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
This weekend’s # 1 bestseller is the sophomore novel from The Girl on the Train author Paula Hawkins. But should you read it?
My review on CBC’s Day 6 >> listen here.
Mid-June = time for my annual list of beach reads for Day 6 on CBC Radio One.
Listen to the audio here.
This year’s selection includes three debut novels, and has history, mystery, spies, spooks, and … well also quite aa lot of sadness. Sorry about that.
The five novels (pictured above) are:
Don DeLillo has a new novel out. And after a few teeny tinies in recent years, this one is, say his publishers, his greatest work since 1997’s Underworld.
So … should you read it?
I reviewed it for CBC Day 6, here.
Don’t panic…but there are only five shopping days left until Christmas. Listen here for my annual Holiday Gift Guide for CBC’s Day 6, a selection of six great books for a variety of readers on your list (hint: said books are stacked in my arms right up there /\. Look how happy I am to be recommending them!). Remember, folks: books are easy to wrap. Happy Holidays!
More than half a century after modern classic To Kill a Mockingbird was published, a new manuscript by its reclusive and media-shy author came to light under mysterious circumstances. Mystery or not, the world went mad for it, and on July 14, 2015, it landed.
The new novel is called Go Set a Watchman. It has raised many, many questions, and spawned many, many reviews. It has an initial North American print run of 2 million copies.
I’ve been doing a segment called “Should I Read It?” on CBC Radio One’s Day 6 for the past five years. We review high-profile, much-talked-about books. We’ve never done one quite as talked about as this.
Go Set a Watchman: should you read it? Here’s my review.
Mark Z. Danielewski has both dazzled and confounded readers with his high-concept novels that utilize font, colour, footnotes within footnotes, and sometimes turning the book upside down every few pages to tell a story.
His latest book, The Familiar: One Rainy Day in May, is presented as Volume 1 of a projected 27 volume series, of which new volumes (or “episodes”) will be released every 6 months. It’s unlike any book you’ve picked up before. But should you read it?
My review on CBC Day 6 >> listen here.
For the last-minute Christmas shoppers among you, here’s my annual Holiday Gift Guide for CBC Day 6.
Here’s the audio >> listen.
For foodies:
For fiction lovers:
For non-fiction nuts:
Stocking stuffer: