Be sure to watch episode 4 before reading my spoilerful thoughts below! (link to CBC YouTube channel above)

Well, Canada, the book every Canadian should read is A Two-Spirit Journey by Ma-Nee Chacaby and Mary Louisa Plummer! (Shameless plug: If any Americans would like to read this or any other Canada Reads selection, you can order them on Bookshop.org through this affiliate link, which will earn a small commission for me and the local independent bookstore of your choosing at no additional expense to you. End of shameless plug!)

I’m not at all surprised that A Two-Spirit Journey won, but I’m disappointed that Dandelion lost. As I’ve said before, Dandelion was by far my favourite of these 5 books, and I don’t think that every Canadian could read A Two-Spirit Journey with the amount of horrific abuse detailed quite graphically in almost every chapter. However, I understand the importance of Ma-Nee Chacaby’s voice being amplified to this level. She speaks on behalf of so many people – Indigenous North Americans, LGBTQ2+ people, people with disabilities, people with addictions, and survivors of terrible traumas – who often go unheard. And I’m very happy for Shayla Stonechild, who really put in a lot of hard work in these debates. You can tell this book means a lot to her on a deeply personal level.

But I also feel sad for Saïd M’Dahoma, who also connected deeply with Dandelion and who was given the unenviable task of critiquing A Two-Spirit Journey. I thought he did a great job, and I think he can be proud that his book only lost by the narrowest possible margin.

Congratulations to all of the authors whose works are now in the public consciousness as well as Canadian best-seller lists! It’s always rewarding to know that so many Canadians follow Canada Reads and take an interest in this nation’s literature. We’re so often overlooked by the rest of the world, who seem to think our only successful author is Margaret Atwood, but as long as we appreciate and support and enjoy our own literary scene, that’s all that matters. I look forward to next year’s competition!

On a related note, I think it was Linwood Barclay who mentioned the other day a list of the top 100 Canadian books, and I’ve since found a few lists along those lines that I’ve made note of. I hope to start a project soon where I examine those lists, use them to construct a list of books that they seem to agree on, and read the ones I haven’t already read. So keep an eye out for that in the weeks ahead! Happy reading, Canada!