Canada Reads
Encyclopedia
Canada Reads is an annual "battle of the books" competition organized and broadcast by Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

's public broadcaster
Public broadcasting
Public broadcasting includes radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing and commercial financing.Public broadcasting may be...

, the CBC
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...

.

Overview

During Canada Reads, five personalities champion five different books, each champion extolling the merits of one of the titles. The debate is broadcast over a series of five programs. At the end of each episode, the panelists vote one title out of the competition until only one book remains. This book is then billed as the book that all of Canada should read.

Following the announcement of the winning title, the CBC opens an online forum where readers can discuss the book. The forum's current moderator is Hannah Sung.

Canada Reads was created by CBC Radio producer, Peter Kavanagh during the fall of 2001. Talin Vartanian became Executive Producer in 2002 to 2007. In 2007 the program was an "All Star Edition", a reunion of the winning panelists from the first five years.

Canada Reads was first broadcast on CBC's Radio One
CBC Radio One
CBC Radio One is the English language news and information radio network of the publicly-owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It is commercial free and offers both local and national programming...

 in 2002, and has aired annually on radio since then. The third and fourth editions also were broadcast on television, on CBC Newsworld
CBC Newsworld
CBC News Network is a Canadian English language Category C specialty news channel owned and operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation . It broadcasts into over 10 million homes in Canada. It is the world's third-oldest television service of this nature, after CNN in the United States and...

. Broadcast dates were February 16 to February 20, 2004, and February 21 to February 25, 2005, respectively. The seventh edition was also broadcast on Bold TV, broadcasting from February 25 to February 29. Beginning with the third edition, the daily debates could be heard online as well as on Radio One. The fifth edition was broadcast from April 17 to April 21, 2006; the sixth edition aired February 25 to March 2, 2007. The seventh edition of Canada Reads was broadcast on February 25 to February 29, 2008 and for the first time it was available as a podcast
Podcast
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...

.

The books in the running for each edition of Canada Reads are announced several months before the programs are broadcast. Titles must be Canadian fiction, poetry or plays. They are promoted in bookstores, in the hope that the Canada Reads audience will purchase and read them all before the programs air. In some cases, publishers have published special editions of the nominated titles.

The publisher of the winning Canada Reads title donates a portion of sales proceeds from the winning book to a charitable organization working in the field of literacy. Recipients have included Frontier College, the Movement for Canadian Literacy, ABC Life Literacy Canada (formerly ABC CANADA Literacy Foundation) and Laubach Literacy of Canada.

Since 2004, Radio-Canada, the French-language
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 service of CBC, has annually produced a French version of Canada Reads entitled Le Combat des livres ("Battle of the books"). It is broadcast on Première Chaîne.

Both the English and French programs sometimes, but not always, include one personality more commonly associated with the other language community, who champions a translated
Translation
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...

 work. One advocate, Maureen McTeer
Maureen McTeer
Maureen Anne McTeer is a Canadian author and a lawyer, married to Joe Clark, the 16th Prime Minister of Canada.-Life and career:...

, appeared on both programs in the same year, championing the same novel in both its original English and translated French editions. Three other novels have also been chosen for both programs, although their English and French versions were not chosen by the same advocate or in the same year.

2002

Canada Reads 2002 aired from April 16 to 19, 2002. The winning title was announced on April 23, 2002, Canada Book Day
Canada Book Day
Canada Book Day is a yearly event celebrated in Canada on April 23 to promote reading and books. The week surrounding April 23 is celebrated as Canada Book Week....

. Mary Walsh was the moderator.
Author Title Advocate
Michael Ondaatje
Michael Ondaatje
Philip Michael Ondaatje , OC, is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian novelist and poet of Burgher origin. He is perhaps best known for his Booker Prize-winning novel, The English Patient, which was adapted into an Academy-Award-winning film.-Life and work:...

In the Skin of a Lion
In the Skin of a Lion
In the Skin of a Lion is a novel by Canadian/Sri Lankan writer Michael Ondaatje. It was first published in 1987 by McClelland and Stewart. The novel fictionalises the lives of the immigrants whose contributions to building Toronto in the early 1900s never became part of the city's official history...

Steven Page
Steven Page
Steven Jay Page , is a Canadian musician. Along with Ed Robertson, he was a founding member, lead singer, guitarist, and a primary songwriter of the music group Barenaked Ladies ; he left the band in 2009 to pursue a solo career....

Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood
Margaret Eleanor Atwood, is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, and environmental activist. She is among the most-honoured authors of fiction in recent history; she is a winner of the Arthur C...

 
The Handmaid's Tale
The Handmaid's Tale
The Handmaid's Tale is a dystopian novel, a work of science fiction or speculative fiction, written by Canadian author Margaret Atwood and first published by McClelland and Stewart in 1985...

Kim Campbell
Kim Campbell
Avril Phædra Douglas "Kim" Campbell, is a Canadian politician, lawyer, university professor, diplomat, and writer. She served as the 19th Prime Minister of Canada, serving from June 25, 1993, to November 4, 1993...

George Elliott Clarke
George Elliott Clarke
George Elliott Clarke, OC is a Canadian poet and playwright. His work largely explores and chronicles the experience and history of the Black Canadian community of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, creating a cultural geography that Clarke refers to as "Africadia".-Life:Born to William and Geraldine...

 
Whylah Falls
Whylah Falls
Whylah Falls is a long narrative poem by George Elliott Clarke, published in book form in 1990.As with much of Clarke's work, the poem is inspired by the history and culture of the Black Canadian community in Nova Scotia, which he refers to as the "Africadian" community...

Nalo Hopkinson
Nalo Hopkinson
Nalo Hopkinson is a Jamaican science fiction and fantasy writer and editor who lives in Canada. Her novels and short stories such as those in her collection Skin Folk often draw on Caribbean history and language, and its traditions of oral and written storytelling.Hopkinson has...

Margaret Laurence
Margaret Laurence
Jean Margaret Laurence, CC was a Canadian novelist and short story writer, one of the major figures in Canadian literature.- Early years :...

 
The Stone Angel
The Stone Angel
The Stone Angel, first published in 1964 by McClelland and Stewart, is perhaps the best-known of Margaret Laurence's series of novels set in the fictitious town of Manawaka, Manitoba. In parallel narratives set in the past and the present-day , The Stone Angel tells the story of Hagar Currie Shipley...

Leon Rooke
Leon Rooke
Leon Rooke, CM is a Canadian novelist. He was born in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina in the United States. Educated at the University of North Carolina, he moved to Canada in 1969. He now lives in Toronto, Ontario....

Rohinton Mistry
Rohinton Mistry
Rohinton Mistry is an Indian-born Canadian writer in English. Residing in Brampton, Ontario, Canada, Mistry is of Indian origin, originally from Mumbai, Zoroastrian and belongs to the Parsi community. Mistry is a Neustadt International Prize for Literature laureate .-Biography:Rohinton Mistry was...

 
A Fine Balance
A Fine Balance
A Fine Balance is the second book by Rohinton Mistry. Set in Mumbai, India between 1975 and 1984 during the turmoil of The Emergency, a period of expanded government power and crackdowns on civil liberties, this book is about four characters from varied backgrounds—Dina Dalal, Ishvar Darji,...

Megan Follows
Megan Follows
Megan Elizabeth Laura Diana Follows is a Canadian/American actress. She is most known to international audiences for her role as Anne Shirley in the acclaimed 1985 Canadian television miniseries Anne of Green Gables and its two sequels.-Biography:Follows was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada as the...


2003

Canada Reads 2003 aired from April 21 to 25, 2003. Bill Richardson
Bill Richardson (radio)
Bill Richardson is a Canadian radio broadcaster and author.Richardson received his B.A. from the University of Winnipeg in 1976...

 was the moderator.
Author Title Advocate
Hubert Aquin
Hubert Aquin
Hubert Aquin was a novelist, political activist, essayist, filmmaker and editor....

Next Episode Denise Bombardier
Denise Bombardier
Denise Bombardier, CQ is an esteemed yet controversial journalist, novelist, essayist, producer, and media personality who worked for the French-language television station Radio Canada for over 30 years....

Paul Hiebert
Paul Hiebert
Paul Gerhardt Hiebert was a Canadian writer and humorist best known for his book Sarah Binks , which was awarded the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour in 1948. A sequel, Willows Revisited was published in 1967....

 
Sarah Binks
Sarah Binks
Sarah Binks is the novel by University of Manitoba professor Paul Hiebert.The novel is a fake biography of "Sarah Binks", the "Sweet Songstress of Saskatchewan"...

Will Ferguson
Will Ferguson
William Stener "Will" Ferguson is a Canadian writer and novelist best known for his humorous observations on Canadian history and culture....

Helen Humphreys
Helen Humphreys
Helen Humphreys is a Canadian poet and novelist who has written several books. She was born in London, England, and now lives in Kingston, Ontario. When she was younger she was kicked out of high school and had to attend an alternative school to finish her education...

 
The Lost Garden Mag Ruffman
Mag Ruffman
Mag Ruffman is a Canadian comedian, actress and television host.She has played roles in films such as Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea and TV series Road to Avonlea....

Wayne Johnston
Wayne Johnston (author)
Wayne Johnston is a Canadian novelist. His fiction deals primarily with the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, often in a historical setting.-Biography:...

 
The Colony of Unrequited Dreams
The Colony of Unrequited Dreams
The Colony of Unrequited Dreams is a novel by Wayne Johnston, published on September 30, 1998 by Knopf Canada. Johnston's breakthrough work, the novel was a Canadian bestseller, and was shortlisted for the 1998 Giller Prize and the 1998 Governor General's Award for English fiction.In 2003, Justin...

Justin Trudeau
Justin Trudeau
Justin Pierre James Trudeau, MP is a Canadian politician. He has represented the Montreal electoral division of Papineau in the Canadian House of Commons since 2008 as a member of the Liberal Party and currently serves as the party's critic for youth, post-secondary education, and amateur...

Yann Martel
Yann Martel
Yann Martel is a Canadian author best known for the Man Booker Prize-winning novel Life of Pi.-Early life:Martel was born in Salamanca, Spain where his father was posted as a diplomat for the Canadian government. He was raised in Costa Rica, France, Mexico, and Canada...

 
Life of Pi
Life of Pi
Life of Pi is a fantasy adventure novel by Yann Martel published in 2001. The protagonist, Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, an Indian boy from Pondicherry, explores issues of spirituality and practicality from an early age...

Nancy Lee
Nancy Lee (writer)
Nancy Lee is a Canadian short story writer and novelist.Born in Cardiff, Wales to parents of Chinese and Indian descent, she moved with her family to Vancouver, British Columbia in childhood....


2004

Canada Reads 2004 aired on both CBC Radio and CBC Newsworld February 16 to 20, 2004. Bill Richardson was the moderator.
Author Title Advocate
Guy Vanderhaeghe
Guy Vanderhaeghe
Guy Clarence Vanderhaeghe, OC, SOM is a Canadian novelist and short story writer, best known for his two Western novels, The Englishman's Boy and The Last Crossing, set in the 19th century American and Canadian West...

The Last Crossing
The Last Crossing
The Last Crossing is a novel by Canadian writer Guy Vanderhaeghe. It was first published in 2002 by McClelland and Stewart.A rethinking of the genre of the "western", The Last Crossing is a tale of interwoven lives and stories taking place in the last half of the 19th century, travelling from the...

Jim Cuddy
Jim Cuddy
Jim Cuddy is a Canadian singer-songwriter primarily associated with the band Blue Rodeo. He has also recorded three solo albums with the Jim Cuddy Band, which features musicians Bazil Donovan, Colin Cripps, Joel Anderson, Anne Lindsay and Gavin Brown...

Thomas King  Green Grass, Running Water
Green Grass, Running Water
Green Grass, Running Water is a 1993 novel by Native-Canadian and Greek writer Thomas King. Set in a contemporary First Nations Blackfoot community in Alberta, Canada, the novel gained attention due to its unique use of structure, narrative, and the fusion of oral and written literary traditions...

Glen Murray
Alice Munro
Alice Munro
Alice Ann Munro is a Canadian short-story writer, the winner of the 2009 Man Booker International Prize for her lifetime body of work, a three-time winner of Canada's Governor General's Award for fiction, and a perennial contender for the Nobel Prize...

 
The Love of a Good Woman
The Love of a Good Woman
The Love of a Good Woman is a collection of short stories by Canadian writer Alice Munro, published by McClelland and Stewart in 1998.The eight stories of this collection deal with Munro's typical themes: secrets, love, betrayal, and the stuff of ordinary...

Measha Brueggergosman
Measha Brueggergosman
Measha Brueggergosman is a Canadian soprano who performs both as an opera singer and concert artist. She has performed internationally and won numerous awards...

Monique Proulx
Monique Proulx
Monique Proulx is a Canadian novelist, short story writer and screenwriter.-Works:*Sans cœur et sans reproche, *Le sexe des étoiles **The Sex of the Stars...

 
The Heart is an Involuntary Muscle Francine Pelletier
Francine Pelletier (journalist)
Francine Pelletier is a journalist based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. She is the founder of a feminist newspaper, La Vie en Rose, and has written for La Presse, Le Devoir, and the Montreal Gazette...

Mordecai Richler
Mordecai Richler
Mordecai Richler, CC was a Canadian Jewish author, screenwriter and essayist. A leading critic called him "the great shining star of his Canadian literary generation" and a pivotal figure in the country's history. His best known works are The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Barney's Version,...

 
Barney's Version Zsuzsi Gartner
Zsuzsi Gartner
Zsuzsi Gartner is a Canadian author and journalist.Gartner was born in Winnipeg and moved to Calgary in early childhood. She earned a BA in political science at the University of Calgary, later receiving an honours degree in journalism from Carleton University in Ottawa and an MFA from the...


2005

Canada Reads 2005 was broadcast from February 21 to 25, 2005. Bill Richardson was again the moderator.
Author Title Advocate
Frank Parker Day
Frank Parker Day
Frank Parker Day was a Canadian athlete, academic and author....

Rockbound
Rockbound
Rockbound is a novel published in 1928 by Canadian writer Frank Parker Day.-Overview:The "Rockbound" mentioned in the title is an island off the coast of Nova Scotia. Surrounded by rich but dangerous fishing grounds, Rockbound is isolated by storms, fog and winter weather...

Donna Morrissey
Donna Morrissey
Donna Morrissey is a Canadian author.At age 16 Morrissey left her birthplace, The Beaches, a small outport on the west coast of Newfoundland. She lived in various places of Canada before returning to St. John's where she studied at Memorial University, where she obtained a Bachelor of Social Work,...

Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood
Margaret Eleanor Atwood, is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, and environmental activist. She is among the most-honoured authors of fiction in recent history; she is a winner of the Arthur C...

 
Oryx and Crake
Oryx and Crake
Oryx and Crake is a novel by the Canadian author Margaret Atwood. Atwood has at times disputed the novel being science fiction, preferring to label it speculative fiction and "adventure romance" because it does not deal with 'things that have not been invented yet' and goes beyond the realism she...

Olivia Chow
Olivia Chow
Olivia Chow is a Canadian New Democratic Party Member of Parliament and former city councillor in Toronto. She won the Trinity—Spadina riding for the New Democratic Party on January 23, 2006, becoming a member of the Canadian House of Commons. Most recently, she was re-elected in her riding for...

Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Norman Cohen, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships...

 
Beautiful Losers
Beautiful Losers
Beautiful Losers is a novel by Leonard Cohen. Published in 1966 by McClelland and Stewart, it was the Canadian novelist-poet's second novel, and precedes his career as a singer-songwriter...

Molly Johnson
Molly Johnson
Molly Johnson, OC is a Canadian Juno Award-winning singer-songwriter of pop and jazz.-Biography:Johnson began as a child performer, receiving formal training from the National Ballet School and the Banff School of Fine Arts...

1
Jacques Poulin
Jacques Poulin
Jacques Poulin is a Canadian novelist with a quiet and intimate style of writing.Poulin studied psychology and arts at the Université Laval in Quebec City; he started his career as commercial translator and later became a college guidance counselor...

 
Volkswagen Blues
Volkswagen Blues
Volkswagen Blues is a novel by French-Canadian writer Jacques Poulin. Volkswagen Blues was published in French in 1984; it was translated into English by Sheila Fischman and published by McClelland & Stewart in 1988 and subsequently re-issued by Cormorant Books in 2002.Volkswagen Blues was...

Roch Carrier
Roch Carrier
Roch Carrier, OC is a Canadian novelist and author of "contes" . He is among the best known Quebec writers in English Canada....

Mairuth Sarsfield
Mairuth Sarsfield
Mairuth Hodge Sarsfield, CQ is a Canadian author, activist journalist, researcher and television personality.Sarsfield has had a long, varied and distinguished career. Born and bred in Montreal, she has worked as host for the CBC, CTV, and TV Ontario...

 
No Crystal Stair
No Crystal Stair
No Crystal Stair is a novel, published in 1997, by Canadian author Mairuth Sarsfield.No Crystal Stair was one of the selected novels in the 2005 edition of Canada Reads, where it was championed by Olympic fencer Sherraine MacKay...

Sherraine MacKay
Sherraine MacKay
Sherraine Schalm, formerly Sherraine Schalm-MacKay , is a top-ranked Canadian Olympic épée fencer, World Cup medal winner, elementary school teacher and author. She is a graduate of the University of Ottawa...

1This title had been originally chosen by Rufus Wainwright
Rufus Wainwright
Rufus McGarrigle Wainwright is an American-Canadian singer-songwriter. He has recorded six albums of original music, EPs, and tracks on compilations and film soundtracks.-Early years:...

, but was defended by Molly Johnson when Wainwright was unable to participate.

2006

Canada Reads 2006 was broadcast from April 17 to 21, 2006. Bill Richardson was again the moderator.
Author Title Advocate
Miriam Toews
Miriam Toews
Miriam Toews is a Canadian writer of Mennonite descent. She grew up in Steinbach, Manitoba and has lived in Montreal and London, before settling in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She moved to Toronto in 2009....

A Complicated Kindness
A Complicated Kindness
A Complicated Kindness is a novel by Canadian author Miriam Toews.Originally published in 2004 by Knopf Canada, it was the winner of the Governor General's Award for English Fiction, and was nominated for the Giller Prize. It spent over a year on the Canadian bestseller lists...

John K. Samson
John K. Samson
John Kristjan Samson is a musician from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He is a singer-songwriter and currently the frontman of the Canadian folk punk band The Weakerthans...

Joseph Boyden
Joseph Boyden
Joseph Boyden is a Canadian novelist and short story writer. His first novel, Three Day Road won the Amazon/Books in Canada First Novel Award and the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize...

 
Three Day Road
Three Day Road
Three Day Road is the first novel from Canadian writer Joseph Boyden. Joseph’s maternal grandfather, as well as an uncle on his father’s side, served as soldiers during the First World War, and Boyden draws upon a wealth of family narratives...

Nelofer Pazira
Nelofer Pazira
Nelofer Pazira is an award-winning Afghan-Canadian director, actress, journalist and author. She grew up in Kabul, Afghanistan, where she lived through ten years of Soviet occupation before escaping with her family to Pakistan...

Frances Itani
Frances Itani
Frances Susan Itani is a Canadian fiction writer, poet and essayist.Itani was born in Belleville, Ontario and grew up in Quebec. She studied nursing in Montreal and North Carolina, a profession which she taught and practised for eight years. However, after enrolling in a writing class taught by W. O...

 
Deafening
Deafening
Deafening is a 2003 novel written by Frances Itani.Author Frances Itani brings the reader to a small, pre-World War I Ontario town called Deseronto, where the O'Neil family owns a hotel. The book follows the story of Grania O'Neil, a girl who lost her hearing when she was five years old as a result...

Maureen McTeer
Maureen McTeer
Maureen Anne McTeer is a Canadian author and a lawyer, married to Joe Clark, the 16th Prime Minister of Canada.-Life and career:...

Al Purdy
Al Purdy
Alfred Wellington Purdy, OC, O.Ont was one of the most popular and important Canadian poets of the 20th century. Purdy's writing career spanned more than fifty years. His works include over thirty books of poetry; a novel; two volumes of memoirs and four books of correspondence...

 
Rooms for Rent in the Outer Planets: Selected Poems, 1962-1996 Susan Musgrave
Susan Musgrave
Susan Musgrave is a Canadian poet and children's writer. She was born in Santa Cruz, California to Canadian parents, and currently lives in British Columbia, dividing her time between Sidney and the Queen Charlotte Islands....

Mordecai Richler
Mordecai Richler
Mordecai Richler, CC was a Canadian Jewish author, screenwriter and essayist. A leading critic called him "the great shining star of his Canadian literary generation" and a pivotal figure in the country's history. His best known works are The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Barney's Version,...

 
Cocksure
Cocksure
Cocksure is a novel by Mordecai Richler. It was first published in 1968 by McClelland and Stewart.A satirical work, the novel centres on Mortimer Griffin, a middle-class Anglican from Caribou, Ontario who has built a successful career as a publisher and editor in 1960s London, England...

Scott Thompson
Scott Thompson
Scott Thompson is a Canadian television actor and comedian, best known for his time as a member of the comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall.-Personal life:...


2007

Canada Reads 2007 aired from February 26 to March 2, 2007. Bill Richardson again moderated the competition. For the 2007 competition, each of the five winning advocates from past series returned to champion a new title in an "all-star" edition of the series.
Author Title Advocate
Heather O'Neill
Heather O'Neill
Heather O'Neill is a Canadian novelist, poet, short story writer, screenwriter and journalist. She was born in Montreal, but spent part of her childhood in the American South. She currently lives in Montreal....

Lullabies for Little Criminals
Lullabies for Little Criminals
Lullabies for Little Criminals is a 2006 novel by Heather O'Neill.The book was chosen for inclusion in the 2007 edition of Canada Reads, where it was championed by musician John K. Samson...

John K. Samson
John K. Samson
John Kristjan Samson is a musician from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He is a singer-songwriter and currently the frontman of the Canadian folk punk band The Weakerthans...

David Bezmozgis
David Bezmozgis
David Bezmozgis is a Canadian writer and filmmaker.Born in Riga, Latvia, he came to Canada with his family when he was six. He graduated with a B.A. in English literature from McGill University. Bezmozgis received an M.F.A. from the University of Southern California's School of Cinema-Television....

 
Natasha and Other Stories
Natasha and Other Stories
Natasha and Other Stories is a collection of short stories by Canadian author David Bezmozgis. His first published book, Natasha was published in 2004...

Steven Page
Steven Page
Steven Jay Page , is a Canadian musician. Along with Ed Robertson, he was a founding member, lead singer, guitarist, and a primary songwriter of the music group Barenaked Ladies ; he left the band in 2009 to pursue a solo career....

Anosh Irani
Anosh Irani
Anosh Irani is an Indian-Canadian novelist and playwright. An Irani , he was born and raised in Mumbai, although he has indicated that he personally prefers the city's traditional English name, Bombay...

 
The Song of Kahunsha
The Song of Kahunsha
The Song of Kahunsha is a novel by the Indian-Canadian novelist and playwright Anosh Irani, published in 2006 by Doubleday Canada and in 2007 in the US by Milkweed Editions....

Donna Morrissey
Donna Morrissey
Donna Morrissey is a Canadian author.At age 16 Morrissey left her birthplace, The Beaches, a small outport on the west coast of Newfoundland. She lived in various places of Canada before returning to St. John's where she studied at Memorial University, where she obtained a Bachelor of Social Work,...

Gabrielle Roy
Gabrielle Roy
Gabrielle Roy, CC, FRSC was a French Canadian author.- Biography :Born in Saint Boniface , Manitoba, Roy was educated at Saint Joseph's Academy...

 
Children of My Heart
Children of My Heart
Children of My Heart is a novel by Gabrielle Roy, published in 1977. The novel, Roy's last published work of fiction, was originally published in French as Ces enfants de ma vie....

Denise Bombardier
Denise Bombardier
Denise Bombardier, CQ is an esteemed yet controversial journalist, novelist, essayist, producer, and media personality who worked for the French-language television station Radio Canada for over 30 years....

Timothy Taylor
Timothy Taylor (writer)
Timothy Taylor is a Canadian novelist and short story writer. The Blue Light Project, his most recent novel, was published in 2011....

 
Stanley Park
Stanley Park (novel)
Stanley Park is a novel by Canadian writer Timothy Taylor, published in 2001.-Overview:Jeremy Papier is a Vancouver chef and restaurateur who owns a bistro called The Monkey's Paw. The novel uses a "Bloods vs...

Jim Cuddy
Jim Cuddy
Jim Cuddy is a Canadian singer-songwriter primarily associated with the band Blue Rodeo. He has also recorded three solo albums with the Jim Cuddy Band, which features musicians Bazil Donovan, Colin Cripps, Joel Anderson, Anne Lindsay and Gavin Brown...


2008

Canada Reads 2008 aired from February 25 to 29, 2008. Jian Ghomeshi
Jian Ghomeshi
Jian Ghomeshi is a Canadian broadcaster, writer, musician and producer of Iranian descent who was raised in Thornhill, Ontario. Now based in Toronto, he is the host of the national daily cultural affairs talk program, Q, on CBC Radio One and Bold TV...

 moderated the competition.
Author Title Advocate
Paul Quarrington
Paul Quarrington
Paul Lewis Quarrington was a Canadian novelist, playwright, screenwriter, filmmaker, musician and educator.-Background:...

King Leary
King Leary
King Leary is a novel by Canadian humorist Paul Quarrington, published in 1987 by Doubleday Canada.-Plot introduction:The novel's protagonist is Percival "King" Leary, a legendary retired ice hockey player living in a smalltown nursing home, who is invited to Toronto by a young hotshot advertising...

Dave Bidini
Dave Bidini
Dave Bidini is a Canadian musician, journalist and author originating from Etobicoke, Ontario. He is a founding member of the acclaimed rock band Rheostatics, and has published several books about music and sports. He currently performs with his band, aptly named BidiniBand. The group's first...

Timothy Findley
Timothy Findley
Timothy Irving Frederick Findley, OC, O.Ont was a Canadian novelist and playwright. He was also informally known by the nickname Tiff or Tiffy, an acronym of his initials.-Biography:...

 
Not Wanted on the Voyage
Not Wanted on the Voyage
Not Wanted on the Voyage is a novel by Canadian author Timothy Findley, which presents a magic realist post-modern re-telling of the Great Flood in the biblical Book of Genesis. It was first published by Viking Canada in the autumn of 1984.-Plot summary:...

Zaib Shaikh
Zaib Shaikh
Zaib Shaikh is a Canadian actor, writer and director. He is best known for his current roles as Amaar Rashid, an imam in the CBC Television sitcom Little Mosque on the Prairie, and Jayesh in Metropia, an evening soap opera broadcast on Omni Television....

Mavis Gallant
Mavis Gallant
Mavis Leslie Gallant, , née Mavis Leslie Young is a Canadian writer.-Biography:An only child, Gallant was born in Montreal, Quebec. Her father died when she was young, and her mother remarried. Gallant received her education at seventeen different public, convent, and French-language boarding...

 
From the Fifteenth District Lisa Moore
Lisa Moore (writer)
Lisa Moore is a Canadian writer.Born in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Moore studied art at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design...

Nalo Hopkinson
Nalo Hopkinson
Nalo Hopkinson is a Jamaican science fiction and fantasy writer and editor who lives in Canada. Her novels and short stories such as those in her collection Skin Folk often draw on Caribbean history and language, and its traditions of oral and written storytelling.Hopkinson has...

 
Brown Girl in the Ring
Brown Girl in the Ring (novel)
Brown Girl in the Ring is a novel by writer Nalo Hopkinson. It was the winning entry in the Warner Aspect First Novel Contest and received the 1999 Locus Award for Best First Novel and earned Hopkinson the 1999 John W...

Jemini
Thomas Wharton
Thomas Wharton
-Life:Born in Grande Prairie, Alberta, Wharton attended the University of Alberta and the University of Calgary. He was a student of Rudy Wiebe and Greg Hollingshead. His first novel began as his M.A. thesis, under the supervision of Kristjana Gunnars. He worked on his PhD at Calgary with Aritha...

 
Icefields Steve MacLean

2009

Canada Reads 2009 aired from March 2 to 6, 2009. Jian Ghomeshi moderated the competition.
Author Title Advocate
Lawrence Hill
Lawrence Hill
Lawrence Hill is an award-winning Canadian novelist and memoirist. He is best known for the 2001 memoir Black Berry, Sweet Juice: On Being Black and White in Canada and the 2007 novel The Book of Negroes....

The Book of Negroes
The Book of Negroes (novel)
The Book of Negroes is a 2007 award-winning novel from Canadian writer Lawrence Hill. In the United States, Australia and New Zealand, the novel was published under the title Someone Knows My Name.-Plot introduction:...

Avi Lewis
Avi Lewis
Avram David "Avi" Lewis is a Canadian documentary filmmaker, host of the Al Jazeera English show , and former host of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation current-affairs program On the Map.-Family:...

David Adams Richards
David Adams Richards
David Adams Richards, CM, ONB is a Canadian novelist, essayist, screenwriter and poet.Born in Newcastle, New Brunswick, Richards left St. Thomas University in Fredericton, New Brunswick, three credits shy of completing a B.A.. Richards has been a writer-in-residence at various universities and...

 
Mercy among the Children
Mercy Among the Children
Mercy among the Children is a novel by David Adams Richards, published by Doubleday Canada in 2000. Sarah Slean championed the novel to compete in Canada Reads in 2009.-Synopsis:...

Sarah Slean
Sarah Slean
Sarah Hope Slean is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet, and occasional actress from Pickering, Ontario. She has released eleven albums to date .-Major recordings:...

Gil Adamson
Gil Adamson
Gil Adamson is a Canadian writer. She won the Books in Canada First Novel Award in 2008 for her 2007 novel The Outlander.Adamson's first published work was Primitive, a volume of poetry, in 1991...

 
The Outlander Nicholas Campbell
Nicholas Campbell
Nicholas Campbell , sometimes credited as Nick Campbell, is a Canadian actor and filmmaker, who has won three Gemini Awards for acting. The movies Naked Lunch, Prozac Nation and the TV series Da Vinci's Inquest are some examples of his acting work.-Early life:Campbell was born in Toronto, Ontario,...

Brian Francis
Brian Francis (writer)
Brian Francis is a Canadian writer. His 2004 novel Fruit was selected for inclusion in the 2009 edition of Canada Reads, where it was championed by novelist and CBC Radio One personality Jen Sookfong Lee...

 
Fruit: A Novel About a Boy and His Nipples Jen Sookfong Lee
Jen Sookfong Lee
Jen Sookfong Lee is the author of The End of East, a novel told through the eyes of its protagonist, Sammy Chan, a 20-something Chinese-Canadian woman...

Michel Tremblay
Michel Tremblay
Michel Tremblay, CQ is a Canadian novelist and playwright.Tremblay grew up in the Plateau Mont-Royal, a French-speaking neighbourhood of Montreal, at the time of his birth a neighbourhood with a working-class character and joual dialect, something that would heavily influence his work...

 
The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant
The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant
The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant is a 1978 novel by Canadian author Michel Tremblay. It focuses on a single day in the life of Georgia Phillips, a local harlet in the spring of 1942, in the Plateau Mont-Royal neighborhood of Montreal....

Anne-Marie Withenshaw
Anne-Marie Withenshaw
Anne-Marie Withenshaw is a Canadian television and radio personality, based out of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.Withenshaw graduated from Concordia University with a Bachelor of Arts & Science in Communications Studies....


2010

Canada Reads 2010 aired from March 8 to 12, 2010. Jian Ghomeshi moderated the competition.
Author Title Advocate
Nicolas Dickner
Nicolas Dickner
Nicolas Dickner is a Canadian novelist and short story writer. He is best known for his 2005 novel Nikolski, which has won numerous literary awards in Canada both in its original French and translated English editions.He currently lives in Montreal, where he is a literary columnist for the...

, translated by Lazer Lederhendler
Lazer Lederhendler
Lazer Lederhendler is a Canadian literary translator and academic. A four-time nominee for the Governor General's Award for French to English translation, he won the award in 2008 for his translation of Nicolas Dickner's novel Nikolski...

Nikolski
Nikolski (novel)
Nikolski is an award-winning novel by Canadian writer Nicolas Dickner. Originally published in 2005 in French, an English edition translated by Lazer Lederhendler was published in 2008....

Michel Vézina
Wayson Choy
Wayson Choy
Wayson Choy, CM is a Canadian writer.-Early life:Choy was born in Vancouver in 1939. A Chinese Canadian, he spent his childhood in the city's Chinatown...

 
The Jade Peony
The Jade Peony
The Jade Peony is a novel by Wayson Choy. It was first published in 1995 by Douglas and McIntyre.The novel features stories told by three siblings, Jook-Liang, Jung-Sum and Sek-Lung or Sekky...

Samantha Nutt
Samantha Nutt
Samantha Joan Nutt, , C.M., O.Ont., LL.D., FRCPC, CCFP, is a co-founder and Executive Director of War Child Canada. She is a physician with more than thirteen years of experience working in war zones. Since the beginning of her career, Nutt has focused on providing assistance to war-affected women...

Marina Endicott
Marina Endicott
Marina Endicott is a Canadian novelist and short story writer. Her second novel, Good to a Fault, won the 2009 Commonwealth Writers Prize for Canada and the Caribbean and was short listed for the Giller Prize.-Personal life:...

 
Good to a Fault Simi Sara
Ann-Marie MacDonald
Ann-Marie MacDonald
Ann-Marie MacDonald is a Canadian playwright, novelist, actor and broadcast journalist who lives in Toronto, Ontario. The daughter of a member of Canada's military, she was born at an air force base near Baden-Baden, West Germany....

 
Fall on Your Knees
Fall on Your Knees
Fall on Your Knees is a novel by Canadian playwright, actor and novelist Ann-Marie MacDonald. The novel takes place in late 19th and early 20th centuries and chronicles four generations of the complex Piper Family. It is a story of "inescapable family bonds, terrible secrets, and of miracles"...

Perdita Felicien
Perdita Felicien
Perdita Felicien is a Canadian hurdler.-Early life:Felicien carries her mother's maiden name, whose origins are in the Caribbean island nation of Saint Lucia...

Douglas Coupland
Douglas Coupland
Douglas Coupland is a Canadian novelist. His fiction is complemented by recognized works in design and visual art arising from his early formal training. His first novel, the 1991 international bestseller Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, popularized terms such as McJob and...

 
Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture
Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture
Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, published by St. Martin's Press in 1991, is the first novel by Douglas Coupland. The novel popularized the term Generation X, which refers to Americans and Canadians who reached adulthood in the late 1980s...

Cadence Weapon
Cadence Weapon
Cadence Weapon is the stage name of Rollie Pemberton, a Canadian rapper.-Biography:Born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta, his father was Teddy Pemberton, a pioneering hip hop DJ on CJSR-FM, and his grandfather was Rollie Miles, a football player for the Edmonton Eskimos...


2011

Canada Reads 2011 aired in February 2011. The producers announced a slightly different format for the 2011 contest; throughout the month of October 2010, an online vote was held to determine the books that listeners consider the 40 "most essential" Canadian novels of the past decade, and the panelists made their choices from within that list. Only novels, not short story collections, were eligible; however, novels which have previously been included in a Canada Reads competition were still eligible for renomination.
Author Title Advocate
Terry Fallis
Terry Fallis
Terry Fallis is a Canadian writer and public relations consultant, whose debut novel The Best Laid Plans was awarded the Stephen Leacock Medal in 2008....

The Best Laid Plans Ali Velshi
Ali Velshi
Ali Velshi is a Canadian-American television journalist best known for his work on CNN. He is CNN's Chief Business Correspondent, Anchor of CNN's Wake Up Call and a co-host of CNN's weekday morning show American Morning.-Personal life:...

Angie Abdou
Angie Abdou
Angie Abdou is a Canadian fiction writer. Her most recent novel, The Canterbury Trail, was published by Brindle & Glass Press in February 2011. Her shorter works have been published in several Canadian journals.-Early life and education:...

 
The Bone Cage Georges Laraque
Georges Laraque
Georges Laraque is a retired Canadian professional ice hockey forward, who last played with the Montreal Canadiens before his contract was bought out in 2010. He is also a host for CFRN and deputy leader of the Green Party of Canada. During his NHL career he played for the Edmonton Oilers,...

Jeff Lemire
Jeff Lemire
Jeff Lemire is a Canadian comics artist and writer. He is the author of the Essex County Trilogy, Sweet Tooth and The Nobody. Lemire is known for a his moody, humanistic stories and sketchy, cinematic, black-and-white art....

 
Essex County Sara Quin
Ami McKay
Ami McKay
Ami McKay is a Canadian journalist and novelist.McKay was born in rural Indiana, but now lives with her husband and two sons on the Bay of Fundy. She began her writing career as a freelancer for CBC Radio. Her work has aired on Maritime Magazine, Outfront, This Morning and Sunday Edition...

 
The Birth House Debbie Travis
Debbie Travis
Debbie Travis is a British television personality, self-taught interior designer, and former fashion model. She is best known as the host of Debbie Travis' Facelift and Debbie Travis' Painted House...

Carol Shields
Carol Shields
Carol Ann Shields, CC, OM, FRSC, MA was an American-born Canadian author. She is best known for her 1993 novel The Stone Diaries, which won the U.S. Pulitzer Prize for Fiction as well as the Governor General's Award in Canada.-Biography:Shields was born in Oak Park, Illinois...

 
Unless
Unless
Unless, first published by Fourth Estate, an imprint of Harper Collins in 2002, is the final novel by Canadian writer Carol Shields. Semi-autobiographical, it was the capstone to Shields's writing career: she died shortly after its publication in 2003...

Lorne Cardinal
Lorne Cardinal
Lorne Cardinal is a stage, television and film actor, best known for portraying character Davis Quinton on the Canadian television series Corner Gas.-Personal life:...


2012

Canada Reads 2012 will air in February 2012. The books in the 2012 edition will all be non-fiction. A list of 40 non-fiction books were announced as being the shortlist finalists in October 2011. The 40 books include 'And No Birds Sang' by Farley Mowat
Farley Mowat
Farley McGill Mowat, , born May 12, 1921 is a conservationist and one of Canada's most widely-read authors.His works have been translated into 52 languages and he has sold more than 14 million books. He achieved fame with the publication of his books on the Canadian North, such as People of the...

, Shake Hands with the Devil by Romeo Dallaire
Roméo Dallaire
Lieutenant-General Roméo Antonius Dallaire, is a Canadian senator, humanitarian, author and retired general...

, The Last Spike by Pierre Berton
Pierre Berton
Pierre Francis de Marigny Berton, was a noted Canadian author of non-fiction, especially Canadiana and Canadian history, and was a well-known television personality and journalist....

, and The Death and Life of Great American Cities
The Death and Life of Great American Cities
The Death and Life of Great American Cities, by Jane Jacobs, is a greatly influential book on the subject of urban planning in the 20th century...

 by Jane Jacobs
Jane Jacobs
Jane Jacobs, was an American-Canadian writer and activist with primary interest in communities and urban planning and decay. She is best known for The Death and Life of Great American Cities , a powerful critique of the urban renewal policies of the 1950s in the United States...

. Listeners could vote on up to five books they wanted to be shortlisted. The 10 semi-finalists were announced November 2nd. They are:
  • The Boy In the Moon by Ian Brown
    Ian Brown
    Ian George Brown is an English musician, best known as the lead singer of the alternative rock band The Stone Roses, which broke up in 1996 but are confirmed to reunite in 2012. Since the break-up of the Stone Roses he has pursued a solo career...

  • Cockeyed by Ryan Knighton
    Ryan Knighton
    Ryan Knighton is a Canadian writer best known for being a blind author of books dealing with life and living life with blindness, such as Cockeyed: A Memoir and C'mon Papa - Dispatches from a dad in the dark. He teaches English and creative writing at a university and lives in Vancouver with his...

  • The Game
    The Game (Ken Dryden)
    The Game is a book written in 1983 by former ice hockey goaltender, Ken Dryden. The book is a non-fiction account of the 1979 Montreal Canadiens, detailing what it is like to be a professional hockey player...

     by Ken Dryden
    Ken Dryden
    Kenneth Wayne Dryden, PC, is a Canadian politician, lawyer, businessman, author, and former NHL goaltender. Dryden is married with two children and four grandchildren and is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame...

  • Louis Riel by Chester Brown
    Chester Brown
    Chester William David Brown , is an award-winning, best-selling Canadian alternative cartoonist and, since 2008, the Libertarian Party of Canada's candidate for the riding of Trinity-Spadina in Toronto, Canada....

  • On a Cold Road by Dave Bidini
    Dave Bidini
    Dave Bidini is a Canadian musician, journalist and author originating from Etobicoke, Ontario. He is a founding member of the acclaimed rock band Rheostatics, and has published several books about music and sports. He currently performs with his band, aptly named BidiniBand. The group's first...

  • Paris 1919 by Margaret MacMillan
    Margaret MacMillan
    Margaret Olwen MacMillan, OC is a historian and professor at the University of Oxford, where she is Warden of St. Antony's College. She is former provost of Trinity College and professor of history at the University of Toronto and previously, at Ryerson University...

  • Prisoner of Tehran by Marina Nemat
    Marina Nemat
    Marina Nemat is the author of a memoir about growing up in Iran, serving time in Evin Prison for speaking out against the Iranian government, escaping a death sentence and finally fleeing Iran for a new life in Canada.-Life:...

  • Shake Hands with the Devil
    Shake Hands with the Devil (book)
    Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda is a book by Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire of the Canadian Forces, with help from Major Brent Beardsley...

     by Romeo Dallaire
    Roméo Dallaire
    Lieutenant-General Roméo Antonius Dallaire, is a Canadian senator, humanitarian, author and retired general...

  • Something Fierce by Carmen Aguirre
    Carmen Aguirre
    Carmen Aguirre is a Vancouver-based actress and writer. She plays a prominent role in Endgame.-External links:*...

  • The Tiger by John Vaillant
    John Vaillant
    John Vaillant is a non-fiction author and journalist who was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts and has lived in Vancouver for the past thirteen years. His first book, The Golden Spruce, won the 2005 Governor General's Award for Non-Fiction and the Writers' Trust Non-Fiction Prize...




The finalists are:
    • The Game (Ken Dryden)
      The Game (Ken Dryden)
      The Game is a book written in 1983 by former ice hockey goaltender, Ken Dryden. The book is a non-fiction account of the 1979 Montreal Canadiens, detailing what it is like to be a professional hockey player...

       by Ken Dryden Defended by Alan Thicke
      Alan Thicke
      Alan Thicke is a Canadian actor, songwriter, and game and talk show host. He is best known for his role as Jason Seaver, the patriarch on the ABC television series Growing Pains.- Early life :...

    • On a Cold Road by Dave Bidini
      Dave Bidini
      Dave Bidini is a Canadian musician, journalist and author originating from Etobicoke, Ontario. He is a founding member of the acclaimed rock band Rheostatics, and has published several books about music and sports. He currently performs with his band, aptly named BidiniBand. The group's first...

       Defended by Stacey McKenzie
      Stacey McKenzie
      Stacey McKenzie is a Canadian fashion model, runway coach and most recently a model coach and judge on the Canadian reality television show Canada's Next Top Model.-Modeling career:...

    • Prisoner of Tehran by Marina Nemat
      Marina Nemat
      Marina Nemat is the author of a memoir about growing up in Iran, serving time in Evin Prison for speaking out against the Iranian government, escaping a death sentence and finally fleeing Iran for a new life in Canada.-Life:...

       Defended by Arlene Dickinson
      Arlene Dickinson
      Arlene Dickinson is a Canadian marketing professional and CEO of Venture Communications.Dickinson joined Venture Communications in 1988, taking sole ownership in 1998...

    • Something Fierce by Carmen Aguirre
      Carmen Aguirre
      Carmen Aguirre is a Vancouver-based actress and writer. She plays a prominent role in Endgame.-External links:*...

       Defended by Shad
      Shad
      The shads or river herrings comprise the genus Alosa, fish related to herring in the family Clupeidae. They are distinct from others in that family by having a deeper body and spawning in rivers. The several species frequent different areas on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea....

    • The Tiger by John Vaillant
      John Vaillant
      John Vaillant is a non-fiction author and journalist who was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts and has lived in Vancouver for the past thirteen years. His first book, The Golden Spruce, won the 2005 Governor General's Award for Non-Fiction and the Writers' Trust Non-Fiction Prize...

       Defended by Anne-France Goldwater

2004

Radio-Canada, the French-language
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 service of CBC, aired a French version of Canada Reads, entitled Le combat des livres ("Battle of the Books"), from March 29 to April 2, 2004. It was moderated by Marie-France Bazzo
Marie-France Bazzo
Marie-France Bazzo is a Canadian broadcaster, who has hosted television programming for Télé-Québec and radio programming for CBC Radio's Première Chaîne network....

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Author Title Advocate
Gil Courtemanche
Gil Courtemanche
Gil Courtemanche was a Canadian progressive journalist and novelist in third-world and international politics. He wrote for the Montreal newspaper Le Devoir.Courtemanche was born in Montreal, Quebec...

Un dimanche à la piscine à Kigali
Un dimanche à la piscine à Kigali
A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali is the first novel by Montreal author Gil Courtemanche, originally published in 2000....

Laure Waridel
Laure Waridel
Laure Waridel is a social activist, a writer, an environmentalist, and a radio and TV commentator.- Early years :Laure Waridel was born in Switzerland, in the village of Chesalles-sur-Oron just north of Lake Geneva in the Canton of Vaud. She has three sisters and a brother...

Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood
Margaret Eleanor Atwood, is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, and environmental activist. She is among the most-honoured authors of fiction in recent history; she is a winner of the Arthur C...

 
La servante écarlate
The Handmaid's Tale
The Handmaid's Tale is a dystopian novel, a work of science fiction or speculative fiction, written by Canadian author Margaret Atwood and first published by McClelland and Stewart in 1985...

Julius Grey
Julius Grey
Julius H. Grey is a Canadian lawyer and university professor. He is particularly known for his ability to use the media.Born in Wrocław, Poland, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1971, a Bachelor of Civil Law degree in 1971, and a Master of Arts degree in 1973 from McGill University. Grey...

Jacques Godbout
Jacques Godbout
Jacques Godbout, CQ is a Canadian novelist, essayist, children's writer, journalist, filmmaker and poet. By his own admission a bit of a dabbler , Godbout has become one of the most important writers of his generation, with a major influence on post-1960 Quebec intellectual life.-Biography:Born in...

 
Une histoire américaine
Une histoire américaine
Une histoire américaine is a novel published in 1986 by Canadian novelist, essayist, children's writer, journalist, filmmaker and poet, Jacques Godbout....

Gérald Larose
Gérald Larose
Gérald Larose is a Quebec activist, professor, and former President of the Confédération des syndicats nationaux labour union...

Yann Martel
Yann Martel
Yann Martel is a Canadian author best known for the Man Booker Prize-winning novel Life of Pi.-Early life:Martel was born in Salamanca, Spain where his father was posted as a diplomat for the Canadian government. He was raised in Costa Rica, France, Mexico, and Canada...

 
L'histoire de Pi
Life of Pi
Life of Pi is a fantasy adventure novel by Yann Martel published in 2001. The protagonist, Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, an Indian boy from Pondicherry, explores issues of spirituality and practicality from an early age...

Louise Forestier
Louise Forestier
Louise Forestier is a singer, songwriter and actor.-Biography:Forestier was trained in acting at the National Theatre School in Montreal, but it was as a singer that she first became known in 1966, when she received the Renée Claude Trophy from Le Patriote, a boîte à chansons in east-end...

Gaétan Soucy
Gaétan Soucy
Gaétan Soucy is a Canadian novelist and professor.Born in Montreal, Quebec, Soucy studied physics at Université de Montréal, completed a Master's degree in philosophy, and studied Japanese language and literature at McGill University....

 
La petite fille qui aimait trop les allumettes Micheline Lanctôt
Micheline Lanctôt
Micheline Lanctôt is an actress, film director, screenwriter, and musician.-Biography:Lanctôt's post-secondary education was in music, fine arts and theatre at Collège Jésus-Marie in Outremont, and in art history before switching to film animation, which she...


2005

The 2005 edition of Le Combat des livres aired from March 14 to March 18, 2005. It was moderated by Marie-France Bazzo.
Author Title Advocate
Réjean Ducharme
Réjean Ducharme
Réjean Ducharme is a Quebec novelist and playwright who currently resides in Montreal. He is extremely reclusive and has not appeared at any public functions since his first successful book was published in 1966...

L'Avalée des avalés Sophie Cadieux
Sophie Cadieux
Sophie Cadieux is a Quebec actress. She studied theater at the Conservatoire d'art dramatique de Montréal from 1998 to 2001...

Nancy Huston
Nancy Huston
Nancy Louise Huston, OC is a Canadian-born novelist and essayist who writes primarily in French and translates her own works into English.-Biography:...

 
Dolce agonia Réjean Thomas
Jean-Jacques Pelletier
Jean-Jacques Pelletier
Jean-Jacques Pelletier is a French Canadian philosophy professor and author. Pelletier was a long-time philosophy teacher with the Lévis-Lauzon post-secondary school, but is best known in several media as an author of French-language thrillers, some of which have an element of fantasy...

 
La Chair disparue Alain Lefèvre
Alain Lefèvre
Alain Lefèvre, CQ is a Quebecois pianist and composer. He is one of the Québécois pianists who have sold the greatest number of musical recordings.In 2009, he was made a Knight of the National Order of Quebec....

Elizabeth Smart
Elizabeth Smart (author)
Elizabeth Smart was a Canadian poet and novelist. Her book, By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept, detailed her romance with the poet George Barker...

 
À la hauteur de Grand Central Station, je me suis assise et j'ai pleuré
By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept
By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept is a novel of prose poetry written by the Canadian author Elizabeth Smart and published in 1945. It is widely considered to be a classic of the genre....

Dennis Trudeau
Dennis Trudeau
Dennis Trudeau is a Montreal broadcaster. From 1987 to 2005 he was the anchor of the supper hour local news show on CBMT in Montreal.-Career:Trudeau worked with the CBC from 1979. For eight years he hosted the local show Daybreak on CBM before becoming a national radio host fronting As It Happens...

Michel Tremblay
Michel Tremblay
Michel Tremblay, CQ is a Canadian novelist and playwright.Tremblay grew up in the Plateau Mont-Royal, a French-speaking neighbourhood of Montreal, at the time of his birth a neighbourhood with a working-class character and joual dialect, something that would heavily influence his work...

 
Thérèse et Pierrette à l'école des Saints-Anges Monique Simard

2006

The 2006 edition of Le Combat des livres aired from January 30 to February 3. It was moderated by Marie-France Bazzo.
Author Title Advocate
Francine Noël
Francine Noël
Francine Noël is a Canadian writer, whose 2005 work La Femme de ma vie won the 2006 edition of Première Chaîne's Le Combat des livres.She teaches theatre at the Université du Québec à Montréal.-Awards and nominations:...

La Femme de ma vie Françoise Guénette
Hubert Aquin
Hubert Aquin
Hubert Aquin was a novelist, political activist, essayist, filmmaker and editor....

 
Prochain épisode
Prochain épisode
Prochain épisode is Hubert Aquin's first novel, published in French in 1965.-Plot summary:The narrator, like Aquin himself, turns his adventures into a spy thriller to while away the time he is forced to spend in the psychiatric ward of a Montreal prison, where he is awaiting a trial for an...

Pierre Lebeau
Pierre Lebeau
Pierre Lebeau is a Quebec actor. He is best known for major roles in Quebec big-box movies such as Séraphin: un homme et son péché and the four-part Les Boys series.-Acting background:...

Jean Barbe  Comment devenir un monstre Lucie Laurier
Lucie Laurier
Lucie Laurier is a Québécoise actress. She has a sister named Charlotte Laurier. She has one son, Tim.- Filmography :* 1985 : Le Vieillard et l'enfant* 1986 : Henri : Liliane...

Stéphane Dompierre  Un petit pas pour l'homme Louis-José Houde
Louis-José Houde
Louis-José Houde is a French-Canadian comedian, who mostly does stand-up comedy and also has his own TV show. Recently Houde has broken into acting in feature films, such as the 2006 hit movie, Bon Cop, Bad Cop and the 2009 hit movie De père en flic...

Frances Itani
Frances Itani
Frances Susan Itani is a Canadian fiction writer, poet and essayist.Itani was born in Belleville, Ontario and grew up in Quebec. She studied nursing in Montreal and North Carolina, a profession which she taught and practised for eight years. However, after enrolling in a writing class taught by W. O...

 
Une coquille de silence
Deafening
Deafening is a 2003 novel written by Frances Itani.Author Frances Itani brings the reader to a small, pre-World War I Ontario town called Deseronto, where the O'Neil family owns a hotel. The book follows the story of Grania O'Neil, a girl who lost her hearing when she was five years old as a result...

Maureen McTeer
Maureen McTeer
Maureen Anne McTeer is a Canadian author and a lawyer, married to Joe Clark, the 16th Prime Minister of Canada.-Life and career:...


2007

The 2007 edition of Le Combat des livres aired from February 26 to March 2, and was moderated by Christiane Charette
Christiane Charette
Christiane Charette is a Canadian radio and television personality, who hosts the national morning program on the Première Chaîne radio network as of 2006...

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Author Title Advocate
Denis Thériault
Denis Thériault
Denis Thériault is a Quebec writer. His first novel, L'Iguane, was published in 2001. It won that year's Prix Anne-Hébert and Prix Quebec-France/Jean-Hamelin, and was the winning title in the 2007 edition of Le Combat des livres....

L'Iguane Dominique Lévesque
Marie Laberge  Le poids des ombres Pauline Marois
Pauline Marois
Pauline Marois is the current leader of the Parti Québécois in the province of Quebec, since June 27, 2007 and current Leader of the Official Opposition of the National Assembly of Quebec, representing the riding of Charlevoix...

Mathyas Lefebure  D'où viens-tu berger? Robert Frosi
Yann Martel
Yann Martel
Yann Martel is a Canadian author best known for the Man Booker Prize-winning novel Life of Pi.-Early life:Martel was born in Salamanca, Spain where his father was posted as a diplomat for the Canadian government. He was raised in Costa Rica, France, Mexico, and Canada...

 
Self
Self (novel)
Self is a novel by Yann Martel. It tells the story of a traveling writer who wakes up one morning to discover that he has become a woman. It was first published by Knopf Canada in 1996.-Plot summary:...

Sheila Copps
Sheila Copps
Sheila Maureen Copps, PC is a former Canadian politician who also served as Deputy Prime Minister of Canada from November 4, 1993 to April 30, 1996 and June 19, 1996 to June 11, 1997....

Christian Mistral  Vamp Biz
Loco Locass
Loco Locass are a hip hop group from Quebec formed in 1995. The group often defends the role of the French language in Canada, and champions Quebec sovereignty.Loco Locass' lyrics often deal with the role of the French language, and Quebec's role in Canada...


2008

The 2008 edition of Le Combat des livres aired from February 25 to February 29, and was once again chaired by Christiane Charette
Christiane Charette
Christiane Charette is a Canadian radio and television personality, who hosts the national morning program on the Première Chaîne radio network as of 2006...

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Author Title Advocate
Éric Dupont La Logeuse Nicolas Langelier
Marie-Claire Blais
Marie-Claire Blais
Marie-Claire Blais, is a Canadian author and playwright.- Life :Born in Quebec City, Quebec, she was educated at a convent school and at Université Laval. It was at Laval that she met Jeanne Lapointe and Father Georges Lévesque, who encouraged her to write and, in 1959, to publish her first...

 
Une saison dans la vie d'Emmanuel Serge Denoncourt
Jacques Godbout
Jacques Godbout
Jacques Godbout, CQ is a Canadian novelist, essayist, children's writer, journalist, filmmaker and poet. By his own admission a bit of a dabbler , Godbout has become one of the most important writers of his generation, with a major influence on post-1960 Quebec intellectual life.-Biography:Born in...

 
La concierge du Panthéon Bernard Landry
Bernard Landry
Bernard Landry, is a Quebec lawyer, teacher, politician, who served as the 28th Premier of Quebec , leader of the Opposition and leader of the Parti Québécois .-Personal:...

Mordecai Richler
Mordecai Richler
Mordecai Richler, CC was a Canadian Jewish author, screenwriter and essayist. A leading critic called him "the great shining star of his Canadian literary generation" and a pivotal figure in the country's history. His best known works are The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Barney's Version,...

 
Le Monde de Barney Anne Lagacé Dowson
Anne Lagacé Dowson
-Radio career:A longtime host of CBC Radio's Radio Noon, a daily current affairs and phone-in program in Quebec, she left to run in 2008. She also hosted Home Run in Montreal, and was producer of C'est la Vie. She was a news reporter, arts reporter, press reviewer, and has guest hosted Cross...

Gabrielle Roy
Gabrielle Roy
Gabrielle Roy, CC, FRSC was a French Canadian author.- Biography :Born in Saint Boniface , Manitoba, Roy was educated at Saint Joseph's Academy...

 
La Détresse et l'enchantement Sophie Faucher

2009

The 2009 edition of Le Combat des livres aired from March 23 to 27, and was once again chaired by Christiane Charette
Christiane Charette
Christiane Charette is a Canadian radio and television personality, who hosts the national morning program on the Première Chaîne radio network as of 2006...

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Author Title Advocate
Rawi Hage
Rawi Hage
-Early life and education:Born in Beirut, Hage grew up in Lebanon and Cyprus. He moved to New York City in 1984. In 1991, he relocated to Montreal, where he studied Photography at Dawson College and Fine Arts at Concordia University. He subsequently began exhibiting as a photographer, and has had...

Parfum de poussière
De Niro's Game
De Niro's Game is the debut novel by Lebanese-Canadian writer Rawi Hage, originally published in 2006.The novel's primary characters are Bassam and George, lifelong friends living in wartorn Beirut...

Brendan Kelly
Gérard Bouchard
Gérard Bouchard
Gérard Bouchard is a historian, sociologist and writer from Quebec, Canada, affiliated with the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi. Born in Jonquière, Quebec, he obtained his master's degree in sociology from Université Laval in 1968 and later obtained his PhD degree in history from the University...

 
Mistouk Raymond Gravel
Raymond Gravel
Raymond Gravel is a Catholic priest from the Canadian province of Quebec, who was formerly the Member of Parliament for the riding of Repentigny, as a member of the Bloc Québécois...

Jean-François Beauchemin  La fabrication de l'aube Emmanuel Bilodeau
D. Y. Béchard
D. Y. Béchard
Deni Yvan Béchard is an Canadian-American novelist.His novel, Vandal Love , won the 2007 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book. It was a finalist for the 2009 Combat des livres, broadcast on Radio-Canada.-Life:...

 
Vandal Love
Vandal Love
Vandal Love is a novel by American-Canadian author D. Y. Béchard. It was first published in 2006 by Doubleday Canada.The novel follows generations of an unusual French-Canadian family across North America, and through the twentieth century, as they struggle to find their place in the world...

Esther Bégin
Marie-Sissi Labrèche  Borderline Janette Bertrand

2010

The 2010 edition of Le Combat des livres will air from March 22 to 26. Christiane Charette
Christiane Charette
Christiane Charette is a Canadian radio and television personality, who hosts the national morning program on the Première Chaîne radio network as of 2006...

 will moderate.
Author Title Advocate
Dany Laferrière
Dany Laferrière
Dany Laferrière is a francophone Haitian and Canadian novelist and journalist.Born in Port-au-Prince, Haïti, and raised in Petit Goâve, Laferrière worked as a journalist in Haïti before moving to Canada in 1976...

L'énigme du retour Françoise David
Françoise David
Françoise David, CQ is the spokesperson, with Amir Khadir, of Québec solidaire - a left-wing, feminist and sovereignist political party in the province of Quebec, Canada. Quebec Solidaire was born from the merger of Option Citoyenne with l'Union des Forces Progressistes...

Jean Barbe  Comment devenir un ange Marie-Soleil Michon
Patrice Desbiens  L'Homme invisible Thomas Hellman
Thomas Hellman
Thomas Hellman is a French Canadian singer born in 1975 to a Texan father and French mother. After the success of his first album Stories from Oscar’s Old Café, he gained national acclaim with his French album L’Appartement on Justin Time Records, produced by noted Quebec producer Jean Massicotte...

Germaine Guèvremont
Germaine Guèvremont
Germaine Guèvremont, born Grignon was a Canadian writer, who was a prominent figure in Quebec literature....

 
Le survenant Christian Dufour
Nancy Huston
Nancy Huston
Nancy Louise Huston, OC is a Canadian-born novelist and essayist who writes primarily in French and translates her own works into English.-Biography:...

 
Cantique des plaines Christopher Hall

Success

As a vehicle to promote interest in reading and books and to increase sales, Canada Reads has been a signal success. Even already successful titles see increases in sales driven by their inclusion in the contest: sales of Michael Ondaatje's In the Skin of a Lion increased by 80,000 in 2002, the year of its appearance on Canada Reads. Its publisher, Random House of Canada
Random House of Canada
Random House of Canadais a publishing house which was established in 1944 as the Canadian distributor of Random House, Inc. It is made up of several imprints, including Anchor Canada, Bond Street, Doubleday Canada, Knopf Canada, Random House Canada, Seal Books, and Vintage Canada...

 attributed much of this increase to Canada Reads.

The success for lesser known titles can be as marked. Hubert Aquin's Next Episode sold 18,500 copies in the year when it won Canada Reads.

For the 2005 edition, sales of Jacques Poulin's Volkswagen Blues, which usually are about 200 copies a year, increased to 7,500 between the time the nominations were announced and the shows began airing. During the same period, 7,000 copies of Frank Parker Day's Rockbound were shipped by its publisher, the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...

Press.

Criticism

There has been some criticism of Canada Reads. First, criticism has been made of the use of "celebrity" panelists. In 2007, a listener named John Mutford unsuccessfully attempted to become the first non-celebrity panelist. Critics have also taken issue with the game show format, and have contended that discussion of the books has often remained on a superficial level.

The choice of books has also been criticized. Originally each panelist provided a list of five books, from which the producers chose the final contenders. In 2005, this process changed, and the panelists submitted only one choice. Due to scheduling problems, Rufus Wainwright was not able to appear after selecting his choice, and singer Molly Johnson was chosen to defend his chosen book.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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