CBC Canada Reads starts this week (March 21-24th) and book nerds everywhere are poised for the action! Now a few of us here at Women From Away take this stuff a bit more seriously than others but we love this contest all the same! This year we have a favourite and this post might just be an endorsement of why you should also love "Birdie" by Tracey Lindberg as much as we did. If you haven't read it, I will try to be vague as to avoid spoilers! I also think it is only fair to disclose our admiration for Tracey Lindberg on a personal level as we hold her as a sort of bookclub patron saint; as you'll see from the photo I have framed and prominently displayed beside my bed below.

"Birdie" was suggested by Lacey last year and was voted in during our intensely thorough voting process at our 2nd Annual Retreat. I think part of the draw for the WFA members was our experience reading "Monkey Beach". For many of us it was our first time reading fiction like this and experiencing what we called Concentric Circles. I think that is actually what it is called... but I don't have a reference to credit on that one (maybe a good time for Nicole or Stephanie to jump in here!). Basically, it is the idea of story telling circling around "the point", which allows the writer to include information that doesn't seem immediately related to said point. With "Monkey Beach" this was done through flash backs or the character reflecting back on previous experiences. This is where I think "Birdie" steps it up a notch.

With "Birdie" the main character isn't so much reflecting back or having a flash back, but actually goes back through her experiences and "re-lives" them to a certain degree to tease out facts or memories about herself and help work through her traumatic life experiences. This can make it very difficult for the reader to follow. Literally, I had to read with a notebook to fill in information about certain characters as I went along - which is a practice I have tried to maintain and I highly recommend. 

For me personally, the circular storytelling of "Birdie" brought out certain points more vividly, for example the concept of women taking up "too much space" and the desire to shrink themselves or even disappear, which Birdie did for certain periods of the story. 

For others in the group, the theme of justice came out strongly as well and we did read through this piece by Val Napoleon. There are a few spoilers in here, so I'll leave it to you to read through. 

The thing I love about "Birdie" and why Tracey Lindberg will forever be my imaginary best friend, is that she covered some of the soul crushing experiences of many First Nations, Metis and Inuit people in colonized regions (not unique to just Canada) but did so in a way that allowed readers, in our case a group of readers to react in their unique ways. This is not a story that a) tells you what happened and then b) tells you or shapes how you should feel about the story. Each woman in our group reacted to certain parts, like "Why is there a bird singing all of a sudden!?" or "Where did the ingredients list come from?" or "I can identify with Bernice feeling like she is "too much" in size or space."

In short, I think you should buy and read "Birdie" by Tracey Lindberg and then vote for it in the Canada Reads poll! And then obviously watch/listen to the whole show down in which ever medium works for you! 

**We were slightly crushed to learn that our "Man on the Side" Wab Kinew is no longer hosting this year but considering it is because he has decided to finally make a step towards being Canada's Prime Minister (albeit a few years from now), we will support the change to Gill Deacon as host**

Year Three Book Five: 

Brain on Fire by Susannah Cahalan

March 3rd, 2016

Lauren: Five stars for me is always the kind of book that I'm riveted by, that I can't put down and I carry it around the house with me. And this was one of those. I think what I liked most was how technical it was. I found it particularly fascinating how doctors go about diagnosing mental illness. One part was explaining how they get people to attempt to draw a clock. They start with the circle and fill in the numbers. Just this simple task can tell so much about what the person is struggling with. Things such as the size of the circle they draw, issues with the layout of the numbers, graphical difficulties with the drawings of the lines/hands and even difficulties with understanding the meaning of the clock can hint at problems with the human brain including what lobe of the brain may be affected.

While reading other reviews, I noticed quite a lot of criticism on how she didn’t seem to incorporate her own feelings and emotions into this book, but I think that’s actually part of what I liked about it. She wasn’t present for a lot of what went on in her life during this time. There were large periods of time where she actually blacked out completely and has no recollection of it. So I think that she wrote the book in the best way that she could – explaining what she went through and explaining how mental issues can be physiological rather than psychological. This is not only a very interesting concept… but also terrifying.

I think this is an important book for people to read and very relevant today. There is so much we don't understand still about the human brain. And so much we don't understand or can't relate to in terms of what other people may be experiencing. It reminds me a bit of these commercials that are out right now where the people are discussing someone missing work because of mental illness. There is still so much negative stigma around these types of illnesses. I found her to be very open and honest about an issue that may have been embarrassing for her and I appreciate that she told her story.

Angela: Here's a surprise - I really enjoyed this book!  I felt that Susannah did a great job of combining the neurological, physiological and personal aspects of her journey together into an engaging and honest narrative. There were parts throughout her telling of the hospitalization where it came across as detached and impersonal but that connects directly to the fact that she has no memory of it.  She did a thorough job of piecing together her own story from other's accounts however you still get the impression that it is just that - other people's stories. 

I found it compelling in that I read it in two sittings and went on to read more about her work afterwards.  I found myself wishing to have a bit more insight or opinion from others and really enjoyed when she did fill us in on the emotions of her family as they went through it with her.  I think her journalism background really came through in how factually she presented her condition (which I appreciated) but also led to the detached nature of her writing style. 

This book really made me think about some of the people I've worked with and known who have been given labels, diagnosed, medicated and/or hospitalized for various 'mental health reasons' but how really so much about the brain is still a mystery.  At the end of the book when she talks about how if she had gotten sick 3 years earlier (before the discovery of her condition) or if she had gone to a different hospital or been assigned a different doctor OR if they had taken the Dr Bailey's word that she was an alcoholic ... what the outcome could have been.  She could have been been dumped in the psych ward for years or even died because of lack of knowledge about what could have saved her.  (My mind explodes just thinking about that!)  

In the end I give it a 4.  Well written and I would recommend it to others.

Amy: This story is wild! Straight up wild! I give it a 5 out of 5! 

I randomly picked this out of the shelf from the Public Library because they had it on display, so when I started I had no previous knowledge about it. After starting it, I couldn't put it down! 

One of the things that really struck me hard and has stuck with me in the year and a half since reading it the first time, is how mental illnesses are perceived. For Susannah is was discovered early that her "brain was on fire" because of an autoimmune disease that affected her in a lot of ways. At first Susannah presents like hundreds of people with mental illness do, but for some combination of luck and privilege she was properly diagnosed and treated. But interestingly, even I have a bias that says "Well, I mean she had an autoimmune disorder. She's not mentally ill!" and some how categorize an Axis I or II as being 'less than' kind of illness. But truly, how are these two types of illness different! So, definitely Susannah's story has challenged my perception of illness that hurt the brain so to speak (ie. delusions, paranoia...).  

Great pick Robyn! We'll all have to watch the movie together!