Today Canada celebrates books with the world by aligning the Canada and B.C. Book Days with the UN World Book Day.
Why April 23rd some may ask? On this day in 1616, William Shakespeare, Miguel de Crevantes, and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega all died.
In keeping with this theme here are a few literary adventures I’ve had recently.
I returned from my vacation travels with 26 new books for my collection. Bringing my personal library to a grand total of 950. I most likely have closer to 1000, as I do not catalogue fiction that I will read and pass on. I only catalogue books I plan to keep for the long haul.
One of the books I picked up, I read immediately. Part of the back cover synopsis prompted me to buy the book:
… Judge Reill provides an enlightening and timely perspective….why the white justice system is failing First Nations communities….
My current work in progress has a major character from a local First Nations community. In my work I have chosen to include characters from diverse backgrounds. As a result, I am learning as much as I can about diverse Canadian perspectives. Bad Medicine gave me a very clear explanation of the historical and current issues faced by the First Nations communities.
During my vacation, I watched the live stream of CBC’s Canada Reads.
This is my first time watching Canada Reads, which I am ashamed to admit. In the past, life always got in the way and I usually missed the notices announcing its broadcast. But not this year.
Canada Reads is an annual “battle of the books” competition organized and broadcast by CBC Radio. Think of the television reality show The Voice, but with books. To watch a replay of each episode go here.
This great Canadian book debate is broadcast over a series of four hour long programs. At the end of each episode, the panelists vote one title out of the competition until only one book remains. This book is then billed as the book that all Canada should read.
The theme this year is one book to open your eyes. The 2018 contenders and their chosen books were:
If you have the time to watch only one of the replays I recommend Day Two which you can find here.
The publisher of the winning Canada Reads title donates a portion of sales proceeds from the winning book to a charitable organization working in the field of literacy in Canada.
Last week I bought Forgiveness, the winning book by Mark Sakamoto.
Before I read Forgiveness, I will be reading the debut novel of my writing coach. Every Other Weekend by Zulema Renee Summerfield.
I am very excited about this one. Zulema is an amazing coach and I am blessed to have her as a part of my journey. Every Other Weekend has been getting great reviews. Zulema had the joyous opportunity of giving a reading at Powell’s Books in Portland, Oregon, one of my favourite bookstores.
I am going to write fuller reviews for all three titles in upcoming posts.
Happy reading everyone.
What are you reading? Have you read any of the Canada Reads books?
I share a bit more about how my research on First Nations is affecting me emotionally in my upcoming Newsletter. If you aren’t a subscriber you can sign up here.
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