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 interviews.

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.

The best books we read in 2024 

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.

Dr. Jonathan Stea on how to mind your mental health

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.

Anne Fleming on love stories and curiosity

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.

Anna Gomez on the things she's picked up to write about... somewhere along the way

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 story takes place.

Joining Richard Powers on the Playground

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:

• Is AI a no-go for NaNoWriMo?
• Audible announces AI narration—as a side hustle for human narrators
• B&N needs more shovels (to deal with AI)
• Bestselling nonfiction author Steven Johnson on employing AI as research assistant on steriods - The Verge
• Odds on an AI writing a bestselling book
• Fewer booksellers at Apple Books
• A leaner, meaner penguin* in the Penguin Random House logo (or, the slimming power of a strong vertical line)?
• Gen Z's eReader moment

Books mentioned:

• By Stephen Johnson: The Ghost Map, Where Good Ideas Come From
• Naked Came the Stranger by Penelope Ashe (aka. Mike McGrady "and two dozen of his colleagues")

*This conversation contains a brief digression into off-label use of Ozempic. Please listen with care.

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.

katherena vermette on crafting a real story out of fakery

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.

Novelist Jamaluddin Aram on leaving space for the reader to work

Host Nathan Maharaj spoke with Amanda Peters, author of the 2023 novel The Berry Pickers, a book about a 4-year-old girl who goes missing while her family is visiting Maine for the summer to pick blueberries. It’s a book that won both the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and the Crime Writers of Canada’s first novel award, among many other accolades. Her new book is a collection of short stories called Waiting for the Long Night Moon.

Amanda Peters on the art of thought-provoking storytelling