Who the Hell is Louis Riel

Happy Louis Riel Day! Louis Riel Day is a holiday in my province, Manitoba, celebrating one of the most famous (and infamous) French Canadians in history. 

I don't know how much you know about Canadian history, but if you've learned a bit, you've probably heard of Louis Riel. I learned about him in Canadian history in high school, but I only remember snippets. I remember something about an execution of a horrible man called Thomas Scott that had something to do with Riel, that Riel was part of the creation of Manitoba as a province, that he was part of the Red River Rebellion which had something to do with the Métis, and that there was a huge weird debate about Riel's sanity after the rebellions he was involved in. And, of course, I remember that he was hanged.

Then last year for my Across Canada Reading Challenge I read Louis Riel: A Comic Strip Biography by Chester Brown, which is a great visual account of Riel's life and involvement in the Red River Rebellion. Louis Riel was a Métis (an indigenous peoples of mixed race), and spent basically all his life fighting for the rights of Métis people to their own land. This is what the Red River Rebellion was all about - getting the Canadian government to recognize a government made up of Métis and English that would be just and able to look after the interests of the Métis people. There was much back and forth between the Métis people of the Red River and the Canadian government, and it even got to the point of actual battle between the Métis and Indians and the Canadians. Louis Riel was at the head of this fight for Métis rights, and was looked up to as a leader and inspiration for many Métis and French Canadians. He was also super religious, to the point where he kind of made up his own branch of Catholicism (with flavours of Protestantism), and deemed himself Prophet of the New World. The comic strip biography often portrays Riel's religion among the battle for the Métis people as something comedic and out of place. There was one panel where there is a battle going on around him, and Riel is in a trench praying, and it comes across as absurd. 

At the end of his biography, Chester Brown recommended a book which he said was the best book he's read on Louis Riel, Maggie Siggin's Riel: A Life of Revolution. I was intrigued by this strange, contradictory figure, and it turned out my dad owned a copy of the book, so I thought I would try to read it. 

Maggie Siggins does a superb job of exploring Riel's life and character as a revolutionary and leader of Métis people's rights. Reading this book, I went from having a picture of Riel as a religious lunatic who had some involvement in the rebellions of the Red River area to understanding how Riel's religious zealousness evolved alongside his intense loyalty to his people, the Métis. For his entire life, all he wanted was to provide what was best for the Métis - that their land claims would be recognized, that they would have a government that would recognize and deal with their concerns, and later on when that didn't work, that they would be able to create their own independent nation. 

Unfortunately, none of Louis Riel's grand dreams came to fruition. Reading this book about all of the struggles of the Métis amid the creation of Manitoba as a province, it struck me how relevant all of these issues still are today. Aboriginal people are still fighting against the government over land claims and still are not given equal status and recognition in Canadian society. The themes that exist in the story of Louis Riel and the Métis people, of the government ignoring and resisting the voices of Aboriginal people, still continue today in many ways. 

Maggie Siggins sums up Riel beautifully in the last few sentences of Riel: A Life of Revolution: 

"He was a complex man full of contradiction and angst, certainly, but what makes Louis Riel so intriguing is that he managed to straddle two cultures, Native and white, and came as close as anyone to envisioning a sympathetic and equitable relationship between the two. That Canadians may someday achieve this vision remains Louis Riel's legacy."

I really hope that Louis Riel's vision of an equitable relationship between Canadian Aboriginal people will be realized, and soon, and I have come to appreciate him for being instrumental in creating this vision.

My Journey to Feminism

Not that long ago, I was one of those people who said that I wasn't feminist. I thought that feminists were crazy people who hated men and wanted them to crawl in a hole and die. At the same time, I thought that to be a proper feminist, or even a good woman, you had to like sports, be physically strong, and be able to impress all the boys with your wit and kick-ass moves. I remember in around grade seven, I think, being jealous of this girl in my class because she was an awesome soccer player and really liked sports. I thought, why couldn't I like sports better? Or be amazingly good at them? If I was awesome at sports, I thought, I could prove to the world that girls were worth something. I could prove that I was worth something.

“Culture does not make people. People make culture. If it is true that the full humanity of women is not our culture, then we can and must make it our culture.” – Chimamanda Ngozi Achide, We Should All Be Feminists

It turns out, I had no idea what feminism even was. Feminism isn't about hating men or adopting masculine traits in order to be accepted. It's about women being viewed and treated as equal with men, exactly the way they are. Of course, there's a lot more to it than that, but I'm still learning.

I'm not really sure how I came about to the realization of what feminism really was, but I think it was definitely from reading - articles, tweets, books, and things for my classes. I think one of the first articles that I read was about the idea of "strong female characters" in movies. It talked about how often a female character was labeled as "strong" (and therefore good and acceptable) if she could fight like a master, kick butt and be basically like one of the guys. 

The article (and many other articles, including posts like this interview with Melina Marchetta about heroines) have talked about how "strong female character" shouldn't mean actually physically strong, but incredibly complex and diverse, like, oh, a real human. Women should be represented just as diversely and interestingly as men, but so often in film and other media they are pushed to the background as props for men or for looks.

Learning that feminism meant that women could be themselves in all their flabby muscled glory was so freeing to me. Now I didn't have to like sports, I didn't have to be able to take out three bad guys at once while wearing a skin-hugging suit, and I could like girly stuff like dresses and high-heels without feeling bad about it. I could just be myself, and that's enough to be worthy as a girl; society is wrong in saying otherwise.

“Gender matters everywhere in the world. And I would like today to ask that we begin to dream about and plan for a different world. A fairer world. A world of happier men and happier women who are truer to themselves. And this is how to start: We must raise our daughters differently. We must also raise our sons differently.” – Chimamanda Ngozi Achide, We Should All Be Feminists

I used to think that certain things were just the way things are. Guys taunt girls for attention and dominance because that's the way things are. Guys get away with more than girls do, from their actions to how they dress because that's the way things are. There are more men in movies than women because that's just how things are. Women have to act and be a certain way that's expected of them because that's the way things are. Women think that they have to look a certain way because that's the way things are.Women have to be unhappy with their bodies because that's the way things are supposed to be.

The realization that these are actually problems with our society actually gives me hope, because then I know it doesn't have to be this way. Hopefully, we can work towards a better society where women are accepted just as they are, in all their diverseness, complexity, and variety, liking whatever they please and not being judged or abused for it. 

I'm still learning, and I would encourage you to learn along with me. A great introduction book to feminism is We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Achide. It's also a TED Talk which you can find here. Emma Watson's speech at the UN is also great, her ideas are articulated well and inspiring.

What are your favourite feminist books, fiction or non-fiction? Give me recs!!

2016 Reading Goals

Like a lot of bookworms, January is the time for thinking about how I'm going to challenge myself in my reading for the following year. I wanted to share them with you, mostly so I will feel more obligated to actually stick to them! This year I haven't really made any commitments to do a certain number of books of any category. I mostly just wanted to try to pushy myself to read more diversely and outside of my comfort zone. Also a lot of my goals involve just trying to succeed at things I failed last year. 

1. Read diversely! This is always a goal of mine, although it definitely takes work and I can always do better. I especially want to focus on reading what people have called #ownvoices on Twitter, where the identity of the main character is shared by the author.

2. Read more books by non-Western authors, or with non-Western settings (like, outside the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia). This is really hard sometimes because of language issues, but I know there are books out there! (Also if you have recs for me for any of these, please comment and let me know!)

3. Read more books by indigenous authors, not just written by authors from Canada and the US but outside as well. 

4. Continue to read CanLit! I loved discovering all the great CanLit out there this year, and I'm not ready by any means to be done with it yet!

5. Read more books with non-American authors than American authors (I failed at this in 2015.)

Of course other challenges may crop up throughout the year that I may join, but that's all for now!

What are your 2016 reading goals? What is a recommendation you can give me for any of the above?

Review of All the Books I Read in 2015

So, every year on my blog I do a review of all the books I've read in the year, usually going over the books I thought were the best, worst, and a few other categories. This year, I wanted to do a more in-depth reflection because it's not always that easy to divide the books I read into best and worst, because each book I read impacts me in a different, unique way.

This year my tastes changed significantly, as they do every year. This year I probably read the most adult books I've ever read in a year, although of course I still read quite a few young adult books. I'm definitely starting to grow out of YA, though. I'm finding it increasingly harder to get into the snarky voices and repetitive drama that tends to appear in a lot of YA. (see: @broodingYAhero)

I started out the year on the right foot, reading a lot of good books, like Cristina Moracho's Althea and Oliver, and Gary D. Schmidt's Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy. I also read Catherine Gilbert Murdock's Dairy Queen, which entirely changed my view on what YA should and can be (I really need to read it again).

I also started the year with a commitment to do the Around the World Reading Challenge. I did pretty well with it at the beginning of the year, although the only mini-challenge I was able to complete was reading a book from every Canadian province and territory. Doing that challenge got me into the CanLit world, which is really cool. Now my TBR list is filled with books written by Canadians, and CanLit is on my radar a lot more. I read a ton of really good CanLit this year, which you can read about in my wrap-up post for my Across Canada challenge.

While I didn't read a ton of books outside of Canada or the US, I did read some really good books with international settings. The Taliban Cricket Club by Timeri N. Murari was one of those books, about a young woman in Afghanistan, Rukshana, who, supported by some men in her family, pretends to be a boy to play cricket. I loved the character Rukshana, and it was a great, funny read. And I found it just by pulling it off the shelf at the library, which is not usually how I find books anymore. Another book with an international setting that I loved was Listen, Slowly by Thanha Lai, about a young girl, Mai, going to visit her family in Vietnam for a summer. It had everything I love in MG - cute, spunky characters, lots of awkward silliness, and great family dynamics.

And of course, A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea by Dina Nayeri, set in Iran in the 1980s, which was heartachingly beautiful, made me cry, and became my best and favourite book of 2015 and which I will now recommend to everyone I possibly can. (Read my review here).

Unfortunately, at the end of summer and then into the school year in the fall, I kind of ran out of steam for my Around the World challenge and couldn't really get into any books. All the YA books seemed too young or annoying, and the adult books seemed too hard to get into. I think at that point in the year, I wanted an easy read where my brain didn't have to work too hard. I just wanted something that would completely sweep me away and forget reality, and I couldn't find any book to do that. So, I ended up falling back on my favourite books, and reread The Queen's Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner, and The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater (The Raven King needs to come out like, yesterday).

School this semester sucked all the desire for reading for fun from me, but hopefully with the break I can buy some good books with my Christmas gift cards, get to the library, and get back to actually enjoying reading.

When I look back on this year of reading, I didn't really fall head over heels with very many books, but I read a lot of good books that made me think about different things, which I think is really cool and extremely valuable. I mean, when I look back on the books I read this year, I learned a lot. I learned about...

• The Quebec separatist movement 
• Afghanistan during the Taliban regime
• the Iranian revolution of 1979
• Hiking the Pacific Crest Trail
• What it's like growing up in a Mennonite community
• What it's like to be a Canadian immigrant
• What it's like living in the north of Canada
• How to be an urban cyclist
• Louis Riel and the Red River Rebellion
• Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his work in the German church and his role in a plan to assassinate Hitler during WWII
• The history of Down Syndrome
• What it's like growing up Aboriginal in Canada
• What it's like to deal with generational and cross cultural clashes
• What it means to wear a hijab
• What it means to be queer
• What depression is like
• How cruel and how amazing people can be

And that's not even everything. I love reading.

Happy New Year! I hope you read lots of amazing books this year. Let me know in the comments or on Twitter what you learned this year while reading!

2015 End of Year Survey

This survey was originally made up by Jamie at The Perpetual Page Turner! 

2015 Reading Stats

Number of books I read: 90, although I may fit one more in yet...

Number of rereads: Only 12 this year! 

Genre I read the most from: YA Contemporary, with 22, although if you add adult contemporary, I read 37 contemporary altogether.

Best in Books 

1. Best book I read in 2015 I think that would have to be A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea by Dina Nayeri for this year. 

2. Book you were excited about and thought you were going to love more but didn't? I loved Donna Tartt's The Secret History, but so I was hoping I would like her other book, The Goldfinch, just as much... but, I did not. 

3. Most surprising (in a good way or a bad way) book you read? When Everything Feels Like the Movies by Raziel Reid. Both the way it was written and the ending surprised me, in both the best and worst way possible. 

4. Book you "pushed" the most people to read, and they did? Um, probably Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta, which I always push quite often. I also pushed A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea quite a bit as well, and got my mom to read it. 

5. Best series you started in 2015? Ooh, Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock was really good, and so refreshing for YA. I haven't read any of the other books in the series yet, but I'd like to. Best sequel of 2015? The Winner's Crime by Marie Rutkoski, the sequel to The Winner's Curse - it was so good and intense, I think I read it one sitting. I'm so excited to read The Winner's Kiss!

Best series ender of 2015? Shadowscale by Rachel Hartman (I know it's only a duology, but that still counts). Either that or Winter by Marissa Meyer.

6. Favourite new author you discovered in 2015? Jenny Han! I'm glad I could add to my stack of well-written YA contemporary romance with To All the Boys I've Loved Before and P.S. I Still Love You. 

7. Best book from a genre you don't typically read/was out of your comfort zone? I don't typically read historical fiction, but I quite enjoyed Consumption by Kevin Patterson, as well as A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea by Dina Nayeri. 

8. Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year? Winter by Marissa Meyer, probably. Sheesh, I felt like I had run a marathon after finishing that book, but I was definitely sad it was over! 

9. Book you read in 2015 that you are most likely to reread next year? Well, Jenny Han's duology, definitely, and hopefully Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock. 

10. Favourite cover of a book you read in 2015? I love the cover of The Weight of Feathers by Anna Marie McLemore, which is a beautiful, dramatic and magical story about two show families. The cover of Listen, Slowly by Thanha Lai is also beautiful. Oh, and the cover of Watch the Sky by Kirsten Hubbard, which is what got me to pick up the book initially.

11. Most memorable character of 2015? Even though it was a reread, I'm going to say the characters from The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater, since they are so well written and I can never get them out of my head. 

12. Most beautifully written book read in 2015? A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea by Dina Nayeri, definitely. I mean it made me cry, so. 

13. Most thought-provoking/life-changing book of 2015? Probably this biography I read of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, called Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Prophet, Martyr, Spy by Eric Metaxas. That man was amazing and everything he did and said is extremely inspiring to me.

14. Book you can't believe you waited until 2015 to read? What's Left of Me by Kat Zhang, which I waited for way too long to read, it actually turned out to be quite good. Now I'll probably wait way too long to read the sequel. 

15. Favourite passage/quote from a book you read in 2015? This is a passage from Heather O'Neill's The Girl Who Was Saturday Night. The way she writes is so smooth and clever:

"Every writer has to invent their own magical language, in order to describe the indescribable. They might seem to be writing in French, English or Spanish, but really they were writing in the language of butterflies, crows and hanged men."

16. Shortest book you read this year? Summer Point by Linda McNutt. Longest? The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, that thing is like 900 pages.

17. Book that shocked you the most? When Everything Feels Like The Movies by Raziel Reid. 

18. OTP of the year? Lara Jean and Peter K. :)

19. Favourite non-romantic relationship of the year?  Mai and Ut from Listen, Slowly by Thanha Lai. I love little girl friendships. :)

20. Favourite book you read in 2015 from an author you've read previously? Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta. I'd read it before, when I was 15, and hated it (actually if you look at one of my previous end of year posts, I think it makes it to the "worst books" list). This time I loved it, and don't understand why I didn't like it so much the first time.

21. Best book you read based solely on a recommendation from someone else/peer pressure? I read both Song of Achilles by Madeleine Miller and Deathless by Cathrynne M. Valente because of Tumblr. (They were both great).

22. Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2015? Um, I forget his name, but a character from one of the short stories in the Christmas anthology My True Love Gave to Me, edited by Stephanie Perkins. 

23. Best 2015 debut you read? The Weight of Feathers by Anna Marie McLemore was really good. 

24. Best worldbuilding/most vivid setting you read this year? Maybe the whole world of The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer. 

25. Book that put a smile on your face/was the most fun to read? Reading Kabloona in the Yellow Kayak by Victoria Jason was pretty fun, as well as Wild by Cheryl Strayed. I always seem to enjoy well-written memoirs. 

26. Book that made you cry or nearly cry in 2015? A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea by Dina Nayeri. 

27. Hidden gem of the year? The first book I read, Althea and Oliver, by Cristina Moracho. I haven't really heard many people at all talking about it, and it was really well written and had a really interesting premise. Also The Taliban Cricket Club by Timeri N. Murari, about a girl pretending to be a boy to play cricket under the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. It was great.

28. Book that crushed your soul? Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy by Gary D. Schmidt. 

29. Most unique book you read in 2015? When Everything Feels Like the Movies by Raziel Reid was quite different from anything I've ever read.

30. Book that made you the most mad?  Most of the books that made me really mad this year I didn't finish, so... none?  

Blogging/Bookish Life

1. New favourite book blog of 2015? I could barely keep up with my own blog, much less anyone else's... 

2. Favourite review that you wrote in 2015? I think one of my favourite reviews is the post I did reviewing three books I read set in the Canadian territories. Actually, all the CanLit reviews I did this year were pretty fun.  

3. Best discussion/non-review post you had on your blog? Maybe my 5 TBR List Tips.  I didn't do a whole lot other than reviews this year, though. (Which is kind of funny considering last year my goal was to do more reviews!)

4. Best event that you participated in (author signings, festivals, etc)? NerdCon! So fun. 

5. Best moment of bookish/blogging life of 2015? I always love talking to writers and authors on Twitter, and letting them know when I loved their book. 

6. Most challenging thing about blogging or your reading life this year? Trying to balance school, reading and blogging. (I failed). 

7. Most popular post this year on your blog? My Around the World Reading Challenge post, probably because I linked to it so many times over the year, haha.

8. Post you wished got a little more love? My post about The Book Faeries, where I talk about how my family gives my brother books to read. (The cycle is still going, too). 

9. Best bookish discovery (book related sites, bookstores, etc)? 49thshelf.com is great for CanLit recommendations, and a bookstore I discovered is Half Price Books when I went to Minneapolis in October to go to NerdCon. Unfortunately, my city doesn't really have any great used bookstores like that. :(

10. Did you complete any reading challenges or goals that you had set for yourself at the beginning of this year? I kind of finished my Around the World Reading Challenge, but I definitely completed my Across Canada Reading Challenge, reading a book set in every province and territory in Canada. 

Looking Ahead

1. One book you didn't get to in 2015 but will be your number one priority in 2016? Orbiting Jupiter by Gary D Schmidt, which came out in October but I haven't had the chance to read yet!

2. Book you are most anticipating for 2016 (non-debut)? The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater!! So excited.

3. 2016 debut you are most anticipating? I haven't seen any I'm interested in yet, but I'm sure I will!

4. Series ending/ a sequel you are most anticipating in 2016? See #2! Oh, also The Winner's Kiss by Marie Rutkoski.

5. One thing you hope to accomplish or do in your reading/blogging life in 2016? Blog more than once every couple of months... I'd also love to keep reading books with international settings, especially books by non-American or North American authors. In 2015, I wanted to read more books by non-American authors than by American authors, but I didn't succeed but I would love to try for next year! (So, recs anyone?)

If you want to do the survey, you can find it here! Stay tuned for January 1 for my annual year-end wrap up post (with a bit of a twist, this year). :)