BOOKmarkable

In late October 2026, I had a conversation with Josie Nixon about how books have played a role in her life, the genres she's explored and her continued discovery. Take a listen!
 
Books and authors mentioned:
“Prairie fiction” - Louisa May Alcott’s Little House on the Prairie and others like this.Outlander series by Diana GabaldonThrone of Glass, A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) and Crescent City series by Sarah J. MaasTwilight by Stephenie MeyerCassandra Clare’s books (The Shadowhunters)The Bone People by Keri HulmeHomegoing by Yah GyasiCheck & Mate, Bride and Mate by Ali HazelwoodLegends and Lattes by Travis BalderCity of Thieves by David BenioffLondon Falling by Patrick Radden KeefeThe Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully by Frank OstaseskiThe Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy and The Exquisite Torment of Loving Your Enemy (the Dearly Beloathed duopoly) by Brigitte KnightleyThe Alchemist by Paulo CoehloDemon Copperhead by Barbara KingsolverAngela’s Ashes by Frank McCourtDavid Copperfield by Charles DickensWithering Heights by Emily BronteJane Eyre by Charlotte BronteAlchemised by SenLinYuRose in Chains by Julie SotoThe Poppy War trilogy, Babel and Katabasis by RF Kuang
 Fan fiction on AO3 Archive of Our Own

Here are the books mentioned in this episode:The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy and The Exquisite Torment of Loving Your Enemy by Brigitte Knightley (The Dearly Beloathed Duology)Transcription by Ben LernerLondon Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History and How It Shattered a Nation by Andrew Ross Sorki
 

My August 2026 conversation with reader Gaye Bissett.
Books and authors we talked about or mentioned include:
Robert Ludlum, Len Deighton, John Le CarreSurfacing, Alias Grace, Oryx and Crake, Old Babes in the Wood by Margaret AtwoodPride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma, and Persuasion by Jane AustenFranz KafkaMilan KunderaI Served the King of England and Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil HrabalOne Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzenitsyn Emily DickinsonJack Kerouac and Alan GinsbergCloudstreet by Tim WintonSlow Horses series and the latest in series, Down Cemetery Road by Mick Herron (and show inspired by books, of the same name, starring Gary Oldman)The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel KayThe Book of Negroes by Lawrence HillFlesh by David SzalyHamnet, by Maggie O’FarrellThursday Murder Club series and We Kill People by Richard OsmanStolen Focus by Johan HartJane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and Wuthering Heights by Emily BronteRomantic Comedy and Eligible by Curtis SittenfeldThe Other Bennett sister by Janice HadlowSeries of Jane Austen type-contemporary romances by Audrey Belleza and Emily HardingWide Sargasso Sea by Jean RhysDanielle SteeleStephen KingThe Prophet Song by Paul LynchMaeve BinchyUlysses and The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James JoyceWaiting for Godot by Samuel BeckettGeorge Bernard ShawTS Eliot, Murder in the Cathedral (we incorrectly attributed this play to Shaw).The Odyssey by Homer, the recent Emily Wilson translation (and mention of the 1997 miniseries adaptation of The Odyssey starring Armand Assante)Anne Carson (Canadian classics professor and writer)Circe and Song of Achilles by Madeline MillerRunaway by Alice MunroThe Republic of Love by Carol ShieldsThe Stone Angel by Margaret LaurenceCBC radio show Morningside and host Peter GzoskiWho Has Seen the Wind by W.O. MitchellThe Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai RichlerTwo Solitudes by Hugh McLennanThe Girl Who Was Saturday Night and Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O’NeillLord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien The (new-to-me) word Gaye used (from the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language 5th edition):
argot /är′gō/
noun 1 A specialized vocabulary or set of idioms used by a particular group. "thieves' argot." 2 A secret language or conventional slang peculiar to thieves, tramps, and vagabonds; flash. 
Similar: flash 3 A secret language or conventional slang peculiar to thieves, tramps and vagabonds.

I'm back and I'm committed to talking more about more books with you! Life is busy, but we can do this -- it's important!I share a quick update and let you in on an exciting conversation for our next episode when I will have a conversation with a (mystery for now) guest who will share her reading life and favourite reads AND we will tackle the challenge of what she should do after a powerful read let her feeling unable to read again!Here are books I mentioned on this podcast.Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver BurkemanWhalefall, Angel Down and The Shape of Water by Daniel KrausWomen Talking by Miriam ToewsBurial Rites by Hannah KentThe Inheritance of Loss by Kiran DesaiDandelion by Jamie LiewThe Other Bennet Sister by Janice HadlowHeated Rivalry by Rachel ReidOff Campus series by Elle KennedyNext episode coming in August!

A look back at summer and this reader's confessions of reading for escape and how reading fits into my life plus more reading aspirations and hopefully some new titles for you!
Here are the books and authors I mention:
The Five Invitations: Discovering what death can teach us about living fully by Frank Ostaseski
Quicksilver, by Callie Hart 
Dreadfulwater by Thomas King
Under One Roof, Loathe to Love You, Below Zero and Problematic Summer Romance by Ali Hazelwood
The Wall of Winnipeg and Me by Mariana Zapata
Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center
Roomies by Christina Lauren
It’s a Love Story by Annabel Monaghan
Out of the Woods by Hannah Bonam-Young
Two Rogues Make a Right and We Could be So Good by Cat Sebastian
The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy by Brigitte Knightley
The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake
Angelika Frankenstein Makes Her Match and The Hating Game by Sally
Thorne
The Hallmarked Man by Robert Galbraith
Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Permanent Astonishment by Tomson Highway
Weyward by Emilia Hart 
Death of the Author by Nnedi Okarofor
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
The Hearts Invisible Furies by John Boyne 
A Poetry Handbook by Mary Oliver
Steering the Craft by Ursula le Guin
 

I apologize for the delay in getting this summer episode recorded. Hopefully you can find some good lazy-day reading inspiration with this short update.
 
Here are books and authors I mention:
 
Rose in Chains by Julie Soto
Manacled and Alchemised by SenLinYu
Eve: How the female body drove 200 million years of human evolution  by Cat Bohannon
Nobody wants your shit: the art of decluttering before you die by Messi Condo
Swept Away by Beth O’Leary
Sarah Adams Rome, Kentucky trilogy
Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating by Christina Lauren
Nine Rules to Break when Romancing a Rake and These Summer Storms by Sarah MacLean
All Rhodes Lead Here by Mariana Zapata
A Five Letter Word for Love by Amy James
Hair for Men by Michelle Winters
Other sports romance authors:
Elle Kennedy
Sarina Bowen
Damon Suede
 
 

I am so pleased to be able to share my first-ever interview with a published author here on Bookmarkable. I was delighted to sit down with local North Vancouver writer Frances Peck to discuss her debut novel, The Broken Places — a Globe and Mail best book of 2022, and finalist for the 2023 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize. 
We had a lot to talk about and time flew by! We learned a bit about her second novel, Uncontrolled Flight and she gave some insight into the novel she’s working on now and her writing process.
We also dove into all the ways reading has been a key influence, inspiration, object of focused study and pleasure throughout her life. Plus we explored areas of common interest.
Books and authors mentioned on this episode:
The Broken Places and Uncontrolled Flight by Frances Peck
Thomas Hardy (Far from the Madding Crowd, Tess of the D’Ubervilles, Jude the Obscure, The Mayor of Casterbridge).Monty Python sketch: Novel Writing: Thomas Hardy writes Return of the NativeGeorge ElliotCharles DickensFebruary by Lisa MooreSylvanus Now by Donna MorriseyThe Handmaids Tale, Cat’s Eye by Margaret AtwoodThe Fireman and The Heart-shaped Box by Joe HillStephen King (anything by)Raymond ChandlerDashiell HammettThe Princess Bride and others by William GoldmanWhen We Cease to Understand the World and The Maniac by Benjamin LabututMandy by Julie Edwards (aka Julie Andrews)Ken FollettSidney SheldonScruples, by Judith KrantzClarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady and Pamela; or Virtue Rewarded, by Samuel RichardsonCharles DickensJane AustenBarbara Vine (aka Ruth Rendell)The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John FowlesElizabeth GeorgeRobert Galbraith (aka JK Rowling)A Time to Write in Earnest by PD JamesThe Pilot’s Wife by Anita ShreveAnne TylerLouise ErdrichRomantic Comedy, Eligible, American Wife and Prep by Curtis SittenfeldJodi PicoultAmericanah and Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieThe Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer and The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha MukherjeeA Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry Anosh Irani
Crash Landing by Li Charmaine AnneThe Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn BarnesOn Freedom by Timothy Snyder

Happy One-Year Anniversary to Bookmarkable!
On April 26, I went to the Canadian Independent Bookstore Day at Cross & Crows Books on Commercial Drive in Vancouver, BC. There were tables of people selling jewellery, authors promoting their books and a pop-up bookstore for the currently online Perfect Match romance bookstore, with owner Amy Pelletier displaying lots of physical copies of popular books. She is searching for a good spot in the city for a physical bookstore, coming soon. You can follow her on IG @perfectmatchbookshop. I also spoke with the book crawl organizer, (there was a book crawl of all independent bookstore on Commercial Drive "the Drive"), who goes by the handle Lady Jane who has a website romancingthedata.com/ and you can find her on IG @romancingthedata. I know on the podcast she also mentions Focus on Romance, but I'm not sure that IG account is hers...
I spoke with author Wren Handman and purchased her set-in-Vancouver book, A Midnight So Deadly. I also spoke with a bookstore browser Ben Hill who has a legacy podcast called History of the Mongols (you can still find it and it is fascinating). I also met Ruby Smith Diaz and purchased her book Searching for Seraphim about the late great Vancouver legend, "Joe" Fortes. I met the author Li Charmaine Anne.
Other authors and books mentioned on this podcast include:
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray BradburyThe Rising Tide by Anne CleevesThe Rachel Incident by Caroline O’DonoghueThe Broken Places by Frances PeckBe Useful: Seven Rules for Life by Arnold SchwarzeneggerBusiness or Pleasure by Rachel Lynn SolomonGreat Big Beautiful Life by Emily HenryPractice Makes Perfect by Sarah AdamsOn Freedom by Timothy SnyderThe Lady’s Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness by Sarah RameyThe Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes