Bookends with Mattea Roach cover art

Bookends with Mattea Roach

Bookends with Mattea Roach

By: CBC
Listen for free

About this listen

When the book ends, the conversation begins. Mattea Roach speaks with writers who have something to say about their work, the world and our place in it. You’ll always walk away with big questions to ponder and new books to read.

Copyright © CBC 2026
Art Literary History & Criticism
Episodes
  • Is there a soundtrack to your life?
    Apr 1 2026

    For Michael V. Smith, the answer is a resounding yes … and he explores that in his new book, Soundtrack: A Lyric Memoir. It’s a collection of poems about snapshots in his life, each named after a different song or album. He dives into growing up gay during the AIDS crisis, finding his first love and coming of age on the dance floor. The book celebrates music and memory, and is a deeply personal look into the songs that send us back in time. This week, Michael tells Mattea Roach about the albums that made him, reading old journal entries and what it really means to be a man.


    Liked this conversation? Keep listening:

    • Music, sex and finding the soundtrack to queer joy
    • Reliving the soundtrack of the 2000s


    Check us out on Instagram @cbcbooks and TikTok @cbcbooks

    Show More Show Less
    27 mins
  • If at first you break up … try, try again?
    Mar 29 2026

    This week, Bookends is celebrating libraries with a special Canada Reads event at the Hamilton Public Library.


    Morgann Book truly lives up to her name. As one of Canada’s biggest book influencers, she shares her love of literature with millions of followers … and she’s taking that to the next level as a contestant on this year’s Canada Reads. Morgann is championing It’s Different This Time, the debut novel by Joss Richard. It’s a second chance romance about two former roommates with some very unresolved feelings, and it draws from Joss’s own experiences as a TV producer in LA. Joss and Morgann joined Mattea on-stage to talk about exes, preparing for Canada Reads and why there are so many chefs in romance novels.


    Liked this conversation? Keep listening:

    • Fans asked for another happy ending — Carley Fortune delivered
    • All I want for Christmas … is a fake boyfriend?


    Check us out on Instagram @cbcbooks and TikTok @cbcbooks

    Show More Show Less
    31 mins
  • How long could you lie about who you are?
    Mar 25 2026

    In Tara Gereaux’s new novel, Wild People Quiet, a Métis woman works tirelessly to hide her identity for years … until everything starts to come crashing down. It’s the early 1900s when Florence realizes she can pass as white. Longing for a comfortable life free of discrimination, she decides to leave her entire family and culture behind. Decades later, her carefully constructed facade is challenged by a group of Métis farmhands who come through town, and she begins to wonder if her rigid, lonely life was worth it after all. This week, Tara joins Mattea to talk about Florence’s complexity, life for Métis people in the mid-20th century and exploring the beauty of beadwork in the novel.


    Liked this conversation? Keep listening:

    • In the Caribbean, secret lives come at a cost
    • What would it take to become the first Cherokee astronaut?


    Check us out on Instagram @cbcbooks and TikTok @cbcbooks


    Show More Show Less
    25 mins
No reviews yet