This collection was a challenging and powerfully educational read for me, learning from Zitkála-Šá about her disparate experiences growing up, her childhood cut short when she’s taken East from het family to a white Christian-run school. This is such a small volume, but it packs in so much, and I’m deeply appreciative of the opportunity to learn from Zitkála-Šá about history and identity in her own words. This sort of first person #ownvoices account is what I wish I’d been taught in American History in school. Recommended.

Solaris is a sci-fi novel with a fascinating premise: an expedition of human scientists are exploring a planet with a sentient? ocean that controls its orbit around its dual-star system, and they begin experiencing inexplicable phenomenon - an attempt at communication? Or something more sinister? The book starts with a great sense of unease and suspense, but unfortunately quickly fell flat for me. The world building was dense and convoluted and it struggled desperately to hold my attention as I failed to care for the characters, and more often than not I just found myself bored. Cw for suicide which proved to be an unrelenting theme in this novel. ⁣The edition I read was translated from a translation and apparently criticized by the author, so I wonder if I'd have had more success with the more recent translation.