Karen Magee steps right into the rabbit hole if she enjoyed the first book an author wrote. She also can’t remember the last time she didn’t finish a book she started, no matter how painful it was to keep reading. She shares her five most recent reads, under the 15-second pressure clock, on Rapid Fire Review.

In a society where people with disabilities remain largely invisible, what does it mean to parent a child born With Down syndrome? Adelle Purdham began unpacking a lifetime of her own ableism and society’s role in it, after the birth of her daughter. We explore her collection of essays, I Don’t Do Disability and Other Lies I’ve Told Myself, describing her honest, resilient journey.

Alexei Navalny’s Patriot is an unpolished memoir, mostly written from prison, chronicling his fight against corruption in Russia through his deeply personal journey. With humorous passages, pro references to Harry Potter, Navalny’s reflections on family and love give Sara Hillis and the gang much to review around this this intense political narrative.

Do book lists even matter? Karen McKay and Theresa Power from the Centre for Equitable Library Access to chat about the year’s hottest book lists. We dive into picks from the Globe and Mail and New York Times, while discussing the place of these lists in today’s book world.

Jacob Shymanski and Ramya Amuthan defend their beloved picks on Read and Tell. Today’s prompts are: "The best recommendation I’ve gotten in a while is…” and "The tearjerker I need to tell you about…”

We’re inviting a brand new contributor on the show – though she is an old friend and known voice on the network, Danielle McLaughlin. Let’s give her a very warm welcome by putting her mental timer and linguistics to the test with a healthy dose of Rapid Fire Review.

Aamer Khan, Jacob Shymanski, and Ramya Amuthan review “The Maid” by Nita Prose. 

A 2022 New York Times Best Seller, it sold over 2 million copies, but that doesn’t mean we’re sold on it. Jacob plans to approach this review with ruthless efficiency and discipline, but the rest of us are only in it for the chaos.

Highlights

• Introducing “The Maid” by Nita Prose (00:00)
• The Agenda (00:51)
• Synopsis (01:36)
• Addressing the Elephant in the Room / Is it Icky? (04:01)
• Beefing with The Maid (13:41)
• Redeeming Qualities (if Applicable) (21:41)
• Quality versus Popularity (23:58)
• [Spoiler] The Ending / Doing the Right Thing (28:16)
• Concluding Thoughts (31:53)

Find "The Maid: A Novel" by Nita Prose on: CELA or Audible

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLERNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER / GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK 

 "A twist-and-turn whodunit, set in a five-star hotel, from the perspective of the maid who finds the body. Think Clue. Think page-turner."—Glamour 

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE / ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2022—The Globe and Mail, Chatelaine, Stylist, Glamour, W magazine, PopSugar, The Rumpus, Book Riot, CrimeReads, She Reads, Daily Hive, Canadian Living ...

"An endearing debut. . . . The reader comes to understand Molly’s worldview, and to sympathize with her longing to be accepted—a quest that gives The Maid real emotional heft." —The New York Times 

"The Maid is a masterful, charming mystery that will touch your heart in ways you could never expect. . . . This is the smart, quirky, uplifting read we need." —Ashley Audrain, #1 bestselling author of The Push.

A dead body is one mess she can’t clean up on her own.

Molly Gray is not like everyone else. She struggles with social skills and misreads the intentions of others. 

Her gran used to interpret the world for her, codifying it into simple rules that Molly could live by. 

Since Gran died a few months ago, twenty-five-year-old Molly has been navigating life’s complexities all by herself. 

No matter—she throws herself with gusto into her work as a hotel maid. 

Her unique character, along with her obsessive love of cleaning and proper etiquette, make her an ideal fit for the job. She delights in donning her crisp uniform each morning, stocking her cart with miniature soaps and bottles, and returning guest rooms at the Regency Grand Hotel to a state of perfection. 

But Molly’s orderly life is upended the day she enters the suite of the infamous and wealthy Charles Black, only to find it in a state of disarray and Mr. Black himself dead in his bed. 

Before she knows what’s happening, Molly’s unusual demeanour has the police targeting her as their lead suspect. She quickly finds herself caught in a web of deception, one she has no idea how to untangle. 

Fortunately for Molly, friends she never knew she had unite with her in a search for clues to what really happened to Mr. Black. 

But will they be able to find the real killer before it’s too late? 

Both a Clue-like, locked-room mystery and a heartwarming journey of the spirit, The Maid explores what it means to be the same as everyone else and yet entirely different—and reveals that all mysteries can be solved through connection to the human heart.

As the days get cold and dark, we settle in and hibernate with our books, maybe revisiting old favourites. But what draws us back to books we’ve already read? Is re-reading a waste of time? Karen McKay from the Centre for Equitable Library Access joins us to share her top cozy reads, and we explore the reasons we turn to our comfort books over and over again.

Literary characters make for good friends, great enemies, andrealistic mirrors of who we are. Sometimes, we use them to imagine our lives in different ways; other times we just can’t believe what they would get up to. We dive into the ‘why’ of connecting with fictional characters, and the depths of what makes them stick with us.