M

BCLA Readers Advisory Interest Group: titles to talk about

The BCLA Readers Advisory Interest Group would like to share three engaging titles with you to suggest to your patrons when they are looking for something new to read. Each of these three could also work when you are in that precarious state known as “librarian without a book to read.”

Birdie by Tracey Lindberg recounts the life story of Cree woman Bernice Meetoos. It follows Bernice from her beginnings on a Northern Alberta reserve, to life on the mean streets of Edmonton, and ultimately through to her move to Gibsons, B.C. Throughout her turbulent life Bernice’s Cree traditions have sustained her and have ultimately come to define her positively. Birdie is part of the Canada Reads 2016 Longlist.

Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of a Fist by Sunil Yapa takes place during the 1999 World Trade Organization protests in Seattle. It is a fast-paced, gripping read that segues well into our current era of economic anxiety and grass-roots demonstrations. Yapa’s debut novel illuminates the simmering tensions between police and protesters and reveals how these rifts can surface amongst family members: the protagonist is the estranged adopted son of the police chief.

For nonfiction enthusiasts, That Lonely Section of Hell by Lori Shenher recounts the botched investigation of the missing and murdered women of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Senher was the lead investigator on the case and suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of her work. Beyond her harrowing narrative is the tragedy that these murders went unchecked and undiscovered for so long in a city that looked askance at its most vulnerable members.


Shelley Wilson-Roberts is a librarian at the New Westminster Public Library.