What did you think about the debates?

I was surprised at how emotional Stacey (who defended On a Cold Road was over her decision to eliminate Prisoner of Tehran.

I was surprised that the Quebec judge voted against The Game at the end as she'd praised it AND trashed Something Fierce earlier on.

I loved Alan Thicke's sense of humour and Arlene Dickenson's perspectvies.

Funny how Shad won without saying very much at all.

I wish they'd do this twice a year!

I wish they'd do it twice a year too. Unfortunately, I had a beyond-crazy week and I only got to hear 20 minutes of the whole thing. So I can't really comment. Did you come out disliking any of the pseudo-celebs? I remember last year I was sooooo annoyed with Debbie Travis.

so was I. She didn't even read all the books!

I was wondering if there was any discussion about the non-Canadianness of the book that won. It may be fabulous, but what was Canadian about it?

Something Fierce was portrayed as a book about the "immigrant experience" in Canada. Alan Thicke tried to argue that The Game and On a Cold Road were more Canadian since they take place here, but his argument didn't get much traction.

I thought the panelists were fantastic, although Stacey didn't have the debating skills the others had. Alan Thicke was amazingly funny and all the panelists were so skilled at analyzing the books. I was quite impressed with them all. I liked Ann-France - as a sometimes loose cannon she added an element of excitement to the whole thing. Shad was so deep and thoughtful, as was Arlene. I think it was one of the best Canada Reads ever.

4 - she spent quite a bit of time in Vancouver during her early childhood and per the blurb on the back cover, it looks like she spends a lot of time there now. I wouldn't say it's a book about the immigrant experience in Canada though. Although she does reference BC every once in awhile, it's more about how hard it is growing up with parents who long to return to their Chilean homeland but can't because of political strife. Then you have two kids who were born in Canada but are brought back to South America and introduced to this new transient life. I quite enjoyed it but I really didn't see much Canadian about it. I will have to go back and see the debate because it might make more sense then.

I didn't think there was much about Canada in Something Fierce, other than the author was born and is now living in Canada. I did agree that the Canadianess of it was that the author was free to talk about her experiences and that Canada is fairly open to refugees and immigrants. I don't think a book has to have snow in it to be Canadian.

CBC has posted a "highlights" video on the Canada Reads site for those who are interested.

Yes, the highlights video was helpful. I agreed with your summation in the first post. I can't imagine that it would ever happen, but I would be interested to see a Canada Reads for poetry.