Last month some friends and I attended the Canada Reads kick-off at the Toronto Reference Library. The event was held in the beautiful Apel Salon (a new addition to TRL) and hosted by Mary Ito (CBC Fresh Air). Defending the various titles were Roland Pemberton a.k.a Cadence Weapon (Generation X), Nicolas Dickner (Nikolski), Janet Laine Green (reading from Good to a Fault) with Mary Weems defending, Samantha Nutt (The Jade Peony) and Perdita Felicien (Fall on Your Knees) with author, Ann-Marie MacDonald reading from her work. Interspersed throughout the discussions were musical selections by vocalist, Shakura S'aida, bass player, donna grantis and Brook Blackburn on guitar. S'Aida also had the opportunity to chat with Ito about the pleasure of having her e-book with her during her recent European tour.
Sitting amongst all the book lovers in the Apel Salon, I could hear murmurs from people around me commenting after each reading--distracting when it was done during the discussions, but interesting at the same time to hear some very personal responses to each book. My friends and I kept our thoughts to ourselves until the end of the evening, but as it turns out we all chose the same book: Nikolsi. Weren't we prescient! Nikolski turned out to be the winning selection announced on CBC Radio 99.1 as 2010's Canada Reads.
Mary Ito and Edmonton's Roland Pemberton
Mary Ito and the eventual winner of Canada Reads 2010, Nicolas Dickner (Nikolski).
Shakura S'Aida, donna granits and Brook Blackburn
Janet Laine Green (reading), Mary Ito, Mary Weems
Mary Ito and Samantha Nutt
Mary Ito, Ann-Marie MacDonald, Perdita Felicien
photo credit: all photos by donna g with exception of Gian Gomeshi and Canada Reads photo courtesy of http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads/
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