In the last few weeks I have slowly been coming out of the sleep deprived stupor. With my new clarity I remembered to check out the Canada Reads webpage to see what are this year’s contestants. I got my hands on two of the books and breezed through the first one.

Something Fierce by Carmen Aguirre is a coming of age memoir recounting the life in the Chilean resistance movement. This book is at times harrowing and it came very close to giving me nightmares. However, it is very compelling and very well written.

I have not read any other entries, but if this book wins the Canada Reads contest it will be a well deserved win. However, the book is not really about Canada apart from bringing home the fact that Canadians have a good story to tell about where they came from. Also, it is a very emotionally difficult to read which makes it not a book I would recommend to just about anyone. These two factors might make it difficult to win the Canada Reads prize.