Check out this year's longlist and tell us which five books should be included in the Scotiabank Giller Prize shortlist and your reasons why. If you leave your complete answer by Sept. 30, you'll have a chance to win great prizes. We're having:

• Weekly draws for Kobo eReaders, courtesy of Kobo, along with $50 gift cards to Chapters Indigo, courtesy of Scotiabank
• Weekly draws for sets of the longlisted books
• A grand prize draw for a $1,000 gift certificate to Chapters Indigo so you can build your dream home library courtesy of Scotiabank!
  

It's almost Canada Day, which means barbecues, fireworks and celebrating the great country we live in. For Canada Day, the Historica-Dominion Institute is celebrating an aspect of Canada close to our hearts: literature!

The Historica-Dominion Institute has been busy asking Canadians to take part in its Canada Day CanLit Survey. The first part is a playful open-ended questionnaire asking Canadians to imagine they are writing the great Canadian novel. It then asks where in Canada the story would take place, who would be in the story, what kind of story it would be and other related queries.

The second part asks questions about the importance and role of CanLit in education. The Historica-Dominion Institute has shared the questions with us and we thought it would be fun to see how fans of CBC Books compare to other Canadians. Follow the link to the survey below and we'll post all the results next week. We'll also share some of the highlights from the first portion, which are sure to be interesting.

The final part of the CanLit Survey asks Canadians which Canadian author they would like to invite to their Canada Day barbecue. We're so looking forward to seeing the answers to this one that we're turning it into a contest! Leave a comment below letting us know which Canadian author you would invite to your barbecue and why for your chance to win a Sony e-Reader. We'll pick one comment at random and let the winner know on July 4. You have until Canada Day (July 1 by midnight ET) to get your answers in, so get thinking! (Read the rules and regulations.)

Enter by submitting your comment here.

UPDATE: This contest is now closed, but you can still take the quiz!

Pride events are happening nation-wide this summer. Winnipeg held its Pride Festival May 28 to June 5 and Edmonton staged Pride events June 10-19. Toronto Pride Week is June 24 to July 3,Halifax Pride is July 17-24, Vancouver Pride Parade and Festival is July 31 and Montreal Prideis August 9-14. We wanted to get in on the action. Test your knowledge of queer Canadian literature with the Queer CanLit Quiz!

Don't forget to fill out your name and email address at the end of the quiz. You'll be entered in a draw to win a Queer CanLit Prize Pack, courtesy of Coach House Books. The prize pack consists ofThe Inquisition Yours by Jen Currin, Age of Arousal by Linda Griffiths and The Drifts by Thom Vernon. Deadline for entries is midnight ET on Sunday, July 10.

Read the full rules and regulations here. Good luck!

Practical Jean follows suburban housewife Jean Horemarsh as she comes to terms with the loss of her mother, a woman Jean has very conflicted feelings about. But when Jean sees the endless suffering her mother endures as she approaches death, Jean decides that no one, not her worst enemies and most certainly not her best friends, deserves to suffer the same fate.

While her acts may be gruesome, Jean is no monster: everyone can relate to her difficult circumstances -- she struggles to keep her family together, protect her friends from harm and cope with grief.

"Mr. Cole continues an outstanding society of Canadian writers that get humour just right," said Frank McKenna, Deputy Chair, TD Bank Group. "We are thrilled to congratulate and recognize him for his exceptional and award-winning work." 

Trevor answered our Stephean Leacock questionnaire earlier this month. You can see his responses below.

On April 1, the Stephen Leacock Association announced the five finalists for the 2011 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour. We sent all five nominees the same questionnaire in order to get a little more insight into who these writers are, what their books are about and what they thought of being nominated for the Leacock!

The CBC Book Club interviewed Trevor in December 2010. You can check out the interview here. 

After you read Trevor's Q&A below, be sure to check out our chats with the four other authors short listed for this year's award:

• Trevor Cole, author of Practical Jean

• Red Green, author of How to Do Everything

• Terry Fallis, author of The High Road

• Todd Babiak, author of Toby: A Man

• David Rakoff, author of Half Empty

Which title do you think will win? Let us know on Twitter, Facebook or in the comments below!

All the entrants' names were put in a random draw for the two Sony e-Readers we have to give away. The lucky winners are:

comagurlie

Her winning limerick is about the iconic Canadian storyteller, Douglas Coupland.

My world was defined in Gen X

Player One, twenty ten Massey Lect

Gum stealer, God revealer

Bee keeper, coma reaper

Doug Coupland, storyteller, par ex!

AndieHSX

Andie's winning limerick is about Stieg Larsson's popular Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series -- which was also a popular limerick subject!

He met a girl with dragon tattoo,

She amazed him with all that she knew.

Mystery and murder

(with him quite the flirter)

and quite the body count before they were through.

Congratulations comagurlie and AndieHSX! We'll be in touch about your Sony e-Readers!

Check out the rest of the entries in our CBC Books Literary Limerick group!

We'll have another great Sony e-Reader contest in May, so stay tuned!

To me, mirth and murder are an unlikely pairing. I read crime fiction for its depiction of the dark side of human nature -- our capacity for greed, revenge, ruthlessness, etc., writ large and grippingly, and often with a sizable body count. It may be warped, but not in the style of a funhouse mirror. So there's something incongruous about a lighthearted detective novel. But in keeping with this month's focus on levity at the Book Club -- and simply to satisfy my curiosity as a reader -- I decided to sample the latest books from a couple of popular mystery series in that vein.

A Red Herring Without Mustard is Canadian novelist Alan Bradley's third detective novel featuring Flavia de Luce, an 11-year-old amateur sleuth who's a bit like a prepubescent, British version of Nancy Drew. The series takes place in the English countryside in the 1950s, where the plucky, resourceful Flavia (who's also the narrator), her father and her annoying older sisters live on their family estate of Buckshaw.

In the course of her investigations, Flavia likes to tinker in her late-uncle's chemistry lab and share snippets of arcane info like the chemical composition of tears ("water, potassium, proteins, manganese, various yeasty enzymes, fats, oils and waxes, with a good dollop of sodium chloride thrown in," in case you're wondering).

Much of the humour of the book comes from her bickering with sisters Ophelia (Feely) and Daphne (Daffy), who find creative ways to torment her, and vice versa. The dynamic will be familiar to anyone who has grown up with sisters and/or brothers, and will likely elicit either grins or grimaces.

It's all very entertaining and, as the Brits might say, "jolly," even when the bodies start piling up. A gypsy fortune-teller is grievously wounded in an attack (not long after uttering the hoary cliché, "Cross my palm with silver" -- prompting me to wonder if a literary critic might be responsible). Then a local ne'er-do-well meets a particularly nasty end. (I will never look at a lobster pick the same way again -- assuming I learn to recognize what one looks like in the first place.) When the skeleton of an infant is unearthed, well, the game is truly afoot and the snoopy Flavia is in her element.

In keeping with the adolescent narrator, there's something rather callow and corny about A Red Herring Without Mustard. It seems calculated to appeal to the perpetual adolescent in all of us: the one who sees everything as a lark, and is thrilled by the bundling together of (hackneyed) plot elements like a ghostly apparition, a secret passage, stock characters (the loyal butler, Dogger) and strained whimsy (the fireplace irons are among the household items given proper names). Even the science angle seems a bit like wish fulfillment for those of us who never got that longed-for junior chemistry set as a birthday gift. For me, the biggest mystery is why these books are so popular. (A Red Herring Without Mustard debuted at #9 on the New York Times bestseller list.)

I had a different reaction to Alexander McCall Smith's The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party. It's the twelfth in the series featuring Precious Ramotswe, the wise and perceptive chief of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency of Gaborone, Botswana. McCall Smith lives in Scotland, but he was born in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and has taught in Botswana, so presumably he knows the territory and isn't just fabricating pleasant exotica for those of us in the sun-starved northern hemisphere.

I freely admit that I'm late to the party on this wildly popular series, partly because I was put off by the bright, cheery covers and book blurbs calling it "charming," "comfy cozy" and 'sweet." Charming? I don't want to be charmed by a murder mystery, I want to be chilled.

That said, I did enjoy the book although I don't consider it crime fiction. There isn't even a murder, unless you're a vegan -- Mma Ramotswe is called upon to solve the mystery of who has killed a local farmer's two cows. Just as much narrative consideration in this folksy little tale is given over to various subplots, including the wedding preparations of Mma Ramotswe's sidekick, Grace Makutsi, and the romantic misadventures of Charlie, a young apprentice at the garage owned by Mma Ramotswe's genial husband, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni.

The main point of the book seems to be to poke gentle fun at humanity's foibles (the omniscient narrator often ends a chapter with a little moral based on an observation about the characters' behaviour) and to reinforce the value of courtesy and kindness ("the old Botswana ways"). It's a view of life that's sunny-side-up, though not naïvely blinkered; as the intrepid Mma Ramotswe reflects at one point, "human nature...would find its way round the best of rules and regulations." Indeed, her creator has an affable way of pointing out social injustice (the exploitation and mistreatment of farm workers and servants, for instance) without hectoring.

In the end, I was glad to make the acquaintance of Patience Ramotswe and her crew -- though I can't say I'll likely pick up any of the earlier novels in the series. In the Company of Cheerful Ladies? Blue Shoes and Happiness? Please. Give me a gloomy Scandinavian police procedural any day.

Here are some of our favourite submissions from this week!

cmayell:

There once was a young boy named Ender,

who turned out to be a defender.

It's all in the book,

So go have a look.

You'll see it's a worthy contender.

clenkenhyoff:

There once was a young girl named Drew

Who wished she had something to do

Finally one day when a mystery came

She solved it without any shame

After all she was a detective too!

debbiej:

Shakespeare was a great player

He created character layer by layer

His lovers were stunning

His comics a'funning

His antagonist, a vicious slayer.

WJR_Halyn:

Andrew Davidson wrote The Gargoyle

With seven years' labour and toil.

You will read of flesh scarring

From burning and charring.

Too graphic? The end, I'll not spoil.

hannasmom

There once was an author named Dahl,

who imagined a peach not so small.

His chocolate world so scrumdiddlyumtious

A fellow who had to be quite presumptuous,

in his stories that "out-twitted" them all.

HelmutBernhard:

Salander met Blomqvist,

A story unfolded with many turns and twists,

She's odd right from the very start,

But clearly she is very smart,

Just don't cross her and get her pissed

amigabonita:

Cole's Lifting the Veil

Is a former nun's personal tale

From devout convent life

To an Englishman's wife

By comparison your life looks pale!

Izzy McD:

Katniss, the Girl on Fire

Peeta's the one who stands by her.

They fight side by side,

Heads high with pride.

for each other, they will never tire.

hpopliger:

Who doesn't like Dr. Seuss?

You giggle, you smile, and feel loose.

Have fun with Sam I am,

Whilst eating green eggs and ham.

He'll always one up Mother Goose!

Thanks to everyone who entered. You can submit a limerick of your own by heading over to the Literary Limerick group in the CBC Books Community!

Trevor Cole (Practical Jean), Red Green (How to Do Everything) and Terry Fallis (The High Road) all made it through our questions. Will Todd Babiak, author of Toby: A Man, be as lucky?

The novel tells the story of Toby Ménard. He has it all: a plum job as a television presenter, a chic downtown condo and a beautiful girlfriend. But when his dad has an accident, Toby's life begins to unravel and it isn't long before he's single, unemployed and living in his parent's basement. As he tries to find his way back to the top, the result is a series of laugh-out-loud misadventures and several important life lessons.

If you are stuck finding rhyming inspiration, check out our favourite entries from this week:

Sue Dulley:

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

played with Fire and kicked Hornets' nests too.

That fearless crime-fighter

Now needs a new writer,

I nominate E. Annie Proulx.

JordanLee24:

I just read a book by Claudia Dey,

Who teaches men on what to say.

Her advice will give your babe a scream'n 'O',

She advises you to give your bush a mow,

Cause sex isn't fun without a little foreplay!

ohnou812:

Team Edward, or Jacob or Bella

I don't give a rat's tush let me tell ya

Be it werewolf or vampire

No more please Ms Meyer

I'd rather meet mosquitoes without citronella!

Penelope A:

John Vaillant penned a mean Tiger tale.

A big cat bent on revenge without fail.

It played a pawky role

when a mattress it stole

for cold comfort on its unholy grail.

valborgdotter:

Miss Jane Austen's work passes any test;

Blue writing? Let's give it a long, long rest.

A witty romance,

No removal of pants;

Pride and Prejudice still is the very best!

souls5:

Mr. Darcy was prone to be fickle

For a doxy he'd not pay a nickel

But Miss Bennet (a beauty)

Could perform wifely duty

For he tired of paddling-the-pickle

sidneyseagull:

There once was a bard named Shakespeare

Whose lines brought many a jeer

Not from dames wearing bonnets

Cause they loved his sonnets

And his quill as long as a spear

MEMULLIGAN:

There was a young author Johanna

Whose book won a Giller hosanna

Her press, printing by hand,

Could not meet the demand

So we all had to wait for mañana.

dintrox:

John le Carré is a great author

he wishes the bookers wouldn't bother.

his writings about the secret service

reveal the workings of the circus.

The question remains " will he add to his coffer?"

camrabik:

There was a young lady named Scarlett

Who loved to eat pears by Bartlett

So many she ate

That she doomed her fate

When she accidentally on purpose a fart-let

Want to submit a limerick of your own? Head over to the Literary Limerick discussion group in the CBC Books Community to find out how!

On April 1, the Stephen Leacock Association announced the five finalists for the 2011 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour. We sent all five nominees the same questionnaire in order to get a little more insight into who these writers are, what their books are about and what what they think of being nominated for the Leacock!

Trevor Cole (Practical Jean) and Red Green (How to do Everything) have already answered the questionnaire. Next up is Canada Reads 2011 winner Terry Fallis.

The High Road continues the adventures of reluctant MP Angus McLintock and his trusty campaign manager, Daniel Addison. When we first met Angus in The Best Laid Plans (the 2008 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour winner), he wasn't keen on starting a life in politics, but came around to it after realizing he could do things his own way and still make a difference. After defeating the budget, Angus and Daniel need to decide if they are up for another campaign, and prove that a Liberal has what it takes to win the Tory stronghold of Cumberland-Prescott without a sex scandal to shake things up.

Terry's answers are below the jump!

We decided to take these rules and apply them to the foundation of book discussions everywhere — the book club! Nearly everyone we know is in a book club, and are often in several! People use book clubs as a way to get together with friends, and to be introduced to new reads.

But, too often, we hear about clubs having difficulty picking the right books, and even greater difficulty keeping the conversation on track. With Tina Fey's handy rules, we hope that will change.

That is, unless you like having your literary book club turn into a boozy gossip-fest. Just use these rules to ensure good times for all! We won't judge. Just as long as you invite us.

Our first victim was Trevor Cole, author of Practical Jean. You can read his Q&A here. Today, Red Green, author of How to do Everything, accepted the challenge of answering our questions.

How to do Everything provides sage advice on everything from getting a job to cooking with acetylene. Any question you can dream up (and even those that would never occur to you) gets answered by Canadian comedic icon Red Green. While his solutions might not always work, they'll always get a laugh. However, one bit of advice you might want to take before picking up this DIY guide is "don't try any of this at home."

Thanks to everyone who made a suggestion to us. If you have a favourite performer you'd like to add to this list, let us know on Twitter, Facebook or in the comments below!