100 Novels that make you proud to be Canadian

On July 1 2014, CBC Books produced a list of 100 Novels that make you proud to be Canadian, challenging readers to say how many of these "must-read" books they had read. I'd read 42 from the list at that time. So here is my progress through the list.

Books read

  1. Gil Adamson - The Outlander (2007) (Read: 04/Mar/2012)
  2. Gail Anderson-Dargatz - The Cure for Death by Lightning (1996) (Read: 22/Sep/2013)
  3. Margaret Atwood - Alias Grace (1997) (Read: 18/Aug/2017)
  4. Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid's Tale (1985) (Read: 11/Nov/1986)
  5. Anita Rau Badami - The Hero's Walk (2001) (Read: 20/Sep/2015)
  6. Shauna Singh Baldwin - What the Body Remembers (2000) (Read: 29/Mar/2018)
  7. Linwood Barclay - No Time for Goodbye (2007) (Read: 09/Jun/2022)
  8. David Bergen - The Time in Between (2005) (Read: 21/May/2022)
  9. Giles Blunt - Forty Words for Sorrow (2000) (Read: 01/Jul/2007)
  10. Joseph Boyden - The Orenda (2013) (Read: 29/Jun/2014)
  11. Joseph Boyden - Three Day Road (2005) (Read: 25/Dec/2010)
  12. Dionne Brand - What We All Long For (2005) (Read: 24/Feb/2018)
  13. Eleanor Catton - The Luminaries (2013) (Read: 22/Nov/2015)
  14. Wayson Choy - The Jade Peony (1995) (Read: 09/Aug/2009)
  15. George Elliott Clarke - George and Rue (2005) (Read: 11/Jan/2023)
  16. Lynn Coady - The Antagonist (2011) (Read: 11/Apr/2018)
  17. Leonard Cohen - Beautiful Losers (1966) (Read: 09/Oct/2022)
  18. Matt Cohen - Elizabeth and After (1999) (Read: 22/Jan/2023):
  19. Douglas Coupland - Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture (1991)
  20. Gil Couremanche - A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali (2000) (Read: 18/May/2022)
  21. Robertson Davies - Fifth Business (1970) (Read: 08/Sep/1983)
  22. Patrick deWitt - The Sisters Brothers (2011) (11/May/2011)
  23. Farzana Doctor - Six Metres of Pavement (2011) (Read: 14/Jan/2023)
  24. Emma Donoghue - Room (2010) (Read: 15/Apr/2011)
  25. Marian Engel - Bear (1976) (Re-read: 09/Oct/0022)
  26. Terry Fallis - The Best Laid Plans (2008) (Read: 15/Jul/2022)
  27. Will Ferguson - 419 (2013) (Read: 28/Jul/2013)
  28. Timothy Findley - The Wars (1977) (Read: 05/May/1988)
  29. Brian Francis - Fruit (2004) (Read: 09/Mar/2018)
  30. Steven Galloway - The Cellist of Sarajevo (2008) (Read: 11/Sep/2015)
  31. Camilla Gibb - Sweetness in the Belly (2005) (Read: 28/May/2022)
  32. William Gibson - Neuromancer (1984) (Read: 16/Feb/1988)
  33. Katherine Govier - Creation (2002) (Read: 20/Dec/2009)
  34. Shilpi Somaya Gowda - Secret Daughter (2010) (Read:10/Mar/2023)
  35. Barbara Gowdy - The Romantic (2003) (Read: 26/Apr/2023)
  36. Jessica Grant - Come, Thou Tortoise (2009) (Read: 25/Mar/2016)
  37. Rawi Hage - De Niro's Game (2006) (Read: 30/Sep/2022)
  38. Elizabeth Hay - Late Nights on Air (2007) (Read: 11/Jun/2010)
  39. Anne Hébert - Kamouraska (1970)
  40. Tomson Highway - Kiss of the Fur Queen (1998) (Read: 11/Jun/2022)
  41. Nalo Hopkinson - Brown Girl in the Ring (1998) (Read: 31/Jan/2016)
  42. Wayne Johnston - The Colony of Unrequited Dreams (1998) (Read: 15/Jun/2023)
  43. Guy Gavriel Kay - Tigana (1991)
  44. Thomas King - Green Grass, Running Water (1993) (Read: 16/Aug/1997)
  45. Joy Kogawa - Obasan (1981) (Read: 03/May/1983)
  46. Dany Laferrière - How to Make Love to a Negro without Getting Tired (1987) (Read: 10/Jan/1992)
  47. Margaret Laurence - The Stone Angel (1964) (Read: 02/Nov/1983)
  48. Stephen Leacock - Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town (1912)
  49. Jeff Lemire - Essex County (2008) (Read: 24/Jan/2016)
  50. Annabel Lyon - The Golden Mean (2009) (Read: 26/Jul/2014)
  51. Ann-Marie MacDonald - Fall on Your Knees (1996) (Read: 25/Jul/2015)
  52. Linden MacIntyre - The Bishop's Man (2009) (Read: 12/Jul/2012)
  53. Ami McKay - The Birth House (2006) (Read: 17/Jun/2022)
  54. Hugh MacLennan - Two Solitudes (1945)
  55. Alistair MacLeod - No Great Mischief (1999) (Read: 28/Aug/2009)
  56. Rabindranath Maharaj - The Amazing Absorbing Boy (2010) (Read: 28/Jan/2023)
  57. Yann Martel - Life of Pi (2001) (Read: 14/Sep/2013)
  58. Anne Michaels - Fugitive Pieces (1996) (Read: 08/Jun/2016)
  59. Rohinton Mistry - A Fine Balance (1995) (Read: 18/Oct/1997)
  60. Lisa Moore - February (2010) (Read: 21/Jun/2022)
  61. Shani Mootoo - Cereus Blooms at Night (1996) (Read: 01/Feb/2023)
  62. Donna Morrissey - Kit's Law (1999) (Read: 30/Sep/2015)
  63. Saleema Nawaz - Bone and Bread (2013) (Read: 28/Mar/2023)
  64. Michael Ondaatje - In the Skin of a Lion (1987) (Read: 13/Jul/1988)
  65. Heather O'Neill - Lullabies for Little Criminals (2006) (Read: 09/Feb/2011)
  66. Ruth Ozeki - A Tale for the Time Being (2013) (Read: 19/Mar/2023)
  67. Louise Penny - Still Life (2006) (Read: 13/Apr/2020)
  68. Kate Pullinger - The Mistress of Nothing (2009) (Read: 13/Aug/2023)
  69. Paul Quarrington - Whale Music (1989) (Read: 03/Mar/1990)
  70. Nino Ricci - Lives of the Saints (1990) (Read: 11/Mar/2023)
  71. David Adams Richards - Mercy Among the Children (2000)
  72. Mordecai Richler - Barney's Version (1997)
  73. Eden Robinson - Monkey Beach (2000) (Read: 06/May/2012)
  74. Shyam Selvadurai - Funny Boy (1994) (Read: 30/Jan/2016)
  75. Carol Shields - The Stone Diaries (1993)
  76. Susan Swan - The Wives of Bath (1993) (Read: 16/Jul/2022)
  77. Elizabeth Smart - By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept (1945) (Read: 23/Feb/1983)
  78. Madeleine Thien - Certainty (2006) (Read: 28/May/2022)
  79. Kim Thúy - Ru (2009) (Read: 19/May/2022)
  80. Miriam Toews - A Complicated Kindness (2004) (Read: 29/Aug/2022)
  81. Jane Urquhart - Away (1993)
  82. Guy Vanderhaeghe - The Englishman's Boy (1996) (Read: 09/Oct/1997)
  83. M. G. Vassanji - The Book of Secrets (1994) (Read: 18/May/2014)
  84. Sheila Watson - The Double Hook (1959) (Read: 03/Mar/2018)
  85. Zoe Whittall - Holding Still for as Long as Possible (2009) (Read: 09/Mar/2018)
  86. Ethel Wilson - Swamp Angel (1954) (Read: 08/Feb/1983)
  87. Robert Charles Wilson - Spin (2005) (Read: 20/Aug/2015)
  88. Kathleen Winter - Annabel (2010) (Read: 04/Feb/2023)

Books left to read

N/A = not available as an ebook through EPL
  1. Marie-Clair Blais - A Season in the Life of Emmanuel (1965) - N/A
  2. Austin Clarke - The Polished Hoe (2002)
  3. Michael Crummey - Galore (2009) - N/A
  4. Esi Edugyan - Half-Blood Blues (2011)
  5. Lawrence Hill - The Book of Negroes (2007)
  6. Mary Lawson - Crow Lake (2002)
  7. Bryan Lee O'Malley - Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life (2009) - N/A
  8. Andrew Pyper - Lost Girls (2001) - N/A
  9. Gaétan Soucy - The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches (2000) - N/A
  10. Mariko and Jillian Tamaki - Skim (2008) N/A
  11. Richard Van Camp - The Lesser Blessed (1996)
  12. Richard Wagamese - Indian Horse (2012)

More books for the list

Here are a few more books that I've read that I would include on my list of 100 best Canadian novels
  1. George Bowering - Burning Water (1980) (Read: 29/Dec/1981)
  2. Marilyn Bowering - To All Appearances a Lady (1989) (Read: 24/Nov/1990)
  3. Sharon Butala - The Fourth Archangel (1992) (Read: 31/Dec/1997)
  4. Sharon Butala - The Gates of the Sun (1986) (Read: 28/Dec/1980)
  5. Robertson Davies - The Salterton Trilogy (Read: 17/Jul/2005)
  6. Robertson Davies - The Cornish Trilogy (Read: 10/Jul/2005)
  7. Robertson Davies - The Deptford Trilogy (Read: 06/Feb/1996)
  8. Timothy Findley - Famous Last Words (1981) (Read: 17/Aug/1982)
  9. Pauline Gedge - The Scroll of Saqqara (1991) (Read: 24/Jan/1996)
  10. Graeme Gibson - Perpetual Motion (1982) (Read: 12/Feb/1983)
  11. Frederick Philip Grove - Settlers of the Marsh (1925) (Read: 15/Apr/2012)
  12. David Helwig - It is Always Summer (1982) (Read: 15/Dec/1982)
  13. Jack Hodgins - The Resurrection of Joseph Bourne (1979) (Read: 18/Mar/1981)
  14. James Houston - Running West (1990) (Read: 23/Jan/1991)
  15. Guy Gavriel Kay - The Last Light of the Sun (2005) (Read: 12/Jun/2005)
  16. Guy Gavriel Kay - Under Heaven (2010) (Read: 29/Jul/2012)
  17. Theresa Kishkan - The Age of Waterlilies (2009) (Read: 19/Jul/2010)
  18. Robert Kroetsch - Badlands (1975) (Read: 25/Mar/2008)
  19. Antonine Maillet - Pélagie: The Return to a Homeland (1979) (Read: 19/Dec/1982)
  20. Thomas H. Raddall - The Nymph and the Lamp (1950) (Read: 15/Jan/1982)
  21. C. S. Richardson - The Emperor of Paris (2012) (Read: 17/Feb/2013)
  22. Ann Rosenberg - The Bee Book (1981) (Read: 06/Mar/1983)
  23. Gabrielle Roy - The Tin Flute (1945)
  24. Fred Stenson - Lightning (2003) (Read: 13/Dec/2006)
  25. Margaret Sweatman - When Alice Lay Down With Peter (2001) (Read: 01/Jun/2003)
  26. Timothy Taylor - Stanley Park (2002) (Read: 23/Jul/2011)
  27. Audrey Thomas - Intertidal Life (1984) (Read: 19/Jun/1985)
  28. Joan Thomas - Curiosity: A Love Story (2010) (Read: 01/Jan/2011)
  29. Jane Urquhart - Changing Heaven (1990) (Read: 12/May/1991)
  30. Jane Urquhart - A Map of Glass (2005) (Read: 25/Apr/2011)
  31. Jane Urquhart - The Stone Carvers (2001) (Read: 21/Nov/2011)
  32. M. G. Vassanji - The Assassin's Song (2007) (Read: 13/Aug/2011)
  33. Thomas Wharton - Icefields (1995) (Read: 10/Feb/1999)
Number of citations: 50
This presentation has been compiled and is © 1998-2024 by
Alwynne B. Beaudoin (bluebulrush@gmail.com)
Last updated January 7, 2024
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