11 books you heard about on CBC Radio recently
Check out some of the books discussed on national CBC Radio programs between Oct. 30-Nov. 5, 2024.
Hi, It's Me by Fawn Parker
Heard on: Bookends with Mattea Roach
In Hi, It's Me, Fawn returns to her mother's farmhouse after her death — one that is also inhabited by four other women with interesting and strange beliefs. As she lives in her mother's room and tries to figure out what to do with her possessions, she becomes obsessed with archiving her mother's writing and documents, teaching her more and more about the woman she thought she knew so well.
Fawn Parker is an author and current PhD student at the University of New Brunswick. Her novel What We Both Know was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize in 2022. Her poetry collection Soft Inheritance won the Fiddlehead Poetry Book Prize.
Cicada Summer by Erica McKeen
Heard on: Bookends with Mattea Roach
When a trio of characters living in a lakeside cabin in the summer of 2020 begin reading a book of horror stories, the details start to bleed into real life.
Erica McKeen is a writer from London, Ont. Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, longlisted for the Guernica Prize and shortlisted for The Malahat Review Open Season Awards. Her first novel Tear won the 2023 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prizes for literary fiction.
The Queen by Nick Cutter
Heard on: The Next Chapter
The Queen is a horror mystery novel that follows lifelong friends Margaret and Charity. Charity Atwater has been missing for more than a month and is presumed dead when Margaret discovers an iPhone on her doorstep containing a text message from her best friend. Set over the course of one impossible day, Margaret must unravel the real story of what happened. As tragedy and disaster follow her pursuit of the truth, secrets are revealed that paint Charity in a whole new light and show Margaret that she never really knew her best friend after all.
Craig Davidson writes horror under the pen name Nick Cutter. He has written several novels, including Cataract City, which was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize in 2013, Rust and Bone, which was adapted into an Oscar-nominated feature film, The Fighter and Sarah Court. His memoir Precious Cargo was defended by Greg Johnson on Canada Reads 2018.
Revenge of the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
Heard on: The Sunday Magazine
In Revenge of the Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell revisits the lessons of his groundbreaking book The Tipping Point and reframes the subject of social epidemics in the current context. Using stories and research, Gladwell highlights a concerning form of social engineering and offers a guide to making sense of modern contagion.
Gladwell has written many nonfiction books including The Tipping Point, Blink, What the Dog Saw, David and Goliath, Talking to Strangers and The Bomber Mafia. He is also the co-founder of Pushkin Industries, a company that produces the podcast Revisionist History among others as well as audiobooks. Gladwell grew up in Elmira, Ont. and now lives in the U.S.
Behind You by Catherine Hernandez
Heard on: The Next Chapter
Behind You follows the story of Alma, a film editor for a corny true crime series. At a glance, her life with her wife and teenage son seems comfortable and safe. But when Infamous' latest episode features the Scarborough Stalker — who terrorized Alma's own neighborhood when she was a girl — Alma is consumed by her long-suppressed past.
In the present day, she must reckon with her understanding of consent to stop her young son from making terrible choices toward his own girlfriend. Unfolding in two timelines, Behind You challenges and dissects rape culture and champions one girl's resilience into adulthood.
Hernandez is a Canadian writer, author and playwright. Her 2017 novel, Scarborough, was a shortlisted finalist for the 2017 Toronto Book Award, the 2018 Trillium Book Award, the 2018 Edmund White Award and was on Canada Reads 2022 defended by actress Malia Baker.
Scarborough was also adapted to screen as a feature film and premiered at TIFF in 2021. Her other books include The Story of Us, Crosshairs and the children's books I Promise, M is for Mustache and Where Do Your Feelings Live?.
Zegaajimo edited by Nathan Niigan Noodin Adler and Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm
Heard on: Commotion
Zegaajimo: Indigenous Horror Fiction brings together 11 Indigenous writers to tell macabre stories of the monsters already in our midst, and more. This horror anthology features stories by Karen McBride, Waubgeshig Rice, David. A Robertson, Drew Hayden Taylor and Richard Van Camp, among others.
Nathan Niigan Noodin Adler is the writer of the short story mystery and horror collections Ghost Lake, which won a 2021 Indigenous Voices Award and Wrist. He co-edited Bawaajigan and is an artist and filmmaker. He is two-spirit, Jewish, Anishinaabe and a member of Lac Des Mille Lacs First Nation. He lives in Vancouver.
Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm is a member of the Saugeen Ojibway Nation, Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation, on the Saugeen Peninsula in Ontario. She teaches creative writing, Indigenous literature and oral traditions at the University of Toronto's Scarborough campus. Her books include the short story collection The Stone Collection and the poetry collection (Re)Generation: The Poetry of Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm. She is the founder, publisher and art director of Kegedonce Press.
There's Always This Year by Hanif Abdurraqib
Heard on: The Next Chapter
Poet, essayist and sought after pop culture critic Hanif Abdurraqib 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: 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.
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.
Going to Seed by Kate J. Neville
Heard on: The Current
In her new book Going to Seed, Kate J. Neville reflects on the value of being idle. The book talks about the importance of escaping the busyness that builds up around family, work and social demands.
Kate Neville is a political scientist and associate professor at the University of Toronto. She is also the the author of Fueling Resistance.
Age of Anger by Pankaj Mishra
Heard on: Ideas
Pankaj Mishra returns to the 18th century to explain the rise of global anger and violence in the 21st century. In Age of Anger, Mishra points out that early promises of freedom and prosperity have failed in the face of industrialism and capitalism. Age of Anger is an academic and well-argued book on the origins of modern day rage.
Mishra is a writer based in London and Mashobra, India. He has written eight books of nonfiction, including Age of Anger, From the Ruins of Empire and Butter Chicken in Ludhiana, and two novels, The Romantics and Run and Hide. He is an opinion columnist for Bloomberg and contributor for The Guardian, New Yorker and London Review of Books among other publications.
Bone of the Bone by Sarah Smarsh
Heard on: The Current
Sarah Smarsh grew up on a wheat farm in Kansas, and in her new essay collection Bone of the Bone: Essays on America by a Daughter of the Working Class, she tackles the narrative that people from the heartland are just "backwards, bigoted, terrible folks.
Sarah Smarsh is an American journalist and writer. Her books include the bestselling 2018 nonfiction book Heartland, which explored socioeconomic class, politics and public policy.
Jesus and John Wayne by Kristin Kobes Du Mez
Heard on: Ideas
In Jesus and John Wayne, historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez traces the history of white evangelical power and their influence on American culture.
Kristin Kobes Du Mez is an American author, historian and professor of history and gender studies at Calvin University in Michigan.
