Canada Reads

One of the best books I read in 2009 was Lawrence Hill’s The Book of Negroes published as Someone Knows My Name in the USA. It is the type of story that is unique and special with plot twists and the unexpected but someone how remains relevant and touches on universal issues. It has the right balance of grief, struggle, and promise. I felt connected with the main character, that I knew her, and she was someone I would want to sit down with to chat over a cup of tea. I also learned part of my Nova Scotian heritage. I hadn’t known that freed empire loyalist slaves had been “freed” to NS, where they were allowed to live in substandard slum situations. The historical fact helped me in a small way understand some of the racial issues that have been in the news in my area this month.

I also appreciated the author’s notes at the end. First, for giving ways and suggestions on how to investigate different truth historical facts such as the location of the real “Book of Negroes.” Second, for telling who in the book were real historical figure (William Wilberforce makes an appearance). And third, the confession/apology for taking literary license with some historical facts and why he had stretched the plausible. It was a good read and yet I only picked it up because it had won CBC radio’s Canada reads contest.

Last year was the first time I had heard of the contest. So it is new to you to this is how it works:

Five Canadian “celebrity” readers each select a book for the Canada Reads short list. The rules are the book must be by a Canadian and it must be fiction. After that they can pick anything they want.

The list/defenders are announced some time in Nov/Dec. I don’t actually know when, I find out the list when I am flying home and the airport bookstores have a Canada Reads display set up with all five titles.

Then a week in March (last week to be exact) the celebrities defend and vote off the books till only one remains in a radio-book-version-of-Survivor Hosted by Q’s Jian Ghomeshi (formally of Moxy Früvous).

I haven’t yet read any of the five books selected but listened enthusiastically all week to hear the arguments and voting results. From the first summaries of the books this is the order in which the novels interested me:
1) The Jade Peony by Wayson Choy
2) Nikoiski by Nicolas Dickner
3) Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald
4) Generation X by Douglas Coupland
5) Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott

That is not the order they were voted out of the contest. First day it came down to Nikoiski and The Jade Peony with Nikoiski taking the prize (I still think I want to read The Jade Peony more). The contest got me thinking about books and reading lists in general. I wasn’t given a summer reading list as a student or even a “read before college” list. I’ve tried to find a good list of books to expand my reading repertoire (which is why I’m participating in the Gilmore Girl Reading Challenge). Which leads me to the...

Question of the Day: If you could suggest one book for an “everyone should read this” list what would it be?