2011 Canada Reads: 10 Finalists

The Top 10 Canadian Novels of the Decade have just been announced. Six men and four women make up the list of finalists. Congratulations to

1.The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis (Ontario)
2.The Birth House by Ami McKay (Nova Scotia)
3.The Bone Cage by Angie Abdou (Saskatchewan)
4.The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill (Ontario) 
5.Bottle Rocket Hearts by Zoe Whittall (Quebec)
6. Essex County by Jeff Lemire (Ontario)
7. Life of Pi by Yann Martel (Spain)
8. Pattern Recognition by William Gibson (U.S.)
9. Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden (Ontario)
10. Unless by Carol Shields (U.S.)

Hey Reader! What do you think of the fact that Life of Pi was a Canada Reads finalist in 2003, Three Day Road was a finalist in 2006, and The Book of Negroes won the competition in 2009. Should previous finalists be ruled out to give other Canadian authors a chance to be among the top 10?

Among the original top 40, there was a strong showing from the Maritimes with 9 writers and, of course, from Ontario where the bulk of the population resides (17 writers). I compiled this information based on my research into the authors' place of birth. But I do acknowledge that Ann-Marie McDonald grew up in the the Maritimes, making the ratio of writers from the Atlantic provinces 1:4. (Something in the water?). It was also nice to see a fairly even split among women and men writers (21/19).


A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews (Manitoba)
Bottle Rocket Hearts by Zoe Whittall (Quebec)
Clara Callan by Richard B. Wright (Ontario)
Come, Thou Tortoise by Jessica Grant (Newfoundland)
Conceit by Mary Novik (British Columbia)
Crow Lake by Mary Lawson (Ontario)
Drive-by Saviours by Chris Benjamin (Nova Scotia)
Elle by Douglas Glover (Ontario)
Essex County by Jeff Lemire (Ontario)
Far to Go by Alison Pick (Ontario)
February by Lisa Moore (Newfoundland)
Galore by Michael Crummey (Newfoundland)
Heave by Christy Ann Conlin (Nova Scotia)
Inside by Kenneth J. Harvey (Newfoundland)
Late Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay (Ontario)
Life of Pi by Yann Martel (Spain)
Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O'Neill (Quebec)
Moody Food by Ray Robertson (Ontario)
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (Ontario)
Pattern Recognition by William Gibson (U.S.)
Room by Emma Donoghue (Ireland)
Shelf Monkey by Corey Redekop (Manitoba)
Skim by Mariko Tamaki (Ontario) and Jillian Tamaki (Alberta)
Sweetness in the Belly by Camilla Gibb (Ontario)
The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis (Ontario)
The Birth House by Ami McKay (Nova Scotia)
The Bishop's Man by Linden MacIntyre (Newfoundland)
The Bone Cage by Angie Abdou (Saskatchewan)
The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill (Ontario)
The Day the Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan (Ontario)
The Fallen by Stephen Finucan (Ontario)
The Girls Who Saw Everything by Sean Dixon (?)
The Last Crossing by Guy Vanderhaeghe (Saskatchewan)
The Stone Carvers by Jane Urquhart (Ontario)
The Way the Crow Flies by Ann-Marie MacDonald (Germany)
The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood (Ontario)
Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden (Ontario)
Through Black Spruce by Joseph Boyden (Ontario)
Twenty-Six by Leo McKay Jr. (Nova Scotia)
Unless by Carol Shields (U.S.)



Other Reviews
Tattoos on the Heart by Gregory Boyle
Reads from Men 
Happy Home For Broken Hearts
Death to the Dictator! by Afsaneh Mosadam
The Selves by Sonja Alhers
Living Downstream by Sandra Steingraber

2 comments:

Sean Dixon - | November 9, 2010 at 1:03 PM

(Everywhere.)

Heather | November 9, 2010 at 1:18 PM

So you were born everywhere? It was hard information to track down.

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