Kaleb

The plot line of Operation Bounce House and its crass middle-school humour were fresh in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series, but this is more of the same disappointment. But wait…

Despite that, this book was an unreserved attack on the toxicity of certain gamer subcultures. More importantly though it was a clear denouncement of well-known fascist genocides of our time. Matt Dinniman laid bare the reality that the issue is neither Putin nor Netanyahu – it’s not even Trump. The issue is the passive tolerance that people of all walks of life seemingly embrace.

Revolution does not necessarily mean war, there are many forms of resistance. In this book he demonstrates some creative examples to make the point that in revolution all other options must be considered prior to resorting to violence.

I have myriad concerns with certain patrons taken by this author, but filtering them as merely noise revealed wisdom sorely missing in today’s agricultural dialog.

With a land ethic not so dissimilar to that of Aldo Leopold, but focused almost entirely on the agricultural use of land, Wendell Berry predicts – though he never knew it as this was published in 1977 – the unfortunate reality of 21st century farm and land management practices.

While the data set we have today is larger, the conclusions and solutions apparent today are essentially the same as when this was written. The primary difference is that in addition to applying the principals he advocated for, we have also to remediate the damage done over the latest five decades.

Where Wolves Don’t Die is a fantastic young adult book. As a non-Native person I can only imagine the positive impact this may offer Native youth, but as a parent I can confidently say this novel masterfully addresses key coming of age topics in ways I hope my own son will appreciate.

“Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians but Were Afraid to Ask” could have been named “Everything You You didn’t Realize You Needed to Know About Indians”, but it’s clear that volition is important. I encourage you to ask the question ‘What should I know’ as well as ‘What do I think I know that may be incorrect’.

There are so many things that I learned from this book that I am saddened to admit I didn’t know before, despite the years spent in and around the territory of the Misi-zaaga'igani Anishinaabeg (Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe) in Northern Minnesota and the Mikinaakwajiw-ininiwag (Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians) in North Central North Dakota. In fact, I believe that it is this familiarity that led to never asking more questions.

Yes that’s a 1.5 star rating, but it was also laugh-out-loud funny and amazingly affirming and informative about the struggles of those who struggle with mental health (hint: I think that’s all of us).

Yet, for someone who knocks out audiobooks at 2x speed and normally enjoys every second of it, this took me months to finish. That might be a me problem as the hardest part was getting up the courage to look in the mirror, I mean listen to another chapter.