Congratulations to our friend Jeff Lemire, whose Essex County was just selected as a Top 5 finalist in The CBC's Canada Reads competition and event!

For those not in the know Canada Reads is the CBC's annual literature contest, where hundreds of Canadian novels are nominated by people across the country, and then that list is whittled down until only 5 books remain. Each of those 5 books is then defended by a Canadian celebrity, and all of Canada is encouraged to read along with all 5 of the books that were chosen. Finally, one winner is chosen... and it could be Essex County!

This is the first time that a graphic novel has been chosen as contender , which is important enough on its own, but that it's an excellent graphic novel like Jeff Lemire's Essex County is really phenomenal, and we couldn't be more happy for him. Between this and the success of his Vertigo series Sweet Tooth (volume 2 trade paperback out December 8th!), it's been an amazing year for Jeff and we couldn't be happier for him.

We also want to give a shout-out to Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki, whose groundbreaking graphic novel SKIM made it to the first-round shortlist, an excellent achievement for a really wonderful book.

Jeff Lemire's Essex County is currently in stock in hard cover on the main floor, and we should be restocked on soft covers in the next week or two. For more information on Canada Reads, check out http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads/.

- Chris @ The Beguiling

posted by Christopher Butcher @ 3:37 pm