Help! I need some specific book recs, please

[renenet]

Hello, internet! So, I have an interesting assignment at work and limited time in which to accomplish it...which makes me inclined to try to crowdsource the heck out of this thing, appealing to all of my well-read internet friends as well as all of my (mostly offline) English teacher friends and librarian colleagues

Comments

[sheafrotherdon]

I love Louise Erdrich - she's my favorite author bar none - but I wonder if the Round House is the best choice given the variables you listed? I have yet to be able to get more than 50 pages into that book because the violence at the beginning is so profound, and so hard to read as a woman who's survived sexual violence.

My favorite of hers is the Last Report of the Miracle at Little No Horse, but I'm not sure if the beginning might put people off - until Father Damien gets to the rez, it's a little dense / hard to parse? I'll give it more thought.

[renenet]

Thanks for this info. I knew from the summaries I read that we'd need to carefully assess the description of the attack once we read the book ourselves, but now you've saved us that time and we can focus on other Erdrich titles instead. She's been on our short list from our first conversation, so I'm sure we'll find one or more titles to include--but I welcome any more specific suggestions if you have any to share as an Erdrich devotee. :-)

[sheafrotherdon]

Perhaps another Native, female author instead? Linda Hogan's The People of the Whale is gorgeous, female-centered, and completely immerses you in a Native community's worldview. There are references to Vietnam in it, but the violence there is no different from any other Vietnam-related text.