Permenant Astonishment by Tomson Highway

 For the first time in years, I am reading a book for the mere joy of reading a book. The book that I chose for this special occassion is Permenant Astonishment by Tomson Highway. 

Here is the description from the publisher's website:

Tomson Highway was born in a snowbank on an island in the sub-Arctic, the eleventh of twelve children in a nomadic, caribou-hunting Cree family. Growing up in a land of ten thousand lakes and islands, Tomson relished being pulled by dogsled beneath a night sky alive with stars, sucking the juices from roasted muskrat tails, and singing country music songs with his impossibly beautiful older sister and her teenaged friends. Surrounded by the love of his family and the vast, mesmerizing landscape they called home, his was in many ways an idyllic far-north childhood. But five of Tomson's siblings died in childhood, and Balazee and Joe Highway, who loved their surviving children profoundly, wanted their two youngest sons, Tomson and Rene, to enjoy opportunities as big as the world. And so when Tomson was six, he was flown south by float plane to attend a residential school. A year later Rene joined him to begin the rest of their education. In 1990 Rene Highway, a world-renowned dancer, died of an AIDS-related illness.

Permanent Astonishment is Tomson's extravagant embrace of his younger brother's final words: "Don't mourn me, be joyful." His memoir offers insights, both hilarious and profound, into the Cree experience of culture, conquest, and survival. 

I'm currently two hours into the twelve hour audiobook and I am really enjoying it. I almost didn't read it because it is a memoir. I went through a phase where I was memoired out, as in, I read too many memoirs and then I became emotionally tired. I think I had mild vicarious trauma from some of the memoirs. So I have been on a memoir reading hiatus for a few years. When I read the book's description, though, I anticipated that this memoir would nourishing. Also, who wouldn'twant to know more about the origin story of Tomson Highway?!? Being two hours into it, I can say that so far it is nourishing. Also, as a longtime Tomson Highway reader, I find his familiar voice comforting. 

I plan to listen to the next ten hours of his book while randomly walking around  at a leisurely pace, doing random chores, and staying cool with my new favourite treat - high protein jello (made with kefir instead of water). Stay cool friends.