On Tuesday night, Canadian-born Kiwi Eleanor Catton became the youngest author ever to win the Man Booker Prize. She won for The Luminaries, which, at 830-odd pages, is also the longest book ever to have won, and will forever be the last book to have won before the prize changed its entry rules to include writers beyond the Commonwealth and Ireland.
But should you read it?
I did – more quickly than I’d suggest you do. Here’s my conversation with Brent Bambury on CBC Day 6.
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) talked to the Book and Periodical Council, Toronto Public Library, and me, about Freedom to Read Week 2013, and a Type Books window display that has been generating a lot of chatter.
VIDEO: Freedom to Read Week 2013
The NYT Magazine said it’s the best book you’ll read in 2013. High praise for a book that was published on January 10, a pub. date that I’m guessing will have amused the author considering the book’s title.
I discussed George Sunders’ heatbreaking and hilarious new story collection on Day 6 with Brent Bambury
Should you read it? Here’s the audio.
My 2012 Holiday Reads for Day 6 (also Far from the Tree, which I seem to have forgotten about when taking the picture...)
Three more shopping days till Christmas!
Here are my tips for the buzziest books underneath the tree this year, as shared with Brent Bambury on this morning’s CBC Day 6.
Shoppers in Toronto: you can get all of these and more at the fabulous Type Books, where I’m often to be found selling books of a weekend. All except Building Stories, that is, which is sold out everywhere in the city (gasp!) except for The Beguiling, which was clever enough to get a Santa’s warehouse full! Go indies!
Happy holiday reading folks.
Becky Toyne, Roddy Doyle, Two Pints (untouched)
Roddy: “About a year and a half ago I opened a Facebook account.”
Audience: *laughs*
And so begins my congenial and chortle-filled interview with Roddy Doyle, the Booker Prize-winning author of books for readers of all ages (my 9-year-old niece is a fan), and (let’s not forget) 2012 Scotiabank Giller Prize judge.
On the pub as the perfect setting for two blokes talking about the tabloids: “The realm of conversation is what makes the pub unique. The alcohol, it helps, but it’s more the conversation.”
This conversation was filmed at the Kobo offices in Toronto as part of the Kobo in Conversation series.
Check out the video on Kobo’s YouTube page, here.
Fall = big book season.
Erin Balser and I sat down with Mary Ito on CBC Radio One’s Fresh Air to talk about what we’re looking forward to this season.
We talked about:
The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling
The Underwater Welder by Jeff Lemire
Sleeping Funny by Miranda Hill
NW by Zadie Smith
Y by Marjorie Celona
The Blondes by Emily Schultz
This Is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen
And mentioned:
1982 by Jian Ghomeshi
Waging Heavy Peace by Neil Young
This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz
Dear Life by Alice Munro
Listen to the audio.
It’s been 12 years since Zadie Smith published her break-out debut, White Teeth, and 7 years since her most recent novel, the brilliant On Beauty.
So … was NW worth the wait?
On Day 6 with Brent Bambury I say … YES. With a word of caution that the novel is “crazy good” in parts, but “chaotic and cluttered” in others.
Here’s the audio.
What books will we be buzzing about on the beach this summer?
Looking for a fast-paced read? Some arm-chair travel? An alternative to that mega-selling bonk-buster book? Or to immerse yourself in the past (or an alternative present…)?
I served up some summer suggestions with different kinds of reader in mind on CBC Day 6 this weekend.
For a character-driven novel: John Irving’s IN ONE PERSON
For some historical drama: Hilary Mantel’s BRING UP THE BODIES (fiction); Erik Larson’s IN THE GARDEN OF BEASTS (non-fiction)
For a fast-paced crime fix to take to the beach: Jo Nesbo’s PHANTOM
For an erotic-fiction alternative to Fifty Shades of Grey: Tamara Faith Berger’s MAIDENHEAD; Nicholson Baker’s THE FERMATA and HOUSE OF HOLES
For escapism…
To the Olympics: Craig Taylor’s LONDONERS
To the big sky and open road: Hari Kunzru’s GOD’S WITHOUT MEN
To (or from) a different kind of economy-class travel: Michael Ondaatje’s THE CAT’S TABLE
For a summer-long doorstop read: Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84
One of the great American novelists has published his first novel in 6 years and called it CANADA.
Cue excitement in literary circles everywhere, but most especially north of the border.
So … should you read it?
On CBC Day 6 this morning I said … probably not, no.
First you couldn’t be online without hearing about it. Then you couldn’t open a newspaper without reading about it. Then you couldn’t even walk into a bookstore without seeing it piled high in all its suggestive tie-me-up-ishness.
Fifty Shades of Grey was everywhere. But is it any good …? Of course not.
Erin Balser and I went in to the CBC Fresh Air studio to talk to Mary Ito about why we think everyone’s going gaga for Christian Grey, and to offer some suggestions for smutty reading with a little more literary style.