CanadianContent discussion

Bookish Advent Books

December 1: Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened, Allie Brosh (NF)
December 2: A Week in Winter, Maeve Binchy
December 3: Solomon Gursky Was Here, Mordecai Richler
December 4: Tell, Frances Itani
December 5: Rules of Civility, Amor Towles
December 6: Bird in the Snow, Michael Harding
December 7: Boundless: Tracing Land and Dream in a New Northwest Passage, Kathleen Winter (NF)
December 8: Doctor Zhivago, Boris Pasternak
December 9: The Douglas Notebooks, Christine Eddie
December 10: Touch, Alexi Zentner
December 11: The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival, John Vaillant (NF)
December 12: Anna From Away, D. R. MacDonald
December 13: Burial Rites, Hannah Kent
December 14: One Night in Winter, Simon Sebag Montefiore
December 15: The Winter War, Philip Tier
December 16: Into the Heart of the Country, Pauline Holdstock
December 17: Gold Diggers: Striking it Rich in the Klondike, Charlotte Gray (NF)
December 18: The Curiosity, Stephen Kiernan
December 19: Kristin Lavransdatter, Sigrid Undset
December 20: The Winter Witch, Paula Brackston
December 21: Atonement, Gaetan Soucy (winter solstice)
December 22: The Winter Ghosts, Kate Mosse
December 23: Belonging: Home Away from Home, Isabel Huggan
December 24: The Snow Goose, by Paul Gallico

December 25: Bonus:
• The Snow Child, Eowyn Ivey
• The Colony of Unrequited Dreams, Wayne Johnson
• The Outlander, Gil Adamson
• Annabel, Kathleen Winter
• And the Birds Rained Down, Jocelyne Saucier
• Late Nights on Air, Elizabeth Hay
• Indian Horse, Richard Wagamese
• February, Lisa Moore
• Consumption, Kevin Patterson
•Sweetland, Galore, and River Thieves, Michael Crummey
• The Orenda, Joseph Boyden
• Klondike Tales, Jack London
• The Arctic Grail: The Quest for the North West Passage and the North Pole, 1818-1909, Pierre Berton
• The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing, Melissa Banks
• Our Endless Numbered Days, Claire Fuller

Monthly Group Reads

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7so0nwprnjz...

Thank you @Allison!

Nice!! Thank you, Allison!

You're welcome. That's what I managed to grab before the site shut down.

What should we do about a prize? Asking not out of self-interest—I bailed on the official challenge when I saw the extensive reporting requirements (and the continually narrowing parameters of the categories)—but I know some folks have gone full throttle to fill their boards and maybe others could use an extra incentive to finish. Should we form a prize committee, or just profess that achievement is its own reward? :-)

[If I recall, the plan in the old group was to have a drawing for an unspecified prize from among those who filled their entire board. But I didn't follow the BINGO discussion very closely after the first month or so.]

How about this prize, created out of generosity of spirit:

For anyone who finishes the challenge, Susan draws a random name, and everyone else can send them a (used?) book that they've enjoyed. Cheap, easy, and totally voluntary, so no pressure or expectation. The winner gets what they get, and being voluntary, it's fun and NO PRESSURE for anyone!

Or some variation on that....? Maybe a list of winners does an exchange? Or people who didn't finish can voluntarily send a book? I don't know... Trying to spread the happy, voluntary and cheap love a LFL, since that seems to be a theme with this group. :)

I like that idea. It's cheap and easy and the winner will get a bunch of good books!

Cool idea!!

I like it! It'd be cool if each giver sent the winner a book on their own birthday so the winner'd be receiving them randomly throughout 2017, but that would be asking a lot (of others—my birthday's in January so it'd be easy for me to remember). I'm overthinking now... :-)

Oh, now that's fun!

@Allison Fantastic idea!!

" happy, voluntary, and cheap love" I love it!
and the prize idea...sounds fun.
I made 2 beautiful bingo cards using collage. I haven't been able to figure out how to post here.
how its turned out, I've got generally at least 2 or 3 post- its with book info on each square. I only have one square with nothing on it, the international writer set in canada. I was intending on going to that cbc thread for ideas, but I'll bet you have some here.

"The Shipping News" by Annie Proulx immediately comes to mind, @Magdelayne.

Stormy Cove by Bernadette Calonego is another possibility.

@natasha...I loved that book! but looking for something new :-)

just checked out stormy cove...not so fond of the genre. On the subject of Agatha C...someone just donated almost the entire

sorry! this mobile is not up to the task if I get too excited...because so many here are into AC ...and we now have an entire shelf of first edition pps from the deep past.

@Magdelanye, I feel like a bit of a broken record, but I absolutely loved The Tenderness of Wolves and used it for that square in BINGO. I grew up in the area where it takes place (although unrecognizable in its wild form in the book).

I'm halfway through The Tenderness of Wolves now and it's a good read. Other books I had jotted down as possibilities were Mrs. Mike, Shadows on the Rock, and The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland.

Another one that could work is Canada by Richard Ford.

The Tenderness of Wolves was truly an amazing book that I used for international author with setting in Canada.

If we need a prize for filling the Bingo card, what if all the finishers were to randomly (chosen by ❀ Susan) send another finisher a book. For instance, I would love to get an epub book (by email) that someone else might have. This way we all win, since anyone who completes the Bingo challenge should get a reward. Just a thought.

One of the books suggested for the Epic square was Away by Jane Urquhart as spanning four generations. I've just finished it and while it does touch at the start and end with a fourth generation woman, the story really is only focussed on the first and second. I wouldn't really qualify it for Epic at all. To me, if you want epic to span 3+ generations, or 50+ years, you want to know what happened to someone from each of the generations. Galore by Michael Crummy goes over 100 years and while the first 50 are more detailed than the second, it does follow along and well worth the name Epic. I think I will have to read something else for the square and I've just got Yan Martel's new book, The High Mountains of Portugal. The description seems to fit the mold a bit better. Just my opinion, mind you.

Interesting discussion Diane - i had used the Dovekeepers but want to change it to a Canadian novel and was pondering whether The Stone Diaries would be an epic novel. I have read The High Mountains of Portugal and might just move that there.

I used The Nine Lives of Charlotte Taylor for this Bingo square because it was on the list supplied by Jennifer, yet I didn`t feel it was epic in scope in any way, shape or form. It was the life of ONE woman. Yet they turned down A Spool of Blue Thread as being eligible while that book covers 4 generations. Go figure.

@ ❀ Susan, The Stone Diaries is really the story of one woman's life, start to finish. But it doesn't really span generations or eons of time.

Allison wrote: "@ ❀ Susan, The Stone Diaries is really the story of one woman's life, start to finish. But it doesn't really span generations or eons of time."

But it's a great read! :)

I think you are right but was thinking about how it starts with Mercy and Cuyler and ends with her kids. I think i will rearrange and add The High Mountains of Portugal for the Epic read instead of Dovekeepers.

Some of the BINGO category definitions are probably best left up the reader, with the faith that everyone will read what makes sense to them. I found a similar challenge to defining "Classic Canadian." I was thinking of using The Handmaid's Tale, and that was the very book that someone else used as an example of what was NOT Classic Canadian! :)

@Allison - I think you are right about that too and think we are all reading wonderful books for this challenge and don't need to get hung up by the rules anymore. I would totally use The Handmaid's tale as classic Canadian. I am struggling with choosing/actually getting to read a graphic novel. I wanted to read Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer's, My Mother, and Me but have not been able to find it in the library yet.

@Susan, I read The Complete Essex County, which I had my library bring in for me for the Graphic Novel square. It's a neat read, goes by really quickly (like, a day), and it takes place within just a couple of hours of where you live! It certainly makes you appreciate the work that an author puts into all that artwork! So that might be a neat one to consider -- you could take a weekend drive out to the area to make it come even more alive!

Thanks for the great suggestion - I will search to see if the libraries here have it.

I am not normally drawnto graphic novels but @Lara recommended Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea byGuy Delisle and I was amazed how well it was put together with humour, albeit dark, about the author's stay in North Korea. It gives a rare glimpse into that sad country.

Thanks Mary Ann and Allison - the library near me has a trilogy of Essex County so I will give this a try this week since I am on vacation.

Also - Mary Ann - I love your idea of all the winners sending each other a book. I would be happy to coordinate addresses if the group is into that. I think just completing we are all winners but receiving a book in the mail would be fun!!

❀ Susan wrote: "Thanks Mary Ann and Allison - the library near me has a trilogy of Essex County so I will give this a try this week since I am on vacation.

Also - Mary Ann - I love your idea of all the winners se..."

I like this idea too, but have no idea how to give an e-book, and don't own any!

@Mary Anne "A Journey into North Korea" is the book I picked for this square.

I too don't know how to do the ebook but we could certainly do 'real books"

Real books would be ok. It might be nice to give and get a book in Jan 2016 for Jan7, Julian calendar Christmas, or Jan 14 New Year, in the post holiday blah-blahs.

Mary Anne wrote: "Real books would be ok. It might be nice to give and get a book in Jan 2016 for Jan7, Julian calendar Christmas, or Jan 14 New Year, in the post holiday blah-blahs."

@Mary Anne, last year a number of us participated in a Holiday Book Exchange in December (sort of like a Secret Santa). I think the group is intending to engage in that again, as it was so much fun! @Susan, @Natasha and I are going to talk sometime early-November and figure it all out, so we hope you'll be a part of that!

That would be fun!!!

@Allison - thanks for your suggestion of Essex County. Although graphic novels are not my choice for reading, I did bite the bullet for the challenge and borrow this from the library today. It was an easy read but does not leave me wanting to read more graphic novels - my 9 year old on the other hand, picked himself a pile of graphic novels and enjoys that genre!!

@Susan, I'm not a massive fan of the graphic novel. The Complete Essex County was the one and only I've ever tried, but I'm not racing out to get another. However, I really was struck by the amount of work that goes into them! There are a lot of pages in that book, and they each contain several really well-done images. Deserves some accolades for sure! That's talent!

i totally agree! the art work must be so time consuming and the story line was interesting but seemed more like an outline than a short story. I appreciated your suggestion.

❀ Susan wrote: "@Allison - thanks for your suggestion of Essex County. Although graphic novels are not my choice for reading, I did bite the bullet for the challenge and borrow this from the library today. It was ..."

Do try the graphic book Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea. The drawings are simple but convey the story very well. As I have mentioned elsewhere, this Quebecois got a job as an artist in North Korea and he writes about living there.

Mary Anne wrote: "❀ Susan wrote: "@Allison - thanks for your suggestion of Essex County. Although graphic novels are not my choice for reading, I did bite the bullet for the challenge and borrow this from the librar..."

Actually, @Mary Anne, I've heard from others that this is really worthwile read too. I may try to grab it somewhere.

Allison wrote: "Mary Anne wrote: "❀ Susan wrote: "@Allison - thanks for your suggestion of Essex County. Although graphic novels are not my choice for reading, I did bite the bullet for the challenge and borrow th..."

He has written a book about his time living in Jerusalem, Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City but I did not find it as compact and powerful as the North Korea book.

My husband has a couple of graphic novel versions of Terry Pratchett novels and also an autobiography of Stan Lee done as a graphic novel, rather appropriate there since he created the Marvel world of superheros. Since I have them at hand I will probably use one of those for the Bingo square. I had one at the beginning of the year, Orphan Black but it turns out it was a collection of comics that wasn't a proper novel.

One more to go - the Animals in Literature which will be covered off by our August read and then Bingo.

I will be looking to replace my War and Music, Film, Art squares with Canadian choices too so a bit more reading for this challenge.

I have to admit, it has taken me outside my comfort zone (graphic novels) and been very inspiring to increase my Canadian content this year!