The books and their defenders are as follows:
- Perdita Felicien is defending Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald
- Samantha Nutt is defending The Jade Peony by Wayson Choy
- Cadence Weapon is defending Generation X by Douglas Coupland (side note: Cadence Weapon is curently Edmonton's poet laureate- how cool is that? Edmonton has a rapper as a poet laureate! Sometimes this city surprises me)
- Simi Sara is defending Good to a Fault by Marinna Endicott
- Michel Vezina is defending Nikolski by Nicolas Dickner
I haven't read any of these books, though Fall on Your Knees is quite popular, so I imagine many people have. So was Generation X when it first came out.
I am looking forward to reading all theses books, and on Katy's suggestion I am going to have to reserve them at the library so I don't go broke reading Can Lit.
I am not going to lie, I have never spent the time following or reading Canada Reads books. Two years ago I did read the winner, King Leary by Paul Quarrington and it was amazing. But going back through the list of all the books nominated, that is only one of two that I have ever gotten around to. Not to say I haven't read other books by those authors, but the exact books? Just two. Quarrington and Thomas Wharton's Icefields (which happens to be a personal favorite of mine). SO this year will be a challenge for me (a challenge in a challenge, if you will). We will see how I do.
On the note of Canada Reads, I wanted to share this column by Douglas Hunter, who criticizes the novel choices in Canada Reads, noting that they are all fiction! What about Canadian non-fiction? He is right, while I am not a huge non-fiction fan, there are some great Can Lit non-fiction writers out there and I am going to try and read his recommendations as well. I need to break out of my fiction box. I may even read the Andrew Nikiforuk book.... just don't tell anyone I work with :)
So get reading readers! let me know what you think of the Canada Reads selections- any first thoughts?
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