{"id":300,"date":"2016-01-25T14:06:42","date_gmt":"2016-01-25T22:06:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/english\/?p=300"},"modified":"2016-01-25T20:49:44","modified_gmt":"2016-01-26T04:49:44","slug":"whats-lit-got-to-do-with-it-transformation-and-rejuvenation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/english\/2016\/01\/25\/whats-lit-got-to-do-with-it-transformation-and-rejuvenation\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s Lit Got to Do with It? Transformation and Rejuvenation"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

Have you ever lost your zest for reading?<\/p>\n

Lucy Fraser<\/a>, a UFV SWHS<\/a> instructor, discovered an unexpected fix to rekindle the spark: she began facilitating a local chapter of Book Clubs for Inmates<\/a>. Based on the principles of bibliotherapy<\/a>, this prison book club provides books and discussion to inmates in Medium Security at the Fraser Valley Institute for Women<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"handcuffs<\/a> Photo Credit: avlxyz<\/a> via Compfight<\/a> cc<\/a><\/p>\n

Lucy responded to a request for facilitators from the non-profit organization\u2019s founder Carol Finlay<\/a>. Hoping she\u2019d be able to both help out in the community and get back into reading, Lucy toiled to get the Fraser Valley women’s chapter up and running.<\/p>\n

Bringing her formidable experience in Social Work to the table, she drew on the wisdom of practice developed in her current role as Director of Programs for the Chilliwack Hospice Society<\/a>. Even with this impressive background she underwent training sessions with both Book Clubs for Inmates and the prison\u2019s Social Program Officer. Her mission was clear: Lucy knew that she was expected to expedite the program\u2019s ultimate goal of transformation.<\/p>\n

What she didn\u2019t expect was the additional benefits to participants. Of course they enjoy the books. Certainly they appreciate a break from regular prison routines. But the book club also seems to bring out the best in participants. They warmly welcome newcomers to the program. They nurture one another’s progress and support each other\u2019s ideas about the books. We\u2019re not surprised\u2014this is the power of reading in action. Books are social glue.<\/p>\n

Participants have especially enjoyed My Family and Other Animals<\/em> by Gerald Durrell, The Rosie Project<\/em> by Graeme Simsion, and The Art of Racing in the Rain<\/em> by Garth Stein.<\/p>\n

As for herself, happily Lucy has indeed regained her own love of reading. The book club reading list has exposed her to fascinating stories she would never have picked up on her own, like The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian<\/em> by Sherman Alexie, Station Eleven<\/em> by Emily St. John Mandel, and Prisoner of Tehran<\/em> by Marina Neemat.<\/p>\n

Better still, it\u2019s helped her to realize what the problem had been\u2014she was stalling out on fiction, never realizing her true love is creative non-fiction<\/a>. Books like The Coldest Winter<\/em> by David Halberstam, Into Thin Air<\/em> by John Krakauer, and The Year of Magical Thinking<\/em> by Joan Didion have reignited her literary love.<\/p>\n

Sounds like a win all round\u2014and plenty of good reasons to keep reading.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Have you ever lost your zest for reading? Lucy Fraser, a UFV SWHS instructor, discovered an unexpected fix to rekindle the spark: she began facilitating a local chapter of Book Clubs for Inmates. Based on the principles of bibliotherapy, this prison book club provides books and discussion to inmates in Medium Security at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":308,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300\/revisions\/308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}