Welcome readers! It's #IMWAYR time again, when bloggers share what they have been reading and find out what others have been up to. Kathryn hosts the adult version of this meme at Book Date. Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki at Unleashing Readers host the kidlit rendition. These are fabulous places to start your search for what to read next.
While I'm not yet back up to my pre Covid energy levels, I am hardly coughing at all these days! My garden is almost under control. If the rain ever holds off, I'm pretty sure that I will finish weeding the out of control areas just in time to start all over again.
Titles with a 🍁 indicate this is a Canadian or Indigenous Canadian Author and or Illustrator.
Clicking on the title will take you to the Goodreads page of the book.
PICTURE BOOKS
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| 5 stars |
A Blue Kind of Day by Rachel Tomlinson & Tori-Jay Mordey (Illustrations) April 5, 2022
This is an important book that addresses childhood depression. It is gorgeous to looks at. Tori-Jay Mordey's artwork fills readers up with empathy for Coen's experience of being blue. I appreciated the author's note in the back matter on childhood depression and helping children deal with emotions.
NON FICTION PICTURE BOOKS
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| 5 stars |
Ablaze with Color: A Story of Painter Alma Thomas by Jeanne Walker Harvey & Loveis Wise (Illustrations) February 22, 2022
I knew nothing about Alma Thomas (or Loveis Wise, the illustrator of this book) until reading this picture book biography. Jeanne Walker Harvey introduces readers to Alma Thomas, an African American artist who taught art to children in Washington DC. When she was 70, she began to focus on her own art. She was the first black woman to have her own show at the Whitney Museum in New York City and to have her work chosen for the White House collection. I love how Loveis Wise's artwork integrates Alma Thomas style into the illustrations for this book.
I encourage everyone to do a google search of both their work.
ADULT NOVELS
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| 4 stars |
The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune & Daniel Henning (Narrator)
While this is a satisfying light read, it's full of important messages about the consequences of othering people who are different from us.
ADULT NON FICTION
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| 5+ stars |
An Elegant Defense: The Extraordinary New Science of the Immune System: A Tale in Four Lives by Matt Richtel March 12, 2019
The most important thing about this book is how readable it is.
He talks about the immune system within the contexts of the AIDs crisis, the consequences of overusing antibiotics, the role of autoimmunity and allergies, and cancer treatments.
Readers will learn a lot from this book. The most important takeaway about how to build a strong immune system is to eat food that gets dropped on the floor. Getting a proper sleep and avoiding stress are equally important. Also, smoking is bad, bad, bad.
Readers will learn a lot from this book. The most important takeaway about how to build a strong immune system is to eat food that gets dropped on the floor. Getting a proper sleep and avoiding stress are equally important. Also, smoking is bad, bad, bad.
He shows how dangerous our overuse of antibiotics is, explaining that, "Bacteria are passing back-and-forth among themselves a genetic code that allows them to fend off attacks from antibiotics. In fact, bacteria that are under attack from antibiotics can effectively call out to their fellow bacteria for help (Send me some protective genetic material!) and the resistance can be transferred."
In the last chapter he talks about what our immune system has to teach us about living our lives. There are important messages about accepting and celebrating diversity. "Our survival, as individuals and as a species, is best served by cooperation. This may sound obvious, but civilization, even of late, has been dominated by the push and pull of our competing instincts to cooperate and alienate, to see what people share in common or prey on what divides them. The lesson of the immune system is that the better able we are to find common ground, the more allies and weapons we have to contend with a greater, common foe."
Highly Recommended!
In the last chapter he talks about what our immune system has to teach us about living our lives. There are important messages about accepting and celebrating diversity. "Our survival, as individuals and as a species, is best served by cooperation. This may sound obvious, but civilization, even of late, has been dominated by the push and pull of our competing instincts to cooperate and alienate, to see what people share in common or prey on what divides them. The lesson of the immune system is that the better able we are to find common ground, the more allies and weapons we have to contend with a greater, common foe."
Highly Recommended!
Clarence Louie is Chief of the Osoyoos Indian Band near where I live. I read this book to learn more about him and the Syilx people, the original inhabitants of this land. In his thirty six years as Chief, he has worked hard to create meaningful, well paying jobs for his people. His business focused leadership has paid off big time.
The band website states:
"The Osoyoos Indian Band currently has 540 members. Because of their work ethic and our diversified investments, unemployment on the reserve is not only less than 3%, but 20% of these band members are in senior positions.
Over the last 6 years, OIBDC group revenues have increased 70% and now sit at $28.2M spanning thirteen different lines of business. Commercial leasing (38%), tourism (20%) and construction related services (14%) contribute the most to OIBDC’s bottom line."
Although I don't see myself as belonging to any group, my grandmother was Menomenie from Wisconsin. Because of this, I've been reading about Indigenous history here in Canada and the United states since my 20's. I only mention this because much of the history Clarence Louie writes about isn't new to me. What is new is what this history means to him and his world view. I also appreciated learning more about the specific history of Syilx here in the valley, and the Osoyoos band in particular - especially with regards to the shameful reserve debacle.
This book is about Louie's perspective of leadership and how the band has come to this remarkable measure of success. Louie believes in the healing power of work. I wondered a bit about his focus on full time employment because I have friends and family with mental and physical health problems who can't manage this - it ends up making them sicker. Yet I see a lot of validity in his thinking - especially with regards to his statement that when you hit a certain age you should either 1. have a full time job, 2. be going to school, or if you can't do either of those, 3. be in counselling. After finishing this book I'm pretty sure that he would be able to make accommodations for people like my friends.
I have a few other quibbles where his focus seems to be one sided, but absolutely none of it takes away from what Clarence Louie has accomplished. Ultimately he's become a master of manipulating business and capitalism on behalf of the people he loves. It's a remarkable legacy.
CURRENTLY
The Marvellers by Dhonielle Clayton
UP NEXT
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel 🍁
READING GOALS
#MustReadFiction 12/24
#MustReadNonFiction 11/18
Canadian Authors 32/100 one in progress
Canada Reads shortlist 5/5
Indigenous Authors 12/25
