Check out some of the books discussed on national CBC Radio programs between Nov. 5-12, 2024.
Heard on: Bookends with Mattea Roach
Creation Lake tells the story of Sadie, an undercover agent tasked with sabotaging a young group of activists. But as the writings of a radical thinker named Bruno start to infiltrate her mind, Sadie starts to rethink her choices and the consequences of her transient life.
Rachel Kushner is a bestselling American novelist. Her previous books include Telex From Cuba, The Flamethrowers and The Mars Room.
Bookends with Mattea Roach34:10Rachel Kushner: In Booker Prize finalist Creation Lake, an agent provocateur faces deep questions about how to live
In Rachel Kushner’s latest novel, Creation Lake, an undercover agent is tasked with sabotaging a group of young activists in rural France. Rachel joins Mattea Roach to talk about blending a spy premise with meditations on life’s big questions, putting an anti-hero at the centre of her story and why writing this novel was a transcendent experience. Creation Lake is a finalist for the 2024 Booker Prize.
Heard on: Bookends with Mattea Roach
Our Evenings tells the story of Dave Win, the son of a white British dressmaker and a Burmese father he’s never met, from his time growing up in small-town England in the 1960s to the COVID-19 lockdown of 2020.
Alan Hollinghurst is an English novelist, poet, short story writer and translator. He’s known for his novels, which document the lives of gay men and the world around them, including The Swimming-Pool Library, Booker Prize-winner The Line of Beauty and The Sparsholt Affair.
Bookends with Mattea Roach35:30Alan Hollinghurst: Coming of age in Britain and writing through the gay gaze
When Alan Hollinghurst’s novel The Line of Beauty won the Booker Prize in 2004, it was the first time a book about the gay experience won the award. Now his newest novel, Our Evenings, puts a biracial boy who’s discovering queer culture for the first time at the front and centre. Alan and Mattea Roach discuss how growing up gay in Britain inspires his writing.
Heard on: The Next Chapter
Taylor Swift Style: Fashion Through the Eras is a critical review of the mega pop star’s fashion evolution alongside her career. Chapelle has been writing about Swift’s style for the past 13 years on her Instagram and blog, Taylor Swift Style. In her book, Swift’s definitive fashion eras, Easter eggs and trends are documented and analyzed.
From the hints the pop star will drop through her street style and the costuming of her music videos, Taylor Swift Style gives insight to the visual impact of the artist for Swifties and pop culture fans alike.
Sarah Chapelle is a Vancouver-based fashion writer, blogger and social media influencer with an audience on Instagram of over 349,000 followers as @taylorswiftstyled. Her writing has been featured in publications such as Harper’s Bazaar and People Magazine. Taylor Swift Style is her first book.
The Next Chapter14:12Fashion through the Eras, dissecting Taylor Swift’s style
With the pop superstar coming to Canada for The Eras tour, Mirian Njoh interviews Sara Chapelle about her book Taylor Swift Style: Fashion Through the Eras.
Heard on: Q with Tom Power
Poet and Giller-Prize winning author Ian Williams is this year’s Massey lecturer. In What I Mean to Say, the award-winning Canadian writer and professor has chosen to focus on the topic of conversations — more specifically, our inability to have them in an age of increasing polarization, cancel culture and emerging forms of online communication.
Williams is the author of seven books of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. His novel, Reproduction, won the Scotiabank Giller Prize. He is a professor of English at the University of Toronto, director of the Creative Writing program, and academic advisor for the Massey College William Southam Journalism Fellowship.
30:18Ian Williams: Courageous conversations, cancel culture & taking risks
Back in April, the award-winning Canadian writer Ian Williams was named this year’s Massey lecturer. Since 1961, the Massey Lectures have invited distinguished writers, thinkers and scholars to present their ideas in a five-part lecture series across Canada. In this conversation with Tom Power, Ian tells us how to have better conversations with one another, why it’s important to have difficult conversations even at the risk of offending people, and how listening can be a courageous thing to do.
Heard on: The Next Chapter
In the 19th installment of the Inspector Armand Gamache series, The Grey Wolf follows Chief Inspector Gamache and his allies as they pursue a deadly threat from Three Pines, Quebec, across the province and beyond. What starts as one murder evolves into a desperate mission to track a creature that has the potential to devastate cities and towns including Three Pines. Dealing with betrayal, suspicion and loyalty, Gamache must rely on his instincts to unravel the mystery before it’s too late.
Louise Penny is a former CBC broadcaster and journalist. She is now the author of the Inspector Armand Gamache mystery series and recipient of the 2020 Agatha Award for best contemporary novel for the 16th installment in the series, All the Devils are Here. She collaborated with former U.S. secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton to write the political thriller State of Terror. Penny was named to the Order of Canada in 2013.
The Next Chapter3:47Actor Jean Brassard on narrating Louise Penny’s new novel
The French Canadian actor talks about how he became the new voice of the Inspector Gamache series and narrating the latest installment – The Grey Wolf.
Heard on: Q with Tom Power
Modern Whore is a memoir written by, writer, performer and producer Andrea Werhun about her time spent as a sex worker. The book combines lush photography by Nicole Bazuin with Werhun’s words to paint a nuanced picture of life as a sex worker — in all the sexy, silly and heartbreaking detail.
Sean Baker is an American filmmaker who’s best known for directing independent films about the lives of marginalized people. His latest film, Anora, won this year’s Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
Andrea Werhun is a former sex worker and the author of the memoir Modern Whore, which was adapted into a short film directed by Nicole Bazuin. She was a consultant on the award-winning film Anora, which was also inspired by her memoir and produced by Sean Baker.
24:15Sean Baker: How a Canadian sex worker’s memoir helped shape Anora
Sean Baker (Tangerine, The Florida Project, Red Rocket) is an award-winning filmmaker whose work often explores the lives of people living on the fringes. His latest film, “Anora,” follows a sex worker who quits her job after a whirlwind romance with a Russian billionaire, but soon realizes her fairytale ending isn’t all she’d hoped. Sean joins Tom Power to tell us why this story spoke to him, how a Canadian sex worker’s memoir helped shape the film, and what it felt like to win the prestigious Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival — a dream he’s had forever.
Heard on: The Next Chapter
There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension is a collection of ruminations on the meaning of success, who is perceived to deserve it and the concept of role models all through the lens of basketball in the 1990s.
Through themes of comfort, hope and solidarity, Abdurraqib paints the rich history of the golden era of basketball through a personal telling of his own experience with the sport growing up.
Abdurraqib is an Ohio-based American poet and writer. His essay collection A Little Devil in America won the 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence and was a finalist for the National Book Award. Obama previously included A Little Devil in America on his 2022 Summer Reading List.
The Next Chapter16:03Hanif Abdurraqib’s meditation on memory, nostalgia and basketball
The poet, essayist and sought after pop culture critic uses his love for basketball as a way to address the deeper questions on his mind in his new book There’s Always This Year.
Heard on: The Next Chapter
Kit McNair was born Kathleen to an Irish farming family in Ontario and, a tomboy in boy’s clothes, doesn’t fit in with the expectations of a farmgirl set out for them. When Rebekah, a German-Canadian doctor’s daughter comes to town, she, Kit and Kit’s older brother Landon find themselves in a love triangle which tears their families apart. All three of them separate and join different war efforts but all eventually return home — and they’ll have to move forward from their challenging and storied past.
Loghan Paylor is an Ontario-born author currently based in Abbotsford, B.C. They have an MA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia and their short fiction and essays have previously appeared in publications including Room and Prairie Fire. The Cure for Drowning is their debut novel.
The Next Chapter18:21Loghan Paylor rewrites forgotten history in The Cure for Drowning
Debut B.C.-based novelist Loghan Paylor always noticed the lack of queer representation in history books. So they decided to write their own queer historical fantasy novel, set during the lead up to the Second World War.
Heard on: Q with Tom Power
Twenty-Four Seconds From Now…., captures the inner world and emotions of Neon, a young Black man, as he experiences the anticipation, vulnerability and excitement of having sex for the first time. Through Neon’s narration and inner thoughts, award-winning author Jason Reynolds wants to challenge the image of “the kid in school who’s hyper advanced and walks around like he knows everything and has done everything by the time he’s 16 years old.”
Jason Reynolds is an award-winning American author and one of the winners of the 2024 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship.
33:19Jason Reynolds: On writing a tender love story from a teen boy’s POV
When the award-winning author Jason Reynolds was visiting a juvenile detention centre, he asked what kind of books young boys checked out the most. The answer really surprised him: romance novels. Jason realized that young men have a real hunger to learn about love, sensitivity and intimacy. That sparked the idea for his latest book, “Twenty-Four Seconds from Now,” which follows a Black teen boy who’s about to have sex with his girlfriend for the first time. Jason joins Tom Power to talk about the book and how he’s writing the stories he wishes he had growing up.
Heard on: Ideas
Throughout her career, historian and documentary producer Bettany Hughes has always maintained her sense of wonder at the cultures and the monuments humanity has brought into existence.
Her latest book, The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, focuses on the seven ancient monuments that back in the 4th century BCE were listed as a set worthy of wonder — awe-inspiring structures that epitomized human imagination and ambition. Those wonders include the Pyramid of Giza, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the lighthouse of Alexandria, and the Temple of Artemis, among others.
Bettany Hughes is an award-winning English historian, author and broadcaster. She is also a tutor for Cambridge University’s Institute of Continuing Education and a Research Fellow of King’s College London.
Ideas53:59The Seven Wonders of the World: A Bucket List for Ancient Travellers
More than 2,000 years ago, someone sat down and drafted a list of what they thought were the seven man-made wonders of the ancient world. From the Pyramid of Giza to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, historian Bettany Hughes shares her enthusiasm for the monumental achievements brought into existence by ancient cultures.
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