Read Women discussion

This thread is for sharing and requesting recs, lists and articles on authors of indigenous ancestry as well as books, whether fiction or non-fiction addressing related themes and experiences. I was surprised to find that we don't already have a thread of this sort, so now we do.

I'm pasting here the list of recommendations Kate posted in the discussion thread for My Place, in response to a request for books by or about indigenous persons in Canada.

FICTION
Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese
Ragged Company by Richard Wagamese
Medicine Walk by Richard Wagamese
Green Grass, Running Water by Thomas King
Indians on Vacation by Thomas King
In Search of April Raintree - Critical Edition by Beatrice Mosionier
The Break by Kathareena Vermette
Monkey Beach by Eden Robinson
The Trickster Trilogy by Eden Robinson (3 books, the first is called Son of a Trickster)
Kiss of the Fur Queen by Thomson Highway
Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead

(Indian Horse, April Raintree and Kiss of the Fur Queen deal specifically with the residential school experience, the rest are more about adult or family experiences.)

I have also heard good things about but have not read:
Split Tooth by Tanya Tagaq
Five Little Indians by Michelle Good
The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline

Non-Fiction
From the Ashes by Jesse Thistle
A Mind Spread Out on the Ground by Alicia Elliott
In My Own Mocassins by Helen Knott
Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death, and Hard Truths in a Northern City by Tanya Talaga
The Inconvenient Indian by Thomas King
The Right to Be Cold by Sheila Watt-Cloutier

(Of the non-fiction titles, the most relevant to the school/education experience is Seven Fallen Feathers by Tanya Talaga.)

Thank you, Kate.

I haven't read it myself, but would this YA novel qualify?

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (US, not Canada)

This list has multiple recommendations - poetry, novels, memoirs, non-fiction. I'm mostly posting so I don't lost it! LOL. I want to read a few of these.

https://bookriot.com/native-north-ame...

lethe wrote: "I haven't read it myself, but would this YA novel qualify?

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (US, not Canada)"

I´ve got this on my tbr list, but the only disqualification here is that the author is a man! ;)

Michaela wrote: "the only disqualification here is that the author is a man!"

Yes, but so are a lot of the recommendations in msg #2, f.e. Thomas King, Richard Wagamese and Joshua Whitehead :)

A female author with indigenous roots: Louise Erdrich (US), f.e. Love Medicine.

A link to a GR list compiled in connection with a PopSugar challenge prompt. The usual, buyer beware, warning applies, but - although it includes men - it seems like quite a good start as GR lists go.

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

Thanks Carol, Lethe and Misty will take a look at these. I haven't read much by indigenous authors so I'd be interested to see what's recommended. I 've just tried and abandoned Stephen Graham Jones's My Heart Is a Chainsaw mainly interested because it brings in material drawn from his heritage as part of the Blackfeet tribe, and is apparently an oblique commentary on colonialism, but it didn't work for me as a novel at all.

For fiction by Canadian women of indigenous descent, I'd also add these to Kate's suggestions:

Empire of Wild by Cherie Dimaline

Birdie by Tracey Lindberg

Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson

Also Linda Hogan, People of the Whale.

Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony.

For non-fiction, I suggest The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions by Paula Gunn Allen. It's a classic.

Thanks for the recs everyone. This is definitely a topic I haven't made the time for that I wanted this year and I'm going to change that mext year

Here is a list of female indigenous reads:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

My favourites are:
Potiki
Ceremony
The Break
The Round House

And for something different: Island of Shattered Dreams set on the island of tahiti before and during the time when france decided to use it as a base for testing nuclear weapons

Has anybody read anything by rebecca roanhorse? She seems quite popular on lists but it looks perhaps a bit too YA for me

We've read, discussed and have open threads for members' thoughts on several books by indigenous authors. Potiki and The Yield come to mind, but I think there are others. I'll drop links here as I find them, for ease of picking up and adding to relevant threads.

We started off 2021 with a discussion of Potiki.
Thread here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

The Yield:

Thread here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States

Thread here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I was really inspired by "Melanated Reader" and her #20BooksByBlackWomen challenge for 2022. I have been working on expanding my reading repertoire and searching to include more books from around the world and more books from women who come from a variety of ethnic backgrounds. In going through my reading list, I have seen that there are many holes. The challenge has spurred me to keep doing these sorts of challenges. In 2023, I am focusing on #20BooksByIndigenousWomen. I am starting a bookclub at my church for 2023, and I'm really excited to get going. I have ten books scheduled and left two months open for other nominations. If anyone else is inspired to do the challenge as well, please let me know what books you might be reading! Here is our book club list for next year so far:
January: The Sentence by Louise Erdrich (fiction/novel)
February: Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia ed. by Anita Heiss (non-fiction)
March: Talkin' Up to the White Woman: Indigenous Women and Feminism by Aileen Moreton-Robinson (non-ficiton/intersectionality)
April: Old Indian Legends by Zitkala-Sa (Fiction/Legends)
May: Whereas by Layli Long Soldier (non-fiction/politial)
June: Savage Conversations by LeAnne Howe (play)
July: A Drum in One Hand, a Sockeye in the Other: Stories of Indigenous Food Sovereignty from the Northwest Coast by Charlotte Cote (non-fiction/environmental)
August: Muscogee Daughter: My Sojourn to the Miss America Pageant by Susan Supernaw (non-fiction/memoir)
November: Lakota Woman by Mary Crow Dog (non-fiction/memoir)
December: People of the Whale by Linda Hogan (fiction/novel)

That's amazing Misty! Great list, I've added a couple. I hope to read 10 books by indigenous authors next year. I'm not as organised as you are but the ones I'm most excited about are:
The Strangers by Katherena Vermette
Woman of Light by Kali Fajardo-Anstine
Almanac of the Dead by Leslie Marmon Silko
Birdie by Tracey Lindberg
Five Little Indians by Michelle Good
Crooked Hallelujah by Kelli Jo Ford
Auē by Becky Manawatu

Hannah wrote: "That's amazing Misty! Great list, I've added a couple. I hope to read 10 books by indigenous authors next year. I'm not as organised as you are but the ones I'm most excited about are:
[book:The St..."

Ooooo - great list! I may be stealing some of those ideas! :)