Bookings - The King's Co-op Bookstore Podcast

While the pandemic is great for listening to podcasts, running the bookstore right now has made it pretty tough to actually make episodes! We hosted the bookstore's first official Zoom event last night with Danny Caine, owner of Raven bookstore in Lawrence Kansas, and this episode is the recording from that live Zoom event! When a company's workers are literally dying on the job, when their business model relies on preying on local businesses and even their own vendors, when their CEO is literally the richest person in the world while their workers make low wages with impossible quotas... wouldn't you want to resist? Danny Caine, owner of Raven Book Store in Lawrence, Kansas has been an outspoken critic of the seemingly unstoppable Goliath of the bookselling world: Amazon. In this book, he lays out the case for shifting our personal money and civic investment away from global corporate behemoths and to small, local, independent businesses. Well-researched and lively, his tale covers the history of big box stores, the big political drama of delivery, and the perils of warehouse work. He shows how Amazon's ruthless discount strategies mean authors, publishers, and even Amazon themselves can lose money on every book sold. And he spells out a clear path to resistance, in a world where consumers are struggling to get by. In-depth research is interspersed with charming personal anecdotes from bookstore life, making this a readable, fascinating, essential book for the 2020s. Pick up a copy of the book at www.kingsbookstore.ca

Bookings is back during the pandemic! Paul is virtually joined by Peter Counter to talk about all things horrific and his new book Be Scared of Everything: Horror Essays. They talk about specific horror books, films, and video games along with larger discussions on the nature of horror itself. Peter Counter is a prolific television and video game critic who writes about culture and technology in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Counter started his writing career as a playwright, graduating from York University’s Theatre Studies program in 2010, with a specialization in collective creation. His essay “Saint Tornado-Kick” was published in the 2019 Eos Award-winning anthology Empty the Pews. Peter writes about horror on his website www.everythingisscary.com. You can also find him every Friday night on Instagram where he hosts a regular segment, “Friday Night Fright Club,” in which he leads an audience through a choose-your-own-adventure live event. Please be advised this episode contains a content warning for discussions of trauma, violence, PTSD, and suicide. Order your copy of Peter's book from the King's Co-op Bookstore here: https://tinyurl.com/PeterCounter

Paul is joined by Amy Shira Teitel, a spaceflight historian, author, and public speaker who, much like her subjects, is one of the few academically trained young women in her field. Amy came to talk about her new book Fighting for Space: Two Pilots and Their Historic Battle for Female Spaceflight. Amy has written for more than two dozen websites including the BBC and Time Magazine online, earned a Group Achievement Award from NASA as part of the New Horizons Mission to Pluto team, and appears frequently as an expert interviewee on a number of TV shows and documentaries. She also maintains her blog, The Vintage Space, and its companion YouTube channel.

Video version of event here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhUPCAlaKQ0 We hosted the Halifax Launch of Desmond Cole's The Skin We're In & he is joined by poet, professor, and activist El Jones, anti-racism activist Dr. Lynn Jones, and Fatouma Abdi who challenged Prime Minster Justin Trudeau to stop the deportation of her brother Abdoul Abdi. A bracing, provocative, and perspective-shifting book from one of Canada's most celebrated and uncompromising writers, Desmond Cole. The Skin We're In will spark a national conversation, influence policy, and inspire activists. In his 2015 cover story for Toronto Life magazine, Desmond Cole exposed the racist actions of the Toronto police force, detailing the dozens of times he had been stopped and interrogated under the controversial practice of carding. The story quickly came to national prominence, shaking the country to its core and catapulting its author into the public sphere. Cole used his newfound profile to draw insistent, unyielding attention to the injustices faced by Black Canadians on a daily basis. Both Cole’s activism and journalism find vibrant expression in his first book, The Skin We’re In. Puncturing the bubble of Canadian smugness and naive assumptions of a post-racial nation, Cole chronicles just one year—2017—in the struggle against racism in this country. It was a year that saw calls for tighter borders when Black refugees braved frigid temperatures to cross into Manitoba from the States, Indigenous land and water protectors resisting the celebration of Canada’s 150th birthday, police across the country rallying around an officer accused of murder, and more. The year also witnessed the profound personal and professional ramifications of Desmond Cole’s unwavering determination to combat injustice. In April, Cole disrupted a Toronto police board meeting by calling for the destruction of all data collected through carding. Following the protest, Cole, a columnist with the Toronto Star, was summoned to a meeting with the paper’s opinions editor and informed that his activism violated company policy. Rather than limit his efforts defending Black lives, Cole chose to sever his relationship with the publication. Then in July, at another police board meeting, Cole challenged the board to respond to accusations of a police cover-up in the brutal beating of Dafonte Miller by an off-duty police officer and his brother. When Cole refused to leave the meeting until the question was publicly addressed, he was arrested. The image of Cole walking out of the meeting, handcuffed and flanked by officers, fortified the distrust between the city’s Black community and its police force. Month-by-month, Cole creates a comprehensive picture of entrenched, systemic inequality. Urgent, controversial, and unsparingly honest, The Skin We’re In is destined to become a vital text for anti-racist and social justice movements in Canada, as well as a potent antidote to the all-too-present complacency of many white Canadians.

Andrea Miller stops by the bookstore and talks with Paul about her new book Awakening My Heart: Essays and Interviews on the Buddhist Life. They talk about who the Buddha was, the nature of suffering, and discuss some of the things she learned from talking with Pema Chödrön, Thich Nhat Hahn, and of course Tina Turner. Bookings is recorded and produced by Paul MacKay for the King’s Co-op Bookstore in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Check out the bookstore at www.kingsbookstore.ca or support us through joining our audiobook program at www.libro.fm/kingscoop

Paul talks with Dr. Leslie Kern about Feminist City: A Field Guide. Feminist City: A Field Guide combines memoir, feminist theory, pop culture, and geography to expose what is hidden in plain sight: the social inequalities built right into our cities, homes, and neighbourhoods. Focusing on gendered experiences of the city, the books grapples with the challenge of claiming urban space amongst barriers designed to keep women “in their place.” From the geography of rape culture to the politics of snow removal, the city is an ongoing site of gendered struggle. Yet the city is perhaps also our best hope for shaping new social relations based around care and justice. Taking on fear, motherhood, friendship, activism, and the joys and perils of being alone, Kern maps the city from new vantage points, laying out a feminist intersectional approach to urban histories and pathways towards different urban futures. Feminist questions about safety and fear, paid and unpaid work, and rights and representation prompt us to dismantle what we take for granted about cities and open space to ask how we can build more just, sustainable, and care-full cities together. Bookings is recorded and produced by Paul MacKay for the King’s Co-op Bookstore in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Check out the bookstore at www.kingsbookstore.ca or support us through joining our audiobook program at www.libro.fm/kingscoop

Paul and Bart stick to the facts while talking about The Truth About Facts, Barts abcedarian poetry collection released from Invisible Publishing. Bookings is recorded and produced by Paul MacKay for the King’s Co-op Bookstore in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Check out the bookstore at www.kingsbookstore.ca or support us through joining our audiobook program at www.libro.fm/kingscoop

Philip Moscovitch stops by the podcast to talk about all things fermented. Adventures in Bubbles and Brine explores various methods of fermenting foods and introduces Nova Scotian practitioners from enthusiastic amateurs to professional producers. Paul and Phil dish over specific recipes, talk about fermenting practices, and discuss some of the supposed health benefits that come from enjoying fermented foods. Bookings is recorded and produced by Paul MacKay for the King’s Co-op Bookstore in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Check out the bookstore at www.kingsbookstore.ca or support us through joining our audiobook program at www.libro.fm/kingscoop

Paul sits down with Carol Bishop-Gwyn, author of Art and Rivalry: The Marriage of Mary and Christopher Pratt. They discuss the shared lives of Canada's most famous artist couple and their complicated relationship along with some of the more general difficulties often found in artist couples. Bookings is recorded and produced by Paul MacKay for the King’s Co-op Bookstore in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Check out the bookstore at www.kingsbookstore.ca or support us through joining our audiobook program at www.libro.fm/kingscoop

CW: Strong language. Celebrating the publication of This Is Where I Get Off, the debut poetry collection by Kirby, owner/publisher of Toronto's knife | fork | book. Kirby is joined by local poets Alice Burdick, Annick MacAskill, Nolan Natasha, and Bart Vautour, and is hosted by Sam Sternberg. ABOUT THE POETS KIRBY’s earlier chapbooks include Simple Enough, Cock & Soul, Bob’s boy, The world is fucked and sometimes beautiful, and SHE'S HAVING A DORIS DAY (knife | fork | book, 2017). They appear in Matrix Magazine, Dusie, Canthius, Carousel, Burning House, The Rusty Toque (Pushcart Nominee) and can be heard on bandcamp. A collection of essays, Poetry Is Queer, from Kirby’s ongoing class/workshop is forthcoming, along with their new chapbook, She Ascended Into Heaven (Anstruther Press, 2020). Their full-length debut, THIS IS WHERE I GET OFF is out now from Permanent Sleep Press. Kirby is the owner/publisher of knife | fork | book, Toronto. ALICE BURDICK is the author of four full-length poetry collections, Simple Master, Flutter, Holler, and Book of Short Sentences. Deportment, a book of selected poems, came out in November 2018 from Wilfrid Laurier University Press. Her work has also appeared in many chapbooks, broadsides, magazines, journals, and anthologies. She has been a judge for various awards, including the bpNichol Chapbook Award and the Latner Writers’ Trust Poetry Prize. She also visits high school English classes as a “Poet In Your Class” through Poetry in Voice/les Voix de la Poésie. She co-owns an independent bookstore in Lunenburg called Lexicon Books. ANNICK MACASKILL's debut No Meeting Without Body (Gaspereau Press, 2018) was nominated for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award and shortlisted for the J. M. Abraham Poetry Award. Her poems have appeared in journals and anthologies across Canada and abroad, with recent publications in Best Canadian Poetry 2019, This Magazine, Prism, The Stinging Fly, The Puritan, and Arc. Her second collection will be published by Gaspereau Press in the spring of 2020. She lives and writes in K'jipuktuk/Halifax. NOLAN NATASHA is a queer and trans writer from Toronto who lives and writes in Nova Scotia. His poems have appeared in The Puritan, The Stinging Fly, Event, Grain, Prairie Fire, The Fiddlehead and Plenitude. He has been a finalist for the CBC Poetry Prize, the Ralph Gustafson Poetry Prize, the Geist postcard contest, Room Magazine‘s poetry contest, and was the runner-up for the Thomas Morton fiction prize. His debut collection I Can Hear You, Can You Hear Me? will be published by Invisible this fall. BART VAUTOUR is a writer, editor, and teacher. He is editor of the Throwback Series of books for Invisible Publishing and co-editor of a series of texts about Canada and the Spanish Civil War. He lives in K’jipuktuk/Halifax with his partner, daughter, and Marley the dog. Bookings is recorded and produced by Paul MacKay for the King’s Co-op Bookstore in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Check out the bookstore at www.kingsbookstore.ca or support us through joining our audiobook program at www.libro.fm/kingscoop

Ami McKay sits down at the Halifax Central LIbrary with fellow memoir publisher and past Bookings guest Pauline Dakin to read from and discuss her new memoir Daughter of Family G. Weaving together family history, genetic discovery, and scenes from her life, Ami McKay tells the compelling, true-science story of her own family's unsettling legacy of hereditary cancer while exploring the challenges that come from carrying the mutation that not only killed many people you loved, but might also kill you. Bookings is recorded and produced by Paul MacKay for the King’s Co-op Bookstore in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Check out the bookstore at www.kingsbookstore.ca or support us through joining our audiobook program at www.libro.fm/kingscoop

Coming to you again from the Halifax Central Library, bestselling and award-winning author Michael Crummey sits down with Chronicle Herald columnist and author John DeMont to discuss his new book: The Innocents. Longlisted for the 2019 Scotiabank Giller Prize, The Innocents is described as a sweeping, heart-wrenching, deeply immersive novel about a brother and sister alone in a small world. A brother and sister are orphaned in an isolated cove on Newfoundland's northern coastline. Their home is a stretch of rocky shore governed by the feral ocean, by a relentless pendulum of abundance and murderous scarcity. Still children with only the barest notion of the outside world, they have nothing but the family's boat and the little knowledge passed on haphazardly by their mother and father to keep them. As they fight for their own survival through years of meager catches and storms and ravaging illness, it is their fierce loyalty to each other that motivates and sustains them. But as seasons pass and they wade deeper into the mystery of their own natures, even that loyalty will be tested. Bookings is recorded and produced by Paul MacKay for the King’s Co-op Bookstore in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Check out the bookstore at www.kingsbookstore.ca or support us through joining our audiobook program at www.libro.fm/kingscoop

On another edition of Bookings Live we're sharing an event from the Halifax Central Library featuring Haudenosaunee writer and this year's writer-in-residence for the University of King's College MFA in Creative Non Fiction Program, Alicia Elliott. Alicia's book A Mind Spread Out on the Ground is a personal and critical meditation on trauma, legacy, oppression and racism in North America. Interviewing Alicia is Rebecca Thomas, a Mi'kmaq poet and activist who uses poetry as a powerful tool for educating about the racism and inequality that still haunts many Indigenous peoples in Canada. For more information on The University of King's College's Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction program visit https://ukings.ca/area-of-study/master-of-fine-arts-in-creative-nonfiction/ Bookings is recorded and produced by Paul MacKay for the King’s Co-op Bookstore in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Check out the bookstore at www.kingsbookstore.ca or support us through joining our audiobook program at www.libro.fm/kingscoop

The Humanities for Young People (HYP) is a residential summer program for bright and highly-motivated students from ages 15 to 17. Secondary school students from across the country have the unique opportunity to work closely and collaboratively with scholars from a variety of disciplines. HYP is co-ordinated by Dr. Laura Penny and Dr. Sarah Clift from the University of King's College and they generously allowed us to record this year's keynote speeches. The theme for HYP 2019 is Thinking Through Fear and at the annual public symposium both keynote speakers had an opportunity to speak about the social and political dimensions of fear. Elisabeth de Mariaffi approaches the topic by discussing her work as a writer of popular thrillers. She discusses how women live with and against fear, and how writing about violence and women allows her to explore and challenge basic assumptions about women and the stories they tell. Desmond Cole addresses the ways in which fear is racialized. In particular, he explores the complex role fear plays both within racialized communities as a consequence of over-policing and disproportional incarceration of Black people, and in terms of how those communities become feared as a consequence. Following their talks, students from the Humanities for Young People program pose their questions to both speakers. For more information on Humanities for Young People check out http://hyp.ukings.ca Bookings is recorded and produced by Paul MacKay for the King’s Co-op Bookstore in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Check out the bookstore at www.kingsbookstore.ca or support us through joining our audiobook program at www.libro.fm/kingscoop

Paul & Jesse talk to bestselling author Amy Jones about her new novel Every Little Piece of Me, which explores the personal costs of celebrity life in the 21st century through characters who experience fame, loss, and intense public scrutiny over their every step and misstep. Bookings is recorded at the University of King’s College by Mark Pineo and produced by Paul MacKay and Jesse Hiltz for the King’s Co-op Bookstore in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Subscribe to this podcast and follow us at BookingsPodcast. Tell us what you’ve been reading at podcast[at]kingsbookstore[dot]ca.

This time on Bookings, we continue to explore the topic of migration and the Canadian Dream. In the last episode, Paul and Jesse talked to Lindsay Bird about the 2000s boom in the Alberta oil sands. In part two, we talk about what happens after the boom ends and how communities are affected by changes beyond their control. Paul and Jesse speak with Alison DeLory about her debut novel Making It Home, which tells the parallel stories of two families: one in Cape Breton dealing with depopulation, the oil sands bust, and the opiate crisis, and another fleeing Aleppo during the Syrian civil war. These stories mirror each other to explore grief, empathy, and the definition of home. Bookings is recorded at the University of King’s College by Mark Pineo and produced by Paul MacKay and Jesse Hiltz for the King’s Co-op Bookstore in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Subscribe to this podcast and follow us @BookingsPodcast. Tell us what you’ve been reading at podcast[at]kingsbookstore[dot]ca.

Ep. 13. The Poetry of the Oil Sands with Lindsay Bird This time on Bookings, poet and journalist Lindsay Bird discusses her new book of poetry “Boom Time,” published by Gaspereau Press. “Boom Time” tells the story of a young woman in the mid-2000s as she moves to Fort McMurray to work in the Athabasca oil sands. Like many, she’s there to make money in the new gold rush, but the camps can be a disorienting place. Sublime and dangerous. Lindsay discusses her own time in the work camps, the people, landscape, and giant machines. And as always, Lindsay, Paul, and Jesse discuss what they’re reading. This is Part One of a two-part series reading Books of the Oil Sands, looking at the Alberta oil boom through poetry and fiction. Bookings is recorded at the University of King’s College by Mark Pineo and produced by Paul MacKay and Jesse Hiltz for the King’s Co-op Bookstore in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Subscribe to this podcast and follow us @BookingsPodcast. Tell us what you’ve been reading at podcast[at]kingsbookstore[dot]ca.

Ep 12. A Study in J.M. Coetzee Paul is joined by Dalhousie University English professor Dr. Alice Brittan for a crash course in the writing of John Maxwell (J.M.) Coetzee. Coetzee is one of the greatest living authors today and has a widely respected catalogue of novels and essays. He is the first author to ever win two Booker prizes and he was also awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 2003. A uniquely private and reclusive person, Coetzee has done very few interviews over his career and even refused to show up in person to accept any of these awards. Alice talks with Paul about J.M. Coetzee as a writer and they dive into his most famous novel Disgrace, winner of the 1999 Booker Prize. Following this, Paul and Alice discuss Coetzee’s most recent novels The Childhood of Jesus and The Schooldays of Jesus. These are unique and polarizing works with many people finding themselves not quite sure what to make of them. And as always, Paul and Alice discuss what they’ve been reading and discuss Emily Wilson’s new translation of The Odyssey. Bookings is recorded at the University of King’s College by Mark Pineo and produced by Paul MacKay and Jesse Hiltz. Music: All I Have Left are These Photographs by Lee Rosevere Subscribe to this podcast on the podcasting app of your choice and follow us on social media. Tell us what you’ve been reading at podcast[at]kingsbookstore[dot]ca.

Ep 11. The Tradition, Great Books, and also Puppets Paul and Jesse start 2019 by attempting some friendly banter. In this episode they discuss the value of a humanities education with Dr. Dawn Tracey Brandes. Dr. Brandes is the Executive Director of Halifax Humanities 101, a free humanities education program for those living below the poverty line. Central to Halifax Humanities is the conviction that “the insights and skills offered by study of the traditional Humanities disciplines can provide people with crucial tools for gaining control over their lives.” They also discuss the changing nature of the “Canon” and the sometimes-heated debates around those parts of the classics that don’t age so well. Dawn then fills the boys in on her love of puppetry and what puppets can teach us. And as always, Paul, Jesse, and Dawn discuss what they’ve been reading. Bookings is recorded at the University of King’s College by Mark Pineo and produced by Paul MacKay and Jesse Hiltz. Subscribe to this podcast on the podcasting app of your choice and follow us on the socials. @BookingsPodcast Tell us what you’ve been reading at podcast[at]kingsbookstore[dot]ca. To learn more about Halifax Humanities visit http://halifaxhumanitiessociety.ca/home

Bookings Live at Between the Pages Jesse, Mark and Paul attend Between the Pages: An Evening with the Scotiabank Giller Prize Finalists at the Halifax Central Library. Join them as host Alexander MacLeod takes you inside the minds and creative lives of 4 of the writers who've made it onto the 2018 shortlist: Patrick DeWitt for French Exit Eric Dupont for Songs for the Cold of Heart Esi Edugyan for Washington Black Thea Lim for An Ocean of Minutes (Sheila Heti was unable to attend the event for her book Motherhood) Enjoy this episode of Bookings Live and keep up with the Scotiabank Giller Prize to find out who wins on November 19th! Bookings is recorded at the University of King’s College by Mark Pineo and produced by Paul MacKay and Jesse Hiltz. Subscribe to this podcast on Google Play, iTunes, Soundcloud, Stitcher, or the podcasting app of your choice. Send us Feedback at Podcast[at]kingsbookstore[dot]ca Social Media Twitter twitter.com/bookingspodcast Instagram instagram.com/kingscoopbookstore Facebook facebook.com/bookingspodcast kingsbookstore.ca

Halloween Special: Dark Magic and Witchcraft Paul and Jesse get trapped in a time prison when a Scholomancer casts a spell on the bookstore and they need to learn the dark arts to escape. Luckily they have interviews with Dr. Kathryn Morris and Dr. Kyle Fraser, two scholars of the history of witchcraft and ceremonial magic. Will Paul and Jesse escape? Find out in this documentary style Halloween Special. Music: Stillborn Blues “Winter Insomnia,” “The Fishes Won’t Listen to Our Excuses,” “Trop,” and “Crossroad Ghost” https://eg0cide.com/list-of-artists/stillbornblues/ Lee Rosevere “Divine Light” Loyalty Freak “Monster Parade” Bookings is recorded at the University of King’s College by Mark Pineo and produced by Paul MacKay and Jesse Hiltz. Subscribe to this podcast on Google Play, iTunes, Soundcloud, Stitcher, or the podcasting app of your choice. Send us Feedback at Podcast[at]kingsbookstore[dot]ca Social Media Twitter twitter.com/bookingspodcast Instagram instagram.com/kingscoopbookstore Facebook facebook.com/bookingspodcast kingsbookstore.ca

Bookings Live with Miriam Toews It's Bookings Live in Alumni Hall at the University of King's College. Former Bookings guest, and award-winning author and journalist, Pauline Dakin, interviews author Miriam Toews. Toews wrote the 2004 hit A Complicated Kindness for which she won the Governor General's Award and Canada Reads. She was here to talk about her new book Women Talking, which is already gaining critical recognition, and was, on the day of this event, nominated for the 2018 Governor General's Award. Bookings is recorded at the University of King’s College by Mark Pineo and produced by Paul MacKay and Jesse Hiltz. Subscribe to this podcast on Google Play, iTunes, Soundcloud, Stitcher, or the podcasting app of your choice. Send us Feedback at Podcast[at]kingsbookstore[dot]ca Social Media Twitter twitter.com/bookingspodcast Instagram instagram.com/kingscoopbookstore Facebook facebook.com/bookingspodcast kingsbookstore.ca

Crowds, Selves, and Various Forms of Detachment While we can’t know each other completely, we’re obsessed with guessing and modern literature provides numerous examples. Jesse interviews Dr. John Plotz, Professor of Victorian Literature at Brandeis University and author of “The Crowd” (2000), “Portable Property” (2008) and “Semi-Detached” (2017). For Plotz, crowds, keepsakes, politics, and novels represent some of the ways we grapple with how our own inner lives relate to those of others. We can also find ourselves estranged from ourselves during an aesthetic experience. Jesse and John discuss crowds, Baudelaire, the political dimensions of Victorian literature, public and private spaces, mementos, cave paintings, intention, how we give private objects meanings, our relationship with history, the line between reality and fiction, the psychology of the modern novel, and finally, H.G. Wells and why science fiction is so cool. What We’re Reading John recommends “The Absolute at Large” by Karel Čapek Music “Think” by Lee Rosevere Bookings is recorded at the University of King’s College by Mark Pineo and produced by Paul MacKay and Jesse Hiltz. Subscribe to this podcast on Google Play, iTunes, Soundcloud, Stitcher, or the podcasting app of your choice. Send us Feedback at Podcast[at]kingsbookstore[dot]ca Social Media Twitter twitter.com/bookingspodcast Instagram instagram.com/kingscoopbookstore Facebook facebook.com/bookingspodcast kingsbookstore.ca

Why I Wrote A Book About Toilets Paul and Jesse discuss the complex politics of the public toilet with Lezlie Lowe. She’s a Nova Scotia-based freelance news columnist, feature writer, radio documentary maker and Journalism teacher with an above average interest in public restrooms. Her new book “No Place To Go - How Public Toilets Fail Our Private Needs” demonstrates why public bathrooms are hot spots of social action: Who gets access and who doesn’t? Who uses public restrooms and why? They discuss trans access, the gender politics of bathroom design and use, and some of Lezlie’s favorites public bathrooms. Lezlie also gives up some details about her next book. What We’re Reading Jesse recommends “To the Lighthouse” by Virginia Woolf. Lezlie recommends “The Fruitful City: The Enduring Power of the Urban Food Forest” by Helena Moncrieff and “Halifax Warden of the North” by Thomas Raddall. Paul recommends “The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic – and How it Changed Science, Cities and the Modern World” by Steven Berlin Johnson. *Event Announcement: Hi podcast listener! Thanks for reading these shownotes. Join Paul, Jesse, and the King’s Co-op Bookstore to celebrate the launch of Lezlie’s book, Thursday, September 20th, 7-9:30pm, at the Art Bar in Halifax, NS. Music “More on that Later” and “Living with Trauma” by Lee Rosevere Bookings is recorded at the University of King’s College by Mark Pineo and is produced by Paul MacKay and Jesse Hiltz. Subscribe to this podcast on Google Play, iTunes, Soundcloud, Stitcher, or the podcasting app of your choice. Send us Feedback at Podcast[at]kingsbookstore[dot]ca Social Media www.twitter.com/bookingspodcast www.instagram.com/kingscoopbookstore www.facebook.com/BookingsPodcast kingsbookstore.ca

Bonus Episode - On Adaptation We had a great time talking to Sam Worthington about adaptations a few months ago. Here is what didn’t make it into “Unadapting the City & the City.” We talk about genre-bending “Weird Fiction” novels, some of our favorite adaptations, and novels we hope and dread to be adapted. Bookings is recorded at the University of King’s College by Mark Pineo and produced by Paul MacKay and Jesse Hiltz. Subscribe to this podcast on Google Play, iTunes, Soundcloud, Stitcher, or the podcasting app of your choice. Send us Feedback at Podcast[at]kingsbookstore[dot]ca Social Media www.twitter.com/bookingspodcast www.instagram.com/kingscoopbookstore www.facebook.com/bookingspodcast www.kingsbookstore.ca

Novels of Apocalypse What do we learn from books about the end of the world? Paul and Jesse talk with Dr. Susan Dodd about her course “Apocalypse: The Revolutionary Transformation of Politics and Culture.” They discuss the Book of Revelations, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. Metaphor, wisdom, sex, and death: The world is a book, history is a story, and they’re both on a mad dash to oblivion. What’s left after the end? They also discuss her new book The Halifax Explosion: The Apocalypse of Samuel H. Prince: A Commentary on Catastrophe and Social Change. What We’re Reading Sue recommends Books of Isaiah and Ezekiel, found in your local Bible Paul recommends Christopher de Hamel’s Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts (2016) Jesse recommends Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower (1993) Music by “All the Answer” and “Decompress” by Lee Rosevere Bookings is recorded at the University of King’s College by Mark Pineo and produced by Paul MacKay and Jesse Hiltz. Subscribe to this podcast on Google Play, iTunes, Soundcloud, or the podcasting app of your choice. Feedback Podcast[at]kingsbookstore[dot]ca Social Media www.twitter.com/kingsbookstore www.instagram.com/kingscoopbookstore www.facebook.com/BookingsPodcast “Apocalypse: The Revolutionary Transformation of Politics and Culture” is offered through the Contemporary Studies Program at the University of King’s College. www.kingsbookstore.ca

Sam Worthington joins us to talk about China Miéville's award-winning novel The City & the City and we discuss how well the current BBC Two adaptation succeeded in adapting this mind-bending novel for television. Music: Decompress by Lee Rosevere https://tinyurl.com/yafpraq2 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Pauline Dakin shares the incredible story of her nomadic childhood from her bestselling book. We discuss the act of writing memoir, the line between self-exploration and self-exploitation, and as always, what we've been reading.

We talk with Dr. Ingrid Waldron about environmental racism and her new book: There's Something In The Water.

Dr. Laura Penny joins us to talk about her book Your Call Is Important To Us: The Truth About Bullshit, originally published in 2005.