Kobo in Conversation
In-depth conversations with authors about their books—how and why they write, the books and authors they admire, and so much more. Plus, occasional takes on what's going on in the business of books. And year-end round-ups of reading recommendations from the staff of Rakuten Kobo, the global digital bookseller. Episodes run ~45 minutes. Hosted by Michael Tamblyn and Nathan Maharaj.
Episodes
Host Michael Tamblyn spoke with Eliza Reid, author of the novel Death on the Island. It’s a mystery set on a remote island in Iceland where a dinner party of diplomats turns fatal for the deputy ambassador of Canada.
And it just so happens that the elements of this story—Iceland, diplomacy, and the perils of being a Canadian out in the world—these are all things that Ottawa-born Eliza Reid knows well from the 8 years she spent as t...
Host Nathan Maharaj spoke with poet and novelist Aaron Kreuter. His new book is Lake Burntshore, which tells the story of the summer of 2013 at a Canadian Jewish summer camp that’s just fired a several camp counsellors after they're caught smoking (then-illegal) marijuana. The enterprising son of the camp's owner springs into action and comes up with a surprising solution to their sudden staffing needs: a group of charming and very...
Host Michael Tamblyn spoke with Elyse Graham, author of Book and Dagger: How Scholars and Librarians Became the Unlikely Spies of World War Two. It’s the true story of how the United States, as war raged in Europe, quickly built an organization staffed with intelligence officers recruited not from the military—but from the ranks of the bookworms—the academics, lib...
Host Nathan Maharaj spoke with Liann Zang, author of the new novel Julie Chan is Dead
Host Nathan Maharaj spoke with novelist Jon Hickey, author of Big Chief. It’s takes place in an Anishinaabe reservation called Passage Rouge Nation during the last weekend before a Tribal Presidential election. Incumbent president Mack Beck is coasting to another term happily overseeing tribal governmental matters as well as the Golden Eagle Casino and Hotel when his rival, activist Gloria Hawkins begins gaining steam in the home s...
Host Nathan Maharaj spoke with Claire Cameron, author of the novels The Bear and The Last Neanderthal. Her new book is How to Survive a Bear Attack. It’s a memoir of family, of illness, of love, and the author’s ongoing fascination with a 1991 bear attack that happened in a wilderness she knows so well.
Host Michael Tamblyn spoke with mystery novelist Nita Prose, author of the international bestseller The Maid. It’s the story of Molly Gray, a 20-something hotel maid whose job perfectly suits her need for order and predictable routine. As tends to happen in mystery novels set in hotels, Molly discovers a d...
In our latest installment in this series, hosts Michael Tamblyn and Nathan Maharaj caught up on a book whose author they're not going to get to interview.
Topics covered in this episode:
- Meta's problem with an ex-employee's tell-all memoir
- The cognitive perils of being a billionaire
- The publishing perils of nonfiction
- Moving fast and breaking things as sage wisdom from the elders of Silicon Valley
- LibGen and the fight in the c...
Host Nathan Maharaj spoke with podcaster Nate DiMeo about his book The Memory Palace, based on the podcast by the same name. In The Memory Palace, history comes in vignettes, as short stories, as jewels carefully mined from a variety of sources. Nathan and Nate talked about history as story, how Nate realized the thing that made him the best guy to sit next to at the bar was a great idea for a podcast, and the making of The Memory ...
Host Michael Tamblyn spoke with David A. Robertson, author of many books including the Governor General’s award-winning When We Were Alone, and On the Trapline, both illustrated by Julie Flett. He’s also the author of the ongoing series for young readers, The Misewa Saga. And he’s the author of the 2022 novel for adults, A Theory of Crows, as well as a memoir from 2020 called Black Water: Family, Legacy, and Blood Memory.
David and...
Host Nathan Maharaj spoke with Christina Cooke, author of the novel Broughtupsy
Following our last episode all about the best books we read in 2024, host and producer Nathan Maharaj connected over Zoom with even more Kobo staffers (including one that'll be very familiar Kobo in Conversation listeners) to talk about the books that have stuck with them over the past 12 months.
So welcome back once more, to our year in books.
The best books we read in 2024
We'll be back in your feed soon with more amazing author...
Listen in as Kobo staffers share the best books they read in 2024. It's all here, from the buzziest new releases to bucket list classics.
Host Nathan Maharaj spoke with Dr. Jonathan Stea, clinical psychologist and adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Calgary, about avoiding the pitfalls of pseudoscience and what we can all learn from wellness grifters in his book Mind the Science: Saving Your Mental Health from the Wellness Industry.
Host Michael Tamblyn spoke with novelist Anne Fleming, author of Curiosities, which was a finalist for the 2024 Giller Prize. It’s the story of how five fictional 17th century manuscripts uncovered by an amateur historian named Anne paint a picture of a handful of unusual lives.
Host Michael Tamblyn spoke with novelist Anna Gomez, author of Somewhere Along the Way. It’s the story of Charlotte, or Charlie to her friends, a woman thrown into turmoil with the death of her father. She is given a collection of letters that her mother had been sending since she left Charlie and her dad so long ago. Those letters set Charlie on a journey, and we all get to come along for the ride.
Host Nathan Maharaj spoke with novelist Richard Powers. Many readers will know him from his 2019 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Overstory, or perhaps The Echo Maker, which won the 2006 National Book Award. His newest novel is Playground, a story about four characters joined in different ways—marriage, friendship, a kind of celebrity—but sharing nonetheless an interest in the French Polynesian island of Makatea, where much of the ...
In our second installment in this new series, hosts Michael Tamblyn and Nathan Maharaj sat down to go over some of the latest goings-on since summer in the business of books.
Topics covered in this episode:
Host Nathan Maharaj spoke with writer katherena vermette, author of the award-winning 2016 novel The Break, the graphic novel series A Girl Called Echo, as well as a number of poetry collections and books for children. Her latest novel is real ones. It’s the story of a pair of sisters, lyn and June, whose mother’s claims to Indigenous identity come under more scrutiny than they can bear.
Host Nathan Maharaj spoke with writer and filmmaker Jamaluddin Aram, winner of the 2024 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for Literary fiction for his novel Nothing Good Happens in Wazirabad on Wednesday. It’s a tapestry of stories about different people—shopkeepers, tradespeople, doctors, children, and their parents—while in the background, often very deep in the background, a war is being fought.
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