The battle royale of the literary world is getting the local treatment once again as Canada Reads takes place at the St. Albert Public Library next Friday evening. It will be the third round of the event that plays off of CBC’s longstanding Canada Reads program where celebrity debaters pick one book out of many to be chosen as the book that everyone should read.
“I'm thrilled Canada Reads has been so successful and is now an annual event at the library. This year's panel should prove to be engaging and competitive, and with an excellent set of books to be defended, this will be one not to miss,” said adult services librarian Michelle Steinhusen.
She will be the host of the event, acting as referee between the five contenders and their chosen titles. Past library chair Charmaine Brooks will back Precious Cargo by Craig Davidson, while American War by Omar El Akkad will be defended by Make It Awkward campaign spokesperson Jesse Lipscombe. Former mayor Nolan Crouse has chosen Mark Sakamoto’s Forgiveness and The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline has retired Chamber of Commerce president Lynda Moffat in its corner. Rounding out the contenders is spoken word artist Julia Sorensen who will be defending The Boat People by Sharon Bala.
Crouse, certainly one given to convincing loquaciousness, gave some early thoughts to how he will present the case for Sakamoto’s title.
“Well, first of all, mine is a war story and deals with discrimination, mental health, and the treatment of women. And it is not fiction and as such it is easily the best book and easy to defend. Slam dunk. As such, my book is timely.”
Sorensen (recent winner of the Youth Artist Award at last week's Mayor's Celebration of the Arts ceremony who is also currently on the shortlist of three people to become St. Albert’s first poet laureate) was the first to rally in response.
“I'm not sure why a book being non-fiction immediately places it superior to any fiction texts, but my novel is fictional but written about real, recent Canadian history. It discusses all the complicated facets of Canadian identity and points out nuanced ways in which we can become complacent in injustice by differentiating ourselves, even in moments when we are far more similar than we'd like to admit. They might call that a three pointer, Mr. Crouse.”
St. Albertans can get into the action themselves through the magic of online voting.
“Many of our patrons love to read the shortlisted titles, so anyone who is reading the books ahead of our March 23 event can vote in our online poll. We’ll see which title is in the lead at the start of our Canada Reads event, but the winner will be the book that gets the most votes on the night – so there’s lots of pressure on our panel to defend their book with passion and persuasion,” Steinhusen said.
Voting and details of the five books can be found on the Readers’ Blog on the library’s website at www.sapl.ca.
The event is free to attend but pre-registration is required as space is limited. The bell will ‘ding’ at 7 p.m. on Friday to start the debate in Forsyth Hall at the library.
