Past Canada Reads contenders and winners | CBC Books
Get to know the past books, panellists and authors of CBC's battle of the books.
www.cbc.caI don’t have live tool access right now to pull the very latest updates, but I can summarize what’s publicly known about Canada Reads 2019 and where to find authoritative details.
Short answer
- Canada Reads 2019 occurred in late March 2019 with the theme “One Book to Move You.” Max Eisen’s By Chance Alone was the winner, defended by Ziya Tong, according to CBC and related coverage.[1][5]
Context and key details
- Theme and format: Canada Reads is CBC’s annual “literary Survivor,” where five books are championed by celebrity panellists and one book is crowned the must-read title for Canadians for that year.[5][1]
- 2019 winner: By Chance Alone by Max Eisen, defended by Ziya Tong, won after a series of debates among the five finalists.[1]
- Contenders and panellists: The five books and their champions for 2019 were:
- Homes by Abu Bakr al Rabeeah with Winnie Yeung (defended by Chuck Comeau)
- Brother by David Chariandy (defended by Lisa Ray)
- By Chance Alone by Max Eisen (defended by Ziya Tong)
- Suzanne by Anaïs Barbeau-L Lavalette, translated by Rhonda Mullins (defended by Yanic Truesdale)
- The Woo-Woo by Lindsay Wong (defended by Joe Zee).[3][4]
- Media coverage: CBC’s media centre and CBC Books page provide official summaries, winner announcements, and lists of panellists and contenders for 2019.[8][1]
Where to verify or dive deeper
- CBC Canada Reads page for past editions and winners: CBC Books – Canada Reads, with archives of contenders, winners, and panellists.[8]
- CBC Media Centre post announcing the 2019 winner and the 2019 panellists.[1]
- YouTube entries from CBC’s Canada Reads channel show finale and Day-by-day coverage from 2019, which illustrate how the debates unfolded.[2][4]
- The Buried In Print blog provides contemporaneous commentary on the 2019 proceedings and contenders.[7]
- Wikipedia also summarizes the 2019 edition, including moderator, theme, and debates dates.[5]
If you’d like, I can assemble a concise timeline of the 2019 Canada Reads events with the exact dates, finalists, and the final voting result, or pull quotes from CBC coverage to illustrate why By Chance Alone won. I can also format a quick comparison table of the five contenders and their champions for that year. Would you like that?