This week on On The Line, Jen Gerson is joined by Brandon Forsyth, longtime book buyer at Indigo, for a wide-ranging conversation about summer reads and the deeper currents shaping the book industry.
This episode of On The Line is brought to you by Airbnb. It’s no secret that Canada is in a housing crisis. Some think that short-term rentals such as Airbnbs are the problem. But the closer you look, the clearer it gets. Attempts to lower rents by regulating short-term rentals have failed in cities like New York City – which is experiencing record high rents a year after doing so. Canada doesn’t need more regulation; it needs more supply. And Airbnbs that could be converted into long-term homes account for only 0.6% of Canada’s housing stock. Learn more at Airbnb.ca/closerlook.
First up: recommendations. Forsyth walks us through his picks for both fiction and non-fiction, offering something for everyone this summer—from literary thrillers to deeply researched investigations.
But then things get spicy. Jen and Brandon dive into the state of book culture. What genres are thriving? Which ones are stale? Do Millennials have a distinct writing voice? And should grown adults still be reading YA or kids' books? (Spoiler: They don’t exactly agree.)
This episode is also brought to you by the Métis Nation of Ontario. It's Sault Ste. Marie in the 1850s. The Upper Great Lakes and rivers of northern Ontario are bustling during the summers with the sound of paddles. Sault Ste. Marie, Fort William, Fort Frances. For Métis voyageurs, these were the highways of a growing trade. Summer was for moving canoes packed with salted fish and furs. Stops were made at supply depots run by Métis families. And a thriving economy was built on a network of Métis communities stretching across the Upper Great Lakes westward. These Métis routes became the arteries of Canada’s first economy. This July, while Canadians enjoy their vacations, remember the Métis who spent summers building Canada’s first economy. To learn more, visit OntarioMetisFacts.com.
Brandon’s Summer Book Recommendations:
FICTION
• Slow Horses – Mick Herron
• Murderbot – Martha Wells
• Katabasis – R.F. Kuang
• One Golden Summer – Carley Fortune
• Say You’ll Remember Me – Abby Jimenez
NON-FICTION
• The Crisis of Canadian Democracy – Andrew Coyne
• Moral Ambition – Rutger Bregman
• Empire of AI – Karen Hao
• Children Like Us – Brittany Penner
• King of Kings – Scott Anderson
All that and more on On The Line. Subscribe at ReadTheLine.ca, follow us on your favourite podcast app, and don’t forget to leave us a nice review. Audio drops every Tuesday morning, with video rolling out Tuesday evening on YouTube and our social channels. Catch it wherever you listen or watch.
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We hope you enjoy this episode, and don’t miss us next week. We’ll be back with more On The Line.
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