Just like you, our staff have a variety of likes and interests! Jake enjoys reading history, politics, sociology, and science fiction. His picks for this month are timely, centred on Indigenous heritage, D-Day (June 6), and the refugee experience in light of World Refugee Day on June 20.
Get more recommendations from Jake or another member of our May We Suggest team here.
Juno Beach: Canada's D-Day Victory, June 6, 1944 by Mark Zuehlke
On June 6, 1944, the greatest armada in history stood off Normandy and the largest amphibious invasion ever began as 107,000 men aboard 6,000 ships pressed toward the coast. Among them were 14,500 Canadians, who were to land on a five-mile-long stretch of rocky ledges fronted by a dangerously exposed beach.
The Witness Blanket: Truth, Art and Reconciliation by Carey Newman and Kirstie Hudson
Artist Carey Newman created the Witness Blanket to make sure that history is never forgotten. The Blanket is a living work of art—a collection of hundreds of objects from those schools. It includes everything from photos, bricks, hockey skates, graduation certificates, dolls and piano keys to braids of hair. Behind every piece is a story. And behind every story is a residential school Survivor.
D-Day Girls: The Spies Who Armed the Resistance, Sabotaged the Nazis, and Helped Win World War II by Sarah Rose
The dramatic, inspiring story of the extraordinary women recruited by Britain's elite spy agency to sabotage the Nazis, shore up the Resistance, and pave the way for Allied victory in World War II.
Me, Tomorrow: Indigenous Views on the Future by Drew Hayden Taylor
In Me Tomorrow, First Nations, Metis and Inuit artists, activists, educators and writers, youth and elders come together to envision Indigenous futures in Canada and around the world.
Every Man a Hero: A Memoir of D-Day, the First Wave at Omaha Beach, and a World at War by Ray Lambert and Jim DeFelice
In June 1944, he hit Omaha Beach with the first wave. Now D-Day legend Ray Lambert (1920-2021) delivers one of the most remarkable memoirs of our time, a tour-de-force of remembrance evoking his role as a decorated World War II medic who risked his life to save the heroes of Normandy.
Those We Throw Away Are Diamonds: A Refugee's Search for Home, by Mondiant Dogon and Jenna Krajeski
Mondiant Dogon, a Bagogwe Tutsi born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, was only three years old, his father's lifelong friend, a Hutu man, came to their home with a machete in his hand and warned the family they were to be killed within hours and they fled. Rarely do refugees get to tell their own stories, but this is one of them.
The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives by Viet Thanh Nguyen
Viet Thanh Nguyen brings together a host of prominent refugee writers to explore and illuminate the refugee experience. Featuring original essays by a collection of writers from around the world, The Displaced is an indictment of closing our doors, and a powerful look at what it means to be forced to leave home and find a place of refuge.
Nothing Will Be Different by Tara McGowan-Ross
Tara McGowan-Ross is an urban Mi'kmaw multidisciplinary artist and writer. In her memoir, she describes a neurotic party girl's coming-of-age memoir about learning to live before getting ready to die. Tara has it pretty good: a nice job, a writing career, a forgiving boyfriend. She should be happy. Yet Tara can't stay sober and she's terrible at monogamy. Even her psychiatrist grows sick of her and stops returning her calls, but a health diagnosis changes everything.
