A book about a former First Marathon broker is one of the finalists for this year’s National Business Book Award. Free Rider: How a Bay Street Whiz Kid Stole and Spent $20 Million by J.L. Reynolds was nominated for the award. Reynolds tells the story of Michael Holoday.

Other finalists include: William Illsey Atkinson for Prototype – How Canadian Innovation is Shaping the Future; Ingeborg Boyens for Another Season’s Promise: Hope and Despair in Canada’s Farm Country; and, Rod McQueen for Can’t Buy Me Love: How Martha Billes Made Canadian Tire Hers.

The finalists were announced today by co-sponsors PricewaterhouseCoopers and
Bank of Montreal. The award comes with a $10,000 prize. Forty-three entries
were submitted for this year’s award.

The jury is chaired by former Ontario Premier Bill Davis. The panel also includes Jane Cooney, president, Books for Business; William Dimma, chairman, Home Capital Group Inc.; Anne Kingston, journalist and winner of the 1994 National Business Book Award; and Pamela Wallin, broadcast journalist and television host. The winner will be announced April 22.