Canada Reads 2012

The final five non-fiction books for Canada Reads 2012 have been announced. 
They are an eclectic array of true stories: 

The Game by Ken Dryden is being championed by Alan Thicke.
The book: The Game is still widely regarded as the best book about hockey ever written, even almost 30 years after its original publication in 1983. In it, legendary goalie Ken Dryden chronicles his 1979 season with the Montreal Canadiens. -Canada Reads 2012 website, November 25, 2011

On a Cold Road by Dave Bidini is defended by Stacey McKenzie.
The book: On a Cold Road, the book that marked Rheostatics guitarist Dave Bidini's transition from rock star to writer, is a chronicle of the band's 1996 cross-Canada tour with The Tragically Hip. -Canada Reads 2012 website, November 25, 2011

Prisoner of Tehran by Marina Nemat championed by Arlene Dickinson

The book: Prisoner of Tehran is Marina Nemat's harrowing account of her imprisonment, at the age of 16, in Iran's most notorious prison for political dissidents. -Canada Reads 2012 website, November 25, 2011

Something Fierce by Carmen Aguirre defended by Shad

The book: Something Fierce is playwright and actor Carmen Aguirre's memoir of coming of age in the Chilean resistance movement. -Canada Reads 2012 website, November 25, 2011

The Tiger by John Vaillant is being championed by Anne-France Goldwater.

The book: John Vaillant's The Tiger is the shocking true story of the citizens of a remote Russian village and the ferocious, endangered Siberian tiger who is out for revenge against the poachers who survive by destroying his kind. -Canada Reads 2012 website, November 25, 2011


Get ahead of the gang and read the books before they have been voted off the Island! Click on the  links to check them out of the library.

The 2011 Governor General's Literary Awards are ....

The Canada Council for the Arts has announced the winners of the 75 anniversary Governor General's Literary Awards 2011. 

The winner for Fiction: The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt.

The winner for Non-fiction: Mordeci: the life & times by Charles Foran

The winner for Children's Text: From then to Now: A Short History of the World by Christopher Moore



The winner for Poetry: Killdeer by Phil Hall














The winner for Drama: If We Were Birds by Erin Shields

The winner for Children's Illustration: Ten Birds by Cybèle Young












The winner for translation: Partita for Glen Gould by Donald Winkler

To check out these books from the library click on their title links!

2011 Giller Prize Winner is ....

Esi Edugyan has been named the 2011 winner of the Scotiabank Giller Prize for her novel Half-Blood Blues, published by Thomas Allen Publishers.

The Jury citation of this winning book states: 

 

"Imagine Mozart were a black German trumpet player and Salieri a bassist, and 18th century Vienna were WWII Paris; that's Esi Edugyan's joyful lament, Half-Blood Blues.  It's conventional to liken the prose in novels about jazz to the music itself, as though there could be no higher praise. In this case, say rather that any jazz musician would be happy to play the way Edugyan writes.  Her style is deceptively conversational and easy, but with the simultaneous exuberance and discipline of a true prodigy.  Put this book next to Louis Armstrong's "West End Blues" – these two works of art belong together."  -The Scotiabankgillerprize.ca, November 9, 2011

You can find this fascinating book at your local library by clicking the link at the top of this post.

The 2011 Winner of the Rogers Writers' Trust is..

The $25,000 winner of the 2011 Rogers Writers' Trust has been announced, the winner is Patrick deWitt for The Sisters Brothers!

The jury citation of this winning book states:


Patrick deWitt’s joyous and genre-bending, The Sisters Brothers moves along at such a rampant pace it’s easy to lose sight of what a truly original novel it is. His exploration of the blurred lines between good and evil is masterful and mesmerizing. This is the sort of material that, in lesser hands, could easily have sunk into middling farce, but deWitt’s portrayal of the homicidal brothers and the quixotic roster of characters thrown in their path is fresh, moving, insightful, and always funny. Cinematic in its scope, meditative in its tone and brilliantly inventive in its characterization, The Sisters Brothers is a book unlike any you may read during this or the coming years. Unforgettable. -The Writers' Trust of Canada, November 3, 2011


You can find this remarkable book by clicking the link at the top of the post. Enjoy!

The Winner of the Writers' Trust of Canada for 2011

The winner of the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust of Canada for Non-fiction has been announced. Charles Foran, the author of Mordecai: The Life & Times is the winner of the $60,000 prize. 

The jury citation of this winning book states:


Charles Foran’s biography, Mordecai: The Life & Times, is an epic work of scholarship and energy, capturing the career and life of the Montreal writer, Mordecai Richler, with a majesty that doesn’t betray the wit and sincerity of Canada’s most famous literary contrarian. Mordecai delivers an authentic portrait of a writer who could be both tragic and gut-busting funny, a loving family man and defender of human rights, who could also snap off barbed quips infuriating both Quebec and anglo nationalists, as well as his fellow writers, and even his own Jewish community in Montreal. To portray this multi-faced life with such amazing ease signals the quality of Mordecai. It’s a big book, inclusive, intelligent, and sometimes sad. Charles Foran never wears his research on his sleeve, easing it near-invisibly into the web of this great life.Mordecai is well written, exciting to read, even-handed, and magisterial.  -The Writers' Trust of Canada website, November 2, 2011