9 books you heard about on CBC Radio recently
Check out some of the books discussed on national CBC Radio programs between April 22-29.
Last Woman by Carleigh Baker
Heard on: The Next Chapter
Last Woman is a collection of 13 short stories that explore the "hellscape" world of the contemporary moment through anxious and sometimes otherworldly characters. A group of billionaire aliens observe planet Earth, a snobbish professor looks down upon genre fiction, homes are lost to wildfires and floods. In these ever-present and absurd stories is a greater theme of climate change and our fear of what is to come.
Carleigh Baker is a writer and teacher of Cree-Métis and Icelandic heritage. Her debut story collection, Bad Endings won the City of Vancouver Book Award and was a finalist for the Emerging Indigenous Voices Award. She previously taught creative writing at Simon Fraser University.
The Gift Child by Elaine McCluskey
Heard on: The Next Chapter
In The Gift Child a man named Graham Swim goes missing in Pollock Passage, Nova Scotia. Questions around his disappearance build as the community of undercover agents and minor criminals piece together odd details like Graham's last sighting, leaving a government wharf with a big tuna head in a delivery bike.
Elaine McCluskey is a fiction writer currently based in Dartmouth, N.S. Her other books include Rafael Has Pretty Eyes and Going Fast (Level D.).
Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li
Heard on: The Next Chapter
Portrait of a Thief follows five Chinese American university students as they are enlisted by an elusive organization to steal back ancient artifacts from Beijing that currently sit in modern museums around the world. Together, an art history major, a con artist, a pickpocket, a hacker and a getaway driver organize a series of heists as a $50 million dollar reward hangs in the balance.
As tensions rise, the five friends learn more about each other and the real reasons they signed up for an impossible mission.
Grace D. Li is a Chinese American author and medical student at Stanford University. Portrait of a Thief is her debut novel.
Sunshine Nails by Mai Nguyen
Heard on: The Next Chapter
A humorous and heartfelt novel, Sunshine Nails is about a Vietnamese Canadian family who are trying to keep their family business, a nail salon called Sunshine Nails, open. In addition to increasing rent, a new chain salon store named Take Ten opens in the same neighbourhood, and the family's business struggles to remain running.
Family relationships are put to the test as they work together to save their nail salon.
Mai Nguyen was raised in Halifax and currently lives in Toronto. She has written for publications such as Wired, The Washington Post, The Toronto Star as a journalist and copywriter. Sunshine Nails is her debut novel.
Frankly In Love by David Yoon
Heard on: The Next Chapter
In the YA romance Frankly In Love, Frank Li is Korean but feels far from it having grown up in Southern California. When he meets and ends up dating Brit Means, everything seems perfect, except that Brit is white and his parents expect him to eventually marry someone Korean. In this coming-of-age tale, Frank creates a plan to date Brit without his parents' knowledge.
Can he get away with it or will he finally need to reconcile with his identity and his family?
David Yoon is a writer of books for young adults and adults based in California. His other novels include Super Fake Love Song, Version Zero and City of Orange.
The Perseverance by Raymond Antrobus
Heard on: Writers & Company
In the poetry collection, The Perseverance, Raymond Antrobus explores his Jamaican heritage, his complicated relationship with his late father and his experience growing up deaf ― a diagnosis he received when he was six years old.
The Perseverance is the first book of poetry ever to win the U.K.'s prestigious Rathbones Folio Prize and was a finalist for the 2019 International Griffin Poetry Prize.
Antrobus is a British Jamaican poet and educator. He is also the author of All the Names Given as well as two poetry albums, The First Time I Wore Hearing Aids and An Investigator (of Missing Sounds).
Reservations by Steve Burgess
Heard on: The Current
Reservations: The Pleasures and Perils of Travel examines the economic and ethical questions of being a tourist in today's world. Freelance writer Steve Burgess shares his own stories travelling across the globe of romance and adventure, as well as insights from experts of how and why people travel.
Burgess is a Vancouver-based writer, documentary director and broadcaster. His work has been published in Maclean's and Reader's Digest and he is also the author of Who Killed Mom?.
Closer Together by Sophie Grégoire Trudeau
Heard on: The Current
In conversation with other mental health experts, Canada's "de facto 'first lady'" delves into questions of our sense of self and how experiences shape us. Part autobiographical, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau shares personal moments throughout her life from having an eating disorder in her youth to the very public-facing role she came to as an adult. Closer Together: Knowling Ourselves, Loving Each Other features the insights of Gabor Maté, Liz Plank and more as well as Grégoire Trudeau's own mindfulness practices.
Grégoire Trudeau is a Montreal-born public speaker, mentor and yoga instructor. For over 20 years, she has been recognized by the UN for her humanitarian work and currently serves as Youth Leadership Global Ambassador for Plan International Canada. Closer Together is her first book.
The Everything War by Dana Mattioli
Heard on: The Sunday Magazine
The Everything War: Amazon's Ruthless Quest to Own Everything and Remake Corporate Power is a look into the rapid and ever-growing impact of Amazon from The Wall Street reporter, Dana Mattioli. Highlighting a 2017 paper by Lina Khan, which led to her becoming head of the Federal Trade Commission, Mattioli charts the "unparalleled access" Amazon has had on the retail industry and our daily lives.
Mattioli has been a journalist for The Wall Street Journal in New York since 2006. She won the Women's Economic Round Table Prize in 2021 for excellence in business journalism. The Everything War is her first book.
