National Business Book Award Announces Finalists

Award marks the 25th anniversary of recognizing Canadian business writing

TORONTO, May 11 /CNW/ - The five finalists for this year's National Business Book Award were announced today by co-sponsors PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and BMO Financial Group. The award of $20,000 is presented to the author of an outstanding Canadian business-related book published in English or French in 2009. This year's award marks the 25th year of recognizing exceptional Canadian business writing.

This year's book submissions are a mix of reviews, biographies and predictions for the future of Canadian business. The books examine how past events have shaped current issues facing Canada, the rise of a financial giant, prescriptive business recommendations and the anticipated shifts of economic power. The authors offer lessons from the past and reinforce the importance of Canadian business writing as a means of understanding current issues affecting the business world.

This year's finalists are:

    
    -  John DeMont, Coal Black Heart: The Story of Coal and the Lives it
       Ruled, published by Doubleday Canada. DeMont, journalist and author,
       tells the story about the history of coal in the industrialized world
       over the past two centuries. Combining a variety of histories,
       including his own family's, the book explains how the coal industry
       influenced, and ultimately shaped Nova Scotia.

    -  Wendy Dobson, Gravity Shift: How Asia's New Economic Powerhouses Will
       Shape the Twenty-First Century, published by University of Toronto
       Press. In this forward looking book, business economics professor
       Dobson examines the emerging forces of China and India and how they
       will reshape the political economy of this century, as the economic
       powerhouses of the world by the year 2030. Dobson takes on a complex
       and potentially chaotic subject, and uses a single lens to bring it
       all together.

    -  Buzz Hargrove, Laying It on the Line: Driving a Hard Bargain in
       Challenging Times, published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
       Hargrove, former national president of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW)
       and the country's most famous trade unionist, mixes memoir, manifesto
       and recommendations for how to cure an ailing labour movement - and
       economy - in changing times.

    -  Rod McQueen, Manulife: How Dominic D'Alessandro Built a Global Giant
       and Fought to Save It, published by Penguin Group (Canada). McQueen, a
       well-established business writer, recounts the growth of Manulife into
       a worldwide financial powerhouse under the leadership of Dominic
       D'Alessandro. It is a depiction of the company's past and a practical
       signpost to its shifting future.

    -  Jeff Rubin, Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller: Oil
       and the End of Globalization, published by Random House Canada. After
       a long tenure as chief economist at CIBC World Markets, Rubin uses his
       experience to communicate complex ideas to argue that the global
       economy will become seemingly smaller with the depletion of cheap oil
       and energy. He takes a macroeconomic look at the challenges of higher
       oil costs and analyzes the long-term impact.
    

This year marks the National Business Book Award's 25th annual celebration of Canadian authors of exceptional non-fiction, business-related books published in Canada. The award has come to be recognized as one of Canada's most prestigious literary awards. It continues to gain attention from not only the Canadian business world, but also from publishers, authors, journalists, academics, economists, politicians and business leaders around the world.

The National Business Book Award jury is chaired by Roger Martin, Dean, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. The panel includes Jane Cooney, President, Books for Business; William Dimma, Chairman Emeritus, Home Capital Group, Inc., Peter Mansbridge, Chief Correspondent, CBC Television Network; Deirdre McMurdy, Vice-President, Public Policy Forum; and The Honourable Pamela Wallin, Senator.

The winner of the National Business Book Award will be announced on June 9, 2010 at a luncheon in Toronto, hosted by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and BMO Financial Group.

Last year's National Business Book Award winner was Gordon Pitts for his book Stampede!: The Rise of the West and Canada's New Power Elite.

For further information: or to arrange an interview, please contact: Mary Ann Freedman, Freedman & Associates Inc. for National Business Book Award, Tel: [phone] or 1-866-453-6824, Email: [email protected], Website: www.nbbaward.com