Welcome to Litsy!

#BookBinge
@Eggs & @alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

#DebutByIndigenousAuthor

My review:
http://www.fredasvoice.com/2021/12/birdie-tracey-lindberg-53.html

Join in at Freda's Voice: http://www.fredasvoice.com
#Friday56 #Instagram56 - @fredasphotos

#FavoriteBookOf2021

I love this on so many levels! ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

Read my full review: http://www.fredasvoice.com/2021/12/birdie-tracey-lindberg-53.html

My two gifts of books for Christmas this year, from my sister and my dad. The Dark Library is translated from French and is about a library with living books. Birdie is about a Cree woman with a secret who leaves her home on a kind of vision quest. #InTranslation #IndigenousBooks #CanLit

How often do you read books that are not written for you? If you're white, probably not nearly enough. Birdie is the best kind of challenging book - one that exists to tell stories that fill gaps in our knowledge and experience, that force us to see painful truth about our selves and others. I loved how the author plays with time, and language. (Cont. in comments)

#AtoZ

My unwrapped ‘Blind Date with a Book‘! I‘ve never heard of it & have no clue what it‘s about but I am curious. Has anyone read it? 🧐📚🎶😻 #SquidgetsRoomReadathon

"Sometimes Bernice thought mean thoughts and didn‘t take them back. Other times she thought good thoughts and let them powder the room–just in case there was a running count on them. Also, it gave the ugly thoughts a soft place to land."

"Lola was pretty fond of Cher. And Sonny, for Pete‘s sake and what that meant. Liking Sonny told Bernice something about Lola that Bernice couldn‘t quite figure out. It wasn‘t good, though."

"If she moves too much, she knows, people will start to ignore her."

"She becomes aware of her physical self because the emotions pain her."
Mood.

Challenging, good

Making my re-debut on litsy. Starting birdie by Tracy Lindberg for the #bookbingo I'm participating in throughout the year with my cousin and her friends. This one is for the book by an indigenous author category. #halfbloodbingo #diversereading #ebooks

February wrap-up! Not a great month for me, but I do have 2 quarterly reads going too. I got 3 ARC/galleys read as I work through my backlog, yay! Favorite book of the month is tagged. #februarywrapup

My first 5-Star read of 2019! Birdie is a half-Cree woman who grows up in northern Alberta. This novel touches on many themes of native life as well as themes common everywhere. This book focuses on her strength and the strength of her aunt, sistercousin, and friend as they all fight to bring her back from the brink. Excellent writing and engrossing story. #canadianlit #nativelit #diverselit

In 2018, I read several incredible #ownvoices Indigenous memoirs, poetry collections, and novels, including Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot, Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead, This Wound is a World by Billy-Ray Belcourt, and Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice (All books tagged in the comments ⬇️).

I haven‘t read the pictured books yet, but supporting Indigenous authors is something I strive to do. #24in48 #WeNeedDiverseBooks

Day 9 of #riotgrams so here are a few #indigenousreads from my tbr.

Such a satisfying book, a book about healing, about family and found family, and about the connection between memory and self.

A subscription box for indigenous literature!

https://ravenreads.org

Lo, and behold! My required reading for the term 😁 haven‘t read any of these before, and some sound very dark, but I‘m excited!

I have the cutest #elfintheshelf! I am ready for the holidays. What are you guys upto?

Karat, a Hahn's Macaw, is my favorite #Animal! Catching up on #ReindeerReads posts 😊

Much to admire here, but I was not enjoying the prose enough to continue past the 35% mark.

❤️
#QuoteOfTheDay

💖
#QuoteOfTheDay

Really enjoying this so far!

#QuoteOfTheDay

#QuoteOfTheDay

Bailed on the Chinese novel Soul Mountain I was hoping to use for the "person of color on a spiritual journey" reading task; let's give this novel by an indigenous Canadian writer a whirl, shall we?

Another work of indigenous Canadian fiction, this one a novel and fairly well known, on Mom's TBR and then on mine!

I wanted to read a book by an Indigenous author while visiting Alberta, and I definitely made a great choice. This novel was magical, lyrical, heartbreaking, inspiring. I simply loved it.

#BestofJuly: I gave 10 (out of 28) books 5 stars in Goodreads. Two of these were favourites that I reread: Birdie, and The Summer Book #JanssonBuddyRead. Only bailed on one book in July: Wanderlust.

When they found her, Bernice was sleeping in a dumpster behind a Lebanese place on Whyte Ave. The owners of the place had seen her there upon occasion but had decided to let her sleep. After a while, when they thought she had not changed position for some time, the owners called the fire department. That they should do this instead of calling the police was understandable. Homeless people had been set on fire in their dumpsters before.

Other times she thought good thoughts and let them powder the room—just in case there was a running count on them. Also, it gave the ugly thoughts a soft place to land.
It came to her that she was losing her touch. Not with reality—a place where she was often a visitor—but she was actually losing her sense of human feeling.

Bernice remembers with particular delighthorror the silver sparkly two-piece bathing suit that her auntie wore with the pride and assurance of someone wearing a buffalo robe.

The skin, which she peeled and let thicken, looks nothing like new skin from a fresh cut now. It resembles a peeled section of grapefruit, with the layering of tissue organized and neat. As the blisters spread she feels, instead of alienated from her skin, more at home in it. Like it is starting to look like she feels inside of it.

I loved this when it first came out, and planned to do a quick skim before my book club yesterday. I ended up absorbed, once again, cover to cover, within Birdie's internal voyage. I felt less lost than I had the first time—feeling lost, however, is entirely appropriate because Birdie herself is lost. She has strong women around her for support. This story of transformation also changed something in me, both times. It's powerful. #IndigenousBooks

It's been two years since I read this and my book club will discuss it tomorrow. Time to start a speedy reread!

Another book read for my #ReadHarder challenge. Birdie was a Canada Reads finalist so it made its way onto my TBR. This #IndigenousRead compelled me with its beautiful cover art. The prose and focus on missing and murdered Indigenous women broke my heart. The story is written fluidly which may deter some readers. Lindberg's final words explaining how she presented Birdie's story allow the reader to understand the focus on healing versus trauma.

Here's my #LibraryHaul from last week. Two new releases and #IndigenousReads in honour of National Aboriginal Month in Canada. Birdie was amazing (I'll review it soon) and I absolutely cannot wait to pick up Lee Maracle.

I started Birdie a couple of days ago. Very powerful dedication. The difficulties in implementing an inquiry into the 1200+ missing and murdered Indigenous women breaks my heart.

This book is about the strength of women, often, because we don't have a choice.

Book Outlet had a sale on their scratch and dent books, so I got a huge book haul!! 😍 I've been looking forward to reading some of these for SO LONG and can't wait to dig into them. I especially can't wait to read Nothing Ever Dies, Birdie, and Borderline. 📚

Healing ❤❤❤

#Ibelievesurvivors NO ONE deserves this!! Such a powerful moment of self-soothing around sexual abuse. ❤

This book is a profound and powerful story about sexual trauma, intergenerational trauma, and healing written by a Cree woman about a Cree woman. It was so intense I had to put it down several times but I'm so glad I kept coming back to it and made it to the end. It is complex and the narrative unwinds slowly but ends up being such a nourishing, challenging, healing read. I'm really blown away by this book. I will read it again! #NativeBooks

"Art? Al? She remembers his name had only one syllable - about all she could manage by midnight. Come to think of it maybe that was why she went home with him, instead if his two-syllabled friend."

@TheKidUpstairs thank you so much! I'm super excited to add these to my collection and deepen my knowledge of Canadians and First Nations culture. 🎉😝🙌

Last night in Palm Springs. 😒 Consoling myself with some beer, yummy food and this fantastic book. 🌴🍺📚

Bedtime reading 😍📚

Real talk - about commitment and facial hair 😆❤!