienced in their lives.”

First person queer: who we are (so far)
This title is a collection of wide-ranging essays in which

contributors write candidly, and from their own experience, about contemporary queer life. The essays represent the incredible diversity and complexity of GLBTQ lives. Among the more than 30 contributors are Kate Bornstein, Ivan E. Coyote, Sky Gilbert, Stan Persky, and Andy Quan.