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    Birdie
    Birdie
    Birdie
    Audiobook8 hours

    Birdie

    Written by Tracey Lindberg

    Narrated by Alyssa Bresnahan

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Bernice Meetoos will not be broken. A big, beautiful Cree woman with a dark secret in her past, Bernice ("Birdie") has left her home in northern Alberta to travel to Gibsons, B.C. She is on something of a vision quest, looking for family, for home, for understanding. She is also driven by the leftover teenaged desire to meet Pat Johns--Jesse from The Beachcombers--because he is, as she says, a working, healthy Indian man. Birdie heads for Molly's Reach to find answers, but they are not the ones she expected. With the arrival in Gibsons of her Auntie Val and her cousin Skinny Freda, Birdie begins to draw from her dreams the lessons she was never fully taught in life. Informed by the lore and knowledge of Cree traditions, Birdie is a darkly comic and moving first novel about the universal experience of recovering from tragedy. At heart, it is the story of an extraordinary woman who travels to the deepest part of herself to find the strength to face the past and to build a new life.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateJun 23, 2017
    ISBN9781501957550
    Birdie
    Author

    Tracey Lindberg

    TRACEY LINDBERG is a citizen of As’in’i’wa’chi Ni’yaw Nation Rocky Mountain Cree and hails from the Kelly Lake Cree Nation community. She is an award-winning writer for her academic work and teaches Indigenous studies and Indigenous laws at two universities in Canada. She sings the blues loudly, talks quietly and is next in a long line of argumentative Cree women. Birdie, her first novel, was one of Apple’s Best Books for June, and earned Tracey a spot on CBC’s list of “Writers to Watch.”

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    Reviews for Birdie

    4/5

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    • 5/5
      My daughter bought me this book for my birthday/Christmas gift. I was stoked to read an Indigenous book by a Canadian Indigenous author, being an Indigenous Canadian myself.I connected to this amazing story in so many ways. I saw myself in Birdie. I'm sure a lot of us do. I also saw myself in Freda though, and not just in name. The story of these five women was powerful. It was told in the most interesting way, I feel like it is still resonating through me as I write this review.Pretty incredible debut novel!Miigwetch to my daughter for gifting it to me!
    • 3/5
      I wanted to read the Canada Reads nominees so picked this book up. I am not sure how to describe my reading experience.

      There was a lot of back and forth in time in this book that sometimes confused me. The lives of Birdie (Bernice), Maggie, Val, Skinny Freda and Lola were told from Bernice's point of view, but did not mince words. Violence, sexual abuse, mental health issues and family difficulties were dealt with in this story. Each chapter had some sort of dream in it that gave you some idea of the native culture and Bernice's take on it. It was not an easy read, but all in all, I am glad I read it.
    • 2/5
      Bernice (aka Birdie) is a Cree woman and has recently come to Gibsons, British Columbia, where The Beachcombers was filmed. Bernice has had a crush on the only Indian character, Jesse, since she was younger. The story goes back and forth in time from Bernice in Gibsons to growing up in Alberta. I just didn’t find this book very interesting, so my mind wandered. The most interesting parts were when she was growing up, but in general, I wasn’t interested and didn’t really care. Even less was I interested in the little bit of poetry(???) at the end of each chapter and the bit of dreaming(???) at the start of each chapter. Those parts, I barely skimmed, if I didn’t skip them altogether.
    • 4/5
      This is a very good book but it is not an easy one to read. It is a very circular story of Bernice (Birdie), a half breed Cree woman who grows up in Northern Alberta and ends up in Gibsons, British Columbia. She was a great fan of the CBC production "The Beachcombers" filmed in Gibsons and wants to meet her idol Pat John. She is a survivor of sexual abuse at the hands of a relative. She is so traumatized by her past the she enters into a semi catatonic state for several months until her body learns to live in peace with her mind. It is during this time that we learn of her past and meet three very strong women who help her survive: Valene, Freda, and Lola, her employer. Family secrets are not talked about and there is guilt that Birdie was subjected to so much pain. The story is filled with spirituality, symbolism and poetry and these are important for Birdie's recovery. There is a happy ending as the women friends help her through her illness. This was a Canada Reads 2016 selection and it fits very well into its theme of "starting over". With the Canadian inquiry into Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women getting underway, this is a very good intro into someone who goes missing spiritually because of past trauma.
    • 4/5
      Good but not an easy book to read or digest. I enjoyed some of the personal touches that the author makes; connecting words and ideas that are unique. Tale of a wasted life, and the steps the main character tries to turn it around. Not that it will convince many people.