BOOK: Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O'Neill

Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O'Neill, 330 pages

Orange July (shortlisted 2008); Canadian Book Challenge 5

Winner of Canada Reads 2007, I think I have been mixing this book up with The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. While Glass Castle is a memoir, Lullabies for Little Children is fiction, though I gather from reading about the author, that it is somewhat based on her experience growing up in Montreal.

Baby, the twelve year old narrator, is being raised by her father, Jules, a heroin addict with some mental health issues. Baby's mother has died, and Jules has raised her since he was fifteen, living in downtown Montreal. While they may not have much stability, there is love. Twelve year olds are at the best age, since they are still kids, but are getting mature enough to see the world around them, and beginning to understand their place in it. Baby is a strong character and proves the adage that if children have one person who loves them, they have that support they need to turn out okay. Eventually, as she ages, and with Jules disappearing at times, Baby begins facing adult situations. When the local pimp makes her his project, Baby reaches a cross roads, conflicted by the grownup world and her friendship with a 'normal' twelve year old. The contrast between Baby's time with her friend Xavier and her dates with Alphonse the pimp are stunning.

The first half of the book, with Baby's stream of consciousness, was really strange. Her view of Montreal and her life thus far was weird and I wondered how the author came up with each bizarre incident. They seemed so random, but then life is random for children, especially ones who don't have a lot of stability. Once Baby's life had been established, I found the second half of the book much stronger. Some people are survivors.

You could not make a child with bad memories into a kid with good memories. A really effective social worker would have to be a time traveler who could go back in time and undo the abuse most kids [in detention] had suffered. p 191

CHALLENGE: Canadian Book Challenge, Eh? update

The White Stripes Way: 13 Books, 13 Provinces/Territories

How to be a Canadian - Will and Ian Ferguson - Alberta
The Call of the Wild - Jack London - Yukon
Latitudes of Melt - Joan Clark - Newfoundland & Labrador
Yellowknife - Steve Zipp - Northwest Territories
The End of East - Jen Sookfong Lee - British Columbia
All in Together Girls - Kate Sutherland - Saskatchewan
Lorelei - Lori Derby Bingley - PEI
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz -Mordecai Richler - Quebec
Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures -Vincent Lam - Ontario
Hockey Dreams - David Adams Richard - New Brunswick
a boy of good breeding - Miriam Toews - Manitoba
The Lost Salt Gift of Blood -Alistair MacLeod - Nova Scotia
The Inuk Mountie Adventure - Eric Wilson - Nunavut

Favorite Book: The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz

Breakdown: 2 short story collections, 2 nonfiction, 2 childrens, 1 Giller winner, 2 books by bloggers

thanks to john mutford for hosting, to Zachariah Wells for donating the poetry book I won. I don't need a challenge to read Canadian books but it is lots of fun when other people are reading them too, and I am learning about authors I haven't read before.

See ya July 1st to start again, ya hosers.

BOOK: How to Be a Canadian by Will and Ian Ferguson

How to Be a Canadian by Will and Ian Ferguson

Canadian Book Challenge: Alberta

I had previously started reading Why I Hate Canadians by Will Ferguson but couldn't get into it at all. I thought it was supposed to be funny, but it seemed more of a real nonfiction book, with real analysis. Maybe it was jsut my mood at the time. When I went ot the library to reborrow it, I found How to Be a Canadian (Even if you Already are One ) instead. This is the sequel of sorts, but it was also much funnier. I was reading passages outloud to my husband again and giggling like mad in other parts. It felt a bit dated in parts, as it is from 2001 and the political humor lost a little something after seven years.

With chapters on language, leisure, cuisine, and a cross country tour, our combined culture is ripe for satire. Beer, hockey, Tim Hortons, the CBC; it's all there. The Ferguson brothers tapped my funny bone. There were lots of stereotypical Canadian jokes, but it was the perfect book to finish up the Canadian Book Challenge with.

BOOK: The Call of the Wild by Jack London

The Call of the Wild by Jack London

Canadian Book Challenge: Yukon entry; decades challenge: 1900s; novella challenge (172 pages)

Well, I was pleasantly surprised with this book. John Mutford recommended it to me for the Canadian challenge as I was having difficulty finding a Yukon book. It was written by an American, Jack London, but it was set in the north, including Yukon, during the gold rush of the late 1800s.

It's a simple story but written well. Buck is a dog who was essentially kidnapped from the good life in San Fransisco and taken north, where dogs were needed to work the trails. Buck begins of process of returning to the wild, gradually. There is an element of Black Beauty here, as Buck is passed from one bad situation to a worse one, but he becomes strong and a leader among dogs, as he heeds his call to the wild.

The writing was simple but readable, something I don't always expect from a classic novel. I really liked it and will try the other famous London book, White Fang.

BOOK: Latitudes of Melt by Joan Clark

Latitudes of Melt by Joan Clark

Canadian Book Challenge: Newfoundland and Labrador

Do you like the movie Titanic? Does the shipwreck fascinate you? This will be a good book for you. A baby in a basket is found floating on an ice pan off the shore of Newfoundland. While the family tries to find who she belongs to , she is never claimed, so she grows up in the outports of Newfoundland. Aurora, as she is named, marries, has children, and this book follows their lives.

Aurora's story is told in the first person, and the rest of the book in in third, which I found a little abrupt at times. Aurora could have a paragraph in the middle of the rest of the narrative, and her story of her is eventually told from her conception onward, which was also a little weird. Maybe due to her start in life floating in the North Atlantic, Aurora just takes what life gives her, and is not ambitious in any way. She floats along and does her own thing. Her children are more academic and study and travel the world, but home is always Newfoundland.

I think as I was reading I thought there would be more story, more to the investigation of who Aurora was before the sinking, and who her family had been, but the story just floats like Aurora did. That didn't make it a bad story, but just a character study of a family, where nothing too major happened. The timeline of the story worked very well, starting with Aurora being found and her life growing, and then her children's stories. The story switched then to the events leading up to the sinking of the Titanic and her parents, and finally ending up in the present, at the end of Aurora's life.

Clark does a wonderful job of creating interesting characters and evoking the feel of Newfoundland and telling one possible story of a family on the Titanic.

BOOK:Yellowknife by Steve Zipp

Yellowknife by Steve Zipp

Canadian Book Challenge: Northwest Territories , What's in a Name? place book

Fiction or non-fiction? Genre?
fiction; Canadian?

What led you to pick up this book?
This is cool. I am in the Canadian book challenge, and Steve offered to send his book to anyone in the challenge who wanted it. I'm sure I would never have found this book otherwise. Additionally, it is a book for the place entry of the What's in a Name challenge

Summarize the plot, but don't give away the ending!
I'm not exactly sure! The book is more a collection of anecdotes following an eclectic group of people who live in Yellowknife. There is a cruise missile and diamond mining and fishing that seem to be unifying elements, but no linear plot I could explain.

What did you like most about the book?
- I really liked the characters, and the obtuse view of them and their peripheral connections to each other.
- I liked the writing as well, and found it easy to follow even when the traditional plot idea wasn't there. There were unifying elements and connections between characters to discover.
- I also liked the setting, and this book was mostly about the north, vast and strange.
- I liked the humorous situations and found myself smirking at numerous lines throughout the book

Have you read any other books by this author? What did you think of those books? nope, first time.

What did you think of the main character?
I think the main character was Yellowknife, but Danny and Freddy, and Nora and Hugo were my other favorite characters.

Any other particularly interesting characters?
Too many to mention. It felt like a book that could have been written as a collection of short stories, each more defined and traditional. But every character was a character. I think I'd be afraid to head to Yellowknife. Even if this was just an exaggerated sampling, the place and people sound a little different.

Share a quote from the book:
Nothing about the guy made any sense. In fact, now that Danny thought about it, the same could be said for just about everyone else he'd met since entering the Territory.

This from a guy that hitch hiked into the Territory with no plan or supplies and lives in a dump, and subsists on stolen dog food and then decides to be a detective? Ha

Share a favorite scene from the book.
I liked the scene with Danny house sitting, and investigating the Pitbull in the spare room, hoping it wasn't dead.

What about the ending?
I liked the ending with Pfang and the Y2K bit, connecting the beginning of Nunavut and the end of the 20th century.
The final scenes with the dogs and the animals of the north was a little weird. But I suppose the animals were there first, and will hopefully be there in the end.

Any final thoughts?
I really liked the first third, got a little lost in the middle third, and then it picked up again for the ending. There were so many characters it was hard to know what the main story was, or who the main characters were. Once I realized there weren't any, then I just let go and enjoyed whatever part of the story was being told and many of my questions were answered by the end, like how the cruise missile ended up in the north.

Thanks to Steve for sending me the book and showing me a part of Canada I have never seen.

other reviews of this book: guatami, geraniumcat

BOOK: The End of East by Jen Sookfong Lee

The End of East by Jen Sookfong Lee


Canadian Book Challenge, BC book

Vancouver's Chinatown is the setting of this family history chronicling Sammy Chan's ancestors. The novel starts with Sammy's return to her mother's house, but the family's story begins with the immigration of Seid Quan from China. I don't think Canada has much to be proud about for its treatment of Chinese immigrants in the beginning of this century. Shew Lin becomes his wife, but stays in China with their children. Seid Quan works and works at a job he hates to send money to his family in China. He eventually saves enough to bring his son, Pon Man, and very eventually, his wife. Pon Man gets a wife from China, Siu Sang, and they have five girls, one of whom is Sammy.

The struggle of immigrants to build a new life, but still wanting their old life results in this family being very unhappy. Shew Lin and Siu Sang in particular, seemed very, very unhappy. Or at least, only happy when they were making others miserable around them. The family dynamics were complex, but no one is fulfilled or content, everyone worried what the others think. The novel follows the story of this family, but not told chronologically. It's a quiet novel, a character study, that was interesting, full of life, death, and all the interactions in between. It let me see a culture and experience that I am not at all familiar with. The Chinese culture is not very large in PEI, present, but not hugely.

I liked how the book was structured, each character leading a narrative, but we never really get into any particular character's emotions and thoughts, at least not for long. I didn't have a character I rooted for, except maybe Pon Man, who was caught in the classic conflict between his wife and mother, but he was detached from his father and there was much disappointment between them as well. This was a book about relationships and families, and while told from the experience in Chinatown, has parallels everywhere.

BOOK: All in Together Girls by Kate Sutherland

All in Together Girls by Kate Sutherland

short story challenge, Canadian Reading Challenge: Saskatchewan


I really enjoyed this collection of short stories by Kate, who happens to be hosting the short story challenge over here. The girl knows short stories. And these stories are all about girls - young, teens, young women, and their mothers. There was a familiarity to the voice in many of the tales. What I liked about these were snippets that stayed with me because they rang so true. I was driving the other day trying to remember where I'd read about a girl writing in a diary, how she was dismissed as someone who only wrote about the present, not the future. What book was that? Gradually, I remembered the story it came from("The Story of Her Life.") I expect there will be more little scenes replayed in my mind, like the dinner party from "Aerial View of a Dinner Party."


"Making Love While the Kettle Boils" was my favorite story, which surprised me. I'm not usually a fan of the love at first sight, wild passionate love stories. I hated Romeo and Juliet in high school because I thought it was stupid, not romantic, to kill yourself over someone you've just met. I'm more logical, even tempered, would rather ride the train than the roller coaster. However, every now and then, I get it. I see it portrayed in a way that makes sense to me. The English Patient movie is the one that stands out to me, but this short story did it for me as well. The crossword clues progressively changed as the tenor of the relationship changed, and then crashed, because for some reason, these romantic love affairs have to end tragically to be considered a true love affair. That is my problem with those love stories. But, as I read this one, I believed, and I really liked it.


I think I'll keep this little collection and revisit it from time to time. Thanks, Kate.

BOOK: Lorelei by Lori Derby Bingley

Lorelei by Lori Derby Bingley

Hometown challenge, Canadian Book Challenge: PEI entry

I chose this book because it is set on Prince Edward Island and because it was written by someone from my hometown, so it worked for two challenges. It was a romance, possibly a paranormal romance of which I'm not really sure what that means, but there was a spirit guiding the romance of the heroine. Romances aren't my type of genre to be honest, so I was looking for other factors for my enjoyment. I was a little distracted by the girl and her family because they were so similar to the author's family, - three girls, two boys, father an accountant; I think I knew too much about the author, having gone to school with her brother.

The main character, Amanda's life is like most little girls growing up in Sherwood. The descriptions of the neighbourhood, schools, and town were like being there, because I have been! The proper names of restaurants, streets, and businesses were exactly right, but somewhat distracting because I went to Stonepark, I've eaten in The Golden Wok, and I live blocks fron the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Amanda grows up from a young girl to become a novelist, fights against the man she meets and truly loves, and it takes a spirit who is trying to redeem her own past actions to try and get them together.

And although they were distracting, I enjoyed the mentions of local places. It's a little bit of history for anyone who grew up in Sherwood during the eighties. The romance part of the book was good, but predictable as I find most romance novels are. The element of supernatural, and the twists and turns in the plot were good, but if you aren't a fan of romance books, I'd avoid this one.

BOOK: The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler

The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler

Canadian Book Challenge, Quebec entry

I think I really liked this book. I mean, I think I really liked this book. For poor Duddy Kravitz was a great character. Growing up Jewish in 1950s Montreal, Duddy wants to make something of himself. His grandfather told him once that a man without land is nobody and Duddy makes it his goal to get some land. He's a schemer and feels that no one wants to help him, which they don't. And some people even are actively trying to put him down, because Duddy has an attitude. Some might call it arrogant, and trying to put himself at a higher station than life has given him. And people in power don't like to see someone else trying to usurp their power.

I just felt Duddy was focused, and determined, and he didn't care who got in his way on the way to the top. He certainly wasn't afraid of hard work, and he never got into anything very illegal although he probably skirted very close when he brought the pinball machines into Canada. His family thought he was a bum and dreaming too high, and yet he was the one who did everything for the people who didn't appreciate him, helping his brother stay in medical school and looking after his uncle on his deathbed. The back of the book called Duddy a 'hustler', which he was, but hustlers are successful because they are charming. I felt for Duddy in his struggles and his attempt at redemption within his family and community. He certainly made a lot of mistakes and was quite selfish, but I still rooted for him.

This is a classic Canadian novel and I am so glad I read this for the Canadian book challenge. The Quebec setting was a big part of the book and that is important to me for this challenge, as I read by province.

(It's the wrong cover. and I really like my cover. I have to balance my compulsive need for the right cover with my cheapness of buying second hand books that are not widely around)

BOOK: Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures by Vincent Lam

Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures by Vincent Lam

Giller Prize Winner 2006

Ontario book for the Canadian Book Challenge

Not so much a novel as a collection of stories, connected by four medical students / interns in Toronto. The stories are connected enough not to be stand alones, and reminded me of an ER episode, with different doctors and different medical emergencies. I read this fairly quickly and enjoyed the progression of the main characters. Lam is an emergency room doctor and it was interesting to read the stories from that perspective. I didn't recognize this as prize winning novel caliber, but it was enjoyable enough.

ETC: It's a Small World

How small of a world is it, you ask? Let me tell you a story.

Woo hoo! I won a book at The Book Mine Set this week, for answering the quiz about all the books that have been read so far. It was a really fun quiz, and I discovered a few new books to read. To top it off, I won Unsettled, a book of poetry, by Zachariah Wells. Yesterday, John Mutford emailed me to let me know, and to remind me to send my address so the book could be mailed to me. I remember thinking, Cool, john won't have to pay crazy postage since we are both in Canada. I sent my address off, and my thanks.

Today we are lounging around the house, enjoying the 'day in lieu of' Remembrance Day, recovering from the sleepover with a few ten year old boys last night, and I'm trying to get some blasted correcting done. A car pulls in the driveway, but it's not a parent coming to gather up their child.

It's Zachariah Wells. Delivering my book. To my house. He happened to be in Hunter River, (a little village about 15 minutes from Charlottetown) and figured it would be easier to drop off the book and save the postage. So he came in, signed the book for me, and left. I may not have been as polite as I could have, because the shock of it all sort of stunned me. So, I am sorry I didn't invite you in, but thank you so much for the book.

In typical Island fashion, I think I figured out who his father is, since Zachariah is originally from the Island, and it isn't that hard to pinpoint family names. It's a fun game we play here. So, how many published authors came to visit you today?

BOOK: Hockey Dreams by David Adams Richards

Hockey Dreams by David Adams Richards

Memories of a Man Who Couldn't Play

New Brunswick book for the Canadian Book Challenge

When I started this book, all about Canada and hockey, while a good choice obviously for the Canadian Book Challenge, I wasn't sure how much it would be about New Brunswick. I am hoping that most of the books that I read by province evoke a sense of the province as well as a good story. This book is actually several books in one: history and role of hockey over the last fifty years, how Canadians identify with hockey, and finally, the author's memories growing up on the Miramichi River, playing hockey. It certainly gave me a feel for growing up in the Miramichi.

This was a touching and patriotic read. I may have to get this for my husband for Christmas - he grew up in a small village, playing hockey on natural ice, and Richards' stories of playing hockey as a youngster remind me somewhat of my husband and his brother's stories. Richards recalls that during talk of expansion in the sixties, he assumed that Newcastle would be a logical spot for a new franchise. When he was young, my husband thought his father's old-timer league was the step below the NHL. So I could definitely identify with most of what Richards wrote; I think many Canadians could.

There are reminisces of a lot of international hockey, of course including Henderson's goal and the 1972 series with the Russians. I certainly haven't thought so much about the Canadian identity and hockey as in depth as he has, but I know that there are others who also have looked into it. I would love to read a Richards' article after the Salt Lake City Olympics, when we finally iced the best hockey players in the world, male and female. He must have been over the moon. Picture Gretzsky

And although the book is filled with hockey analysis, it is the memoir parts, his childhood that is the strong part of the book. Life in a small town Canada during the 1950s and 60s, and the characters that filled his life made for a wonderful read. I wondered what happened to Stafford, why Paul didn't make the NHL, where Michael and Tobias went, and who survived. So many pivotal points in his life are connected to hockey games, and he remembers where he was and who he was with. Even games on the river he can reconstruct with precision, which I know from experience, is believable, play by play. Hockey players really remember every part of every game they ever played.

I really enjoyed this book, and think any Canadian who likes hockey, (you can't be a hockey snob or you'll be offended or maybe you just won't get it), would like to read this. Richards writing is readable, and he travels back and forth in time, connecting events and memories, all under a layer of hockey. Go Leafs!

BOOK: a boy of good breeding by Miriam Toews

a boy of good breeding by Miriam Toews

a Manitoba book for the Canadian Book Challenge

Toews is more famous for her novel A Complicated Kindness which won the Governor General's award in 2004, but I read a good review of this book recently, so decided to try it.
Hosea Funk, the mayor of Algren, Canada's smallest town, is on a mission: If Algren is officially the smallest town, exactly 1500 people, the Prime Minister, who Hosea believes may be his father, will come to visit on Canada Day. Hosea is keeping very close tabs on Algren's citizens in his orange Hilroy scribbler - people returning, people dying, people having babies - maybe triplets! It is driving him nearly crazy (it might not be a long drive).

As he hovers around, looking after his town, we get to know some of the people, like people in small towns every where. There is Combine Jo, a drunk who drives her combine, natch, up Main Street once a year; Summer Lovin', a four year old who has returned (more people!) with her mother, Knute, to look after her father; and Bill Oliver, a local dog who cannot be told what to do, none of the Olivers ever could. Hosea is going so nuts, he won't let his girlfriend move in with him, since she would increase the population by one, moving down from Winnipeg.

It's a whimsy little story, with some pretty amusing parts. But Toews has hidden some more layers to the story, about living your life, and doing what you can to be happy, living without regret and making amends. It was touching story, with interesting characters, and people you want to find out about.

BOOK: The Lost Salt Gift of Blood by Alistair MacLeod

The Lost Salt Gift of Blood by Alistair MacLeod

a collection of short stories
Nova Scotia book for the Canadian Book Challenge


This collection of short stories gives such a wonderful history of life on the sea in Nova Scotia. The hard life of fishermen and coal miners, and the sacrifice and conflicts between the generations are told in brutal honesty and with a style that makes you feel you have lived this life.

Maybe it is just that I see a version of these conflicts here in the Maritimes today. I have neighbours whose husbands have left for the oilfields of Alberta because they can not support their family here. I have colleagues who never see their grandchildren because their own children have moved 'away' and only get a visit once a year. The life here is filled with people who leave, and the people who stay, and the conflict and unhappiness that results.

One story tells the point of view of the mother who wants her son to carry on her family tradition of fishing, and can't understand her daughters who left and married well in the Boston states. Her husband wants more for his son than the life of fishing that he has held. The conflict over the old way and education and the struggle between them.

Then the reverse, where the parents have moved away to make a better life for their children, sacrificing everything for their education, and the children who don't want that life, and miss the old ways.
The conflict between parents and children, the old ways and the new, poverty and trying to better a life. While these stories are set in the late 60s early 70s, life and the challenges haven't changed at all. The fish aren't here anymore, the coal mines are shut down, and there is always some new catastrophe in the economy. MacLeod writes beautifully, putting so much in few words, and I enjoyed this collection of stories as a history of my region, and as a commentary on how life hasn't changed all that much. They are sad stories, but not depressing, and with a twinge of hope in people accepting their fate.

BOOK: The Inuk Mountie Adventure by Eric Wilson

The Inuk Mountie Adventure by Eric Wilson

A Tom Austen Mystery
Nunavut book for the Canadian Book Challenge

I was picking out some library books for my son and saw this one and knew it would be a nice easy read, perfect for my percocet induced haze following my wisdom teeth extraction. And it was perfect. This isn't a mystery like an Agatha Christie mystery, but for the under twelve group, it is a great book. Wilson has a whole series of books starring Tom and his sister Liz, solving mysteries across Canada.

The mystery here was a little far fetched, with Tom overhearing the Prime Minister and his aide, and then gets caught up in a plot involving murder and the possible joining of Canada and the United States. Then Tom and his class head from Winnipeg to Nunavut for an exchange trip, where the mystery continues.

The mystery was well done once you get past a how perfectly Tom continually overhears important information. But the description of the locations and the students experience in Nunavut were very nicely done, and expose kids to a part of Canada few of us get to experience. This is also a nice way to introduce young readers to a mystery series, and if these had been around when I was young, I would have gobbled them up, like Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys, for Canadians.

The book was written before Nunavut officially became a territory in 1999, so the map at the front of the book isn't quite accurate.

MEME: Canadian Book Meme

Do you know your Giller from your Booker?
It's a Challenge and a Meme! How multipurpose is that?
Just copy and paste into your own blog, then highlight in red those you've read, highlight in blue authors you've read, just not that particular book, and leave the rest black.
I've bolded the ones I'm hoping to read in the Canadian Challenge. How many have you read?


Newfoundland and Labrador-
Cassie Brown- Death On The Ice (Non-fiction)
Lisa Moore- Open (Short Stories)
Lisa Moore- Alligator
Wayne Johnston- Colony of Unrequited Dreams
Al Pittman- Down By Jim Long’s Stage (Children’s poems)
Al Pittman- West Moon (play)
Harold Horwood- White Eskimo
Harold Horwood- Bartlett The Great Explorer (Non-fiction)
Michael Crummey- River Thieves
E. J. Pratt- Complete Poems (Poetry)
Mary Dalton- Merrybegot (Poetry)
Dillon Wallace- The Lure of The Labrador Wild
Kevin Major- Eh? To Zed (Children’s book)
Ted Russell- The Holdin’ Ground (play)
Percy Janes- House of Hate
Bud Davidge and Ian Wallace (Illustrator)- The Mummer’s Song (Children’s Book)
E. Annie Proulx- The Shipping News
Claire Mowat- Outport People (Non-fiction)
Donna Morrissey- Kit’s Law
Ken Babstock- Airstream Land Yacht (Poetry)
Bernice Morgan- Random Passage
Joan Clark- An Audience of Chairs
Earl B. Pilgrim- The Ghost of Ellen Dower
Dale Jarvis- Haunted Shores: True Ghost Stories of Newfoundland and Labrador
Paul Butler- Easton
Edward Riche- Rare Birds
Kenneth J. Harvey- The Town That Forgot How To Breathe


Prince Edward Island-
Lucy Maud Montgomery- Anne of Green Gables
Stompin’ Tom and Brenda Jones (Illustrator)- The Hockey Song (Children’s Book)
David Helwig- Saltsea
Michael Hennessey- The Betrayer
J. J. Steinfeld- Would You Hide Me? (Short Stories)
Anne Compton- Processional (Poetry)
Milton Acorn- I Shout Love and Other Poems (Poetry)


Nova Scotia-
Frank Parker Day- Rockbound
Alistair MacLeod- Island (Short Stories)
Alistair MacLeod- No Great Mischief
George Elliott Clarke- Whylah Falls (Poetry)
Anne Simpson- Loop (Poetry)
Alden Nolan- The Best Of (Poetry)
Hugh MacLennan- The Watch That Ends The Night
Thomas Chandler Haliburton- The Clockmaker
Ernest Buckler- The Mountain and the Valley
Ann-Marie MacDonald- Fall On Your Knees
Linden MacIntyre- Causeway (Non-fiction)


New Brunswick-
David Adams Richards- Mercy Among The Children
Charles G. D. Roberts- The Collected Poems (Poetry)
T. G. Roberts- The Red Feathers
Donna Allard- Minago Streets (Poetry)
Linda Hall- Black Ice
Elisabeth Harvor- Fortress Of Chairs


Quebec-
Mordecai Richler- Barney’s Version
Gabrielle Roy- The Tin Flute
Roch Carrier- The Hockey Sweater (Children’s Book)
Markoosie- Harpoon of the Hunter
Michel Tremblay- The Fat Woman Next Door Is Pregnant
Michel Tremblay- Forever Yours Marie-Lou (Play)
Saul Bellow- Humboldt’s Gift
Hubert Acquin- Next Episode
Heather O’Neill- Lullabies For Little Criminals
Gaetan Soucy- The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond Of Matches
Leonard Cohen- Beautiful Losers
Leonard Cohen- Let Us Compare Mythologies (Poetry)
Jacques Poulin- Volkswagen Blues
Yves Theriault- Agaguk
Mairuth Sarsfield- No Crystal Stair
Naomi Klein- No Logo (Non-fiction)
Irving Layton- Dance With Desire (Poems)
Stuart McLean- Stories From The Vinyl Café (Short Stories)
Yann Martel- Life of Pi
Romeo Dallaire- Shake Hands With The Devil (Non-fiction)
Gordon Korman- Island: Shipwreck (Young Adult)
Monique Proulx- The Heart Is An Involuntary Muscle


Ontario-
Margaret Atwood- Handmaid’s Tale
Robertson Davies- Fifth Business
Stephen Leacock- Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town (Short Stories)
Alice Munro- Who Do You Think You Are? (Short Stories)
Timothy Findley- The Wars
Jane Urquhart- The Stone Carvers
Barbara Gowdy- White Bone
Joan Barfoot- Luck
Dennis Lee- Alligator Pie (Children’s Poems)
Robert Munsch- The Paperbag Princess (Children’s Book)
Michael Ondaatje- In The Skin Of A Lion
Rohinton Mistry- A Fine Balance
Al Purdy- Beyond Remembering (Poetry)
Farley Mowat- Never Cry Wolf
Joseph Boyden- Three Day Road
Thomas King- Green Grass, Running Water
Austin Clarke- The Polished Hoe
Mary Lawson- Crow Lake
Matt Cohen- Elizabeth and After
Jon McCrae- In Flanders Fields (Poem)
Christian Bok- Eunoia (poetry)
Phoebe Gilman- Something From Nothing (Children’s Book)
Richard B. Wright- Clara Callan
M. G. Vassanji- The In-Between World of Vikram Lall
Vincent Lam- Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures (Short stories)
Barbara Reid- Two By Two (Children’s Book)
David Bezmozgis- Natasha and Other Stories (Short Stories)
Morley Callaghan- More Joy In Heaven
Helen Humphries- Afterimage
Gordon Downie- Coke Machine Glow (Poetry)
Anne Michaels- Fugitive Pieces
Frances Itani- Deafening


Manitoba-
Margaret Laurence- A Bird In The House (Short Stories)
Margaret Laurence- A Jest of God
Carol Shields- The Stone Diaries
Bill Richardson- Bachelor Brothers’ Bed and Breakfast
Miriam Toews- A Complicated Kindness
Tomson Highway- The Rez Sisters (Play)
David Bergen- The Time In Between


Saskatchewan-
Tim Lilburn- Kill-Site (Poetry)
Guy Vanderhaeghe- The Last Crossing
Guy Gavriel Kay- The Summer Tree
Sinclair Ross- As For Me and My House
W. O. Mitchell- Who Has Seen The Wind
Rudy Wiebe- The Temptations of Big Bear
Dianne Warren- Serpent In The Night Sky (play)
Sharon Butala- Lilac Moon (Non-fiction)
Paul Hiebert- Sarah Binks


Alberta-
Will Ferguson- Why I Hate Canadians (Nonfiction)
Earle Birney- One Muddy Hand (Poetry)
Thomas Wharton- Salamander
W. P. Kinsella- Shoeless Joe
Robert Kroetsch- The Studhorse Man
Katherine Govier- Three Views of Crystal Water
Christopher Wiseman- In John Updike’s Room (Poetry)
Anita Rau Badami- Can You Hear The Nightbird Call?


British Columbia-
Douglas Coupland- Generation X
Timothy Taylor- Stanley Park
Kenneth Oppel- Silverwing (Young Adult)
bpNichol- The Martyrology (Poetry)
Susan Musgrave- What The Small Day Cannot Hold (Poetry)
Michael Turner- Hard Core Logo
Joy Kogawa- Obasan
P.K. Page- Planet Earth (Poetry)
Anosh Irani- The Song of Kahunsha
Wayson Choy- The Jade Peony
John Gould- Kilter (Short stories)
Sheila Watson- The Double Hook
Gayla Reid- To Be There With You (Short stories)
Audrey Thomas- Coming Down From Wa
Kevin Chong- Baroque-a-Nova


Yukon-
Robert Service- The Best Of (Poetry)
Pierre Berton- The National Dream (Non-fiction)
Al Pope- Bad Latitudes
Dick North- The Mad Trapper of Rat River (Non-fiction)
Ted Harrison- Children of the Yukon (Children’s Book)
Pj Johnson- Rhymes of the Raven Lady (Poetry)
Jack London- Call of the Wild


Northwest Territories-
Mackay Jenkins- Bloody Falls of the Coppermine (nonfiction)
Richard Van Camp- Lesser Blessed
Robert Alexie- Pale Indian
Rene Fumoleau- Here I Sit (Poetry)
Steve Zipp- Yellowknife
Elizabeth Hay- Late Nights On Air
James Raffan- Emperor of The North (Non-fiction)


Nunavut-
Michael Kusugak- Hide and Sneak (Children’s book)
Michael Kusugak- Curse of the Shaman (Young Adult)
James Houston- The White Dawn
Kevin Patterson- Consumption
Tom Lowenstein (translator)/ Knud Rasmussen (compiled by)- Eskimo Poems (Poetry)
Pierre Berton- The Arctic Grail (nonfiction)
John Bennett and Susan Rowley (Editors and compilers) Uqalurait: An Oral History of Nunavut (Non-fiction)
Kenn Harper- Give Me My Father’s Body (Non-fiction)
Eric Wilson- The Inuk Mountie Adventure (Young Adult)
Robert Ruby- Unknown Shore (Non-fiction)

CHALLENGE: The Canadian Book Challenge

This is a challenge I can not refuse. I read Canadian authors already, so a challenge to celebrate Canada? To show we have more authors than Margaret Atwood? Sorry Margaret, not a putdown of you - you're great, but so are so many others.

john mutford, from The Book Mine Set, is sponsoring this one, from now until July 1, 2008. That's our Canada Day, which is becoming more and more of a celebration. He wants us to read 13 books, and is giving away some allegedly famous prizes (to steal a phrase from CBC radio)

John has done a bunch of research, and has listed books by the author's province if you are interested in The White Stripes Way - Read a book from each of the 13 provinces and territories. I'm picking this one because I love the name the best. :) He has other options, like prize winning authors and books: look into the Giller prizes, I haven't read one of them yet I haven't enjoyed immensely, or obscure authors, or whatever you can come up with. I'd suggest some children's novels by Gordon Korman or Eric Wilson, but I am getting distracted.

From my list of books I've been meaning to read anyway, here is my potential list by province:

Newfoundland: Latitudes of Melt by Joan Clark
Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston

Nova Scotia: Lost Salt Gift of Blood (short stories) - Alistair MacLeod

PEI: don't know yet, something local. I've a former student who published a book of poetry, and my great Aunt and mother are publishing a family heritage book this winter

New Brunswick: One More Step (YA) - Sheree Fitch

Quebec: Stories from the Vinyl Cafe - Stuart MacLean
Barney's Version - Mordecai Richler Giller Winner 1997
Shaking Hands with the Devil - Romeo Dollaire

Ontario: Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures - Vincent Lam Giller Winner 2006
Crow Lake - Mary Lawson framed and booked is giving this one away!
Clara Callen - Richard B Wright Giller Winner 2001

Manitoba: Stone Diaries - Carol Shields Pulitzer Winner 1995
A Boy of Good Breeding - Miraim Toews
Bachelor Buttons Bed and Breakfast sequel - Bill Richardson

Saskatchewan: The Dog Who Wouldn't Be - Farley Mowatt

Alberta: Why I Hate Canadians - Will Fergeson

British Columbia: The Gum Thief, JPod, Eleanor Rigby, Microsefs - Douglas Coupland

Yukon:

Northwest Territories:

Nunavit: The Inuk Mountie Adventure - Eric Wilson*

Somewhere here in the territories, I should try to read a Pierre Berton book. There were 67 listed in the library. 67! Some are children's, some are Canada as a whole, but I feel I must read at least a Berton book for this challenge. Maybe 1967 - The Last Good Year, as that was the year I was born, Canada's centennial.

* Eric Wilson has a series of YA mysteries set all across Canada. You could do only Eric Wilson and cover the country.

May I suggest some of my family's favorite children's books, especially if you are looking for short easy books:

PEI: Stompin’ Tom and Brenda Jones (Illustrator)- The Hockey Song (Children’s Book)
NB: Sheree Fitch - Sleeping Dragons All Around, Monkeys in my Kitchen, Mabel Murple (Children's Books)
Quebec: Roch Carrier- The Hockey Sweater (Children’s Book)
Ontario: Robert Munsch- The Paperbag Princess (Children’s Book) + so many others
Dennis Lee - Aligator Pie (Poetry)
Saskatchewan: Farley Mowatt - Owls in the Family (read aloud/chapter book)