Ibis3’s Comments (group member since Sep 06, 2010)

Ibis3’s comments from the CanLit Challenge group.

Anyone else watching the Juniors this year?

Buried In Print wrote: "I thought the former was fine, and I enjoyed Bliss Carmen's poems (somehow I had the idea they were relatively inaccessible, but enjoyed them nonetheless). I hope you've added something else to you..."

Nope, still just the poetry. Although I have been out a lot in the car & shops listening to The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I very much wish to finish it (i.e. the poetry) before the new year.

I haven't had a lot of time to read in the past couple of weeks, but this is now my only "currently reading" book (aside from an audiobook while driving). Today, I finished Charles G. D. Roberts' section and am starting on Bliss Carmen.

Tana wrote: "Hi my name is Tana, I am an avid reader and I just finished a review for a woman named Marie Landry who happened to be canadian. Then I made a spot for canadian authors on my blog and realized I ..."

Welcome! Canada has lots of great stories and great authors to tell them. Hope you enjoy the group.

I've received one nomination by private message:

Butterfly Winter, the newest by W. P. Kinsella

What was your favourite book by a Canadian author or about Canada that you read in 2011? What was great about it? We all want to know. :)

I've been wanting to read this for a while, and since I've put off reading a couple of other books until the new year, I may just get a chance to read this one in that lull between Christmas and New Year.

I kinda took a break to concentrate on Vimy, which I finished today. I'm planning next to read straight through Duncan Campbell Scott (I'm now in the midst of Charles G.D. Roberts -- whom my brain wants to keep reading as J.D. Roberts, the MuchMusic VJ-cum-CNN correspondent). The final hundred pages look like they'll be pretty quick going by comparison, and I too, plan to be done for sure by the end of December.

[Note for later readers of the thread: I said in a progress update that I knew what BiP meant about the poems blurring together 'Yes, I do. They're kind of samey. Which seems to make sense because I get the impression that they (the group we're reading right now) knew each other and must have had similar feelings about poetry--if they were in England, I imagine they would have been a "school".']

The Charles Taylor is like the Giller for non-fiction books. This year's finalists were:

by Stevie Cameron

by Charles Foran

by Ross King

by George Sipos

by Merrily Weisbord

The winner was Mordecai: The Life & Times.

Next year's short list will actually be announced December 12th.

The winners of this year's GGs:

Fiction: by Patrick deWitt

Nonfiction: by Charles Foran

Poetry: by Phil Hall

Drama: by Erin Shields

Children's (text): by Christopher Moore

Children's (illos.): by Cybèle Young

French to English: by Georges Leroux (Donald Winkler, translator), a translation of the essay, Partita pour Glenn Gould)

The French winners can be found here: http://987321654.canadacouncil.net/en...

Ah, the old thread wasn't full, but it was getting extremely stale. So here's a new thread for chatting and discussion. Anything's on topic here.

I'm in the midst (in the days just before the battle actually) of this and am loving it so much. Berton is brilliant and the information is just so interesting. It's definitely going to be a 2011 favourite. Anyone else read this or planning to?

I'm not sure how successful this BotM thing is turning out to be, but we'll let the experiment run a bit longer.

The nomination period will end and the poll will go up on the 1st of December.

Eligible are

1)Any Challenge book that already has a discussion thread in the group forum.

OR

2) Any fiction or non-fiction book written by a Canadian, set in Canada, or about Canada that is not on the Challenge list (i.e. the canlit-challenge group bookshelf).

Ah, thanks for drawing my attention to it, Patricia. Here are the 5 Canada Reads selections:



The Game - Ken Dryden

Something Fierce - Carmen Aguirre

On a Cold Road: Tales of Adventure in Canadian Rock - Dave Bidini

Prisoner of Tehran: A Memoir - Marina Nemat

The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival - John Vaillant

Finally, some movement on this thread! I was beginning to worry that no one would take up the November discussion book even though 8 people voted for it. Looking forward to observing discussion.

I've now added all the books from my original list to the group bookshelf "Canlit Challenge". If you think I've missed a book that should be included on the shelf (and there are definitely books that I've missed), here's the thread to make your case. Please keep in mind that this is supposed to be a collection of the Canadian canon, and books take a bit of time to qualify. I believe the latest book on the shelf was published in 2002, and that seems like a good cut-off to me. If the book you want to include is from the last decade, it won't be eligible for consideration. French books (that have been translated in English) are eligible, as are non-fiction books and plays, and kids' books.

Is anyone planning to read this book in November?

I missed the broadcast last night, but it's on video here if anyone is interested. Lang Lang's piano piece at the start alone is worth the price of admission.

http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/Shows/12212...

I've decided that instead of making a list (which is rather time consuming anyway), I'm going to add all the list books to the group bookshelf. I'm also going to try out the beta version of the group challenges feature so that group members can track their progress of reading CanLit Challenge books. I don't know exactly how well it will work, but I guess we'll see...

I've got 9 pp left to go with Malcolm's Katie. I'll tell you my impressions once I'm done, but I want to confess from the outset that before now I'd never heard of Isabella or her poem. I looked her up on Wikipedia today and was surprised to read that it "has achieved 'a central place in the canon of nineteenth-century Canadian poetry.'" The defusers of the canon don't seem to be doing a very good job.