It’s that time of year again, things are gearing up for this winter’s annual Canada Reads competition. Last year, as you’ll recall, Jeff Lemire’s Essex County Trilogy made the Top 5. This year, Scott Chantler writes to inform us that three Canadian graphic novels have made the Top 40 of the Canada Reads: True Stories list and now is the time to select the Top 10 for that category:

Hi again all,

Thanks to the votes and word-of-mouth of family, friends, and fans, I’m happy to report that TWO GENERALS has made the CBC Canada Reads list of the Top 40 Canadian non-fiction books of all time: http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads/2012/canada-reads-true-stories-vote-for-the-top-10.html. Thanks to all of you who filled out nomination forms, or voted in the previous poll. It’s really an incredible honour to be included among some of the classics on that list (like Pierre Berton’s THE LAST SPIKE) and I’m pleased that my book is one of three graphic novels to make the list (the other two being Sarah Leavitt’s TANGLES and Chester Brown’s classic LOUIS RIEL).

From here, online voting cuts the list down to ten, then down to the five that will appear in the televised debates. I don’t have a lot of confidence that the book can go all the way against the likes of Berton and Romeo Dallaire, but it sure would be cool to make the top ten. We’re already seeing a slight sales jump just from making the longlist, so the longer the book can stay in the running the better.

So once again I’m asking you to go vote (at the link above) for TWO GENERALS (and up to four other books of your choice) and to spread the word as far and wide as you’re able. And thanks once again to everybody for their support. For this book in particular, it really means a lot.

Scott Chantler