Canada Reads: Two Down

I've been making good progress with the Canada Reads contenders considering my late start. I began with the two that seem to have the most buzz about winning Canada Reads, Marina Nemat's Prisoner of Tehran and Ken Dryden's The Game. 

I really enjoyed Prisoner of Tehran. It's incredible the challenges that people survive, and this book tells the story of Marina Nemat's imprisonment while she was just a teenager. It's a story about overcoming terror and tragedy that hardly seems able to be overcome. A very powerful read.

I didn't expect to like The Game. I thought it would be focused on players and particular games (as in remember the game of 1976 when so-and-so hit the goal post), but it was so much more than that. Introspective and insightful, it not only brings you into the locker room, it takes you into 1970s Quebec, the culture of hockey and the growth of its celebrity players, the evolution of hockey around the world and the thoughts of a great goaltender.

Next up - The Tiger by John Vaillant.