“Romance readers are avid and they are the most open-minded readers of all types of readers.” — Mirian Njoh, Canada Reads (televised March 4, 2024)
TWO DECADES after launching a nation-wide books competition with literary fiction from internationally renowned writers of the genre like Margaret Atwood and Michael Ondaatje, the Canadian national broadcaster CBC has opened up Canada Reads to the romance genre.
In a joint radio, television, and online broadcast this evening, comedian Ali Hassan hosted a discussion of five books by Canadian authors with celebrity guests: an actress, an athlete, an author, a fashion model, and a former mayor of the western city of Calgary.
The guest judges wore eye-catching outfits as they sat around the CBC studio table, piles of books at their sides.
Heather O'Neill's red blouse with matching tiered skirt and bright lipstick suggested a grown up Little House in the Prairie aesthetic.
The actress Kudakwashe Rutendo wore a powder-blue dress with a flounced hem and a trend-conscious red shoulder bow. Meanwhile, Mirian Njoh's dress — paired with pink framed cat-eye glasses — was green with black and colourful patterns, summery with short flaring sleeves.
Dallas Soonias wore a long coat in geometric patterns in tan and brown ombré, the black lines matching his mustache.
Ali Hassan selected a sweatshirt with Arabic lettering in lines across it, like Bart's chalkboard messages in The Simpsons. Former mayor Naheed Nenshi kept his outfit cozy: a black zip-up knit sweater, worn over a lilac-coloured shirt.
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| Canada Reads 2024: Day One (screen grab) CBC on YouTube. March 4, 2024. |
THE BOOKS lying beside them span many genres.
Bad Cree is a horror novel set in a Nehiyaw (known in English as Cree) community. Denison Avenue is multimedia fiction about life in a Chinese-Canadian neighbourhood in Toronto. Shut Up You're Pretty is a short story collection of growing up Black Canadian in an eastern Canadian city.
The Future is a dystopian novel by French-Canadian author Catherine Leroux, translated into English by Susan Ouriou.
Meet Me at the Lake is the romance novel. Written by Carley Fortune, who had already published the popular romance Every Summer After, its plot obeys the 'second chance' trope: protagonists meet again after a failed first romance. In this case, their meeting takes place against the backdrop of a popular lake for holiday outings, in the forests of Ontario.
As each book in the Canada Reads competition is also championed by one of the guests, the fashion influencer Mirian Njoh spoke in praise of Meet Me at the Lake — and of the romance novel genre in general.
