I’ve followed Canada Reads since the beginning, with varying degrees of emotional involvement (okay, maybe I shed a tear or two when Justin Trudeau voted against his own book, Wayne Johnston’s novel, to triumph Next Episode in 2003). Yah, I should probably get out more but, in the meantime, I still intend to catch up on the CR titles that I haven’t read yet.
Link to Current Event: 2024
✔Carley Fortune’s Meet Me at the Lake (24)
✔Daniel Innes’s & Christina Wong’s Denison Avenue (24)
✔Jessica Johns’s Bad Cree (24)
✔Catherine Leroux’s The Future (Trans. Susan Ouriou) (24)
✔Téa Mutonji’s Shut Up You’re Pretty (24)
Books Featured 2002-2023
✔Angie Abdou’s The Bone Cage (11)
✔Gil Adamson’s The Outlander (09)
✔Carmen Aguirre’s Something Fierce: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter (12)
✔Al-Rabeeah, Abu Bakr and Winnie Yeung Homes (19)
✔Kamal Al-Solaylee’s Intolerable (15)
✔André Alexis’ Fifteen Dogs (W17)
✔Hubert Aquin’s Next Episode (W03)
✔Madeline Ashby’s Company Town (17)
✔Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (02)
✔Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake (LL11; SL05)
✔Margaret Atwood’s The Year of the Flood (LL11; SL14)
✔Anita Rau Badami’s The Hero’s Walk (16)
✔Sharon Bala’s The Boat People (18)
✔Barbeau-LAvalette, Anaïs Suzanne (Trans. Rhonda Mullins) (19)
✔Kate Beaton’s Ducks (W23)
✔David Bergen’s The Age of Hope (13)
✔David Bezmozgis’ Natasha and Other Stories (07)
Dave Bidini’s On a Cold Road (12)
✔Joseph Boyden’s The Orenda (W14)
Joseph Boyden’s Three Day Road (06)
✔David Chariandy Brother (19)
✔Wayson Choy’s The Jade Peony (10)
✔Michael Christie’s Greenwood (SL23)
✔George Elliott Clarke’s Whylah Falls (02)
✔Leonard Cohen’s Beautiful Losers (05)
✔Magen Gail Coles’ Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club (20)
✔Douglas Coupland’s Generation X (10)
✔Craig Davidson’s Precious Cargo (18)
✔Frank Parker Day’s Rockbound (05)
✔Nicolas Dickner’s Nikolski (10)
✔Cherie Dimaline’s The Marrow Thieves (18)
Cory Doctorow’s Radicalized (20)
✔Ken Dryden’s The Game (12)
✔Omar El Akkad’s American War (18)
✔Omar El Akkad’s What Strange Paradise (22)
✔Esi Edugyan’s Half-Blood Blues (14)
✔Esi Edugyan’s Washington Black (22)
✔Max Eisen By Chance Alone (19)
✔Francesca Ekwuyasi’s Butter Honey Pig Bread (21)
✔Marina Endicott’s Good to a Fault (10)
✔Terry Fallis’ The Best Laid Plans (11)
✔Timothy Findley’s Not Wanted on the Voyage (08)
✔Carley Fortune’s Meet Me at the Lake (24)
✔Brian Francis’ Fruit (09)
✔Mavis Gallant’s From the Fifteenth District (08)
✔Michelle Good’s Five Little Indians (W22)
✔Samra Habib’s We Have Always Been Here (20)
✔Rawi Hage’s Cockroach (14)
✔Catherine Hernandez’s Scarborough (22)
Paul Hiebert’s Sarah Binks (03)
✔Lawrence Hill’s The Book of Negroes (W09)
Lawrence Hill’s The Illegal (W16)
✔Nalo Hopkinson’s Brown Girl in the Ring (08)
✔Helen Humphreys’ The Lost Garden (03)
✔Anosh Irani’s The Song of Kahunsha (07)
✔Frances Itani’s Deafening (06)
✔Jessica Johns’s Bad Cree (24)
✔Wayne Johnston’s The Colony of Unrequited Dreams (03)
✔Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water (04)
✔Thomas King’s The Inconvenient Indian (15)
Stéphane Larue The Dishwasher (Trans. Pablo Strauss) (20)
✔Margaret Laurence’s The Stone Angel (02)
✔Jessica J. Lee’s Two Trees Make a Forest (21)
✔Jeff Lemire’s Essex County (11)
✔Catherine Leroux’s The Future (Trans. Susan Ouriou) (W24)
✔Tracey Lindberg’s Birdie (16)
✔Ann-Marie Macdonald’s Fall on Your Knees (10)
✔Hugh MacLennan’s Two Solitudes (13)
✔Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven (LL16)
✔Yann Martel’s Life of Pi (LL11; SL03)
✔Ami McKay’s The Birth House (11)
✔Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance (02)
✔Lisa Moore’s February (LL12; W13)
Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic (LL23)
✔Alice Munro’s The Love of a Good Woman (04)
✔Téa Mutonji’s Shut Up You’re Pretty (24)
Dimitri Nasrallah’s Hotline (23)
✔Saleema Nawaz’s Bone and Bread (16)
✔Marina Nemat’s Prisoner of Tehran (12)
✔Heather O’Neill’s Lullabies for Little Criminals (W07, LL11)
✔Michael Ondaatje’s In the Skin of a Lion (W02)
C.L. Polk’s The Midnight Bargain (21)
✔Jacques Poulin’s Volkswagen Blues (05)
✔Monique Proulx’s The Heart is an Involuntary Muscle (04)
✔Paul Quarrington’s King Leary (W08)
✔Al Purdy’s Rooms for Rent in the Outer Planets: Selected Poems 1962-1996 (06)
✔Raziel Reid’s When Everything Feels Like the Movies (15)
David Adams Richards’ Mercy Among the Children (09)
✔Mordecai Richler’s Barney’s Version (04)
✔Mordecai Richler’s Cocksure (06)
✔Eden Robinson’s Son of a Trickster (20)
✔Gabrielle Roy’s Children of My Heart (07)
✔Mark Sakamoto’s Forgiveness (18)
✔Mairuth Sarsfield’s No Crystal Stair (05)
✔Jocelyne Saucier’s Il pleuvait des oiseaux / And the Birds Rained Down Trans. Rhonda Mullins (15)
✔Carol Shields’ Unless (11)
✔Timothy Taylor’s Stanley Park (07)
✔Jesse Thistle’s From the Ashes (W20)
Clayton Thomas-Müller’s Life in the City of Dirty Water (22)
✔Kim Thúy’s Ru (15)
✔Miriam Toews’ A Complicated Kindness (W06)
✔Michel Tremblay’s The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant (09)
John Vaillant’s The Tiger (12)
✔Guy Vanderhaeghe’s The Last Crossing (LL11; W04)
✔M. G. Vassanji’s Nostalgia (17)
✔Katherena Vermette’s The Break (17)
✔Richard Wagamese Indian Horse (13)
Natalie Zina Walschots Hench (21)
✔Sheila Watt-Clouthier’s The Right to Be Cold (17)
✔Thomas Wharton’s Icefields (08)
✔Joshua Whitehead Jonny Appleseed (W21)
✔Kathleen Winter’s Annabel (Atlantic, LL13; SL14)
✔Michael Winter’s Minister without Portfolio (16)
✔Daniel Innes’s & Christina Wong’s Denison Avenue (24)
✔Lindsay Wong The Woo-Woo (19)
Note: In 2012, Canada Reads focussed exclusively on non-fiction reads: Carmen Aguirre’s Something Fierce, Dave Bidini’s On a Cold Road, Ken Dryden’s The Game, Marina Nemat’s Prisoner of Tehran, and John Vaillant’s The Tiger.
Longlisted Titles:
(Thanks to Angela for the 2011-14 lists below!)
✔Angie Abdou’s The Canterbury Trail (BC/Yukon LL13)
✔Caroline Adderson’s Sitting Practice (LL16)
✔André Alexis’ Fifteen Dogs (W17)
S.K. Ali’s Saints and Misfits (LL18)
Wayne Arthurson’s Fall from Grace (Prairie/NWT LL13)
✔Madeline Ashby’s Company Town (SL17)
✔Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace (Ontario, LL13)
Jennilee Austria-Bonifacio’s Reuniting with Strangers (LL24)
Todd Babiak’s The Garneau Block (Prairie/NWT LL13)
✔Anita Rau Badami’s The Hero’s Walk (LL16)
✔Shauna Singh Baldwin’s What the Body Remembers (LL14)
✔Sharon Bala’s The Boat People (LL18)
✔Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette’s Suzanne (Trans. Rhonda Mullins) (LL18)
✔Gary Barwin’s Yiddish for Pirates (LL21)
Gurjinder Basran’s Everything was Goodbye (BC/Yukon LL13)
Jes Battis’s The Winter Knight (LL24)
✔Billy-Ray Belcourt’s NDN Coping Mechanisms (LL20)
Chris Benjamin’s Drive-by Saviours (LL11)
✔Joseph Boyden’s Through Black Spruce (LL11; LL14)
✔Dionne Brand’s What We All Long For (LL15)
Cathy Buchanan’s The Day the Falls Stood Still (LL11; Ontario, LL13)
✔Catherine Bush’s Accusation (LL14)
Jenna Butler’s Revery: A Year of Bees (LL23)
Cody Caetano’s Half-Bads in White Regalia (LL23)
Bart Campbell’s The Door is Open (LL15)
✔Lauren Carter’s Swarm (LL14)
Marjore Celona’s Y (LL14)
✔David Chariandry’s Brother (LL18)
Lesley Choyce’s The Republic of Nothing (LL14)
Karen Connelly’s The Lizard Cage (LL14)
Christy Ann Conlin’s Heave (LL11)
✔Gil Courtemanche’s A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali (LL14)
Ivan E. Coyote’s Bow Grip (BC/Yukon LL13)
✔ Ivan E. Coyote’s Tomboy Survival Guide (LL18)
Leslie Crewe’s The Spoon Stealer (LL22)
✔Michael Crummey’s Galore (LL12; Atlantic, LL13; LL14)
✔Michael Crummey’s The Innocents (LL24)
✔Michael Crummey’s Sweetland (LL16)
Roméo Dallaire’s Waiting for First Light (with Jessica Dee Humphreys) (LL17)
✔G.A. Dargatz’s The Cure for Death by Lightening (BC/Yukon LL13)
✔Craig Davidson’s Precious Cargo (LL18)
✔Robertson Davies’ Fifth Business (Ontario, LL13; LL14)
Amber Dawn’s Sub Rosa (LL14)
Claudia Dey’s Stunt (LL14)
Marcello DiCintio’s Driven (LL22)
✔Cherie Dimaline’s The Marrow Thieves (LL18)
Sean Dixon’s The Girls Who Saw Everything (LL11)
✔Farzana Doctor’s Six Metres of Pavement (LL14)
Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother (LL14)
✔Emma Donoghue’s Room (LL11)
Alan Doyle’s All Together Now (LL21)
Kim Echlin’s The Disappeared (LL14)
✔Omar El Akkad’s American War (LL18)
Tawhida Tanya Evanson’s Book of Wings (LL22)
Deborah Falaye’s Blood Scion (LL23)
Terri Favro’s Sputnik’s Children (LL20)
Genki Ferguson’s Satelite Love (LL22)
✔Timothy Findley’s Headhunter (LL14)
Stephen Finucan’s The Fallen (LL11)
Brian Francis’ Natural Order (LL14)
Karyn L. Freedman’s One Hour in Paris (LL17)
✔Kim Fu’s For Today I Am a Boy (LL15)
Rivka Galchen’s Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch (LL22)
Steven Galloway’s The Cellist of Sarajevo (LL14)
Bill Gaston’s The Good Body (LL14)
✔Camilla Gibb’s Sweetness in the Belly ((LL11; Ontario, LL13; LL14)
William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition (LL11)
Douglas Glover’s Elle (LL11)
✔Barbara Gowdy’s Helpless (Ontario, LL13)
Marlowe Granados’s Happy Hour (LL24)
Jessica Grant’s Come Thou Tortoise (LL2012; Atlantic, LL13)
✔Carla Gunn’s Amphibian (LL20)
✔Rawi Hage’s De Niro’s Game (Quebec, LL13)
Louis Hamelin’s 1970 (LL14)
Don Hannah’s Ragged Islands (Atlantic, LL13)
Kenneth J. Harvey’s Inside (LL11)
✔Elizabeth Hay’s Late Nights on Air (LL11; Prairie/NWT LL13)
Steven Heighton’s Afterlands (LL14)
✔Catherine Hernandez’s Scarborough (LL18)
Lawrence Hill’s The Illegal (LL6)
✔Brian Thomas Isaac’s All the Quiet Places (LL22)
Uzma Jalaluddin’s Hana Khan Carries On (LL23)
Harold R. Johnson’s Corvus (LL19)
Guy Gavriel Kay’s All the Seas of the World (LL23)
✔Kaie Kellough’s Dominoes at the Crossroads (LL22)
✔Fran Kimmel’s The Shore Girl (LL14)
✔Thomas King’s Truth and Bright Water (LL14)
✔Naomi Klein’s This Changes Everything (LL15)
Chelene Knight’s Junie (LL24)
Amanda Jett Knox’s Love Lives Here (LL20)
✔Joy Kogawa’s Obasan (BC/Yukon LL13)
✔Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer’s All the Broken Things (LL16)
Tima Kurdi’s The Boy on the Beach (LL19)
Patti LaBoucane-Benson’s The Outside Circle (LL16)
✔Dany Laferriére’s How to Make Love to a Negro (Quebec, LL13)
✔Vincent Lam’s The Headmaster’s Wager (LL14)
✔Shari Lapeña’s Happiness Economics (LL14)
Annette Lapointe’s Stolen (Prairie/NWT LL13)
✔Margaret Laurence’s The Diviners (Prairie/NWT LL13)
Marie-Renée Lavoie’s Autopsy of a Boring Wife (Trans. Arielle Aaronson LL21)
✔Mary Lawson’s Crow Lake (LL11)
Amy Lea’s Woke Up Like This (LL24)
J.J. Lee’s The Measure of a Man (LL18)
Matt Lennox’s Knucklehead (LL17)
✔Carrianne Leung’s That Time I Loved You (LL19)
Jamie Chai Yun Liew’s Dandelion (LL23)
Simu Liu’s We Were Dreamers (LL23)
✔Thea Lim’s An Ocean of Minutes (LL19)
✔Tracey Lindberg’s Birdie (LL6)
Billie Livingston’s Going Down Swinging (LL14)
✔Billie Livingston’s One Good Hustle (BC/Yukon LL13)
Nicole Lundrigan’s Glass Boys (Atlantic, LL13)
Annabel Lyon’s The Golden Mean (BC/Yukon LL13)
✔Ann-Marie Macdonald’s The Way the Crow Flies (LL11)
Linden MacIntyre’s The Bishop’s Man (LL11)
✔Alistair MacLeod’s No Great Mischief (Atlantic, LL13)
✔Rabindranath Maharaj’s The Amazing Absorbing Boy (Ontario, LL13; LL16)
✔Terese Marie Mailhot’s Heart Berries (LL19)
Clint Malarchuk’s The Crazy Game (with Dan Robson)
Darrel J. McLeod’s Mamaskatch (LL24)
✔Lee Maracle’s Celia’s Song (LL15)
Lee Maracle’s I Am Woman (LL17)
✔James Maskalyk’s Life on the Ground Floor (LL19)
Elan Mastai’s All Our Wrong Todays (LL19)
Leo McKay Jr’s Twenty-Six (LL11)
Leo McKay Jr.’s What Comes Echoing Back (LL24)
✔Anne Michaels’ Fugitive Pieces (LL14)
Felicia Mihali’s The Darling of Kandahar (Quebec, LL13)
✔W.O. Mitchell’s Who Has Seen the Wind (Prairie/NWT LL13)
✔L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables (Atlantic, LL13)
✔Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Velvet Was the Night (LL22)
Morgan Murray’s Dirty Birds (LL21)
✔Sheila Murray’s Finding Edward (LL23)
✔Riel Nason’s The Town that Drowned (Atlantic, LL13)
✔Saleema Nawaz’s Bone and Bread (LL15, LL16)
Dimitri Nasrallah’s Niko (LL16)
Sylvain Neuvel’s Sleeping Giants (LL17)
Mai Nguyen’s Sunshine Nails (LL24)
Mary Novik’s Conceit (LL11)
Heather O’Neill’s The Lonely Hearts Hotel (LL21)
✔Alix Ohlin’s Inside (Quebec, LL13)
✔Michael Ondaatje’s Anil’s Ghost (LL14)
✔Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient (Ontario, LL13)
Louise Penny’s The Beautiful Mystery (Quebec, LL13)
Sandra Perron’s Out Standing in the Field (LL18)
Alison Pick’s Far to Go (LL, 2012; Ontario, LL13)
Kate Pullinger’s Landing Gear (LL16)
Ahmad Danny Ramadan’s The Clothesline Swing (LL18)
✔Corey Redekop’s Shelf Monkey (LL11)
✔Jean-Christophe Réhel’s Tatouine (Trans. Katherine Hastings and Peter McCambridge, LL21)
Iain Reid’s We Spread (LL23)
✔Waubgeshig Rice’s Moon of the Crusted Snow (LL23)
D. A. Richards’ The Bay of Love and Sorrows (Atlantic, LL13)
Edward Riche’s Today I Learned It Was You (LL17)
Mordecai Richler’s Solomon Gursky was Here (Quebec, LL13)
✔Ray Robertson’s Moody Food (LL11)
✔Eden Robinson’s Monkey Beach (BC/Yukon LL13; LL15)
✔Gabrielle Roy’s The Tin Flute (Quebec, LL13)
✔Elizabeth Ruth’s Matadora (LL14)
✔Mark Sakamoto’s Forgiveness (LL18)
Hassan Ghedi Santur’s The Youth of God (LL20)
Doug Saunders’ Arrival City (LL15)
Robert J. Sawyer’s Quantum Night (LL17)
✔Gregory Scofield’s Thunder through My Veins (LL21)
Walter Scott’s Wendy, Master of Art (LL21)
Sheung-Kim’s You Are Eating an Orange, You Are Naked (LL21)
✔Vivek Shraya’s even this page is white (LL17)
Antanas Sileika’s Buying on Time (LL16)
✔Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s This Accident of Being Lost (LL19)
Monique Gray Smith’s Tilly and the Crazy Eights (LL21)
Fred Stenson’s The Trade (Prairie/NWT LL13)
Cassie Stocks’ Dance, Gladys, Dance (LL18)
✔Rajiv Surendra’s The Elephants in My Backyard (LL17)
Miguel Syjuco’s Illustrado (Quebec, LL13)
✔Tanya Talaga’s Seven Fallen Feathers (LL18)
✔Mariko Tamaki’s (You) Set Me on Fire (LL15)
✔Mariko and Jillian Tamaki’s Skim (LL11)
Timothy Taylor’s The Blue Light Project (LL14)
✔Madeleine Thien’s Dogs at the Perimeter (LL14)
✔Kim Thúy’s Ru (Quebec, LL13)
✔Miriam Toews’ A Complicated Kindness (LL11)
✔Miriam Toews’ All My Puny Sorrows (LL15)
Christopher Twin’s Bad Medicine (LL24)
Jane Urquhart’s The Stone Carvers (LL11; LL14)
✔Richard Van Camp’s The Lesser Blessed (LL20)
✔Guy Vanderhaeghe’s The Englishman’s Boy (Prairie/NWT LL13)
✔M. G. Vassanji’s Nostalgia (LL17)
✔Katherena Vermette’s The Break (17)
Richard Wagamese’s Ragged Company (LL14)
Jo Walton’s The Just City (LL17)
Njoki Wane’s From My Mother’s Back (LL22)
Jack Wang’s We Two Alone (LL22)
Dianne Warren’s Cool Water (Prairie/NWT LL13)
✔Sheila Watt-Clouthier’s The Right to Be Cold (LL17)
Jessica Westhead’s Worry (LL20)
Andrew Westoll’s The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary (LL19)
✔Zoe Whittall’s Bottle Rocket Hearts (LL11)
✔Ethel Wilson’s Swamp Angel (BC/Yukon LL13, LL16)
Even Winter’s The Rage of Dragons (LL20)
✔Michael Winter’s Minister Without Portfolio (LL16)
✔Lindsay Wong’s The Woo-Woo (LL19)
Teresa Wong’s Dear Scarlet (LL20)
✔Richard B. Wright’s Clara Callan (LL2011; Ontario, LL13)