Welcome to Litsy!

I saw this post on Instagram about being nostalgic and wrote a #haiku about it.

#haikuhive

The emotions from this story are hard to explain. It is the sort of book that builds empathy. The character's pain sits in the chest while you are drawn in. The matriarchal community comes through strong, just as the characters must be. The hope that comes through their ceremonies is beautiful and awe-inspiring. I'll be reading the rest of this trilogy but need some space between.

A motherless daughter recalls her upbringing after her mother left their family in British Columbia to return to her homeland in Brunei. Now that Liew is a mother herself, she‘s unable to stop thinking about her own who she last saw when she was 11 years old. This is a memoir of searching for answers: how could her mother abandon their family? Where is she? Is she still alive? What is the meaning of “home”?

In the aftermath of a horrible crime, witnessed from a distance by Stella, a lot of stories come together. Most of them by women, most of them Métis, most of them carrying trauma and and loss. It‘s a tough read, with a lot of violence. I felt for these indigenous women and I could have spend some more time with them.

This book kind of had the vibe of a Tom Waits album from the perspective of an 11-year-old girl. The reader meets a ton of characters living on the edges of society. The tale is fast-paced and everyone is unique. I started to hope Baby would make it through relatively unscathed…and then the wheels fell off the bus. Her drug-addicted man-child father is drowning and his decisions and attempts to teach or punish his daughter throws her to the wolves

Jennie‘s Boy, by Wayne Johnston (2023 🇨🇦)

Premise: A memoir of the author‘s childhood living with chronic illness in an impoverished Newfoundland community.

Review: This is close to being a perfect memoir: full of humour, insight, and vulnerability. It does a fantastic job of showing the reader the insecurity of growing up in illness, poverty, and as the child of an alcoholic, but also the power of familial love.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The token genre pick on this year‘s #CanadaReads shortlist. I‘ll bet it gets voted off first or second.

Not nearly as wonderful as Johnston‘s fiction. This was a bit of a slog honestly, and I don‘t have high hopes for it on #CanadaReads. I think it‘ll be voted off first or second.

Holy moly did Ma-Nee live through some terrible terrible shit. Her empathy, compassion, and generosity shine through. I found the tough parts really tough to listen to and so it‘s my third pick for #CanadaReads winner this year.

Im not one to read about estranged mothers so personally this was not a read I enjoyed. I‘d say this is my second choice for #CanadaReads winner for the year. It was pretty straightforward but I think it‘ll resonate with a lot of Canadians. Many of us deeply understand the feeling of not being fully one culture or another.