Welcome to Litsy!

I stopped in at Toys R Us today and was delighted to find they‘ve expanded their books selection to include lots of material for older teenagers and adults! Some of the genre divisions don‘t make sense (for example, there‘s a weird amount of non-romance on the romance shelf), but whoever their purchaser is brought a lot of diverse books into the fold alongside the uber-popular stuff like Brandon Sanderson and Sarah J. Maas.

5🌟/5🌟

#BookBinge
Day 7. Debut by Indigenous author
#DebutByIndigenousAuthor

#DebutByIndigenousAuthor

@AlwaysbeenaLoverofBooks
@Eggs

30 book recommendations in 30 days...

Day 30: Let's end the 30 days with a very intense yet very powerful and important novel. Again, it is fiction, but really allows people to get inside other lives and perspectives in a way I think we all should. It is *tough* stuff, so pretty much any content warning you can think of applies. #30recsin30days

What a powerful book. There are a few uplifting moments but mostly, this is a heartbreaking work of fiction that is fiction in name, only. Good is a beautiful writer and the way the stories show themselves and come together is masterful. There's a reason this has won so many awards.

I did have trouble following the timeline in a few places but that‘s a small quibble.

“I couldn‘t leave you there after what they did to you. We finally got to go home. You and me both.”

A fictional story of 5 children who were raised in residential schools in Canada, funded by the government as a way to disrupt the indigenous population by removing children from families. The overwhelming trauma suffered by these characters was heartbreaking! Though flashbacks of abuse and memories of the 5 “little Indians” do come up, this book focuses on the impact the school had on these characters after they‘ve left the school. Cont ⬇️

Haircuts for my boys = reading time for me! 📖 💈

The snow is falling and the fireplace is blazing! And I‘m going in…preparing to be destroyed by Five Little Indians! It‘s my most anticipated from your #auldlangspine list @TheKidUpstairs 😊
@monalyisha

I didn‘t even realize this was the CBC Canada Reads Winner but deservedly so. And her first book! What.

Five Little Indians follows 5 children from a residential school. There is really nothing I can say that would come close to explaining how devastating this book is. It‘s such beautiful writing on such an atrocious topic. I think this one will stay with me for a long time. It was a really emotional read.

This is a story of Kenny, Lucy, Clara, Howie and Maisie, taken as children from their homes and put in a remote residential school for indigenous children. They suffer sexual, mental and physical abuse at the hands of their “teachers”. Life once they leave or escape from the Mission home is tough as well. This book shares their interlacing stories for the next few decades. A well written, sad story.

My March pick for #12booksof2022 (sorry I‘m living my best between Christmas and NYE life and have no idea what day it is) this book is stellar in its raw punch of reality! It follows 5 indigenous children in their lives before residential school, during and the aftermath 💔💔💔💔💔

#12Booksof2022 On the second day of Christmas, my reading gave to me... powerful emotional depth and a tale of deep resiliency.

Good's debit novel covers difficult and heart wrenching territory, but the feeling it leaves you with is one of hope. Love, loving, and survival look different for each of us, and this is especially true for those who have survived the most horrifying of traumas.

@Andrew65

January and February
#12Booksof2022
@Andrew65 @NataliePatalie

@Chelsea.Poole I love connecting music to my reading. Sometimes it's about listening to the right music for the book, sometimes it is music that the book leads me to. So in anticipation of #AuldLangSpine I thought I'd give you a peek into my weird little brain with some musical connections for the three you are thinking of starting off with.

Cont'd in comments...

@monalyisha

I have owned this book for a while now and have deferred reading it because I needed to be in a certain mood to handle the subject matter. I am glad I finally picked it up, as although it is a difficult topic it does present an important look at the trauma the residential school system caused on both the children and their parents. I found the jumps in time confusing at times, but the story touched my heart and is a worthwhile read. 4/5 stars

Still from November #bookspin reviews. This was so good but heartbreaking story. The story follows the he lives of five Native American children that were taken from their homes in Canada. The were forced into residential Catholic schools to assimilate to white, Christian values & norms. The story follows the five as they try to navigate the real world after they are forced out of the school. It‘s a tough story dealing with abuse & other

#NativeAmericans books from past #CanadaReads contestants.

#NovemberNarrative
@Eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

Felting project is starting to shape up!
It was good to be stabbing away while listening to this book, which is about five people who were forcibly removed from their families and communities and sent to an awful, awful “Indian school.” Truly heartbreaking, and I was angered on their behalf. Humans can be so terrible to one another.

#audiocrafting #litsycrafters

This gave me more to reflect on and has some very hard passages that cut to the bone. It is beautiful however how Good brings the reader into the process of healing that only some of her characters can complete. Very moving and generous.

#74
This was a good read, characters trying to make betters lives, after being in Residencial Schools.

It feels appropriate to finish this book on the Day for Truth and Reconciliation although this is just a soft pick from me. I think it‘s an important story- the generational trauma that followed survivors of Canada‘s criminal residential schools- but I don‘t think this book was particularly well executed. I never really felt like I knew the characters, and it was a lot of telling and clunky dialogue. Still worth a read, though.

I'm going to be obsessing over this novel for a while. It's heartbreaking and an important read for anyone interested in learning more about the horrific practices of Indigenous boarding schools in the U.S. and Canada. Look up content warnings before reading.

Come read my longer reviews over on Instagram @library.dreamer ! I'm currently reading Five Little Indians by Michelle Good and I will have so many thoughts!

“The hotels…were nothing more than flaphouses rented by the hour and week for those who needed to be within staggering reach of the beer parlours.” Such beautiful language!

A compelling, character-driven novel about five indigenous people who survived an abusive childhood at a residential school. The story mostly focuses on life after that as they try (and sometimes fail) to put their lives back together. Switched to audio when my ebook loan ran out, but wasn‘t crazy about the narrator and had a little trouble keeping track of the timeline in that form. Still, that only slightly detracted from the this powerful novel

“Mack beckoned him aboard. Kenny carefully counted out ones and fives from his tobacco tin and passed Mack twenty bucks. ‘Give that to my mother next time you see her, okay?‘
Mack folded the bills carefully, then put his hand on Kenny‘s shoulder for a moment before they turned to ready the boat for sea.”

I reviewed Michelle Good‘s book Five Little Indians on Book Interrupted‘s Manuscript Monday Blog post. Check it out here https://www.bookinterrupted.com/post/manuscript-mondays-five-little-indians

It‘s going to take me a while to unpack this. Or even try. For what this novel says in words there is so much more going on under and around.

I had a hard time with the audio but once I let go of that and just listened to the story I was hooked.

Book mail 😍

My #independentbookstoreday purchase. I have heard good things about this one.

An excellent novel: five Indigenous students from a residential school on a B.C. island escape or are released at different times, and have lives that intentionally or accidentally intersect. All of them deal with the exploitation and abuse they have survived in different ways, and the book looks at both the impact of internalized trauma and healing through activism, traditional spirituality, and mutual support.
#Booked2022 #OwnChoice #Indigenous

This book has been reviewed a lot. It is heartbreakingly AMAZING. It is somehow filled with enough hope to temper the horror. Here‘s hoping the Vatican does the right thing 💔❤️ so healing can continue ( in this article an indigenous person said ( paraphrasing) “it‘s not the faith that‘s bad, but people “ and I‘m honestly not sure I have their grace

My April #bookspin list!
1. Noopiming
2. Cloud Cuckoo Land
3. How Much of these Hills is Gold
4. Under the Undala Trees
5. Seeing Ghosts
6. Seven
7. New Jim Crow
8. Soldier Boy
9. The Purpose of Power
10. A Long Way Gone
11. Disruption
12. The Innocents
13. The Mountains Sing
14. Spectacle
15. Follow Those Zebras
16. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
17. H is for Hawk
18. The Last Gift
19. The Underground Railroad
20. The Night Tiger

#Bookspin list for March:

1. Noopiming
2. Cloud Cuckoo Land
3. How Much of Hills
4. Bomber Mafia
5. Five Little Indians
6. Seven
7. New Jim Crow
8. Soldier Boy
9. This Mournable Body
10. A Long Way Gone
11. Disruption
12. The Innocents
13. The Mountains Sing
14. Everything Inside
15. Follow Those Zebras
16. The Boy Who Halrnessed the Wind
17. H is for Hawk
18. The Last Gift
19. Wife of the Gods
20. The Night Tiger

This book broke my heart.
Though all the #CanadaReads2022 shortlisted books were REALLY good this year this one is my choice to win. The one that "everyone needs to read".

#CanadaReads2022.

"Clara stood behind Mariah's cabin, the late summer warmth rising from the soul."

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl
#CanadaReads2022

A brutal depiction of life at the Indian School. Even the survivors didn‘t always survive it. There was a snag in one storyline that never seemed to jive but other than that, this was an immersive read about the tragic things that were done to children and the shredding of families. This is a Canadareads contender.

I‘ve made a good start on my third Canada Reads title. It‘s gonna be intense. Hopefully I can really sink into it this afternoon.

Kenny, Lucy, Clara, Howie & Maisie were small children when ripped from their families and forced into residential schools where they experienced cruelty, mistreatment and physical & sexual abuse. This book follows them after they get out as they try to survive while being haunted by they trauma they endured. This book attests to hope, healing and resilience in spite of the efforts by Cdn government to destroy the indigenous populations. It's 👇

Current read for my IRL book club. And Canada Reads contender.
Thoughts so far: important story, so-so writing. But it's already won lots of awards, so what do I know?

I was still 307th on the list for FIVE LITTLE INDIANS, so I was mighty glad to see a closeish library branch had an Express copy on the shelf. I went there first thing this morning to nab it. Now I‘ll have read all the contenders before Canada Reads starts!

I don't know that there is much to say that hasn't already been said about this beautiful book. Following five characters through their lives after being released or escaping Residential School, Good never shies away from the trauma of their experiences. But the overall feeling is one of resilience and hope, community, friendship, and love. A quick read, as the narrative's pacing pulls you along, and the jumps between characters are well balanced.

The Canada Reads shortlist is out! I won‘t manage to read the tagged book in time unless I luck into an Express copy, but the others should make it into my hands before the debates start. Whee!

More info on the picks and the panelists: https://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads/meet-the-canada-reads-2022-contenders-1.632...

Very good - not my normal genre, but excellently written and discusses the ongoing trauma and recovery from residential schools in Canada

#12Booksof2021 #3rdBookof2021 #March

I'm not saying this was the best book I read but it definitely hit a little different, especially at the time I picked it up. Powerful if nothing else.

@Andrew65

I highly recommend this book. It was a heartbreaking story, but one that makes you reflect on all the different ways that trauma manifests into adulthood. The story is full of hope, sadness, anger, love and friendship. This book will make you cry, but it‘s worth every tear.