The Next Chapter with Antonio Michael Downing

You may know Kia Nurse from the WNBA, Team Canada or her basketball coverage on TSN. She also scored the first points recorded in Toronto Tempo history. Today she joins the show to talk about the team’s book club, and what they’ve been reading as of late. And later, CBC Books producer Bridget Raymundo talks about the hit graphic novel series Hearstopper, and why it holds such a special place in her heart.

Books discussed on this week's show include:
It Should Have Been You by Andrea Mara
Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
Heartstopper by Alice Oseman

Liked this conversation? Keep listening:
Inside the Toronto Sceptres’ team book club
Get to know CBC’s Winter Olympics host

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Celebrity book clubs have shown their staying power. From Reese Witherspoon to Dua Lipa, everyone’s curious about what actors and artists are reading. When Heated Rivalry’s Nadine Bhabha shared that she’s in a book club with five of her actor friends the last time she was on the show, we knew we had to see what this club was all about. Nadine and her colleagues Clark Backo and Jess Salgueiro join the show to peel back the curtain on this star-studded book club, share what they’ve been reading and how their love of books brought them all together.

Books discussed on this week's show include:
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
The Witch by Marie Ndiaye
Half His Age by Jeannette McCurdy

Liked this conversation? Keep listening:
Heated Rivalry’s Nadine Bhabha’s It Girl book club
How Amanda Brugel manifested her role in The Handmaid’s Tale

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Will Ferguson began his career as a travel writer. Since then he's written more than a dozen books and won some of the biggest literary prizes a Canadian writer can win. Along the way, he never gave up travel writing, and still uses it to inform his fiction. His books stretch across genres, allowing his work to follow wherever his interests take him, always with an underpinning thread of humour. Growing up in a small town in Northern Alberta, books were his first ticket to seeing the outside world. He'll break down which books have influenced his life and career the most in a segment of My Life in Books.

Books discussed on this week's show include:
Meanwhile, Back in Nokomis by Will Ferguson
Red Sky at Morning by Richard Bradford
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler
The Quiet American by Graham Greene
Satellite Love by Genki Ferguson

Liked this conversation? Keep listening:
Terry Fallis proves you have to live before you can write
The books that made Andrew Phung fall in love with storytelling

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For most of her writing life Patricia Finn wrote and polished other people’s stories. But this spring she stepped out of the shadows with the publication of her debut novel. It’s called The Golden Boy and it follows a television executive who, after losing his job, inherits the grandchildren of his deceased friend. Patricia joins the show to tell us about The Golden Boy and recommend a companion read. Plus, author Uzma Jalaluddin shares what Gen Z slang she's picked up from her kids while answering The Next Chapter's version of the Proust Questionnaire.

Books discussed on this week's show include:
No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai
Moonlight Murder by Uzma Jalaluddin

Liked this conversation? Keep listening:
The author behind Lucky reveals how she helped cast Anya Taylor-Joy
The book that inspired Carley Fortune's writing career

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In April, two Canada Reads nominated authors took the stage in Whitehorse to discuss their books in front of a packed live audience. The evening featured a conversation between Loghan Paylor, author of The Cure for Drowning, and Billy-Ray Belcourt, the author of A Minor Chorus. Both novels explore what it means to find a sense of home, and how that quest can impact who we become. The event was called Homecoming, and with the help of CBC host Leonard Linklater, the authors sat down to discuss the themes of home, identity and belonging in their characters' lives, and in their own.

Books discussed on this week's show include:
The Cure for Drowning by Loghan Paylor
A Minor Chorus by Billy-Ray Belcourt

Liked this conversation? Keep listening:
How iconic musician Tegan Quin plans to tackle Canada Reads
Why Elle-Maija Tailfeathers says A Minor Chorus is the story Canada needs to hear right now

Check us out on Instagram @cbcbooks and TikTok @cbcbooks