Fall Reading List

The fall semester is off to a strong start…well, kind of. My internet is down more than it’s up these days but I’m working on finding the positives where I can. I’m with some of my favorite instructors again, I have a lot of big ideas, and while the lack of internet is impacting my ability to finish most of my work, I’m confident in what I’ll produce when I do have service. With that said, I have a lot of down time when I have no internet, which means reading time! Here’s what’s on my fall reading list:

Cloud Runner by Joy Harjo  This hauntingly beautiful collection is one that has me at a loss for words. Grief. It’s been a topic of Roots and Reckonings quite often and is core to this collection of poetry. “[Cloud Runner] is a testament to poetry’s power to speak what is unspeakable, to touch what the mind cannot carry.” Harjo builds an ethereal shrine to her daughter, Rainy Dawn Ortiz, in these pages (Yakoke fehna for the ARC, Joy).

Sunflower Season by Danica Nava  A sunflower farm and not-so-quiet life in Oklahoma. Hm, what does that remind me of? We get firefighters, we get the second-chance romance trope, and apparently the MMC isn’t perfect. And Native characters in trad-pub romance? Oh, and the FMC is grieving her beloved grandma 11 years after her passing? It’s me, I’m her, and I can’t wait to finish this ARC.

Tilton and Grace Entokah: An Osage Story by Anthony Lookout  This book tells the stories of Osage history through the narratives of Lookout’s great-grandparents, Tilton and Grace. Removals, the Osage Allotment Act of 1906, and everything else that makes up “the collective memory of those on the Osage reservation” is exactly what I want to learn more about. So much love went into bringing these stories to the public, with Anthony’s wife Kathy and their daughter Maddie Habeck working on editing and other publication needs from his bedside. Lookout signed for publication, and his family did the heartwork of ensuring posthumous production which makes this even more special to me.

The Secret: America in World History Before Columbus by Joseph B. Mahan  I have what is stated to be a first edition, second printing, of this 1983 work that displays imagery associated with the Choctaw and other Southeastern tribes on the cover. One part of the appeal was the multi-thousand-dollar price tag, while the other part of the appeal is the dust jacket description: “the first significant breakthrough toward understanding the visual symbolism of the so-called ‘Southern Cult’ of the Mississippian moundbuilders.” Cult? Say what?

The Poison Daughter by Sheila Masterson  I pitched this to my book club for our October read based entirely on a few sentences summarizing the book and the fact that Masterson herself will join your club meetings virtually! Sko Read Den Book Club is excited to get this in their hands, and I’m excited to lead the meeting. There’s bound to be a lot of excitement when anyone the FMC kisses, immediately dies. Except that one guy?

Kil hohchefo!

Bridgette Hoshont’omba is a student at Nebraska Indian Community College.