Saturday, June 30, 2012

The Canadian Book Challenge 6


I have signed up for the 6th Annual Canadian Book Challenge. You may find out more, and join here. My hope is to read a book from each province and territory, either set there or by an author from there.

Canada consists of 13 political divisions: 10 provinces and 3 territories. The territories are Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon.
The major difference between a Canadian province and a Canadian territory is that a province is a creation of the Constitution Act (17 April 1982), while a territory is created by federal law. Thus, the federal government has more direct control over the territories, while provincial governments have many more competences and rights.


Alberta
British Columbia
Manitoba
New Brunswick
Newfoundland and Labrador
Northwest Territories
Nova Scotia
Nunavut
Ontario
Prince Edward Island - 1
Québec
Saskatchewan
Yukon

The Canadian Book Challenge is an online reading challenge in which participants from Canada and around the world aim to read and review 13 or more Canadian books in a one year span: Canada Day to Canada Day. Reviews must be posted online and participants are asked to share links to their reviews with other participants.

Canadian books can include any genre or form (picture books, poetry, novels, non-fiction, plays, anthologies, graphic novels, cookbooks, etc), can be written by Canadian authors (by birth or immigration) or about Canadians.
Book 1 finished August 5: Kilmeny of the Orchard by Lucy Maud Montgomery (Prince Edward Island)
Book 2 finished August 5: Out of Nova Scotia Gardens by Marie Nightingale

26 comments:

  1. Good luck, Nan! I hope you find many good reads in this Canadian year. Farley Mowat has some very good books, as I'm sure you know.

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    1. Thanks for the idea. I've not ever read him.

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  2. So glad to see you're going to join in with this challenge (one of my faves and one I've participated in each year) Looking forward to seeing what you'll be reading!

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    1. I think I did it part of one year, but I didn't finish. I hope to read all 13 this year!

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  3. Good luck Nan - and thank you for the explanation of provinces and territories. I shall follow your reading interest because Lucy Maud Montgomery and Margaret Atwood, whom I love (apart from The Handmaid's Tale, which I hate) are probably the only Canadian authors I have read, and I feel really ashamed of myself for not having read more.

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    1. I haven't read too many either. I don't know why. Mostly I seem to read British books, with some US.

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  4. Dear Nan,
    What a wonderful challenge! May I be so bold to tell you about a book set in a monastery in Manitoba?
    The book is "All We Know Of Heaven" by Remy Rougeau, and it is just a slim book of fiction but it is the kind of book that gives fiction a good name! I just read some reviews of it and it looks as if I am not the only one who really likes it!
    http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=1222
    Love,
    Kay

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    1. I'm going to wait to read the review till after I read the book. Thanks so much for the title. I'd never heard of it.

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  5. Hi Nan: I was happy to read of your challenge. I was wondering if you had selected a book for the Ontario part of it. If not, may I suggest "The Stone Carvers" by Jane Urquhart. It is a wonderful, wonderful book, and one I think you would enjoy.

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    1. Thank you so much for the title. I haven't ever heard of it.

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  6. Nan, any of Louise Penny's books would also be good for Quebec!

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    1. I'm just about the only person who doesn't care for her mysteries. I know. Weird.

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    1. I think so. I haven't read nearly enough Canadian writing.

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  8. What a nice idea - I am Canadian myself and my shelves are full of books by Canadian authors, but to actively seek out and review books from each province and territory would be something of a pleasant challenge.

    I love your blog, by the way, and have been checking in from time to time. It first showed up in a search I was making for Hill Farm - that is the name of my own farm and I were tinkering with a website for our nursery business - Hill Farm Nursery - so of course I thought, hey, what if I google myself? *Our* Hill Farm eventually showed up, but your site was there on the first search page!

    I have a dear friend with a donkey, so I love seeing pictures and stories of yours. Horses, sheep, and way too many chickens here on my Hill Farm!

    All the best, and Happy Canada Day ~ Barb

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    1. Any book suggestions for me??

      Thanks for your kind words. I love how you found me. Our farm is actually called Windy Poplars (after the Anne of Green Gables book!! - and we have a lot of poplars, and it is windy most of the time) but we live on a hill, and in our area the old farms on hills were referred to as 'hill farms' so I thought that would be a nice name for the blog.

      We used to have a horse, and I still miss him, but we aren't sure we can go through that particular heartbreak again.

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    2. Hi again, Nan.
      Recommendations - where to start?! Well, here are several that have gravitated to my night table just since I became aware of the Canada Book Challenge. Caprice & Fields of Noon are re-reads; The American Girl is new to me.

      Caprice - by George Bowering - A "strong female lead", and set in country I personally know very well, the Kamloops area "badlands". An interesting, very fictional book by the British Columbia "poet laureate" - not quite sure how to describe it! Something of a romp, with serious under- & overtones. A revenge novel?
      http://www.amazon.ca/Caprice-George-Bowering/dp/0140093087

      An American Girl in London - by Sara Jeannette Duncan - An amusing traveller's tale written in (I believe) 1891. New to me, and it will be my next book reviewed for the Challenge. Enjoying it greatly!
      http://books.google.ca/books/about/An_American_girl_in_London.html?id=jtk0AAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y

      The Fields of Noon - by Sheila Burnford - A collection of essays and thoughts on various topics, set in Canada and England. Beautriful writer; fascinating woman. This is the author of the well-known book The Incredible Journey. Sheila Burnford was a highly intellectual woman with a strong sense of adventure and curiousity about the natural world. She was an amateur archaeologist and anthropologist, and lived for a time among the Ojibway and Inuit. An author worthy of investigating. I have read a number of her books and greatly enjoyed her "voice". I think she should be better known for her autobiographical works than she perhaps is. Though British by birth, Sheila married a Canadian and emigrated to Canada after WWII; most of her books are set in Canada. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheila_Burnford

      Happy reading!

      Oh - and our Hill Farm is so named because we are perched on what is literally a hillside. We are in the interior BC Fraser River valley and our property consists of a series of "benches" - we are continually going either up or down! When we moved here 21 years ago we had grand ambitions to be market gardeners, so we needed a name for our sign. Everything we bounced around seemed a bit too twee & pretentious, so we settled for short & simple! But many people ask about the name - many of them think our last name must be "Hill" (it isn't) so we explain a lot. I say, "If you could see the farm the name would be self-evident!" I think I will post some more pictures on the blog - this is a very lovely place we live in.

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    3. Oh, wow, thanks. I've jotted them all down.
      And loved hearing about your place. I look forward to the pictures. Hard for me to picture those 'benches.'

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  9. Oh, I really should join this challenge, but I've just signed up for the Paris in July challenge and really don't like to have a lot of obligations when it comes to reading. Maybe next year. I'll look forward to your Canadian reviews and tuck away some titles for future reading. One of these days, I'd love to reread the Anne of Green Gable series. And visit PEI! :)

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  10. You could fulfill this just by reading (or rereading) all of L.M. Montgomery's books. There are so many more than just the "Anne" books. I love Jane of Lantern Hill, Pat of Silver Bush, the Emily books, The Blue Castle, etc., etc.

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    1. Funny you should mention that - I just recently bought two by LMM for the Nook. The Blue Castle, and Kilmeny of the Orchard. Someone should start a LMM challenge. Wouldn't that be fun to read all her books over a year's time.

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  11. You will LOVE The Blue Castle. It is so funny and poignant. Another very good one is A Tangled Web if you can find it. Very funny book. I think LMM wrote somewhat irreverently at times, which makes her books so funny. I wonder if it was a way to escape her circumspect existence as a minister's wife?

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    1. Oh, I am looking forward to it. I've written down ATW. Thanks.

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