I'm following the lead of Shaye at
The Miller Memo, so if you clink on the title link for each book, it will take
you to the GoodReads page for that book.
It was an intense reading week. It feels like I didn't finish much, but what I did read will stay with me for a very long time. Aside from that, I finished one pair of
gloves for a daughter-in-law's Christmas gift and have started on another pair
for the other one. (I swear that with all the pulling out and starting over I have knit at least 2 pairs already!) I have almost completed another baby quilt too!
PICTURE BOOKS
This endearing picture books shows the
impact of Alzheimer's Disease on a grandfather, his grandson and their family.
The analogy of the balloons as keepers of memory is brilliantly done and will
help other young people understand this debilitating illness.
Allashua is not very good at hiding. She
loves to play hide and seek, but ends up getting distracted by butterflies,
flowers, fish in ponds and all kinds of delights around her in her northern
world.
Unfortunately, Ijiraqs are very good
hiders. If they help a child hide, the child is never heard from again.
Allashua can't believe the stories when she meets a cheerful Ijiraq and finds
herself in serious trouble because of this. Luckily, Allashua is very smart and
manages to save herself!
Allashua is also featured in A Promise is a Promise, a book this team worked on with Robert Munch.
Vladyana Krykorka's illustrations in this and the other books she works on with Michael Arvaarluk Kusugak are stunningly gorgeous.
NONFICTION
 |
| 5 stars |
Starting this title after finishing up
Killers of the Flower Moon was probably not a good idea. It was a jump from
historical racism into its modern day counterpart here in Canada. This is intense
and not easy to read.
It's going to be the most important book I've read this year.
It's going to be the most important book I've read this year.
Tanya Talaga painstakingly takes the
reader through a detailed chronicle of how the Canadian government explicitly
attempted to destroy indigenous peoples. It begins with with the horrors of the residential school system, the death of Chanie Wenjak in 1966 and on into today with a federal government that still refuses to fund indigenous
education at the same rates as the rest of the population.
She leads us through the lives and deaths
of seven students from 2000 to 2011: Jethro Anderson, Curran Strang, Paul
Panacheese, Robyn Harper, Reggie Bushie, Kyle Morrisseau and Jordan Wabasse.
All were forced to leave their homes and cultures and travel to Thunder Bay, Ontario, to get a
secondary education. Aside from numerous hate crimes and assaults, there have
been at least 6 more suspicious deaths since an inquest into those deaths was
held in 2012.
According to Robert Jago, from an article
in The Walrus titled, The Deadly Racism of Thunder Bay, "First Nations lives are
being lost at an alarming and disproportionate rate in Thunder Bay. While the
city accounts for barely 5 percent of the Indigenous population in Ontario, it
accounts for roughly 37 percent of the province’s Indigenous murder victims.
Thunder Bay has more than three times as many First Nations murder victims than
the entire province of Quebec, which has more than twelve times as many
Indigenous people. In raw numbers, more Native people are murdered in Thunder
Bay than in any Canadian city, save Winnipeg."
There are those who think a serial killer is on the loose. It's not hard to believe after reading the book. It is a damning revelation that highlights the institutionalized racism of the police, all levels of the justice system, as well as the provincial and federal governments. Citizens of the city don't come across very positively either.
There are those who think a serial killer is on the loose. It's not hard to believe after reading the book. It is a damning revelation that highlights the institutionalized racism of the police, all levels of the justice system, as well as the provincial and federal governments. Citizens of the city don't come across very positively either.
 |
| 5 stars |
Just WOW! This book, with writing and
artwork from many talented creators, written to bring hope and
inspiration to their children, ends up bringing it to all readers.
This quote From Drumbeat for Change by
Kelly Starling Lyons has stuck with me, "The drumbeat of hope will always
drown out howls of hate."
CURRENTLY
I'm halfway through listening to
Transcription by Kate Atkinson. I'm reading nothing with my eyes. I've started
and stopped about three different novels this week though I did read more of A
Thousand Beginnings and Endings than anything else. I needed light and hopeful
to contrast with my nonfiction reading and I don't have anything like that in
the house.
UP NEXT
I'm planning on starting Lost Soul, Be at Peace by Maggie Thrash. My next nonfiction title will be something completely different from what I have been reading: Shark Lady: The True Story of How Eugenie Clark Became the Ocean's Most Fearless Scientist.
PROGRESS ON MY READING GOALS
Two of my goals have been reached!
#MustReadIn2018 23/25
#MustReadNFIn2018 12/12
25 Books by Canadian Indigenous Authors 24/25
Goodreads Reading Challenge 389/333
Very pretty gloves! Fingers are so tricky. I stick with mittens, myself!
ReplyDeleteI agree! Thankfully these fingers look better when they are on a hand!
DeleteThose gloves are absolutely beautiful! What lucky daughter-in-laws. Seven Fallen Feathers sounds like a book we all need to read.
ReplyDeleteIt is indeed! I wonder how indigenous people in the USA compare.
DeleteThose gloves are fabulous. I like to knit but have always stuck to mittens, too. I'm sure your daughter-in-law will value them each time she uses them. I also thought The Remember Balloons was a brilliant idea for helping kids understand what must be for them a very difficult disease to understand. Have a Happy Thanksgiving and enjoy your upcoming reads.
ReplyDeleteOh I hate fingers too! These are especially tricky because of the cable that needs to be straight! Given our aging demographic, The Remember Baloons is even more important.
DeleteThose gloves are so beautiful! Wow! Thanks for sharing Seven Fallen Feathers--not one I'd heard of but one I really need to read (and to make sure my library purchases for its collection.) Congratulations on reaching your goals!!!
ReplyDeleteSeven Fallen Feathers is an important, but really hard read. It's like bearing witness.
DeleteYou are such a talented knitter (& quilter), Cheriee. I agree with everyone; the gloves are awesome! "Seven Fallen Feathers" sounds terribly sad, but important to know, too. I loved 'We Rise, We resist, We Raise Our Voices" too, also important for all to read. Thanks for all the good books shared! I still need to read "Shark Lady"!
ReplyDeleteI should have waited to read We Rise until I finished Seven Fallen Feathers, but agree that it is important for everyone to read!
DeleteLove those gloves! Your goal meeting is impressive. I am so far behind . . . . Enjoy Shark Lady!
ReplyDeleteI am really looking forward to it!
DeleteI somehow missed Seven Fallen Feathers, so I'm adding that to my list right away. Looks great! And when I see that cover of The Remember Balloons, it makes me feel all the feels. I keep saying I need to get a copy of these picture books for my family and we continue to say goodbye to my grandfather. I haven't yet read We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices, but it's definitely on my list. Thanks for sharing that beautiful quote! Have a wonderful week, Cheriee!
ReplyDeleteSeven afallen Feathers was one of the books on the long list for Canada Reads. It's been winning all kinds of awards and I believe everyone should read it!
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