The annual Word on the Street Festival took place in six cities across Canada in September. CBC Books was at the festival in Toronto, which was held on Sunday, September 25, and we took the opportunity to ask some of the guest authors and editors what they've been reading.

Stacey May Fowles is a Toronto writer and editor. She's published two novels — Be Good (2007) and Fear of Fighting (in 2009), with illustrations by Marlena Zuber. Her most recent book is an anthology she co-edited with Megan Griffith-Greene, She's Shameless: Women write about growing up, rocking out and fighting back. She recommended Ami McKay's newest novel, The Virgin Cure. Here's why:

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The Virgin Cure
by Ami McKay

Buy this book at:

From the publisher:

" The much-anticipated follow-up to the phenomenon that is The Birth House, The Virgin Cure secures Ami McKay's place as one of our most beguiling storytellers.

"I am Moth, a girl from the lowest part of Chrystie Street, born to a slum-house mystic and the man who broke her heart." So begins The Virgin Cure, a novel set in the tenements of lower Manhattan in the year 1871. As a young child, Moth's father smiled, tipped his hat and walked away from her forever. The summer she turned twelve, her mother sold her as a servant to a wealthy woman, with no intention of ever seeing her again. ..."

Read more at Random House of Canada.