Canada Reads…and the finalists are

The five finalists for Canada Reads’ first ever non-fiction book battle have been announced as well as their celebrity champions.

The five books will be defended by the panelists during the week of February 6-9, 2012.

Here is the list of panelists and their books, along with brief descriptions from Canada Reads:

• Arlene Dickinson of CBC's Dragon's Den defends Prisoner of Tehran (M) by Marina Nemat.

-Prisoner of Tehran is Marina Nemat's harrowing account of the two years she spent as a teenager in a political prison in Iran after the Islamic Revolution.


• Quebec reality-TV star Anne-France Goldwater defends The Tiger (M) by John Vaillant.

-The Tiger is a shocking true story about the struggle between the citizens of a remote Russian village and the ferocious, endangered Siberian tiger who is out for revenge against the illegal poachers who survive by destroying his kind.


• Model Stacey McKenzie defends On a Cold Road (M) by Dave Bidini.

- On a Cold Road is the book that marked Rheostatics guitarist Dave Bidini's transition from rock star to writer, a chronicle of the band's 1996 cross-Canada tour with the Tragically Hip.


• Rapper Shad defends Something Fierce (M) by Carmen Aguirre.

- Something Fierce is playwright and actor Carmen Aguirre's memoir about coming of age in the Chilean resistance movement.


• Actor Alan Thicke defends The Game (M) by Ken Dryden.

The Game is still widely regarded as the best book about hockey ever written, even almost 30 years after its original publication in 1983. In it, legendary goalie Ken Dryden chronicles his 1979 season with the Montreal Canadiens.















This year's participants selected their favourite books from a list of 10 chosen by readers at CBC Books.(from CBC.ca)