An exciting project that Lindy and Jolene (replacing Shadow Giller duties) have been working on is a riff on the NYT 100 books list of the 21st Century by creating one for CanLit. I was delighted to be asked to participate! The task at hand was to provide a Top 10 of Canadian Books originally published between 2000 – 2024.
10 only?
That task proved to be much harder than I thought! I left so many off the list! I felt guilt and angst over it. I left off Frances Itani (Deafening)! I couldn’t fit in Lesley Choyce, Kathy Page (Dear Evelyn) and I left off And the Birds Rained Down by Jocelyne Saucier (Translated by Rhonda Mullins) among many, many others. I wrote back saying no! I changed my mind, swap out this title with this one. I could easily have made a Top 20 or 25 or more.
The deadline to submit the list was set for August 11th and around 20 people have been asked to participate. From there, Lindy and Jolene will work to create the final list, and Lindy has already said there is a great deal of variation so far, which will make it a challenge to come to consensus. It should make for an exciting list once all is revealed!
I thought for now I would at least share what my Top 10 list included (please don’t judge, this was a difficult exercise). The first two were immediate to come to mind but the rest are in no particular order. I also immediately said Homesick by Guy Vanderhaeghe, but that misses out of this challenge by one year, so of course he’s still on the list, but with the eligible and wonderful August into Winter.
- The Bishop’s Man by Linden MacIntyre (Come on now, you knew that was going to be #1!)
- The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
- A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
- Greenwood by Michael Christie
- Songs for the Cold of Heart by Eric Dupont (Translated by Peter McCambridge)
- The Birth House by Ami McKay
- The Difference by Marina Endicott
- A Place Called Sorry by Donna Milner
- August into Winter by Guy Vanderhaeghe
- Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
Which books would you choose for your Best of CanLit of the 21st Century? It’s not an easy task to choose is it? I would love though to hear what your choices would be. And I am also eagerly awaiting the fully compiled list by Lindy and Jolene. This was and is a fun celebration of Canadian literature. I’m all here for it!
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