Although we make very good books around here at Anansi and Groundwood, we also spend a lot of time thinking and talking about music. Several members of our staff are musicians, and others have headphones plugged at their desks around the clock.

Stemming from a conversation on Twitter, Eva O’Brien (Sales Assistant) and Suzanne Sutherland (Editorial Assistant) decided it was time for some Anansi and Groundwood-themed playlists to emerge.

These books are some in-house favourites and these songs are what we think the characters might have listened to (ignoring time, location and access to technology almost entirely). We hope you enjoy!

The Outlander by Gil Adamson

In 1903 a mysterious, desperate young woman flees alone across the west, one quick step ahead of the law. She has just become a widow by her own hand. Two vengeful brothers and a pack of bloodhounds track her across the western wilderness. Gil Adamson’s extraordinary novel opens in heart-pounding mid-flight and propels the reader through a gripping road trip with a twist — the steely outlaw in this story is a grief-struck young woman.

• As Long as I Live by Bruce Peninsula | ♫
• Search and Destroy (cover) by Peaches | ♫
• Coyote by Dear Sister | ♫
• Homage by Feist & Timber Timbre | ♫
• Conquest by The White Stripes | ♫

Holding Still for As Long as Possible by Zoe Whittall

What is it like to grow into adulthood with the war on terror as your defining political memory, with SARS and Hurricane Katrina as your backdrop? In this robust, elegantly plotted, and ultimately life-affirming novel, Zoe Whittall presents a dazzling portrait of a generation we’ve rarely seen in literature — the twenty-five-year olds who grew up on anti-anxiety meds, text-messaging each other truncated emotional reactions, unsure of what’s public and what’s private.

• Young Lions by the Constantines | ♫
• Gravez by Hooded Fang | ♫
• Lion Heart by PUP | ♫
• The Great Elsewhere by Owen Pallett | ♫
• Something by Army Girls | ♫
• Lover’s Spit by Broken Social Scene | ♫
• City of Light by The Wooden Sky | ♫

Skim by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki

Skim is Kimberly Keiko Cameron, a not-slim, would-be Wiccan goth stuck in a private girls’ school in Toronto. When a classmate’s boyfriend kills himself because he was rumoured to be gay, the school goes into mourning overdrive, each clique trying to find something to hold on to and something to believe in. It’s a weird time to fall in love, but that’s high school, and that’s what happens to Skim when she starts to meet in secret with her neo-hippie English teacher, Ms. Archer.

• My Number by Tegan & Sara | ♫
• Black Ice by Ohbijou | ♫
• Bad Medicine by Die Mannequin | ♫
• Love Cats by The Cure | ♫
• The Art Teacher by Rufus Wainwright | ♫

Is there a song that reminds you of your favourite book? Tell us about it and while you’re at it, find us on Twitter @houseofanansi, @sutherlandsuz & @evakmo.