We started with a few of our personal faves …  four or five we think it was. Then we called out to you, CanLit passionistas, for suggestions and to share news of the Feel the Love contest. The result was astounding: hundreds of you contributed in one way or another, and we ended up with a gorgeous list of 74 books. Some books were nominated multiple times, so we’ll give them special mention here, in rough order of frequency of mentions:

• The End of the Alphabet (CS Richardson)
• The Emperor of Paris (CS Richardson)
• The Republic of Love (Carol Shields)
• The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
• The Outlander (Gil Adamson)
• Anne of Green Gables (Lucy Maud Montgomery)
• All My Friends Are Superheroes (Andrew Kaufman)
• In the Skin of a Lion (Michael Ondaatje)
• "The Bear Came Over the Mountain", in My Best Stories (Alice Munro)
• Late Nights on Air (Elizabeth Hay)
• The Gargoyle (Andrew Davidson)
• Funny Boy (Shyam Selvadurai)
• Swimming in the Monsoon Sea (Shyam Selvadurai)
• Deafening (Francis Itani)
• The Nymph and the Lamp (Thomas H. Raddall)
• Barney’s Version (Mordecai Richler)
• The Mistress of Nothing (Kate Pullinger)
• Life Is About Losing Everything (Lynn Crosbie)

As well as readers, many publishers, booksellers, associations, media, and bloggers helped us make this a huge success by retweeting, sharing, and otherwise sending out word of the contest. Thank you very much!The winner of the Feel the Love contest is Jenn Kokuryo of Langley, BC. Jenn suggested Late Nights on Air, The Blind Assassin, The Retreat, and The Sea Captain's Wife. She receives a $150 gift certificate for the Canadian bookstore of her choice and Jenn has chosen her local bookstore Wendel's in historic Fort Langley, BC.

Creating the Feel the Love list was lots of fun (we think!); it now stands as a great collection of must-read Canadian books. We hope booksellers and librarians take the chance to refer their customers and patrons to it and to check our other reading lists for more great ideas.