March 2021
As winter and the COVID-19 pandemic continue to drag on, reading can provide us with an opportunity to escape while staying at home.
In Wellington-Halton Hills, we continue have access to outstanding local libraries, thanks to our municipal Councils and staff. Our library staff have gone to great lengths to safely maintain their services to local residents, and are among the essential public servants who deserve our expressions of appreciation.
Here are a few books that I have found particularly compelling and important in the past few months:
21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act
This book by Bob Joseph is an accessible and concise presentation of the deliberate and callous efforts over the decades to assimilate Canadian Indigenous Peoples and in the process, destroy their identity, culture, and communities. It is shocking in its scope; searing in its intensity.
If reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples in this country is ever to be achieved, non-Indigenous Canadians need to learn more about the history of the racist policy objectives of successive national governments, and this is a good place to start.
Resilience is Futile: The Life and Death and Life of Julie S. Lalonde
The winner of the Ontario Legislature’s 2020 Speaker’s Book Award, this is a riveting, harrowing true story of a young woman’s courage in overcoming a violent stalker, who happened to be her former intimate partner.
The prose is unflinching and at times raw, but the story of Julie S. Lalonde’s journey from victim to advocate for ending sexual violence is thought provoking and ultimately unforgettable.
Albatross
In the 1980’s Terry Fallis worked for a Member of Provincial Parliament at Queen’s Park. He has gone on to become one of Canada’s best-loved writers, and has twice won the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour.
Albatross builds on his impressive body of work. This time, the subject is golf, and it is Fallis at his best. Albatross is funny and touching, with imaginative plot twists and a theme that appeals to a wide audience: what happens in your life when you follow your heart.
Happy Reading!
