Staff Reviews

Staff Reviews

Adult Review August 2026

Things in Nature Merely Grow by Yiyun Li

There are few writers I know who have mastery and full control over words as Yiyun Li. This qualification, I believe is necessary when you write two books upon the loss of two sons to suicide. The first book Where Reasons End is written for Vincent. The second, Things in Nature Merely Grow is for James, and captures - with sparse prose the essence of losing James, the sense of losing oneself within loss - not a loss of control, nor a loss of conserving emotions, but as falling into an abyss. Li is in full control of her emotions and presents the story of James, of family past, present and future with a clear voice that is spared adjectives because as she writes, James was direct and preferred logic. Li describes this as the now and now and now where children die, and parents go on living. As a reader the abyss is palpable, and haunting as the narrator realizes there is no freeing oneself from the abyss, but shall forever merely carry on in a Sisyphean motion. It is a book best allowed to breath, so the words can carry their full weight - though only 172 pages it is a clear eyed tome. -Mike Clark Acquisitions Associate
Adult Non-Fiction pr7911738

  

Rough Description : love letters and ghost stories from a life in music by Don Pyle

There are many ways to approach writing one’s history.  The most obvious is to start at point A and travel to point B.  Don Pyle has a lot to write about as a gay man growing up in Toronto during the 1980s, and has chosen to a messier path where events interlock, shift and evolve into something much bigger. What we learn about the drummer from Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet and Pyle’s life in music carries more weight because we learn alongside Pyle as he remembers events and people. Like a good drummer whose rhythm propels the band, music propels Rough Description, events and people come into focus and take their solos – many become ghosts: Louie Beeson, Reid Diamond, Wendy Coburn, Steve Albini and Dallas Good. While many events are tragic, Pyle never loses his sense of humor to remind readers of forgotten things without being overbearing: the 1980s AIDS epidemic, rampant homophobia, and an intolerant United States. Some readers may even find themselves back at a long forgotten Shadowy Men’s show. In the end readers feel the complete sense of Pyle’s world and the deep love that he has for the life he has created.  As a long time fan of Pyle’s music, it was a joy to see him at Kitchener Public Library. -Mike Clark Acquisitions Associate
Adult Non-Fiction pr8342476

  

 

 

 

Kids / YA Review August 2026

The Truth About Maura by Isabelle Jameson

Maura makes a careful plan - how, when, where to get it done so that no one will find out. Her plan works perfectly, except that there’s a class mate at the abortion clinic, and they see each other. Social media explodes. Maura’s mother is embarrassed; her best friend is furious with the father; strangers are disgusted, classmates are curious. Everyone has feelings and opinions and questions about her, the unplanned pregnancy, the abortion, the father and more. No one she loves asks Maura how she feels, what she thinks, what she needs. Two relative strangers offer her unconditional support. For them, the pregnancy and abortion are none of their business and don’t change who Maura is. Maura agrees.
This book is a high interest low-reading-level title in the Orca Soundings series. You don’t particularly notice this. Turning the last page, I wanted to find out more about Maura, and how her relationships would change. I think teenagers - in her position or not - would benefit from reading her story. It’s a great, suspenseful book. -Helen Wilding Cook

YA Fiction pr8383121

 

 

Details
Category: Collection Development

LBI's Bound To Be Hits lists (available for Music CDs and Vinyl) are released monthly. New releases are presented by genre and audience age level. The lists are available on our website in either a full content browsing format or a quick order list format. The lists are available electronically to our customers and a hard copy format is available upon request. In addition to UPC barcodes, both lists includes icons which indicate Canadian content and parental advisory.

 BTBH 2020 BTBH 2020

The Bound To Be Hits selection lists are produced by Tracy Reid, Manager, Music and Video Games. Tracy has 20+ years of experience in her role at Library Bound. Her efforts in growing the music supply business have resulted in direct purchasing arrangements with all the major studios.

Details
Category: Collection Development

Telling Tales is a Canadian, not-for-profit organization committed to inspiring a love of reading and raising awareness of the importance of literacy in our communities. They do this by bringing Canadian authors, illustrators, musicians and storytellers together with their audiences: our children.

Telling Tales is building a community of readers, writers and story-tellers with Canada’s diverse communities including English, French and Aboriginal authors, artists, musicians and poets to engage even the most reluctant reader.

Library Bound is proud to be the Official Library Wholesaler for Telling Tales.

To access the Telling Tales Reading List, click the following link

Details
Category: Collection Development

Library Bound provides publisher catalogues from our website. Catalogues are presented with options to view the adult or children’s selections within seasons (Spring, Fall or Winter). Each catalogue cover is displayed along with the corresponding number of titles. LBI posts on-line 1,000+ publisher catalogues annually. 

 

Details
Category: Collection Development

Library Bound offers a comprehensive Standing Orders program for both Adult and Children’s titles. Any title that releases annually or semi-annually can be placed on a Standing Order program with LBI. Through our program we are able to negotiate the best possible discounts through consolidated bulk purchasing and we then pass these savings on to the Library. LBI sends master publications lists for Reference titles and Children’s Reference titles and requests that the Library identifies the annual reference titles they are interested in, as well as the quantity of copies, order code and cataloguing and processing requirements (i.e. REF or CIRC). Additional title requests from the library can be added to the profile. LBI also manages subscription services and loose-leaf through publishers such as Carswell, CCH and other vendors.

Library Bound can organize the transfer of any existing standing order titles from other vendors, and/or wholesalers. Online management features for Standing Orders include the option for the Library to assign a specific order code to track and view Standing Orders spending. If the Library has multiple order codes for standing orders, a specific username will be created so that all funds may be tracked.

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Ron

List of Ron's favourites

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