Kobo in Conversation

We spoke with Lindsay Wong, author of the memoir  The Woo-Woo: How I Survived Ice Hockey, Drug Raids, Demons, and My Crazy Chinese Family ,  which was a finalist for Canada Reads in 2019, and the YA novel  My Summer of Love and Misfortune . And she has a marvelously macabre new short story collection, Tell Me Pleasant Things about Immortality . Lindsay Wong tells us pleasant things about discomfor...

We were joined by novelist Cherie Dimaline, author of  The Marrow Thieves ,  its sequel  Hunting by Stars ,  and the acclaimed literary novel  Empire of Wild .  Her new book is  VenCo , a work of speculative fiction in which a secretive corporation named VenCo hires a powerful witch to assemble an elite coven—before the recruits are found by an ancient witch hunter. Cherie Dimaline on connecting w...

We're bringing you a conversation from the Kobo Writing Life Podcast, where writers talk about how they're navigating the many publishing options available to authors today. Check out Jackie Lau on the Kobo Writing Life Podcast, with links to Jackie's books and the books discussed in this episode:  KWL – 310 – Writing Romance, Working with Kobo Originals, and More with Jackie Lau And here's our Q&...

We spoke with author and book designer CS Richardson, whose first novel  The End of the Alphabet   won the 2008 Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best 1st Book. His new book,  All the Colour in the World is a kaleidoscopic novel about a boy's love affair with art and a man's struggle with loss. And while we had him on the line, we took the opportunity to talk a bit about his other career as one of Ca...

We spoke with Kai Thomas, author of the novel In the Upper Country .  It's a story set in the fictional Canadian town of Dunmore, a place where people fleeing slavery in the southern United States build new lives. Kai Thomas conjures fiction from the history of the upper country

Because you can never hear about too many great books, here's another batch of the best books Kobo staff read in 2022. There's memoir, investigative journalism, fun facts, romance, and more (also moors)! The best books we read in 2022

We asked the staff of Kobo about the best eBooks and audiobooks they read in 2022, and we heard about memoirs, literary masterpieces, page-turning non-fiction, family sagas, mind-opening nature writing, sci-fi love stories across time, and so much more.  The best books we read in 2022

We spoke with award-winning science writer Harold McGee, author of the new book Nose Dive: A Field Guide to the World's Smells ,  a wondrous and entertaining guide to the smells of food, yes, but also of our surroundings—indoor as well as outdoor, from rotten eggs and wet dogs to coffee and perfume—and offers readers a whiff of the very building blocks of the universe itself. Harold McGee on the s...

The final of three interviews we recorded at Toronto's Harbourfront Centre as part of the Toronto International Festival of Authors . With novelists André Forget author of In the City of Pigs, and Naben Ruthnum author of  A Hero of Our Time we spoke about their darkly comic novels that play with themes of work, art, and the unreality of even so-called real estate. Beneath the veneer with Naben Rut...

The second of three interviews we recorded at Toronto's Harbourfront Centre as part of the Toronto International Festival of Authors . We interviewed novelist Jean Hanff Korelitz, author of several critically acclaimed bestselling novels, but most recently The Latecomer . It's the story of the Oppenheimer family, who are materially very comfortable, and fairly uncomfortable in just about every oth...

Over the next few weeks we'll be sharing recordings of live interviews conducted at Toronto's Harbourfront Centre as part of the  Toronto International Festival of Authors . The first of these features international bestselling author Marian Keyes speaking about her pandemic project,  Again, Rachel , the unexpected (to her) sequel to her breakout 90s bestseller  Rachel's Holiday . We spoke with Ma...

We were joined by actor, playwright, and novelist Ann-Marie MacDonald, author of the international bestseller  Fall on Your Knees ,  to talk about her new novel,  Fayne , a work of historical fiction about a girl named Charlotte, her father Henry, a painting of Charlotte's late mother and infant brother—and a secret that lies between them. Ann-Marie MacDonald on staying open to surprise .

We spoke with Chief Robert Joseph, a Hereditary chief of the Gwawaenuk First Nation and honourary witness to Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission about his new book  Namwayu t: A Pathway to Reconciliation . In the book and in this episode, Chief Joseph shares an intimate view of his own life while making an impassioned plea to readers to embrace vulnerability, summon the courage to recogni...

Novelist Hernan Diaz is a professor at Columbia University and the author of  In the Distance , a finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize. We spoke with him about a range of topics that inform his new novel Trust , a fractured, multi-layered book about the life and ambitions of the fictional tycoon Andrew Bevel. Hernan Diaz on power, truth, and Trust .

Deon Meyer is the author of  The Dark Flood , the newest installment in his  Benny Griessel series  of detective novels set in South Africa. We spoke with Deon as part of the Toronto International Festival of Authors' Mystery & Crime Festival: MOTIVE. Hear more from  Kobo in Conversation .

Enjoy this conversation with non-fiction thriller author Ben Mezrich, author of  The Accidental Billionaires  and  Bringing Down the House about his new historical fiction novel The Midnight Ride , which started out as a wildly ambitious project taken up in the early days of the pandemic. We spoke with Ben as part of the Toronto International Festival of Authors' Mystery & Crime Festival: MOTIVE....

We spoke with Cory Silverberg, educator, entrepreneur, researcher, and author of the books  What Makes a Baby,  Sex is a Funny Word ,  and the new book,  You Know, Sex .  These books are approachable and factual guides to sex and bodies, but also grown-up feelings, experiences, and all kinds of stuff that can be really hard for anyone to talk about. Supported by Fiona Smyth's vivid and playful ill...

Some listeners may recognize the voice of our guest Elamin Abdelmahmoud from the CBC podcasts  Party Lines  and  Pop Chat . He joined us to talk about his new book,  Son of Elsewhere: A Memoir in Pieces  in which he writes movingly of his relationship to his personal elsewhere, the Sudanese city of Khartoum from which he came to Kingston, Ontario as a child. He also writes beautifully about his pa...

We were joined by science writer Riley Black, author of several bestsellers on paleontology including  My Beloved Brontosaurus ,  Written in Stone , and  Skeleton Keys . And if you've read literally  anything  anywhere about dinosaurs in the last decade, you've probably happened upon pieces by her in National Geographic, WIRED, Smithsonian Magazine, and Scientific American. Her new book is  The La...

Sheila Heti is a novelist, playwright, and former interviews editor for the literary magazine The Believer. We spoke with her (and her dog Feldman) about her new novel  Pure Colour  and how her novels come into being. Hear more from Kobo in Conversation .

We spoke with Britt Wray, broadcaster, science writer, and researcher at the intersection of mental health and climate change. Her new book is  Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Crisis   which is a deeply felt and thoroughly-researched study of what it means to wake up every day and live our lives on this warming planet of ours—without succumbing to despair about it all. Hear...

Podcast aficionados may recognize our guest Stephanie Foo from her work on  This American Life,  Snap Judgment , and  99% Invisible , to name just a few of her credits. And now she has written a book called  What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma that's both a memoir of growing up in an abusive and neglectful environment and also an explainer on complex post-traumatic stress d...

NoViolet Bulawayo is the Booker Prize shortlisted author of  We Need New Names  and the new novel  Glory , a fable-like retelling of the two years between the overthrow of Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe and his death. It's moving, provocative, and surprisingly funny. Hear more from  Kobo in Conversation .

We spoke with Julia Quinn, author of the Bridgerton series of Regency romance novels. She told us about what it was like to see her characters come to life on-screen, and we asked her whether we'll eventually see a cinematic interpretation of a Smythe-Smith musicale. (Originally released February 12, 2021) We'll be back soon with new episodes of Kobo in Conversation .

Kathryn Schulz is a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine, and author of the 2010 nonfiction bestseller,  Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error . Her new book is a memoir,  Lost & Found , which chronicles the grief of losing her father as well as the joy of finding love--with some surprising and fascinating lessons about typography, meteorites, and the philosophy of finding along the w...