Welcome to another summer edition of WORDS TO GO. Whether you're sitting on the dock or sunning or on the beach, we hope you're enjoying a good book or two...or maybe writing one! It's a slow time for book news and new reads, so this time around, Carole features two very different (and older) novels, both set during World War Two. She reads from her own book, An Ordinary Star and then reviews the haunting and powerful work Every Man Dies Alone by German writer Hans Fallada. What are you reading this summer? Send us your published work -- we welcome poetry, too. For guidelines, go to www.carolegiangrande.com.

Carole's cooling her heels in her air-conditioned studio for the July edition of the show, but not before she turns up the heat on sub-literate book reviewers in print and online. If you dare, check out her handy five-point guide to writing a decent review! Something new on today's podcast -- poetry. Carole reads from What I Would Not Unravel, a first collection of poems by Karen Lee Lewis, and for more good reads, she offers two entertaining novellas. Relax and enjoy! To submit your published fiction, check out Carole's website at www.carolegiangrande.com. Also at the website: read Carole's Booktalk.

Carole's in lazy pre-summer mode as she reads another excerpt from her new novella A Gardener On The Moon, published by Quattro Books. Thanks to all of you who came to the book launch and made it such a success. Looking for great summer reading? Stay tuned as Carole nominates her pick for one of the most outstanding Canadian novels in years. Your host will be working summer hours so WORDS TO GO will be coming to you once a month until September. We like promoting new writers! Send us your published stories, book picks or books you've written and would like reviewed. We'll reprint reviews on Carole's new blog, Carole's Booktalk. You'll find the blog plus submission guidelines on Carole's website at www.carolegiangrande.com.

As you're listening to this podcast, Carole's up in the sky, homeward bound from three-plus weeks of adventure, fine art and exquisite Italian food...but she's left behind the virtual book-launch edition of WORDS TO GO - giving you, dear listener, the first sneak-preview of her award-winning novella, A Gardener On The Moon. Sit back, relax and listen. If you're in the Toronto area, come and meet Carole at the Quattro Books Spring Launch on May 26th at 6 pm at The Supermarket Cafe, 268 Augusta Avenue. Visit WORDS TO GO PODCAST on Facebook for more details. 

Carole's taking off! Now that the plume from that Icelandic volcano has blown away, she's about to leave for Italy for a couple of weeks of la dolce vita...but before she takes a vacation -- hands up, all of you who've ever had a crush on a rock star! Lucretia Smith's fun story of teenage infatuation flies sky-high into never-never-land. This week's great read is a Irene Guilford's novel The Embrace, which exlores the life of a Lithuanian family split apart by politics and war. Next podcast: May 20th, when Carole reads from her new novella, A Gardener On The Moon. Toronto-area listeners, you're invited to the book launch -- listen up for details and check the WORDS TO GO PODCAST fan page on Facebook for more info.

Spring's here with a Gaelic flavour on WORDS TO GO, as Carole reads "Carving The Air" by Sara Cassidy, a story set in the Scottish highlands. And if you haven't yet caught up with the fantastic Irish writer Claire Keegan, stay tuned for an intro to her most recent collection of short stories, Walk The Blue Fields. Spring also brings grateful thoughts, new books and a chance for Carole to share her stockpile of anecdotes on gracious and grumpy writers and readers she's known. Why not share your stories and book picks with us? Follow us on Facebook at WORDS TO GO PODCAST and visit Carole's website at www.carolegiangrande.com.  

If you're hooked on books and tired of squeezing your literary opinions into a tiny little Facebook box, join Carole as she ponders those Little Red Notebooks, unleashed by the library all over Toronto, so you can pen your faves on real paper -- that's right, and with a real pen. Today's featured story, "Body and Soul," is from Eva Tihanyi's first collection, Truth And Other Fictions, and it takes us through an extraordinary day in the lives of two great twentieth-century women: the anthropologist Mary Leakey and the blues singer Billie Holiday. For lovers of flash-fiction and very short-shorts, listen up for a winning book by the form's virtuoso, Lydia Davis. Visit Carole's website at carolegiangrande.com and follow us on Facebook at Words To Go Podcast.

Join us for a free-for-all as Carole loses her customary cool and blasts away at literary shoplifters, memoir fakes and artsy excuses for stealing work. Rising well above this silliness is our featured reading, an essay in creative non-fiction by Jill Christman (www.jillchristman.com), in which she shares a tender remembrance of a dead dog. Given our concern with fiction and fraud, it's really just a coincidence that the title of our feature review is Truth And Other Fictions, a fine first collection of short stories by Eva Tihanyi. If you've written or read a book you'd like to see reviewed, post it on our Facebook page (WORDS TO GO PODCAST) or go to Carole's website at www.carolegiangrande.com. 

This week, Carole gets inspired by Olympic spectacle and finds common ground (snow, maybe?) between bold ski-jumpers, elegant ice-dancers and creative writers on a roll. Also on our menu: "Downward Drifting," a short story by Patricia Schultheis which threads seven decades of history through the fabric of a woman's life -- in four pages. Two great British books (old and new, comic and tragic) round out our menu. We're looking forward to showcasing and reviewing books by up-and-coming authors. Send your suggestions to cgian@rogers.com or post them on our Facebook page (Words To Go Podcast). And visit Carole's website at www.carolegiangrande.com. 

Join us for a menu of literary take-out treats: Rebecca Rosenblum's short story "Do" leads us down the aisle through the frivolous and poignant moments of a wedding. Carole reflects on writers' work: computers as crystal balls, and abandoned manuscripts that come back to life. Not strange enough? Try two not-to-be-missed classic novels featuring giant mammals, each one speaking to our environmental crisis — the novels, not the critters. In Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, the whale gets the last word, while Marian Engel's Bear helps a woman uncover her connection with the natural world. Visit our WORDS TO GO PODCAST Fan Page on Facebook, and check out Carole's website — www.carolegiangrande.com.