An fun stat book about Canada! Thank you for the opportunity to read this one.

<p>Yay! A silly book where my home province of New Brunswick is run by a sinister cabal of feudalistic light house keepers and where all mentions of Fabricland must be followed by a more forceful shout of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TGGmZvhxeE">Fabricland!</a> And, while Canada is indeed in the top three of non-Caribbean North American countries, having all these giggles and snark in one place can be somewhat overwhelming. A tweet now-and-then is less overwhelming. There's a lot in this listicley book -- and thankfully not too much about hockey since I know nothing about hockey (for example, I thought hockey had a half-time until I was twenty-six). </p>

<p>It's cute, but I don't know what you'd do with this book after you read it once. Maybe flip through now and then when the moose and polar bears outside your summer igloo want to steal your double-double and the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4msHDzO-GQ4">barbaric cultural practices phone line</a> doesn't seem to be working to help cheer your Soviet Cannuckistan self up. </p>

<p><A href="https://www.librarything.com/work/20714120/book/148644621">150 Years of Stats Canada!</a> by Andrew Bondy, Julia Davidovich, Sam Montgomery and Thomas Eric Taylor went on sale June 6, 2017.</p>

<p><small>I received a copy free from <a href="https://www.netgalley.com/">Netgalley</a> in exchange for an honest review.</small></p>

Nonfiction
Adult
Happiest birthday wishes to the best country on our planet, imho, celebrating just 150 years of giving the world lumberjack shirts, playoff beards, top curlers and hockey for both men AND women, timbits and a hungry market for cheese from all over the world, to name just a few things. I’m so grateful to live here, and wish the rest of the world could adopt a bit more Canadian outlook, including a healthy dose of self-deprecating humour. Which brings me to today’s timely review, from the brilliant satirical team behind the Canadian Twitter sensation @stats_canada, whose hilarious tweets have ill-informed thousands of followers for some five years now. In this book the four authors have out together a collection of unreliable facts that will make you laugh out loud, groan occasionally, and eventually bore everyone around you by reading entries aloud: “Just one more – listen to this!” Each page offers a comical perspective on something Canadian, from “Get to Know Trooper” to “The Real Houseboatwives of Snout Harbour, NFLD.” There’s just enough right information to intrigue you – yes, there really is a Gopher Hole Museum in Alberta; the fares listed for transit rides are correct; and the list of prime ministers is up to date and in right order. (And you will find a helpful and hilarious mnemonic to help you remember the order of our august leaders: “Many Men Made Attempts To Become The Leader But Most Merely Made Many Bumbling Mistakes, Losing Decisively, Persistently. The Candidates That Triumph Make Canadian Citizens More Heavily Taxed.”). On the other hand, Saskatoon is not a mash between Sasquatch and Cartoon, and I’m pretty sure there’s no cover band called Crosby, Staal, Nash & Yzerman. Two minutes for a good idea though! Many of the jokes require a certain level of insider knowledge though, whether it calls on the reader to identify the “bad” Barenaked Ladies band member or “Know Your Gords”: Howe, Downie, and Lightfoot. All in all, fun reading that will probably make the most sense to someone who knows a little bit about us. In short, only give this to another Canadian. And maybe take it out of the bathroom when foreigners visit, or you’ll spend a lot of time dealing with their honest confusion. My thanks to publisher Penguin Canada for the advance reading copy provided through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
More discussion and reviews of this title: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32815234

Really fun and informative. Happy birthday Canada!!

If you have followed Stats Canada on Twitter, and not the actual Stats Canada, the parody account, you will already have an idea of what this book is all about. There are some funny moments that poke fun at all things Canadian, and while I did find myself chuckling a few times, there were also a few groaners. As with any satirical work, there is a tendency to go a bit too far and I found that some of the jokes were a bit offensive.

At first glance, and from the synopsis we are given a taste of what this book has in store for its readers. The top Google searches are hilarious, and I won’t spoil them here, as it is best to read them for yourself. There are also quite a few laugh-out loud Canadian Tire jokes that will have you reminiscing about your own experiences in Canada’s infamous store. Not only that, if you aren’t familiar with the Canadian tuxedo, the Stats Canada authors have got you covered.

Sometimes the book contains hypothetical stories, such as the Montréal bachelor party, that are a little bit over the top and are not my cup of tea. One person’s sense of humour (mine), may not be the same as another’s, and I just don’t find vulgarity funny. Also, there were some jokes about Canada’s first female political activists and I really found this section to be in poor taste and was quite offended. There are other examples that I can name, but I think that these two examples give an idea of what to expect.

Anyone who enjoys satire and has an open sense of humour should give this book a try. Canadians have an interesting and unique culture that can be humorous at times. If you have enjoyed following Stats Canada on Twitter, then I encourage you to pick it up.

In "150 Years of Stats Canada!: A Guide to Canada's Greatest Country", the folk at @stats_canada (with the disclaimer that they're 'still 100.6% not affiliated with Statistics Canada') offer amusing and eclectic tidbits of Canadian culture, just in time for our 150th anniversary of Confederation.

There's something for everyone in here. And though, the humor doesn't always hit the mark (seems to me that sometimes you just had to have been there, or it's simply trying too hard), it did often enough to keep me reading.

What a lovely book! I picked this book up expecting to walk away learning tons of cool facts about my great country, and what I got was a funny, laughable, enjoyable and lighthearted comedy routine on our great country! I highlighted lots of amazing one-liners from this book that I will be sharing and using again. This book makes such fun of being Canadian, and celebrates our 150th birthday in the most wonderful way possible - through laughter!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for giving me a free copy of this book in exchange for my fair and honest review.