My review of the content is essentially the same as my review of the print book, which I read in 2020. That review is here: https://www.librarything.com/work/12848384/reviews/163581484

The audiobook is what prompted me to sign up for Libro.fm, because the library didn’t have it and I simply needed to hear Lorne Cardinal reading this book. He does an excellent job, especially with highlighting King’s deadpan wit. I highly recommend both print and audio for this book, which is a must read. ( )

Another excellent book by Thomas King. This one is a history of indigenous peoples in North America told from the point of view of indigenous peoples. There is history in here of which I was unaware. Even though some of the history is painful to read in terms of the institutional and personal racism that was leveled against indigenous peoples in the guise of nation building, King brings his sharp wit to bear that makes digestion of this history more manageable. I greatly enjoyed this book while simultaneously filling in the gaps in my Canadian education. I highly recommend this book to anyone of settler descent. ( )

This makes a very hard history easy to read. Thomas King's wonderful black humour doesn't whitewash any of the tragedies but adds poignancy to the absurd errors and deliberate evil of colonialism in North America. ( )

I learned about this book from a friend, as I was looking for something to read to help me learn more about the indigenous people of Canada.

Oh. My. Goodness.

The author blames, among other things, the arrogant push of Christianity as one of the reasons for the losses of the indigenous people, their land, languages, and so much more. And my description in that last sentence seems woefully understated.

I’m a Christian, so I’m grieved that the teachings of Jesus could end up doing to the indigenous people of North America the full opposite of what I think Jesus intended. But residential schools prove that Christianity (not Jesus' teaching) was a key factor in the horrors enacted toward indie finite people.

King doesn’t spend all his time in the book talking about residential schools. Nor does he spend it complaining, though he could. I learned about the schools, land acknowledgements, treaties, and how it seems to be getting a bit better as we work to address the wrongs we’ve enacted in the past, but there is a lot of work to do.

From The City of Toronto's website, it seems that I live on the “traditional territory of many nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples”.

I pray that, as a Christian, I will help to redeem the wrongs that have been done. I may not have been the ones who stole the land and abolished a way of life, but I can be part of the redemption. ( )

A contemporary look at what happened when Europeans came to North America — and what is still happening as whites continue to take stuff, impose their will and stack the deck against any challenge or conflicting opinion. Some of the bits I marked: "Governments here and around the world also know that fear and poverty can hold an injustice in place in perpetuity, no matter how flagrant, no matter how obscene". ... "You see my problem. The history I offered to forget, the past I offered to burn, turns out to be our present. It may well be our future." While discussing the challenge for North American tribes to determine the "rules" for who is considered a member Indian and who isn't, he observes, "Barriers can create security. Numbers can create strength." And he mentions "an old adage" that I'd never heard before, and that I hope never to forget, "Democracy is more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner." Thank you, to my local library system, for having this book on the shelf; I hope many more people read it. ( )