Hart House Library

The Library is happy to announce that our selection of new books for 2022 is in!

In addition to works on contemporary events in Canada, we've expanded our collection to include diverse perspectives on music, games, movies, and more. Individual books will be showcased soon, but for now you find these books at our featured section near the library's entrance today.

Our full catalogue and list of recently added books are always available here: https://www.librarything.com/catalog/HartHouseLibrary

The next time you stop by the library, try out the World's Easiest Book Club! To participate, simply spend 15 minutes reading the featured book and then place a tack on a rating of your choice. Sticky notes are also around to leave your thoughts for others to read.

This month's featured book is Ifran Ali's "Accretion," combining lyricism, memory, and music to reflect upon our recent past.

Our next two featured books are Butter Honey Pig Bread by Francesca Ekwuyasi and What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker by Damon Young. Ekwuyasi's debut fiction novel conveys the experience of diaspora through an estranged family split across three continents by their mother's belief that she is haunted by a Ogbanje, or a supernatural spirit that brings misfortune to the possesed. Circumstances lead them to be reunited a decade later but how should they reconcile their differences after years of childhood trauma and grief? Young's work distills his experience as a young man in Pittsburgh into a series of essays that interrogates our notion of masculinity, Black identity in America, and his experiences with white supremacy. Find these books and other contemporary works at the Library today!

Our first two featured books for Black History Month are Black Like Who? by Rinaldo Walcott and Black Futures by Kimberly Drew and Jenna Wortham, narratives that both revisit the past and look towards the future. Writing in 1997, Wilcott presents a series of critical essays that looks at African Canadian identity in the media and questions the reductionist trend towards a single definition of Black identity in Canada. Drew and Wortham's work on the other hand takes a more contemporary approach as a collection of art, poetry, photography, and essays that celebrates Black creators in the 21st century. These inspiring works are available for you to browse at the Library today and can be found in our new Fiction section at its entrance.

The Library is proud to showcase our collection of African Canadian Literature and other works by Black authors in support of Black History Month. Stories of resilience, hope, and struggle are among the novels, essays, and poetry in this selection. We'll cover these works in detail over the coming days, but for now be sure to find these books available for reading today! Other related events at Hart House can also be found here: https://harthouse.ca/series/black-futures