February AwardCAT -- Canada Reads and The Tournament of Books

Both of this month's awards are different than the usual, and a bit more fun as a result.

Let's start with Canada Reads.

http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads/



There are fifteen books on this year's longlist. On January 31st, the shortlist will be announced (I'll update this space) and from March 27 - 30, the five shortlisted books will be defended by various prominent Canadians and a winner chosen. Last year's winner was The Illegal by Lawrence Hill. Here is this year's longlist:



You can see past winners as well as the past shortlists at the link posted above. There are a lot to chose from, including Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O'Neill, Unless by Carol Shields, Generation X by Douglas Copeland and The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.

Enjoy looking at the past contestants for books in your tbr, browsing the current longlist for books that look interesting and then follow the competition in March. Happy reading, eh?

The other award set for February is The Morning News Tournament of Books, also known as The Rooster. While Canada Reads celebrates Canadian Authors, the Tournament of Books is open to all books published in English in the previous year, although the vast majority of the books competing are written by Americans. There's a mix of books in the competition, with experimental fiction rubbing shoulders with the big name books, literary fiction and a few stand-outs from genre fiction. The long lists are very long, the shortlisted books compete head-to-head in a NCAA-style tournament. Each weekday in March, two books are compared by a judge, who explains their reasoning, and one is declared a winner, to advance to the next round of play.



Each judge's essay is followed by color commentary and then the comments section continues the conversation. Unlike every single other comments section anywhere, I recommend reading it as it's filled with comments and discussion from readers who have read the books involved and have interesting and considered opinions.

Here's this year's shortlist, and a link to the site where you can find past short lists. There's a lot to chose from in those past lists, including Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson, The Help by Katheryn Stockett, The Fault in Our Stars by John Green and Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell.



http://www.themorningnews.org/article/the-2017-tournament-of-books-shortlist-and...

Here's a brief history of the competition and you can find all previous shortlists if you scroll down to "Relive the Action" on the right hand side.

http://www.themorningnews.org/tob/2016/a-brief-history-of-the-tournament-of-book...

Here are a few of the long lists:

http://www.themorningnews.org/article/the-year-in-fiction-2016
http://www.themorningnews.org/article/the-year-in-fiction-2015
http://www.themorningnews.org/post/the-long-long-list-for-the-2015-tournament-of...
http://www.themorningnews.org/post/the-tob-x-long-list

I am looking forward to both these awards. For Canada Reads I am planning on reading The Birth House by Ami McKay, a 2011 nominee. I have chosen Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward, a 2012 Nominee for the Morning News Tournament of Books.

I'm leaning toward Someone Knows My Name for Canada Reads and Home for the Morning News Tournament of Books.

Yay!!! This may be the only Awards month that is "easy" for me. I have tons to choose from from past Canada Reads years. I don't read them ahead of time, but listen to it every year and decide from the discussions which to add to my tbr.

Easier than looking through my entire tbr is doing a tagmash and options coming up for me include:

The Illegal by Lawrence Hill
The Age Of Hope by David Bergen
The Hero's Walk by Anita Rau Badami
Bone and Bread by Saleema Nawaz
Intolerable by Kamal Al-Solaylee
When Everything Feels like the Movies by Raziel Reid

Except I already have Bone and Bread checked out to read for this month. I might try for Intolerable, but the last time I tried for it (only a few months ago), there were lots of holds. Ditto for The Hero's Walk. I suspect (but haven't checked) that The Illegal probably has a backlog at the library, as well, so it may come down to the other two for me. I need to check what's available. :-)

My first plan is to read A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler which was in the short-list last year. I may also read My Name is Lucy Barton if I get a chance. So far this year I'm reading more library books than books from my TBR, so we'll have to see.

I'll be reading all the ToB short list titles that I haven't already read. Not sure which ones will be left by the time February rolls around but I know there will be plenty. At the very least The Nix should be something for February as it'll take some time to get that one from the library.

I have a bunch on TBR that qualify so it's hard to choose. Right now I'm thinking The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead and Before the Fall by Noah Hawley. If I don't get to Commonwealth by Ann Patchett this month I'll read it next month too.

For Canada Reads I'm going to read The Love of a Good Woman.
For the Tournament of Books, I'm going to read Ginny Gall which was on this year's huge longlist

I've earmarked Volkswagen Blues, by Jacques Poulin (translated by Sheila Fischman), for the Canada Reads portion of this challenge. This will be my third book by Poulin and my first of his in English; the other two I read in the original French.

I will be reading from the short list, probably one and hopefully more, Already decided to try for We Love You, Charlie Freeman and My Name is Lucy Barton. If I could get to a Canada book it would be Unless.

Thank you. It was a lot of fun going through the lists, comparing to TBR and my local library holdings. From Canada Reads, I have selected Lawrence Hill's 2008 Someone Knows My Name, printed outside the US as The Book of Negroes (also winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize). From the Morning News Tournament of Books, I will be reading Philip Roth's The Plot Against America (also a New York Times Notable Book and Sidewise Award winner for 2004). Both of these have been listed in my TBR since publication

I have The Mothers by Brit Bennett on my TBR bookshelf right now so I'll count this one. I also have a book called Birdie by Tracey Lindberg that was nominated for Canada Reads. I picked it up when I was in Victoria.

Do nominated books count?

>14 luvamystery65: Yes, of course. Winners, shortlists and longlists are all fair game.

>15 RidgewayGirl: Thank you. Both are also debut novels so I can use for another CAT if needed.

I'm planning to read Welcome to Braggsville by T. Geronimo Johnson , which was on the 2016 long list for the Morning News Tournament of Books.

Version Control looks pretty interesting...I'll try to read that one next month!

Thought I'd share this link here. It lists all 15 Canada Reads winners (but only the winners):
http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareadsquiz/index.html

(Actually, it's one of the check box things that you can check off how many you've read. I've read 9/15, but there is only 1 I have no interest in at all. The other 5 are either on my tbr or are possibilities.)

>19 LibraryCin: Thanks for that fun checklist. I've read a paltry four, although several others are on my tbr or wishlist.

>20 RidgewayGirl: No problem! Checklist or not, I also thought if anyone wanted to just stick with the winners of Canada Reads, it's an easy list to check out.

I've looked through my books and found eight from the tournament of books that I haven't read yet; I want to read more woman authors, and that cuts the list down to six, and two of them are gifts from my friend Lisa, so I will decide between The Lowland and Wolf Hall. (Unfortunately I don't have any from the Canada Reads lists that I haven't already read - must remedy that, lots of good ones!)

>22 LisaMorr: The list I shared for Canada Reads is only the winners! You can always choose one of the others that was in the running!

I've decided to read The Last Crossing by Guy Vanderhaeghe for Canada Reads. It won in 2004.

>23 LibraryCin: I did look at the long lists as well - and still I didn't actually have any that I hadn't already read. So, I need to pick some of these up.

I will be reading The Mothers by Brit Bennett.

Planning on reading Knucklehead by Matt Lennox from the long list for Canada Reads.

The shortlist of five books for Canada Reads will be revealed tomorrow. I'll post the link as soon as I have it.

The five finalists for Canada Reads 2017 have been announced.

http://www.cbc.ca/books/2017/01/meet-the-canada-reads-2017-contenders.html

Chantal Kreviazuk defending The Right to Be Cold by Sheila Watt-Cloutier
Humble The Poet defending Fifteen Dogs by André Alexis
Tamara Taylor defending Company Town by Madeline Ashby
Candy Palmater defending The Break by Katherena Vermette
Jody Mitic defending Nostalgia by M.G. Vassanji

I'll read Essex County by Jeff Lemire for the Canada Reads.

>30 sushicat: I really liked that one. I thought it was very Canadian! :-)

I finished The Mothers by Brit Bennett. Unlike so many others I am not very enthusiastic about this book. My favorite part was the "Greek chorus" as represented by the older mothers of the Upper Room Chapel. This book was a shortlisted selection for the Tournament of Books

I've finished Version Control by Dexter Palmer, which is not a book I'd pick up on my own, so thank you Tournament of Books for making me read it.

I will be reading The Orenda by Joseph Boyden, the 2014 winner of Canada Reads.

I've read All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders, which is one of the Tournament of Books titles.

>35 RidgewayGirl: - Kay , I'm almost finished with that one too.

Well, I've finished All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jan Anders which is on the 2017 Tournament of Books shortlist and am going to start another one on the shortlist The Throwback Special by Chris Bachelder.

I finished Ru which was the Canada Reads winner in 2015.

Just finished Unless by Carol Shields, which left me sort of unsatisfied. It was a Canada Reads nominee 2011.

Finished My Name Is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout. On short list for ToB. Started The Sport of Kings by C. E. Morgan.

Finished Sudden Death by Alvaro Enrigue and Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter from the ToB shortlist for this year. Should be finished with The Nix fairly soon too.

I've read A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler which was on the TOB short list last year.

I have completed Salvage the Bones which was a 2012 TOB entry. Unfortunately, the book I wanted to read for Canada Reads, The Birth House by Ami McKay is on such a long wait list at the library that I will not be getting it in February. I hope to get to it later in the year.

I've read The Underground Railway by Colson Whitehead, shortlisted for 2017 TOB.

Just finished The Nix by Nathan Hill (audio). It covers a lot and basically is a satire and family relationship book. Will it beat out We Love you, Charlie Freeman? I haven't read that one yet.

>32 dallenbaugh: I'm also reading The Mothers by Brit Bennett. I'm early in, but the best part is "the mothers"

>45 Kristelh: - It better beat it out!

I also finished The Nix and High Dive both TOB selections for this year.

I've now read Moonglow by Michael Chabon for the Tournament of Books. I liked it for the first two thirds, but loved the final third.

I started High Dive today.

This was the AwardsCAT month I was most looking forward to for Canada Reads, but it will be my last book read this month. I hope to finish before the end of Feb, but I may go into the first day or two of March. I hope to finish my current book this weekend, then it's my Canada Reads book after that.

I finished a good number of books for this challenge. From this year's Tournament of Books shortlist, I'd read these books, listed in order of favourite to least favourite:
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders
Moonglow by Michael Chabon
Sweet Lamb of Heaven by Lydia Millet

I'm currently three-quarters of the way through The Nix by Nathan Hill, which might very well end up at the top of the list.

I also finished Fruit by Brian Francis. This was a 2009 Canada Reads contender.

I'm planning to read a few from this year's Canada Reads list but I'm still waiting for my library holds to come in.

>51 mathgirl40: I really liked Fruit!