Customer Reviews

What Is Stephen Harper Reading?: Yann Martel's Recommended Reading for a Prime Minister and Book Lovers of All Stripes

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If you haven't done so already, here is the best reason yet to click on the link at the bottom of this page and get yourself an account at Amazon.ca, Amazon's slightly chillier version of everyone's favorite website.

Several year's ago Canada's then new Conservative Prime Minister bragged that he really wasn't much of a reader of literature. Quite a few northern book lovers bemoaned the fact but one of them, Yann Martel, Booker-winning author of Life of Pi decided to do something about it. Starting in April of 2007 he has sent a different book every two weeks to Mr. Harper with a cover letter explaining why he should read it. The letters have appeared (in English and en francais naturally) on his website. This volume collects and reprints the first 50 or so letters of the 70 delivered as I write this in Dec '09.

The collection is eclectic and covers of broad base of writers of all nationalities and styles, from Marcus Aurelius to the present. There are some kid's books and some (very) adult books. All are of uniformly high quality. For American book lovers it is interesting in that it gives us a peek into what is popular in a different but similar country. Many books (e.g To Kill a Mockingbird (#13)) are classics on both sides of the border but others such as the excellent The Tin Flute (#60) by Quebec writer Gabrielle Roy are so little known south of the border that you will have to order it from Amazon.ca.

Whatever you feel about the current resident of 24 Sussex Drive, Ottawa -- and given that I'm writing to an audience of fellow Americans I can probably assume you feel nothing one way or the other -- it's worth your while to peruse this one man's thoughtfully considered essays on what's worth reading.

A jewel, a gem. Singularly captivating, the letters to the prime minister make the reader smile, pause and reflect. If Harper, or indeed anyone, takes any of Martel's suggestions to heart, he is the better for it.