CanadianContent discussion

August begins with a holiday on the first Monday of the month. It is known in a number of provinces as a Civic Holiday or is a provincial day with other local names, such as Terry Fox Day, Natal Day or BC Day. What can be more Canadian than enjoying books on this day and for the rest of the month?

In celebration of the month of August we will do an Acrostic August Challenge, reading books that start with each letter of August (not counting "a" or "the").
Start Date: August 01, 2016
End Date: August 31, 2016

Book Suggestions:

A
Anne of Green Gables (or any other “Anne of” books by the great L.M Montgomery
Alias Grace
Annabel
Away
An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth
Arrival City
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz

U
Under an Afghan Sky: A Memoir of Captivity
The Colony of Unrequited Dreams
Under the Volcano


G
Galore
Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture
George And Rue
Green Grass, Running Water Water
Gold Diggers
The Game
The Gutenberg Galaxy
The Girls
Girlfriend in a Coma
A Great Reckoning

U
Up Ghost River: A Chief's Journey Through the Turbulent Waters of Native History
Underground to Canada
Under The Visible Life

S
Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life
Secret Daughter
Skim
Sweetness in the Belly
Six Metres of Pavement
Still Life
Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town
Swamp Angel
Shake Hands with the Devil
Something Fierce
Stalin’s Daughter
Stolen Wife
Straphanger
Survival
Swing Low
Solomon Gursky Was Here

T
The Time in Between
Three Day Road
Tigana
Two Solitudes
28: Stories of Aids in Africa
Tangles
Theatre of the Unimpressed
The Sacred Balance
The Tiger
The Tipping Point
Too Close to the Falls
Trauma Form
Tree: A Life Story
Two Generals
Tell
A Tale for the Time Being
The Tin Flute

*Many books come from the CBC lists, please feel free to add books to the list and enjoy more CanLit
** Choose the # of books you plan to read from the challenge by clicking on the challenge section of the site once it is August 1st

@Susan I LOVE this idea!!

Thanks! It was fun looking through book lists and organizing it. I have been so inspired by the bingo that I have made a 2017 bingo which I will post later in the year!!!

Great challenge, Susan! That's a lot of books to read in August (for me) so I may shorten that to Aug or maybe Augu. :D
Who knows? Maybe I'll rise to the challenge of August since I have a week off in that month.

Cool idea!

@Petra - No pressure to read each letter but just an encouraging challenge to read more Canadian!!

I have a tentative list: Among Others, Undermajordomo Minor, Green Grass, Running Water, Under Heaven, Under My Skin, United We Stand, Under The Visible Life, or Under This Unbroken Sky, Swamp Angel, and Tigana.

❀ Susan wrote: "@Petra - No pressure to read each letter but just an encouraging challenge to read more Canadian!!"

Then I'm in! Thanks, Susan.

I already read a lot of Canadian but I have a lot of other books to read for various book clubs that are not Canadian so I may try this by mixing and matching.

Has any one read any of these: ????
Under Heaven,
Under My Skin
United We Stand
Under The Visible Lifeor
Under This Unbroken Sky

I cannot decide which I might read as my second U for the August acronym. Thanks.

I found Under an Afghan Sky: A Memoir of Captivity as a library discard today for 25 cents so it will be one of my choices. I have not read any of those options @MaryAnne and it was harder to find "u" options.

Any Known Blood
Against a Darkening Sky
At the Water's Edge
All My Puny Sorrows
Adult Onset
Us Conductors
A Good Man
The Gallery of Lost Species
Gold Digger: A Klondike Mystery
The Son of a Certain Woman
Station Eleven
Sweetland
The Three Sisters Bar and Hotel
Season of Storms
Sophia's Secret
Still Life (Joy Fielding)
Still Life (Louise Penny)
Tides of Honour
Two-Gun & Sun
The Silent Wife

@Diane - some great additions to the list! i have a copy of US conductors in my TBR pile somewhere...

There are a half dozen I have yet to read but most of the ones I have I really enjoyed. Michael Crummey, Susannah Kearsley, Miriam Toews, and Lauren Davis in particular.

My tentative plan:

Ancestor Stones (African)

Up Ghost River: A Chief's Journey Through the Turbulent Waters of Native History (Canadian/Indigenous non-fiction)

George And Rue (Canadian)

Unraveling Arva (Canadian)

Simple Recipes (Canadian short stories)

The Tenderness of Wolves (set in Canada)

I was planning to be gung-ho about this challenge but yesterday made travel plans to attend the Mississippi Book Festival next month in Jackson, MS. The festival looks great and is FREE and I've never been to Jackson, so I'm making a weekend of it. This means I have to scramble to do some preparatory reading now. :-)

Still, I'm going to try to read at least 2 books for this challenge. I have Galore planned for one of my remaining bingo squares, so that will work. And I have lots of A, S, and T books on my shelves, so will try to fit one of those in as well - maybe a short story collection I can work through slowly during August.

Now I'm conflicted. With Madeleine Thien's recent Booker longlist nomination, I want to read her short story collection Simple Recipes for my S book instead of Signs and Wonders which is why that poor book has been on my shelf for 4 years....

I know I'm in, but I haven't made any selections yet.

I am with you Natasha... I might just start the challenge without a specific plan ahead. I keep thinking i should plan it out but can't quite decide yet!!

A few more suggestions:

The Age of Hope by David Bergen
All That Matters by Wayson Choy
Alone in the Classroom by Elizabeth Hay
The Amazing Absorbing Boy by Rabindranath Maharaj
Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje
The Ash Garden by Dennis Bock
Astray by Emma Donoghue
An Audience of Chairs by Joan Clark

The Underpainter by Jane Urquhart
Unless by Carol Shields
Unraveling Arva by Nicole Lundrigan
An Unrehearsed Desire by Lauren B. Davis

The Girl Who Was Saturday Night by Heather O'Neill
Glass Boys by Nicole Lundrigan
The Glass Harmonica by Russell Wangersky
Going Home Again by Dennis Bock

Sanctuary Line by Jane Urquhart
The Seary Line by Nicole Lundrigan
The Sentimentalists by Johanna Skibsrud
Signs and Wonders by Alix Ohlin
Simple Recipes by Madeleine Thien
The Singer's Gun by Emily St. John Mandel
Stolen Sisters: An Inquiry into Feminicide in Canada by Emmanuelle Walter
The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence
The Stone Carvers by Jane Urquhart
Stone Mattress: Nine Tales by Margaret Atwood
Stubborn Season by Lauren B. Davis

Tell It to the Trees by Anita Rau Badami
Through Black Spruce by Joseph Boyden
Too Much Happiness by Alice Munro
Traplines by Eden Robinson

Great suggestions but I think you may have just made my choices ever more difficult - lol!!!

Louise wrote: "A few more suggestions:

The Age of Hope by David Bergen
All That Matters by Wayson Choy
Alone in the Classroom by [auth..."

great list -- the more the merrier.

Can it be August for the rest of the year? :)

lol - I have ideas for the next couple of challenges which should be fun too!!!

I have several books already on the go - but just noticed Annabel was available. I had it on my list for the Bingo Challenge, so I will start with that and see how it goes.

My tentative plan:

A: All the Broken Things
U: Dead Man in Paradise: Unraveling a Murder from a Time of Revolution
G: Glass Boys
U: In the Footsteps of Abraham Ulrikab: The Events of 1880-1881 (not sure where I can get a copy of this one)
S: The Stonehenge Letters
T: The Flying Troutmans

I hope to read at least 3 of these.

Would it be okay I read a min-fiction choice for one of the August books? I was thinking "Staking a Claim to a Continent"


https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

What is a min-fiction? And read whatever you want for the challenge - it is all about enriching our reading so no hard and fast rules. :)

@Susan Non-fiction. Sorry. I didn't notice the spelling mistake.

lol - i was wondering if i was totally out of the loop!!! :)

This one has been a lot of fun. It's one way to not get so overwhelmed by choice in the to-read pile. Thank you for your creative monthly challenges Susan. I'm getting my three books in this month with this - 2 of 3 Cdn.

Thanks for the feedback Talie - it has been fun to think of some challenges to inspire us all to read more Canadian (or like you said, get through some of that TBR pile aka mountain that we all have!!)

I too like the August acrostic. It has forced me to think through some of my Canadian books and read some that I have been meaning to read for a while.
The September challenge is truly making me think about books I might have read in High school English class. I have a Masters in English so it is hard to separate what I read in various Canadian lit courses in University with English courses in High school. I hate to think it but I believe we read only non-Canadian books for the English classes in hs but so far that is all I remember. Like Lord of the Flies. I read lots outside of class so I may work with that as well.

Shoot -- I meant to post this in the Sept Challenge:

I was thinking about Anne of Green Gables for this one. The whole series would take me most of the month.

Also I'm thinking of slotting in The Incredible Journey.

It was in high school that I start reading Charles de Lint so I may read one of my favorites over. The ones set in the city always take me back to Ottawa.

@Talie - I LOVE Anne of Green Gables - I have reread the first 6 over the last year and really enjoyed reading/listening to them. It is interesting to read the later books which I had not read as a young girl - they are really made for each stage of life including her time as a young mother.

@MaryAnne - i have to sadly say that I did not read much Canadian either - I think that the Stone Angel might have been the only Cdn book.

I'm doing a bit better at this challenge than expected. I had set my goal at 3 and should have no trouble with that. Yesterday I finished Another Brooklyn and although it's by an American author, I decided to up my goal to 4 and include this as an A book.

I'm nearing the end of Stone Mattress: Nine Tales for an S book, and last night started 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl for a T book.

That should give me plenty of time to still read Galore for a G book. And then I'll see where I'm at. I have Ablutions in mind as a possible substitute for an A book if I can fit it in (it's short!).

I have been picking away at this challenge in amongst some other reading too and so far have:

A- Away
U- Under The Visible Life
G - Green Grass, Running Water
U - Under an Afghan Sky: A Memoir of Captivity
S - Slammerkin
T - Turtle Valley - edited to add this book August 26th

I am off for two weeks starting on Friday so hoping to finish off this challenge and am glad to have you all joining!!

I had a list of books picked out for this challenge, but then books on hold became available, other books came my way that I wanted to read right away, and I've got book club commitments and NONE of these books started with any of the letters in August :-(

A - Among Others
U - Undermajordomo Minor
G - Green Grass, Running Water
U - The Unquiet (to read)
S - Seaweed on Ice
T - Tigana (reading)

great fun -- thanks for setting this up.

We have 2 days left and I am wondering how people are finding the challenge?

Although I enjoyed it, if it weren't for having 2 weeks vacation, I am not sure I would have been able to complete it. I am also working on completing a library summer bingo and had a # of books come available from the library so found it quite challenging to finish.

I am halfway through Away which will finish the challenge.

I should finish Galore today and that will complete my goal of 4 books. I've enjoyed the challenge!

The timing ended up being pretty good for me but I have been mulling over Sept's challenge because I have some book club commitments and also the Giller long list is coming out, followed soon after by the Booker short list and the National Book Award long list, and then I will lose my mind. :-)

I really like the August challenge: it helps promote reading new stuff. I was able to read as I went to sleep because the days were filled with taking of my granddaughter and getting ready for a move from St Louis to Montana. Right now I am in Ottawa, where I will be for a month visiting with a good friend and seeing other friends. I hope to read lots and relax before flying to Montana and new living arrangements.
The Unquiet was an interesting Canadian dystopian novel that surprised with its writing and idea of a duplicate Earth. Nice 'U' title. The other 'U' was Undermajordomo Minor that was very delightful.

Talie wrote: "
I was thinking about Anne of Green Gables for this one. The whole series would take me most of the month.
"
When I was ten my parents separated and that is when I read Anne of Green Gables. The book affected me so much that I decided then to add an 'e' to my name.

Just in time, I have finished the challenge by reading Away and have edited my books for the challenge above. It was a challenge to finish 6 amongst the other books that I have wanted to read this month but am glad that you have joined me in this challenge!!!

Great job to those who signed up for the challenge - 4 of 4 completed their goals and I think a few others read along!! 19 or 19 books read.

It was a fun challenge, and an interesting way to choose books! Three of the four books I read were ones I'd been meaning to get to for some time.

Glad that you enjoyed it. :)