Spotlight

Thunder through my Veins, Gregory Scofield (1999)

This Indigenous Canadian author came to my attention as the author of one of the essays in Me Sexy (reviewed here). When I saw that he had a memoir, I jumped at the opportunity to learn more about his life. This is without question a hard story, involving stories of childhood neglect, abuse within the family, the foster care system, and institutions, substance abuse, sexualized violence, and external and internalized anti-Indigenous racism and homophobia. It’s a lot.

And yet, what shone through the whole book was the author’s desire to find meaning, purpose, and belonging in life. It was not ‘just’ an all-too-common sad story about the harsh realities of life for North America’s Indigenous peoples. It is a story about identity and finding hope within finding and accepting who one really is. Of particular usefulness, I think, was the theme in the book of the author’s rejection, and later joyous acceptance of his Métis identity, and the multi-generational shame associated with that identity in his family and society as a whole. The copy I read was a twentieth anniversary edition and in the preface, Scofield notes how much has changed in the past two decades, both for him individually and in the conversations about Indigeneity and sexuality in society. These are wonderful signs, but the road is long, and we have just barely begun it. I hope and pray that we will have the courage as a society follow this road to a true reconciliation, where stories of Indigenous thriving and joy will be norm.

Read this if you’re interested in:

• Indigenous voices
• Own Voices
• LGBTQ2S+
• Coming of Age
• Métis Identity
• Systemic failures
• Dysfunctional but loving families

My Rating, 9/10

Weekly Roundup

• The Maid, Nita Prose (2022), 8.5/10: This book made me profoundly uncomfortable because it was so effective in portraying the perspective of its neurodivergent narrator and protagonist, particularly in her naïveté in social interactions. Molly works as a maid in an upscale hotel, who gets by in life by obeying the rules her late grandmother set out for her. But her solitary and orderly life is thrown into chaos when she discovers a dead body in one of the rooms. Unfortunately for her, her differences make her both suspicious to the police and an ideal patsy for those who want to take advantage of her, and she quickly becomes the prime suspect in the man’s death. (Found Family, Neurodivergence, Murder, Undocumented Immigrants, Hotels, Hospitality Industry)
• In a New York Minute, Kate Spencer (2022), 7.5/10: This is in a lot of ways — particularly in ways I didn’t love — a very stereotypical contemporary romance: The heroine’s problems at the start of the story were unnecessarily dire, the meet-cute was laughably over-the-top, the ‘darkest moment’ was pretty lame, and the grand-gesture hackneyed and ridiculous. But, all that said, I still really enjoyed this book. I loved Franny and Hayes and all of the wonderfully-developed side characters — all of whom could easily carry their own books as protagonists. The emotional stakes felt real (which is not easy when so much of the story’s structure felt cartoonish), especially Franny’s complicated feelings surrounding her family and longing to belong. And, it was a fun New York City book, which is always fun. So, in the end, the book succeeded in the areas it needed to, and the areas that didn’t work for me didn’t ultimately hinder that success. (New York City, Romance, Friendship, Family, DNA Surprises, Sustainability Bros)
• The Key to Inclusion, Stephen Frost, ed. (2022 – NEW RELEASE!), 10/10: As our society makes strides in its understanding of diversity, more and more organizations are shifting attention to inclusion, a concept which looks less at who is in an organization than it does the comfort of those in the organization to contribute to their fullest. This is an excellent book on the subject, from an industry leader. It strikes a great balance of being basic enough to serve as an introduction and robust, thorough, and detailed enough to be useful for those already familiar with this emerging area of leadership. (Leadership, Organizational Change, Inclusion, Diversity)
• In, Will McPhail (2021), 8/10: This graphic novel captured the isolation of contemporary life and the longing for genuine connection really well. It was funny and poignant and well worth the read. My rating would have been higher, but I found the ending of the story abrupt; even a few more pages to help pull out the theme of connection would have been welcome. Trigger warning for cancer and parental loss. (Isolation, Connection, Family, Cancer, Grief and Loss)
• The Sorcerer of the North, John Flanagan (2006), 9/10: After a couple slightly lackluster entries, this fifth book in the Ranger’s Apprentice series returned to great form, as Will is sent on a mission to investigate some strange happenings at a northern castle. My only complaint is that this book ends on a genuine cliffhanger with no resolution, so beware! (Middle Grade, Fantasy, Sorcery, Teenagers Doing Espionage)
• The Candymakers, Wendy Mass (2020), 8/10: This middle grade story about four kids who enter a prestigious candy-making contest was delightful. Their stories unspool in a very creative and effective use of multiple perspectives, and I think this book could be very useful in teaching kids about perspective-taking and different sides of stories. (Middle Grade, Friendship, Joy, Secrets and Lies, Resilience)
• Switch, A.S. King (2021), 3/10: The basic premise of this story — a world where time has stopped and yet life goes on — is compelling, particularly as a reflection on our shared experience of pandemic lockdowns in 2020; but unfortunately, the author was not content to focus on this premise but added in layers of magical realism and surrealism, and used all of this to tell a fairly banal story about a family in crisis. The best I can say about it is that there a lot of fascinating ideas here, but they were smashed together in too small a place for any of them to have the necessary room to grow into their potential. All in all this was very disappointing. (Magical Realism, Speculative Fiction, Surrealism, Family Drama, Pandemic)