Welcome to Litsy!

As a descendant of the Acadians myself, I waited far too long to learn about this pivotal event in history. When I was small, my Cajun family had always told me about how we as a French offshoot came to be in Louisiana, the expulsion from Canada, “le grand dérangement,” but it was so distant in collective memory, it was a sort of legend and was in a tl;dr format. I hadn‘t thought much about it, but I finally decided I‘d like to know the details.

This was such a great summer read and a debut novel to boot! The story is told from two points of view, Ruthie/Norma and her brother Joe, from a Mi‘kmaq family in Nova Scotia. During the summers, the family relocates to Maine for the blueberry picking season. When Ruthie is four, she is stolen and raised by an affluent couple. I loved how well I got to know both Norma and Joe and the writing is quite beautiful. This book needs more readers!

My partner and I are going to drive from southern Ontario to Nova Scotia (c/ our 15m old, heaven help us! Haha) and we need audio-tainment! 🤣 He's more a nonfic guy, I'm less into that unless it's intriguing to me, which often means crime genre, or maybe some good supernatural haunting, myths, legends of certain areas. The only thing with history I don't want to listen to would be about WWI & WWII.

Any suggestions for books or podcasts?

Although the end it wrapped up in a fairly trite bow, I cared enough about the characters have a bit weep at the final resolution.

Ruthie, the youngest member of a Mi'kmaq family disappears in Nova Scotia while her family works the blueberry fields. The novel tells her story as she grows up with the couple that kidnapped her, and also recounts how her birth family was affected by her loss. Peters‘ language is lush and well worth reading.

The plot is entirely predictable but the writing was lush and nostalgic enough to make it a good slow summer read. This starts with a chapter from a man named Joe thinking back to one summer in Maine when his family was picking berries to make money and his sister Ruthie disappeared.

I‘m posting one book a day from my massive collection. No description, no reason for why I want to read it (some I‘ve had so long I don‘t even remember why!). Feel free to join in!

#ABookADay2024

In 2013, a long time troublemaker was presumably killed (his body was never found) by fishermen he was poaching from. This tells the story of who this man was, the altercation, the community (small town Nova Scotia), and the court proceedings. This is very engaging narrative nonfiction and tells the story of the community well.

The Women's Prize longlists have delivered some of my favourite reads over the past couple years. So, inspired by @vivastory and the #BookerDozen, I decided to look back at my top twelve reads from the history of the Women's/Orange Prize (Longlists, Shortlists, and Winners). Feel free to play along!

Margaret Atwood - Alias Grace
Ann Patchett - Bel Canto
Nicole Krauss - The History of Love
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Half of a Yellow Sun

👇