by Joseph Boyden
Niska is a traditional medicine woman, a mix of Cree and Ojibway. She's been taught divining and traditional medicine by her mother and father, has seizures and sees visions. She's also the destroyer of windago, an evil presence that sometimes takes possession of humans, a role she has inherited thr...
This is a phenomenal and haunting book. I really loved the story despite most of it being set in the WWI. Maybe because it not the traditional stories being told of WWI. The characters are deep and complex. So powerfully written that it makes you stop and wonder what hell is going on with society. I...
I recently picked up Through Black Spruce to read and told a fellow "bookie" friend about my plan to read it. She asked if I'd read Three Day Road; I had not. That is how I got to this book, as she suggested that Through Black Spruce (which I'm starting tonight) would be better read after Three Da...
This is two of my favourite reads: a "futility-of-war" novel by a Native Canadian writer, and with a unique Native Canadian angle.Xavier and Elijah are Ojibwe-Cree from "the North Country" (which in this case means James Bay area) who sign up for WW I, and - because of their hunting prowess - make f...
This book is loosely based on the famed Native Canadian WW1 sniper Francis Pegahmagabow. It is about WW1 trench warfare; it is about the role Native Canadians played in this warfare and it is about mystical Cree beliefs. I think this book goes a step deeper. It is about warfare in general and also a...
Brutal. Brilliant. Beautiful. Wow.
This book affected me so much that I had war dreams for days afterwards. Incredible.
I wish I could give 3.5 stars in goodreads, because that's a more accurate representation of my rating. I almost loved this book, but not quite. Not entirely the book's fault - I read it over 3 weeks in little bits; but it took some serious persistence to read past the first 150 pages mainly because...