
Looking back over the books I read this year, they ended up being about half fiction and half non-fiction. I completed my goal of reading every Canada Reads winner since the show began, tackled a couple more Massey Lectures, read some Agathie Christie for the first time (while on a train in the UK!), and tried to read more books done in different formats – including finally making time to get through some of the graphic novels I’ve been gifted over the years (why didn’t I read Essex County and Fun Home sooner!?)
Any recommendations you have for books to read in 2017 are highly welcome!
If I had to pick my top choices from this year, in no particular order, they would be:
Fiction: Birdie, The Book of Negroes, Essex County, The Orenda, For Today I Am a Boy, and the combination of Secret Path/Wenjack (books, music, film and all).
Non-Fiction: Fun Home, Men Explains Things to Me, You Only Live Twice: Sex, Death and Transition, Out in the Union: A Labor History of Queer America, and the TRC’s A Knock on the Door – The Essential History of Residential Schools
Beyond that, this year’s reading list is below with a (highly inconsistent) 5 star system, but if you want to know more about any of them definitely feel free to ask!
Canada Reads Books
- The Orenda – Joseph Boyden (2014 Winner) (*****)
- The Book of Negroes – Lawrence Hill (2009 Winner) (*****)
- The Illegal – Lawrence Hill (2016 Winner) (****)
- The Hero’s Walk – Anita Rau Badami (2016 Shortlist) (****)
- Bone & Bread – Saleema Nawaz (2016 Shortlist) (***)
- Birdie – Tracey Lindberg (2016 Shortlist) (*****)
- King Leary – Paul Quarrington (2008 Winner) (***)
- Next Episode – Hubert Aquin, Translated by Sheila Fischman (2003 Winner) (***)
- Rockbound – Frank Parker Day (2005 Winner) (****)
- The Last Crossing – Guy Vanderhaeghe (2004 Winner) (***)
- Natasha and Other Stories – David Bezmozgis (2007 Shortlist) (****)
- Essex County – Jeff Lemire (2011 Shortlist) (*****)
Indigenous Literature/Studies
- A Knock On The Door – The Essential History of Residential Schools – From the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (*****)
- Secret Path – Gord Downie & Jeff Lemire (*****)
- Wenjack – Joseph Boyden (*****)
- In This Together: Fifteen Stories of Truth & Reconciliation – Edited by Danielle Metcalfe-Chenail (****)
- They Called Me Number One: Secrets and Survival at a an Indian Residential School – Bev Sellars (*****)
- Goodbye Buffalo Bay: A true story of life in a residential school… and of moving on – Larry Loyie with Constance Brissenden (****)
- Urban Indigenous People: Stories of Healing in the City – John G. Hansen & Rose Antsanen (**)
Other Lit/Fiction
- Fifteen Dogs – André Alexis (Giller Prize 2015) (****)
- milk and honey – Rupi Kaur (****)
- Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic – Alison Bechdel (*****)
- The Old Man and The Sea – Ernest Hemingway (***)
- Murder on the Orient Express – Agatha Christie (*****)
- And Then There Were None – Agatha Christie (*****)
- The Book of Unknown Americans: A Novel – Christina Henríquez (****)
- A Very British Coup – Chris Mullin (****)
- Death of a Salesman – Arthur Miller (***)
- Gray Mountain – John Grisham (****)
CBC Massey Lectures
- The Malaise of Modernity – Charles Taylor (****)
- A Short History of Progress – Ronald Wright (****)
Political, Cultural Studies and Other Non-Fiction
- What Kind of Citizen? Educating our Children for the Common Good – Joel Westheimer (****)
- Out In The Union: A Labour History of Queer America – Miriam Frank (*****)
- Men Explain Things to Me – Rebecca Solnit (*****)
- You Only Live Twice: Sex, Death and Transition – Chase Joynt & Mike Hoolboom (****)
- A Just Transition For All: Can the past inform the future? – International Journal of Labour Research (****)
- Unfree Labour? Struggles of Migrant and Immigrant Workers in Canada – Edited by Aziz Choudry and Adrian A. Smith (****)
- Jane Jacobs: The Last Interview and Other Conversations (****)
- Uranium: Correspondence with the Premier – Bill Harding (***)
- The New Urban Agenda – Bill Freeman (****)
- A Labour of Liberation – Baijayanta Mukhopadhyay (****)
- The Surprising Lives of Small-Town Doctors – edited by Dr. Paul Dhillon (****)
- Fault Lines:Life and Landscape in Saskatchewan’s Oil Economy – Photographs by Valerie Zink, Text by Emily Eaton (*****)
- City Voices: A Book of Monologues by Toronto Artists – Edited by Jenna Harris, Anila Pant and Ronit Rubinstein (****)
- Food Sovereignty: Reconnecting Food, Nature and Community – Edited by Hanna Wittman, Annette Desmarais and Nettie Wiebe (****)
- Before Night Falls – Reinaldo Areans (**)
- The Book of Letters I Didn’t Know Where to Send – Steve Patterson (**)
- History of the USSU: 100 Years of Activism, Debate and Snake Dances – Robert Morley & Robert Martz
- The Ocean of Life: The Fate of Man and the Sea – Callum Roberts (****)
- Confessions of a Modern Queer Beatnik – Elise Pallagi (****)
- The Anti-Capitalist Resistance History Comic Book – Gord Hill (****)
- Drawn to Change: Graphic Histories of Working-Class Struggle – Edited by the Graphic History Collective with Paul Buhle (****)
- Cool Comforts: Bargaining For Our Survival – A Union Activist’s handbook on global warming. (***)
Link to my: 2015 Reading List
Link to my: 2014 Reading List