Welcome to Litsy!

I listened to the audio book which I‘d suggest because the author is an internationally acclaimed Inuit throat singer. She sings between chapters, which adds to the intensity of the book. This book makes you feel all the emotions. The writing is powerful; poetic at times, crude at others. It reads like a memoir at one moment then like folklore the next. It‘s love, hate, sadness, anger, excitement, nostalgia, and regret. It penetrates your soul.

A truly unique book that exists effortlessly in its own Inuit world. Split Tooth is very strange, haunting, and beautiful, moving seamlessly between realism and myth, if you can even separate them, which I'm not sure you can/should. It charts the story of an Inuit woman growing up in Nunavut in the 70s/80s. The audiobook is stunning, read in Taqag's hypnotic and melodious voice, interspersed with her Inuit throat singing. CW: sexual assault.

Not really my cup of tea but I‘m looking forward to listening to the Storykeepers‘ episode on this.

This book reads at first as a poetic memoir the mixes poetry and prose. There‘s some really lovely, rhythmic writing. Then things get weird. It moves into full-on mythology and that switch really didn‘t work for me. If the entire book had been one or the other (and didn‘t include a woman delighting in giving oral sex to a fox), I would have been much happier with it.

This book is highly disturbing. Part myths and mythology, part human tragedy. I'm not quite sure what to think about it, some parts almost freaked me out... But after all there's no other way of telling the truth about the lives of the indigenous people in Canada.

@TheAromaofBooks #BookSpinBingo

I really don‘t know how I felt about this. It was confusing and visceral and disturbing. I felt knocked off-kilter the whole time. Trigger warning for just about everything.

A super intense read. Triggers for sexual content against minors. I recommend the audiobook as the author reads it and does an incredible job. Also has elements of her throat singing between chapters.

I loved this blend of memoir, magic realism and poetry.

Yeah... hmmm... huh? ... whoa...wow...ugh?!... hmmm...zzzz...wha..? I‘m sometimes glad I read ... challenging for sure... dark, wicked, raw... yeah... hmmm...huh?Yeah!

Split Tooth is a unique reading experience. It blends fiction and non-fiction, memoir and magical realism, poetry and prose. It loosely tells the story of a girl growing up in Nunavut in the 1970s, with other musings and ideas scattered throughout. The author, Tanya Tagaq, is an internationally acclaimed Inuit throat singer and her singing in used in the audiobook to divide each poem/story/section. ⬇️

I can‘t help but to link this beautiful awareness about dreams to the current #SundayBuddyRead book. That is what Lydia‘s need for the dreams are about😉

#mysticaluniverse
#humanpurpose
#stJLU

What an uncommon read; different than anything I‘ve read! The sorrows of reality aside, I truly enjoyed her mystical-dreamlike writing and poetic release. I‘m not great at poems, but I got the essence those. I enjoyed all the mysticism around her throat receiving opening-healing green light, knowing that she is a throat singer. The Northern Lights stories are surreal & spectacular!
#ReadCanada 2/13 #Nunavut ✅
#SummerBookSpinBingo2020 ✅
#stJLU

Spending the entire week alone at a friend‘s house. Enjoying nature‘s scenery as I read inside; it‘s a rainy day. I am half way through and I am really captivated by this one!
#ReadCanada #Nunavut
#SummerBookSpinBingo2020

Sometimes you just have to tackle multiple books at once. ☺️

I‘m definitely enjoying Split Tooth so far, but I‘m not that far into it yet. The throat singing keeps catching me off guard, and it really adds to eeriness of the story. Certainly not an audiobook to listen to while drifting off to sleep.

I‘m having a hard time staying interesting in A Lion Among Men, but enjoying the other two so far. I‘m off to sleep after my night shift now

This audiobook is fucking terrifying. Absolutely terrifying.

The book description says it best:
“...Tanya Tagaq explores a world where the distinctions between good and evil, animal and human, victim and transgressor, real and imagined lose their meaning, but the guiding power of love remains.”

#bookspin #bookspinbonanza

The language, and setting, of this collection of stories and poems go hand in hand as icy, visceral storytelling from a female‘s perspective. 10/10, absolutely fantastic.

saturday morning reading - got up early to go to yoga this morning so decided to drop in a get a donut on my way home

I'm sure this is an amazing and important book, and I'm pretty sure I haven't read anything for adults by an #Inuit author before. The audio throat singing and other music was also really cool. But, it was just too poetic and non-linear, as well as having more sexual abuse than I'm up for.

This book is brutal, heartbreaking, beautiful, and so much more. The story is written from the perspective of a young teenage girl growing up in Nunavut in the 1970s. It seems unfair to classify this book in any one category. Written in poetry and prose, folklore and “reality”, fiction but with aspects of her childhood observations. Brilliant, powerful, and unique. Note: strong TW for sexual abuse/assault

Tagaq weaves a dark, wonderful, magical tale of a girl growing up in Nunavut under the Northern Lights.

Read November 20-22
Book 59

From last night‘s #audiowalk.

SPLIT TOOTH is a strange and glorious fusion of the contemporary and the mythic. It reads like a traditional Inuit story set in the late 20th century, all brutal and beautiful and generous and otherworldly. The audiobook includes throat singing interludes, too, which add a lot to the overall effect.

Major TW for child sex abuse. There‘re some scenes that read like bestiality from a southern perspective, too.

#CoverCrush #7in7days

Set in the white, frozen North. The cover made it my first purchase of 2019 but I still haven't read it yet 😕

It's time for the #24in48 #readathon! I'm starting off by finishing up SPLIT TOOTH by #Inuk #throatsinger Tanya Tagaq. I have only about an hour left, and let me just say, this #audiobook has been a listening experience unlike any other. 💙 #nativeauthor #canadianauthor #nunavut #poetry #prose #fiction #memoir #24in48readathon #throatsinging

What a strange and beautiful book! I highly recommend it!

#libraryhaul

Basically bizarre! Part poetry, part myth, part true, part fiction, it‘s beautiful and bleak and weird

Happy Mother‘s Day to all the Litsy moms out there ( this was the Mother‘s Day Art we made in grade 3 this past week) I hope you all get some reading time and some children time, whether they are big or small. We are driving my oldest ( who‘s been home from uni for 2 weeks) to his summer job ( at a summer camp on an island). I had him home for a wee bit of time ☺️they grow up fast

Started this but really all I can think about is GoT and who left their cup in the scene

This was sad and weird and real and magical and a whole lot of other feels! The very real world of women growing up in an isolated community in the far north. Then the story takes a turn into the spirit world of ancestors and magic of the Land. I was enthralled, and hung off every word. My over all feeling is Awe that anyone can string these words together and create the prose and poetry found in this book. Lovely and brutal all at once⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I blogged about my reading highlights in December: https://lindypratch.blogspot.com/2018/12/december-reading-round-up.html?m=1

Our feet have built in memory of which tendons to curl to prevent falling on all different kind of ice.

(Photo: my back alley is nothing but ice.)

We use a piece of cardboard on the floor as a table for feasting when there is a great raw chunk of frozen meat to be shared. A magnetic strip was bolted to the kitchen wall to hold the uluit.

(Internet photo.)

We sipped the air. It was too cold to chug.

(My sister Zan took this photo of her front door.)

My Favorite Books of 2018

8. Split Tooth by Tanya Tagaq. This is that once-in-a-lifetime magic, filled with all my favorite things—poems, Jaime Hernandez art, heartbreakingly beautiful sentences. Fierce and tender, otherworldly in its perception, fully human in its execution. #BestBooks2018

5🌟/5
A gritty, raw, but tender read. Not one I will forget!
WOW!! This book was incredible! I have never read anything quite like it! Tagaq explores such deep and haunting subject matter. I found I was unable to put it down. I think this story is one that hasnt been told before. And Tagaq did and wonderful job bringing it to light. Also her poetic prose were beautiful. It all flowed so well.

Well, I should be reading Little Women for our next discussion episode, but I accidentally spotted SPLIT TOOTH by Tanya Tagaq at the library this weekend and I‘ve been meaning to read it. It‘s a beautifully designed book with a mix of poetry, prose, and illustrations telling the story of a young girl growing up in Nunavut in the 1970‘s. I‘m really fascinated by the storytelling here and can‘t wait to read more . -c

Did 90% of this on audio and there was no possible way I could bring myself to endure the remainder. Tagaq‘s breathy, incantatory audio narration works so powerfully for the incantational pieces here and there, and the throat singing was to die for, but she never ever varies that tone and it drove me up the effing wall listening to the most prosaic details of these stories told to me as if they were shamanic prayers. I am done.

There is a celebration when we bring the babies home. People come over and bring food. Auntie brings fresh muqtak and uujuq. There is baked char, fried char, frozen char, and dried char.

Tuesday evening I venture with my dog out onto the tundra. The summer night is dusty and dry. The clouds make patterns that look like a Morse code warning: The summer will not last. This is life. Eat it now.

A unique and poetic novel told in fragments — experiences — of an Inuit coming of age, from childhood through to motherhood, learning shamanism along the way. Gritty realism with fantastical touches. Debut author Tagaq is an internationally-known throat singer. #Indigenousbooks

The lemmings are my favourite. After chasing and capturing them I hold each one in my cupped hands, singing to it until its heartbeat returns to normal cadence. I put them in my pockets. Don‘t put more than one in each pocket or they will start fighting. Not many creatures are good in overpopulated spaces. I have about six pockets in my windbreaker. Six lemmings a day keeps the doctor away.
(Internet photo)

After death my body is the newborn of inanimate objects. Maybe my minerals will come back quickly as a plant or insect. Maybe parts of me will become the Old Blood in millennia, the Old Blood we suck out of the earth to burn & destroy the surface, to burn & eviscerate the clouds. Leave the blood in her. Let the deep black of time stay where it belongs. Compressed & ancient, we force the Old Blood to work in the wrong time, at the wrong pressure.

I realize that birds see in a completely different way than we humans do. We are slow and lumbering, our language is deep and muddy. Our confinement to the ground elicits pity. They look at us as we look upon the trees, slow but full of longevity. The trees look at the rocks that way. Rocks look at the mountains that way. Mountains look at the water that way. Earth looks at the sun that way. Everyone has an elder.

The windows have garbage bags tacked over them for curtains and we lock the door by jamming a butter knife into the door frame. We stuff some socks into the hole where the doorknob used to be. We have some naphtha, gas, nail polish, rubber cement, and Wite-Out. It‘s a Bring Your Own Solvents party and I want to let the colours shine.

This is one of our favourite games, hiding from the bylaw enforcement officer. His job is to drive around town and chase the kids home and shoot stray dogs. He wants us to be safe in bed. Are beds safe anyway?

Lichen smells sweet. The green lichen smells different from black. In the spring you smell last fall‘s death and this year‘s growth, as the elder lichen shows the young how to grow.