by JULIET WATERS

Before Canadian Idol or The Greatest Canadian there was Canada Reads. It's the February week where musicians, comedians and personalities from across the land attempt to convince each other of the merits of their favourite Canadian book and/or why the rest of the country should be subjected to this choice.

Some years it's a good, fun book slam, as one book gets voted off every night. And some years it's Survivor, Zombie Island. Fans still shiver at the memory of 2003, when Denise Bombardier cast some kind of witchy woman spell on Justin Trudeau, the only possible explanation for his decision to vote against his own nomination, The Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston, in favour of Next Episode by Hubert Aquin. Canada - so close to reading an excellent epic based on the life of Joey Smallwood - damned instead to share the torture of reading the impenetrable, musty rantings of an FLQ terrorist.

Fortunately, Montreal has a good shot at redemption in 2005. Three of the five books up for debate are by Montrealers and these are books people might actually like reading: Leonard Cohen's Beautiful Losers (to be defended by Rufus Wainwright), Jacques Poulin's Volkswagen Blues and Mairuth Sarsfield's No Crystal Stair. The book everyone's already read is usually the first to go, so scrap Cohen. Jacques Poulin would stand a better chance were it not for residual terror of French language books from the Aquin debacle. So smart money's on Sarfsfield.

Born and bred in Montreal, Sarsfield is better known as an international environmental activist who has a day named after her in Cleveland, Ohio. Her book is an easy, informative read set amidst the complicated race, linguistic and class alliances in Montreal's black community at the height of the jazz age in Little Burgundy. And to top off the odds, she's being defended by Sherraine Mackay, Canada's top Olympic fencer.

Canada Reads will run between Feb. 21-25
on CBC Radio One and CBC Newsworld