I spent several happy hours working on this reading list for the Canadian Book Challenge 5 today and, goodness knows, I could go on for many more. This is by no means an exhaustive list – it doesn’t even include all the library books I currently have out or have holds on that I’m planning to read for the challenge – but does offer variety. Some of the choices are rather unimaginative (what would a Canadian reading list be without something from Munro or Berton?) but I’ve also tried to include a few off-beat titles that other readers might not have heard of. I’ve split the list into vaguely geographic categories since part of my aim this year to read a selection of books that better represents all the geographic regions of the country.
As always after making a book list, I can’t wait to start my reading!
By Canadians, Set Outside Canada
The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (2009) by Alan Bradley
The Cellist of Sarajevo (2008) by Steven Galloway
British Columbia
Adventures in Solitude: What Not to Wear to a Nude Potluck and Other Stories from Desolation Sound (2010) by Grant Lawrence
Much-praised humourous memoir of growing up in Desolation Sound on BC’s sunshine coast among hippies, ‘a gun-totting cougar lady’, and other lotusland characters.
Trauma Farm: A Rebel History of Rural Life (2009) by Brian Brett
When am I ever likely to turn down a book about modern farm life, particularly when the farm in question is on near-by Salt Spring Island?
Policing the Fringe: The Curious Life of a Small-Town Mountie (2009) by Charles Scheideman
A memoir of Scheideman’s years (from the 1960s to 1980s) spent patrolling the BC interior.
Ontario
Essex County (2009) by Jeff Lemire
I’ve been on the library wait list for this graphic novel since January and am really, really looking forward to the day my turn arrives!
Jalna (1927) by Mazo de la Roche
A carry-over from last year’s reading list (and from many, many personal reading lists before that). I really am going to read this one day. Really.
Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) (1988) by Ann-Marie MacDonald
A carry-over from last year’s reading list.
The View from Castle Rock: Stories (2006) by Alice Munro
A collection of stories based on Munro’s own family history.
Quebec
Earth and High Heaven (1944) by Gwethalyn Graham
The story of Erica Drake, a young Anglo woman from Montreal’s tony Westmount neighbourhood, who falls in love with a Jewish lawyer who her family forbids her from marrying. I’d never heard of this book before but I’m definitely excited to track down a copy.
Maria Chapdelaine: A Tale of French Canada (1914) by Louis Hémon
A novel of early Quebec, telling the story of a young woman pursued by three very different suitors, each offering Maria a very different way of life.
The Prairies
Reading by Lightning (2008) by Joan Thomas
A prairie novel (a Bildungsroman in fact, always a favourite with me) with an interlude in England just before the start of WWII, which, to my way of thinking, is an irresistible combination.
When Alice Lay Down with Peter (2001) by Margaret Sweatman
A family epic set on the flood plains of southern Manitoba, following four generations over one hundred years.
The North
Gold Diggers: Striking It Rich In the Klondike (2010) by Charlotte Gray
Gray is always dependable for a well-written, entertaining history and the Klondike gold rush is an endlessly fascinating topic.
Late Nights on Air (2007) by Elizabeth Hay
I am determined to read something by Hay this year, either this novel about the staff at a northern radio station or her newest book Alone in the Classroom.
Prisoners of the North (2005) by Pierre Berton
Berton’s final book, chronicling the lives of five extraordinary characters – including Robert Service and Lady Jane Franklin – whose adventures inCanada’s north sound absolutely fascinating.
Atlantic Provinces
The Iambics of Newfoundland: Notes from an Unknown Shore by Robert Finch
In these evocative sketches, stories, and essays, one of our finest observers of the natural world explores the stunning but often dangerously inhospitable island of Newfoundland. (From the publisher)
Bonus: Canadian Identity
Lament for a Nation: The Defeat of Canadian Nationalism (1965) by George Grant
For all that has been written about our identity crisis, this remains a touchstone work.
National Dreams: Myth, Memory and Canadian History (1997) by Daniel Francis
An incisive study of the most persistent icons and stories in Canadian history, and how they inform our sense of national identity. (Charlotte Gray – CanadianBookshelf.com)
The Captive Reader 
This is a fabulous list! I have to go with what I can get from my local library unless I make a run to Vancouver. I am hoping we can do that for a couple of days this summer. Good luck!
The best kind of vacation is the kind where you buy books!
I’ve not read many on this list (Essex County, Late Nights on Air, and Prisoners of the North) and but might do plan on reading the Charlotte Gray book this time around. Now one of those annoying geography lessons that only Newfoundlanders like myself care about– Newfoundland is not actually considered a part of the Maritimes (just PEI, NS, and NB), Atlantic Region yes, but not Maritimes 😉
Whoops! There was a whole section with books about the Maritimes that accidentally got deleted when I pasted this post into wordpress and apparently the title for Newfoundland went with them, hence the misnomer. I hadn’t noticed before but I’ll make sure to fix that right away!