Chief Librarian Sandra Singh, and our Stay at Home and Read a Book Ball guest of honour, has recommended The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America by Thomas King for you to stay at home and read. We hope you will join us at the Ball by making a donation and curling up with a book. Thank you to our four guests of honour for their great recommended reads!

Thomas King’s The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America (Anchor Canada, 2012)

Thomas King’s meditative history on the relationship between indigenous and non-indigenous people in North America since contact is one of the most important books I have read, ever. As he discusses, removals and relocations, treaties, residential schools, and other points in history where indigenous peoples were moved out of the way to make room for newcomer settlement, values, and economic development, King’s meditation simmers with a justifiable anger that is compellingly tempered by his customary wit and graciousness. He draws the reader along in a series of accounts that are heart-breaking, enraging, and at times baffling, intermixing his historical critique with reflections on his own personal experiences. King is of Cherokee and Greek descent and was known to me previously for his superb novels Medicine River and Green Grass, Running Water (both also superb) and his work on CBC Radio’s Dead Dog Cafe. This book should be required reading for everyone in Canada.

Thank you to the Friends

I would like to express my sincere appreciation and respect for the Friends of the VPL. The financial support provided by the Friends over the past years has enabled us to enhance our public spaces that we could not otherwise purchase and supported countless programs including our Writer-in-Residence and Writing and Book Camp. While we are well supported by the City of Vancouver, most of our money goes toward keeping the doors open and lights on and providing a foundation of collections, staff support, and programs. We don’t often have the funds for the additions that enhance our community’s experiences: art in our branches, puppetry theatres, storytime play mats. These Friends’ supported additions create a more welcoming and thoughtful environment for our patrons and provide staff with new programming tools to enrich their offerings. In addition to these material and programming supports, I would like to express my sincere thanks to the Friends for being such passionate and vocal supporters of public libraries in Vancouver. We appreciate every effort you make to serve as ambassadors to the library in the community and for sharing how much the library means to you with others.

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