Book Club Contests

We know you love to read, and we love to give away books. So check back often to find out about our current contests. We've got weekly book giveaways and a monthly draw for two grand prizes -- plus occasional one-offs, too!

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Make Your Pitch — Sony Reader Digital Book Contest

Enter to win one of two Sony Reader Digital Books we're giving away this month.

Imagine you are one of the panelists on Canada Reads and have been asked to recommend your favourite work of Canadian fiction to the entire country. Once you've made your decision (it's tough, isn't it?), make your case. Tell us why this book means so much to you and why you think the rest of Canada would also enjoy reading it. You can do this in several ways, and the more creative, the better!

1. Write a blog post championing your choice (maximum of 400 words)

2. Record a vlog and state your case on video (maximum of 2 minutes)

3. Record an audio clip and tell us in your own words (maximum of 2 minutes)

4. Create a photo gallery to support your cause

5. Other creative entries welcome!

Then e-mail us the link to your blog, vlog or audio pitch. Or you can simply write up your argument in an e-mail. All entries are to be sent to bookclubcontest@cbc.ca with the subject line: Make Your Pitch.

Please include your name, address and telephone number along with your entry. Every entry submitted will go into a draw for a chance to win one of two grand prizes consisting of a Sony Reader Digital Book.

So get creative and enter now! Only one entry per person, per book, per day.

Sony Contest Rules and Regulations

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Make a Pitch -- Winners

January 2010:

Bruce Johnson of St. John's makes a pitch for Galore by Michael Crummey

"I have a theory that time moves differently on islands. Newfoundland time is unlike the sequencing that I experienced growing up on the mainland. There is more to this than the measureable half-hour gap separating us from the shores of Canada. Here, time folds and mixes in ways more serpentine than linear. It is seldom well-behaved.

"If Newfoundland time is indeed unique, it should surprise no one that its wobbles are reflected in its stories. Michael Crummey's Galore is such a tale.

"Lauded by many as a deft work of magic realism, Crummey's fictional outport, Paradise Deep, inhabits a circle of time; two centuries snipped from the outside world a tied at the ends. Two archetypal families, the Sellers and the Divines, live up to their names and respectively pit mercantile ambition and 'progress' against a tapestry of witchcraft, visions and ghosts.

"Crummey has accomplished a near-impossible feat with Galore. He braids together an array of folktales and myths into a structure that is part fairy tale, part Old Testament epic. With a lesser writer this wouldn't work, but somehow Crummey manages to take the stories we somehow already know and make them surprising new. A man is born from the belly of a whale. A jealous husband's spirit is condemned to a cuckold's hell. Curses and charms change the physical world. Travellers can voyage so far, that they enter the distant past.

"Crummey's characters are neither wooden, nor stereotypical. Their dialogue imbued with the richness of Newfoundland diction without succumbing to the quaint, hackneyed dialect found in so many other novels from the island. More fable than history, Galore is a miraculous microcosm, one from which the broader character of Newfoundland's history and culture shines."

Lorraine Fyfe of Montreal, Quebec makes a pitch for The Diviners by Margaret Laurence

"A professor of mine once said that when he was younger he felt as though all Canadian works were about nature, trees, mountains and birds. He said that he later came to realize that he could not have been more wrong. Before I became an avid fan of Canadian writing, I shared the same thought. I now know that this is not at all the case. For those who share this feeling or those who simply love a talented work, Margaret Laurence's The Diviners is a must-read; one which will undoubtedly not be regretted. Of course there are trees, grass, log cabins and birds; but they only serve as enhancements of the beauty of the work and serve as a contrast to the sometimes sombre Manawaka. If you want an enjoyable book, which will make you smile, cry and stop to think then The Diviners is your next must-read!

"As I sit on the bus headed towards the metro station, I'm holding in my hands a copy of The Diviners by Margaret Laurence. It is a brown, hard-covered book with yellow pages. A copy that looks frail, with a torn spine which creates a slight creaking sound every time it is opened. As I come to be more involved in the story I begin to realize that it was a good decision to abstain from judging a book by its cover, because as I have come to realize, this novel seeks not to overcompensate with a flashy cover, for it is a work of art all in its own.

"As the bus rolls and jerks down the wintry road, with snow and fog obscuring the view from the windows, I can feel a sense of oneness with The Diviners protagonist, Morag Gunn, because while I am on the bus headed to school, she is on a train bound for college. The novel shifts from Morag's present life, as an adult, to her past as a young girl; documenting all of the people -- good and bad -- who have had an affect on her life.

"Early in the novel, Morag loses both of her parents to disease and is sent to live with Christie and Prin Logan. Morag is a young girl stuck in a poor home in a poor town (Manawaka), where she is constantly feeling insecure, out of place and above all embarrassed. Morag Gunn is a universal character that speaks to everyone. She is very realistic and believable as a person. She goes through everyday feelings: having her moments of happiness, embarrassment and of course her bouts of anger. Though her experiences are not all mirrored images of our own, they are very real and succeed in pulling the reader in.

"While I'm on the bus, I glance over at the lady in blue to my left, she is copying verses from her burgundy bible into a notepad she's pulled out of a Ziploc bag. She would be pleased to know that Morag Gunn has been to church (though her experience was not the best) and yet I can't help but wonder how she would feel if she knew the amount of times that Christie and Morag say "Christly!"

"The Diviners gave me a realistic look into the life of a young Canadian girl from Manawaka. A young girl who struggles as she grows from child to adult. Morag -- like us all at some point -- faces hardships, insults, pain, first love as well as a realization that she deserves more out of life than what Manawaka has to offer her. To read The Diviners is to experience and take a small part of Canada with you. No matter who you are or where you come from, there is a part of this novel that will speak to you and move you as it has moved me. As I stand holding on to the bar in a crowded bus, on my way home, I think of what a different place Montreal is compared to Manawaka, where Morag grew up, and I also see that strong perseverance and a belief in yourself -- like Morag comes to have -- will never allow anything to come between you and your dreams.

 

December 2009 winners:

Tobi Gepraegs of Calgary championed Through Black Spruce by Joseph Boyden.

Lisa Browne of Clarenville, Newfoundland, blogged on House of Hate by Percy Jane.