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Congratulations to Trevor Cole! His novel Practical Jean, took home the 2011 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour. The prize was announced at a luncheon ceremony in Leacock's hometown of Orillia, Ontario. Practical Jean follows suburban housewife Jean Horemarsh as she...

The winner of the 2011 Stephean Leacock Medal for Humour will be revealed this afternoon at a luncheon in Stephen Leacock's hometown of Orillia, Ontario. Before the winner is declared, check out our Q&As with the five nominees: Trevor Cole,...

All month long, we've been inviting you to submit limericks about your favourite books and authors. From Anne Shirley to Harry Potter and from Mark Twain to Claudia Dey, hundreds of characters and their creators got the limerick treatment. Thanks...

To me, mirth and murder are an unlikely pairing. I read crime fiction for its depiction of the dark side of human nature -- our capacity for greed, revenge, ruthlessness, etc., writ large and grippingly, and often with a...

The Literary Limerick contest is winding down. You have only until Sunday, April 24, at midnight ET to get your entry in! Two lucky people will take home a Sony e-Reader. Don't worry if you think your limerick lacks in...

On April 1, the Stephen Leacock Association announced the five finalists for the 2011 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour. We sent all five nominees the same questionnaire in order to get a little more insight into who these writers are,...

On April 1, the Stephen Leacock Association announced the five finalists for the 2011 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour. We sent all five nominees the same questionnaire in order to get a little more insight into who these writers are,...

The limericks and laughs keep rolling in for our Literary Limerick contest! Don't have yours written yet? That's okay — you have until April 24 to get yours in! And don't worry if your limerick isn't destined to become a...

On April 1, the Stephen Leacock Association announced the five finalists for the 2011 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour. We sent all five nominees the same questionnaire in order to get a little more insight into who these writers...

Before Tina Fey was the hotshot executive producer of a critically acclaimed sitcom, an award-winning actress and bestselling writer (if we didn't like her so much, we'd absolutely hate her), she was a struggling comedian performing improv shows with the...

On April 1, the Stephen Leacock Association announced the five finalists for the 2011 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour. We sent all five nominees the same questionnaire in order to get a little more insight into who these writers are,...

Tina Fey is the latest in a long line of comedians and professional funny people who have added "author" to their resumé, with her recent essay collection, Bossypants. (Mindy Kaling will join this list too, in November!) With celebrity books...

The limericks for this month's Sony e-reader contest are rolling in. Every Friday in April, we are going to highlight a few of our favourites. Want to enter? It's easy! Share your own literary limerick (the funnier, the better) in our...

According to Mark Twain, one of the fathers of American literature, creator of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer and owner of one of the best moustaches in literary history, "There are several kinds of stories, but only one difficult kind...

On April 1, the five finalists for the 2011 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour were announced. The annual award honours (in the words of the Leacock Association's press release) "the book judged to be the most humorous one published...

Canada is filled with funny ladies, so imagine our disappointment to discover that all five titles on the shortlist for the 2011 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour were written by men. While they are all stellar writers worthy of a...

Since April traditionally brings us variable weather and gloomy skies (source of those inevitable "April showers"), we felt it would be appropriate to turn to literature for some light relief. Which brings us to our April Sony e-Reader contest! We...

We partied for the month of March, and now we're tired. We want to curl up with some funny books. But there were good times to be had this past month. We talked to author Dorothy Ellen Palmer about...

  Urban fiction is a literary genre growing in popularity. Synonymous with "street lit," "gangsta lit" and "hip hop lit," it deals with drugs, violence, sexuality, gangsters and hip hop, and is well established in the United States but only...

With the CBC Hip Hop Summit fast approaching, we decided to ask people who know a thing or two about hip hop -- journalists, artists and producers -- to recommend their favourite hip hop reads to the CBC Book Club....

In 1957, it took nine literary critics in a highly publicized and controversial court case to determine whether or not Allen Ginsberg's Howl had literary merit. At the time, the poetic musings of this controversial Beat poet were viewed by...

What would you do if your request to interview Ice-T was rejected, but you knew his trailer was right around the corner? Would you give up and go home? Or head over, knock and see what happens? At the time,...

"It's impossible not to end up being a parody of what you thought you were." — Keith Richards, Life "Singers aren't supposed to have dairy before a show, but we all know I'm a rule breaker. Pizza is just so...

What would you do if someone approached you, offering a chance at fame and fortune? This is the central question in Jill Murray's second YA novel, Rhythm and Blues. When 16-year-old Alya Merchant meets producer RJ Cormier at a breakdancing show, he...

Canadian folk icon Sylvia Tyson has published a debut novel that spans four centuries, with lots of music played along the way. A celebrated wordsmith for many decades, Tyson has won applause both for her music and for mentoring...

Maestro's book Stick to Your Vision is part-memoir, part self-help. But the book has its origins in his 1998 song of the same name. After Stick to Your Vision came out, he began to meet fan after fan who told...

Leonard Cohen is one of Canada's most renowned poets and songwriters.Born in Montreal's Westmount neighbourhood in 1934, he's been a fixture on our literary and music scene for almost 60 years. And through it all, his life and career have been every bit...

"If my slight Muse do please these curious days / The pain be mine, but thine shall be the praise."                Sonnet 28, William Shakespeare American novelist and performer Julie Klausner is a prime example of an anti-muse, though she...

After a few months of heavy lifting here at the CBC Book Club, we want to lighten up. April, after all, kicks off with April Fools' Day, the annual celebration of good-natured trickery and deceit. But that day also has...

This month, we have two Sony e-readers to give away to two lucky readers. How do you win? By making a music mash-up, of course! You can find all the details here.   If you're in need of some inspiration,...

When I asked Dorothy Ellen Palmer what her book, When Fenelon Falls, was about, she had an interesting answer. "A hurricane, a bastard and a bear."But I would add music to the mix. Fourteen-year-old Jordan May March is different....

Rhythm and rhyme are essential tools of a songwriter's trade, but they're also traditionally associated with poetry. So what's the difference between writing music lyrics and lines of verse? The divide between poetry and song doesn't seem that wide, which...

Authors need inspiration to write a good book, but sometimes books themselves can be the source of inspiration. Books open us up to new experiences, but we can also hide behind them. Judging a book by its cover is like judging...

"I've always believed in motion and action, in following connections wherever they take me, and in not getting entrenched. My life has been more poetry than prose, more about unpredictable leaps and link than simple steady movement, or worse,...

Have you ever read a book and later heard a song that embodies the story that book is trying to tell? What if you were the author of that book? That's what happened to Michael Ondaatje, when he heard...

"I listened to a lot of Mariah Carey when I was writing this novel." This is only one of the many admissions Nick Crowe made when asked about words, music and how they came together in A Cold Night for...

Dear Justin, Where do I start? You are cute and talented and have millions of teen girls throwing themselves at your feet. If I were twelve eight five years younger, I'd be right there with them. You appear to...

Sondheim, You Rule (To the tune of Send in the Clowns) Does it make sense? Rhyme true or near? Writing a song's really hard no big deal, I'm trying to do it here. Sondheim, you rule.   Something amiss? Not...

We all have our favourite playlists that shift with our moods, from the high-energy tunes that set us dancing to songs in the key of mellow when we're kicking back. But for writers, listening to music can be more than...

There is nothing like a good mash-up to get people on the dance floor. Thanks in part to Glee, music mash-ups are more popular than ever. Who knew that Singin' in the Rain could be combined so effectively with Umbrella? Or...

The relationship between music and words is multifaceted and complex. Words can enhance a musical experience, journalists can write about music and concerts, and musicians can write about their reigns as rock stars. But what happens when authors take pen...

It's March. Do you know what we do in March? We party. Literary style. What do you imagine is on Justin Bieber's reading list? (Bryan Bedder/Getty Images)   So much is happening on the Canadian music scene this month. CBC...

What a month it has been, folks. Canada Reads happened. And (more important, if I do say so myself) the inaugural CBC Book Club Awards happened. For the first time ever, the CBC Book Club created awards, but gave you...

We had two exciting contests running this month: a draw for 10 The King's Speech prize packs, courtesy of Penguin Canada, and a draw for two Sony Readers. To enter The King's Speech contest, you needed to nominate a book for...

A riveting tale of a man-eating beast prowling a remote area of Russia is the winner of the coveted Bookie Award for best overall book in 2010. There's no money, only bragging rights, attached to the Bookie. But earlier this...

Thousands of readers across the country gathered at CBC Book Club to vote for their favourites in the inaugural CBC Book Club Awards, and to guess which title in each category might take home the coveted Bookie Beaver. They then waited with...

The polls have all closed, and the votes are being tallied. The winners of the first Bookie Awards will be announced tomorrow. This month, the CBC Book Club took a cue from the movie world's biggest event, the Oscars,...

On Sunday, February 27, Hollywood's glitterati will gather at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, California, to celebrate the best in cinema in the past year. The Academy Awards are the biggest night in film. Everyone will be wondering: How...

The Bookies are the CBC Book Club Awards, celebrating the best in literature in 2010, as chosen by you! Join us for this month-long celebration and be sure to champion your favourite reads.   The final eight Bookies categories...

The hardest thing to do is say goodbye. If you love something, set it free. Life is like a box of chocolates. In attempting to write this post, I was faced with every cliché in the proverbial book. In the...

UPDATE: This contest is now closed. Thanks to everyone who entered and be sure to check back with the CBC Book Club for future opportunities to win a Sony Reader.   The CBC Book Club has two Sony Readers...

The Bookies are the CBC Book Club Awards, celebrating the best in literature in 2010, as chosen by you! Join us for this month-long celebration and be sure to champion your favourite reads.   Today, we unveil the shortlists...

It's a great moment for Canadian musicians. Arcade Fire took home the Grammy for best album on Sunday night. Drake has garnered critical and commercial acclaim around the world. And Justin Bieber has won the hearts of millions of...

The Bookies are the CBC Book Club Awards, celebrating the best in literature in 2010, as chosen by you! Join us for this month-long celebration and be sure to champion your favourite reads.   Today, we're rolling out the...

The Bookies are the CBC Book Club Awards, celebrating the best in literature in 2010, as chosen by you! Join us for this month-long celebration and be sure to champion your favourite reads.   Earlier this week we posted the...

The Bookies are the CBC Book Club Awards, celebrating the best in literature in 2010, as chosen by you! Join us for this month-long celebration and be sure to champion your favourite reads.   Today, we're rolling out the nominees...

The Bookies are the CBC Book Club Awards, celebrating the best in literature in 2010, as chosen by you! Join us for this month-long celebration and be sure to champion your favourite reads.   After much deliberation and vote-counting, the...

The Bookies are the CBC Book Club awards, celebrating the best in literature in 2010, as chosen by you! Join us for this month-long celebration and be sure to champion your favourite reads.   The Academy Awards. The Golden Globes....

The Bookies are the CBC Book Club Awards, celebrating the best in literature in 2010, as chosen by you! Join us for this month-long celebration and be sure to champion your favourite reads. The Bookies will consist of 16 categories...

The Bookies are the CBC Book Club Awards, celebrating the best in literature in 2010, as chosen by you! Join us for this month-long celebration and be sure to champion your favourite reads.   The Bookies will consist of 16...

The CBC Book Club is proud to present our first ever Bookies Awards. Since it's a brand new venture we asked you to help with the categories. Here's how things are going to roll out this month... Tomorrow and Thursday,...

Another month has come and gone. We hope Love and Sex in a Cold Climate has warmed you up, whether it was reading the great CBC romance novel challenge, dressing a Fabio paper doll, or listening to Claudia Dey...

    Men, Claudia Dey wants to teach you how to be a bush pilot. No, not the backwoods outdoorsy kind. Although she'd encourage that if you wanted her to. She wants to teach you how to navigate your lady...

What a month it has been. We laughed and cried. We explored books covering sex, love and romance. We learned what it takes to write a romance novel. All month, Gia and Lachlan were never far from my thoughts. I...

I love giving books as gifts. Books for birthdays, books for Christmas, books for graduation. Books for no reason at all. And I love getting books. There's nothing more inspiring for a relationship than to receive a book that you've...

It's a tale as old as time: girl meets boy, girl is generally annoyed with boy, girl and boy confront some kind of crisis that strengthens their bond — and then they marry and live happily ever after. This...

Game show contestant: "Representations of desire, for $500.00." Host: "A man in an open shirt, a Fabio-esque (or Fabio himself) muscular six pack, with lots of hair blowing in the wind. He's towering over a usually limp damsel in...

    "Sexy" isn't usually a term that most of us would use to describe Canada. But if you believe author Jeff Pearce, all that is about to change. Jeff Pearce has written everything from farmland reportage to erotica. This eclectic career...

Thank you to all the eagle-eyed readers who offered suggestions for my blooming romance between Gia Maniscalco, the graduate student running away from who she was, and Lachlan Thomas, a tired professor who needs a little inspiration to get back...

Oh, sex in literature. We know readers love it. They long for that scene that makes them swoon and causes goosebumps. When it's good, it's very, very good. And when it's bad, it's horrid. But what about when it's downright...

How Many Stars? by cobalt123It's that time of year when red carpets are rolled out and celebrities stroll up them toward glorious victory and self-indulgent acceptance speeches — or disappointing defeat and a pretence of smiling and applauding when...

Warning: The following post uses guidette vernacular. A visit to Urban Dictionary may be necessary. I noted two common reactions when friends discovered I was reading Nicole Polizzi's debut novel A Shore Thing. First, the lip curl of disdain —...

Romance novels are one of the most popular genres of literature in the world. They sell in hundreds of countries and in hundreds of languages. You can find them at your grocery store, have them delivered direct to your...

This past Saturday, I attended the Toronto Romance Writers' Romance 101 workshop and learned all about the art of writing a publication-worthy romance. The romance genre is formulaic, and that predictability is part of its appeal. However, it takes a...

RETRO POSTER - There's Romance in Books by EnoksonEach month, one of my favourite posts is checking in with book bloggers who specialize in our theme. Today, bloggers on romance books share insights on what they love about the...

What a creative, inspiring collection of readers we have! Your romance novel suggestions blew me away! Nora and Danielle would be proud. The original plan was to randomly draw different elements of each pitch to create one mind-blowing romantic mash-up....

When we think of the covers of romance novels, we almost invariably think of Fabio Lanzoni who has become synonymous with bodice-ripping books. This winter season, we thought it would be fun to provide some weather-appropriate wardrobe for the...

Rebecca Eckler might be one of the busiest writers around. She has not one, but two new books out -- one a novel, the other non-fiction -- that fit nicely into our Love and Sex in a Cold Climate theme....

You can't think about love and sex in literature without thinking about romance novels. Those dark and dashing men. Those sexy and sophisticated women. Ah, to be young, beautiful and star-crossed. With so many romance writers out there, I began to...

The Modern Family Mad Lib podcast contest was so successful that we're asking for your help again this month. Only this time, we're moving from Mad Libs to Mad Lips. (Feel free to groan over that one.) We've asked the...

Happy Snow by tamaki from FlickrMaybe you're cracking the spine of a good book you got over the holidays and reading by a nice warm fire or radiator. Or perhaps you're actually relishing the outdoor activities that come with...

That's a wrap, as they would probably say on the set of the hit comedy show Modern Family. With December behind us, we're bidding adieu to yet another Book Club theme. First, let's give props to all the people...

Our Modern Family month has come to an end and you know what that means — our monthly contest is closed as well. The Mad Lib podcast is (un)officially one of the most hilarious book club soundscapes to date! Thank...

December is coming to a close and so is Modern Family month. We thought it would be a nice tribute to take a look at some of the sibling writers who have shared their works with the world. Comments came...

It's the burden of progeny — the desire to make our parents proud. Deep down we want them to brag to their friends about how great we are. For writer and ex-model Mishna Wolff, that meant hanging with the homies....

Happy holidays, CBC Book Clubbers! All month long we've been exploring the idea of the Modern Family in fiction and non-fiction, and what a month it's been! We've heard from some amazing authors in our weekly podcast; brought you...

With the announcement of the Modern Family theme this month, I immediately thought: DAVID SEDARIS! David Sedaris is an American writer — a humorist, essayist, comedian and radio contributor. He's also an all-around hilarious wordsmith. While his humour is an...

I don't care how modern your family is, there are just some things that you don't want to talk about at the dinner table. But after a couple of glasses of spiked eggnog, your judgment might not be top notch....

Nicolas Dickner's first novel, Nikolski, sold like hotcakes (beaver tails?) in Quebec, and was translated into many langues. But it only cracked the Anglo-Canadian consciousness when it was chosen for Canada Reads. It went on to beat out the other...

I recently picked up Stitches: A Memoir by David Small (McCelland & Stewart). In it, he describes how "at the age of fourteen he awoke from a supposedly harmless operation to discover his throat had been slashed and a vocal...

Last week we talked to Meg Federico about Welcome to the Departure Lounge, her memoir of caring for her aging mother. This week, we go from fact to fiction and follow what happens to Jean Horemarsh after she spends...

A Winter Love Story — free creative commons (Photo credit: Pink Sherbet Photography) As the temperature plunges across the land, more and more of us will be turning our attention to indoor activities such as reading and, um,....knocking boots....

It's Modern Family month here at the CBC Book Club. Tolstoy once wrote, "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." As a homage to the quirkier side of kinsfolk — which has...

Nowadays, what family tale is complete without ...a tail? Whether it's a cat (first choice for the most discerning), dog or some exotic creature (baby hippo, anyone?), pets have a place at the table — or under it, like the...

Last week we talked to author Iain Reid about growing up. This week we turn to an author, Meg Federico, who writes about growing old. In her memoir, Welcome to the Departure Lounge (Random House of Canada), Meg documents...

It's that time again! Time to celebrate the holidays with friends and family. But what to do when Aunt Jenny hugs your new boyfriend a little too hard? At least you can turn to some great Canadian literature for...

Early ipod by x-ray delta one from Flickr For Modern Family month I thought I'd check in with a few bloggers who write about the trials and tribulations of raising kids these days. Our guests today come from a...

  In the Book Club team's post-meeting wind-downs, we sometimes like to talk literary "what ifs." For example: What if...William Shakespeare was a beat poet? Would his work read more like Allen Ginsberg's Howl? Would he have called himself Billy...

No fictional family better represents this month's theme than the family at the centre of the show that inspired it: The Dunphy/Prithetts, the clan in ABC's smash sitcom Modern Family. We thought we'd take some time to give back to...

When Iain Reid, a 27-year-old university graduate found himself out of work and out of luck, he took a small gig at a radio station near his childhood home. He thought he'd move in with his parents before getting back...

The holiday season is upon us and we've got another chance for two lucky winners to receive a Sony Reader Digital Book. This month we're mixing it up a little and asking for phone-in submissions tied to our Modern Family...

I grew up in the middle of the woods. Our next door neighbours were a five-minute walk away and the first time I was in a city (I was five years old), I marvelled at the houses lining the...

Harry Potter: he came, he saw, he conquered. Not just in books and on the silver screen, but here at the CBC Book Club as well. Not even the imaginative orphan Anne Shirley nor the determination of Clary Fray...

Thanks to everyone who participated in our Fractured Fairy Tale Mash-Up contest. In all, we received more than 700 entries through our online form and through Flickr and Twitter. Congratulations to the two winners of the Sony Reader Digital...

Sherlock Holmes is one of literary's most beloved characters. But he always kept his past a secret. Shane Peacock was a writer wanting to break into the young adult genre. Could this be a match made in heaven? Three years...

Lesley Livingston (Photo by John Rait) Lesley Livingston, author of Wondrous Strange, Darklight and the upcoming Tempestuous, stopped by our online Book Club to talk all things Fae and YA. Follow her on Twitter at @LesLivingston. Q: First, thanks...

Welcome to the final round of the CBC Book Club YA Death Match. We started with 40. Now we're down to the last three. Who will take the title of Ultimate Champion? It's in your hands. Anne of Green...

Hundreds of entries are pouring in each week in our Fractured Fairy Tale Mash-Up contest. For your chance to win one of two Sony Reader Digital Books, follow in the footsteps of some of these fine entries below. And,...

When your dad is the wolf who killed Little Red Riding Hood, life is no fairy tale. That's the premise for Robert Paul Weston's latest book, Dust City. A modern-day adaptation of Little Red Riding Hood, Dust City follows Henry...

Round three continues as Shadowhunter Clary Fray goes head-to-head with the super-sleuth Boy Sherlock Holmes. Who will continue into the next round to go up against Anne of Green Gables? Only you can decide! Clary Fray Pfft. Are you kidding...

Yesterday, Wendy Phillips was awarded the 2010 Governor General's Award for children's literature, text, for her book Fishtailing. It's a story of four high school students: Tricia, the good girl just starting to rebel; Kyle, a budding musician in...

Welcome to round three of the CBC Book Club. Ten beloved YA characters battled it out last week and now only five remain. Anne of Green Gables, the feisty redhead, took them all out and secured the most votes overall...

Since we're exploring YA books this month at the CBC Book Club, I thought I'd check in with a few of my fave experts on the subject in the blogging world. Our guests on the blog today are probably no...

December is a time when we tend to think about family as the holidays approach. There was a time when the notion of family was idealized in a Norman Rockwell-esque manner: a mom, a dad, two kids, and even...

This week, writers, publishers and lovers of children's literature gathered in Toronto for the Canadian Children's Literature Awards — a yearly gala celebrating the best fiction and non-fiction books for children and young adults published in Canada. The evening is...

All is fair in love and war, right? Well, the same can be said for this month's YA Death Match. And it sure is becoming a doozy. Let's recap: In round two, this week, we have five battles. The character...

Since we announced our Fractured Fairy Tale contest last week for a chance to win a Sony Reader Digital Book, we've received close to 200 entries! If you're looking for inspiration, here are some of the best entries we've seen...

Can all-American girl Elena Gilbert defeat tough-as-nails Clary Fray? It's up to you to decide, folks. Elena Gilbert What happens when you take the prettiest and the most popular girl at Robert E. Lee High School and turn her into...

Saskatoon author Arthur Slade has won the 2010 TD Canadian Children's Literature Award for his spy thriller set in Victorian England, The Hunchback Assignments (HarperCollins). The award comes with a cash prize of $25,000, which was handed out at a...

Two beloved teen girls show their ugly side when they head to the ring: Nancy Drew, everyone's favourite teen sleuth is getting ready to battle Anne Shirley, the feistiest redhead YA has ever known. Anne Shirley Lucy Maud Montgomery introduced...

Only one of these precocious tweens can move on, but which one shall it be? Here's how they stack up! Harry Potter The YA sensation with the lightning bolt scar needs no introduction. But just in case you've been living...

  Hundreds of votes were cast in the YA Death Match royal rumble round. Forty YA characters came to the mat, but only eight survived, the top two from each division. Can we get a round of applause for those...

Do you remember seventh grade? I certainly do. A new school, new teacher, new friends. That meant new haircut, new clothes and new fears. I was so unsure of what was going to come my way. Grade 7 is a...

Young Adult fiction isn't just for the under-20 crowd. Whether you read these titles proudly, prefer the privacy of a digital book, or like to dabble in masking your novels with a DIY book jacket, do you ever wonder what...

Once upon a time it was YA month at the CBC Book Club. The team decided to hold a Fractured Fairy Tales Mash-up contest in which members would get another chance to win one of two Sony Reader Digital Books!...

We here at the CBC Book Club get into heated discussions about our favourite YA characters all the time. "Anne of Green Gables is the best!" "No, Dawn Schafer from the Baby-Sitters Club!" "Katniss kicks serious butt!" You get the...

This month it's all about Young Adult fiction in the Book Club. I first read what are now called YA books when books aimed at teens were still filed under "Fiction for Young People." In high school, I devoured books...

We here at the CBC Book Club have a secret: most of us didn't know much about political thrillers when we started this month. "Those cheap paperbacks at the grocery store?" we asked. "Why would we write about those?" Thankfully,...

William Gibson is an author on the edge. On the edge of exploding into mainstream fiction (he's revered in science fiction and cyberpunk genres, but isn't necessarily known by mainstream audiences) and on the edge of the future. His...

Arthur Beauchamp, the wily West Coast lawyer with a knack for cracking tough cases, is taking his act to the House of Commons — or at least his wife, Margaret Blake, is, and Arthur tags along. Margaret is serving as...

As we prepare to close the file on this month's focus on spy novels, congratulations go out to the winners of our Political Thrillers Mash-Up contest, each of whom will receive a Sony Reader Digital Book. Thanks again to everyone...

Meet Zach Barrows. He's a 25-year-old phenom in contemporary Washington politics, who is quickly climbing the ladder to stardom. But his rise comes to an abrupt halt when he's discovered in bed with the president's 19-year-old daughter and placed on...

This month our call for the top 10 political thrillers elicited an hommage to five outstanding writers in the genre, rather than discrete titles. So, without further ado, here's the list. 1. John le CarréDorothy McIntosh on Facebook said: "To...

Avner Mandelman has lived in Canada for many years, but until recently he has been better known for his financial savvy than for his literary talents. He's the director of Venator Capital Management and writes a bi-weekly column on investment...

"The camel died at noon." How could I resist buying Ken Follett's 1980 novel, The Key to Rebecca, after reading that first line? There I was browsing books at one of those rolling stands in a hospital lobby (no medical...

Want to talk Hunger Games next month? Let us know! As you all know, we focus on a different theme each month at the CBC Book Club. In September we looked at reading in the digital age. This month,...

Photo credit: Marjorie Harris I've already come out publicly as a non-fan of political thrillers, so I thought I would turn to someone with an informed opinion for input on this month's Top 10 list. I got in touch...

On the big screen we've seen some literary spies come to life. But what makes an espionage agent sexy? Is it the take-charge attitude, being cool under pressure, a knack for romance — or a combination of all these things?...

Robin Spano isn't a political-thriller writer. But this first-time mystery novelist gives the genre a lot of credit. It taught her the importance of setting a scene, of developing tension and of creating complex characters: basically every lesson a budding...

The Brits have their political sex scandals. The Americans have C.I.A. agents on the hunt and power struggles on Capitol Hill. Lots of ammunition for political thrillers by bestselling authors in those countries. What about us? We have our...

Our political thrillers mash-up contest is underway and we've already received some fun entries. To enter you just need to reimagine a classic OR a real-life event as a political thriller then submit a short piece on our online form...

I'm a big fan of murder mysteries — at least of that sizable subsection of it featuring gloomy Scandinavian detectives. But political thrillers? Nyet — the closest I've come is The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, the final volume...

This week on the Book Club, we've been talking an awful lot about John le Carré. And why not? He's the author who has defined the genre of political thriller, pumping out dazzling novels filled with twists and turns...

John le Carré is an elusive guy, which I suppose is not surprising for someone who used to be a "spook," as he puts it, a spy, working undercover. I'd been trying to get an interview with him for some...

Book Club members, here's your mission, should you choose to accept it: Reimagine a classic OR a real-life event as a political thriller. That's right, it's political thriller month and we're looking for your mash-ups! You can submit entries...

Start with a juicy secret, add a pinch of deception, whip up a power struggle, fold in a shocking betrayal and you have the ingredients for a political thriller. This well-tested recipe is as old as our written memory....

This month the spotlight is on political thrillers, and as usual we want your recommendations. It's a genre I haven't dipped into for a while. Be sure to send your favourite thriller reads our way! Growing up, I read everything....

And so we bid adieu to this month's theme at the CBC Book Club, the future of reading in the digital age. It was another great month of lively discussion, particularly when it came to the topic of Reading 2.0...

In this week's podcast, we hear from Terry Fallis, a former political strategist turned satirical novelist. After spending more than 20 years in the vicinity of Parliament Hill, Terry decided to put his insider knowledge to use and wrote The...

Do librarians ever have time to slow down and ponder how much their lives have changed in the digital age? How could they, what with keeping up with big and small questions ("Where's the washroom?" and "What's the meaning...

Two upstart publishers with little capital are sitting in a café. They're mapping out how to market a manuscript they're courting, The Purple Dora, by a new writer on the block. Brunette: "The goal should be to publish The Purple...

FACT: Benjamin Rivers will lead us all to the future of reading. What is that future, exactly? Well, he isn't sure yet, and for all anyone knows it won't actually be him who leads us across today's ocean to...

This month, the CBC Book Club has been examining the future of books in the digital age. Author Gary Shteyngart explores the same topic in his latest novel, Super Sad True Love Story. It's a dystopian tale set in a...

All month we've been talking about reading in the digital age — and who would have more to say on this topic than Cory Doctorow, blogger, author, technologist and digital visionary? Cory was giving away books online before it...

Marci Catania is an avid CBC Book Club member, regularly chatting with us on Facebook and Twitter. She enters our contests too, and recently won a Sony e-reader from us, which, once she got used to it, changed her...

I'll admit, even though I'm an early adopter, I don't have an e-reader. The reason is two-fold: I always need to have the very best in technology out there. E-readers are changing so fast and new ones are coming...

Though we're focusing on the future of reading this month at the Book Club, we thought a look back might provide a helpful context. So here's a quick trip through time (and some selected trivia), beginning with the origins of...

"Unacceptable!" That was a colleague's opening salvo, a reflexive door slammed shut and dead-bolted thrice in the face of my newest purchase: an iPad. There were recriminations; barbed tweets that sampled a taxonomy of words suffixed in "-bag." My iPad...

The internet is rewiring your brain.Maybe you've been hearing a lot about this lately. I know I have. The New York Times ran an incredibly popular series on the potential perils of constant connectivity this summer. Author Nicholas Carr's...

  In this week's podcast, Hal Niedzviecki, writer, culture commentator, editor and publisher of Broken Pencil magazine, muses on the current "peep culture" and the future of reading. Hal is the author of several books, including Hello, I'm Special and...

Our Innovative Authors contest is in full swing. As I said in my post yesterday, writers' views of the future often fall into two camps: dystopian and utopian. Book Club member Don Moore has already submitted two entries, one...

Since we're discussing the digital age this month at the CBC Book Club, we thought we'd put a question out to you: Which authors have been best at predicting the future? (We're putting together a Top 10 list, and...

 "So there's this thing called Twitter..." is how Justin Halpern, author of Sh** My Dad Says, broke the news to his dad that he'd been secretly transmitting to the public the outrageous and profane comments his father would make throughout...

Hannah's post about the future of reading struck a chord with many of you! Some of you love e-readers, some of you hate them, but either way, it seems everyone loves talking about them. It's true that the technology...

In this week's podcast, Nora Young, host of CBC's Spark, drops by to talk to us about the future of reading. In addition to listening to Spark, you can hear Nora's trendspotting reports on her podcast Sniffer, recorded with...

When you start talking about reading devices with hard-core book traditionalists, you're entering tricky territory. This is a complicated issue. It's not a simple matter of choosing the cold plastic feel of an electronic tablet over the crisp grain...

This month at the CBC Book Club we're talking about reading in the digital age. So, of course, we've got a brand new contest fittingly giving away two shiny new Sony Reader Digital Books! Setting books in the future provides ample opportunity for writers to dream up new ideas with promises of hover cars and jet packs. Well, we're asking you to submit your fave innovations by authors (whether real or fictional) through our online form, through Facebook or on Twitter

The book is dead. Long live the book! Welcome to the future of reading. This July, Amazon.com reported that e-books for the Kindle outsold hardcover books by 143 to 100 in the second quarter of 2010. By the end...

Our Book Club members really have something to say when their favourite books get turned into movies. We asked you to dish on the best, most amazing, I-can't-believe-they-got-it-right adaptations, as well as the OMG, most terrible, I-can't-believe-how-badly-they-messed-this-up film versions...

In today's podcast, author Alissa York and film critic Eli Glasner talk favourite books and movies. Fiction writer Alissa York dropped by the CBC Book Club and told us about her favourite authors, punk music and why she loves...

Image credit: Dress Up 24/7 When a book makes the leap to the big screen, the publisher often slaps a photo from the film on a new edition and rushes it into stores in time for the movie's release....

It's (gasp) September 1 already! I can hardly believe it's time to say good-bye to summer... But the Book Club's summer could last all year long if you follow the Critics' Corner Contest recommendations. There's a whole slew of...

Image credit: Dress Up 24/7 I make it no secret that I've been a long-time fan of anime. My childhood was spent watching shows like Robotech, Spaceketeers, Star Blazers and Astroboy. In my later years, I became fascinated with...

In a letter to a BBC producer, C. S. Lewis once wrote, "Anthropomorphic animals, when taken out of narrative into actual visibility, always turn into buffoonery or nightmare." He was so strongly opposed to the creation of live-action versions...

In today's podcast, you can hear Margaret Atwood talking about her chilling futuristic novel The Handmaid's Tale, in an interview that aired on CBC's Morningside in 1985. The story takes place in the Republic of Gilead, a military dictatorship...

Once upon a time (11 years ago), a girl child was born to a book lover. In 2005, they went to a film called Nanny McPhee ("Small c, big P") and enjoyed it mightily. More years passed, and Nanny...

Our month of looking at movie adaptations is soon coming to a close and so will our Critics' Corner contest. So, I thought I'd take a moment to give a shout-out to those who submitted entries from Facebook, Twitter...

Okay, okay. We've heard a lot from you, faithful Book Club members, about the minefield that is movie adaptions. We can basically hear your collective gasp of horror every time we suggest that maybe, just maybe, the movie might...

As we've seen in this month's focus on adaptations, Hollywood draws much inspiration from books. And sometimes people draw inspiration from movies. I spoke to a few folks who made real changes in their lives because of something they...

One of my absolute favourite film adaptations is Orlando, from the novel by Virginia Woolf. Tilda Swinton stars as the young Orlando, who lives for centuries as a man and then as a woman. The film's rendition of this...

What happens when a Truebie (a.k.a. a True Blood fan) with a penchant for writing sets her sights on a book deal? Becca Wilcott is the author of Truly, Madly, Deadly: The Unofficial True Blood Companion (ECW Press). Sharp...

Adapting books into movies is a constant source of inspiration in Hollywood, but turning movies into books is a surefire way to make some extra cash. A movie script that is turned into a novel is called a novelization...

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is polarizing. The adaptation of cartoonist Bryan Lee O'Malley's celebrated graphic novels will cleave audiences, confound critics and widen the cultural fault lines that punctuate every generation. And this is why it succeeds. Set...

Here at the CBC Book Club, we're big fans of a good story. The same goes for the folks in Hollywood. Be it a stimulating read or a wildly imaginative film, it all starts with a meaty tale. All...

Books and films: I love them both, but oddly enough, it's as if they exist in parallel universes of storytelling. I tend to avoid screen adaptations of books I love — why spoil a good thing? — and once...

Books come in all forms and so do the characters contained within their pages. A great writer allows us to connect with heroes and villains in a visceral way, but how better to become intimate with a literary person...

My imagination is a pretty powerful thing. It can take branches outside my window and turn them into murderous fingertips in about five seconds. Which is why I generally try to cut film adaptations some slack. If they're competing...

One of our favourite things to do here at the Book Club is to hear what you avid readers out there have to say. When it comes to great insight and strong opinion, you never cease to amaze us!...

Since the early days of film, many works of literature have been adapted for the big screen — some with better results than others. With that in mind, the CBC Book Club presents:...

Ramona Geraldine Quimby is probably one of the literary characters I know best. I grew up with Beverly Cleary's best-selling books about the rambunctious girl, and in my imagination, Klickitat Street and the Quimby's weren't a fictional family in...

What's a rotten tomato to some is a chef-d'oeuvre to others. That's why during film adaptation month we're opening up Critics' Corner. And, to make it even more fun, we're turning it into a contest! What's even better in...

Here at the CBC Book Club we like our Top 10 lists. Usually, we highlight the best. It's no different this month as we ask you to submit your fave film adaptations of beloved books, but this time we're...

Hannah Sung It's time to reluctantly say adieu to Hannah Sung. She has been a key member of our team since the Book Club launched over a year ago, and she'll be greatly missed. Hannah is moving on with...

By Hannah Sung Not everyone finds themselves sitting in a hotel room with Kevin and Joe of the Jonas Brothers (a conference room filled with publicists and security but otherwise empty of everything, including character. Just so we are clear...

By Kimberly Walsh (a.k.a. @AliasGrace) As short story month comes to a close, so too does our round-robin style short story contest on Twitter. Vincent Lam delivered a first line that was both elegant and reminiscent of one of those...

Thanks for sending in all your comments. Summer's the time for reading short fiction and for your reading pleasure, here's our list of the Top 10 Short Story Writers, as chosen by you! (You can take a peek at...

By Rosie Fernandez (a.k.a. @rosewhite22) As our short story month draws to a close, we wanted to take a look at what the future holds for the form, and who better to consult with than the innovative and multi-platform writer...

By Hannah Sung As I mentioned in my blog about our growing list of Top 10 Short Story Writers, I really enjoyed Paul Yoon's collection of short stories, Once the Shore. Paul is a Korean-American writer and this is his...

By Rosie Fernandez (a.k.a. @rosewhite22) Drew Hayden Taylor is an accomplished writer, theatre professional and comedian. He has had more than 70 productions of his award-winning plays, and is known for writing novels, newspaper columns, television scripts and documentaries, as...

By Rosie Fernandez (a.k.a. @rosewhite22) This month, the Book Club is loading you up with advice on where to find and read short stories, and where to submit your own short stories. Today, I thought I'd point out some resources...

By Hannah Sung As we focus on short fiction this month, today we're looking at McSweeney's, a literary magazine known for its taste-making selection and shape-shifting design. They've just launched their 35th issue, which they call "unrivalled summer reading" (sounds...

By Hannah Sung Pasha Malla's collection of short fiction, The Withdrawal Method, won Ontario's Trillium Award in 2009. After bouncing around several Canadian cities, including Dawson City, Yukon, where he stayed in the Pierre Berton house earlier this year, Pasha...

By Kimberly Walsh (a.k.a. @AliasGrace) Vincent Lam kicked off our round-robin style short story contest last week and many of our Twitter followers have since added to the #cbc140 hashtag thread. Our unnamed narrator has had a bit of a...

By Hannah Sung Are short stories seductive? Vincent Lam, author of Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures, says yes. Learn what Vincent Lam recommends and why. Also, Vincent and I both recommend the same author. Who? Don't forget to get in the...

By Hannah Sung Toronto writer Sarah Selecky is the author of This Cake Is for the Party, a collection of 10 short stories about people much like the people in our lives — real, conflicted, having profound moments between handling...

By Rosie Fernandez (a.k.a. @rosewhite22) Every now and again there's a Book Club contest I wish I could enter, and this month's definitely fits that category! We've got three prizes up for grabs every week: a subscription to The Walrus,...

By Hannah Sung Last week, we gleaned writing tips from Giller Prize-winning author Vincent Lam. Then we kicked off this week with interviews with editors at The Walrus and Taddle Creek literary magazine. Today, we're bringing a few friends into...

By Hannah Sung Any aspiring writers here? As the CBC Book Club focuses on short fiction, I thought would be a nice opportunity to find out how you can get your own short fiction published in Canada. I called up...

By Hannah Sung So, you want to be a short story writer? Need pointers? Don't have a direct line to a Scotiabank Giller Prize-winning author? But wait! You do. You and Vincent Lam, author of Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures, have...

By Rosie Fernandez (a.k.a. @rosewhite22) I recently ran into a woman who told me that after she had her first child, she rediscovered the short story. She credits short stories for keeping her reading at a time when she literally...

By Kimberly Walsh (a.k.a. @AliasGrace) Yes, we're making micro-fiction tweet by tweet. Will your 140 characters make you one of our winners? Starting today, we're asking our followers on Twitter to write a short story collectively using the #cbc140 hashtag....

By Hannah Sung "Congratulations, you can write." This is the note Vincent Lam (seen in the photo below) received back from a chance encounter while he was still an aspiring author. Working as a doctor on a cruise ship, he...

By Hannah Sung In honour of summer, the sweet season that always feel short, we are focusing on the beauty of short fiction over the next few weeks at the CBC Book Club. Some people love short fiction and some...

By Hannah Sung What a way to end our focus on sports and soccer. Spain takes the 2010 World Cup. Olé! John Doyle may be just as good as a psychic octopus at predictions. Thanks to John Doyle for the...

By Kimberly Walsh (a.k.a. @AliasGrace) Don't put away your vuvuzelas just yet! We have a very important announcement to make. It's time to reveal the winner of our World Cup bracket competition, with a prize pack of 32 sports books...

By Hannah Sung In a salve to the American sporting ego, the Wall Street Journal's Allen Barra recently downplayed the importance of soccer. He wrote, "Soccer is the world's most popular sport, but rather in the same way that one...

By Hannah Sung Dirk Hayhurst is a pitcher for the Blue Jays. To get there, he struggled for eight years in the minor leagues. Anonymous and broke, he began documenting the minor-league lifestyle in a popular blog called the Non-Prospect...

By Hannah Sung As the World Cup moves into the semi-finals, here's a book that has been whole-heartedly endorsed by someone who may be the Dutch team's biggest fan at the CBC. Our friend Reuben Maan works at the Radio...

By Hannah Sung When we heard that CBC journalist David Gutnick was in love with our book of the moment, The World Is a Ball, we just had to get in touch with him. David is currently in South Africa...

By Kimberly Walsh (a.k.a. @AliasGrace) We're into the final stages of the World Cup and sports books month is winding down as well. Soon, we'll announce the winner of the 32 books in our sports bracket competition. Until then, here...

By Hannah Sung The growing list of titles to consider for our Top 10 Sports Books has been an education. I especially love when readers send in entire lists of their own or point to relevant links online, as sportlitguy...

By Hannah Sung Bookninja is poet George Murray, known for his prolific books blog and killer wit. As George puts it, Bookninja is the internet's deadliest book site. Everyone loves to check in on it, from the New York Times...

By Hannah Sung John Doyle mentioned in an Ask the Author podcast that Kara Lang is one of his favourite soccer players, male or female. In a recent interview with investigative sports journalist Laura Robinson, Laura cited Kara as a...

By Kimberly Walsh (a.k.a. @AliasGrace) Our World Cup bracket contest is officially closed but I'll be keeping score right until the end when one lucky winner will receive 32! fabulous! sports! books! In one week we received over 70 entries...

By Hannah Sung Think John Doyle just writes about soccer? No way. Think you shouldn't play with a soccer ball inside a library...? Well, you're probably right but we were really quiet about it. Watch the video to see three...

By Hannah Sung In today's Ask the Author Q&A, featured author John Doyle discusses the World Cup and his book The World Is a Ball: The Joy, Madness and Meaning of Soccer. Questions came from all across Canada, including from...

By Hannah Sung Journalist Laura Robinson has written about some pretty heavy issues in the sports world. Where others report on the goals, the glory and the game, Laura has exposed hockey's subculture of abuse and hazing in Crossing the...

By Hannah Sung Reading this month's featured book, The World Is a Ball, may have piqued your interest in pursuing a second career as a sports journalist, and why not? John Doyle makes it seem, if not easy, completely captivating....

By Kimberly Walsh (a.k.a. @AliasGrace) What do you think about the recent decision by the Gloucester Dragons Recreational Soccer League that makes losers of any team that gets ahead by more than five goals? The story has raised questions about...

By Hannah Sung Have you been reading John Doyle's The World Is a Ball: The Joy, Madness and Meaning of Soccer? Perhaps you've been busy watching the World Cup games. No matter -- here's John telling the CBC Book Club...

By Hannah Sung I popped into a Korean restaurant for lunch the other day for their black bean noodles but let's face it, I also went for their big-screen TV. Brazil and North Korea were matched up in a game...

By Hannah Sung We knew that if Sid Lowe reads half as much as he writes when it comes to soccer, that we'd have stellar book recommendations for sports month at the CBC Book Club. Turns out he does. But...

By Hannah Sung The Global Game is an ongoing web project that has engendered a book of writings on soccer, and true to its title, it sports an international collection of contributors, with many translations, on the topic of the...

By Kimberly Walsh (a.k.a. @AliasGrace) The much anticipated FIFA 2010 World Cup begins today. Fans of the game from around the world will cheer on their teams, feel the thrill of victory and the despair of defeat. What goes...

By Hannah Sung We met John Doyle, author of The World Is a Ball, The Joy, Meaning and Madness of Soccer, at the Toronto Reference Library to get his predictions on the FIFA World Cup 2010. The World Cup begins...today!...

By Hannah Sung You asked, John answered! Here is our first audio podcast for June with John Doyle, author of The World Is a Ball: The Joy, Madness and Meaning of Soccer. Remember to send in questions to bookclubcontest@cbc.ca....

Do you have a pick for our list of Top 10 Sports Books? Here is a stellar Top 10 from our featured author this month, John Doyle. His list is 100 per cent soccer, and includes some favourite films...

By Rosie Fernandez The FIFA World Cup begins this Friday, June 11, and even if you are like our host Hannah Sung and don't usually keep up on sports, the Book Club is here to help you survive the next...

By Hannah Sung As soccer fans around the world look to South Africa for the World Cup, the CBC Book Club is devoting this month to sports and in particular, soccer. If you're a soccer fan, we want to hear...

By Hannah Sung John Doyle sent us a bunch of photos from his world travels and I put them together into a slide show — look! It's like he's showing us his vacation photos. But not really — we should...

By Kimberly Walsh (a.k.a. @AliasGrace) In May we asked you to join us in celebrating classics remastered with all sorts of interesting creatures. Starting with The Complete Jane Austen presented by Who's Your Dachshund? to Bob and Doug McKenzie making...

By Hannah Sung This month we're celebrating the sporting life and no one represents the endurance and grace of athleticism more right now than Katie Spotz. She's a 22 year old from Ohio who spent 70 days on the water...

Time to put away your dance cards, nunchucks and petticoats (but be sure to get out all the blood from battling zombies first) and turn our Book Club attention to summer games. The game of this summer, I mean:...

By Hannah Sung If this year has a theme, it's sports. First the Olympics in Vancouver, then the other great sporting event that comes around every four years, the FIFA World Cup. From June 11 to July 11, soccer fans...

By Hannah Sung "I write only for Fame, and without any view for pecuniary Emolument," Jane Austen joked with her sister in 1796. It has been more than 200 years and fame hasn't gone out of style. Neither has Jane....

By Kimberly Walsh (a.k.a. @AliasGrace) The Classics Mash-up Contest is coming to a close. You've got until midnight tonight to get your entries in for a chance to win an amazing prize package. We'll announce the winners on Monday. Until...

By Hannah Sung If Jane were to have a favourite iPhone app, wouldn't it be one based on Pride and Prejudice? With zombies? Plus chopping and slicing ability? If this would make Jane roll in her grave, we hope she'd...

By Hannah SungIf you're interested in the music of Jane Austen's period, you have an ally in the internet. Here are some great resources on your way to listening to the smash hits of the early 1800s: This blog...

By Rosie FernandezWe're coming to the end of Austen Mash-Up Month and boy have we had a lot of fun thanks to your entries to our Classics Mash-Up contest. Soon it will be time to pick our three winners. Have...

By Hannah Sung Patricia Rozema is the award-winning Toronto director and adapter/screenwriter of the 1999 film Mansfield Park. She also wrote the HBO version of Grey Gardens (I loved that! Didn't you?). I was completely captivated by Patricia's Mansfield Park...

By Hannah SungToday's the day you get to talk to the bra-a-a-a-ins behind Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Dawn of the Dreadfuls. Jason Rekulak is the evil genius at Quirk Books who dreamed up the unlikely combo of Jane Austen and...

By Hannah Sung For the Janeite who has it all, what about sleeping overnight in the very room Jane stayed in herself? For those who have some vacation time and want to take their chances with the volcanic ash, there...

By Rosie Fernandez Our next Book Club live chat could get a little messy...mash-up style as we'll be talking to creative geniuses Jason Rekulak, mastermind of the Austen mash-up series at Quirk Classics, and Steve Hockensmith, author of Dawn of...

By Hannah Sung As AustenBlog said at the beginning of my exploration into Jane Austen territory, "She's everywhere." Jane really is everywhere, and once I began following her trail, it went global pretty quickly. I had never before heard of...

By Hannah Sung When Jane Austen was alive, some of her six novels weren't particularly popular. In fact, Pride and Prejudice was outright rejected for publication at first. So what is it about Jane's six novels that inspires a non-stop...

By Kimberly Walsh (a.k.a. @AliasGrace) We're wrapping up week two of the Classics Mash-up contest and we've already received some pretty amazing entries. As a side note, we've also opened up the contest to public domain poetry and plays too!...

By Hannah Sung Ben H. Winters thinks love is like a terrible monster and he should know. He's the co-author, with Jane Austen, of Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. He gives the CBC Book Club three arguments to support...

By Hannah Sung When it comes to PPZ, there is an official book trailer and then there are fan-made trailers like this one. (Scary, much? I know! I can hardly deal with the music on Lost — the music of...

By Hannah Sung There are some words from Jane Austen's time that we don't use any more, some that we use very differently. Reading an Austen novel with a modern dictionary in hand may not do the trick. Pauline E....

Howdy, folks! It's Rosie with the weekly contest and poll round-up. First of all, our next Book Club live chat will happen on Thursday, May 20, from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. ET with the mastermind behind the Austen...

By Hannah Sung Tony Lee is the British television and radio writer who has turned his pen to comics, most recently writing the Doctor Who series (which guarantees appearances at fan conferences for life, I think). Just last week, his...

By Hannah Sung I don't watch zombie movies. I don't like gross creatures, rotting limbs or the undead in general (although you can give me a vampire any day of the week, I do like them). So what made me...

By Kimberly Walsh (a.k.a. @AliasGrace) Game on, readers! It's only the end of week one but @laurenoostveen is pwning the Classics Mash-Up Contest so far with her amazing collection of movie creatures meeting literature. Check out such fine literary additions...

By Hannah Sung Jane Austen's world involved a lot of dancing. Today, Austen fans can live vicariously through ballroom scenes in film adaptations, which are charming, but might not fulfil the fantasy of what it was truly like to attend...

By Hannah Sung If you want to explore Jane Austen on the internet, AustenBlog should be your first stop. It's funny and sharp and the immense love for Jane Austen just leaps off the page. Margaret C. Sullivan is the...

By Hannah Sung Hello Janeites and curious bystanders! This month, the CBC Book Club is all about Jane Austen and her influence. We want to look at her original six novels but also the improbable, and delightful, creative works that...

I'm back...it's me, Kimberly, the resident web geek. Hannah's busy prepping a whole lot of awesome content for this month's Jane Austen Mania so I wanted to sneak in here with an exciting new contest. You know those Jane Austen...

Each week during Janemania, a set of books from Quirks Classics can be won through our weekly contest. Join this month's fun by reading with us (if you haven't already devoured them): Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane...

By Hannah Sung As a teen, I tried to become a Janeite, a fervent follower of Jane Austen. It didn't last. Perhaps I didn't try very hard. I checked Emma out of the public library but was more interested in...

By Hannah Sung It has been a great month of music-related books and to cap it off, we have a list of Top 10 Books About Music, as chosen by you! Some of these books were suggested by readers, some...

Tom Allen is not only the host of CBC Radio 2's Shift, he is also an author and an accomplished trombone player. So it makes sense that asking him about his favourite music-related book turned into a discussion on...

By Hannah Sung Have you met the latest musician to join the Montreal band The Dears? Murray Lightburn and Natalia Yanchak, along with the rest of the band, are currently in rehearsals for their upcoming three-night residency at the Pasagüero...

Music month is coming to an end, but we still have lots of prizes to give away. There's one more week to enter our Rocking the Greats Contest (featuring two prize packs of books donated by HarperCollins) and to...

By Hannah Sung Masia One is the hardest-working girl in the music game and I've been a fan for a long time. Already a star in both her native lands, Singapore and Canada, she recently spent time recording in L.A....

By Hannah Sung In his own words, Damian Abraham is the "singer/shouter/what-have-you" of the punk rock band F**cked Up. Discussing this band at a production meeting with Book Club peeps was fun. Try bringing up F**cked Up by name as...

By Hannah Sung Singer-songwriter Basia Bulat is currently touring her second album Heart of My Own, although her Paris and Barcelona dates have been ashed-out (go away ash cloud!). Hopefully, she will make it to her London shows for her...

By Hannah Sung Dalton Higgins is a hip hop expert and pop culture brainiac. His book Hip Hop World is a primer for those totally unfamiliar with the genre as well as an exploration for those who have never given...

Howdy! There are contests-a-plenty this coming week! How to enter is explained on our Contests page. Random House has donated two sets of a terrific prize pack of books about rock 'n' roll legends: Elvis: My Best Man by...

By Hannah Sung Our friend Bob Mackowycz is the weekday host of Radio 2 Morning. Not only does he have an almost un-spell-able name (although it is highly satisfying to say out loud), he loves poetry. This is something I...

I used to run into Abdominal in dark Toronto clubs, music thumping, drinks spilling. His friends, DJs Serious or Fase, playing records to unholy hours of the night. On a recent gorgeous spring day, however, I discovered that Abs lives...

Today we've got a book recommendation from the only CBC Radio host who also rocks the mic as a rap artist extraordinaire. Buck 65, or Rich Terfry, has several books on deck, including a biography of James Newell Osterberg, Jr.,...

By Hannah Sung Cherie Currie, who fronted the legendary band The Runaways, is our next guest author for Music Month and we are taking your questions until April 29. Need inspiration? Maybe you've read her memoir, Neon Angel? Or seen...

I know CBC Radio 3 listeners love music (and books, too!). Does it go the other way? How many of you CBC Book Club readers want to share your favourite bands? Let us know what you're into! I got...

Charles Spearin is a musician with Broken Social Scene and Do Make Say Think. He also makes music on his own, most recently the experimental album The Happiness Project, a sonic collage of interviews he did with his Toronto...

I popped down the hall to ask the peeps at The Next Chapter for their favourite music-related books. Here's the scoop: Host Shelagh Rogers had several faves but at the top of her list is Whale Music, by the...

Ibi Kaslik's novel The Angel Riots, is about two indie rock bands that come together in Montreal, tour the U.S., then implode with fierce speed. The bands include a young violin prodigy from the Prairies who travels to Montreal...

Cherie Currie was the blonde bombshell who fronted The Runaways in the late 1970s. The film of the band's story, The Runaways, was based on Cherie's book, Neon Angel: A Memoir of a Runaway. Cherie's story begins when she was...

Jason Collett is a solo singer-songwriter, a member of Broken Social Scene and a personal fave. He is thoughtful and well read, which is why I gave him a call to see if he had a book to recommend...

Congratulations to Adam Kroeker of Winnipeg and Chris Matisz of Vancouver, grand-prize winners in our Ask the Author contest for March. They will each receive a Sony Reader Digital Book. Adam Kroeker sent in this question for Nicolas: "Your book...

This is music month and we're so pleased to welcome Carl Wilson for an Ask the Author Q&A. Carl is a music journalist and editor at the Globe and Mail, a blogger, and a contributor to the New York Times...

If music be the food of love, play on! Welcome to Music Month with the CBC Book Club. This month is dedicated to all those obsessed with music and books and the ways these two can combine. Fiction, non-fiction, memoir,...

Once again the CBC Book Club has wrapped up a month of collective reading, this time around with the winner of Canada Reads 2010. Nikolski by Nicolas Dickner was an absolute treat, filled with stories passed down through families, a...

As Nicolas Dickner told us recently, Nikolski was written over the course of five years and in many different countries, including Peru and Germany. Now, Nicolas has settled with his young family in Montreal but that doesn't mean the book...

Last week marked the final instalment of our Make Your Pitch contest linked to Canada Reads. Choosing the two winners was very difficult, as we received so many creative entries! Special props to high school teacher Barbara Boivard of...

Join us for one last visit to Nicolas Dickner's home office as he digs up old postcards and explains their romantic appeal....

If you are like me, as you read Nicolas Dickner's novel, you Googled Nikolski, Alaska. I wanted to know where it actually exists, to situate it outside the book and in the real world. I came upon this photo...

Michel Vézina championed Nikolski in Canada Reads. So what book would Nicolas Dickner, author of Nikolski, recommend to all of us at the CBC Book Club? For a "twisted" take on archaeology, he highly recommends a book that made him...

Postcards are what keep Noah's unconventional family going for a little while. They are what connect his mother Sarah with his wandering father, Jonas Doucet. As improbable as their system may be, which is actually no system of fixed addresses...

If an author compares the gestation of his or her concept and subsequent delivery of a book to having an actual baby, what would that make the translator? "I'm the adoptive parent, I guess," says Lazer Lederhendler, winner of the...

Fans of Nikolski will know that author Nicolas Dickner created two very different approaches to archaeology through his characters Noah and Joyce. One of them spends all his time in a library, pursuing a degree, and the other spends much...

We are now into our second week of our CBC Book Club celebration of Nicolas Dickner's Canada Reads-winning book, Nikolski, the story of three young people trying to find their way in the world. These characters are related but don't...

For all of you Nikolski fans (and as a tip to those who have yet to crack the book's spine), the book's events take place in a many different places, but Montreal is the main setting. When I visited Nicolas...

We know that Michel Vézina, Canada Reads 2010 champion extraordinaire, believes passionately in our winning book, Nikolski by Nicolas Dickner. The very first person to believe in it, however, goes way back with Nicolas -- back to their shared student...

As you hang out with the Book Club over the next few weeks, it would be useful to have a copy of Nicolas Dickner's book Nikolski in hand. Did you have a chance to read it before the debates week...

Nicolas Dickner might be the most popular man in Canada right now. His book Nikolski has just skyrocketed out of Quebec (where it was much lauded and loved) into the rest of Canada (what took us so long?) as the...

A year ago, in March 2009, we launched the CBC Book Club with last season's Canada Reads winner, The Book of Negroes. We now have a new Canada Reads winner, Nikolski by Nicolas Dickner, translated by Lazer Lederhendler. Congratulations! Over...

Think back to when the five books and panelists for Canada Reads were announced in December. Could any of you have seen this one coming? How exciting! Nikolski has taken the title for Canada Reads 2010. Félicitations, Nicolas Dickner!...

Today is the big day! We're about to learn who wins Canada Reads 2010. And I'm hoping you all come to chat about the results today at 3 p.m. ET. It'll be our final chance to do a live...

Yesterday we saw the first book eliminated, and it was Generation X. Online, fans of the Douglas Coupland novel lamented, but the decision seemed inevitable around the Canada Reads table, as the panelists had pummeled Gen X from the...

We've arrived at the mid-way point of the week. That means that a book is going to be voted off today. Which one will it be? At the start of yesterday's show, the panelists pitched their books again, with...

Canada Reads 2010 began yesterday as it should, with each panelist giving an all-out, 60-second pitch on why their book should win. I find those moments, right up until the spell-breaking ding of the timer, exhilarating. Sometimes the pitch...

Today is the big day! The Canada Reads debates are underway. Did you manage to catch the broadcast? If not, you can watch and listen to all the action here. At 3 p.m. ET, come back for a live discussion...

So there I was, in January, wearing shorts and sandals in an all-night drugstore on a tourist strip in a beach town in Thailand. As my husband wandered the aisles picking up a few items, I never made it past...

I've always been horrible at goodbyes, so I'll just dive right in with my list of thank yous. I wrote a few names down. Here we are. "Yogurt. Broccoli. Litter." Oh, that old joke! OK. For real, this time. I've...

Here we are, my penultimate post as your Guest Host. I hope you're looking forward to the debates next week as much as I am! There are discussions already happening on the Canada Reads site, Facebook and Twitter. And next...

The debates are just around the corner, but there's still time to enter our Make a Pitch contest. This is how it works: Imagine you are a panelist on Canada Reads, and make your best creative pitch (blogs, posters, videos,...

Last Thursday, while our Canadian women's hockey team was rushing the net for gold, Roland Pemberton (a.k.a. Cadence Weapon) told Mary Ito of CBC's Fresh Air that he thought we should change the name of Canada Reads to "the Book...

The Canada Reads 2010 debates begin in just over a week. Which book are you backing? Remember to join the discussion on the official Canada Reads site, Facebook or Twitter. During the week of the debates, Book Club host Hannah...

There we have it! With this final vlog for Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott, Jen Knoch of the Keepin' it Real Book Club has completed a full set of pitches for all five Canada Reads contenders, no small...

Recently I checked in with one of the lucky winners of our Make Your Pitch contest. Lisa Browne of Clarenville, Newfoundland (seen in the photo at left), scored a Sony Reader Digital Book at the end of December, so she's...

Greetings, fellow book lovers! Earlier this month, I attended a Social Media Week workshop (events took place in a number of cities around the world, and focused on the use of social media in the corporate, public and non-profit...

With the Canada Reads debates fast approaching — only two weeks away, I can't believe it! — it's a prime time for all of us, dear readers, to weigh in with our opinions about this year's contenders. And there are...

Announced just yesterday, The Keepin' It Real Book Club has started a companion Canada Reads debate that will run the week preceding the official radio show. Follow the conversation at Civilians Read. The one thing that's missing from a virtual...

Jen Knoch of the Keepin' it Real Book Club delights again with another Canada Read's one-minute pitch, this time for Douglas Coupland's Generation X, which will be defended by Roland Pemberton (a.k.a. Cadence Weapon) when the debates begin in less...

There's a fascinating discussion happening over at Andrea@CBC's discussion forum for Generation X by Douglas Coupland. Whether you think Generation X is the iconic text for those born between 1961 and 1981, or just the opposite, it seems it's hard...

During the Canada Reads announcement in December, no other title inspired more curiosity than Generation X, in part because its author, Douglas Coupland, has written more than 10 other works of fiction. Why Generation X, people pondered. Why not Girlfriend...

Never before have we seen this much web activity surrounding Canada Reads. Not only is the conversation alive and lively on book blogs and social media, we've also seen the rise of two complementary debates: the National Post's Canada Also...

Jen Knoch of the Keepin' it Real Book Club has become a Canada Reads fixture. We're fortunate to be able to bring you another of her quick pitches, this time for Wayson Choy's The Jade Peony, which will be defended...

I checked in with Book Club member Bianca Spence, who was at her home in Ottawa. We talked about balancing her early days as a gymnast slash reader, and her predictions for how Canada Reads will play out. Q: I...

Canada Reads panelist Michel Vézina told us that while he was in Scotland, on his 33rd birthday, he actually saw the Loch Ness monster. How many of us can make such a claim? This inspired last week's poll, in...

By now, some of you have finished all five of the 2010 Canada Reads titles. So let's start talking, shall we? Join our five intrepid moderators to discuss the books. Get involved here. Rosie@CBC has the goods on Good to...

Literary Thunder Bay offers up a Canada Reads debate with a Thunder Bay twist. Let It Read has posted its Canada Reads Book Club: Update #2 on The Jade Peony. More love for Wayson Choy's book can be found at...

t's amazing how we connect with books, no matter how fantastical the contents may be, or how different the terrain. Nikolski was a particularly satisfying read for me as I explored Jeju Island on the last leg of My Giant...

Alexandra Yarrow is a public librarian in Ottawa and a book blogger at Only Connect. (Happy Birthday! Only Connect turned "The Big 1" January 21st.) I caught up with Alexandra to talk about, what else, books, books, and books! Q:...

Generation X reads like a time capsule. Is that good or bad for the Canada Reads competition? Canada Reads is supposed to crown the one book deserving of being read by every Canadian. Is this book too...specific? To a generation...

Howdy amigos, Since we are now in the thick of our Canadian winter (despite the lack of snow on the ground in some parts), we asked you in last week's poll what kind of books you most like reaching for...

Every few weeks, Sean Cranbury (Books on the Radio) and I hop on Skype and chat about the publishing community. Sean's a unique addition to the conversation not only for his passion for the industry, retail background and genuine...

Seems to me you're all very busy reading the Canada Reads selections. @RIITB posted another Canada Reads Challenge update. There are now 27 people signed up for their challenge but only one male. Begging the question: "Dudes? Where are you?"...

Earlier this month, we introduced you to Jen Knoch (@Jen_Knoch) of the Keepin' It Real Book Club who shared her vlog pitch for Fall on Your Knees. She's on track to complete one vlog pitch per book! Next up is...

By page 8, I just had to put the book down. In just a few words, sentences and pages, Ann-Marie MacDonald's evocative storytelling had already hit me in the gut and I needed a moment for air. It was right...

Whether you work deep in the belly of a publishing house — be ye international or a one-woman show — or follow along online, you know that the publishing industry is, to put it mildly, figuring some stuff out. Read...

Hi everyone! It's Rosie here with the latest on the contests we have happening, and the results of last week's poll. There's one week left to send in your entry for this month's Make a Pitch contest. I have to...

There are any number of book blogs in the world, and why we read one over another is as personal as why we enjoy one book over another. I like my book blogs like I like my granola bars: sweet...

Lots of reviews are popping up around the web. @BookWorm71 continues her Canada Reads discussion with a look at Nikolski by Nicholas Dickner (translated by Lazar Lederhendler) @RIITB posts their third instalment of the Canada Reads Challenge Update Let It...

There's no right way, or right one, to die. But some hit you harder than others. Sometimes I think about the writers in my life, people I'll never meet, who have no idea what kind of impact they've had on...

Oh for heaven's sake, could Clara's life have been any drearier before the kids came along? I pictured Clara, the protagonist of Good to a Fault, — her perfect clothes, hair and home — and just wanted to mess it...

In an essay posted on the website of Douglas & Mcintyre, publishers of The Jade Peony, novelist and Canada Reads 2009 panelist Jen Sookfong Lee (seen in photo at left) wrote: "The Jade Peony has lived inside my head since...

Did you read an amazing book over the holidays? One you just couldn't put down? Tell us about it and enter our Make a Pitch contest, where you pitch a book for Canada Reads. You could get yourself a snazzy...

For the second year, Melanie Owen is hosting a Canada Reads Challenge on her blog Roughing It in the Books. If you're looking to join a group of passionate readers, all from the comfort of your own home — and...

Let It Read is holding a Canada Reads Mini-Book Club. @BookWorm71 reviews Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott and Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald. She also reports that when she informed her library that they didnt have...

The Make a Pitch contest is going stronger than ever. Last month, Tobi Gepraegs and Lisa Browne each won a Sony Reader Digital Book for submitting their personal picks for a Canada Reads contender. How does it go? You can't...

The first Canada Reads book I plunged into was The Jade Peony by Wayson Choy. I read it every moment I got as I rode the subway around Seoul, surrounded by Korean chatter from blinking flat-screen ads on the...

On the heels of a number of Canada Reads challenges and offshoots, I've been wondering about all the possible Canada Reads spawn out there that we aren't aware of. Maybe you've decided to take on one of the other books...

I love the constraints of a good ol' fashioned question. "Whatcha readin'?" for instance. It's a simple query that elicits any number of responses. And the inevitable follow-up — "What's it about?" — invites an impromptu story time. It's the...

Lots of love going around the web for previous Canada Reads titles. Lawrence Hill's The Book of Negroes made it onto Indigo's list of Top Ten "Life-Changing Books" and Maclean's magazine's top 10 Canadian books of the decade. Roughing It...

Over the holidays, I got in touch with a few book lovers drawn from the ranks of Featured Readers and Book Club members to see what they're reading now, and which book they'd choose to defend if they were a...

With Book Club host Hannah Sung away on her travels, I started to think about Canadians abroad. I wonder, where are you reading this from? And why are you there? Canada itself is so expansive, there are times I feel...

My year-round resolution is not to wait until the New Year to resolve to do something. To that end, I'm right on track in my pursuit of good food, drink, friends and sharing reading recommendations. And since there's no better...

Hope you're enjoying the holiday season. A lot has been going on around the web in the past couple of weeks and we're all looking forward to what you'll be saying in the new year as the Canada Reads...

As part of a new feature, we're checking in with book clubs across the country. If you'd like to be our featured book club, e-mail a pic of your happy faces, and you could be our next featured book club!...

Here's hoping you all have an enjoyable holiday, wherever you are, and however you celebrate. We're taking a break ourselves, but we'll be back on December 29th with our first book club spotlight. If you'd like your book club to...

Book Club! It's been almost a month...I've missed you! I'm travelling with my Canada Reads books in tow, though, so we're quite connected in a way. You are reading them, aren't you? I'm in Seoul, South Korea, right now where...

I have a thing for bags. I also have a thing for pens, green socks and festive slippers. But for the purposes of this post, I have a thing for bags. Canada Reads bags, to be specific. Get this. If...

Check out Julie's vlog in which she talks up the Canada Reads book bag, and tells you how to score one....

We've changed our Twitter name to encompass all things CBC Books. Follow us @cbcbooks where we'll be talking about #canadareads, #cbcbookclub, #cbc140 book reviews and so much more. Check out some of the fun things around the web: @trudymorgancole on...

If you're like me this season, you'll be travelling over the holidays. I'm often the first one up, and it's one of my greatest pleasures to step out into the chilly world and just sit for a few hours with...

  Howdy, book lovers. Have you read Good to a Fault yet? This week on the Canada Reads site we're putting the spotlight on author Marina Endicott, with audio interviews, readings, her must-read list of CanLit, photos from her personal...

The first time I saw Marina Endicott was on a large screen behind Seamus O'Regan at the live TV broadcast of the 2008 Scotiabank Giller Prize. She was beaming, surrounded by a tight circle of well-wishers, holding a glass of...

Hello, it's Kimberly here, resident web geek and social media nerd. This season I'll be filing regular recaps of what people are saying around the internet about Canada Reads 2010. The Toronto Star wonders if the Canada Reads "bump" will...

  If you were following all the #canadareads Twitter action on Canada Reads launch day, you probably noticed that within minutes of the grand unveiling of this year's contenders the National Post's books team @npbooks jumped into the ring with...

In time for the holiday gift-giving (still looking for inspiration?), I asked Marina Endicott, author of Good to a Fault, and Melanie Little, her editor, for their picks for fave book of 2009. (Marina and I connected at the Canada...

Canada Reads 2010 is officially underway! Check out the website to watch the in-studio reveal on Q and read Canada Reads blogger Flannery's reaction. Now that I've had some time to digest this year's list, call me crazy, but I've...

I can safely say my geek flag was flapping wildly throughout the launch of Canada Reads 2010 yesterday. Honestly, if I wasn't oohing and ahhing over a book, it was an author, or a defender, or, "Hey, isn't that [insert...

It's time for Canada Reads, and the Book Club is inviting all Book Club members to play along with our new Make Your Pitch Contest. This is how it works: Imagine you are a Canada Reads panelist, and have to...

"Wow." "Oh, wow." "OK, wow!" And so it went, my reaction to hearing this year's Canada Reads contenders at a special sneak preview. Now I'm rushing over to the public announcement, when host Jian Ghomeshi will roll out this year's...

Hey, Book Club! The wait is almost over! If you're going to be in the downtown Toronto area today, please join us for the public announcement of Canada Reads 2010, at noon in the atrium of the CBC Broadcast Centre...

Hey, Book Club! The Book Club baton has been passed! Thanks to Hannah Sung for setting the pace, and bon voyage. We're looking forward to hearing all about your travels in the next couple of months. I'm the first-ever guest...

Hello, Book Club! Would you like to know what I'll be reading for the next few months? Mostly, I'll be reading what you'll be reading: the books for Canada Reads 2010! Canada Reads is just around the corner...it's launching December...

You said it — we compiled it. Thanks to all your comments, Book Club, we've got a Top 10 list of Favourite Children's Books. I love that you suggested a range of classics and newer titles and books for...

Once upon a time, Jill Murray was taking breakdancing classes with Shebang, a b-girl crew. At this time, she was writing a book that never saw the light of day. It would be a sad story if it ended...

Our look at children and young adult books is coming to close, but there are still many ways for you to win, before we turn our attention to Canada Reads. You have until Friday, November 27, to enter to...

Hey, Book Club! We wanted to weigh in with our fave kids books, too. Who are "we," exactly? Besides myself, there are a bunch of talented people who keep this website oiled and running. They are also the genius crack...