Canada Reads 2010

The new books are being revealed Dec 1 at noon. I work in the CBC building and will be spending my lunch hour watching this years judges announcing the new picks. Hope they are good. I didn't get all of last years read but the 3 I read I really enjoyed.

Thanks for the reminder! I hope I do better with the 2010 selection. For 2009 I read one, own another three, and abandoned one on page 35.

Thanks for the alert. I found last year's selection better than 2008 - I read all 5 and liked 3. I loved the winner The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill so just got his Any Known Blood out of the library - it's next on my TBR list.

Just came back from the book announcement, interesting group, some very popular others, not as much. Here is the list:

Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald
Generation X by Douglas Coupland
Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott
The Jade Peony by Wayson Choy
Nikolski by Nicolas Dickner

I think they will have a hard time defeating Fall on your Knees but really, she is already a best seller with an Oprah book club nod is there anyone left who hasn't read this one??

I haven't read Fall on Your Knees, and it isn't even in my TBR pile (although it is on my TBR list). I read Generation X last spring, and while it was good, I don't think it's Coupland's best, and I think it's a bit dated. I've also read Jade Peony, which I didn't much like. Nikolski is on my TBR list, and I don't know if I've ever heard of Good to a Fault--I'll have to look that one up.

If they ever put me on the panel my suggestion is going to be Kiss of the Fur Queen by Tomson Highway.

Thanks for posting, Sydamy!

Last year, I read all five in a row, trying to simulate what the panelists would do.

I've read two (Fall on Your Knees and Generation X) and have Good to a Fault on my TBR shelves.

Joyce, Definately push up Fall on your Knees, it is depressing but very very good. I proudly read it well before Oprah suggested it. I have Gen X but don't think I have read it. I have read many other Coupland and enjoyed then, I can see how it might be dated. The others are all new to me.

Loved Fall on Your Knees and hated The Jade Peony. But, both I read a while ago and my tastes change on a daily basis. I have a copy of Peony and it's sequel so I will give it another go. I haven't tried the others yet so I guess I have more stuff to add to the TBR pile.

Me too, I loved Fall on Your Knees. Even though I read it a long time ago, I don't need to re-read it for Canada Reads because it has really stayed with me.

I didn't like The Jade Peony either, although my sister-in-law did, and I admire her taste in books. It also made the Literary Review of Canada's top 100 list of Canada's Most Important Books. I can't really tell from their blurb why they included it, other than it addresses the problem of loss of culture in immigrants.

I just finished The Jade Peony and rather enjoyed it it because I was a child in Vancouver in the 1950s and this brought back memories. It gives insight into the huge cultural divide people from other cultures must face when they move here, and how some people can survive better than others. One book down, four to go. I just started Fall on your knees and am loving it.

I've now finished Fall on Your Knees - a beautifully written but thoroughly depressing story. Surely someone has written something about Cape Breton that is uplifting or funny or optimistic? This book was just sad all the way through - every time hopes were raised, the hopes were smashed into oblivion. I'm hoping the next book, Generation X, will be a lighter read.

Vancouver dweller but Québécoise at heart checking in. (Hello! Yes I'm a newbie here.)

I read Dickner's Nikolski in French when it first came out - I have been keeping an eye on the author's work since he published his first book L'encyclopédie du petit cercle. I thoroughly enjoyed it back then. I stumbled upon the English translation recently and read a few pages. I thought it was quite good! I highly encourage you to read it. I might read it again, but due to too-many-books-too-little-time I might read The Jade Peony and Fall on your knees instead...

Glad to be here, looking forward to how it all unravels...

I'm also planning to read all the Canada Reads books.

I'd read Good to a Fault earlier in the year. I liked it but didn't think it was all that memorable, and I'm surprised that it seems to be so popular.

I just finished Generation X. Having lived through the period Coupland describes, it was very interesting to look back on choices my friends and I made over the years. Some of Coupland's observations are so very accurate.

I've started The Jade Peony and though it seems to have gotten mixed reviews, I'm really enjoying it so far. That's probably because there are so many familiar elements in it for me, as my parents were also Chinese immigrants to Canada, though from a later generation.

I haven't decided whether to read Nikolski in French or English. I can read French, but it's pretty rusty these days.

I've been reading all the Canada Reads books for several years. I've read Fall on Your Knees (hasn't everyone?). It remains one of my all-time favourite books. I read Generation X when it was first published. I've pretty much forgotten it, so will have to re-read it. The other three are on the TBR shelves.

I'm just starting Good to a Fault as my fifth Canada Reads 2010 book and I've not found one I loved yet. Fall on your Knees was great writing but thoroughly depressing; Jade Peony was good and so far the best of a bad lot but not fantastic; I couldn't even finish Generation X - boring and irrelevant to me although perhaps if you were of that generation it may be better; and Nikolski was okay but nothing to write home about either. I'm hoping Good to a Fault will be better but, given the subject matter, I'm not optimistic. There's nothing here as enjoyable as The Book of Negroes or The Outlander.

I just finished Good to a Fault and enjoyed it, but it was nothing really special. Not their best year at Canada Reads!

I still haven't been moved to read the Canada Reads books on the TBR shelves. But, I am reading Sylvanus Now by Donna Morrissey, a previous panelist. I've never read anything by her and figured it was time I did.

The spirit finally moved me, and I'm working through this year's list. So far, I've read Fall on Your Knees (a long time ago, but it has really stayed with me), Good to a Fault, which could have been awful, good have been great, but was somewhere in between; Generation X which I still couldn't relate to the second time around; and The Jade Peony which I really liked. I'm holding off on the last one while I read something for a book club that's coming up.

I've just started Fall on Your Knees, my last of the 5. No clear favourite yet (though I suspect Fall on Your Knees will move into that position) so I'm really looking forward to the discussions.

I'm reading the last of the five: Nikolski by Nicolas Dickner

I'm done. I love Fall on Your Knees; it's one of my all time favourites ever. That being said, I think most people have probably read it. I really enjoyed Nikolski and The Jade Peony. The other two, less so.

Ok, I've been pondering this for a while and I've decided that my vote would definitely go to Nikolski. What an amazing book -- I finished it a few days ago and it keeps getting better the more I think about it.

Reminder: the debates start Monday!

Good to hear that Nikolski is a winner--it's been on my wishlist since last year. I know I agree with your opinion often, so even if it doesn't win, I'll still hunt it down. I have to admit I'm not much interested in this competition this year. Disappointing after last year when I had so much fun following it.

I agree, about not be that interested this year. Last year I tried to read all the books, this year I had already read 2 and the others, meh. I will follow the debates to see who the winner is, just out of interest. It's not like I don't have enough book waiting to be read.

Today's the day! My favourite book, Nikolski, is still in the running. I'm not surprised Generation X got voted off first, but I thought, based on the debates, that Good to a Fault would be second.

Anyone know who won the People's Choice award?

Nikolski was the winner. Does anyone know if the French translation book has ever won before??

Just double checking, because I can't find it on CBC website. Nikolski won the debates, but the people's choice was to be announced March 15th. Was that Nikolski, too?

I searched the CBC site for the People's Choice and couldn't find anything either.

I e-mailed CBC and they told me that Fall on Your Knees won the People's Choice vote. I'm not surprised...lots of people have read that book and most who read it love it, as I did.

I'm glad Nikolski won, though. It's a wonderful book that most people probably would not have otherwise read.

I'm really late in these discussions, but I've finally read most of this year's selection and Nikolski wins hands down. I agree that Canada Reads has given this book a visibility it would not otherwise have had (it was the only one I had not heard of) - and I'm very thankful for it!