It’s book awards season, and Giller Prize is first one up

Jack Rabinovitch, in honour of his late wife, literary journalist Doris Giller, founded the annual Giller Prize to recognize excellence in Canadian fiction with an award of $25,000 cash. There’s a wide variety of good reading in the long list of 12 selected by a panel of notable Canadian authors including Kathleen Winter, who you’ll remember presented at Medicine Hat Public Library in 2015.

One of the most debated works is by Mona Awad, “13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl.” This collection of short stories has very mixed reviews as it tackles the personal struggle for selflove in a body-image-obsessed world. Some people found it demeaning, some raw or honest, others said vile but well-written; you’ll have to make up your own mind.

Gary Barwin’s “Yiddish for Pirates” is available in e-book format and otherwise on order. I’m going to go out on a limb and assert it is probably the first book you’ll read which is narrated by a parrot.

A funny, sad and surreal first novel, “Pillow,” by Andrew Battershill, is a whimsical take on oldfashioned hard-boiled crime novels. Pillow is the central character, a brain-injured boxer getting by in an interesting, if unlovable, way.

David Bergen’s “Stranger” features a Guatemalan chasing after her baby who was taken away to the States, so we have gender issues and white privilege issues and have- and havenot issues, and a post-GOP twist to daily life as well.

If you didn’t care for Emma Donaghue’s “Room,” you’ll want to give her another chance and read “The Wonder.” Set in the middle of nowhere Ireland with a Florence Nightingale trained nurse hired to test the claims that an 11-year-old was surviving on nothing but God’s grace, it’s been very well received by critics and readers alike.

Catherine Leroux, as translated by Lazer Lederhendler, offers “The Party Wall” which is a more complex read offering a wide variety of stories about the ways that siblings can be connected.

I feel a bit of a personal connection to Madeleine Thien’s very well received “Do Not Say We Have Nothing,” which follows about 45 years of Chinese history, including before and after Tiananmen Square. I spent about three months in China in 1990, the year after the tragedy, and witnessed first-hand the intergenerational struggle to agree on what that event meant.

Zoe Whittall’s “The Best Kind of People” is a small town culture sort of book that reminded me of “We Need to Talk About Kevin.” What do you do when someone you love, central to your life, is accused of something horrific?

“The Two of Us,” “Death Valley,” “Willem De Kooning’s Paintbrush” and “By Gaslight” didn’t graduate to the short list but maybe they should have; you’d best read them and see. The winner will be announced on Nov. 7 and when you’re finished with these we’ll discuss the Governor General’s Literary Award shortlist.

Shelley Ross is chief librarian at the Medicine Hat Public Library.