If yesterday’s CBC Canada Reads public meet-and-greet in Toronto was any indication, the non-fiction contest, which airs in February 2012, will be a battle fuelled by strong personalities.
Canada Reads host Jian Ghomeshi introduced the five finalists and their defenders to a large lunch-hour crowd in the CBC’s Barbara Frum atrium.
The event ranged from sweet “ Marina Nemat’s enthusiastic greeting to her defender Arlene Dickinson (It’s like meeting a fictional character [from] Jane Austen) “ to the intense, with celebrity lawyer Anne-France Goldwater’s threats to bust the balls of her competitors.
Click on the photos for event highlights.
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- John Vaillant, in Mexico on assignment for <i>National Geographic</i>, addressed the crowd by video. Vaillant says <a href= http://www.quillandquire.com/reviews/review.cfm?review_id=6990><i>The Tiger</i></a>, about a gameskeeper who goes to war against a predatory Siberian tiger, is really about the dilemma we face in our relationships with nature, and "how we share space."<br /> <br /> Host Jian Ghomeshi said Vaillant's book received "massive public support" during the public nomination and voting stages of Canada Reads.
- The Tiger by John Vaillant (Vintage Canada), defended by Anne-France Goldwater
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- Arlene Dickinson (right) referred to <a HREF= http://www.quillandquire.com/authors/profile.cfm?article_id=7777>Marina Nemat</a>'s 2007 memoir, <i>Prisoner of Tehran</i>, as the quintessential Canadian book, praising its message of hope.<br /> <br /> Nemat (middle), who is teaching the University of Toronto's first <a Href= http://www.quillandquire.com/google/article.cfm?article_id=11908> creative writing class in Parsi</a>, believes her story of survival resonates because trauma is trauma. It doesn't matter where it happens.
- Prisoner of Tehran by Marina Nemat (Penguin Canada), defended by Arlene Dickinson
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- Ken Dryden (middle) told Jian Ghomeshi he decided to write a memoir because he hadn't read any sports books that mirrored his own experiences playing hockey, or what I felt, what I thought. <br /> <br /> Alan Thicke (right), who attended the Canada Reads event with his 93-year-old aunt Marge, declared <i>The Game</i> is not just a hockey book, it's for anyone who wants to understand men. <br />
- The Game by Ken Dryden (Wiley Canada), defended by Alan Thicke
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- <a HREF="http://www.quillandquire.com/authors/profile.cfm?article_id=12061">Dave Bidini</a> says it's beautiful that older titles like 1998's <i>On a Cold Road</i> will have a chance to be found again. He hopes the Canada Reads contest will also do wonders for the forgotten musicians that appear in his Can-rock memoir.<br /> <br /> In his new book, <i>Writing Gordon Lightfoot: The Man, the Music, and the World in 1972</i> (M&S), Bidini writes, Sometimes it feels as if people in Canadian literature couldn't give two shits about rock 'n' roll or sports. When asked by Jian Ghomeshi if he was helping to change perceptions of those categories, Bidini said he's steering the handle back.
- On a Cold Road by Dave Bidini (McClelland & Stewart), defended by Stacey McKenzie
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- Carmen Aguirre, who will be touring a one-woman play based on <a HREF= http://www.quillandquire.com/reviews/review.cfm?review_id=7230> <i>Something Fierce</i></a> in 2012, is surprised by the public's selection of her memoir about growing up as the daughter of Chilean revolutionaries, considering it just came out in May. <br /> <br /> The Vancouver-based writer and playwright said she's received many Facebook messages from fellow Chileans and other South Americans saying, it's their story, too.
- Something Fierce by Carmen Aguirre (Douglas & McIntyre), defended by Shad
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