See you guys on October the 26th!

The voting was fierce, some raced ahead early on only to be beaten at the very end. When the dust settled, October 26th, 12:30 pm to 2:30 pm emerged victorious. The location of our meeting is TBA, but we will let you guys know as soon as the room is booked.

A reminder, this meeting will consist of an introduction + summer reads. Feel free to bring snacks, and your favourite beverages to the meeting. As always, we will provide napkins, teas, a kettle etc.

See you guys soon! :)

Our Next Meeting Time

Hi Bookworms, welcome back! I hope everyone is having a great start to their school year. :)

The poll for next month's meeting time is now up on our website! Please select the time(s) you prefer for the meeting. You will have three days to vote; the poll closes next Monday, September 30th, at 2:00 PM.

This meeting's theme will be "Introduction + Summer Reads". We would love to hear about the books you read over the summer, and whether or not you've attempted our summer bookworms challenge (for those who were with us last year).

In other news, we recently created our own uOttawaBookworms facebook page. If you would prefer to keep up to date with our club over on Facebook, head over and give us a like. :)
https://www.facebook.com/UOttawaBookworms

We can't wait to see everyone! In the mean time, have a great day.

Upcoming Book Events in Ottawa!

Enjoy reading young adult novels by the likes of Lemony Snicket, Lauren Oliver and Elizabeth Wein? Well, you're in luck! The Ottawa Public Library is hosting their 4th annual Teen Author Fest and attendance is FREE. Events will take place at various branches from October 1st - November 29th (actually Elizabeth Wein is here Sept 24, and 25). For more information, check out the TAF website: http://biblioottawalibrary.ca/en/TAF

Welcome Back

Good morning / afternoon / evening Bookworms,

I hope that all of you have had a sensational summer the past 4 months whether you have been taking classes to get ahead, working, traveling, or just enjoying yourself as you should.

I wanted to take the opportunity to welcome you all back for the new school year. It's my last one at uOttawa so it's a little bittersweet, but I'm really looking forward to having another year of great book discussions with all of you.

First off, please let me know if you have graduated or did not sign up to be on our mailing list yet somehow get emails from us... these things happen and I just want to make sure that nobody's inboxes are being clogged needlessly. Also let me know if you have a friend who would like to join & start receiving emails from us about upcoming meetings and all that!

Clubs Week happens the second week of September and gives clubs across campus the chance to reach out to the new and current student population to give them options to get involved in something they have an interest in. As President of the Bookworms, a campus museum volunteer, and a VP for 2 other student groups, I can assure you that getting involved on campus is the BEST thing you can do to enrich your student experience! Stella, Ashley, Hannah and I will be taking part in Clubs Week so stop by and say hi at our table if you have time, we'd love to see you.

Our first meeting will probably be towards the end of September... I'm thinking the 4th but likely 5th week of the month. I'll set up the usual poll for times and what not, so no worries there. Remember the summer challenge of reading a book outside your usual genre comfort zone? We'll be discussing our different adventures in summer reading and ideas for monthly genres at the September meeting. In the meantime, have a safe 101 week and hopefully the transition into student life isn't too rough on you all ;)

Cheers,
Madeline (but please call me Maddie if you want)

ps. I have bought some news teas for all of you to try, so get excited to be converted into loving tea if you don't already!

A Quick "Hello" from the New Executive... and A Summer Challenge!

Dear Bookworms,

My name is Madeline and I am the new president of the uOttawa Bookworms for the 2013-2014 school year. I've been a member since I was in my first year here and now, entering into my fourth and final year, I feel so lucky to have been given the privilege to take on a bigger role in this amazing club. I wanted to post on the blog before summer really begins to introduce the new executive team of the Bookworms and to give you all a summer “challenge” so we will each have a unique experience to talk about when we reconvene in September for our first meeting of the year. The executive and I have collectively decided to not have meetings over the summer because 3 of the 4 of us are going overseas for part of it and it would be tricky to keep the club going when everyone’s schedules are so different than during the 8 months we are enrolled in classes.

Here is your executive for the next year! After their name and position is a fun book-related fact about that person so you can have a little bit of an idea of who they are even though you may not have met yet or do not know them very well.

President = Madeline Smolarz : “In the summer of 2009, I lived in Ireland in a couple different cities over the course of a month. When I was in Dublin, I visited Trinity College and saw the Book of Kells. It was the most breathtaking experience I have ever had with a book and I will never forget being in that dim room with the book laid out in a glass case in the middle, illuminated by a spotlight. I highly recommend it if you ever find yourself on the Emerald Isle.” ~ Madeline

Vice-President = Ashley Chen : She prefers light reading rather than the heavier, deeper stuff some of us love because she does so much memory work being in the sciences and likes to give her brain a break when she has down time to read. Fiction and fantasy are her genres of choice.

Secretary = Stella Chen : She really enjoys action-packed books, usually with science fiction or fantasy elements in them.

Treasurer = Hannah Fraser : “In 2010, my family and I went on a cruise of the Mediterranean. During this time, I was a right in the middle of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series and loving the story. On the fifth day of the cruise, we arrived in Athens for a tour of the Acropolis, the temple of Zeus and all the various ruins. Being a huge lover of Greek mythology and having just read the Odyssey, this was an extremely exciting event for me. After our official tour was finished, my family and I stopped for a picnic on a high point of a trail that overlooked the city. While relaxing, I took out Percy Jackson and continued to read about the 'real life' Olympians while overlooking the Parthenon. It was definitely the coolest place I've ever read, and it suited the book extremely well!” ~ Hannah

Now for your summer challenge, bookworms. I know, you’ve been dying to know what it could be since I mentioned it way up there in the first paragraph. Well hold onto your hats because here it is... Read a book completely outside your preferred genre. Surprised? Shocked? Thrilled to get the green light to get to try something new? Well go for it, dear bookworms, because we’ll be discussing our respective experiences with the challenge in September when we sit down with our customary tea and baked goods. So there will be no set book for you to read over the summer; the choice is yours. I’m personally excited to read a thriller / mystery, far away from my historical fiction favourites.

I wish you all a happy, healthy, sunburn-free summer filled with friends, family, and fantastic books.

Yours in reading,

Madeline

The Bookworms will resume in September - and we'll be missing you!

Dearest Bookworms,

Steph and I are both graduating, and last week was our final meeting with the Bookworms.  A few members of the club have stepped forward to take over the executive positions, and we'll leave it to them to introduce themselves!  At the meeting, we decided to break from the club over the summer, so there won't be any meetings over the next few months.  The new leadership will take over the club in September.

We both want to thank everyone who participated in the club - for the great book suggestions, the delicious baked goods and the interesting discussions.  We've both been members since first year so it's very bittersweet to be graduating.  The Bookworms has been a great place to chat, drink tea, and spend time with fellow book lovers.  We've had such a positive experience in the club and we're very much going to miss all of you fine people!

Best of luck with everything, and we hope you have a great time in the club next year.  A fond farewell to you all!

S&S

Bookworms next year?

Hi Bookworms!

First, we have a room booked for next Sunday.  We'll be meeting in UCU206, down the hall from the Tim Horton's in the university centre.

Next, we want to let you all know that we are both graduating this year, so the book club will need new leadership!  If you are interested in taking over the club, please send us an email by next Wednesday (Mar 20), and indicate if you will be attending the meeting on Sun, Mar 24.  The current constitution has roles for two co-presidents, a treasurer and a secretary, but those positions are definitely not set in stone - you do NOT have to indicate in your email which position you would like.  We will either have a separate meeting with those interested, or if all the interested people can attend on Sunday, we will discuss it as our first order of business then.  Running the club is not a lot of work - mainly just updating the website and attending the meetings - and anyone can take over!  Once again, if you're interested in running the club in any capacity, please send us an email (uottawabookworms@gmail.com) by Wed, Mar 20, and indicate whether you will attend the meeting on Sunday.  We'll send out more information once we have heard back from you.

Thank you Bookworms and it's been wonderful being a part of this club with all of you!