At the end of last week I finally made time to watch all the episodes of Canada Reads 2025. The CBC website Canada Reads says that Canada Reads is “… is a "literary Survivor”, with celebrities championing books. Each day, panellists vote to eliminate one book, until a single title is chosen as the title the whole country should read this year.” Each year there is a question to focus the debates, and this year’s question was “what is one book to change the narrative?”
Originally broadcast in March, you can find all kinds of information about the five contenders and their champions on the website. I watched all the episodes on Youtube, but the website gives you a number of ways to watch or listen.
Here are the five trailers for the 2025 contenders. They are lovely to watch.
Canada Reads 2025 book trailers
I try to watch the debates each year. Not only do I always enjoy the debates and information about the books, but I find it’s a unique opportunity to meet five Canadian celebrities from diverse backgrounds (many with whom I am not familiar) in respectful and passionate conversations.
This year was no different. I found many of the themes talked about were themes I intended to touch on in my upcoming sermon series about families in the bible … identity, home, belonging, survival, trauma, loss, loyalty. After I watched all the episodes, I committed to reading at least the top three books this summer and connecting them to my weekly sermons and reflections.
They are (SPOILER ALERT) Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hopper, championed by Heartland actor Michelle Morgan, Dandelion by Jamie Chai Yun Liew, championed by pastry chef Said M’Dahoma, and A Two-Spirit Journey, by Ma-Nee Chacaby with Mary Louisa Plummer, championed by podcaster and wellness advocate Shaya Stonechild.
I would also be happy to gather in the garden at Bethany during a lunch hour or two during August to talk about any of the books. Let me know if anyone is interested in a noon hour Canada Reads book club.
As for the sermon series, I am using a book I have had for decades, Krazy Kinfolk, Exploring Dysfunctional families of the Bible, by United Church of Christ minister Barbara J. Essex. Essex says:
“While the Bible is often used as a model for what families ought to look like, those who advocate “family values” fail to realize that biblical families are most often dysfunctional. Biblical families go through many changes in order to survive … We have seen changing attitudes, values, and practices in the Bible as people seek to live out God’s commands in diverse cultural settings – there is no monolithic model for family life in the Bible.”
It is my hope that this exploration will not only be engaging, informational and perhaps even contain a bit of humour, but it will also set us up well to engage in the tasks and priorities that this faith community has named for the coming year.
This Sunday will be an introduction to the series, and we will look at two stories of fathers – one horrible story in the book of Judges (Jephtha and his daughter) and the story of the man with two sons, commonly known as the story of the Prodigal Son. Hope to see you there. Enjoy the weekend!
