Pride and Prejudice

A few short weeks ago, the world marked May 17th as the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia & Biphobia. Well, some of us did. As the horrific events of Sunday vividly illustrate, violence against LGBTQ2S people remains a serious issue in Canada, the US, and around the world. The roots of homophobia, transphobia, and biphobia run deep in many cultures (including the major world religions) and are a part of the colonial attitudes which western nations imported to the Americas and parts of Africa. As an openly transgender person living in Halifax - where discrimination against trans people was outlawed in 2012 - I sometimes forget how far we still have to come in eliminating ignorant and hateful beliefs about LGBTQ2S people.

Each June, the LGBTQ2S community and our allies celebrate Pride Month in commemoration of the June 1969 riots at the Stonewall Inn which sparked the beginning of the LGBTQ2S civil rights movement. Even as we mourn those cut down in the Orlando terrorist attack, we must not give into fear. In the words of Harvey Fierstein, "never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself." Educate yourself, celebrate your life, show your pride!

It's Not Over: Getting beyond tolerance, defeating homophobia, and winning true equality by Michelangelo Signorile.

Redefining Realness: My path to womanhood, identity, love & so much more by Janet Mock.

A Letter to My Congregation: An evangelical pastor's path to embracing people who are gay, lesbian and transgender in the company of Jesus by Ken Wilson.

"You Can Tell Just by Looking": and 20 other myths about LGBT life and people by Micheal Bronski, Ann Pellegrini, and Michael Amico.

Transphobia: Deal with it and be a gender transcender by j wallace skelton.

Bi: Notes for a bisexual revolution by Shiri Eisner.

Out Proud: Stories of pride, courage, and social justice, edited by Douglas Gosse.

All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation by Rebecca Traister

Fans of narrative non-fiction, note this title. All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation by Rebecca Traister

I had noticed women seemed to be marrying at an older age than even one generation ago, but thought my observations might be an anomaly. But Traister’s research confirms women are delaying marriage. And I was interested to learn single women are outnumbering married women for the first time in history.
Including anecdotal evidence from women across different social standings gives weight to Traister’s data. Their stories are unique, their circumstances different, and the analysis of their personal relationships is fascinating. Some women date and have several long term relationships, but never marry. Some women focus on family and friends as their sources of support and intimacy. With changing attitudes towards families and technological advances in fertility, women feel more comfortable delaying marriage and starting families. Women are more likely to have the opportunity to focus on their education, careers, friendships, caregiver responsibilities, or whatever they choose. Reading candid observations of their life choices was fascinating, though I would have liked to see more input from women of lower income and more varied ethnic backgrounds.

Some anecdotes highlighted interesting things I didn’t think of when you think of single women living in a large city. The stereotype is lots of dating, time for drinks with close friends, shopping etc. (think Sex and the City). But one doesn’t think of the circumstances surrounding living alone like loneliness and boredom. Women are proud of their independence, but it can come with challenges, like the noted installation of an air conditioning unit in a walk up apartment in New York in 90 degree weather.

All the Single Ladies is getting some buzz on social media, so if you’re already on the waiting list, you might enjoy these reads while you wait:

Spinster by Kate Bolick "A single woman considers her life, the life of the bold single ladies who have gone before her, and the long arc of slowly changing attitudes towards women." publisher

What Women Want : an agenda for the women's movement by Deborah L. Rhode.

American women fare worse than men on virtually every major dimension of social status, financial well-being, and physical safety. Sexual violence remains common, and reproductive rights are by no means secure. Women assume disproportionate burdens in the home and pay a heavy price in the workplace. Despite a quarter century's effort at reforming rape law, America's rate of reported rape is the second highest in the developed world. Yet these issues are not political priorities. Nor is there a consensus that there still is a serious problem. Here, Deborah L. Rhode, one of the nation's leading scholars on women and law, brings to the discussion a broad array of interdisciplinary research as well as interviews with heads of leading women's organizations. Is the women's movement stalled? What are its major obstacles? What are its key priorities and what strategies might advance them? In an age where many women are reluctant to identify as feminists, a broad-ranging, expert look at where American women are today is more necessary than ever. This path-breaking book explores how women can and should act on what they want.--From publisher description.

Otherhood by Melanie Notkin

"The rising percentage of childless women is one of the most overlooked and underappreciated social issues of our time. Never before have more women lived longer before having their first child or remained childless toward the end of their fertility. Nearly half of North American women of childbearing age are childless--a dramatic rise from 35 percent in 1976--yet childless women are still perceived as the exception, not the norm. In Otherhood, Melanie Notkin explores this modern phenomenon to understand the reasons for this shift, the social and emotional impact of childlessness, and how the 'new normal' will impact social structures in the decades to come. By turns anecdotal storytelling, inspiration, reportage, and manifesto, Otherhood gets at the heart of our social consciousness around childlessness to trigger thought-provoking conversation. Notkin's intimate take on the trend affecting so many modern women is a groundbreaking exploration of this essential social issue"--From publisher.

All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation by journalist Rebecca Traister is a study of the socioeconomic conditions and impacts surrounding the increase in single women in the U.S. Meticulously researched Traister condenses a complex history of singlehood into an enjoyable read. She meets the goal of all narrative non-fiction writers – to make your reader feel like they’re reading a story, not a piece of non-fiction.

~by Janet

Fun with Fika

Recently, I’ve been more mindful about taking breaks without self-initiated interruptions or distractions. This includes turning my phone off, not checking email or social media and just enjoying some down time. With busy professional and personal schedules, sometimes it’s hard to remember to stop and smell the coffee. I recently checked out the book Fika : the art of the Swedish coffee break, with recipes for pastries, breads, and other treats by Anna Brones & Johanna Kindvall.  This is a great read and sums up the idea of Fika beautifully with traditional recipes.

Fika is  time dedicated each day to stop working and spend time taking a break (while indulging in delicious coffee and baked goods). Not a coffee or sweets fan? No worries. Many also enjoy tea or juices and a variety of other foods like sandwiches. Fika can be done alone, with friends or co-workers or even with someone you have just met. What makes Fika so special is the Swedes value and emphasis of putting time aside to enjoy a break-whether you're at home, work or out and about. To stop and smell the coffee if you will.

Coffee is a key component of Fika and without coincidence, Swedes are known for their excellent coffee. This article from tryswedish.com explains that the secret to their great coffee is the water used: “The water in Sweden, Finland and Norway is quite special. It’s extremely clean and gives the coffee that typical, soft taste that we like so much.” Here's the link for the full article: http://www.tryswedish.com/fika/  
 

The Swedish Institute has an amazing cookbook titled The SwedishKitchen: From Fike to Cosy Friday (available online). The first chapter has a definition of Fika and accompanying recipes to try. Personally, I can't wait to attempt the cinnamon bun recipe.

Excited by all these delicious recipes? Can't wait to try Fika for yourself? Why not try these cookbooks:

 Scandinavian Baking: Loving baking at home by Trine Hahnemann

Here are authentic Scandinavian recipes with a modern twist, shot on location in Scandinavia. The book is suffused with 'hygge', a Danish word that has no English equivalent but means cosiness, or relaxing with friends over good food and drink (From Publisher). 

Wondering about hygge? Check out this previous blog post

The Nordic Bakery Cookbook by Misa Mink
Launched in 2007, the Nordic Bakery is a peaceful haven in the heart of London. Their products reflect the wholesome but comforting style of baking in Scandinavia. The emphasis is on fresh, seasonal produce and healthier baking ingredients, such as rye flour, oats and barley, and the rustic but modern menu includes open rye-bread sandwiches, cakes and cinnamon buns. The Nordic Bakery Cookbook allows you to bake your own Bread, such as the popular rye bread, Savory Pastries, Cakes, Sweet Buns, Desserts and Cookies in your own home (From Publisher).

So, anyone in the mood for Fika?

Fresh Coat of Paint

Spring is here and I am feeling motivated to take on some home improvement projects. Painting is a great way to update your home or apartment on a budget. Having just moved, there are a number of rooms that I would love to freshen up with some new colours. I’ve painted in the past, but I’ve never been thrilled with the results. For me, painting projects always end up being much more challenging and time consuming than I expect. This year, I am motivated to improve my skills and make sure I do the job well. Below are some of my favourite painting resources that I have found at the library.

Here’s How – Painting: 29 projects with paint
Part of the Black & Decker Here’s How series, I like this book because it is concise, covers many topics and includes lots of pictures. This is great if you don’t have a lot of time and want to make sure you are on the right track in terms of supplies, methods and technique. You can also find instructions on creating different specialty finishes, such as a terra-cotta finish, stenciled designs, stamped mosaic, or taped-off designs.

300 Tips for Painting & Decorating: tips, techniques & trade secrets
This book by Alison Jenkins is very detailed and offers tips and tricks for a wide variety of projects. An excellent book for beginners, Jenkins provides extensive advice on what tools to use for different projects (with pictures!). She also provides a large and detailed chapter on project planning and preparation. This book will guide you through your entire project from start to finish, making sure you are well prepared and ready to handle any issues that may arise.

Paint Can! Children's Rooms: patterns and projects for colorful, creative spaces
If you are looking at painting a child’s room, this book is full of fun, colourful projects that kids will love. The author, Sunny Goode, offers step-by-step instructions for such projects as vertical or horizontal stripes, checkerboard, an ocean wave pattern, flowers and vines, stars, and chalkboards. Projects are organized in the book by age group and include lots of handy photographs.

Stanley Complete Painting
If you are only going to look at one book, Stanley Complete Painting is an excellent reference book. Covering both interior and exterior painting, this book provides concise, step-by-step instructions for painting pretty much any surface of your home. Trim, ceilings, walls, windows, doors, flooring, even furniture and swimming pools are covered. They also have excellent information on picking the perfect paint, primers and sealers, equipment, how to clean up and solutions for common problems.

Happy Birthday Nabokov!

Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov is considered of the world's greatest writers. Born on April 22nd, 1899 in Saint Petersburg to a noble and wealthy family, he spoke Russian, English, and French from an early age. Nabokov graduated from the University of Cambridge and met his wife Vera while living in Berlin. In 1940 they fled from war-torn Europe to the United States with their only son, Dmitri. Nabokov taught at Wellesley College and Cornell University for many years, and his students included Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Thomas Pynchon. He was fascinated by lepidoptery (the study of moths and butterflies) throughout his life and spent time working at the American Museum of Natural History and Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology. In the early 1960s, he and his wife returned to Europe, where they stayed until his death in 1977.

Nabokov's family history is complex, dramatic, and tragic. He wrote about his early years in Speak, Memory, a memoir of his youth and life up until moving to America with his wife and son. Don't be dissuaded - this not a dry autobiography. Each chapter (most of which were first published as individual essays in the New Yorker) covers a different subject with recollections that combine to create a rich exploration of memories in elegant prose.


Nabokov's most famous novel, of course, is Lolita, often found on various "best novels" lists. Nabokov wrote the novel in English over a period of five years, and later translated it into Russian himself. Controversial from the beginning, the book was initially banned in the UK and France. It's written from the the view of unreliable narrator Humbert Humbert, who becomes obsessed with his landlady's 12-year-old daughter Dolores, whom he nicknames Lolita. The novel has comedy, tragedy, and wordplay, and can be considered Nabakov's love song to the English language.

Letters to Vera, edited and translated by Olga Voronina and Brian Boyd, is composed of Nabokov's written messages to his wife Vera over the course of their relationship, which lasted half a century. Vera was not only Nabokov's wife, but his devoted partner in editing, translating, and solidifying his literary legacy. Reading these letters gives a glimpse into the more intimate and personal life of Nabokov - if only Vera hadn't destroyed all the letters she wrote in return!

Family Secrets

Memoirs and autobiographies are among the most popular non-fiction genres. There a lots of subgenres in this field (my own personal favourite are food memoirs!) but lately I've been noticing a trend of what I'll call the Family Secrets Autobiography. These books are emotional and often heart-wrenching stories of children secretly born out of wedlock to mothers who give them up due to religious or other social pressures. These secrets haunt them and their mothers throughout their lives, and eventually lead many to uncovering the painful past and reuniting with their birth families.

Philomena : a mother, her son and a fifty-year search by Martin Sixsmith was made into a movie in 2013 with Steve Coogan and Judi Dench.
"When she became pregnant as a teenager in Ireland in 1952, Philomena Lee was sent to a convent to be looked after as a “fallen woman.” Then the nuns took her baby from her and sold him, like thousands of others, to America for adoption. Fifty years later, Philomena decided to find him.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, Philomena’s son was trying to find her. Renamed Michael Hess, he had become a leading lawyer in the first Bush administration, and he struggled to hide secrets that would jeopardize his career in the Republican Party and endanger his quest to find his mother.
A gripping exposé told with novelistic intrigue, Philomena pulls back the curtain on the role of the Catholic Church in forced adoptions and on the love between a mother and son who endured a lifelong separation." Publisher.

Secret child : 1950s Dublin - a young boy hidden from his family by Gordon Lewis and Andrew Crofts.
"Born an 'unfortunate' onto the rough streets of 1950s Dublin, this is the incredible true story of a young boy, a secret child born into a Catholic home for unmarried mothers in 1950s Dublin and a mother determined to keep her child, even if it meant hiding him from her own family and the rest of the world. Despite the poverty, hardship and isolation, the pride and hope of a community of women who banded together to raise their children would give this boy his chance to find his real family. A heartwarming tale of working class life in 1950s Dublin and 1960s London"--Publisher.


My secret mother : two different lives, one heartbreaking secret : a memoir by Phyllis Whitsell.
"Phyllis was adopted aged 4. Despite being told that her parents had died of TB, she always believed that her mother was alive and, once old enough, was determined to track her down. While Phyllis was growing up in Birmingham,  her mother Bridget, known locally as Tipperary Mary, a trouble maker with alcohol problems and a tendency to cause mayhem, was living the red light district of Birmingham. So when Phyllis finally caught up with Bridget, she had to shield her own family from the problems this would cause. Hiding behind her district nurse's uniform, Phyllis, with no authority to do so, simply added Bridget to her daily district rounds; bathing her, taking her clean clothes, tending the wounds from her dysfunctional life and offering her what love she could. Phyllis cared for her mother in this way from 1981 to 1990 - without once telling Bridget that she was the little girl she had given away all those years ago." Publisher.

My secret sister by Helen Edwards & Jenny Lee Smith.
"Helen grew up in a pit village in Tyneside in the post-war years, with her gran, aunties and uncles living nearby. She felt safe with them, but they could not protect her from her neglectful mother and violent father. Behind closed doors, she suffered years of abuse. Sometimes she talked to an imaginary sister, the only one who understood her pain.
Jenny was adopted at six weeks and grew up in Newcastle. An only child, she knew she was loved, and with the support of her parents she went on to become a golfing champion, but still she felt that something was missing.
Neither woman knew of the other's existence until, in her fifties, Jenny went looking for her birth family and found her sister Helen. Together they searched for the truth about Jenny's birth - and uncovered a legacy of secrets that overturned everything Helen thought she knew about her family. Happily, they also discovered that they were not just sisters, they were twins." - Publisher.

The Last Foundling: A little boy left behind, The mother who wanted him back by Tom Mackenzie 

"When she fell pregnant in London in 1938, Jean knew that she couldn't keep her baby. Scared and alone in a city on the brink of war, she begged the Foundling Hospital to give her baby the start in life that she could not.

The institution, which had been providing care for deserted infants since the eighteenth century, allowed Jean to nurse her son for nine weeks, leaving her heartbroken when the time came to let him go.
But little Tom knew nothing of her love as he grew up in the Foundling Hospital - which, during years of the Second World War, was more like a prison than a children's home. Locked in and subject to public canings and the sadistic whims of the older boys, there was no one to give him a hug, no one to wipe away his tears.
A true story of desertion and neglect, this is also a moving account of survival from one of the very last foundlings. It stands as a testament to the love that ultimately led a family back together." Publisher.

Urban Homesteading for All

In the few years, Halifax Public Libraries has received a series of new books documenting the urban homesteading movement. With titles like, Plowing with Pigs: and other creative, low-budget homesteading solutions (M) by Oscar H. Will (2013), and Urban Homesteading: heirloom skills for sustainable living (M) by Rachel Kaplan and K. Ruby (2011), these books carry a lot of appeal to city-dwellers like me, who are interested in learning creative ways to become more self-sufficient.

The kinds of skills taught in these books, including edible landscaping and other forms of home- and community-based food production, were not passed down in my family when I was growing up. Although my grandfather was well-known among his neighbours for his inventive reuse of everyday objects, (the semi-practical folk art that littered his property was a constant source of irritation to my grandmother), my own homesteading skills are rudimentary, to say the least.

In the interest of reducing my household expenses while improving the quality of the food I provide for my family, I have steadily increased the variety of food that I make myself instead of relying so much on store-bought items. This year, my son and I were fortunate to acquire a small garden plot at a local community garden organized by a group of our neighbours. Since I have very little gardening experience, I have no expectations for this autumn's yield but I hope that by next year, we will be able to produce enough organically-grown vegetables to eliminate at least some of what I would normally purchase at the corporate grocery store nearest to me.

I was interested then, to come across an article on homesteading from the Winter 2012 edition of Bitch: feminist response to pop culture magazine (copies of which are housed at Spring Garden Road Library). In Co-opting the Coop: what's the real cost of homesteading's new hipness?, Marianne Kirby offers a critical take on the urban homesteading movement:

Mainstream cultural emphasis on this “new” homesteading vs. the continuity of traditional skills fostered out of necessity erases the history of homesteading in America. When we talk about the mainstream resurgence of craftwork and Pin-able, packageable skills, we need to acknowledge the foundation of these practices as poor skills—survival skills and “alternate” techniques for accessing food, shelter, and power primarily practiced by those with marginal or nonexistent incomes.

What distinguishes the modern urban homesteading movement from subsistence practices preserved by marginalized communities, Kirby argues, is that it is marketed to affluent individuals and their families.

Kirby concludes that when privileged folks are held up as the experts on homesteading skills, the efforts of those marginalized people who have worked to maintain these skills are rendered invisible. Frustratingly, this trend may actually create obstacles for those people in struggle whose life quality could actually be improved by the knowledge contained in the books and blogs that characterize the urban homesteading movement.

For those of us who share the values associated with urban homesteading - self-sufficiency, environmental responsibility - the Library can be a valuable and accessible resource for taking action. Readers can freely borrow books like Plowing with Pigs and others, like, Gardening Projects for Kids: 101 ways to get kids outside, dirty, and having fun (M) by Whitney Cohen and John Fisher (2012); and Don't Throw That Away (M) by Jeff Yeager (2012).

Interest in community gardens in HRM is high and demand is currently outpacing supply. The Library maintains a list of community gardens in HRM in our Discover catalog under "Community Groups/Programs". The friendly staff at the Information Desk of your local branch can direct you to programs and resources (like this one) that can help get your project off the ground.

With a little research and a bit of help, your community can transform urban homesteading from a consumer-driven trend to a real social movement that benefits everyone.