April 2023 MLPL Newsletter
Let the children sing!
 
The Muskoka Children's Choir, going since 2017, is back for 2023! If you have a child that loves to sing, then come on out to the library in Port Carling on registration night,(and first practice) Thursday, April 6, 2023, at 6:00 p.m. Choirmaster Kathy McCarthy suggests children in grades 1 to 6 would enjoy this fun opportunity but she also suggests that if children are keen, but are outside the grade range, please come out and have a chat with her on April 6!
Thursdays, 6:00 p.m. -6:50 p.m., April 6-June 1, 2023 (+concert on Friday, June 2, 2023).
Each practice will build a general music knowledge and skill, followed by practicing the repertoire of songs for the in-library concert to be held on Friday, June 2 at 6:00 p.m. There is no cost for this program and each child will receive a free Muskoka Children's Choir tshirt!

Yoga on a Chair for Every Body

Yoga on a Chair for Every Body at our Bala branch (using the Bala community centre) on Tuesdays from 10:00 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. beginning April 4, 2023. Drop-in or call Lindsey, 705-706-4036, to pre-register. Chairs provided. Bring your own mat, if you wish, for under the chair. Suggested $10 or pay what you will.
Inviting * Compassionate * Restorative

Creative Kids Art Club

Calling all kids, 9+, who love to be creative through art!
 
Give us a call at 705-765-5650 or email us at muskokalakes@pclib.ca to join the Saturday workshops. Pre-registration is required to ensure that we are properly prepared with space and supplies for the kids, please. 
 
A MLP Library card is required. Not a member? Follow this link to submit your information to get your MLPL membership card.

 
Puzzles & Games
We have a collection of puzzles and games that you can borrow with your MLPL card. Simply do a subject search for 'puzzles' or 'games' and limit the results to the format of 'kit' when searching in the library catalogue, or come into the Port Carling branch and browse the collections!  Donations of quality games and puzzles are being accepted at this time.
  
Book Club
All welcome to the MLPL book Club held at 1:00 p.m. Fall through Spring on the second Wednesday in the Heritage Room of the Port Carling branch. April's selection is Confidence Man by Maggie Haberman. Haven't read the book? Come and hear the discussion anyway with other book lovers in attendance!
 
Euchre & Mahjong
Friday afternoons, from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., join other players in the Heritage Room at the Port Carling branch of MLPL for an enjoyable couple of hours of non-competitive play.

This and that
  • Although not complete, you can take a sneak peak at our summer programming.
  • You can read about the history of the library and view photos of the old library online.
  • You can 'meet' the library board members and library staff as well as view minutes of meetings.
  • You can subscribe to monthly newsletters that give you recommendations for books by genre.
  • We have free online resources.
  • Ancestry Library Edition is available free to use in the library. 
  • The Port Carling branch is open 10-5 on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays; 10-7 on Thursdays; 10-3 on Saturdays.
  • The Bala branch is open 9-3 on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
  • You can use your MLPL card at both the Bala and the Port Carling branch.
  • We have rooms that can be rented.
  • You can make suggestions online for purchase.
  • Membership application can be done online.
  • We have Ontario Parks day-use permits available to check out with your library card.
  • Interlibrary loan service gives you access to books from other libraries.
  • We have used books for sale by donation. Come and shop (by anonymous donation.) If you have recently published books, in good condition, that you would like to donate, please give us a call first to make sure we have space for your donation. 705-765-5650. 
  • We offer invigilator services for exams.
  • We have a selection of postcards available for $1, courtesy of local photographer, Arlene Burley.
  • Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Instagram. Subscribe to our YouTube channel.
  • Our return boxes are open 24/7.
  • WiFi codes are posted on the front window in Port Carling for use around the perimeter of the building. You can also come inside to use the library WiFi and the library computers.
  • There are many ways to support your Muskoka Lakes Public Library.
 
Check it out
The Sixteen Trees of the Somme
by Lars Mytting

Spanning a century and masterfully navigating themes of revenge and forgiveness, love and loneliness, this breathtaking novel follows Edvard as he is driven to unravel the mystery of his parents' death, which takes him from Norway to the battlefields of France, resulting in the discovery of an unusual inheritance.
Wild Fires
by Sophie Jai

The only things Cassandra knows about her family are the stories she’s heard in snatches over the years: about the aunt and cousin she never got to meet, about the man from the folded-up photograph in one of her aunt’s drawers, and of course about her cousin Chevy, and why he never speaks – but no one utters a word about them any more.
When a call from one of her sisters brings Cassandra news of Chevy’s death, she has to return home for the funeral. To Toronto and the big house on Florence Street, where her sisters are hiding more than themselves in their rooms, where the tension brewing between her mother and aunts has been decades in the making, and where sooner or later every secret, unspoken word and painful memory will find its way out into the open.
Moving between Toronto and Trinidad, Wild Fires is a vivid and compelling story exploring the ways we mourn and why we avoid the very things that can save us.
Dr. B. : a novel
by Daniel Birnbaum

A German Jewish journalist escapes to Sweden with his family at the start of Word War II and begins working for a publisher that evades German censorship and ultimately works with British intelligence agents producing anti-Nazi propaganda. 
What Your Food Ate : How to Heal Our Land and Reclaim Our Health
by David R. Montgomery

"Are you really what you eat? David R. Montgomery and Anne Biklâe take us far beyond the well-worn adage to deliver a new truth : the roots of good health start on farms. What Your Food Ate marshals evidence from recent and forgotten science to illustrate how the health of the soil ripples through to that of crops, livestock, and ultimately us. The long-running partnerships through which crops and soil life nourish one another suffuse plant and animal foods in the human diet with an array of compounds and nutrients our bodies need to protect us from pathogens and chronic ailments. Unfortunately, conventional agricultural practices unravel these vital partnerships and thereby undercut our well-being. Can farmers and ranchers produce enough nutrient-dense food to feed us all? Can we have quality and quantity? With their trademark thoroughness and knack for integrating information across numerous scientific fields, Montgomery and Biklâe chart the way forward. Navigating discoveries and epiphanies about the world beneath our feet, they reveal why regenerative farming practices hold the key to healing sick soil and untapped potential for improving human health. Humanity's hallmark endeavors of agriculture and medicine emerged from our understanding of the natural world-and still depend on it. Montgomery and Biklâe eloquently update this fundamental reality and show us why what's good for the land is good for us, too. What Your Food Ate is a must-read for farmers, eaters, chefs, doctors, and anyone concerned with reversing the modern epidemic of chronic diseases and mitigating climate change"
The Last Cold Place : A Field Season Studying Penguins in Antarctica
by Naira De Gracia

Sharing her once-in-a-lifetime experience studying penguins in Antarctica, a scientist, weaving together the history of Antarctic exploration with climate science, field observations and her own personal journey of growth and reflection, offers a rare glimpse into life on this uninhabited continent.
Still, I Cannot Save You : A Memoir of Sisterhood, Love, and Letting Go
by Kelly S. Thompson

Kelly Thompson and her older sister, Meghan, are proof that sisterhood doesn’t always equate to friendship.
    Growing up within a military family, the girls were close despite being temperamental opposites—Kelly, anxious and studious, looked to her big sister for comfort, and Meghan, who battled kidney cancer as a toddler, was gregarious and protective. But as she approached adulthood, Meghan spi­ralled into a cocaine and opioid addiction, and Kelly’s relationship with her sister was torn apart.
    Their paths diverge as they live their own lives, and it is only when Meghan becomes a mother that she and Kelly tentatively face past hurts and reexamine what sisterhood really means. But their reunion is threatened when Meghan receives a shocking new diagnosis on a day that should be one for celebration. Now, as the family reels at the prospect of the biggest loss imaginable, Kelly and Meghan must share all that they can in the time that they have, using their mutual sense of humour to chart a course through the darkest of days.
    At once funny and heartbreaking, Still, I Cannot Save You is a story about addiction, abuse, and tragedy, but above all, it is a powerful portrait of an enduring love between sisters.
Resident Alien

DVD series. Follows the adventures of a crash-landed alien who must take on the identity of a small-town Colorado doctor and somehow find a way to fit in with the local human population. While attempting to complete his secret mission on Earth, he is forced to consider the possibility that humans might be worth saving after all.
All Creatures Great & Small

DVD series. Follows the adventures of the staff at a veterinarian practice in early twentieth century Yorkshire.
Aftertaste

DVD series. After returning home to the Adelaide Hills in Australia, volatile celebrity chef Easton West tries to reinvent himself with the help of his niece, a young pastry chef.

Muskoka Lakes Public Library
Box 189
69 Joseph St
Port Carling, Ontario P0B 1J0
705-765-5650

www.muskokalakes.ca/library