Mallory Tater

Join writer, broadcaster and blind adventurer Red Széll for the latest episode of AMI-audio’s My Life in Books. Each fortnight, Red invites you to join him in conversation with a renowned author about their work and the books that inspired them to write. For this episode, Red is joined by Mallory Tater, whose debut novel, The Birth Yard, has attracted both praise and comparisons with The Handmaid’s Tale. Like Margaret Atwood’s classic story, The Birth Yard is a dark and cautionary tale of patriarchal control and the abuse of women’s rights. But Mallory’s novel doesn’t take place in a dystopian future. Instead, it is set firmly in present-day Canada, in a commune cut off from the ordinary world, where women have no agency and serve as brood mares. Join Mallory and Red as they explore cults, misogyny and contemporary Canadian fiction.

Join writer, broadcaster and blind adventurer Red Széll for the latest episode of AMI-audio’s My Life in Books. Each fortnight, Red invites you to join him in conversation with a renowned author about their work and the books that inspired them to write. For this episode, Red is joined by Max Wallace, the Canadian journalist, filmmaker, human rights activist, and best-selling author. Max’s most recent work, After The Miracle: The Political Crusades of Helen Keller, offers a new perspective on an individual who remains an international icon nearly 150 years after her birth. But whereas previous biographers have concentrated on the sentimental story of Keller’s struggles as a deafblind and mute child, portraying her teacher, Annie Sullivan, as a miracle worker and so making Keller a secondary character in her own story, Max focuses on Keller’s achievements as an adult. Join Max and Red as they discuss Helen Keller’s lifelong commitment to racial justice, socialism, and disability rights, as well as her love of movies and dirty jokes!

Join writer, broadcaster and blind adventurer Red Széll for the latest episode of AMI-audio’s My Life in Books. Each fortnight, Red invites you to join him in conversation with a renowned author about their work and the books that inspired them to write. For this episode, Red is joined by Leah Redmond Chang, a historian with a background in comparative literature and research. Her latest book, Young Queens, is a fascinating and highly insightful historical biography of three Renaissance women exercising power in a world dominated by men. It tells the dramatic and intertwined stories of Catherine de Medici (Queen of France from 1547 to 1559), Elisabeth de Valois (Queen of Spain from 1559 to 1568) and Mary Queen of Scots (Queen of Scotland from 1542 to 1567). Fusing new archival research with rich narrative prose, the book also asks profoundly modern questions about women, gender and power. Join Leah and Red as they explore what it meant to be a queen in Renaissance Europe’s real-life Game of Thrones.

Join writer, broadcaster and blind adventurer Red Széll for the latest episode of AMI-audio’s My Life in Books. Each fortnight, Red invites you to join him in conversation with a renowned author about their work and the books that inspired them to write. For this episode, Red is joined by Canadian writer Curtis LeBlanc, who until recently has been best known for his poetry, but with the publication of his debut novel, Sunsetter, he’s finding a far wider audience. Set over a single weekend when the carnival comes to a post-industrial Canadian prairie town, the book is a mesmerizing blend of crime thriller and literary fiction. Across its pages, Curtis unflinchingly peels back the layers to reveal a community in the clutches of small-town police corruption, designer drugs, and teen disillusionment. And yet, for all this, it’s a novel where hope refuses to lay down and die. Join Curtis and Red as they discuss the lure of the carnival, teenage angst, and the natural beauty of the prairies. My Life in Books airs Mondays at 1 p.m. Eastern on AMI-audio, or download the podcast from your favourite provider via this link:https://www.ami.ca/My-Life-Books/recent_episodes

Join writer, broadcaster and blind adventurer Red Széll for the latest episode of AMI-audio’s My Life in Books. Each fortnight, Red invites you to join him in conversation with a renowned author about their work and the books that inspired them to write. For this episode, Red is joined by Selina Mills, a British journalist and disability activist. In her new book, Life Unseen, A Story of Blindness, Selina uses her own experience of losing her sight to explore the history of blindness. From the myths of Ancient Greece to the apps of Silicon Valley, her quest reveals the stories and achievements of people who are blind, as well as those of their sighted peers who sought to patronize, demonize and cure them. But as Selina sets out to show that blindness has always been an active force in Western society, she also questions why we, as people who are blind, have always been treated differently. Join Selina and Red as they uncover enduring notions that blindness is a state to be feared and pitied and hear how Selina set about narrating the audiobook version of Life Unseen herself.

Join writer, broadcaster and blind adventurer Red Széll for the latest episode of AMI-audio’s My Life in Books. Each fortnight, Red invites you to join him in conversation with a renowned author about their work and the books that inspired them to write. For this episode, Red is joined by internationally best-selling crime writer Sam Blake. Beginning with her 2016 debut Little Bones, the Irish writer has published a slew of crime novels that have won her acclaim and fans around the world. After the success of Little Bones and its sequels, Sam moved from police procedurals to writing twisty psychological crime thrillers, the latest of which, The Mystery of Four, was published earlier this year. And in case anyone should accuse her of resting on her laurels, this summer also saw the publication of Sam’s first foray into Young Adult fiction, Something Terrible Happened Last Night. Both novels are absolute page-turners, with Sam’s trademark keen eye for character, detail, and country-house hotel settings making it seem as if Agatha Christie had just been resurrected clutching an iPad! Join Sam and Red as they discuss how modern technology can be both a help and a hindrance to crime writers and explore the timeless tropes that continue to thrill readers.

Join writer, broadcaster and blind adventurer Red Széll for the latest episode of AMI-audio’s My Life in Books. Each fortnight, Red invites you to join him in conversation with a renowned author about their work and the books that inspired them to write. For this episode, Red is joined by Canadian author Andrew F. Sullivan. Over the past decade, Andrew has built a reputation as an author of gritty tales for gritty times. His debut novel, Waste, was described by the Toronto Star as "Keystone Cops meet horror in Oshawa." His latest, The Marigold, is set in a post-climate catastrophe Toronto ravaged by extreme weather, unfettered development and a toxic mould that’s rising from the groundwater and becoming sentient. It’s not a tale for the faint-hearted, but in its often grotesquely funny portrayal of a shiny city being consumed by the very land it stands on, it poses serious questions about mankind’s corruption of nature through our relentless desire for growth. Join Andrew and Red as they explore Toronto’s sinkholes, and the pitfalls and possible ramifications of late-stage capitalism. My Life in Books airs Mondays at 1 p.m. Eastern on AMI-audio, or download the podcast from your favourite provider via this link: https://www.ami.ca/My-Life-Books/recent_episodes

For this episode, Red is joined by Irish author Sheila Armstrong whose writing has been described as, "elegiac and atmospheric, dark and disquieting." Her debut novel, Falling Animals, was inspired by a real-life mystery and like the sea off the coast of her native northwest Ireland, the tale it tells is alive with undercurrents. Each chapter focuses on a different character caught up in the wake of an unidentified man’s body appearing on a remote Irish beach. It’s a haunting tale which, like Sheila’s short stories, is rich with the landscape and thwarted dreams of a community living on the storm-tossed edge of the world. Join Sheila and Red as they explore the real-life mystery that inspired Falling Animals and how Sheila blurs the lines between the bizarre and the every day through her lyrical prose.

Join writer, broadcaster and blind adventurer Red Széll for the latest episode of AMI-audio’s My Life in Books. Each fortnight, Red invites you to join him in conversation with a renowned author about their work and the books that inspired them to write. For this episode, Red is joined by Irish actor and voice artist Aoife McMahon, who is one of the most in-demand audiobook narrators in the business. Her range is astonishing. She has appeared in leading roles for the Royal Shakespeare Company and in numerous celebrated television dramas on both sides of the Atlantic, including as Mary Bundle Kean in the Canadian TV mini-series Random Passage, for which she won the 2002 Gemini Award for Best Actress in a leading role. Aoife has narrated over 200 audiobooks, holds a degree in English, and is an avid reader and a nascent writer. Her recent accolades include numerous AudioFile Awards and a place in the Top 10 Audiobooks as listed in The Irish Times, The New York Times and Amazon's top picks. Join Aoife and Red as they explore some of the titles narrated by her that will be featured in this series of My Life in Books and discover the narrator’s side of the story. My Life in Books airs Mondays at 1 p.m. Eastern on AMI-audio, or download the podcast from your favourite provider via this link: https://www.ami.ca/My-Life-Books/recent_episodes