Canada reads at the Margaret Laurence Home
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- Published on Thursday, March 10, 2016
By Kira Paterson
Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press
The Margaret Laurence Home committee is once again organizing two evenings of entertainment to celebrate CBC’s Canada Reads event.
Canada Reads is an annual event in which CBC picks five different books, all having to do with a certain theme, and five Canadian celebrities choose to defend one of these books. Debates are held over four days and after each day, one book is eliminated until the winner is chosen. This year, the theme is “starting over”, with the books each representing different challenges of making a new start in life.
The CBC event will be going on from March 21 to 24 this year.
The Margaret Laurence Home is hosting two nights of readings from each of the books chosen by CBC this year. At the evenings, five local people will be reading excerpts, talking about what the stories mean to them and anything else they want to discuss about their book. Three of the books will be read from on the first night, then the last two and a Margaret Laurence book will be on the second night. The readings will be on Thursday, March 17 and Thursday, March 24 at 7:00 pm at the Margaret Laurence Home, 312 1st Avenue.
On March 17, The Hero’s Walk by Anita Rau Badami will be the first book. Katharine Kingdon will be reading from it. The story is about a middle-aged man from India who must take care of his seven-year-old granddaughter after her parents are killed in a car accident. The incident gives him a second chance to be a better parent than he was to his daughter and support his granddaughter as she adjusts to her new life. On the CBC program, the book will be defended by Vinay Virmani, a screenwriter and actor from Toronto. “The Hero’s Walk shows that while life throws challenges our way, it also gives us the gift of a second chance,” Virmani said to CBC about the book.
The second reading will be from the novel Birdie by Tracey Lindberg. Eric Gaudet will be the local reader representing Birdie. The book is about a Cree woman named Birdie, who travels from Alberta to British Columbia to meet her teenage celebrity crush. Birdie had a troubled childhood and has to face inner demons throughout her whole journey. She has to find the strength to put the past behind her and build a new life. “For all of us who care about reconciliation, and frankly we all should, this book opens that path,” said Bruce Poon Tip, a travel industry entrepreneur from Calgary, who is CBC’s defender for Birdie.
The final book for the first evening will be Bone and Bread by Saleema Nawaz. In this story, Beena, a woman from the Hasidic community in Montreal, seeks answers about her past after the death of her sister. She has worked hard to build a life for herself and her son, but now it is being disrupted as she looks back on her childhood with her sister and their Sikh uncle who raised them. Mary Platt will be reading from the book at the Margaret Laurence Home. Farah Mohamed, a women’s activist from St. Catharine’s, Ontario, will be defending the book on CBC. “This is about deception. It’s about despair. But ultimately, it’s about love,” she said, when talking to CBC about Bone and Bread.
The second night will open with The Illegal by Lawrence Hill. Kristin Woodburke is reading from this book in Neepawa. The Illegal is about an illegal immigrant, who was a refugee in his home country where his father was killed. The place he flees to is referred to in the book as Freedom State, but he must remain in hiding in this new country just to stay alive. Clara Hughes, Olympic speed skater and cyclist, is CBC’s celebrity defender for The Illegal. She said, “It’s heavy, it’s lively, it’s playful and it gave me hope. It brings humanity to the struggle.”
The fifth book is called Minister Without Portfolio by Michael Winter. “It’s about falling on your face, picking yourself up, dusting yourself off, and how you walk on,” said Adam Copeland, CBC’s reader who is an actor and former wrestler, originally from Orangeville, Ontario. In the book, a man from St. John’s goes through a tough breakup and is trying to recover. He travels to Afghanistan as a civilian contractor, then to Alberta to work in the oil fields. When he gets back to Newfoundland, he has the chance to build a new home. Don Walmsley will be reading from the book at the Margaret Laurence Home.
After the fifth book, Lane Englund will be reading from one of Margaret Laurence’s works to finish off the night. There will also be musical entertainment at the readings. On March 17, Carolyn Payjack will be performing and they will have Richard Desjardins on March 24. Wine and cheese will also be served during the nights. Door prizes will be up for grabs each evening as well. There is a suggested donation for admission to help cover the cost of the event, but the committee always welcomes more donations if anyone wishes.
These five books will be available for purchase at the Viscount Cultural Centre before the two evenings and there will be copies available at the Margaret Laurence Home on the 17th and 24th. They will accept cash or cheques at the Margaret Laurence Home, but no credit cards.
The committee encourages anyone interested in attending to come out early to look around the Margaret Laurence Home as well; the doors will be open at about 6:30 pm. Anyone looking for more information on the books, the celebrity debaters or CBC’s Canada Reads program can visit cbc.ca/books/canadareads for details.
