#the orenda

[katiesclassicbooks]

I say that humans are the only ones in this world that need everything within it. But there is nothing in this world that needs us for its survival. We aren't the masters of the earth. We're the servants.

The Orenda by Joseph Boyden 

[2soliddudes]

The Dudes are Back in Town

Hello! After a mostly intentional hiatus, we are back, friends!

And while we will be continuing our 30 books to read before you turn 30 (especially since one of us just turned 29 for the first time), going forward we’ll also be chatting about books and our own reading outside of that challenge.

In the spirit of starting things off right, we’re going to try and set some reading resolutions for the rest 2018!

Róisín: I’m afraid mine is quite boring: to read more poetry. I am totally new to reading poetry as an adult though and don’t really know where to start. Also, I mostly read ebooks and poetry doesn’t always suit as an ebook? But I’m really enjoying the new Penguin Modern Poets series. I feel like they’re really good mix tapes made for me by a friend’s older sister, they have people I’ve already read, people I lie about having already read, and people I’ve never heard of but probably should have already read.

Kathleen: Can my goal be early retirement so I can read more? Or getting so internet famous for our instagram that we get paid to read books? (surprise! We have instagram now! We can be found here)

My attainable goal is to read more physical books. Since I got my Kobo, I have almost exclusively read ebooks, because you can’t beat the convenience of having 500 books in your backpack at a time I didn’t realize until Roisin brought me a bunch of paperbacks at Christmas how much I miss all the other sensory aspects of reading. In case anyone else has forgotten, books smell really friggin’ good, and the way that books feel in your hands is pretty magical. I still love my Kobo, but I’m going to maintain a better balance between the two.

Róisín: Are there any genres or authors you plan on reading more of this summer?

Kathleen: I want to read more Icelandic authors. I read Moonstone: The Boy Who Never Was by Sjón thanks to the Dublin Literary Award Longlist, and have since read a couple other novels of his and I want MORE.  

Róisín: I bought my boyfriend tickets for us to see David Sedaris in July. I had never read him until last week and now I am trying to read all his books in the two months before the reading. Because girl, you know I love a good list challenge.

Kathleen: What’s your most specific reading goal for the year?

Róisín: Mine is to try and finish reading Wuthering Heights. No problem, you say, that is a relatively short book and so beloved it must be a joy to read. You would be wrong. I have tried reading it twice before and the last time, my cat knocked the book off my nightstand behind my bed and I didn’t notice until I moved out of that apartment.

Kathleen: Oh my god that story is so quintessentially Archie. Mine is to (finally) read Feminist Fight Club: An Office Survival Manual for a Sexist Workplace and write down tactics to help me deal with sexism at work. Dear men: 

What we’re currently reading:

Kathleen: Multiple Choice, by Alejandro Zambra and translated by Megan McDowell. The whole book is a multiple choice test, which ticks a million boxes for me - books with non-traditional structures, books that make me laugh, and tests I can’t fail. I just did a dangerous dive into a $1.99 bin at BMV, so I will be randomly selecting my next book from that pile.

Róisín: Girl, I loved that book. I JUST finished (like, 2 hours ago) Problems by Jade Sharma and dang it was good. Next up is The Man with the Compound Eyes by Wu Ming-Yi

And a little bonus/business to take care of to keep us on track for the 30:

The Orenda, by Joseph Boyden

2013, 501 pages

Okay, real talk. We aren’t reading the Orenda.

Róisín: I actually read The Orenda a few years ago and really enjoyed it. But since the garbage actions of Joseph Boyden have come out (Here, we’re specifically talking about falsely claiming Aboriginal heritage and accusations of plagiarism) we’ve decided to go ahead and skip this one.

Consider it removed from our list.

See you next week, when we get back to reading the only Canadian books that the CBC has heard of!

[katiesclassicbooks]

Currently Reading: The Orenda by Joseph Boyden 

[mfgalaxy]

WAB KINEW ON CANADA READS + WAYNE ARTHURSON ON THE WRITING LIFE (MF GALAXY 017)

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Wab Kinew is the 2015 host of CBC’s national book competition Canada Reads. He’s an award-winning hip hop artist and journalist, a correspondent for Al-Jazeera America, and perhaps best known to Canadians as the advocate for Joseph Boyden’s The Orenda, the winning book for Canada Reads 2014.

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Last year on CBC’s Canada Reads, Wab Kinew electrified listeners with his opening book defense that name-checked each rival book in the competition while building to his defense of The Orenda. And he did it all in just under his allotted 60 seconds, memorised, and in verse. He began the competition by demolishing his competitors, some of whom, like runner Donovan Bailey, failed to use even half his accorded time, perhaps forgetting that you couldn’t win this contest by finishing early.

Despite numerous achievements and awards, merit alone wasn’t enough to get Wab Kinew his new gig as moderator of Canada Reads 2015—timing played the decisive factor. Last September, the former Canada Reads host, Jian Ghomeshi, began a public and highly dramatic self-destruction over as-yet unproven allegations of beating women before or during sex. He’s currently living with his mother while awaiting trial. In that context, Wab Kinew discusses:

How he got selected to be a Canada Reads 2014 panelist

What he brings to the role of Canada Reads 2015 moderator, and what he thinks the radio series should do for the country, and

His take on the spectre of Jian Ghomeshi over this year’s competition.

  In part 2 of the show, you'll hear the brilliant writer of the Leo Desroches mysteries Fall From Grace and A Killing Winter, Wayne Arthurson. Arthurson is a Metis writer from Edmonton who’s been a small town newspaper reporter, advertising copy writer, ghost writer, editor, punk rock drummer, a contestant on the BOOK TV series The 3 Day Novel Contest, and the popular historian who crafted In the Shadow of Our Ancestors for Lone Pine Press.   Arthurson was one of the featured speakers at Authorpalooza, a series of writers-on-writing live talk shows I run in my current work as Writer in Residence at the University of Alberta’s Department of English and Film Studies.

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Many of the fine folks who support MF GALAXY using Patreon are excellent writers! Check out The Komposit, the microfictionist web novel by the amazing Kristina Vyskocil.

[newjourneysca-blog]

The latest from our Basement Revue series: Joseph Boyden, A Tribe Called Red and Lido Pimienta collaborate for this powerful piece about the experiences of Indigenous women. (via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCxIixlgNys)

[bookeggs-blog]

The Orenda by Joseph Boyden

Genre: historical fiction, canadiana Pages: 490 Rating:  ♥•♥•♥•♥ (4 hearts)

Before i say much else, a disclaimer: this sort of historical fiction usually isn't my forte. To be honest, I only picked this up because it belonged to my mum and I had nothing else to read. But that certainly didn't stop it from being a magnificent and heart-wrenching experience.

I gave this four stars because it didn't quite 'engage' me, but to be fair, that might have been because i was reading it between naps on a 14 hour car ride, and thus couldn't focus as well as i'd have liked to. But when I did get the chance to really sit down and read, i got truly lost in the story. I couldn't put it down, because i knew there was something big in store, no matter what had just went down. The way that this book creates an underlying tone of suspense even during the calmest of scenes is incredible - possibly because it mimics how life in general always has some push to keep you going. there's arcs that last mere pages, like Snow Falls searching for her special item to mark her transition into a woman; overlaid onto arcs that last nearly the whole book, like Bird's search for vengeance, for penance, for peace. and I'll admit, that's kind of a reqirement for fiction in general, but The Orenda does it in such an inticate and meaningful way, weaving the arcs together into a shining tapestry of a story, that I just had to point it out. 

A large theme in The Orenda is humanity, and what constitutes it. For Christophe, the missionary come to convert the ‘savages’ of New France to Christianity, humanity is one thing he's determined to spread while attempting survival in this wild new land. To Snow Falls, a young Iroquois girl kidnapped by the enemy Huron nation and forced to become the leader's daughter, humanity is something she had lost faith in ever since the brutal slaughter of her family the night she was kidnapped. And to Bird, an elder of his village and a skilled leader and warrior, humanity is in everything around him, but something he struggles to keep within himself. 

The struggles and triumphs of these three characters are brought together in a stunning harmony, a story that rings true throughout the ages. Written from the three characters' points of view in piercing, unflinching prose, The Orenda cuts to the bone of what needs to be said, and says it in a way in which nothing is overexplained nor left vague, only truth. I love it.

Anyway, all that genuine hipster trash aside, I seriously can't praise this book enough. Snow Falls is the strongest firecracker of a girl I've seen in literature in quite a while, and she is competing with Gosling, her mentor, for my favourite character. But that's not to say the other characters aren't just as special, i just have limited space here and limited patience from you all, not to mention I don't want to spoil too much.

Personally, I enjoyed the love-hate relationship between Christophe and Snow Falls. I have a general weakness for strong relationships in general, but this one was especially poignant to me, and to see it develop from fellow captives, to partners in crime (so to speak), to allies in this foreign land? It was captivating, to say the least. I think there was a great balance of interpersonal relationships beign developed and the progression of the story outside of our main characters. It was well-paced, and I very much appreciated that.

All in all, this book was definitely memorable and i would love to reread it if i get the time - it is a rather long book (almost 500 pages) and takes a certain amount of focus and brainpower to read, if that makes sense. It's dense and full to the brim with story; not really a casual, reading-between-naps book like i tried to read it as, but whatever works, I suppose. 

i recommend this book to fans of historical fiction, of complicated and realistic characters, of slice-of-life, coming-of-age, rise-and-fall-of-an-empire stories. or anyone with some time on their hands and a hankering for a stellar read!

[puckstein]

In times of war, and especially in the aftermath, the question she begs is the one each of us needs to ask. How do you keep going when all that you love has been lost? Or perhaps the question is this: What role did I play in the troubles that surround me? Or maybe it’s this: Will I see my loved ones again? For those with grander ambitions, perhaps it’s this: If success is measured in one way, then how should we measure defeat?

Joseph Boyden - The Orenda

[puckstein]

This is the perfect time, and the prettiest of country, in which to witness my father’s brothers kill these enemies.

Snow Falls [Joseph Boyden - The Orenda]