AMI Audiobook Review

Karoline Bourdeau introduces us to BetaBooks, a platform where authors open up their writing for crowd-sourced consultation. Plus, we ponder about our own 2025 reading goals, and consider how Spotify is changing the competition for audiobook consumption.

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

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

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

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