Remember when I said I wasn’t going to read the Canada Reads finalists this year? Of course I read the Canada Reads finalists this year. (Actually, I read three of them, as Ru and The Incovenient Indian I’d already read a while back, so you’ll have to forgive any inaccuracies or vagaries in my comments. I can barely remember what I read this morning, let alone last year or a couple of years ago.)

The theme for this annual battle of the books changes every year, and the 2015 debates will centre around the question “What is the one book to break barriers?” (Which seems to me a little like last year’s theme of “One novel to change our nation,” but I guess the CBC is running out of ideas.)

Intolerable: A Memoir of Extremes, by Kamal Al-Solaylee
(272 pages, published 2013 by HarperCollins Canada (first published 2012))
3 stars

I was most looking forward to reading this one, but I was a touch disappointed with it. It’s a good story, but I prefer denser autobiographies with rich details. This one was more of a “this happened then this happened then this happened” kind of style, which makes you feel like important things are being glossed over a bit. But, maybe that make it more accessible, and therefore more relevant to more people. Will it break barriers? Sure.

When Everything Feels Like the Movies, by Raziel Reid
(176 pages, published 2014 by Arsenal Pulp Press)
2 stars, maybe

I probably shouldn’t even be rating this book. It’s not for me. It’s for teens and tweens. And good god, is this what kids are really like today?!?!?! (Well, I guess that makes it official – with that statement, I am old!) Jude’s story is a good one and an important one, it’s just too bad that I was distracted because I was so shocked at the behaviour of the kids. I was expecting sex and drugs, BUT COME ON, REALLY?! I wonder if my 12-year old self when I really was 12 would have liked the book. Probably not, I was totally sheltered AND a stick in the mud. If I were 12 today I think I might have a better shot. Will it break barriers? It does have a very powerful message, so, hopefully! (P.S.: I have no clue why Canada Reads includes a YA title this year. There are plenty of grown-ups who enjoy reading that genre and in some bookish circles it’s cool to read YA – but I’ll never be a convert to that cause.)

And the Birds Rained Down, by Jocelyne Saucier
(English translation, 160 pages, published 2012 by Coach House Books (first published 2011))
4 stars
From this one I wasn’t expecting much – and I loved it! I’m still debating 4 or 5 stars. It’s a beautiful meditation on what it means to choose the way we live. And the writing is so charming. I always wonder, is that to the author’s credit or the translator’s? Both, I suppose. Will it break barriers? It doesn’t have a punch-in-the-gut type of message, so I’m not sure.

Ru, by Kim Thúy
English translation, 160 pages, published 2012 by Vintage Canada (first published 2009))
4 stars

Another lovely and lyrical work in translation. This one was a Giller Prize finalist in 2012, and it was among my favourites of the short list that year. This telling of a family’s escape from Vietnam, travels to Quebec, and new life in Canada is structured as vignettes that come together to complete a fictionalized memoir.

The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America, by Thomas King
(336 pages, published by Anchor Canada 2013 (first published 2012))
4 stars

The history of native people in North America is a long and not-very-pretty one, most of the time. King’s personal take on 500 years of that history is packed into these pages, yet somehow his witty sense of humour shines through it all. I learned a lot from this one. Will it break barriers? It should, if enough people read it. But the topic probably isn’t as sexy as those that some of the other books address.

Overall, it’s not nearly as good a crop of contenders as last year. Go read those, if you haven’t yet. Predictions? It’s so hard to know; the outcome has a lot to do with the defenders and how the debates play out. Personally I liked When the Birds Rained Down and Ru the best. I think The Inconvenient Indian might suffer for being non-fiction. I can see When Everything Feels Like the Movies and Intolerable getting a lot of traction – the former is the most shocking and they both seem to cover the more hot-button topics.

Debates are March 16-19 for your listening or viewing pleasure, on CBC Radio One, CBC-TV, Documentary, and CBCBooks.ca.