CBC Books' Canada Reads 2025: The Contenders!
It's all in good fun, and it has a deeper purpose: to engage us in reading CanLit and buying and sharing Canadian books (or borrowing them from the library, as I love to do!) Each year has a theme, and this year it is:
"One book to change the narrative.
The books on this year's show all have the power to change how we see, share and experience the world around us." (CBC Books)The 2025 contenders are:
- Olympic gold medallist Maggie Mac Neil champions Watch Out for Her by Samantha M. Baile
- Podcaster and wellness advocate Shayla Stonechild champions A Two-Spirit Journey by Ma-Nee Chacaby, with Mary Louisa Plummer
- Heartland actor Michelle Morgan champions Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper
- Thriller writer Linwood Barclay champions Jennie's Boy by Wayne Johnston
- Pastry chef Saïd M'Dahoma champions Dandelion by Jamie Chai Yun Liew
I've continued my annual tradition of reading each of these five books before the debates. This is the third year for me and it's a fun reading project. Here are my mini-reviews for each book.
Championed by Maggie Mac Neil
My Quick Take: A perfectly good thriller that I enjoyed listening to.
***
This is an interesting entry into the debates, because it’s the first ever thriller chosen for Canada Reads, and I find it a similar pick to last year’s romance selection (Meet Me at the Lake), just a different genre. As in, I wonder how Mac Neil will approach championing it. I found it a decent thriller that was fun to listen to and entertaining, albeit quite average. And that’s okay, right? A solid three star book for me is a decent book.
This is the story of a mother, Sarah, who needs a summer to focus on her photography, so the family hires a babysitter for youngster Jacob. Holly is a med student who’d like a summer to try to get out of reach of her high-pressure rich family. Both of these women have secrets, of course, and so does Sarah’s husband Daniel. Everyone’s hiding something!
This book was just fine. Bailey’s writing was smooth, and the audiobook narration worked well. The story hopped along and the characters were often getting themselves into suitable degrees of trouble. It kept me good company while I walked, ran and did housework. Though I may have been slightly wrong about a few things, I guessed the main surprises by half way through the book. But it was still fun.
Reading Mac Neil’s words on CBC about her choice makes me understand why this book is a contender. She didn’t read for many years while she was a competitive swimmer then finishing her academic degree, and only last year started reading for pleasure. She gravitates to books that keep her attention, and I’m sure this is true for many people getting into reading for the first time or after a long pause. There’s real value in books as entertainment, and a lot of thriller-lovers out there (including me!), so good on Mac Neil for bringing something different to the table.
A Two-Spirit Journey by Ma-Nee Chacaby (with Mary Louisa Plummer)
My Quick Take: A perfectly good thriller that I enjoyed listening to.
***
This is an interesting entry into the debates, because it’s the first ever thriller chosen for Canada Reads, and I find it a similar pick to last year’s romance selection (Meet Me at the Lake), just a different genre. As in, I wonder how Mac Neil will approach championing it. I found it a decent thriller that was fun to listen to and entertaining, albeit quite average. And that’s okay, right? A solid three star book for me is a decent book.
This is the story of a mother, Sarah, who needs a summer to focus on her photography, so the family hires a babysitter for youngster Jacob. Holly is a med student who’d like a summer to try to get out of reach of her high-pressure rich family. Both of these women have secrets, of course, and so does Sarah’s husband Daniel. Everyone’s hiding something!
This book was just fine. Bailey’s writing was smooth, and the audiobook narration worked well. The story hopped along and the characters were often getting themselves into suitable degrees of trouble. It kept me good company while I walked, ran and did housework. Though I may have been slightly wrong about a few things, I guessed the main surprises by half way through the book. But it was still fun.
Reading Mac Neil’s words on CBC about her choice makes me understand why this book is a contender. She didn’t read for many years while she was a competitive swimmer then finishing her academic degree, and only last year started reading for pleasure. She gravitates to books that keep her attention, and I’m sure this is true for many people getting into reading for the first time or after a long pause. There’s real value in books as entertainment, and a lot of thriller-lovers out there (including me!), so good on Mac Neil for bringing something different to the table.
Championed by Shayla Stonechild
My Quick Take: This Ojibwa-Cree elder’s autobiography was absorbing, challenging and always enthralling, with lessons for us all.
***
A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder is written by Ma-Nee Chacaby with social scientist Mary Louisa Plummer. I learned a lot and felt it a privilege to get to know Chacaby. This is a straightforward, chronological account of the author’s life, from childhood to her early sixties, and I appreciated the Afterword where Plummer explains the writing process and the importance of projects that encourage Indigenous knowledge sharing. This book reflects an oral history tradition, along with teaching and storytelling.
This recounting was compelling; each day I was eager to read more. It spoke to me because of the very different life that Chacaby has had as compared to mine, and it is through these types of histories that I can understand the life experiences of a person that I otherwise would have no way to access. For that I am grateful. I think these types of “sharings” are vital to our society, as they promote empathy and interconnection.
One detail that struck me is the richness of Ma-Nee’s life, both the good and the horrific, and how this has ultimately resulted in her bountiful family, social and inner life as a two-spirit elder.
There are so many points for learning and discussion that it is impossible to detail them all, but I’ve been thinking about so much of what I have learned. Please note that there is very difficult subject matter.
This is a rich tale of a fascinating life experience that has much to teach us all. I thank Chacaby for sharing her wisdom with us. This is what a forum like Canada Reads can do: give a wider readership to these amazing books.
My Quick Take: This Ojibwa-Cree elder’s autobiography was absorbing, challenging and always enthralling, with lessons for us all.
***
A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder is written by Ma-Nee Chacaby with social scientist Mary Louisa Plummer. I learned a lot and felt it a privilege to get to know Chacaby. This is a straightforward, chronological account of the author’s life, from childhood to her early sixties, and I appreciated the Afterword where Plummer explains the writing process and the importance of projects that encourage Indigenous knowledge sharing. This book reflects an oral history tradition, along with teaching and storytelling.
This recounting was compelling; each day I was eager to read more. It spoke to me because of the very different life that Chacaby has had as compared to mine, and it is through these types of histories that I can understand the life experiences of a person that I otherwise would have no way to access. For that I am grateful. I think these types of “sharings” are vital to our society, as they promote empathy and interconnection.
One detail that struck me is the richness of Ma-Nee’s life, both the good and the horrific, and how this has ultimately resulted in her bountiful family, social and inner life as a two-spirit elder.
There are so many points for learning and discussion that it is impossible to detail them all, but I’ve been thinking about so much of what I have learned. Please note that there is very difficult subject matter.
This is a rich tale of a fascinating life experience that has much to teach us all. I thank Chacaby for sharing her wisdom with us. This is what a forum like Canada Reads can do: give a wider readership to these amazing books.
Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper
Championed by Michelle Morgan
My Quick Take: A bittersweet tale that examines the cycle of life from a prairie childhood, a world war, and aging, from three characters’ views.
***
“You told me, once, to just remember to breathe. As long as you can do that, you're doing something good.”
82-year-old Etta sets out to walk from her Prairie home to the East coast to see the sea. She is in the beginning stages of dementia, and leaves her husband Otto at home. Knowing her well, he leaves her to her walk, but friend and neighbour Russell decides to try to find her, eventually setting off on his own journey. Oh, and there’s a talking coyote named James who walks with Etta.
This is a bundle of happy and sad all mixed into one, and as I type this, I realise that that’s what life is too, so it’s probably not an accident that Hooper chose this tone. This is a book about the course of lives, with their loves, heartbreaks, and passings away. More conventional when younger, these characters show some definite quirkiness in their golden years, and I liked that! It’s amazing what quiet, awesome things elders can do.
Though I had a good time reading about Otto, Etta and Russell, Hooper’s book didn’t quite grip me the way that some of the other Canada Reads selections did. I don’t think it’s one that will stay with me for a long while, even though I enjoyed it as I went. I think the author meant these folks to be quiet, and stoic–very strong in their own ways–but perhaps the whole story lacked a bit of conflict and emotional edge for my liking.
I suspect it will have a good showing on Canada Reads, though, because it’ll appeal to a wide audience and it really is quite good. I’m looking forward to seeing how it’s championed in the debates.
Jennie's Boy: A Newfoundland Childhood by Wayne Johnston
Championed by Linwood Barclay
My Quick Take: As read by the author, this was a poignant memoir of six months in the life of a sick youngster living in poverty, with a touch of self-deprecating humour.
***
Wayne is seven, and has always been sickly. His dad Art has drunk away the rent money in a bar, and the family is packing up and moving to a place with cheaper rent: a rickety house in the Goulds, Newfoundland, across from his maternal grandparents. His mom, Jennie, had trouble with her pregnancy, and:
“Ever since I could remember, I had always been generally, vaguely sick and, as far as anyone could tell, I always would be, for however long I could endure it.”
Everyone thinks he’ll die in childhood. He can’t go to school, so spends the days at his grandmother Lucy’s house, a devout yet practical woman when it comes to faith, in the best possible way. She was my favourite character.
In this family, everyone’s always “ripping into” each other, an angry dressing down, but they always make up. His family loves him but is exasperated with his sickliness. His older brother Craig is another main character, and Johnson writes him with fantastic complexity: he bullies his younger brother, he hates and resents Wayne’s weakness, but loves him completely all at once.
There’s humour, but there’s also an awful lot of hard things too. I appreciated this book for its depiction of poverty in rural, East-coast Canada, and in this way I think it furthered the themes of another book I read recently: The Tin Flute by Gabrielle Roy. They are very different books, but the poverty felt similar.
This was a great book, a glimpse into a Newfoundland community in the last century, a comment on poverty, and a loving reminiscence of a complex family just trying to get by. I think this will be a strong contender for Canada Reads.
My Quick Take: This tale of migration and motherhood showcased the emotional cost of a family torn apart while also understanding the realities of adapting to a new country and culture.
***
From the blurb: “When Lily was eleven years old, her mother, Swee Hua, walked away from the family, never to be seen or heard from again. Now a new mother herself, Lily becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to Swee Hua.”
I enjoyed reading Dandelion because it brought some interesting people and places to the storytelling. It’s told in three parts. “Before,” in 1980s Sparwood, BC where tween Lily’s family lives. Her parents immigrated from Brunei, her father stateless. He values his Canadian citizenship so highly, but her mother longs for home. Her mother leaves the family (no spoiler, it’s on the back cover!), and leaves a gaping hole in Lily’s life. “Now,” in the present, Lily becomes a mother herself, re-triggering memories and longings for her own mother. And “See,” in which Lily travels to Brunei to search for her mother.
I can’t recall reading a story that involves Brunei, which was a great feature, and I liked the addition of some of the mythology of Brunei and Malaysia. Liew’s exploration of Lily’s turmoil as she enters new parenthood was realistic, and I appreciated how she used each character to examine the various motivations and adaptations to immigration to Canada.
At times, I think the novel could have benefited from a bit slower pace, and more internal monologue to explore Lily’s emotions thoroughly. Though Liew explored many issues through Lily’s eyes, it felt like a chronological telling sometimes more than a novel that allowed me the space and time to ponder the themes.
That said, Dandelion takes on a compelling story that speaks to the diverse experience of those who call Canada home.
***
My Quick Take: A bittersweet tale that examines the cycle of life from a prairie childhood, a world war, and aging, from three characters’ views.
***
“You told me, once, to just remember to breathe. As long as you can do that, you're doing something good.”
82-year-old Etta sets out to walk from her Prairie home to the East coast to see the sea. She is in the beginning stages of dementia, and leaves her husband Otto at home. Knowing her well, he leaves her to her walk, but friend and neighbour Russell decides to try to find her, eventually setting off on his own journey. Oh, and there’s a talking coyote named James who walks with Etta.
This is a bundle of happy and sad all mixed into one, and as I type this, I realise that that’s what life is too, so it’s probably not an accident that Hooper chose this tone. This is a book about the course of lives, with their loves, heartbreaks, and passings away. More conventional when younger, these characters show some definite quirkiness in their golden years, and I liked that! It’s amazing what quiet, awesome things elders can do.
Though I had a good time reading about Otto, Etta and Russell, Hooper’s book didn’t quite grip me the way that some of the other Canada Reads selections did. I don’t think it’s one that will stay with me for a long while, even though I enjoyed it as I went. I think the author meant these folks to be quiet, and stoic–very strong in their own ways–but perhaps the whole story lacked a bit of conflict and emotional edge for my liking.
I suspect it will have a good showing on Canada Reads, though, because it’ll appeal to a wide audience and it really is quite good. I’m looking forward to seeing how it’s championed in the debates.
Championed by Linwood Barclay
My Quick Take: As read by the author, this was a poignant memoir of six months in the life of a sick youngster living in poverty, with a touch of self-deprecating humour.
***
Wayne is seven, and has always been sickly. His dad Art has drunk away the rent money in a bar, and the family is packing up and moving to a place with cheaper rent: a rickety house in the Goulds, Newfoundland, across from his maternal grandparents. His mom, Jennie, had trouble with her pregnancy, and:
“Ever since I could remember, I had always been generally, vaguely sick and, as far as anyone could tell, I always would be, for however long I could endure it.”
Everyone thinks he’ll die in childhood. He can’t go to school, so spends the days at his grandmother Lucy’s house, a devout yet practical woman when it comes to faith, in the best possible way. She was my favourite character.
In this family, everyone’s always “ripping into” each other, an angry dressing down, but they always make up. His family loves him but is exasperated with his sickliness. His older brother Craig is another main character, and Johnson writes him with fantastic complexity: he bullies his younger brother, he hates and resents Wayne’s weakness, but loves him completely all at once.
There’s humour, but there’s also an awful lot of hard things too. I appreciated this book for its depiction of poverty in rural, East-coast Canada, and in this way I think it furthered the themes of another book I read recently: The Tin Flute by Gabrielle Roy. They are very different books, but the poverty felt similar.
This was a great book, a glimpse into a Newfoundland community in the last century, a comment on poverty, and a loving reminiscence of a complex family just trying to get by. I think this will be a strong contender for Canada Reads.
Dandelion by Jamie Chai Yun Liew
Championed by Saïd M'DahomaMy Quick Take: This tale of migration and motherhood showcased the emotional cost of a family torn apart while also understanding the realities of adapting to a new country and culture.
***
From the blurb: “When Lily was eleven years old, her mother, Swee Hua, walked away from the family, never to be seen or heard from again. Now a new mother herself, Lily becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to Swee Hua.”
I enjoyed reading Dandelion because it brought some interesting people and places to the storytelling. It’s told in three parts. “Before,” in 1980s Sparwood, BC where tween Lily’s family lives. Her parents immigrated from Brunei, her father stateless. He values his Canadian citizenship so highly, but her mother longs for home. Her mother leaves the family (no spoiler, it’s on the back cover!), and leaves a gaping hole in Lily’s life. “Now,” in the present, Lily becomes a mother herself, re-triggering memories and longings for her own mother. And “See,” in which Lily travels to Brunei to search for her mother.
I can’t recall reading a story that involves Brunei, which was a great feature, and I liked the addition of some of the mythology of Brunei and Malaysia. Liew’s exploration of Lily’s turmoil as she enters new parenthood was realistic, and I appreciated how she used each character to examine the various motivations and adaptations to immigration to Canada.
At times, I think the novel could have benefited from a bit slower pace, and more internal monologue to explore Lily’s emotions thoroughly. Though Liew explored many issues through Lily’s eyes, it felt like a chronological telling sometimes more than a novel that allowed me the space and time to ponder the themes.
That said, Dandelion takes on a compelling story that speaks to the diverse experience of those who call Canada home.
***
The debates start tomorrow and I think it will be good. Overall, this is such a diverse group of books that it's almost too challenging to compare them on even ground. As far as the two books that I feel will stay with me as memorable and moving, I'd choose A Two-Spirit Journey and Jennie's Boy. Interesting that they are two memoirs, albeit very different in structure and style. If pressed, my preferred book is A Two-Spirit Journey. My prediction for the winner is A Two-Spirit Journey, though I think Etta and Otto and Russell and James has an excellent chance too. As do most of them. Last year I failed to even come close to predicting the winner. I wonder if I'll do better this year?
***
Addendum March 24, 2025: I did really well this year predicting the outcome. The final two books standing were indeed A Two-Spirit Journey and Etta and Otto and Russell and James. And the winner was A Two-Spirit Journey! The tone of the debate this year was friendly, supportive and each person did a great job championing their novel.
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