CanadianContent discussion

Non-fiction was on one of the group choices for monthly challenges. January is a great month to learn new things, be inspired and set new goals. Let's see what great non-fiction books are chosen by readers!

I have a few nonfiction books, one of which is Canadian, that I've been meaning to read:

• Outliers: The Story of Success
• The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
• The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog: And Other Stories from a Child Psychiatrist's Notebook--What Traumatized Children Can Teach Us About Loss, Love, and Healing

I have On the Farm sitting on my bedside table waiting for Jan 1 (because I'm using it for bingo). I also started reading Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass on Serial Reader yesterday. I'm going to try to fit in a third nonfiction read in January but On the Farm is very long so I'll have to see how I am on time once I finish it.

Here are some non-fiction books I have on my shelf (some from the library). I plan to read our monthly read, but other than that I am not sure which I will choose to read in January.

Up Ghost River: A Chief's Journey Through the Turbulent Waters of Native History

A Number of Things: Stories About Canada Told Through 50 Objects
Beauty Tips from Moosejaw
Bee Time: Lessons from the Hive
Blood: The Stuff of Life
Brown: What Being Brown in the World Today Means
Canada Rocks: The Geologic Journey
Ice Diaries: An Antarctic Memoir
Invisible North: The Search For Answers on a Troubled Reserve
No Man's River
Once They Were Hats: In Search of the Mighty Beaver
People Of The Deer
A View from the Porch: Rethinking Home and Community Design

I expect I will pick up a couple of 'resolution' themed books over the next few weeks and put some of my original list off until later in the year.

One highlight of my reading has been exploring Richard Wagamese. I have ordered Embers: One Ojibway's Meditations from the library and expect to drop everything else when it arrives.

@ HeatherLyn - that's quite an eclectic list you have. A number have been on my radar as well.

If you're exploring Richard Wagamese you might also want to consider One Native Life and One Story, One Song - both are non-fiction and considered auto-biographical. Those were the first of Wagamese's books that I read. I loved them both and have been hooked on his writing ever since. They've been published for a while so they are likely available in your library or on Inter Library Loan. I'm expecting Embers: One Ojibway's Meditations to be much in the same vein and am awaiting my library hold as well.

Your list has lots of interesting books to consider. Thanks for posting.

I have the challenge book Up Ghost River: A Chief's Journey Through the Turbulent Waters of Native History.

I also have On the Farm by Stevie Cameron; Invisible North: The Search For Answers on a Troubled Reserve and The Promise of Canada: 150 Years--Building a Great Country One Idea at a Time by Charlotte Gray; The War That Ended Peace: The Road To 1914 by Margaret MacMillan.

I'll be attempting as many as possible, with a primary emphasis on the January challenge read.

Mj wrote: "If you're exploring Richard Wagamese you might also want to consider [book:One Native..."

Just requested One Story One Song. I loved the hopefulness of One Native Son. Thank you for the suggestion - somehow I missed this earlier Wagamese title.

I have One Story One Song on hold from the library but it seems that they cannot find it within the shelves. Fingers crossed!!

@ HeatherLyn - hope you enjoy One Story One Song

❀ Susan - Hope you do too. Fingers crossed!! Have had the lost book happen to me before. Unfortunately when you order the only copy in the library that hasn't been requested for a while....sometimes they find out they've lost it.....sometimes it may take a while but they do locate it.

As mentioned earlier Inter Library Loans is great for getting books hard to find. Any one with a library card in Ontario can borrow from another library (with some restrictions). I order books my Library (which has tons) doesn't have on-line from home. It's great!!

I plan to read Up Ghost River: A Chief's Journey Through the Turbulent Waters of Native History
some non-fiction in my tbr: (I will choose among these)
One Story, One Song
How Will Capitalism End?
Beyond Biocentrism: Rethinking Time, Space, Consciousness, and the Illusion of Death
Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon's Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the HeartColonial Crucible: Empire in the Making of the Modern American State
The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate—Discoveries from A Secret World
America's War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History
Learning to Die in the Anthropocene: Reflections on the End of a Civilization
The Right To Be Cold: One Woman's Story of Protecting Her Culture, the Arctic and the Whole Planet
How Poetry Saved My Life: A Hustler's Memoir

I read a fair amount of non-fiction! I was matching one fiction book to one non-fiction for a good while, but have been through a spate of fiction lately and I know I have more on the way from the library, so that may impact how much non-fiction I get to this month.

That said, I think it's likely I'll read:
Up Ghost River: A Chief's Journey Through the Turbulent Waters of Native History
How to Create the Perfect Wife: Britain's Most Ineligible Bachelor and His Enlightened Quest to Train the Ideal Mate
A Year of Living Generously: Dispatches From The Front Lines Of Philanthropy

...and beyond that, I'll have to see!

I love non fiction, I read it quite a bit.

I just finished Intolerable: A Memoir of Extremes by Kamal Al-Solaylee and I'm just beginning to read Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje.

I'm hoping to get to the monthly group read. But if I don't I'm also planning on reading these two books.

- The Winter We Danced: Voiced from the Past, the Future, and the Idle No More Movement
- Brown: What Being Brown in the World Today Means (to Everyone) by Kamal Al-Solaylee

I am in the midst of:

Zippy Chippy: The True Story of a Loveable Loser which I likely would never have picked up except that I will be meeting the author tomorrow. It is about a racehorse with a lot of spunk that consistently loses
and
The Reason You Walk which is a memoir that I am really enjoying and shares Wab Kinew's experience growing up in the shadow of residential school (his dad was forced to attend) and the last impacts on his life and that of his extended family.

I read Open Heart, Open Mind - a memoir by Clara Hughes this month. Am currently half-way through Up Ghost River: A Chief's Journey Through the Turbulent Waters of Native History our monthly read.

Have some fiction books due back to the library soon, so am not sure what else, if any non-fiction, I will read in January. Plan a number more before year-end however.

@MJ - I found a copy of Open Heart, Open Mind at a thrift store waiting to be read. What did you think?

@ ❀ Susan Gibson - I'm glad I read it. Haven't written my review yet and am wondering about 3 1/2 stars up or down. Confess to some bias as I do have a soft spot for Hughes. Am a big sports fan and have been following her for years. Chose it for a book club. Reviews were mixed. Some, without knowing much, really liked her focus and determination and survival and were amazed at how much she accomplished despite difficult circumstances. I expected Hughes to get into mental health issues earlier that she did and thought the book ramped up at the end when she did. Her memoir wasn't as visceral as I'd anticipated but realize it's likely a protective mechanism.

Enjoyed learning more about elite athletes, their conditioning, their pain, the drugs, controlling coaches, derogatory coaching, bulimia and anorexia. Knew it was bad in gymnastics but hadn't expected it in cycling. Also enjoyed reading about Clara's trips with her husband and her volunteerism trips. Like the indigenous and far north aspects. Surprised that some found Clara very self-absorbed and too focused on herself. I chalked her focus up to what was required to accomplish all that she did. The writing flows well though it isn't brilliant literature. Got a few good book tips I plan to follow up. Will it be my favourite read of 2017 - not likely. Didn't grab me emotionally enought but like I said earlier, I'm glad I read it.

@MJ, I'm really looking forward to reading Embers: One Ojibway's Meditations. I tried to get it for my sister for Christmas, but couldn't source it. It'll have to wait until her birthday.

I'm reading Care of the Soul: A Guide for Cultivating Depth and Sacredness in Everyday Life for the Jan non-fiction read. It feels like a great book to kick start the year.

Here are the 2 I plan to read this month:
Brown: What Being Brown in the World Today Means - shortlisted for the Governor General Non-Fiction Award 2016
Books for Living

@May, I'm interested in what you think about "Brown", I just finished Kamal's first book and I'm eager to read his follow up.

@Kristen, the author was on the Candy Palmater show and it got me interested. I rarely read non-fictions, but the reviews on this books sound promising :)
http://www.cbc.ca/radio/candy/the-can...

@May, I'm interested very interested to hear what he says in terms of standard of beauty and whiteness...I also hope he delves into the anti-blackness that is predominant in brown communities. Thanks for the interview, I'll definitely give it a listen.

@ Megan - what a nice sister :-) Will look for your comments/review re Embers. I wasn't aware of the book Care of the Soul etc. You're right it looks like a great book to start off 2017. It seems to have had a lot of reads and some pretty decent ratings. Will have to check It out.

@ May, Shvaugn & others reading Brown. Waiting for your shares and thoughts. I read Intolerable. Enjoyed it and was sorry to see it voted off Canada Reads on Day 1.

@ Kristen - A great book on light skinned negros or white is beauty.....black and brown are bad.......is The Black Notebooks: An Interior Journey by Toi Derricotte. It isn't by a Canadian author but it's been touted as one of the best books on the topic and having read it, I think it should be required reading. I borrowed it on Interlibrary Loans and the read is well worth it - 20 years in the making. It's primarily about internalized racism and also gives a very good sense of how racist North American society is. Here's my review if you're interested in more details: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

@MJ, thanks for the recommendation. Your review is incredibly insightful and the description of the books looks fascinating, something right up my alley. Thank you!

@ Kristen - You're welcome for the recommendation. Based on your question about beauty and whiteness and black POC being discounted by brown POC, I thought it might be a book you would be interested in. In my first travel abroad to Cartagena Columbia the hierarchy of colour was so evident and in your face. Just blew me away.

@MJ, I appreciate it. Books on colourism and anti-blackness are some of my favourites. I know that it's an issue in most communities.

(Also that's so cool about Cartagena, one of my dream places)

@Mj, I think I'm going to read Intolerable: A Memoir of Extremes too.

I guess what I am trying to read is nonfiction-but it isn't a memoir
or biography, it's literary history-The Cambridge Guide to the English Novel. I love reading books about the history of the novel.
This book is sometimes a little dense for me though and I find I read a few lines and then need to take a break. I did pick up a copy of Up Ghost River (and one for a friend's mother who is turning 90 next week),but I haven't gotten to it yet. It does sound very very interesting and disturbing.

I have less than 100 pages to go in On the Farm, but I kind of hit the wall on this book yesterday. The entire thing is upsetting, of course, but once Cameron shared details about what happened to the women after their deaths...now I can't wait to finish and be done with this one.

I'm picking up Up Ghost River: A Chief's Journey Through the Turbulent Waters of Native History from the library today but I think I'm going to have to take a break from dark and depressing before launching into it. :-(

Not Canadian, but I'm hoping to fit Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race in later this month. It will make a nice transition between the January and February challenge themes.

Susan wrote: "I have less than 100 pages to go in On the Farm, but I kind of hit the wall on this book yesterday. The entire thing is upsetting, of course, but once Cameron shared details about wh..."

Yowzah, @Susan -- those two books following one after the other... That won't be easy.

I actually found a perfect new book at the library to read in between the two darker books: The Meaning of Michelle: 16 Writers on the Iconic First Lady and How Her Journey Inspires Our Own. It will be a positive read and also possibly keep me semi-sane over the next couple of weeks.

I just started a library copy of Waiting for First Light: My Ongoing Battle with PTSD by Romeo Dallaire. I am eager to read, also knowing it will be painful content.

@ Wanda - have it on hold at the library but waiting to see if it makes the shortlist. Read a number of darker subject matter books in 2016 and think I might wait for a bit. I have a feeling however that it might make the short list. Mental Health including ptsd is such an important topic right now for Canada and elsewhere.

@Wanda, I'm very interested in that one! I have a personal interest in the topic by way of a couple of people I know. I also really liked his Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda and learned so much from it. I heard him speak a few years ago about conflict minerals. He's a remarkable man.

I too have more than a passing interest in PTSD and have a request in for the Dallaire. Tomorrow I'll fetch Ghost River from the library and get right on it.
Strangely, I am completely stalled on the novel I started a few days ago, and note that all the other books I'm reading at the moment are non fiction. I'll wait till tomorrow to list with links, because I believe quite a few will find of interest.

I finished How to Create the Perfect Wife: Britain's Most Ineligible Bachelor and His Enlightened Quest to Train the Ideal Mate yesterday. It was fascinating! (not Canadian) Took longer than I thought, but very engaging.

computers were all taken, so I was not able to link...but a real jackpot from the request shelf: got Ghost River, Wagamese One Song and finally The Break. I can't wait to get to them, but they now go high on my actual tbr next shelf.
This morning I started Mnemonic: a book of trees by Theresa Kishkan, from Vancouver Island, which had rotated to the top of my pile. I assumed it was a novel, but lo! its memoir. its delightful though and a respite from prison.

I finished this book last night.

It was a brave undertaking -- I can't imagine what it took Edmund Metatawabin to muster up what it took to chronicle it all.

And yet you know reading it that this book covers just the tip of the iceberg. Specifically, the long-term fall out of all the abuse at the hands of the government/religious leaders has just been skimmed over to give a taste. I appreciate why -- the book would be long and so dark, and maybe that's just not an effective way to get through to people. An author of a book like this can only dole out so much before the reader turns off, I think, or doesn't come at all. The book Night by Elie Wiesel comes to mind -- a teeny tiny book on an astronomical story of sadness.

@Allison - I agree that the book is just the tip of the iceberg of abuse, not just here in Canada, but all over the world, throughout all of time. I wish we could see each other as unique, and beautiful even though flawed. I wish we could accept that each person deserves to be loved. Each act of injustice or harm to another must hide deep pain for when people are happy, how can they hurt another.

having just got the book but needing a tiny break from more painful reading, I will wait a few days to start and refrain from reading on past Mary Anne's comments, so close to my heart.

Mary Anne wrote: "@Allison - I agree that the book is just the tip of the iceberg of abuse, not just here in Canada, but all over the world, throughout all of time. I wish we could see each other as unique, and beau..."

Well said, @Mary Anne.

I realize now that I posted this comment in the wrong thread. I'll copy it over to the thread about Up Ghost River: A Chief's Journey Through the Turbulent Waters of Native History.

@ Allison - posting here was probably fate or divine intervention. I wouldn't delete your post here. You've probably inspired others who weren't thinking of reading Up Ghost River to give it a try or encouraged others currently reading to finish up soon and join in the Monthly Discussion. :)

Glad you found the second half less emotionally painful than the first half. And good for you for hanging in there and finishing!! I thought your comment about why you were putting yourself through the pain of reading it was insightful - important to be written and needing reading and respect by Canadians (paraphrasing) - was right on point!!

Just finished Wab Kinew's The Reason You Walk a memoir of forgiveness, family, death and dying in the shadow of the impact of residential school. I am looking forward to starting Up Ghost River: A Chief's Journey Through the Turbulent Waters of Native History next.

For those of you who have been chatting about reading Romeo Dallaire's newest book: http://www.cbc.ca/books/2017/01/romeo...

While I usually spend all of January and February getting through Canada Reads long and short lists, I did sneak in Up Ghost River: A Chief's Journey Through the Turbulent Waters of Native History this month. I didn't join challenge formally, but I appreciate the inspiration, and certainly appreciated that book.

I thought for the rest of the month I'd try to do some non-fiction audio, so this morning started Suetonius's The Twelve Caesars. Yowzah. That was too much for me by audio. Way too complex, and I found I just couldn't concentrate. So, sadly, I've given it up.

There are a good number of non-fiction audio selections on Hoopla, so I'll see if I can squeeze a few in before the end of the month. I'm going to start today with A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley. (Movie version, I think, is called "Lion.")

A Long Way Home sounds like a very interesting book @Allison!!

I too find that I have to be very particular in what I "read" in audio as my mind wanders if it does not grab my attention right off. sometimes the novels are too complex to keep track of a lot of characters when listening.

I am listening to Real Food/Fake Food: Why You Don’t Know What You’re Eating and What You Can Do about It for this challenge and finding it quite an interesting book.

I'm two books in to my three-book goal for this challenge. I read Invisible North: The Search For Answers on a Troubled Reserve and Up Ghost River: A Chief's Journey Through the Turbulent Waters of Native History, which taken together presents a comprehensive picture of the human cost of systemic racism perpetrated against First Nations, whether through the Indian Act, or successive attempts at assimilation that have been traumatizing and divisive. My reviews of both books expand on my feelings. I'm still pretty fired up at the moment.

Since it's Jan. 25, (BellLetsTalk Day) and I have one more book to go, I'm choosing Clara Hughes book Open Heart, Open Mind.

@Natasha - i have Clara Hughes book in my TBR pile. so many great books, so little time!!

I've read 2 non-fiction books to date in January - Up Ghost River and Open Heart, Open Mind. Have a few others in hand. However, think I may only complete 1 or possibly 2 more - the latter unlikely as I have another book club commitment.

Still about 15-30 days late and trying to catch up in monthly challenges. lol. I have a number of books planned for February's Black History Month - a number are non-fiction actual black history that took place on Canadian soil that were written by black Canadian authors. Have some non-fiction books planned as well. Looking forward to reading them.

@ Natasha and @ ❀ Susan - hope you both enjoy Open Heart, Open Mind. I was expecting more focus on mental health. That being said, I'm a huge sport, Olympics and Clara Hughes fan and there were a lot of aspects about the book I enjoyed and I certainly learned a lot by reading it. Clara's emphasis on our north and Natives and volunteerism all struck a chord.