Sally Rooney = international literary sensation.
Her new novel, Normal People, has been out for aaaaaages in the UK and Ireland, but has only just made it to North America.
Should you read it?
My review for Day 6 >> audio.
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Books: they’re easy to wrap! (I say this every year, but it’s true).
My annual Holiday Gift Guide for CBC Radio’s Day 6 is here.
It includes:
SOME OF MY FAVOURITE FICTION OF 2018
Lake Success by Gary Shteyngart
Beirut Hellfire Society by Rawi Hage
Dear Evelyn by Kathy Page
A BIOGRAPHY & A MEMOIR THAT MAKE A GREAT PAIR
In Pieces by Sally Field
Buffy Sainte-Marie: The Authorized Biography by Andrea Warner
A GREAT GIFT FOR TEENS – A BOOK THAT SHOULD BE IN EVERY CANADIAN LIBRARY AND HOME
The Indigenous Peoples Atlas of Canada
A PICTURE BOOK FOR LITTLES AT BEDTIME
Sleep, Sheep! by Kerry Lyn Sparrow. Illustrated by Guillaume Perreault
For my latest “Should I Read It?” review, I talked about a novel that is buzzy in part by virtue of its obscurity.
Eric Dupont’s Songs for the Cold of Heart was a massive bestseller in Quebec, but its English-language translation (released in Canada in July 2018) was relatively unknown until it landed a spot on the Scotiabank Giller Prize shortlist on October 1.
It’s the odd-one-out on a shortlist filled with books that are already Canadian bestsellers in the English-language market. The Giller nod has given it a huge awareness (and sales) boost.
Should you read it? Here’s my review >> audio
And how is Dupont’s tiny Quebec publisher, QC Fiction, coping with the Giller spotlight? Here’s a piece I wrote for the Globe & Mail.
James Frey once wrote a memoir that turned out to be a “memoir.” It sold millions of copies and upset almost as many millions of readers (but remained a bestseller anyway). Now Frey has written a novel that is really more of a “novel.” But is it any good?
My “Should I Read It?” review for Day 6 >> listen here
Romy Hall is serving two life sentences without parole for murder. She did it. That’s not in doubt. But did she have any choice? Or did life deal her a hand that could’ve had no other outcome?
Rachel Kushner’s third novel is bristling with detail, bursting with love, and heavy with despair.
Should you read it?
My review for CBC Radio’s Day 6 >> listen here
Heart Berries, the debut memoir by Terese Marie Mailhot, went straight onto the bestseller lists when it was published in Canada last week. But should YOU read it?
My review for CBC Day 6 >> listen here
I made a list, Day 6 gifted it twice!
Fiction, nonfiction, poetry, YA, a music biography and (not pictured) an adorable picture book for kids.
What will you find in your stocking this year … ?
Listen to the audio here.
Tom Hanks (of Academy Award-winning actor fame) and Matthew Weiner (of Sopranos and Mad Men fame) have both just released their debut books.
Should you read them?
The “Should I Read It?’ segment gets two for the price of one this week. My review for Day 6 on CBC Radio One >> listen
For his 24th novel, spy-novel master John le Carré returns to his most famous and beloved creation, George Smiley.
Sort of.
Narrated by Smiley’s younger protégé Peter Guillam, A Legacy of Spies serves as both a prequel and a sequel to The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. Readers are united with old friends Guillam, Smiley, and Alec Leamas in the years leading up to the mission detailed in TSWCIFTC, and with the now-pretty-old Guillam and Smiley in the early 21st Century (though you’ll have to wait until the very end to see Smiley in anything but a flashback).
The novel has been met with much international fanfare.
Should you read it?
Spy puns (and unexpected Star Wars comparisons) abound in my review for CBC Day 6.
Listen here >> audio
Books in the sunshine!
My annual summer reads segment for CBC Day 6 features suspense, nostalgia, growing pains, grief, the supernatural, family struggles, and, yes, also several beaches.
Here’s the audio >> listen