10th Canadian Book Challenge Half-Way

The Canadian Book Challenge is hosted annually by John Mutford at the Book Mine Set Blog. It runs annually from July 1 (Canada Day) through June 30. Participants strive to read and review 13 books written by Canadian authors during the 12 months. The end of December marked the half-way point in the 10th Challenge.

(The logo for the Challenge changes each year. I consider the logo to the above to be one of the best.)

The Challenge is going better for me this year than most years. Last year in March I had read 9 books for the Challenge. As of the end of 2016 I had already read 9 books. Within the next couple of weeks I will have completed another 3 books. It may be the earliest year I will have reached the 13 books for a successful Challenge.

The books I have read for the Challenge to date are:

1.) Open Season by Peter Kirby;

2.) A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley;

3.) The Scottish Banker of Surabaya by Ian Hamilton;

4.) A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny - The Academy and Comparisons and The Map

5.) A Candle to Light the Sun by Patricia Blondal and Patricia Blondal

6.) Jack - A Life with Writers by James King

7.) Invisible Dead by Sam Wiebe

8.) Safe at Home by Alison Gordon

9.) Set Free by Anthony Bidulka

With 3 of them, A Great Reckoning, A Candle to Light the Sun and Jack - A Life with Writers, being on my Best Lists of 2016 the Challenge has had excellent reading.

Out of the remaining 6 books Set Free was my favourite read. Anthony has written an intriguing thriller.

What I just recognized is that out of the 8 works of Canadian fiction I have only read 2 new authors. I need to be more open to reading Canadian writers I have not read previously. I am going to have to head over to the Crime Writers of Canada to look up some "new to me" Canadian mystery writers.