American Apartheid: The Native American Struggle for Self-Determination and Inclusion

 

Non-fiction - History

Published in 2018, American Apartheid: The Native American Struggle for Self-Determination and Inclusion by Stephanie Woodard, highlights the stories of the daily struggles and statistics of Native Americans. 

This book packs a lot of information in its 200+ pages!  It covers land, income, voting, crime, NAGPRA (Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act), child welfare, and many more issues.  While reading I took many pages of notes and while I learned a lot there is still so much more to learn.  

Happy Reading, 

Amber

Winter Counts

 

Fiction - Thriller - Crime

David Heska Wanbli Weiden is a citizen of the Sicangu Lakota Nation, a lawyer, a professor, and author of this shocking thriller that dives deep into the “long-ignored part of American life”.

Winter Counts is set primarily on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota where we are introduced to Virgil Wounded Horse. Virgil is know as the “local enforcer” on the reservation.  After several drug overdoses take place on the reservation, Virgil is approached about finding out who is bringing/selling heroin on the reservation and to make them stop.  A little hesitate at first, Virgil agrees after a near death due to a heroin overdose hits too close to home. 

Virgil, along with his ex-girlfriend Marie begin their search/investigation only to be dealt a gut wrenching blow when they discover the individual who has been behind it all. 

Winter Counts takes us on this journey with Virgil as he quickly realizes “that being a Native American in the twenty-first century comes at an incredible cost”.

Happy Reading,

Amber

Atomic Love

 

Historical Fiction - Mystery

Atomic Love by Jennie Fields is hands down one of the best books I’ve read so far in 2020!

Atomic Love begins in Chicago 1950.  It tells the story of Rosalind Porter who works the antique jewelry counter at a department store.  However, years earlier she was a passionate physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project. What took her from her job as a physicist to working at a department store?  Thomas Weaver. 

Thomas was not only a colleague of Rosalind but was also personally involved with Rosalind.  He was a brilliant scientist whose work on the Manhattan Project was extremely beneficial.  However, fast forward a few years and FBI Special Agent Charlie Szydlo is following Rosalind Porter with hopes of finding out information on Thomas Weaver. What has Thomas been up to these past 5 years?  Is Rosalind still in contact with him?  Does she have any knowledge of Thomas’ past/present/future activities?  How far will Rosalind go in her quest to find the truth and possibly save her country?

Treason, espionage, murder, Communist, secrets, love, and so much more fill the pages of this amazing, intriguing, perfect book!

I have always been interested in the Manhattan Project and while this is a historical fiction book, it was very eye opening to different situations that occurred during this time period. Hopefully once we are clear from this pandemic, visiting one of the Manhattan Project National Parks (Oak Ridge, TN being the closest) will come to fruition. 

Happy Reading, 

Amber 

Rewind

 

Fiction - Crime - Psychological Thriller

“Psycho meets Fatal Attraction...” is the perfect description of this dark and twisty journey one goes on when reading Rewind by Catherine Ryan Howard.

Rewind is told in sections titled “Play” “Pause” “Fast-Forward” and “Rewind”.

Natalie, an Instagram Influencer, believes her husband is cheating on her and decides to prove it.  She packs her bags and checks in to Shanamore Cottages, where she believes her husband meets his mistress.

Shanamore Cottages is a “not quite abandoned can we stay anywhere else” kind of place.  Also, it doesn’t help matters that the cottages’ manager, Andrew, is a creep who has placed hidden cameras in the rooms so he can watch the guest.  However, he never thought he’d actually watch one of the first be murdered.

Audrey, a journalist, works for a celebrity news website.  She is assigned to check into the reports of the missing Instagram Influencer, Natalie.  As Audrey retraces Natalie’s steps ahead enters the strange/creepy/terrifying situations Natalie must’ve found herself in at Shanamore Cottages.

Rewind is a fantastic read that gives all the creepy thriller vibes!

Happy Reading,

Amber

The Night Swim

Fiction - Crime - Psychological Thriller

Any true crime podcast listeners out there?  Then The Night Swim by Megan Goldin is the book for you!

Rachel is a popular podcaster.  Her podcast, Guilty or Not Guilty, is in it’s 3rd season.  She’s looking for ways to make this season different than the previous seasons so she decides to follow (in person) the rape trial taking place in the small town of Neopolis.  

The accused rapist is a local guy home from college for the weekend.  The accuser is a 16 year old local girl.  The accusations and pending trial have the entire town in an uproar causing riffs between life long friends.  

As Rachel makes her way to Neapolis she begins receiving letters and emails from a woman named Hannah.  Hannah and her family lived in Neapolis 25 years ago until her sister Jenny drowned and a few weeks later her mother died of cancer.  After their deaths, Hannah was adopted by a loving family and moved away.  However, never believing her sister drowned, is back in town to prove her sister was murdered and she knows the perfect podcaster to help her prove it.  

Happy Reading, 

Amber

The Girl in the Ice

 

Fiction - Crime - Thriller

The Girl in the Ice by Robert Bryndza is the first book in the Detective Erika Foster series.

Andrea Douglas-Brown, a socialite, is taken, bound, and viciously murdered.  She is discovered days later in a frozen lake.  Detective Erika Foster, still dealing with a personal/professional traumatic event, has been assigned as the lead detective of Andrea's murder investigation.

Andrea, who seemed to have the 'perfect' life, was in the midst of planning her wedding when she was murdered but was her life everything she portrayed it to be?  As Detective Foster digs into Andrea's life, her extremely wealthy family, and her fiance, there are events that aren't quite adding up.  There's also the way in which Andrea was killed that shares similarities with other unsolved murders that have taken place in the area.  Is there a serial killer lurking in the area?  

Happy Reading,

Amber

The Shadows by Alex North

Fiction - Thriller - Horror 

Book of the Month and Crime by the Book are introducing me to new authors/books and I am enjoying every minute of it!  The Shadows was one of my July Book of the Month books (the other being Mexican Gothic).  A thriller with a bit of horror (what can I say it seems to be my new reading genre) that brings a murder that happened 25 years ago to life in a town time left behind.

25 years ago:  Charlie Crabtree, a sinister teenager, and his friends begin learning and developing their skills at lucid dreaming.  Charlie believes in incubation, a process of being able to control what you dream and eventually being able to disappear permanently in that dream world.  Charlie and 2 of his 3 friends (Paul Adams always questioned Charlie's belief in his dream world theories) plan a murder, convinced that they will be able to disappear forever into their dream world.  Of course things very rarely go as planned and after the murder takes place only Charlie seems to have disappeared while everyone else is left to deal with the aftermath.

Present Day:  After 25 years, Paul Adams has returned to Gritten to visit his dying mother.  Upon his arrival a copycat murder of the one 25 years ago takes place.  Everything Paul and the town of Gritten have tried to move past is brought quite literally to their front doors leaving some to question what is real and what is a dream.

Happy Reading,

Amber

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Fiction - Horror - Thriller

Mexican Gothic was one of my July Book of the Month picks and I mostly picked it because I loved the cover (that's reason enough, right?).  Mexican Gothic grabs you from the beginning and hold tight giving an overwhelming feeling that 'not everything was okay' and 'it's going to be awful.'

Noemi's cousin, Catalina, has recently married and is now living at High Place with her husband and his family.  Noemi's father receives a letter from a clearly distraught Catalina and he sends Noemi to check on her to see if she's just being dramatic (again) or if something is seriously wrong.  Upon Noemi's arrive to High Place things are not as they seem.  Noemi is only allowed to visit with Catalina during certain times of the day and it's during these short visits that Noemi realizes that Catalina is no longer the Catalina she remembered.  Noemi demands to speak with Catalina's doctor at which point she makes it clear she wants a second opinion.

While hardly anyone in this house is friendly, Noemi does befriend Francis, Catalina's brother-in-law.  Francis tells/ask/pleads with Noemi to leave High Place before it's too late but not understanding the urgency Noemi decides to stay.  However, the longer Noemi remains at High Place the more she notices the strange things taking place all around her.  She begins sleeping walking, which she hasn't experienced since she was a child.  She starts having dreams/visions that only intensify the longer she is in the house.  It is through these dreams/visions that she learns the family's history and the violent/tragic events that have been occurring in the past/present/future.  Leaving this house with Catalina seemed so easy upon her arrival but now leaving could cost everyone their lives.

Mexican Gothic is 5 stars!  I haven't read many horror books (thriller/mystery books are more my speed) but this one maybe might have turned me into more of a horror book reader.  While reading Mexican Gothic I was pretty nervous with each turn of the page as to what was coming next and then pretty disturbed (towards the end) by the truth of what was happening but I couldn't stop reading (with all the lights in the house on, of course!).

Happy Reading!

Amber

The Earth is Weeping by Peter Cozzens

A few months ago I was talking with my Dad (a/k/a my in-house historian) and the conversation turned to Native American matters.  I started listening to podcasts regarding Native American matters and recently subscribed to Beyond the Buckskin monthly jewelry box (each piece of jewelry is made by a Native artist).  However, it was through the podcast and learning and each piece of jewelry that I realized just how little I knew about Native American matters, past and present.  My Dad recommend that a good book to start with was The Earth is Weeping by Peter Cozzens.  

I immediately ordered a copy of The Earth is Weeping.  While waiting for it to be delivered, I started gathering a list of more books to read on this subject by both Native and non-Native authors.  Book mail day arrived (my favorite days) and my reading journey began!

I approached reading this book as I would a school textbook.  I kept a bookmark in the end notes section so I could constantly refer back to it (I get that from my Dad).  I grabbed a notebook and took notes and I had almost daily calls with my Dad to discuss the "chapter of the day".  This book includes 4 parts (23 chapters), maps, and photos.  The book covers Red Cloud's War, Wound Knee, Little Bighorn, Custer, Sherman, Sheridan, Sacred Mountain, Battle of Washita, Grant, Joe Copell, Marias Massacre, Crazy Horse, Quanah, Cynthia Parker, Modocs, reservations, treaties, Black Hills, Sitting Bull, Geronimo, Thieves' Road, Black Elk, and many more individuals and wars.  

At the end of the book I was heartbroken by what I had learned.  The treatment of Native Americans by the U. S. government was shameful.  The Earth is Weeping, a fitting title, was a great starter book on my journey to learn more about Native American matters.  

-Amber