Three new Canadian memoirs that will restore your faith in humanity

Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash

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There are so many new biographies and memoirs from inspiring Canadians on bookshelves this fall, this list is to be continued in December.

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Humanitarienne: A Doctor’s Stories from the Conflict Zone by Dr. Kirsten Johnson. Douglas & McIntyre

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Humanitarienne: A Doctor’s Stories from the Conflict Zone
Dr. Kirsten Johnson
Douglas & McIntyre

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As a young woman, globe-trotting doctor Kirsten Johnson knew she wanted her life to be adventurous and deeply meaningful. Turns out it is also awe-inspiring. Johnson has accomplished so much, it’s hard to believe she did it all in a single lifetime. Her page-turner memoir recalls childhood trauma and hardscrabble teen years working multiple jobs while trying to finish high school. She was a synchronized swimmer, Goth, and roommate with punk band Dayglo Abortions before embarking on her first international travels in Nepal and India. She may have inherited her intrepid nature from her father, David, a doctor and adventurer who died when she was only a year old. Resilience, toughness and tenacity have also served her well.

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She finished high school as a mature student, went to medical school, earned her Masters in Public Health from Harvard and travelled extensively, from the Arctic to Timbuktu and Zanzibar. As a student, she spent six weeks in Peru and saw “strange and wonderful” things, like a parasite that could grow more than seven metres long before slipping — or being pulled — from a patient’s rear.

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As a doctor, she has treated patients and conducted vital research in many danger zones — Darfur, Rwanda, remote regions of Uganda and Haiti among them. She has worked alongside many “badass” women and men, but also encountered too many well-intentioned volunteers who were ineffectual or worse. So she set out to improve the system.

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In collaboration with her peers, she developed or administered training programs and launched Humanitarian U, which aims to certify more than 100,000 humanitarians around the world. The World Health Organization, Canadian Red Cross and Médecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), have benefited from her expertise.

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For the rest of us, this compact memoir will do. In under 300 pages, she shares a compact trove of stories that are impactful, sometimes hair-raising and completely fascinating.

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With a Name Like Chief by Kevin Chief with Stu Slayen. HighWater Press

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With a Name Like Chief
Kevin Chief with Stu Slayen
HighWater Press

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When Kevin Chief was a young teen, a rival for a girl’s affections pulled a dirty trick. He took the girl to Kevin’s one-room home to show her how he lived in abject poverty. Another time, a girlfriend’s mom asked him not to reveal his last name to visitors, since with a name like Chief, it would be obvious he is Indigenous.

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Then there were his champions: Grade 4 teacher Ms. Wilson, who encouraged him and believed in his potential, basketball coaches who inspired and advised him on and off the court, politicians and business leaders who appreciated his gifts and invited him to share them on a wider stage.

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From impoverished child to university basketball star, recovering alcoholic, Manitoba MLA, locally famous square dancer, father and husband, Chief shares his personal story of truth and reconciliation in this warts-and-all memoir.

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Co-written with friend Stu Slayen, the book is structured around the Seven Sacred Teachings of the Anishinaabe — humility, wisdom, respect, honesty, truth, courage and love.