My Year in Review- Comics and Graphic Novels

Finally, my graphic novel and comic reads from 2010. Yesterday I remarked that the number of novels and nonfiction books I read in 2010 was down. But, as it turns out, my graphic novel reads have just about doubled. While much of that credit goes to Jeff Smith's Bone series, I managed to check off a few more classic graphic novels. Without further ado, here's my list, ranked from least to most favourite:

21. Richard Comely (Writer) and George Freeman (Illustrator)- Captain Canuck, Vol. 1
20. Jeff Smith with Tom Sniegowski- Tall Tales
19. Jeff Smith (Writer) and Charles Vess (Illustrator)- Rose
18. Jeff Smith- Bone 5: Rock Jaw
17. Robert Louis Stevenson (Writer), Alan Grant (Adapted by), and Cam Kennedy (Illustrator)- Kidnapped
16. Jeff Smith- Bone 4: The Dragonslayer
15. Jeff Smith- Bone 7: Ghost Circles
14. Jeff Smith- Bone 6: Old Man's Cave
13. Jeff Smith- Bone 2: The Great Cow Race
12. Daniel Clowes- Ghost World
11. Alan Moore (Writer) and Dave Gibbons (illustrator)- The Watchmen
10. Jeff Smith- Bone 9: The Crown of Horns
9. Jeff Smith- Bone 8: Treasure Hunters
8. Art Spiegelman- Maus I
7. Jeff Lemire- The Country Nurse
6. Scott Chantler- Northwest Passage
5. Mariko Tamaki (Writer) and Jillian Tamaki (illustrator)- Skim
4. Jeff Smith- Bone 3: Eyes of the Storm
3. Art Spiegelman- Maus II
2. Katsuhiro Otomo- Akira Volume 1
1. Jeff Lemire- Ghost Stories

My Year in Review- Fiction and Nonfiction

What a year it's been! As I looked back today, while compiling this list, I was suprised at how eventful it was. Traveling to Japan, getting to meet Steven Galloway, a spat with the good people at LWOT, being a panelist for Canada Also Reads, another successful Northwords Writers Festival, a trip to Newfoundland, moving to a new house, interviewing Derek Winkler, being asked to nominate a book for Canada Reads and having that book make it to the top 5, and having my parents and grandmother visit for Christmas... geez, it's a wonder I fit in any reading at all.

Here are my fiction and nonfiction reads for 2010, ranked from least favourite to favourite. I've not included plays, Bible stories, picture books, or poetry. Tomorrow I will countdown my favourite graphic novel reads this year.

The Fiction
21. AmberLee Kolson- Wings of Glass
20. Marcel Theroux- Far North
19. Katherine Paterson- The Master Puppeteer
18. Sarah Felix Burns- Song Over Quiet Lake
17. John le Carré- The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
16. Jessica Grant- Come, Thou Tortoise
15. Margaret Atwood- Year of the Flood
14. Ronald Melzack (and illustrated by Carol Jones)- The Day Tuk Became a Hunter and Other Stories
13. Carol Anne Shaw- Hannah and the Spindle Whorl
12. Budge Wilson- Before Green Gables
11. Emily Brontë- Wuthering Heights
10. Katherine Paterson- Bridge to Terabithia
9. Michael Kenyon- The Beautiful Children
8. Arthur Golden- Memoirs of a Geisha
7. Derek Winkler- Pitouie
6. J.K. Rowling- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
5. Jocelyne Allen- You and the Pirates
4. Roald Dahl (and illustrated by Quentin Blake)- The BFG
3. Stacey May Fowles- Fear of Fighting
2. Steven Galloway- The Cellist of Sarajevo
1. Brian Selznick- The Invention of Hugo Cabret

The Non-Fiction
5. Scott Huler- Defining the Wind
4. Jill Foran- Mary Schaffer, An Adventurous Woman's Exploits in the Canadian Rockies
3. Kris Needs- Joe Strummer and the Legend of the Clash
2. Rex Murphy- Canada and Other Matters of Opinion
1. Bren Kolson- Myth of the Barrens

The 2010 Book Mine Set Short Story Online Anthology (BMSSSOA)

It's time once again to reflect upon the year that was. I love countdowns by the way. I've been especially enjoying the top 10-20-50-100 music lists that I've been finding on some of your blogs. It's the time of year I finally get my iPod updated with some great and decently recent tunes. While I'm not with it enough to do one of those music lists on my own, I am enjoying compiling and ranking my favourite reads of the past year (books and stories that I've read this year, not that were necessarily published this year).

Today, I'll countdown to my favourite online short story. This year, through my Short Story Mondays, I read and reviewed exactly one short story each week that I was able to find for free online. I'll begin with my least favourite of the lot and work my way down to my top 10. My top 10 this year is a pretty international lot.

To read my reviews, click on the story titles. To read the stories themselves, you can find links to each one within my reviews.

How many of these have you read?

52. Michael Winter- "Billy Bennett"
51. Charles de Lint and MaryAnn Harris- "A Crow Girls Christmas"
50. Abby Gaines- "So, how did you two meet?
49. Roberto Bolaño- "Gómez Palacio"
48. Terrence Chua- "Golem"
47. Mona Gardner- "The Dinner Party"
46. Heinrich von Kleist- "the Beggar Woman of Locarno"
45. Stacey May Fowles- "Three-Legged Dog"
44. Nasibu Mwanukuzi- "Days of Summer"
43. Lionel Kearns- "Victoria Day"
42. Heather O'Neill- "Riff-Raff"
41. Jesse Stuart- "Split Cherry Tree"
40. Nicola Slade- "My Dear Miss Fairfax"
39. Wayne Curtis- "My Mother's Christmas Art"
38. Selma Lagerlöf- "The Animal's New Years Eve"
37. Ring Lardner- "Haircut"
36. Bonnie Jarvis-Lowe- "Simon Learns His Vowels"
35. Fielding Dawson- "The Vertical Fields"
34. Gretchen McCullough- "Khamaseen"
33. Brayden Hirsch- "The Yellow Eye"
32. Manik Bandopadhyay- "Primal Passions"
31. Kelley Armstrong- "Recruit"
30. James Hurst- "The Scarlet Ibis"
29. William Gibson- "Johnny Mnemonic"
28. J.K. Rowling- "Harry Potter prequel"
27. Dashiell Hammett- "The Parthian Shot"
26. Liam O'Flaherty- "The Sniper"
25. Eva Moran- "He Wishes This Were Something Else"
24. Eugene Marckx- "Raven Steals the Light"
23. Charles G.D. Roberts- "The Cabin Door"
22. Nathaniel Hawthorne- "The Ambitious Guest"
21. Willy Vlautin- "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before"
20. Robert J. Sawyer- "Forever"
19. Sarah Prevatt- "The Plague"
18. Algernon Blackwood- "The Willows"
17. David Nickel- "Fly in Your Eye"
16. Yasunari Kawabata- "The Pomegranate"
15. Michael Redhill- "Breaking Fast"
14. Jonathan Franzen- "Two's Company"
13. Charlie Fish- "Death By Scrabble"
12. Sherry Isaac- "Sweet Dreams"
11. Malka Drucker- "The Widest Heart"

***THE TOP 10***

10. Téa Obreht- "The Sentry"
9. Edwidge Danticat- "Ghosts"
8. Michael Chabon- "The God of Dark Laughter"
7. John Scalzi- "Missives From Possibles Futures #1, Alternate History Search Results"
6. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichei- "Quality Street"
5. Haruki Murakami- "The Second Bakery Attack"
4. Gao Xingjian- "The Accident"
3. Joe Dunthorne- "You Are Happy"
2. Monica Kidd- "Still Life with Blake"
1. T.C. Boyle- "Chicxulub"

Reader's Diary #674- Selma Lagerlöf: The Animal's New Years Eve

Just Googling "New Years Short Story" yields so much trivia. Now when the final Jeopardy answer is "The first woman to win a Nobel Prize in literature," I'll know to ask "Who is Selma Lagerlöf?" and I'll collect a cool $25,000 while Ken Jennings sobs quietly at his podium and Sean Connery mutters something inappropriate at his. It could happen.

Lagerlöf's "The Animal's New Year's Eve" story is certainly intriguing. While returning home from visiting with a sick person, a man finds that while his mind has been wandering, his horse has led him off track. However all his efforts to turn his horse around meet with resistance from the animal. Finally, the man senses that the horse is trying to relay a message and lets it lead him where it wishes. Then the night gets a whole lot stranger.

I enjoyed the folklorish/ fairy tale quality of the story but it may also have been a drawback. In particular, I had problems with the wood nymph. (A sentence I never thought I'd utter.) Although maybe it's the translation. Here's the first sentence in which the wood-nymph appears:

Upon the huge rock at the centre was the Wood-nymph, who held in her hand a pine torch which burned in a big red flame.

I don't know who that is. But the definitive suggests that I should. Changing it to a Wood-nymph instead of the Wood-nymph only partially improves the situation. It follows with a brief description of the nymph, but it doesn't explain what it is. The capital only suggests further that Lagerlöf's readers were expected to have a little background knowledge as to who the Wood-nymph is. It's a small complaint, to be sure, and I'd be 100% okay with it if a Swedish person was to tell me that "yes [ja], we all tell stories of the Wood-nymph in our childhoods, she's a demon creature who plays pranks" or something of the sort. Then I'd know whether I'm the problem or if it's the writing or translation.

(Did you write a post for Short Story Monday? If so, please leave a link in the comments below.)

Bah-humbug? No, Pitouie!

Did you get an eReader for Christmas? If so, here's a little extra Christmas gift courtesy of the Workhorsery...

Bookmineset readers can go here http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/33601, scroll down to choose your preferred format, hit “Buy” and enter coupon code: CN52Q, the end result is that you'll have a free Pitouie e-book! But please note, this deal is only good for Boxing Day (December 26, 2010).

The good folks at the Workhorsery realize that this isn't great time with the holidays and all and some people might miss the boat, so they're also willing to offer my loyal readership a slightly-less-better but still excellent deal: from December 27th to New Year's Day the e-books for both Pitouie and their first offering, Jocelyne Allen's You and the Pirates will be on sale at Smashwords at 50% (which means each book is just three bucks)!

For an e-book of Pitouie at 50% off: Bookmineset readers should go here: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/33601, scroll down to choose your preferred format, hit “Buy” and enter coupon code: WE39R.

For an e-book of You and the Pirates at 50% off, Bookmineset readers should go here: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/30856, scroll down to choose your preferred format, hit “Buy” and enter coupon code: HZ33S.
Finally: if people would prefer buying either book directly from The Workhorsery, they'll make sure the book they order is autographed by He or She Who Wrote It and they'll throw in some other random trinkets because they're nice like that and they appreciate people taking their books into their homes.

Enjoy the holidays while they last!

Reader's Diary #673- Jean Little and illustrated by Werner Zimmerann: Pippin the Christmas Pig

When it comes to picture books I'm not crazy about overly saccharine stories or soft, overly emotional paintings. I prefer funny any day.

But at Christmas my sweetness tolerance is ever so slightly higher than usual and much is forgiven.

Though Jean Little and Werner Zimmerman's Pippin the Christmas Pig couldn't be classified as a humorous book by any means, and though there is a warm and fuzzy message, I didn't have to try too hard to forgive it.

Pippin, a curious young pig, asks his barnyard companions what Christmas is, and through the recounting of the nativity story, the donkey, cow, sheep, and pigeon each brag about the gifts their ancestors brought baby Jesus on the night he was born. The pig, teased by the others and sad that there was no mention of a pig (because, after all, "what could pigs have given a holy child?"), takes off into the stormy night. Along the way he encounters a woman carrying a baby and leads her back to the barn for safety.

I admit, when I read to young kids I love books with a lot of voices, so I appreciated the characters and the rich personalities Zimmerman infused in his renditions. And, of course, most kids love talking animals so it was quite an engaging way of retelling the nativity story and wonderful of Little that she didn't merely recount the night, but managed to keep the message in tact.

As an adult, I appreciated the mystery of the woman and her baby, wandering through the snow with a baby on Christmas Eve. What a sad circumstance, and though one safe night in a barn would probably not eradicate the problems that may have led her to such an unfortunate predicament, the momentary reprieve and gesture of the pig might just awaken a glimmer of hope. Nice.

Merry Christmas everyone.

The Great Wednesday Compare #8- Jacob Marley VERSUS Ebeneezer Scrooge

The winner of last week's Great Wednesday Compare (Jay Gatsby VERSUS Jacob Marley), with a final score of 5-0 was Jacob Marley.

The Great or Bah-Humbug Gatsby? As I said last week, I'm really not a fan of Gatsby. So I'm not really disappointed in last week's vote. Nor am I surprised. Not only did Marley have an unfair Christmas advantage last week, but I've heard the Great Gatsby described as the Great American Novel. As most of my readers are Canadian, I assume its Americana is irrelevant to us. Just as its greatness is lost on me. As those of you that read Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi will remember, it was one of the books she and her students studied. I hoped that I'd finally realize what it was that people saw in the book, but no, I still don't like it. Will Baz Luhrmann's movie adaptation convince me? We'll just have to wait and see.

For now, however, let's say goodbye Gatsby.

Vote in the comment section below before Dec 28th: Who is the better character?

Jacob Marley OR Ebeneezer Scrooge

Reader's Diary #672- Wayne Curtis: My Mother's Christmas Art

(Special thanks to Chris at Chrisbookarama for linking to this week's story.)

A few years back I was quite surprised to buy a pack of postage stamps that had a picture of my old high school girlfriend's house on them. Only, it was different somehow. All painted up and such. I heard after that a CFA (a come-from away) had bought it, fixed it up, and turned it into a tea room or bed and breakfast or some sort of thing.

A friend of mine, also from Newfoundland, takes issue with such things. Apparently when rich people from the U.S., mainland Canada, Germany or wherever buy summer homes in Newfoundland, the local property taxes and real estate values become grotesquely inflated and the locals, whose families had lived there for generations, suddenly find the place unaffordable. But that wasn't my friend's issue. His was that they fix up the homes into cliched replicas of Newfoundland's cultural past. I suppose the argument is that culture cannot progress naturally when it is too self aware (even worse when the self is someone else).

To make a long story short, a lot of those thoughts came back this week as I read Wayne Curtis's short story "My Mother's Christmas Art." Nostalgic for his mother's Christmas preparations, there's a touch of melancholia as the narrator concludes that things "are not the same and of course never will be."

I've gone down that road before. Yes Christmases of days gone by have been great. And when I put up certain decorations and eat certain foods and watch certain movies, a lot of those great memories come back, but I have to say, now that I have my own kids and I see how excited they are for the whole thing, I'm not nostalgic any more. It's 2010, we're all happy and I don't care if it makes it on a postage stamp.

(Did you write a post for Short Story Monday? If so, please leave a link in the comments below.)

The Great Wednesday Compare #8- Jay Gatsby VERSUS Jacob Marley

The winner of last week's Great Wednesday Compare (Sam McGee VERSUS Jay Gatsby), with a final score of 3-2 was Jay Gatsby.

I feel so dirty right now. Voting against Sam McGee. I love that poem. And I really didn't like The Great Gatsby at all. Robert W. Service was Canadian, F. Scott Fitzgerald wasn't. But I had to swallow my principles. The vote was tied and fell to me to break it and you see, a win for McGee last week week would have meant 5 wins in a row and that would have meant the end of the 8th edition of the Great Wednesday Compare. And truthfully, with the holidays around the corner, I don't have the time or energy to come up with a new logo just yet. So, I've declared Jay Gatsby the winner. Strategery, as the former American president might say.

So with Christmas in mind, I offer a new contender against...sigh, Jay Gatsby. Sorry Sam. I hope you can find it in your fictional, burning heart to forgive me.

Vote in the comment section below before Dec 14th: Who is the better character?

Jay Gatsby OR Jacob Marley

Reader's Diary #671- Carol Anne Shaw: Hannah and the Spindle Whorl

Lately I've found myself reading a lot of books or stories involving time travel to my daughter. A lot for a seven year old to wrap her head around I'm sure, but they're also more imaginative at that age, so I think she's gotten the gist. We're not moving on to Stephen Hawking just yet, but we'll build up to that.

To make Hannah and the Spindle Whorl even more appealing is the fact that it's set in British Columbia and involves the Coast Salish people of Cowichan Bay.

Hannah, a 12 year old girl, is wandering through the woods one day when she falls and inadvertently discovers a cave. Inside the cave is a wooden disc that Hannah eventually learns to be a spindle whorl, over 100 years old, used by the Coast Salish people to spin wool. Even more remarkable is that she soon winds up there herself, with the original owner of the whorl and her daughter Yisella who she quickly befriends.

Hannah herself is a very likable character-- inquisitive and sensitive, intelligent and tough, and yet not overly perfect. She's still trying to cope with the loss of her mother from a car accident 2 years earlier, she lives on a houseboat, her dad's a writer, and yet she comes across as a realistic typical 12 year old.

The rich characters, intriguing setting, and adventure are fortunately enough to save the book from its few downsides: the overt attempts at making the book educational (including a very unnecessary lesson on carbon dating), a few loose ends (Yisella's sister's apparent dislike for Hannah is never adequately explained), and my own personal beef, dream sequences. My daughter was also somewhat unclear about the book's ending. "Didn't Hannah go back to help?" she asked, "I don't know how she helped them." But her questions actually made me like the book more. We not only thought of ways that Hannah may have helped, but also how Hannah was helped by Yisella and her people. That kind of question should me how invested my daughter had become in the book and made me realize that it had depth, much more depth than a typical juvenile novel.

Reader's Diary #670- Fielding Dawson: The Vertical Fields

When I think of Allen Ginsberg, Jack Keruoac, and William S. Burroughs, I can't help but think of Christmas trees, candy canes, and baby Jesus in a manger. No? Then how about Fielding Dawson?

Fielding Dawson, according to the Riverfront Times Blog, is the "best St. Louis writer you've never heard of," was known for writing in a stream of consciousness before the term was even coined, and was one of the more lesser known beat writers. So what was he doing writing a Christmas story?

Walking down memory lane apparently. "The Vertical Fields" is a nostalgic look at going to Christmas mass in 1940s Missouri. Punch and cookies, tinseled trees, a jewel glittering church... In Linden MacIntyre's The Bishop's Man, father Victor says that Christmas

takes over the memory temporarily. And memory makes Christmas bittersweet. Each of the senses stores identical impressions year after year. We hear the same sounds, we hear the same colours, inhale the same fragrances. The language of Christmas is unchanging, full of false celebration and hysterical good will.

Well, sure, if you put it that way, it sounds depressing. But I like the same sounds, colours, and fragrances year after year. There's comfort in that. Peace with the utterly familiar. And Dawson almost captures that. It's tainted on occasion by the encroachments of beat style, but charming otherwise. Now break out Bob Dylan's Christmas in the Heart CD. Maughssss be Saaanta. Maughsss be Saaanta....

(Did you write a post for Short Story Monday? If so, please leave a link in the comments below...)

The Great Wednesday Compare #8- Sam McGee VERSUS Jay Gatsby

The winner of last week's Great Wednesday Compare (Sam McGee VERSUS Barney Panofsky), with a final score of 4-2 was Sam McGee.

Well, I guess cranky old Barney Panofsky just got a whole lot crankier. But that's part of his charm, so it's all good. I get the impression that the dividing line last week was who'd read Barney's Version. If you read it, you'd probably have voted for him. And read it you should, it's one of my personal favourites. I'm looking forward to, but nervous about the movie adaptation that's coming to theatres on Christmas Eve.

Speaking of movies, I read recently that Baz Luhrmann is adapting F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and it will star Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire. Before you ponder that, first take the time to consider your favourite between this week's contenders.

Vote in the comment section below before Dec 14th: Who is the better character?

Sam McGee OR Jay Gatsby

Reader's Diary #669- Charles de Lint and MaryAnn Harris: A Crow Girl's Christmas

Charles de Lint, if you'll believe his website, "is widely credited with having pioneered the contemporary fantasy genre." I've not personally heard those accolades before, but I was aware that he's an immensely popular writer, that he's Canadian, and that I haven't read anything by him yet.

But seeing as it's December, and seeing as I was able to find this Christmas story by de Lint and his wife MaryAnn Harris, I figured there was no time like the present.

"A Crow Girls Christmas" is, I suppose, aimed at children. It revolves around two girls, the Crow Girls, named Maida and Zia. They've just gotten jobs as elves, helping out a mall Santa.

The age of Maida and Zia is never told, but then there seems to be an assumption that we know a lot about them already. In the opening sentence they drop by the professor's house. Why, we're never told. We are told that the two are a bit disrespectable. We quickly see that they talk a lot. And I think we're supposed to find them funny or amusing. Wow, do de Lint and Harris miss the mark on that one. The Crow Girls giggle, they say things like veryvery, and golly gee they eat all Santa's candy canes. Who cares? Most kids don't really like candy canes anyway.

"Merry Christmas to you!" they both cried.
Zia looked at Maida. "Why did you say, 'Merry Christmas toot toot'?"
"I didn't say 'toot toot'."
"I think maybe you did."
"Didn't."
Zia grinned. "Toot toot!"
"Toot toot!"

What the heck is this nonsense? Bah-humbug. That's what.

(Did you write a post for Short Story Monday? If so, please leave a link in the comments below.)

The Great Wednesday Compare #8- Sam McGee VERSUS Barney Panofsky

The winner of last week's Great Wednesday Compare (Sam McGee VERSUS Buck), with a final score of 6-0 was Sam McGee.

Another shut out! Poor Phileas Fogg, how can he get around the world without winning a Great Wednesday Compare?

I don't remember Phileas but I do remember loving Around the World in 80 Days. Maybe Nicola was right in her comments last week that Passepartout was the better character. Then again, I don't remember him either. I remember next week's contender however...

Vote in the comment section below before Dec 7th: Who is the better character?

Sam McGee OR Barney Panofsky

The Canadian Book Challenge 4- 5th Roundup!

5 Months down!!!

Before we get down to business, I'd like to offer my apologies for dropping the ball on the sidebar updates these past two months. I know there are probably some mistakes outstanding and please bring them to my attention, but hopefully most of the numbers are now accurate.

Let's see what good, bad, and meh Canadian books we all read in November. (Assuming you weren't too busy with NaNaWriMo or Movember or Sacrificing your Digital Life or leaking diplomatic cables or something.) Congrats go out to Wollamshram for finishing 13+ last month.

How about that Canada Reads announcement last month, eh? There's certainly been a fair share of criticism, even more than last year. Public voting, authors campaigning, for right or for wrong, the producers certainly got people talking. But in the end (and I'm still not sure the ends justifies the means), I am excited to see Jeff Lemire's Essex County make the top 5. Will it win? Not likely. I predict Unless to go first, followed by Bone Cage, then The Birth House, and finally Essex County and the winner-- keep in mind, I haven't even read it-- The Best Laid Plans. But for now, I'll celebrate that a graphic novel even stands a chance. Though I've already heard some of the naysayers. "A comic?" they scoff. George Laraque, defender of the Bone Cage, dismissed it as "just a cartoon." I don't get it. Most reading Canadians would say they respect the visual arts. Most visual art admirers would say they respect literature. So why the resistance in combining the two? I blame the nerds. You know, the ones who get all out of sorts when someone calls it a "graphic novel" instead of a comic. Most of us don't really care what they're called. The arguing just scares people away. Non-nerds can't admit to enjoying Star Trek or else they're forced into taking sides in the whole Kirk/Picard debate. So leave us be nerds. Comics/ graphic novels. Who cares?! Just let us read them in peace, please. Rant over.

In the meantime, a lot of you took me up on the challenge to read a graphic novel last month. And one of those is the randomly drawn lucky winner of a graphic novel prize pack from Von Allan... Congratulations goes out to Wanda at A Season to Read!!!



Christmas is just around the corner, right? Looking forward to all those Canadian books under your Christmas tree ? Christmas goodies? How about both? If you'd like to win a copy of 3 Chefs: The Kitchen Men by Michael Bonacini, Massimo Capra and Jason Parsons, you can have your name entered into a random draw in one of two ways:
1. Submit a favourite Christmas recipe in the comments below
OR
2. Review a Canadian cookbook for the challenge (we've not had a cookbook reviewed in 4 years of the challenge!)



3 Chefs: The Kitchen Men is published by Whitecap Books and was generously donated by Pooker!

Now, once again, the reason for the round-up! What Canadian books did you read and review for the Canadian Book Challenge 4 in November? Let everyone know in the comments below.

Remember:
- Make sure you tell me how many you've completed so far so that I can record it in the sidebar progress report
- It doesn't count as complete until the review is done!
- When people leave links, try to visit one another's blogs and read what they had to say. Comment. Encourage. The discussion of Canadian books is what this challenge is all about.