By: Deanna McFadden
December 2007
How perfect is it to curl up with a good book this time of year? Granted, it might have to wait until that blissful week between Christmas and New Year's, when the world sort of slows to a halt, and one can actually take the time to enjoy the printed words they've received under the tree or otherwise.
But right now, in the weeks leading up to the big holiday season, booksellers everywhere are plying happy consumers with their wares. From travel or cookbooks to this year's prize winning fiction and non-fiction, there's got to be a book out there for just about anyone on your list. And if inspiration hasn't quite struck, here's a quick overview of the biggest books of the last year:
 Giller Prize Winner
Late Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay
Set in 1975 in Yellowknife, Hay's novel follows the lives of a diverse group of men and women who run the CBC radio station. The novel contains beautiful prose with exquisite details and unusual metaphors set in a rich landscape that not every Canadian has come into contact with – these lives lived north of sixty.
 Governor General's Literary Award - Fiction
Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje
Probably one of the most visible novels by one of Canada's leading novelists, and even if the novel was received with mixed reviews, it managed to win over the Governor General's jury, which is no small feat. Combining two seemingly unconnected stories into one deft piece of fiction, Ondaatje remains one of the country's greatest talents.
 Governor General's Literary Award – Non Fiction
I've Got a Home in Glory Land: The Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad by Karolyn Smardz Frost
Rich in detail and vivid with research, Smardz Frost's book brings to life one of Canada's most enduring historical stories: the Underground Railroad. It's an important book on an important topic, one that the jury said was sure to become an “instant classic.”
A complete list of winners, including poetry, children's fiction and drama, be sure and check in with the official site.
 Amazon in Canada First Book Award
Certainty by Madeleine Thien
While not as high profile as either of the two huge national awards, it's still important to recognize first novels, and so Madeleine Thien’s “honest and elegant” story about a young radio producer in Vancouver who is haunted by her family’s past would be a worthy read for any fan of literary fiction.
For more on Amazon's First Book Awards visit the site.
 Canada Reads 2007
Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O'Neill
Even if you don't listen to the CBC's annual showdown, Heather O'Neill's powerful novel about a young girl growing up in Montreal will knock your imaginary socks off. Heartbreaking, redemptive and utterly engaging, the novel wraps you up in its world from start to finish.
Major prize winners on the international scene include Per Petterson's Out Stealing Horses, which won the world's most monied prize, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in May. This novel is on many ‘best of’ lists, including my own, and it's a sparsely told but deeply resonant story that absolutely deserves all of the praise. Anne Enright's The Gathering won this year's Man Booker Prize. It's an exhausting and exhilarating read – one that rolls you up in its hurricane of emotions and drops you off at the end feeling like you’ve lived a lifetime between the pages, which is no small feat for any author.
Doris Lessing was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature this year, and Cormac McCarthy's The Road won the Pulitzer for fiction, and there are about a dozen other genres that won awards as well, including the non-fiction winner, The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright.
These books barely scratch the surface of what new words hit the bookshelves of your local stores this year. And they may not even be to the taste of that special someone on your list, which isn’t to say there's not a world of other places to discover some of the most talked about books from 2007. The NY Times has already posted their Notable Books for 2007, and the Globe and Mail's Globe 100 should be hitting newsstands any day now. And there's a great blog put together by the National Book Critics Circle called “Critical Mass” that also has an interesting list of “Best Recommended” titles culled from a very impressive list of contributors.
Bestseller lists, word of mouth, bookseller recommendations, publisher's web sites, newspapers, magazines, blogs – the virtual world is lit up by people talking about books this time of the year. And readers are truly spoiled for choice.
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