The Woo-Woo a finalist contender for Canada Reads 2019

On Thursday, January 31, 2019, CBC announced the five finalist books for Canada Reads, and their defending champions. The annual battle of the books creates a bit of a flurry in the Canadian book community, with tweets flying, booksellers rushing for stock, and publishers reprinting books.

The Woo-Woo: How I Survived Ice Hockey, Drug Raids, Demons, and My Crazy Chinese Family by Lindsay Wong (Arsenal Pulp Press) is a finalist for Canada Reads 2019 and will be defended by fashion editor Joe Zee.

For those unfamiliar, Canada Reads is like a reality television show for books. Each book has a champion who debates for their book in tightly-timed segments. At the end of each round, all five champions vote for which book is eliminated—like Survivor—until one book is crowned the winner of Canada Reads.

It’s a tense time, but fortunately, this isn’t Arsenal Pulp’s first Canada Reads rodeo. When Everything Feels like the Movies by Raziel Reid was a contender for Canada Reads in 2015.

The Canada Reads debates take place March 25–28 in front a live audience in Toronto, and are broadcast on CBC. Check out all five finalists on CBC Books.