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 Previous Trent Reads Winners
The Winning Book RevealedSara Gruen's Water for Elephants Selected for Trent Reads 2012 After an open call for nominations, public defence of four short-listed books and a week-long online voting period, Trent students, faculty and staff have selected Sara Gruen’s highly praised novel, Water for Elephants, to be read by all new Trent students, as well as the University community, as part of Trent Reads 2012. “I encourage everyone at Trent to read Water for Elephants, said Jocelyn Aubrey, associate dean of Undergraduate Studies and chair of the Trent Reads committee. “This is a book that you won't want to put down as the story pulls you through a range of emotions-from anger and sadness to compassion and joy. There is much to talk about in this book and I look forward to discussions about it with others at Trent, especially our new students arriving in the fall.” The other three short-listed books voted on by members of the Trent community were: The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative by Thomas King, The Flying Troutmans by Miriam Toews, and The Englishman's Boy by Guy Vanderhaeghe. Student Hannah Cox, nominator of Water for Elephants, describes the book as being about “issues of class hierarchy, sexism, and homophobia, as well as animal and domestic violence. These issues are all beautifully tied together in a love story that even the boys will enjoy.” To help members of the Trent community choose their favourite book, a Battle of the Books was held at Trent in February 2012 during which audience members listened to four champions defend their book of choice. TCSA president Sheldon Willerton defended Water for Elephants at the Battle of the Books. “This work is an easy read and should be enjoyable for both those in the arts and the sciences. The story reminds us that we all make difficult choices in our life each and every day. The difference between happiness and sorrow is how one manages those choices.” All new students registered at Trent for the 2012-13 academic year will read Water for Elephants prior to arriving in September. During Introductory Seminar Week (ISW) in Peterborough, seminars consisting of small groups of 20 or fewer students, and led by Trent faculty in a variety of departments and programs, will provide a forum for new students to discuss the book. In Oshawa, discussion seminars will take place during the first few weeks of the fall term. Watch excerpts from the Battle of the Books, held on February 1: Melanie Buddle, Peter Gzowski College Head Elyssa Chenery, Trent Oshawa Student Association Orm Mitchell, Professor Emeritus, English Literature Sheldon Willerton, TCSA President
THE 2012 SHORTLIST:
WATER FOR ELEPHANTS by Sara Gruen Orphaned and penniless at the height of the Depression, Jacob Jankowski escapes everything he knows by jumping on a passing train—and inadvertently runs away with the circus. So begins Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen’s darkly beautiful tale about the characters who inhabit the less-than-greatest show on earth. Jacob finds a place tending the circus animals, including a seemingly untrainable elephant named Rosie. He also comes to know Marlena, the star of the equestrian act—and wife of August, a charismatic but cruel animal trainer. Caught between his love for Marlena and his need to belong in the crazy family of travelling performers, Jacob is freed only by a murderous secret that will bring the big top down. (credit: indigo.ca)
by Thomas King Stories are wondrous things," award-winning author and scholar Thomas King declares in his 2003 CBC Massey Lectures. "And they are dangerous." Beginning with a traditional Native oral story, King weaves his way through literature and history, religion and politics, popular culture and social protest, gracefully elucidating North America's relationship with its Native peoples. Native culture has deep ties to storytelling, and yet no other North American culture has been the subject of more erroneous stories. The Indian of fact, as King says, bears little resemblance to the literary Indian, the dying Indian, the construct so powerfully and often destructively projected by White North America. With keen perception and wit, King illustrates that stories are the key to, and only hope for, human understanding. He compels us to listen well. (credit: cbc.ca)
by Miriam Toews Days after being dumped by her boyfriend Marc in Paris, Hattie hears her sister Min has been checked into a psychiatric hospital, and finds herself flying back to Winnipeg to take care of Thebes and Logan, her niece and nephew. Not knowing what else to do, she loads the kids, a cooler, and a pile of CDs into their van and they set out on a road trip in search of the children''s long-lost father, Cherkis. But though it might seem like an escape from crisis into chaos, this journey is also desperately necessary, a chance for an accidental family to accept, understand or at least find their way through overwhelming times. From interwoven memories and scenes from the past, we learn much more about them: how Min got so sick, why Cherkis left home, why Hattie went to Paris, and what made Thebes and Logan who they are today. (credit: indigo.ca)
by Guy Vanderhaeghe The Englishman's Boy brilliantly links together Hollywood in the 1920s with one of the bloodiest, most brutal events of the nineteenth-century Canadian West - the Cypress Hills Massacre. Vanderhaeghe's rendering of the stark, dramatic beauty of the western landscape and of Hollywood in its most extravagant era - with its visionaries, celebrities, and dreamers - provides vivid background for scenes of action, adventure, and intrigue. Richly textured, evocative of time and place, this is an unforgettable novel about power, greed, and the pull of dreams that has at its centre the haunting story of a young drifter - "the Englishman's boy" - whose fate, ultimately, is a tragic one. (credit: indigo.ca) |
THE TRUTH ABOUT STORIES: A NATIVE NARRATIVE 
THE FLYING TROUTMANS
THE ENGLISHMAN'S BOY