BOOKmarkable

Episode 15: Finding our bliss with comfort reads - my conversation with Cathy Needham

Hello Bookmarkable listeners: Before I forget, here’s where you can signup for April 26th’s Vancouver Book Crawl - or just drop by Cross & Crows bookstore at 1 pm: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/vancouver-book-crawl-tickets-1322842340049. I hear there will be contests and prizes too, plus a popup of a new local romance bookstore, Perfect Match.
Reflections on comfort genre (bliss) reading - my conversation with Cathy Needham. In this episode we talked about or I mentioned a few writers and books including:
Elizabeth GeorgeThomas King’s Thumps DreadfulWater seriesTommy OrangeRichard WagameseTana French - Faithful PlacePeter Robinson’s Alan Banks’ seriesLouise PennyRobert Galbraith (aka JK Rowling)Agatha ChristieColin Dexter (Inspector Morse series)Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van PeltGregory Ashe, (Hazard & Somerset series)Ruth Ware, One Perfect CoupleAnn Cleeves - The Rising TideElizabeth StroutAlone by Megan E. FreemanHatchet by Gary PaulsenA Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly JacksonKate Atkinson, Jackson Brodie mysteries, as well as Life After Life and A God in RuinsThe Love Wager by Lynn PainterStay by Elle Kennedy and Sarina BowenThe Rule Book and Beg, Borrow or Steal by Sarah AdamsSay You’ll Remember Me by Abby JimenezPromise Me Sunshine by Cara BastoneFaith, Hope and Carnage by Nick Cave and Sean O’HaganElizabeth Finch by Julian BarnesAmerican War by Omar El AkkadCareless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed and Lost Idealism by Sarah Wynn-Williams
Love sharing the book love with you!

Episode 14: Books that got me through to spring

Here are the books I mentioned in this episode:
Stolen Focus by Johann HariPiranesi and Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna ClarkOne Day Everyone Will Have been Against This and American War by Omar Al El AkkadNothing Like the Movies by Lynn Painter PS: I Hate You by Lauren Connolly First Time Caller by BK Borison Under Your Spell by Laura Wood Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell Deep End by Ali Hazelwood Promise me Forever by Debbie Macomber Out on a Limb by Hannah Bonam-Young
I also mentioned the podcasts:
Reading GlassesFated MatesThe One You Feed
If you enjoy listening, please let me know, give me a rating. If you have ideas for shows or books, send me an email at readfionaread@gmail.com.
Thank you for listening and many happy blessings for reading journey!

Episode 13: February and a new philosophy of reading in these times

Wherein I seek to patch together meaning with the insights, gleaned from my latest reads, that point the way with many signs that might mean something. To sum up: reading might not always give you answers but it helps.
Here are books mentioned in this episode:
Kill for Me, Kill for You by Steve CavanaghI am Pilgrim by Terry HayesBurn Out: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily Nagoski and Amelia NagoskiAll My Rage and Ember in Ashes by Sabaa Tahir Is She Really Going Out With Him by Sophie CousensWildfire by Hannah GraceGood Boy by Elle Kennedy and Sarina BowenEvie Drake Starts Over by Linda HolmesButcher & Blackbird, part of the Ruinous Love Trilogy by Brynne WeaverStolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention — and How to Think Deeply Again, by Johann HariBreakfast of Champions and Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.Catch 22 by Joseph HellerName of the Wind by Patrick RothfussThe Life Impossible, by Matt HaigHow to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen PerrinSmall Mercies by Dennis Lehane, An Academy for Liars by Alexis HendersonOn Freedom by Timothy SnyderFaith Hope and Carnage by Nick Cave and Sean O’Hagan
Reach the show by emailing: readfionaread@gmail.com

Episode 12: January 2025 a short check-in

It's a new year and I'm here and making it through January. Books are always there for comfort, guidance and reflection, showing the way. But you still need to read them (or listen to them). What circumstances help you feel like you can read more challenging titles and in hardcover? It's not just about having enough time. Waiting for tips: I need role models...
 
Here's books I mention on this show:
The Message and Between the World and Me by Ta Neishi Coates
Martyr by Kaveh Akbar
The Land of Lost Things by John Connolly
Whiskey Tender by Deborah Jackson Taffa
Faith, Hope and Carnage by Nick Cave and Sean O’Hagan
Beautiful, Beautiful by Brandon Reid
I am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes (audio by Christopher Ragland)
Roar and Next Level by Stacy T. Sims
 

Episode 11 - My November books and what's next

I look back on my year of reading with more gusto, and starting this podcast in May...and share my latest reading adventures from the month of November. Books or authors mentioned or discussed include:
Read Dangerously: the Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Time by Azar Nafisi
Beneath the Surface of Things by Wade Davis
Sarah J. Maas
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
Grief is for People, by Sloane Crossley
A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall
How we Named the Stars by Andres N. Ordorica
Somewhere Beyond the Sea and House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune
Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen
I am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes (read by Christopher Ragland)
The Martyr by Kaveh Akbar
There are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak
Knife by Salman Rushdie
If you have ideas for future shows, books you recommend or want to share anything else, you can email the show at readfionaread@gmail.com.

Conversation with Claudia Sjoberg

Claudia is a local (Vancouver) business owner, entrepreneur, community leader, and all round wonderful, fun and caring friend to many.
She is also a big reader and shared with me the long impressive list of books she's read with her book club -- but we also delved into some of the many more books she reads and enjoys beyond that list. We followed a list of questions to uncover what she likes and doesn't like and heard what she's come to know is important for her in reading, and the power of the story for all of us.
We looked for a couple of books we'd both enjoyed reading and settled on these two Canadian reads, the novel Indian Horse by Richard Wagameseand the memoir in essays, Run Towards the Danger: Confrontations with a Body of Memory by Sarah Polley.
Other books that came up in our discussion were:
Women Talking by Miriam ToewsThe Paying Guest by Sarah WattsThe Alchemist by Paolo CoehloThe Celestine Prophecy by James RedfieldThe Secret by Rhonda ByrneBooks by Robert Galbraith (JK Rowling) -- the Cormoran Strike detective seriesIona Whishaw Lane Winslow mystery seriesCloud Atlas by David MitchellOlive Kitteridge, Olive Again, My name is Lucy Barton and Oh William! by Elizabeth StroutInfinite Jest by David Foster WallaceMiss Morgan’s Book Brigade by Janet Skeslien CharlesDoppelgänger by Naomi Klein
Children’s books:Jumanji and The Polar Express by Chris Van AllsburgOne Halloween Night by Mark TeagueNorman the Doorman by Don Freeman

My conversation with Kerry Regier

Host of Vancouver Co-op Radio show Why a Duck? (that features classical and jazz music and lighthearted conversation), Kerry Regier, joined me for a book conversation on October 13.
My apologies for some uneven audio levels on this recording.
Here's what and who we mentioned:
Poems of Miroslav Holub, Czech poet and immunologist. Kerry read his poem: “Half a Hedgehog”
Solaris and His Master’s Voice by Stanisław Herman Lem 
The Game by Ken DrydenIndian Horse by Richard WagameseThe Hockey Sweater by Roch CarrierThe Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel BarberyMoby Dick, Pierre and The Confidence Man by Herman MelvilleBlindsight by Peter WattsBomber by Len DeightonDiaspora by Greg EganIQ84 by Haruki MarukamiErasure by Percival EverettThe Three Cornered World by Natsume Sōseki
Authors mentioned: Theodore Sturgeon (originator of “Sturgeon’s Law: 95% of everything is crap”)Yasunari Kawabata, Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, O. Henry, Anton Chekhov, Franz Kafka, Ernest Hemingway, Jeremy Bernstein
Films mentioned: Europa Report directed by Sebastián Cordero and written by Philip Gelatt, American FictionSurrealist filmmaker mentioned Luis Buñuel

Fall reading update

Do you struggle to read? Is it hard to be a reader these days? Join me for a short check-in about my thoughts of the struggle to do quality reading with a busy life, in a time of many distractions. But fear not: reading can still help you out.
Books I mention are:
The Wedding People by Alison EspachThe Husbands by Holly GramazioMargo's got Money Troubles by Rufi ThorpeThe Serpent King by Jeff ZentnerWhat Alice Forgot by Lianne Moriarty
Beyond by Stephen WalkerUnbroken by Angela Sterritt
James by Percival Everett