The Current - Ready for a summer read? We asked the professionals for their picks

Episode Date: June 3, 2025

Nothing beats a good book, especially at the cottage, by the pool — or even quietly at home with the kids away at camp. We ask two professional book lovers to share their tips for the best books of the summer, from beach reads and blockbusters to novels from Canada’s finest.Ann Shea, from Mill Street Books in Almonte, Ont., chose One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune, The Alternatives by Caoilinn Hughes, How to Survive a Bear Attack by Claire Cameron, The Mind Mappers by Eric Andrew-Gee and My Friends by Fredrik Backman.Cassidy Tooley, from Mosaic Books in Kelowna, B.C., chose Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy, Favourite Daughter by Morgan Dick, The Book of Alchemy: A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life by Suleika Jaouad, The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig, and Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid.Have you read any of these books already? Hit play to hear the conversation and find out why our book lovers think you should!

1942, Europe. Soldiers find a boy surviving alone in the woods. They make him a member of Hitler's army. But what no one would know for decades, he was Jewish. Could a story so unbelievable be true? I'm Dan Goldberg. I'm from CBC's personally, Toy Soldier. Available now wherever you get your podcasts. This is a CBC podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway and this is The Current Podcast. Hopefully the sun is shining wherever you happen to be right now. The weather is getting warmer. It's June. Summer is coming. The beach or the cottage

or the campground perhaps is beckoning. Wherever you happen to be, you're going to need a good book. What should we read this summer? We have two professional book lovers to talk about the books that you need in your hands. Anne Shea is the owner of Mill Street Books in Almont, Ontario. Cassidy Tooley is the assistant manager at Mosaic Books in Kelowna, British Columbia. Good morning to you both. Good morning, Matt. Hello. Cassidy, summer books are a real thing. I mean, we don't often talk about winter reading or spring reading, but we talk about summer reading. What is it that people you think are looking for in a summer read?

I think definitely summer reads for us are something that you can quickly pull out of the beach bag and just sink into. Summer's so busy and chaotic, so many plans, you got vacation, all that, so it's a book that you can easily dive into and it sucks you in, holds your attention and is exciting. And what about for you?

How do you classify what a good read, I mean, people read all sorts of things in the summer, but the idea of a summer read seems to have a certain connotation. I'm looking for romance, I'm looking for fast pace, I'm looking for something that I can jump into. And what about for you?

I agree with Cassidy. I like a book that will take us to another setting, maybe challenge some of your ideas, take you outside your comfort zone as well, but definitely a page-turner meets that definition. Does it have to be something, I mean, life is busy and the news is often terrible. Does it have to be something, Ann, that kind of gets you out of that

and needs to be something a bit lighter than maybe what you might be consuming otherwise? It doesn't necessarily have to be light, but I think it should, you know, the classic definition of the beach read is light, but I think you can really read anything on the beach and in the summer. It doesn't necessarily have to be romance or fantasy. One of the things I'd like to do is take a look at what people are reading. If you're on the subway

or if you're walking around and you see people in a cafe, and Cassidy, the thing that it seemed like a lot of people were reading last summer was All Fours by Miranda July. It seemed like a lot of people were reading last summer was All Forest by Miranda July. It seemed like a blockbuster kind of book. What did you make of the success of that book? Yeah, that one, it kind of surprised us as well. Litfic, you know, can sometimes be heavier, but I think the road trip aspect of that one really drew people for a summer read. Lit fic. Yeah, literary fiction. So what do you think, is that going to be repeated? I mean, what is,

what's the big hit going to be this year, Cassidy? You know what, for us, we have found this spring for us, this excellent book called Wild Dark Shore by an Australian author named Charlotte McConaughey has been flying off the shelves. I've had probably five or six of our co-workers, my co-workers have read it. It's an excellent book that's kind of cross-genre. It's a thriller, it's a family story, it's literary fiction, it's climate fiction. It's about a single dad and his three kids who are living on this island off of Antarctica. And a woman comes up on shore and they are trying to figure out why she's there. It's this really remote island.

Each chapter is full of secrets and everyone's hiding something. It's just such an excellent, excellent book. Like I said, it's five stars across the board for us at Mosaic Books and it's been flying off the shelf. So I think anyone who's kind of looking for that fast-paced cross-genre that you can really sink into. It was a really fantastic read. Just the premise of it. Somebody washed up on shore on a remote island. Yes.

And is there, we'll talk about some other specifics, but is there a big hit, a blockbuster that you think is going to dominate people's book bags this summer? Yes. I think one of the big books of the summer will be One Golden Summer by Carly Fortune. It's a return to Berry's Bay where her first book was set. So it's got the lake front setting of the family cottage in rural Ontario.

We have Alice and her grandma who go to visit a cottage there. And the question is, will she find romance with Charlie Florrick? Who was the hot older brother in every summer after. So we take a look back a little bit about the three people in that book, which was a hit in 2022. And we find out if the original couple there, Percy and Sam, will have lived happily ever after three years later and Charlie really gets his own story and a chance to shine.

Carly Fortune's been, she's been on this run, right, in producing these books, as you said, with kind of connected stories, but what do you think it is about what she's writing that people love? I think she's really tapped into, you know, the younger woman who is maybe coming out of a bad romance and looking for some stability and looking to have some fun. And I think she's really just nailed the storytelling aspect of that in local settings.

All her books take place in Canada. So there's a sense of recognition, I think, for these settings. She's gone to PEI, now she's back in Berry's Bay. So I think people, there's a little bit of a comfort element to it as well, along with the spiciness of summer romance. One of the things people love about going to bookstores, Cassidy,

is that they can come to people like you and say, tell me about something I don't know. What is a book that I don't know about that I should read? Is there, give us a sleeper hit, something that maybe is lurking under the radar. It's not going to be the big hit, but that you think would be worth people's time. Okay. I have a great pick for this. I read an advanced copy of this book called Favorite Daughter by Morgan Dick.

She is a Canadian author. This is her debut. She's from Calgary. And it is just this kind of bonkers premise. Quite a... Yeah, it's crazy. It's about two sisters who have never met, and when their father dies, the estranged daughter is gifted his inheritance on the condition that she complete seven therapy sessions with a specific therapist. And it turns out this therapist is her half-sister. So they

end up going to therapy together and they don't know that they're actually sisters. It's chaotic. It is a little bit wacky, but it is something that you cannot look away from. Perfect summer read. If you liked Yellow Face a couple summers ago, if you liked The Guest by Emma Klein, I think this is going to be the book for you. I loved it. I'm pushing it into people's hands at my store. It is fantastic. Favorite daughter, that's what it's called. Yes. All right. We'll have a list at the end for people who are just trying to follow along here. Anne, what about for you? Give us something that maybe people don't know about, under the radar, but totally worth our time. Absolutely. I think everyone should read The Alternatives by Colleen Hughes. This is an Irish book that's just out in paperback this week.

It's beautiful Irish fiction about four brilliant sisters who are experts in their own fields of ecology, politics, the culinary world, English literature, and they suffered a traumatic childhood. And later in life, one of them kind of goes off the rails. The oldest sister goes off the rails. So the four of them who had been distanced from each other, rallied together and come back to Ireland to find her and help her out of this trauma that she's feeling. So it's a beautiful story. You'll feel so much smarter after having read it because the brilliance of characters and the brilliant writing. I just, I love this book. Is drinking raw milk safe like RFK Junior suggests? Can you reduce a glucose spike if you eat your food in quote unquote the right order?

I'm registered dietitian, Abbey Sharp. I host a nutrition myth busting podcast called Bite Back with Abbey Sharp. And those are just some of the questions I tackle with qualified experts on my show. On Bite Back, my goal is to help listeners create a pleasurable relationship with food, their body and themselves, which in my opinion is the fundamental secret to good health. Listen to Bite Back wherever you get your podcasts. Are you finding, I mean in this moment, you both recommended some Canadian books. Where, you know, there's a bi-Canadian kind of movement,

there's travel in Canada. Is there a read Canadian movement, Anne? Absolutely. But especially starting in January, I think that demand has definitely increased. Visitors from other countries are coming in and looking to read some, you know, Canadian titles. We have improved the way we identify them in the store and we had some

special bookmarks made to bring them to everyone's attention more prominently. So yes, there's definitely an increase in demand. You're seeing that as well, Cassidy? I mean, we have a great tradition of Canadian literature and celebrating Canadian literature, but is that being, is that heightened in this moment? Yeah, I definitely agree with Anne. We've kind of done the same with trying to display our Canadian books more, have them more prominent.

We have more like Canadian stickers, we have Canadian bookmarks, that kind of thing. But I definitely think people are trying to gravitate towards something that is based in Canada and just connecting with those stories. Um, I think Anne's definitely right. People are just wanting that familiarity and comfort for sure.

How are people finding out about the books that they think they might want to read? I mean, one of the things you are the opposite of the algorithm in some ways. You can be, we go into your store and you say, this is the book, I'm going to put it in your hand, take it home, and I trust you because you have said that this is important. But people also, they do rely on social media, TikTok, Book Talk, what have you. Is that a thing, Cassidy? Are you finding that that is driving people into the shops with specific ideas of

what they want to read? For sure. I think if you don't think Book Talk is driving people into the shops with specific ideas of what they want to read? For sure. I think if you don't think Booktalk is driving your sales, like you're, it definitely is. I think it's opened up such a huge demographic, especially with young women. And I think it's just a really great introduction for readers and they find something on Booktalk

that they like, they come pick it up and then they're continuing to come back to the store because they're realizing like, hey, I actually really do enjoy reading. And it's just a really great gateway for them to start a new hobby like that. So it's, I mean, we're happy and we do a lot of shelf talkers. We do a lot of like personal recommendations. Obviously we are a tourist town here in Kelowna, but we have families that come in year after year that specifically ask for recommendations from booksellers.

Most of our booksellers have been with us for a really long time, so we have that trust and familiarity with our customers, even if they are tourists, so that's really nice. And what about for you? I mean, as I said, you are a trusted voice, but you also are a trusted voice in an ecosystem where people are getting recommendations

from other readers and from what the algorithm might put in their hands as well. Yes, we definitely, social media, book talk, TikTok is a driver of sales. And we know which of our customers follow TikTok more closely. So if we put in special orders for a book coming out, you know, in a couple of months,

I will add about three or four books, three or four copies of that book to the order, because I know they're on top of things. So we definitely rely on, you know, certain customers and certain booksellers to make our purchasing decisions and stay ahead of the curve in terms of the big hits that are anticipated. All right, give us a few more recommendations.

And what else is on your pile? What else do I need to read this summer? Well, two nonfiction books that I really enjoyed. One of them is How to Survive a Bear Attack by Claire Cameron. She was on our program talking about that very book. Absolutely, and don't underestimate the influence of CBC to drive book sales as well in our store for sure.

That's a wonderful book that explores a lot of themes, takes you to Algonquin Park and takes you on a woman's journey. So that one is very popular and I would recommend that. Another book that I'm reading right now is called The Mind Mappers. And this is a completely different type of read for the summer but it's medical history about Dr. Wilder Penfield and his lesser known colleague Dr. William Cohn and the brain science discoveries that they carried out in Montreal from the 1920s on and that's just a fascinating book.

Cassidy, give us a few more recommendations. I have a nonfiction as well. It's called The Book of Alchemy by Salika Jouad. She wrote an amazing memoir a couple of years ago called Between Two Kingdoms, but this is more of a psychology read. It's about the practice of journaling and how it's helped her through so many difficult times and how it helps us understand ourselves and the connection to people.

She goes through and interviews a lot of different people. We've got Elizabeth Gilbert, Gloria Steinem. So it's just a really interesting take on just journaling and how it's so connected to our creativity. So I think that could be an excellent summer read. I'm also currently reading a great Romantic book called The Night and the Moss by Rachel Gillig. It's a Gothic Romantasy. You got a knight who's helping a diviner find her sisters that are going missing. It's really atmospheric and excellent writing. So if you're into romantasy

and you're wanting something that's not maybe dragons or fae that's so popular right now, this would be an excellent book to pick up. Is there one thing, you mentioned that, is there one thing, Cassavie, that when you get time off, you will take to the beach or to a cabin or to a cottage or to a quiet place, a comfortable chair, the book that you are most looking forward

to reading this summer? You know, I'm actually probably most looking forward to Taylor Jenkins' Read Atmosphere, which comes out next week. It is based in the 1980s. It's about a woman who is working for NASA and that whole experience. I'm really excited for her book.

I love all of her books. She just does, she is such a great craft and writing historical fiction especially. And that's something that I'm really looking forward to next week. Excellent, what about for you Anne? What's the thing that you wanna read this summer? The one thing you cannot want to read this summer?

The one thing you cannot wait to get the time to open up? Well, I would echo what Cassidy said about atmosphere, and I will add my friends by Frederick Bachman. I personally have never read Frederick Bachman before, so I know that this is going to be pure pleasure for me to explore. And this one is a book about childhood friendship and grief and the transformative power of art. It's got dual timelines and I just can't wait to start reading that one. I love bookstores in part because I can buy books

but also because I can talk to people about what books I should buy. Thank you both for the recommendations. Thank you so much, Matt. It's an honor to be here. Yes, thank you, Matt, so much. You've been listening to The Current Podcast. My name is Matt Galloway.

Thanks for listening. I'll talk to you soon. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.