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Great to hear your thoughts. Definitely a few surprises on the shortlist. Will make for an interesting debate. 😊💙

I think Tara should get points for guessing the swimmer. I really wish they'd stop having one (1) genre book, then voting it off the first day. This isn't making genre fiction look more included. I'm reading Watch Out for Her right now, and it's pretty mid a quarter of the way through. I think Jennie's Boy is a really strong title with Barclay defending it, and I'm reading that next. I'm currently rooting for Dandelion, but would be happy with A Two-Spirit Journey. I'm going to re-read that since it's been eight years.

This is reminding me why I love the Canada Reads longlist! I love it more than any of the prizes long lists, because it's just so random, but there's often such great titles! I said I wasn't going to read the whole list this year, but... I might. The library has most of them on audio, which doesn't count for my read what you own book diet. So excited to be back in Canada Reads season! You should put a party hat on your logo or something! That's such a great point about Canada Reads being an antidote to January Blahs. It also gets it away from all the end of year Best Of lists in December. Jolene used to do the category system, and I'm not sure it got her better results than anything else. It's always such a crap shoot, lol. I really don't think there's a winning system. The only book I real very sure of is Dandelion, and that's largely because it was on the 2023 long list, and it wouldn't be on this one too unless it was going to be on the short list. If we're going by "library doesn't have it!" metric, which was 2/2 last year, then The Whispers. The only one's I've read are Dandelion (loved it), Pull of the Stars (gorgeous writing, but a bit didactic and gloomy), Two-Spirit Journey (good, will read again). I'd been meaning to read What I Know About You, When the Pine Needles Fall and The Other Valley anyway, so are happy they're on the list. So based on a mix of sleuthing and wishful thinking, let's call my shortlist: Dandelion, The Whispers, What I Know About You, When the Pine Needles Fall and The Other Valley.

Loved Pull of the Stars. So great to hear your thoughts on all the books. Here we go… 😊💙

I love Jan for long list as well. It gives me something to look forward to.

I have read Dandelion and Pull of the Stars loved both.

WHAT IS THE SECRET GOAL!!!??? TELL ME!!! (just kidding, but I'm excited to find out). I love these goals! I really like switching from the Giller to the Carol Shields prize. Like you I have found the Giller lists a bit samey for a few years now, plus The Controversy (I made a storygraph challenge listing all the titles by authors who'd withdrawn their names from contention in 2024, but am sort of just picking away at it, rather than making it a goal). The CS prize has a much more interesting list, at least the first few years. Last years goals for me was to read twenty books by Indigenous authors, and I think I read slightly more than that, and to read "more SF/F books" which I maybe did. I kind of floundered out on that one, though I did read a couple things I want to nominate for the Hugo awards. I think I also wanted to read the Canada Reads long list which, aside from two DNFs, I did. This year, I'm moving in August, so my goal is to buy no books except for auto-buy authors like Martha Wells katherena vermette, and to cut back on library books so they make up a quarter of my reading or less (It was 70% last year). All those books on my shelf I was going to read at some point? Are getting read, or they're getting donated. Which means abandoning any prize long lists, or other challenges. I guess I'll have to read the Hugos shortlist, as I'm voting, but that's only a handful of novels, so should be okay.

This was great. Tara I really enjoyed Invisible Prisons as well. There were a few times I felt angry and sad for the way he and others were treated. We will never know how many others were treated like this but I imagine lots. I need to check out a couple other books the two of you mentioned.

HELLO FROM CALIFORNIA 🤩😁👀

Great list of books. Loved your excitement. The Street and The Knowing are both on my TBR. 😊💙

I also really liked Skid Dogs. It was a heck of a ride, and I do wonder if it's better or worse. I think to a certain extent there's language for stuff they couldn't articulate (like the stuff Solnit explains), and maybe some sex education so that the shaming would be a little less. On the other hand: social media. I keep meaning to watch the movie of Passing, as the cast is amazing. I started the book, but didn't get back into it before it had to go to the library.

These are both great lists! I was doing the "author you've read five books by" meme, and I think A.M. Dellamonica (fantasy), C.L. Polk (also fantasy) & Jo Beverley (romance) were the only Canadian authors on the list, so I think I read a few books by a lot of people. Though Vermette will be on there once I've read Girl Called Echo. Solnit is so great!

Totally agree about Wayne Arthurson, Ann-Marie MacDonald and Helen Humphreys. Of course LM Montgomery. 😊💙

I really need to read Girl Called Echo. I know the library has all four, so it's a matter of sliding it into the list. I just finished _real ones_ and want to look at her back catalogue. What a great collection of authors in the Djinn anthology! I should check that out (tho pity about Neil Gaiman). I like the idea of Short Story Sunday. I've really been failing to read any of the zillion SF/F short stories and novelettes are online for free. There used to be a blog that linked to one a day, but then I got too behind, and I don't know if she's doing it anymore.

I'm so stoked for Rebecca to read Vonnegut! Aside from being a great book about trauma and how it dismembers time, the prose is the kind of writing that makes you stand up and cheer at how well done it is. Really amazing stuff! I'm reading _Women's Barracks_ by Tereska Torrès, which is a pulp classic about women in the Free French Army during WWII, really interesting so far. One of those books you keep hearing about, but I've never actually read.

Enjoyed this chat as ai drank my morning coffee.

Thank you so much for having me on your fabulous show!

Sorry to have missed book club. I have really been enjoying it so far, but didn't have time to finish. The writing style is very smooth and calming, I find. I *really* loved The Circle (I think more than either of you). For me it completely landed the story, which I do think of as a trilogy (certainly The Strangers is incomplete without it). Looking forward to Real Ones soonish. Narnia: I've read the series in both orders, and think in order written is best. You get neat bits of backstory on the books you've already read, which doesn't play out as well if you're doing internal chronology.

This is such a great recount of the day <3

Great Wrap up. Was fun spending the day with you at Eden Mills.

Great review. I did read Days at the Moraiski Bookshop and enjoyed it.

I have added The Brickworks to my TBR. I still need to read The Circle too. Hopefully by the end of the year. Perhaps we can all meet at Eden Mills one year. I will be doing Wordfest here in October. Always a good time. 😊💙

Rebecca's goal to read all the Eden Mills books before the next Eden Mills is so relatable, lol. I can't WAIT for you two to read the Circle. It's just such a perfect ending. Picking up the Japanese one. Sounds like a lovely comfort read. Really love Rebecca Solnit. Her books of essays mean so much to me, especially Call Them by Their True Names, and her memoir was gorgeous.

Thanks for participating in our project. I am so glad you each shared your top ten here! Care Of nearly made my top ten-I would probably have a different top ten list every day because there are so many great books. I really love Denison Avenue too. I can think of another two on the subject of gentrification: In the City of Pigs by André Forget. Little Yellow House by Carissa Halton.

Thank you both so much for sharing your lists this way. Lindy and I will be sharing all 352 books that were submitted. Stay tuned. 😊💙

I've also read 33, and I think DNFed 3 others. I've fully forgotten what was on my own list though. I should ask Jolene.

I've read 33 of the top 67 on the list. Top 10 I entered at the time: The Inconvenient Indian -- Thomas King Unless -- Carol Shields The Stone Carvers -- Jane Urquhart The Cellist of Sarajevo -- Steven Galloway Station Eleven -- Emily St. John Mandel Seven Fallen Feathers -- Tanya Talaga The Cello Suites -- Eric Siblin The Life of Pi -- Yann Martel The Outlander -- Gil Adamson The Blind Assassin -- Margaret Atwood

I'm so excited about the new Vermette book! Put it on pre-order as soon as I heard about it!

This is such an interesting prompt! At first all I could think of were horror/thrillers like Bad Cree, Moon of Crusted Snow, Cold, where the environment might actually be out to get you. From your list, it changed my mind a bit, with The Innocents, The Break (and trilogy) and Denison Ave. So then I was thinking about books that really feel like my neck of the woods is a character, and thought of Jess Housty's poetry in Crushed Wild Mint, and then Monkey Beach by Eden Robinson, and the coastal forests (Son of a Trickster, also). Greenwood, for the sections set on the west coast.

That was so fun! Thanks for sharing your conversation <3 <3 <3 I LOVED Foghorn Echoes. One of my fave books from last year. I'm on the hold list for Crooked Teeth, and this makes me even more excited about it. I remember E Lily Yu being an SF/F short story writer. I didn't know she'd moved on to contemporary fiction.

I was trying to think of an actor bio I liked, and remembered Simu Liu, who is so engaging and charming and funny. Not My Father's Son by Alan Cumming also really worked for me. I think mostly people who act may not quite get that writing is a very different skill set?

Excellent interview! I just have to read this book. I think my sister would also get something out of this book so I shared this with her. Thanks again for another really good interview!

That weed killer worked for me, too.

You two are doing so well with your goals! Great to have another book chat <3

Book chat! I'm kind of with Tara on needing some little glimmer of light in there. I can't object to impossibly bleak books, but they always feel like they're meant to be "improving" somehow, which can be a lot. I saw a bit of Ali Velshi's media tour for his new book, and he sounded really cool. Though I honestly know him more from MSNBC than anything he did in Canada. For Genre of Memoir by explaining science, I recently enjoyed As Far as the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures.

Loved Shuggie Bain and have The Street on my shelf. I’ve only heard good things. I am hoping to read some Alice Munro soon. I’m interested in Stories from Tenants Downstairs so I’ll be waiting to hear your thoughts. I still need to read Old Babes in the Wood and I’m hoping to read Helen Humphreys newest one too. Glad to hear you’ve enjoyed them both. 😊💙

I love Leo Lionni. Margaret Atwood recommendations: Cat's Eye Stone Mattress: Nine Tales Moral Disorder and Other Stories

Bookchat! It's like my birthday :D Missed this coming out last night because I was staying up too late finishing _In Search of April Raintree,_ which was amazing. Oh, that reminds me to pick up _Cold._ I love Taylor's stuff. I'm glad to hear about Belcourt's short stories being a bit more relatable. I read some of his poetry and his memoir and felt like I was an English Lit degree away from understanding what he was talking about. I'll give him another go. Hoping to get to _James_ soon, once I get it from the library. I have _Sweet Sting of Salt_ out right now, as part of reading more fantasy this year, though it sounds like it's fantasy light. Wasn't there a book from the 1950s that _The Secret of Roan Inish_ was based on? Someone I know read that recently. Yay! T. Kingfisher!

Another fun episode to listen to! I added the Lesley Crewe book to my TBR which then led me to request some of her older books. I also love Sara Paretsky and have her newest on hold. I've been hoping my library would get in the Brickworks but still hasn't so I am going to put in a special request.

Watching you two add to each others TBRs is such a delight, lol! I think the only one I've read here is Y/N, which didn't end up working for me (I felt like she ended up laughing at kpop fans more than laughing with them), but some of the prose was lovely. I'm delighted you've found T. Kingfisher (who writes middle grade as Ursula Vernon). She can vary in terms of horror content, but I haven't read that one so couldn't say.

I watched a RUclips video with your recommendation of this book series. I’m halfway through "The Liquor Vicar" and enjoying it. The first chapter was very funny and hooked me.

Really loved this episode. Just want to say first CONGRATULATIONS 🎉 And second to add that we do mummering in Acadian communities in Nova Scotia as well. We call it Mi-Carême and it takes place during lent. But otherwise very very similar. :)

Interesting and fun podcast. You two are so much fun.

Great interview.

You could put all the titles in a comment and pin it to the top, I think? If you can't edit the live stream's info. Really fun to see the covers and your faces <3 I like spicy romances well enough, but kind of miss the ManChest bodice ripper covers that indicated the content would be that. The cartoon cover trend that's in right now I can't tell spicy from closed door from YA. Jawbone sounds great!

I really need to read some Percival Everett and Tommy Orange. The Reason You Walk is on my TBR - I think because of you. I also can't wait to read Fire Weather. The Red Chesterfield... Yesssssss!!!! Adding Jawbone to my TBR. Hmmm... wide open, spicy romances!! Great video, friends. 😊💙

I like the idea of highlighting author events! I 100% thought your first workshop project would've been a bookshelf, haha. I really like _Commotion_ when I remember to listen to it. I didn't know he'd written a book. It sounds a lot like the show, in the topics it covers. I think hockey romances probably come out of all the hockey fanfic, which was really popular about ten years ago. The only Cather I've read is _The Song of the Lark,_ which didn't rock my socks. I should maybe give her another try. I did like the prose itself a lot, and there were some wonderful character moments. Oh! Land girls! I've just been reading about them! Hopefully you can chat with Ms. Humphreys. I really loved _Better Living Through Birding!_ I knew a lot of his comics work already, but not that he was the person responsible for the swimsuit issues, for example, and really enjoyed how he wrote about his life. Just finished _Fayne,_ off Tara's rec, I think, which was fantastic. I'm currently reading something called _How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures_ by Sabrina Imbler, which is really interesting so far. Less poetic than _World of Wonders_ I think, but covering similar ground.

Loved Dallas. He taught us so much.

That was lovely! I'm glad the schedules lined up to make it happen <3

Always love hearing from Ali. Great interview. 😊💙