How will you celebrate Canada Day? Will you go to a parade, watch fireworks, visit the beach, go for a hike or a paddle? I’ve done all those things and pulled weeds in my garden too. But there’s something about relaxing in an Adirondak chair by the pond with a good book by a Canadian author that speaks to me of Canada and of being a proud Canadian. If you are looking for a great summer read, I have a few suggestions.
Canadian authors I’ve read so far in 2024:
Marlet Ashley – Liberation of Oliver Rook
Margaret Atwood – Babes in the Wood
Kim Bannerman – Truly the Devil’s Work
Stewart Goodings – My Friend, My Enemy
Susan Juby – Mindful of Murder
Judy LeBlanc – Permission to Land
Robert MacKay – Soldier of the Horse
Danny Ramadan – Crooked Teeth
Waubgeshig Rice – Moon of the Crusted Snow and its sequel Moon of the Turning Leaves
Iona Whishaw – Death in a Darkening Mist and An Old Cold Grave
Currently reading:
Tsering Yangzom Lama – We Measure the Earth with our Bodies
Next on my to-read this year list:
Kim Bannerman - The Vengeful Dead
Kathy Binns – Whatever Comes Eat It
Susan Juby – A Meditation on Murder
Joyce Helweg – Sleeping with Horses
Ian Kennedy – The Best Loved Boat
John Vaillant – Fire Weather
Over the years, I’ve read a lot of Canadian authors and while some have earned national acclaim, there are many more fabulous writers and books that, for a myriad of reasons, are less well known. I’ve learned that a prize sticker on a book cover doesn’t always mean I’ll enjoy the read. Sometimes I’m quite puzzled by the criteria the judges use to make their determinations.
I judge books, not based on New York Times best seller lists or because they are Booker, Pulitzer, Scotiabank Giller prize winners – the awards list is enormous – but by how the stories resonate with me. Do they offer relevant social commentary? Do they make me laugh – or cry? Do they invite me into real or make-believe worlds that interest me? Do they captivate and engage and leave me with a sense of satisfaction when I read that last page?
How exciting – and lucrative – it must be to win a literary prize or to be on that New York Times best seller list – a dream of most authors no doubt – but the world of reading would be much smaller if those were the only books we read. That said, I have a not-so-secret envy of authors who earn a prize and the prestige that goes with it. But, as I seldom received gold-star acclaim when I was at school, I’m OK. Really – my books and I are in good un-rewarded company.
I sometimes choose books after I hear an author being interviewed by Tom Power, Eleanor Wachtel, Matt Galloway, Ali Hassan and in the past Shelagh Rogers on CBC radio. Among other excellent reads, that’s how I heard about authors such as:
Steven Heighton – Reaching Mithymna, and then read his Every Lost Country, and Afterlands
Emily St John Mandel – Station Eleven
Carol Off – All We Leave Behind.
The wise counsel of a bookshop owner Evelyn Gillespie at the Laughing Oyster in Courtenay is another source of good-read ideas. She has also been an incredible support in recommending my own titles to readers.
This leads me to wish Evelyn all the best in her retirement and to ask my Comox Valley reading friends to please welcome the new owners by nurturing your book-purchasing habits at The Laughing Oyster instead of feeding that corporate giant Amazon. Seriously – Amazon will not flounder without your finger click. Wherever you live, grace a locally owned bookshop with your presence and reap the rewards of finding a book you knew nothing about until you pick it up and thumb the delicious pages.
I’ve also discovered some of my most enjoyable reads after meeting the authors, several of whom have become friends and been supportive of my own writing journey. I’ve already mentioned several in my 2024 reads, but there are many more, some of whom are:
Sally Armstrong – Ascent of Women and The Nine Lives of Charlotte Grey
Bill Arnott – Gone Viking series
Christine Dickinson – The Ladies and the Lake Trout anthology
Bruce Kirkby – Sand Dance, The Dolphin’s Tooth, and Blue Sky Kingdom
Jennifer Manuel – The Heaviness of Things that Float, and The Morning Bell Brings the Broken Hearted
Danny Ramadan – The Clothesline Swing and The Foghorn Echoes
Bev Sellars – They Called Me Number One
Jeanette Taylor – The Quadra Story and Tidal Passages
Dave Young – The Uchuck Years
Thank you, writing friends and mentors, for your encouragement and for sharing your wisdom.
In preparing these lists, I’ve worried about the many books and authors I’ve not mentioned. So, now the interactive part of this blog:
Please share your favourite Canadian author recommendations to build a reading list that will last us into the new year. Let’s observe this national birthday by celebrating our authors and the work they do in recording our complex and varied stories.
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