Podcasts about all my puny sorrows

You kids I can't even with Catherine Newman right now because I am a Wreck and a Sandwich myself at the moment but wow, she's a good writer, so honest it's like there's no skull between her mind and the readers. We talk about what it means to use yourself and your world in your fiction and what it's meant to Catherine to play as big as she possibly can and go bigger and deeper with every book.We ALSO talk about Catherine's totally granular technique for planning and tracking and keeping her eye on the ball in every chapter while still pulling in all the other things while making sure that if it's Friday night a teacher character doesn't get up and go to teach the next morning and the blackberries never ripen in April, and let me tell you that I just went back and listened to that now and I am about to implement it because it's brilliant.Ok, time to let you listen (although links to what Catherine and I are reading and loving are below). ALSO…Truth? We wanted to tuck the transcript away behind a paywall, but it turns out we can't do that and still give you the episode… so, here it is. But we have to pay someone to make a good one, that you can read. And we still have to pay ourselves and all our people. BUT LOOK YOU GET ALL OF US. We're not just one writer, we're a whole bunch—a Groupstack, and yes we coined the term, and you get a lot of bang for your subscription. So, if you could kick in, we'd cheer.Please don't make us try to sell you Quince clothing or gambling sites to support the pod.#AmReadingCatherine: A Truce That Is Not Peace by Miriam ToewsKJ: EPISODE TRANSCRIPTKJ Dell'AntoniaIt's fall, y'all, and there's got to be a T-shirt that says that, right? So it's, you know, fresh notebooks, sharpened pencils, sharpened sense of ambition, excitement after the languid summer days, and, of course, the glory that is decorative gourd season. You can say that with all the swears that you like, but I'm not going to hear “falling leaves” and “Halloween,” which means it's time for smoky, eerie, witchy reads, and I have just the thing for you—Playing the Witch Card. Expect a woman starting over again after her marriage collapses, hampered by her magic-obsessed daughter, her flaky mother, her enchanted ex, and a powerful witch who's thrilled that she's back in town—and not for a good reason. To keep her family together, Flair has to embrace the hereditary magic that's done nothing but ruin her life in the past and make it her own. I was inspired by what I see as the real magic of tarot cards, which play a huge role in this book—and tea leaves and palm reading, and honestly, every form of oracle. They're here to help us see and understand our own stories, which is pretty much what Flair figures out. And as someone for whom stories are everything, I love that. You can buy Playing the Witch Card everywhere, and I hope you will do exactly that—and love it too.Multiple SpeakersIs it recording? Now it's recording, yay. Go ahead. This is the part where I stare blankly at the microphone. I don't remember what I'm supposed to be doing. All right, let's start over. Awkward pause. I'm going to rustle some papers. Okay, now—one, two, three.KJ Dell'AntoniaHey, kids, it's KJ, and this is the Hashtag AmWriting Podcast—the place where we help you play big in your writing life, love the process, and finish what matters. Today on the pod, I'm talking with Catherine Newman. She is the author most recently of We All Want Impossible Things and Sandwich, and also, earlier in her career, Waiting for Birdy and Catastrophic Happiness, as well as two fabulous “how to be a person in the world” books for kids that, honestly, I think we could all benefit from. I'm considering just, you know, sending out copies. They are How to Be a Person and What Can I Say?—that one's really useful. Okay, so now, just out, she has Wreck—which kind of comes after Sandwich, but you could read them separately. They're both small, intense books. Wreck, like all of Catherine's work, is inevitably about exactly what I just said—it's how to be a person in the world. Which—I didn't actually ask Catherine this; I'm recording my intro for y'all after talking to her—but she would not tell you she knows how to be a person in the world. But she is so fantastic about the part where we're all figuring it out, and being aware that we're all figuring it out. And that's what all of her books are about. In the interview, which you're going to love, she calls herself the queen of the slight plot element, which made me laugh really hard and also made me realize that I think Catherine Newman is the modern Anne Tyler. So tell me what you think in the comments on the show notes—which you'd better be getting. They are at...there's no hashtag in our name—AmWritingPodcast.com—or search anywhere they will have the books that Catherine mentions, and also all of your chances to do all of the things, like have your First Page appear in a Booklab episode. Talk to us. Get in there. Tell us what you're thinking about writing. Write along with us. Really just—just all the community stuff that we all so desperately want. Okay, here comes my interview with Catherine. I know—gosh, it was so fun to talk to you. You guys are going to love it. Catherine Newman, welcome to the Hashtag AmWriting Podcast, where you've been at least once, maybe twice—I need to go and look. It's so fun to have you back. I remember us walking in the woods before you had finished We All Want Impossible Things in 2021.Catherine NewmanI remember it too.KJ Dell'AntoniaWhich, actually, for three books, is not that long ago.Catherine NewmanHey, that's true. I know... I remember your dog.KJ Dell'AntoniaHe's here somewhere.Catherine NewmanYou had a young dog with you. It was the best. And you—you said so many things that I've thought about so much on that walk. But I don't want to derail the thing you want to talk about.KJ Dell'AntoniaBut, but same—it was a great walk. We must do it again. All right, meanwhile—okay, so I already described in the introduction all the things you've ever written in the past and raved about you, so don't—don't worry about that. You've been—sorry you don't get to hear the petting. But the question is, tell us—tell us a little bit about Wreck.Catherine NewmanYeah, so Wreck...KJ Dell'AntoniaI know, I know, it's painful. Elevator pitch or whatever you want to say, because seriously, I did just tell everyone about them in the intro.Catherine NewmanI really need an elevator pitch. I feel like We All Want Impossible Things was like a woman whose best friend was dying while she, like, slept with everybody.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, it was joyful.Catherine NewmanThat was easy.KJ Dell'AntoniaAlso sad.Catherine NewmanSandwich was like Cape Cod for a week, reproductive mayhem, sandwich generation. Wreck is so weird because there's these two sort of very slight plot elements. So it's, you know, a woman in her mid-50s living in a house with her husband of many years, her daughter, who's between college and grad school, and her dad, who was fairly recently widowed and in his 90s. And that's mostly what the book is, but the little plots are that she has a rash—she notices that she has a rash—and it inaugurates this kind of diagnostic tornado. A slow and quiet tornado, but a tornado nonetheless, where she has to see a billion doctors. She has to constantly check her patient portal to see if she's dying or not, and anyone who's had—who's been anything but healthy in the last 10 years will understand the patient portal.KJ Dell'AntoniaYes, I love the checker. I checked a patient portal from a hockey-rink parking lot, and that's a mistake, just FYI.Catherine NewmanJust don't...KJ Dell'AntoniaTo anyone considering it, don't do it on a Friday night. Don't do that.Catherine NewmanJust don't even look. And then the other plot point is that there's an accident—there's a collision between a car and a train—and a schoolmate of her kids, like someone they went to high school with, is killed in this accident. And she becomes kind of weirdly obsessed with the accident. She looks at it online all the time. She stalks everyone's...KJ Dell'AntoniaWhich so tracks for the character that you have created.Catherine NewmanDoesn't it? And that's it. And so the book sort of is those things unfolding in this parallel way—these uncertain things.KJ Dell'AntoniaSo when you wrote it, what—what was your intention for this? What did you want Wreck to be in your career and for your readers?Catherine NewmanWhat? It's so funny to be asked questions about my career. I don't know what I wanted it to be in my career, but maybe while I'm talking to you, I'll figure that out.KJ Dell'AntoniaOkay.Catherine NewmanOr you can tell me. But for my readers—I do think we're in this funny place where some of us are hungry to read about the experiences of other menopausal women who are taking care of aging parents, whose nests are emptying, who are in long marriages, who are, you know, doing the things of this age, including tracking weird illnesses. So I guess that—you know, I think, I feel like the thing that I love about writing—one of the things—is when people say to me, like, “Oh yeah, I feel the same way about that,” or they write me and they're like, “Oh, I read this, and I felt so relieved that I wasn't alone.” And I guess I have a lot of that hope—you know, that it speaks to someone, or someone's been in their portal rummaging around and finding out horrible things about their health and Googling them. Like, that's not a small part of the population who's probably doing that. So I guess just that—you know, the handout, the “I'm with you on this” vibe.KJ Dell'AntoniaSo what do you love most about it?Catherine Newman(Laughing) I mean, that's a funny and embarrassing question. I... you know, the father character is based very closely on my own father. Many of the things he says are verbatim lifted from conversations and texts with my dad. And I just love that character so much. I think he's so funny and has this kind of deep wisdom. I mean, Wreck plays him for laughs a little bit, but he offers so much to her. He's still this really profound caretaking force in her life, even though he himself, you know, is failing in different ways. So I guess that's what I like.KJ Dell'AntoniaHow does your dad feel about you taking his stuff?Catherine NewmanHe loved this book.KJ Dell'AntoniaI love this!Catherine NewmanHe has not felt that way always about the way I represent him. I represent him in Sandwich in similar ways, and Sandwich—there were just particular things that bugged him. He loved the book overall but didn't love his character. I think in this book, maybe because there's so much of his character, that it gets to be a very well-rounded kind of person, and also somebody whose opinion it's obvious the other characters respect. So he really loved it, which was, like, everything to me, you know?KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, oh, wow. I'd give a lot for that. That's—that's wonderful. I would—it's... although all my dad ever says is, “Why don't you—you only write about mothers? You never write...” I'm like, well, I don't know if you read some of the mothers. You're kind of lucky. You're doing okay. I don't know why—you guys were great. You should have been better fodder for affection, and then I would... yeah. All right. So, okay, so that's what you love about it. What was the hardest about this?Catherine NewmanIt's funny—it's a little hard to talk about without spoilers, but, um, there's a difficult part of the plot that involves Rocky's son, who works for a consulting firm in New York, where she really questions his values, questions the decision to do that kind of work.KJ Dell'AntoniaThat would stun me, frankly.Catherine NewmanHowever, he knows a lot about that kind of work, and talked to me a ton about it for the book—like, went on a million walks with me and let me pick his brain about it. And I really just found it so hard to write about this kind of painful conflict between Rocky and her son. I just found it really hard. Yeah...KJ Dell'AntoniaObviously, yeah, that's actually what you did, wasn't it?Catherine NewmanI can imagine... that's it. I imagined it. And honestly, my husband could hardly stand to read it. He found it so devastating. Just—and it's, as you know, it's not massive conflict. It's like...KJ Dell'AntoniaBut it is. It's...Catherine NewmanBut it is. YepKJ Dell'AntoniaI mean, it's, you know—Catherine NewmanYep.KJ Dell'AntoniaIt's it—goes back to Alex Keaton, right? [Unintelligible] Both of us, yeah, yeah, no, I get it. It's a really—and by writing it, even if it's not autobiographical, which it's not, it's fiction, you are saying something about some compatriots, you know, some other—you're really, you're—you're putting—you're putting a stake in the ground, which I think has always been pretty obvious for anyone who knows you or has read you, but maybe you had not verbalized even in a fictional form.Catherine NewmanHmm, maybe.KJ Dell'AntoniaCould feel judgmental because—it's judgmental (whispered). But it's values. That's what values do. A value that doesn't judge anyone isn't a value, even if you don't want to judge people. But I think it's kind of true, like...Catherine NewmanYeah, yeah.KJ Dell'AntoniaYou can also be open. But, I mean, that's—I don't know if, if you don't offer that up, then we're all just sitting here going, “Oh, it's fine. It's all...”Catherine NewmanEverything's fine.KJ Dell'AntoniaEverything's fine, it's fine. That's a joke in our house, because we had this Spanish exchange student, and he would always say, “Oh, it's fine,” when—and it—what that meant was, it wasn't.Catherine NewmanOh no, it wasn't fine.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, no... that's what it means when we say, “It's fine.”Catherine NewmanOh my God, KJ.KJ Dell'AntoniaAll right, so this kind of gets to, I think, my next question, which—which is, what about this was, um, bigger for you? Was a bigger leap to take in your writing?Catherine NewmanIt's like, you know, I think it's just a little more plot in a novel than I've ever managed. Even though, you know—don't laugh because there's not a ton of plot. But nonetheless, there were sort of these two vectors of significant—I thought—dramatic contention that I had to manage in the writing, and—and I was anxious about it. Like, I—I like a quiet story that's not like—is too plot-driven. But anyway, so that is—it was, you know, I definitely plotted it a little more actively before I wrote it, like I wanted to make sure that these plots were unfolding in the timeframe I wanted them to unfold in.KJ Dell'AntoniaAnd did that present some new, like, “Oops, I did this too fast, oops...” just that you hadn't really had to...?Catherine NewmanNo, because I plotted it. It actually didn't, but it just presented—before I started writing, I had the challenge of, you know, practically trying to graph these two plots to see where they would intersect, and—and the sort of ways that the two plots together create this kind of character arc for Rocky, the main character. And so I was—I just, like—I usually, I have this way that I plot stuff, and it's kind of based on that book that I use because of you, which is like, you know, Put On Your Pants—or Take Off Your Pants, or, you know, the book...KJ Dell'AntoniaOh yeah, oh yeah.Catherine NewmanAnd—and I, so I do this thing where I make a—I write down the numbers 1 to 25, and I print that. I print a piece of paper that has the numbers 1 through 25 in type font. I don't know why I don't just hand-write the whole thing. That—and I guess the thought's how many chapters it's going to be, but it's never quite right. And then I fill in what I know. So I put in everything I know, and guess where it's going to go in terms of the—what are the things? What's it called when it's like a thing...?KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, the... the turning point or the...Catherine NewmanOr the beat...KJ Dell'AntoniaOr the moment of last resolve? Yeah, the beat!Catherine NewmanYeah.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah.Catherine NewmanSo I fill in everything, like, I know, you know. I have a sense of how it's going to open. I have a sense of the different elements of the two plots, and I put them in this weird numbered-chapter thing. And usually—like, usually as if I've written so many books—but with the other two novels, I did that a little willy-nilly, and it was fine. Like, I sat down and wrote the books beginning to end without all of it totally sorted in terms of where everything would go, and that was fine. This book, I really had to understand where it was all going to go, so I had to just be sure that all of the most important plot points were plotted in that 1-through-25.KJ Dell'AntoniaDo you? I mean, you have a lot of moving emotional pieces too. Asking for a friend—how do you make sure that those are all resolved? Or do you? Or does it just happen?Catherine NewmanThat's a really good question. I hope they're resolved, or if they're not, that that's intentional, by the way. Yeah, I—I'm just thinking about, like, the different relationships. You know, most of what the book is, is like Rocky's relationships with the people she loves—like, that is sort of the heart of the book. And then her grappling with herself, both physically and psychologically. I think I have a sense of those. Those are kind of included in those. I have, like, a—in that 1-through-25— sorry if this is too granular.KJ Dell'AntoniaNo, I love it.Catherine NewmanIn the 1-through-25, I have the plot thing that's like, “Rocky reads her biopsy results,” or, you know, whatever the thing is. And then I have this other column that's like, the other things that need to happen in that chapter, if that's what's happening in the chapter. And that's where I keep information about stuff that's like, “Willa forgives her,” you know—whatever other thing needs to happen. So I sort of track the plot, and then I—and I also have a little other column that's just like, seasonal details. And that I don't fill out super carefully, but, like, because this book moves from essentially Labor Day to New Year's, I—I just tracked a little before I started writing, like, around when in that season things were going to be happening, you know, that's Halloween, it's Thanksgiving, it's the winter holidays, New Year's, and then it's going to be, like, the leaves are turning, the blackberries that, you know?KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, no, it's so hard. Is it Tuesday? Like...?Catherine NewmanYeah (laughing).KJ Dell'AntoniaDang it. Oh, wait—if its four days from the first day, and the first day was a Thursday, that means its Sunday, and Sundays do have a particular rhythm on their own. And yeah, no, it's so hard.Catherine NewmanIt's really hard, although that part's my favorite part, probably—besides, I love dialogue. But I love—I keep a lot of notes that are really dull on their own about, like, the weather and the landscape, just in general. I don't even know what I'm going to use them for. I just keep a ton of notes about the seasons. And I love pilfering stuff for fiction from them because it's just like—it's going to be fairly accurate. Like, I will have dated it. I'll have a fairly strong sense of whether that will work or not.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, you're not going to put the blackberries in April.Catherine NewmanAnd I'm not going to put the blackberries in April, and I have that cheater feeling of chunking in something I've already kind of written down, and then your word count goes up by, like, 300 words.KJ Dell'AntoniaYou're like, hey... [Unintelligible].Catherine NewmanYeah, exactly.KJ Dell'AntoniaOh my gosh, I love this. All right, well, one last question, and that is—what have you read recently where you felt like the writer was really, you know, playing big, doing their very max?Catherine NewmanYeah, I just read—well, I just got it in the mail, although my kitten—I want to show you, she has, like...KJ Dell'AntoniaShe had some fun with it...Catherine NewmanChewed up every corner.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah.Catherine NewmanSo this book is A Truce That Is Not Peace by Miriam Toews. And she is a very, very favorite writer of mine. She wrote the novel All My Puny Sorrows that I always press on everybody, because it's like the perfect funny, sad novel. This book I got to blurb, so I read it a while ago, and it just came—and I think it just came out maybe this week, I'm not sure. It's so incredibly good. It's really strange—someone—she's doing some conference in Mexico, and she has to write an answer to the question, “Why do I write?”KJ Dell'AntoniaOkay.Catherine NewmanAnd she keeps starting and stopping, and it's so—it's nonfiction. I mean, it's just authentically this, and she includes, like, letters to her sister. Her sister killed herself some number of years ago, and that's the event that All My Puny Sorrows—which is a novel—is based on. But this, I am under the impression that's the first time she's written about it...KJ Dell'AntoniaIn a nonfiction way—yeah.Catherine NewmanIn a nonfiction way. And it is just—I did that thing, you know, when a book is so good? I picked it up because I knew I was going to talk to you about it, and then I read it for, like, an hour.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, no, I get it.Catherine NewmanEven though I have, like, already read it. It's so moving and beautiful and so—like, she's just struggling in this, like, really profound way to process loss and to understand herself and what she's created in the world. And it's so good.KJ Dell'AntoniaIt sounds huge, and I would—yeah, I'm going to pick it up. I have a funny story about All My Puny Sorrows, which is that I took it to Spain while I was waiting for one of those patient-portal things. I had cancer at the time, and that's—the character of the sister who wanted to kill herself made me so angry that I had to hide—not only did I have to leave the book behind, I had to hide it in the hotel so it would not juju me. I obviously survived, because this was, I think, seven or eight years ago. But I couldn't—like, I just—it was... but that actually speaks to the power of the book.Catherine NewmanInteresting... yeah.KJ Dell'AntoniaIt's not that it wasn't an amazing book. It was that I literally couldn't handle the particular, you know, mental illness that the sister was struggling with when I, you know, did not really want to die. Did not want to die, yeah. So I...Catherine NewmanThat's amazing... yeah.KJ Dell'AntoniaShe's a really powerful writer.Catherine NewmanThat—that is a really powerful story. Wait, were you going to share with me a book? Or it doesn't work that way?KJ Dell'AntoniaWell, it doesn't...Catherine NewmanKJ looks around...KJ Dell'AntoniaBecause I did not prepare.Catherine NewmanWhat are you writing, KJ? What are you working on? What's happening?KJ Dell'AntoniaAll right, we're going to call this as an episode.Catherine Newman(Laughing)KJ Dell'AntoniaBecause it was excellent, and then I'm going to answer Catherine's question, which all of you listeners kind of vaguely know. Let's just say I'm trying to play big. All right, so this is me ending with: thank you so much, Catherine Newman, for joining me on the Hashtag AmWriting Podcast.Catherine NewmanThank you, KJ; it was a pleasure, as always.KJ Dell'AntoniaAnd for all you listeners, we're still saying it—keep your butt in the chair and your head in the game.NarratorThe Hashtag AmWriting Podcast is produced by Andrew Perrella. Our intro music, aptly titled Unemployed Monday, was written and played by Max Cohen. Andrew and Max were paid for their time and their creative output, because everyone deserves to be paid for their work.Subscribe to back the show that backs your writing life This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

When someone you love is in pain—but can’t say the words out loud—what can you do? Kate speaks with beloved Canadian novelist Miriam Toews (All My Puny Sorrows, Women Talking, A Truce That Is Not Peace) about the silences that shape us: the kind that settle into families, into churches, into whole communities where mental illness is unnamed and suffering goes unspoken. Together, they talk about the long shadow of religious shame, the courage it takes to tell the truth, and what it means to stay present with people we can’t fix. This conversation is tender, fierce, and unflinchingly honest. This episode includes discussion of suicide at the beginning and end of the episode. If you're struggling, you can call or text 988 for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. SHOW NOTES: 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — Call or text 988 if you or someone you love is struggling. You are not alone. A Truce That Is Not Peace by Miriam Toews — her newest memoir and the heart of this conversation All My Puny Sorrows, Fight Night, Women Talking — beloved novels by Miriam Toews Join Kate on Substack — katebowler.substack.com for blessings, essays, and kind conversation See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Miriam Toews is the author of the bestselling novels Women Talking, All My Puny Sorrows, Summer of My Amazing Luck, A Boy of Good Breeding, A Complicated Kindness, The Flying Troutmans, Irma Voth, Fight Night and one work of non-fiction, Swing Low: A Life. She is the winner of the Governor General's Award for Fiction, the Libris Award for Fiction Book of the Year, the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize and the Writers' Trust Engel/Findley Award. On this episode of Little Atoms she talks to Neil Denny about her latest work of non-fiction A Truce That Is not Peace. Note: Contains discussion of suicide. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Miriam Toews reads her story “Something Has Come to Light,” from the August 25, 2025, issue of the magazine. Toews, a winner of the Governor General's Award for Fiction, is the author of eight novels, including “A Complicated Kindness,” “All My Puny Sorrows,” “Women Talking,” and “Fight Night.” A new memoir, “A Truce That Is Not Peace,” comes out this month. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

After inviting musician and friend Kristine Flaherty aka “K. Flay” to choose a book for JEN'S BOOKSHELF, Jennifer and K. Flay sit down to discuss her selection, All My Puny Sorrows written by author Miriam Toews. The novel follows the bond between two sisters, topics of depression, family dynamics and what it really means to call a place “home”. Find out why K.Flay wants to share this book with as many people as possible, and what happens when Jennifer has an in-depth conversation with a fellow book lover and someone who has (somehow) read more books than her. 

The first man on the pod!! Cause their moms die too. Michael is a writer, producer and actor (bio below!). He shared one of the best stories about his parents origin stories that maybe I have ever heard?! Michael is so full of humour, joy and love. His mom Didi sounds like the baddest bitch and I was so happy to hear about this extraordinary woman. * Michael is a writer, producer and actor from Montreal. He is best known for playing Terence in all 5 seasons of Kim's Convenience (CBC/Netflix). Proudly of Middle Eastern and Greek descent, he aims to tell diverse and challenging stories. As a playwright, Michael's plays have been produced in Toronto, Montreal and New York and he won the Best Play award for his first play I do, I guess at The Riant Theatre in NYC. He co-produced his first feature film The Toll (Lionsgate), an official selection of SXSW 2020, that is currently available on Roku. His psychological thriller series Something Undone (CBC Gem) won the Jury's Choice Award at SXSW and the Best Short Series Award at Series Mania in France. You can catch Michael playing Finbar in the film All My Puny Sorrows (adapted from the acclaimed novel by Mirriam Toews). Michael's Globe & Mail article. Something Undone - CBC Gem Michael's Instagram

Sunday Times best-selling debut author Jo Browning Wroe discusses her Richard & Judy Bookclub pick novel A TERRIBLE KINDNESS.Jo chats about:researching and writing about people who care for the deadwriting about Cambridge and Fitzbillie's Chelsea bunsworking with the Cambridge Literary FestivalTaking time to work out how time works when you are writingGuest Author: Jo Browning Wroe Twitter: @JoBrowningWroe IG: @jobrowningwroe Books: A Terrible Kindness by Jo Browning-WroeHost: Kate Sawyer Twitter: @katesawyer IG: @mskatesawyer Books: The Stranding by Kate Sawyer & This Family (coming May 2023. Jo's recommendations:A book for fan's of Jo's work: All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Towes, Lucy By The Sea by Elizabeth StroutA book Jo has always loved: A Prayer for Owen Meany by John IrvingA book that's been published recently or is coming soon: A Wild and True Relation by Kim Sherwood & The Red Bird Sings by Aoife FitzpatrickOther books discussed in this episode: Women Talking by Mirian Towes, Fight Night by Miriam Towes, Tales of the City by Amistead Maupin, Brother of the More Famous Jack by Barbara TrapidoNovel Experience with Kate Sawyer is recorded and produced by Kate Sawyer - GET IN TOUCHTo receive transcripts and news from Kate to your inbox please SIGN UP FOR MY NEWSLETTER or visit https://www.mskatesawyer.com/novelexperiencepodcast for more information.

Today's episode is part 1 of our 4 part series covering EditCon 2022 Brave New World.  Today's panel is This year in Canadian Film. 2021 saw the film industry bounce back with a fervor hardly seen before. With it has come a wealth of powerful and diverse home grown stories, such as the poignant sibling drama ALL MY PUNY SORROWS; the brilliant and raw SCARBOROUGH; 2022's Canadian Oscar entry DRUNKEN BIRDS; and the gripping sci-fi thriller NIGHT RAIDERS. Join the editors behind the best that Canada has to offer as they talk storytelling in an intimate conversation. This episode is sponsored by Blackmagic Design

Kirsty Capes, author of the Women's Prize long-listed CARELESS, the story of Bess a young woman who discovers she is pregnant while living in care, and LOVE ME, LOVE ME NOT, which deals with discovering your adoption as an adult, both published by Orion.Kirsty chats about:the three writing degrees that let her believe that writing was something she could do professionallybalancing publicising your book with wanting to protect your privacywriting characters with experience of carewhat her experience in working in publishing taught her about her own book being publishedthe epic sci-fi dystopia that is yet to see the light of day.Guest: Kirsty Capes Twitter: @kirstycapes IG: @kirstycapes.author Books by Kirsty: Careless by Kirsty Capes, Love Me, Love Me Not by Kirsty CapesHosted by Kate Sawyer Twitter: @katesawyer IG: @mskatesawyer Books by Kate: The Stranding by Kate Sawyer , This Family (coming May 2023. Available to pre-order now!)Kirsty's reading recommendations:A book for fan's of Kirsty's work: My Name is Why by Lemn SissayA book Kirsty has always loved: All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam TowesA book that's been published recently or is coming soon: Yellowface by Rebecca F KwangOther books discussed in this episode: The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Towes, Women Talking by Mirian Towes, The Brother of The More Famous Jack by Barbara Trapido, The Power by Naomi Alderman, The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn, Junk by Melvin Burgess, Babel by RF Kwang.All books recommended and discussed in this episode are available to be purchased from the Novel Experience Bookshop.Org ShopIf you enjoyed this show please do rate, review and share with anyone you think will enjoy it: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/novel-experience/id1615429783Novel Experience with Kate Sawyer is recorded and produced by Kate Sawyer - GET IN TOUCHTo receive transcripts and news from Kate to your inbox please SIGN UP FOR MY NEWSLETTER or visit https://www.mskatesawyer.com/novelexperiencepodcast for more information.Thanks for listening!Kate xHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey guys! Welcome back!!! As always, it's a delight to know you're listening to us ramble on (...and on, and on...) about life and the books that we're into at the moment! We loved sitting down and recording this episode! It was so nice to sit down and just chat our normal chat and give you all a reading UPDATE! There are a few things we wanted to jot down here for you. 1. Brooke never said the company that she bought the wool yarn from to make her co-worker a sweater! The wool she got is from Wool And The Gang. She bought their "Crazy Sexy Wool" in "Dusty Denim" & "Cosmic Navy". It's so soft! 2. Be on the lookout for some upcoming cutesy pictures of the sweater that Becky crocheted Brooke! & 3. There is no voting for this next book club choice, unfortunately! We have decided to read Twilight by Stephanie Meyer for our next book club! Even though there was no voting, we still hope you'll find yourself a copy and read along with us! It's bound to be a fun one. But don't worry, we plan on having many more book club reads and you will almost always be allowed to have a vote! The list of books, shows, movies, whathaveyou is listed below! Until next time, keep yourself Happily Booked ! :)6:53 - Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman10:32 - All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews 11:38 - The Walking Dead Comic Vol. 1 by Robert Kirkman12:44 - The Stand by Stephen King 14:49 - Twilight by Stephenie Meyer21:30 - Dune: Messiah (2) / Children Of Dune (3) by Frank Herbert 28:16  - Dragonknight by Donita K. Paul 28:35 - Triggernometry Podcast31:25 - Run, Rose, Run by Dolly Parton & James Patterson32:43 - I'd Rather Be Reading by Anne Bogel34:03 -  Soul Riders: Jorvik Calling (1) by Helena Dahlgren34:37 - Soul Riders: The Legend Awakens (2) by Helena Dahlgren35:12 - Bridge To Terabithia by Katherine Paterson35:54 - The Ocean At The End Of The Lane by Neil Gaiman37:33 - The Walking Dead Comic Vol. 1 by Robert Kirkman37:46 - The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman38:40 - Beartown by Fredrik Backman39:40 - The Walking Dead Comic Vol. 2 by Robert Kirkman40:05 - The Stand by Stephen King40:51 - Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel 44:08 - Rabbits Podcast / Rabbits by Terry Miles45:27 - The Black Tapes Podcast45:52 - The Last Movie Podcast46:15 - Tanis Podcast46:30 - Faerie Podcast (Parcast Production)49:39 - Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling51:05 - Sarah J. Maas Author56:50 - The Dragon Prince Netflix Original / Avatar: The Last Airbender TV Show Support the showBe sure to keep yourself Happily Booked! Instagram/ TikTok - happilybookedpodcastFacebook - Happily Booked PodcastLikewise - BrookeBatesHappilyBookedGoodreads - Brooke Lynn Bates Storygraph - brookebatesratesbooks / magbeck2011 THE Sideways Sheriff - Permanent Sponsor Insta/ TikTok - Sideways_sheriffFacebook - Sideways SheriffYoutube - Sideways Sheriff

Fight Night by Miriam Toews is a love letter to mothers and daughters, and grandmothers and granddaughters. Told from the perspective of nine-year-old Swiv, who's having to deal with the imminent upheavals of the birth of a sibling and the declining health of her beloved grandma. With Swiv's opening words — “Dear Dad, How are you? I was expelled.” — readers are drawn into the chaotic, ramshackle but love-and-life-filled world of this family. A world in which the only way through is to fight.Buy Fight Night: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/product/6240767/toews-miriam-fight-night*SUBSCRIBE NOW FOR BONUS EPISODESLooking for Friends of Shakespeare and Company read Ulysses? https://podfollow.com/sandcoulyssesIf you want to spend even more time at Shakespeare and Company, you can now subscribe for regular bonus episodes and early access to Friends of Shakespeare and Company read Ulysses.Subscribe on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/sandcoSubscribe on Apple Podcasts here: https://podcasts.apple.com/fr/podcast/shakespeare-and-company-writers-books-and-paris/id1040121937?l=enAll money raised goes to supporting “Friends of Shakespeare and Company” the bookshop's non-profit, created to fund our noncommercial activities—from the upstairs reading library, to the writers-in-residence program, to our charitable collaborations, and our free events.*Miriam Toews is the author of seven novels: Summer of My Amazing Luck, A Boy of Good Breeding, A Complicated Kindness, The Flying Troutmans, Irma Voth, All My Puny Sorrows, and Women Talking, and one work of non-fiction, Swing Low: A Life. She is a winner of the Governor General's Award for Fiction, the Libris Award for Fiction Book of the Year, the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, and the Writers Trust…Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company. Buy a signed copy of his novel Feeding Time here: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/product/7209940/biles-adam-feeding-timeListen to Alex Freiman's Play It Gentle here: https://open.spotify.com/album/4gfkDcG32HYlXnBqI0xgQX?si=mf0Vw-kuRS-ai15aL9kLNA&dl_branch=1 Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Thanks for joining us! This month we are discussing All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews. Welcome dear readers, you are listening to Time to Read, a Winnipeg Public Library podcast book club.  We are recording today from the Millennium Library, located in Treaty One Territory, the home and traditional lands of the Anishinaabe (Ojibwe),…

這是一部加拿大劇情片，描述一個知識份子家庭，門諾會家庭，一家四口過著簡樸的生活。姊姊從小富有音樂細胞，有才華，長得漂亮，長大成為知名鋼琴師，到世界各地巡迴表演，還有溫柔的老公陪在身旁，繼續在舞台上發光發熱。也許光環太亮了，妹妹喜歡寫東西，然後步入婚姻，平凡的人生好像變得活在陰影裡。不過光環本身也有陰暗面，姊姊的憂鬱症非常嚴重，某種程度上有關爸爸，尤其那一天站在鐵道中央，爸爸就那樣人生退房。悲劇激化了姊姊的病情，認為最後的日子該在瑞士，而妹妹覺得不管什麼悲傷都要繼續活著。拉扯，拉扯，拉扯，她們是相愛的敵人。（All My Puny Sorrows (2022) 親愛的小小憂愁） 散文、心得、中文播客，歡迎上網搜尋'雨木觀後感'。 --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/yumu-review/message

Grief and depression can be a tricky thing....On this episode we dive into a movie that tackles some pretty complicated subjects.  On VOD platforms now it's 'All My Puny Sorrows'Based on the international best-selling novel by Miriam Toews, All My Puny Sorrows is the poignant story of two sisters-one a concert pianist obsessed with ending her life, the other, a writer, who in wrestling with this decision, makes profound discoveries about her herself.Full disclosure we were a TINY bit late bringing this one out of the box, but we had a real interesting talk with director Michael McGowan who has never been afraid to let the material he works on to go to some pretty heavy places.  We talk about what made him want to adapt this novel for the big screen and so very much more...

Hosts Carolina Alvarez and Tessa Markle of Femme Regard Productions spill the tea with this week's guest, Sarah Gadon! The ladies chat with Sarah about how she taps into a character. How she doesn't get caught up in the character's emotions. And how she blocks out the rest of the world when on set. We get into her most recent film, All My Puny Sorrows, and working with her friend Alison Pill. As actresses ourselves, we were very inspired and thrilled with the takeaways Sarah left us with. Socials: Website: https://pro.imdb.com/name/nm0300589/?ref_=instant_nm_1&q=sarah%20gadon Website: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13588156/ Instagram: @sarahgadon --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/femme-regard-podcast/support

I was lucky to catch Alison Pill on Broadway, 16 years ago, in “The Lieutenant of Inishmore,” and then became enamored with her work in shows like “In Treatment,” “The Newsroom," “Devs,” and movies like “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” and “Milk,” to name just a few. Nowadays she plays Dr. Agnes Jurati on the series “Picard,” and stars with Sarah Gadon in Michael McGowan's new film “All My Puny Sorrows.” She shares what she believes to be the secret ingredient that made that film work, and talks about how adopting a physicality for a character is foundational to her now. She reveals some of the reasons why theater appeals to her so much, one of them being that it allows her to take on the role of editor of her performance. She professes her love for text, her love for rehearsal, her frustration with improv, and much more. Follow Back To One on Instagram

Writer-Director Michael McGowan discusses with Jan Price his new film, "All My Puny Sorrows," currently available on digital platforms and VOD!   Based on Miriam Toews' best-selling novel All My Puny Sorrows unexpectedly infuses wry humor into this heart-wrenching story of two loving sisters: one a gifted pianist (Sarah Gadon) obsessed with ending her life, the other a struggling writer (Alison Pill) who, in wrestling with this decision, makes profound discoveries about herself.

Welcome back to the iGEMStv podcast.  This week's selections include:   All My Puny Sorrows  Thar Operation Mincemeat Candy (Series) Hacks Season 2 (Series) The Big Conn (Series) X (Black Diamond) Cannes 2021 Films Now Streaming   Until next time,     The Search is Over.

This week, Eric and Josh discuss: May the 4th, gatekeeping, celeb photo ops, Mad Dog Time, Michael Keaton, movie extra gigs, IMDb credits, and more! Plus, they mention the movies screening the week of Friday May 6 - Thursday May 12: Hit The Road, All My Puny Sorrows, Kicking Blood, and Once Upon A Time In China!

Michael McGowan is a Canadian writer-director, whose previous films include Saint Ralph, One Week, Still Mine, as well as the television series Between. His latest is All My Puny Sorrows, based on the novel by award-winning writer Miriam Toews and starring Alison Pill and Sarah Gadon. It his theatres May 3rd. Tina Finkelman Berkett is a dancer, choreographer and artistic director of LA-based BODYTRAFFIC. With the help of Vancouver company DanceHouse, she is bringing a new show - BODYTRAFFIC: Mixed Repertoire – A Million Voices, The One To Stay With, SNAP, and PACOPEPEPLUTO, a combination of four different numbers, to the Vancouver Playhouse on May 5th and 6th Subscribe: Apple, Spotify, Google, Amazon, Pandora, Deezer Socials @EndeavoursRadio --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/dan-mcpeake/message

It's National Canadian Film Day on Wednesday, and filmmaker Michael McGowan -- director of Saint Ralph, One Week, Still Mine and now All My Puny Sorrows , which opened in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal last weekend and reaches Winnipeg this Friday, April 22nd -- is here to celebrate Gus Van Sant's Good Will Hunting, the secretly Canadian 1997 drama that won Robin Williams  his only Oscar and catapulted screenwriters Matt Damon and Ben Affleck to superstardom. Your genial host Norm Wilner is a little uneasy about the Harvey Weinstein of it all, but he offers a distraction by reminding you that the Someone Else's Movie: Year One collection is still just $20 at payhip.com/semcast . Hours of listening fun! Packed with Canadian talent! How do you like them apples?

The Federal Budget dropped last week, and of course, it wouldn't be What She Said if we didn't take a closer look at it to see how it impacts women. Ann Decter, Senior Director, Community Initiatives and Policy, at the Canadian Women's Foundation joins me now to break down the budget through a feminist lens and shares the highs and lows of a budget that had a lot of ground to cover this year. If you're like most, you're giving a lot of consideration to your carbon footprint. Thankfully, there is a company that is literally looking at your footprint. Natalie Ashdown from Evoco joins me to share how her company is looking to close the loop on unsustainable goods for good by creating plant based products that lead with performance. We take a closer look at Evoco FATES that is providing plant based insoles for the shoe industry. I worry Anne Brodie might be in a catatonic state soon with all the new movies and shows she's watching recently. There appears to be a bit of a boon in entertainment. This week Anne brings the goods on All My Puny Sorrows in theatres now, Outer Range on Prime Video, The First Lady debuting this week on Crave and starring incredible actresses Viola Davis, Michelle Pfeiffer and Gillian Anderson and a look at the female-centric mind-bending 8 part anthology series Roar on Apple TV+ from executive producer Nicole Kidman. The divide between the haves and the have nots plays out in our education system daily, and perhaps nowhere more than with the social networking and connections angles that play out in our schools. Dr. Prachi Srivastva joins me to share why this happens and how we can take steps to ensure that we are closing the gap on inequities, not creating them. TikTok can bring small businesses explosive growth, as Haley Lafontaine, owner of Oak & Willow recently found out. A small business in Northern Ontario that makes and sells eco-friendly household products and cleaners, Oak & Willow moved from a small business to a million dollar business over night and that hasn't happened without some hiccups to attend to. Haley joins me to share what the journey has been like. Finally, Frances Anne Solomon, a trailblazer in the flim and television industry joins me to discuss her new film Hero about Ulric Cross, the new Content Creator Database created to enhance the visibility of Women of Colour in the film industry, and Black Market Releasing which aims to connect BIPOC stories to the big screen. Social: Ann Decter Website: https://canadianwomen.org/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/cdnwomenfdn Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/canadianwomensfoundation/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CanadianWomensFoundation/ Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cdnwomenfdn?lang=en Natalie Ashdown Website: www.evocoltd.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/EvocoLimited Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/evocolimited/ Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/evocoltd Dr. Prachi Srivastava Website: https://www.edu.uwo.ca/faculty-profiles/prachi-srivastava.html Twitter: https://twitter.com/PrachiSrivas Haley LaFontaine Website: https://www.oakandwillow.store Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oakwillow_ecofriendly/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Oakandwillowecofriendly TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@oakwillow_ecofriendly?lang=en Frances Anne Solomon Website: https://www.francesannesolomon.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/FrancesAnne Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/francesannesolomon/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/francesanne.solomon1

Sarah Gadon and Alison Pill talk about the profound experience of playing sisters in the new film adaptation of Miriam Toews' award-winning novel All My Puny Sorrows. Cedric Burnside discusses his latest album, I Be Trying, and what it was like playing drums on tour with his grandfather (Mississippi blues legend R. L. Burnside) from the age of 13. Lights introduces us to a track off her new album, PEP, and explains why she made it a goal to have 50 per cent of this record worked on by women.

We are taking a brief sojourn from Oscar talk, to instead look back into our own country of Canada and discuss the best movies from north of the border. We react to the 2022 Canadian Screen Awards, which celebrates the best in film, TV and screen work. On this show we discuss the movie portion of the nominees. Some of the films we go over include Scarborough, Night Raiders, All My Puny Sorrows, Wildhood, The Righteous, Islands, Learn to Swim, Night of the Kings, Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy and more! The awards for film will be handed out on April 8th. Listen to our interview with Mark O'Brien director and star of The Righteous and our interview with director Virginia Abramovich and writer Katherine Andrews Between Waves. Read Dakota's article of his top Canadian Films of 2021. Read our Rachel's reviews on Scarborough, The Righteous, Night Raiders, Night of the Kings, Learn to Swim, Islands and Between Waves. Read Dakota's reviews on All My Puny Sorrows, Wildhood and Kicking Blood. For a full list of nominees check out the Canadian Screen Awards website. Read Rachel's review of LOL: Last One Laughing Canada, her interview with Kaia Kater from The Porter, and her contributions to the article The Criterion Shelf: Starring Harry Belafonte. Please rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen. Send us a screenshot of your 5 star rating and review to contrazoompod@gmail.com and we will send you free swag! Thank you Eric and Kevin Smale for creating the awesome theme music and Stephanie Prior for designing the logo. Follow the show on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/contrazoompod/message

Miriam Toews is the author of seven previous bestselling novels, Women Talking, All My Puny Sorrows, Summer of My Amazing Luck, A Boy of Good Breeding, A Complicated Kindness, The Flying Troutmans, and Irma Voth, and one work of nonfiction, Swing Low: A Life. Her latest novel is called Fight Night. She lives in Toronto. Recommended Reading: Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife by Sam Savage Never Any End To Paris by Enrique Vila-Matas Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode we wrap up the 2021 edition of the Vancouver International Film Festival. Joining the show to talk about movies watched is Thomas Stoneham-Judge, the Editor-in-Chief of ForReel Movie News and Reviews. Belfast 11:00-19:00 Read Dakota's review. Red Rocket 19:30-30:00 Read Dakota's review. Official Competition 30:00-39:00 Benediction 39:00-47:30 Read Dakota's review. Drive My Car 49:00-52:30 Memoria 52:30-1:04:30 Read Thomas' review. All My Puny Sorrows 1:04:30-1:10:00 Read Dakota's review. Check out our preview episode 167: Vancouver International Film Festival Preview 2021. Watch Thomas' own festival wrap up! Follow Thomas on Twitter and Instagram and ForReel on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Check out and subscribe to Box Office Watch on Spotify and follow them on Twitter. Listen to Contra Zoom on Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, Overcast, RadioPublic, Breaker, Podcast Addict and more! Please rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen. Send us a screenshot of your 5 star rating and review to contrazoompod@gmail.com and we will send you free swag! Thank you Eric and Kevin Smale for creating the awesome theme music and Stephanie Prior for designing the logo. Follow the show on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/contrazoompod/message

On this episode of Why Watch That:Our reviews (so far) at this year's Toronto International Film Festival, including:Petite MamanFollowing a girl's journey to her mother's childhood home, French auteur Céline Sciamma's latest is a tender tale of intergenerational connection.Céline Sciamma's TIFF '19 selection Portrait of a Lady on Fire garnered international acclaim for its sumptuous rendering of queer female desire and the overwhelming power of both truly looking and truly being seen. Sciamma's follow-up brings the writer-director's exquisite craft and acute insights into longing to bear on a tale of childhood grief and wonder.After her grandmother dies, Nelly (Joséphine Sanz) is taken to her mother's childhood home. While her parents go about cleaning out the house, Nelly explores the surrounding woods. She encounters Marion (Gabrielle Sanz), a girl exactly Nelly's age and to whom she bears a striking resemblance. The pair become fast friends, constructing a hut together, sharing lunches, and talking over the life transitions both are in the midst of. (Marion is only days away from going to hospital for an operation.) Incrementally, the girls' eerie similarities yield revelations that merge events of the past with those of the present.Working once again with cinematographer Claire Mathon and production designer Lionel Brison, Sciamma gently ushers us into a series of hushed, crepuscular spaces where the spectral meets the everyday and time seems to fold in on itself. Drawing lovely, subtle performances from her young stars, Sciamma allows us to see the world through Nelly and Marion's eyes. The result is a film of tremendous tenderness and sombre beauty that, like all of Sciamma's films, celebrates the spectrum of feminine connection. -DIANA SANCHEZSPECIAL PRESENTATIONSFrance, 2021French70 minutesDirectorCéline SciammaCastJoséphine Sanz, Gabrielle Sanz, Nina Meurisse, Stéphane Varupenne, Margo AbascalScreenplayCéline SciammaMothering SundayOlivia Colman and Colin Firth star in this deeply affecting adaptation of Graham Swift's bittersweet novel about secret love in post-WWI England.Featuring captivating performances from up-and-coming talents Odessa Young (TIFF '18's Assassination Nation) and Josh O'Connor (The Crown), and Oscar-winning veterans Olivia Colman, Colin Firth, and Glenda Jackson, this exquisite adaptation of Booker Prize–winning author Graham Swift's eponymous novella transports us to Britain's inter-war years for a story of grief, responsibility, and hidden love.Jane (Young) works as a maid for the Nivens (Colman and Firth), an aging home counties couple who, like so many other families, lost their sons on the battlefields of the First World War. Jane is having a secret affair with Paul (O'Connor), son of the Nivens' neighbours, the Sheringhams. Paul is the only member of his peer group to return from the front, a status that has left him with a powerful dose of survivor's guilt and a weighty sense of duty to his family, who expects him to pursue a legal career and marry a woman of his station — which is to say, not the likes of Jane.On Mothering Sunday, her day off, Jane trysts with Paul at his house while his parents are away. There is a sense of quiet idyll to their stolen hours of lovemaking and Jane's gentle exploration of this world of wealth and prestige. Yet a double shadow hangs over this precious day, arising from the horrors of the recent past and the disappointments and sacrifices looming in the pair's future.Scripted by Alice Birch (TIFF '16 world premiere Lady Macbeth) and directed by Eva Husson (TIFF '18's Girls of the Sun), Mothering Sunday draws us into Jane and Paul's rendezvous, vividly evoking both its sensuous peaks and sobering undercurrents before zooming ahead into a future time when all this can be placed in perspective. -DIANA SANCHEZSPECIAL PRESENTATIONSUnited Kingdom, 2021English104 minutesDirectorEva HussonCastOdessa Young, Josh O'Connor, Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù, Olivia Colman, Colin Firth, Glenda Jackson, Patsy Ferran, Emma D'ArcyScreenplayAlice BirchThe StarlingMelissa McCarthy, Chris O'Dowd and Kevin Kline star in Theodore Melfi's bittersweet tale of a couple working their way toward the other side of grief.Melissa McCarthy has long proved she can play both wild comedy and heartbreaking drama. Working again with her St. Vincent director Theodore Melfi and buoyed by a superb supporting cast, she soars in a complex role that draws upon her impeccable timing and emotional instincts.Lilly (McCarthy) is always the one who holds it together when things go south for her family. A year has passed since she and her husband Jack (Chris O'Dowd) lost their infant daughter. Grief got the better of Jack, who's now recovering in a psychiatric clinic. Lilly holds down her job at the grocery store, keeps up the family's expansive rural property, and faithfully makes the weekly two-hour journey to visit her husband.Concerned that Lilly isn't tending to her own grieving process, a counsellor at Jack's clinic suggests that she see a local therapist, Larry (Kevin Kline, also appearing in Festival selection The Good House). The counsellor neglects to mention that Larry long ago gave up psychology to become a veterinarian — a practice that will prove germane when a dive-bombing starling begins wreaking havoc in Lilly's garden.The intricacies of Matt Harris's sensitive, canny screenplay allow us to observe the ways that every act of love — whether toward a spouse, a client, or an insistent bird — requires both generosity and boundary setting. Lilly can't bear the notion of being a quitter, but without some self-care, all her efforts to care for others could come to naught.Helmed with rich insight into the healing process by Melfi (Academy Award– nominated for Hidden Figures), The Starling lights upon a rare balance of levity and gravity, mischief and tenderness. -CAMERON BAILEYSPECIAL PRESENTATIONSUnited States of America, 2021English103 minutesDirectorTheodore MelfiCastMelissa McCarthy, Chris O'Dowd, Timothy Olyphant, Skyler Gisondo, Daveed Diggs, Laura Harrier, Rosalind Chao, Loretta Devine, Kevin KlineScreenplayMatt HarrisPublicistNetflixThe Electrical Life of Louis Wain An eccentric artist (Benedict Cumberbatch) introduces Victorian London to the delights of cats, in Will Sharpe's enlightening biopic.From Ancient Egypt to TikTok, cats have accompanied humans on life's journey. But who made the creatures cute? The Electrical Life of Louis Wain tells the story of the Victorian-era artist whose widely published drawings of anthropomorphized cats transformed them from mysterious to irresistible. In a dazzling, career-best performance, Benedict Cumberbatch plays one of Britain's most influential eccentrics as a flurry of wild ideas and prodigious artistic output.Louis Wain (Cumberbatch, also at the Festival in The Power of the Dog) brims with creativity, even as his life in the 1880s oscillates between the delightful and the dizzying. To support his widowed mother and five younger sisters, the academy-trained artist sells drawings of animals from the country fair. His skilled and speedy portraiture impresses, but his often stormy view of the world and those in it keeps him from engaging much with society. That is, until he hires a kind, curious governess for his youngest sisters, Emily Richardson (Claire Foy), who illuminates his life in a way even he'd never imagined. Love blooms across the class divide — albeit to the chagrin of Louis's stern sister Caroline (Andrea Riseborough), second oldest and second in command.Writer-director Will Sharpe (television's Flowers, whose co-star Olivia Colman narrates here) uses dynamic visual technique and colourfully shifting mood to convey Louis's complicated mind, fickle wealth, momentous love, and consuming grief. Cumberbatch's transcendent performance stands at the centre of an impressive cast that includes Toby Jones and Adeel Akhtar (also at the Festival in Ali & Ava). Alive with imagination in every scene, The Electrical Life of Louis Wain shows just how we came to live in a cat's world. Meow. -DESCRIPTION COURTESY OF TIFFGALA PRESENTATIONSUnited Kingdom, 2021English111 minutesDirectorWill SharpeCastBenedict Cumberbatch, Claire Foy, Andrea Riseborough, Toby JonesScreenplaySimon Stephenson, Will SharpePublicistAmazon StudiosAll My Puny SorrowsMichael McGowan's touching adaptation of Miriam Toews' beloved novel about two sisters boasts a fine cast led by Alison Pill and Sarah Gadon.Michael McGowan's moving adaptation of Miriam Toews' beloved novel All My Puny Sorrows is propelled by nuanced direction, an affecting script, and a truly stellar, fearless cast. The story revolves around the women of the Von Riesen clan: writer Yoli (Alison Pill), who's tormented by self-doubt and is going through a tough, protracted divorce; her sister Elf (Sarah Gadon), a well-known concert pianist whose bouts with depression threaten to consume her; their steadfast mother Lottie (Mare Winningham); their no-nonsense aunt Tina (Mimi Kuzyk); and Yoli's precocious daughter Nora (Amybeth McNulty).The family are no strangers to sorrow. They left the Mennonite community after their patriarch (Donal Logue) unexpectedly killed himself. (It's not said explicitly, but the film suggests his church played a key role in his decision.) How the Von Riesens, especially Yoli and Elf, confront — and fail to confront — tragedy and trauma is the central focus of the film. The sisters' wisecracking banter and acute awareness of each other's foibles indicates a profound love and mutual dependency, but as Yoli struggles to understand Elf and protect her from her demons, the women's fundamental differences come to the fore.Oscillating powerfully between extremes of joy and sadness, All My Puny Sorrows is also one of the most erudite, literary films you will see this year. Much of the close relationship between Yoli and Elf is based on their love of books (stretching from Philip Larkin to D.H. Lawrence), reflecting their intellectual curiosity and capacity for life — which only makes the film all the more heartbreaking, and its ultimate embrace of life so touching. -STEVE GRAVESTOCKSPECIAL PRESENTATIONSCanada, 2021English103 minutesDirectorMichael McGowanCastAlison Pill, Sarah Gadon, Mare Winningham, Amybeth McNulty, Donal LogueScreenplayMichael McGowanEncounterA decorated Marine (Riz Ahmed) goes on a rescue mission to save his two young sons from an inhuman threat, in the latest from director Michael Pearce.Suspenseful, wildly imaginative, and eerily resonant, British director Michael Pearce's follow-up to his TIFF '17 Platform competitor Beast catapults us into a world where every encounter could lead to peril. Featuring an adrenalized lead performance from Riz Ahmed, this is a thriller for the age of cultural division and seemingly endless existential threat.A decorated marine, Malik Khan (Ahmed) is trained to identify risk. But what if the risk appears totally ordinary? Malik sees bugs. Evil bugs. Alien bugs that seem to be seizing control of people, one after another. Malik can't convince the world to sound the alarm, but he can at least protect his two young sons from global parasitic invasion — which might involve kidnapping them from the home of Malik's estranged wife.Written with Joe Barton (TIFF '17 world premiere The Ritual), Pearce's leap into large-scale filmmaking, with its nod to genre classics like Invasion of the Body Snatchers, brilliantly fuses dazzling spectacle with character-driven drama. Encounter's visuals are by turns gorgeous and shocking. Its atmosphere of American heartland creepiness is both familiar and unnerving.Yet the film ultimately rests on its performances. Oscar winner Octavia Spencer is masterful in a supporting role that prompts us to reconsider everything we've seen, while Ahmed cements his reputation as one of the most compelling actors working today. Whether playfully joshing with his boys, confronting far-right extremists, or defending himself against a human-insect hybrid, Ahmed imbues Malik's every gesture with magnetism and mystery, leading up to a showdown that blurs the cosmic with the cognitive. -CAMERON BAILEYSPECIAL PRESENTATIONSUnited Kingdom, United States of America, 2021English108 minutesDirectorMichael PearceCastRiz Ahmed, Octavia Spencer, Rory CochraneScreenplayJoe Barton, Michael PearcePublicistAmazon StudiosThe GuiltyJake Gyllenhaal stars in Antoine Fuqua's thriller set over the course of a single morning in a 911 dispatch centre.Versatile action auteur Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, screening at the Festival as part of TIFF Rewind) reunites with his Southpaw star Jake Gyllenhaal in this riveting film about an emergency responder's desperate race to save a distressed caller. Unfolding in real time within the confines of a frenetic 911 dispatch centre, Fuqua's The Guilty delivers on its high-concept premise, channelled through another powerhouse performance from Gyllenhaal.As a wildfire rages towards Los Angeles, embittered police officer Joe Bayler (Gyllenhaal) winds down a chaotic but tedious shift answering emergency calls — a punitive demotion he received ahead of an imminent disciplinary hearing. His ennui is soon interrupted by a cryptic call from a woman (Riley Keough) who appears to be attempting to call her child, but is in fact discreetly reporting her own abduction. Working with the meagre clues she is able to provide, Joe throws all his skill and intuition towards ensuring her safety, but as the severity of the crime comes to light, Joe's own psychological state begins to fray and he is forced to reconcile with demons of his own.Every tense moment plays out on Gyllenhaal's face, as he spars with a dynamic ensemble of voices in his headset, including those of Ethan Hawke, Peter Sarsgaard, and Paul Dano. Building off a script from True Detective creator-writer Nic Pizzolatto, Fuqua and cinematographer Maz Makhani crosscut the white-knuckle drama with a montage of monitors broadcasting the apocalyptic inferno outside; a surreal, but all too familiar reflection of our mad world. -CAMERON BAILEYSPECIAL PRESENTATIONSUnited States of America, 2021English90 minutesDirectorAntoine FuquaCastJake Gyllenhaal, Ethan Hawke, Riley Keough, Christina Vidal Mitchell, Eli Goree, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, David Castañeda, Paul Dano, Peter SarsgaardScreenplayNic PizzolattoPublicistNetflixLakewood​​Naomi Watts stars in Phillip Noyce's nerve-rattling thriller about a mother struggling to rescue her son from a school shooter.Amy Carr (Naomi Watts) is out for what should have been a restorative morning run when a friend calls with terrifying news: the local high school attended by Noah, her teenage son, has been besieged by an active shooter. Deep within a network of forest paths surrounding her home, miles from town and nearly overwhelmed by panic, Amy refuses to succumb to hopelessness. With her smartphone as her sole means of intervention, she will draw upon every resource she can think of to ensure that her son survives the attack.Helmed by veteran director Phillip Noyce (Rabbit-Proof Fence, Dead Calm) and written by Chris Sparling, Lakewood plunges us headlong into a desperate scenario unfolding in real time. The film echoes Sparling's acclaimed screenplay for Buried, a selection at TIFF 2010, in the sense that most of it unfolds as a one-person show, with Amy navigating the situation remotely. Yet Noyce's film also functions as a tribute to the power of a community working together in the face of calamity, as Amy enlists the assistance of an auto-body shop manager, a 911 operator, a rideshare driver, and one of her co-workers at the Marion County Division of Taxation to help her take matters into her own hands.It is rare to encounter a thriller like Lakewood, at once high-concept and heartfelt, exhilarating and poignant. It is also a showcase for Watts, who masterfully conveys a captivating fusion of impromptu heroism and maternal devotion. -DESCRIPTION COURTESY OF TIFFGALA PRESENTATIONSCanada, 2021English84 minutesDirectorPhillip NoyceCastNaomi WattsScreenplayChris Sparling See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

With this year's Toronto International Film Festival just around the corner, we are here to share our most anticipated films that are playing during this year's iteration. We both had five films we've named and included a few honourable mentions. Dakota's Picks - Spencer, All My Puny Sorrows, Official Competition, A Hero and The Middle Man Rachel's Picks - Flee, Night Raiders, Scarborough, Aloners and Belfast Honourable mentions include Memoira, The Forgiven, Encounter, DASHCAM, Snakehead and Titane Check out Rachel's helpful TIFF planning website. Read Dakota's article detailing his most anticipated movies still to come out in 2021. Read Rachel's interviews with Riz Ahmed and Simu Liu. Check out That Shelf's best films of 2021 so far. Listen to The Troubles podcast to learn more about the background information of Kenneth Branagh's Belfast. Check out Rachel's website for more great reviews and follow her on Twitter. Listen to Contra Zoom on Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, Overcast, RadioPublic, Breaker, Podcast Addict and more! Please rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen. Send us a screenshot of your 5 star rating and review to contrazoompod@gmail.com and we will send you free swag! Thank you Eric and Kevin Smale for creating the awesome theme music and Stephanie Prior for designing the logo. Follow the show on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/contrazoompod/message

I'm talking about valuing your writing work this week - and that means keeping it organized so you can make the most of your writing time.Book recommendation: ALL MY PUNY SORROWS, Miriam Toews.Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts; it really helps the podcast grow!

Miriam Toews is the author of Women Talking, Summer of My Amazing Luck, A Boy of Good Breeding, A Complicated Kindness, All My Puny Sorrows, The Flying Troutmans, and Irma Voth, and one work of non-fiction, Swing Low: A Life. She is a winner of the Governor General's Award for Fiction, the Libris Award for Fiction Book of the Year, the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, and the Writers Trust Marian Engel/Timothy Findley Award. She lives in Toronto. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices