Book Nook: June 2023

I love reading Indigenous and Native American lit any time of year, but I really took advantage of National Indigenous History Month and dove into some books that have been on my list for a while! I was planning on also reading more LGBTQ+ lit, but time ran out - or more accurately, I restarted the process to get my driver’s license so I had to divert fun reading time to study reading time as I reviewed the SAAQ road manuals! (Not reviewing those beyond “please proofread, gouvernement du Québec”.)

Anyway, take a look at what I had my nose stuck in!

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Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians But Were Afraid to Ask: Young Readers Edition by Anton Treuer ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The title says it all! Presented like a Q&A session, the chapters are divided by topic with bite-sized answers that make it very easy to read and reference. This might be why it was considered the “young readers” edition, but otherwise I’m not sure what makes it specific to this age demographic (the regular version was only a third of the length). The amount of information in this book makes it an invaluable resource for anyone in any age group and demographic looking to brush up their knowledge about Native Americans. I especially appreciated the attention to explaining the differences between the Native American experience in the US vs. Canada, which is an area that I’ve always been curious about. My only critique is that though much of it was researched, a notable portion of it relied on secondary sources (such as Charles C. Mann’s 1491) and there were some sections where it was made clear that the answers were personal opinion but that I wished had had some research to explore varying positions on the subject. Still, Treuer did an excellent job mantling the daunting task of consolidating the myriad experiences of native peoples into a digestible primer. This should be essential reading to every person living in the Americas (and beyond!) to better understand the land we live on.

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Aloha Betrayed: Native Hawaiian Resistance to American Colonialism by Noenoe K. Silva ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I put off reading this one for a while because I was afraid it would be so tremendously depressing - and it was, at least in the beginning. As it delved deeper into the history of the Hawaiian resistance however, the fight for cultural, political, and land rights was both enthralling and empowering. The audiobook version was excellent and I loved hearing the language come to life in the many poetry, lyric, and letter excerpts read by Kaipo Schwab. I finished the book with a deep appreciated and respect for the Hawaiian peoples and wish I hadn’t taken so long to get around to it. To be clear, it’s a highly academic read that’s extremely thorough in its research so it might come across as a little dry if that’s not your thing, but this is such an important read and is very much worth taking the time to absorb. At the least, be sure to read up about Queen Lili'uokalani, the last sovereign of Hawaii, who led a truly impressive life of resistance with a dignity we could all learn from.

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The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson ⭐⭐⭐

The story of a Dakota woman severed from her culture through forceable placement into the foster care system, The Seed Keeper weaves past with present to illustrate the complex damage of intergenerational trauma and broken family lines. I thought the choice to juxtapose industrial farming with traditional seed keeping was very fresh and allowed the book to communicate some heavy critiques of both the way we use our land in agriculture and the fact that it’s stolen land in the first place through the shorthand of this metaphor. The character trajectories also felt very genuine, and I especially liked the way the children were portrayed: trying to assimilate to the dominant white culture around them, yet struggling as they try to reconcile an incongruous but powerful heritage. In terms of the writing, it got the job done, but I did find myself at arm’s length of the story when I wished I was in the thick of the emotion. The plot points to me also felt a little stiff, which made the narrative feel a little clunky as it switched between POVs and time periods. In all though, a good book to read this month and a highly accessible piece of Indigenous literature.

Trigger warnings: Child abuse, suicide, sexual assault, racism, violence against the Indigenous communities.

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Night Bus by Zuo Ma (translated by Orion Martin) ⭐⭐

In this collection of graphic comic shorts, Ma blends science fiction with imaginative realism to illustrate story vignettes about life in rural China as an artist swimming against the current. I'll be honest, I didn’t realize these were supposed to be short stories at first and kept trying to fit the chapters together in my head. When I figured it out, it made me appreciate each section more, but at the same time there was something fundamentally missing for me in each piece. I suspect this is in part due to me missing cultural cues and there being some things lost to translation, but the transitions even between individual panels were very jarring and I often felt like the stories ended without any resolution or message. The brief commentaries about each piece by the author at the end of the book was very helpful in situating some of the stories after the fact, but I do feel that they should have been able to stand on their own. I will say that Ma managed to convey surrealism in a way that I’ve only ever seen in a Franz Kafka or David Lynch narrative, and I was very into those parts. I just wish I’d been into each piece as a whole, but it was simply too inaccessible for me to say I enjoyed. Also while I loved a large portion of the illustrations, some of them were so heavily rendered with ink that it was hard to make out what I was looking at. This did add to the surrealist experience, but it also added an extra layer of challenge. Not my cup of tea, but I can appreciate that someone else would get a lot more out of it than I did.

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And that’s a wrap on June! Thought these reviews were on point? Don’t agree with something I said? Let me know in the comments below! I am but a humble reader whose opinions can’t possibly represent the myriad complexities of these books and would to hear your own thoughts.

Happy reading!

Tags: Fiction, Non-Fiction, Book Reviews, Audiobooks, BIPOC Authors, LGBTQ+, Horror, Sci-Fi, Speculative Fiction, Social Sciences

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Book Nook: March 2023

A lot of my library holds started coming in this month, so I tore through an eclectic batch!

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Five Little Indians by Michelle Good ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Chronicling the emotional fallout of a childhood trapped at residential school, Five Little Indians follows five Indigenous young adults as they struggle to make a life for themselves in a world where they can only depend on each other for support. This book came to me highly recommended and it’s no wonder why. It’s hard not to fall in love with these characters and the communities they build. What’s truly outstanding about the narrative though is not only how it shows the variety of ways trauma can be expressed, but also the variety of ways it takes to heal from it. On a technical level, I sometimes wished the language had a bit more shine, and there was a specific chapter in first person narration that missed the mark on the intended voice, but otherwise this is a very strong novel that packages difficult content into an accessible form. Absolutely recommended, even if it’s hard.

Trigger warnings: Abuse, sexual assault, violence, child death, suicide, racism.

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Pure Colour by Sheila Heti ⭐

The premise of this book is that the world is in its first draft and the creator will soon paint over the canvas. What it delivers, however, feels like a first draft of an unfinished novel full of pseudo-philosophical deep thoughts. Pure Colour came so loudly lauded that I was almost certain it would turn into one of my instant favourites, but Heti’s attempts at profundity felt adolescent and the surrealism felt undeserved. Weaving together several threads of narrative, there was only one I found mildly interesting, but the protagonist behaved so irritatingly throughout it that I preferred the chapters where she was simply a leaf (this went on for a really long time). I appreciate that this book was exploring grief, and clearly from some of the other reviews online it seems to strike a chord to certain others so maybe I’m not the intended audience, but if you’re looking for a book that processes the death of a father, H is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald hits way harder. Also, Pure Colour mentions the protagonist’s father’s spirit “ejaculating” into her waaaayyy too many times for my liking. One time is too many and it’s more than that.

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Tokyo on Foot by Florent Chavouet ⭐⭐⭐

In his first major graphic travel memoir, Florent Chavouet spends each chapter illustrating the character of different Tokyo neighbourhoods in his distinctive coloured pencil style. I’m a big fan of Chavouet, as I mentioned in my February Book Nook, and it was interesting to see his older work. Compared to Touiller le Miso and Manabeshima, it did lack some of that finished polish and smooth layouting that I’ve come to admire, but it was interesting to see how he evolved as an artist. I was less a fan of some of his character studies, however, which occasionally included the kind of racist stereotyping, homophobia, and plain mean-spirited notes about appearances that you’d find in an Adam Sandler romcom. Published in 2009 (and rendered during a trip earlier than that), suffice it to say, it felt a little dated at times.

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Trust by Hernan Diaz ⭐⭐⭐⭐

What a fascinating novel. Trust is the story of a marriage between two high-class members of society in the 1920s - but told through the folding and refolding of four different perspectives. No single part of this novel tells the complete, honest truth. Instead, it meditates on what truth means, especially when twisted by influence and padded by affluence. Meanwhile, as we’re quietly meditating on truth, Diaz gets out the loudspeaker for a pervasive critique of wealth and the inherent sin of being wealthy. Perhaps because of the complexity of mingling these two themes, the result becomes a nuanced expression of the human condition. I loved the writing itself and his control over language was some of the best I’ve read in a while. It’s a novel that feels very timely and I appreciated the novelty of how these themes were explored.

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Heaven by Mieko Kawakami (translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd) ⭐⭐⭐

It’s the 80s in Japan and a heavily-bullied middle-schooler receives a note in his desk that says, simply, “We should be friends”. I got this book after going into a shop with the promise to myself that I would not buy a book. I failed because once I’d read the first couple of pages, I was so immersed and emotionally invested that I simply had to know what happened. Like in Mieko Kawakami’s Breasts and Eggs, she has the ability to take a lot of smooth Japanese-lit tropes and give them some satisfyingly rough edges. Sometimes, the characters felt like they could be in an anime, but the world the interacted in felt like the backdrop of a different set. Other times, the set felt clean and perfect and it was the characters who were splotchy with imperfection. The tension of the plot felt like a tightly wound elastic, ready to spring or be torn apart at any moment, and this was mostly accomplished by the somewhat surreal relationship the protagonist has with his foil. Not everything hit the mark - one pivotal scene felt like it lost control of the dialogue and the ending for one character felt particularly unsatisfying - but generally I found the pages melting away. Great for fans of Japanese lit looking for something a little different.

Trigger warnings: Abuse, violent bullying, self-harm.

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And that’s a wrap on March! Thought these reviews were on point? Don’t agree with something I said? Let me know in the comments below! I am but a humble reader whose opinions can’t possibly represent the myriad complexities of these books and would to hear your own thoughts.

Happy reading!