What We’re Watching: Bridgerton! (and Romance Reading through Dogwood Digital)

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bridgerton, on Netflix December 25, 2020

Title: Bridgerton, Season 1 (available streaming on Netflix)

Genre: Period drama; Romance; Regency Romance

This series was watched by Rachel Smith, Northern Durham Center Librarian. 

Set in 19th-century London, Bridgerton centers on the aristocratic Bridgerton family. The widow Violet, Dowager Viscountess Bridgerton is mother to eight children. As eldest daughter Daphne Bridgerton enters her first courting season with Queen Charlotte’s favor, she meets Simon Bassett, Duke of Hastings and best friend of her eldest brother, Anthony. Despite being encouraged by his mentor, Lady Danbury, the Duke is determined not to ever get married and he plots with Daphne to secure his bachelordom and to secure her a suitable marriage.

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Crafternoon: Tie Dye Kits!

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It’s time for another make-at-home Crafternoon adventure! 

Tie dye | Lisa Padilla | Flickr

The Student Government Association and the Library are giving out tie dye kits to current students, which include three colors (blues, yellows, and reds), gloves, and some rubber bands. You’ll provide your own shirt, bag, pants, scarf, hat, whatever you want to dye (in cotton, polyester, or blended fabric). If you would like one, email us at library@durhamtech.edu and we’ll schedule a time for you to pick it up. You can also drop by the Food Pantry outdoor pickup while they’re open to pick up a kit as well. 

Can’t make it to campus to pick up a kit or want to buy your own? We’re using this kit from Michael’s– you can choose from Rainbow, Shark, Mermaid, and Unicorn if you’re buying your own. Or explore the many other options available on the web. 

Keep reading for a few tips, tricks, and design ideas from around the web. 

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What We’re Reading: Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye and some Jane Eyre-Inspired Reads

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Reader, I confess: I’ve never read Jane Eyre. I had a profoundly bad experience with another Brontë sister in high school that has biased me against the other Brontës. Fair? Nope, but sometimes reading isn’t fair when there are lots of other choices out there. 

However, I did recently read Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye about a orphan-turned-governess (with some life experience in between) who keeps coming across the opportunity to murder folks. She picks up a copy of Jane Eyre and is compelled to confess her life story and misdeeds. She’s not arbitrarily murdery, but–shucks–it just keeps happening. 

So let’s do this WWR thing–

jane steele by lyndsay faye

Title: Jane Steele

Author: Lyndsay Faye

Genre: Historical Fiction (takes place in Victorian England)

Available at the Orange County Campus (PS 3606 .A96 J36 2016)

Read Great Things 2021 Categories: A book that takes place outside the continental United States; A book about family; Choose your own category–A book inspired by another book; A book recommended by Durham Tech Library staff (our favorite category)

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Self-Care Books for Comfort and Growth

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Tune into yourself with books that will help you with your self-care goals through the Read Great Things 2021 Challenge.

A set of Scrabble tiles, some turned over so they are blank in the background, with the words SELF CARE spelled out on top

Self-care can be about taking care of yourself in many ways: emotionally, spiritually, creatively, physically, or mentally. 

Keep reading for some suggestions based on what your own self-care goals might look like, including some suggestions contributed by your Durham Tech community. 

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Library Reads for International Women’s Day

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March 8 is International Women’s Day and was created to focus on the achievements of women across the globe and emphasize the continued need to push for gender parity. 

International Women's Day: We will choose to challenge gender stereotypes and bias #ChooseToChallenge

This year’s theme is “Choose to Challenge,” acknowledging that gender bias left unchallenged allows it to continue. 

To celebrate International Women’s Day, check out some of the books that the Durham Tech Library has online and in our physical collection to celebrate women’s voices, accomplishments, and experiences. 

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What We’re Reading: All We Can Save

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This book. This book, y’all. 

This book gave me a big hug. It cuddled me close and told me that everything is not going to be alright. But it also gave me hope that some things can be okay if we’re willing to work hard to make it that way.

It changed my life. Not in a hyperbolic way. In the way that it shifted my thinking so much that it will have an influence on my actions for the rest of my life. 

All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkerson
Let this book hug you too.
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What You Could Be Watching: The Hayti Heritage Film Festival

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The Hayti Heritage Film Festival, created in 1994 to create and celebrate a “Black film ecosystem in the South” and normally held in Durham at St. Joseph’s United AME Church, is mostly virtual this year. 

Hayti Heritage Film Festival-- The Hero's Journey: Call to Action, March 1-6, 2021

Now in its 27th year, the films are centered around the theme of “The Hero’s Journey,” and has a combination of films and panels, running from Monday, March 1 to Saturday, March 6. While most films will be screened online, there will be a few drive-in movies. 

Check out the schedule to purchase tickets or passes. 

The Hayti Heritage Foundation hosts events throughout the year, including walking tours of both Black Wall Street and the Hayti neighborhood (by appointment). For more information about historic Durham, including the Hayti neighborhood, keep reading. 

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Open Educational Resources in North Carolina Higher Education

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March 1-5, 2021 is Open Education Week! 

North Carolina, like many states, is moving towards making Open Educational Resources a valid alternative to traditional publisher-controlled teaching resources. 

Open Education Week 2021, showing an O with a graduation cap

Today’s blog post will acquaint you with some of the things NC has been doing with OER and hopefully get you thinking about how you might use them to customize your course content (and make life simpler for students!). 

Check it out! 

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