# Mary Walsh: Open Book

Mary Walsh: Open Book was a weekly book club series on CBC Television, which aired from 2002 to 2005. Similar to Oprah's Book Club, the series was hosted by actress and comedian Mary Walsh, who moderated a discussion about books and literature with a panel of celebrities and other guests. Each episode of the series was structured around discussion of a single book, including both Canadian and international literature, and both fiction and non-fiction titles. The series aired at 11 p.m. on Sunday nights, attracting relatively strong ratings for a late time slot.
Participants included actors Megan Follows, Greg Malone, Paul Gross and Mark McKinney, political scientist Janice Stein, lawyer and politician Jerome Kennedy, writers Susan Musgrave and Evelyn Lau, singer Jann Arden, journalist Pamela Wallin and columnist Jan Wong.
Michael Donovan was the creator of Open Book.

## Episodes
### Season 1

| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Guests | Original release date |
| 1 | 1 | "Edna O'Brien, The Country Girls" | Noreen Golfman, Megan Follows, Ian Brown | July 21, 2002 (2002-07-21) |
| 2 | 2 | "Beryl Bainbridge, According to Queeney" | Sandra Shamas, Pamela Wallin, Fiona Reid | July 28, 2002 (2002-07-28) |
| 3 | 3 | "Mordecai Richler, Barney's Version" | Mark McKinney, Ed Macdonald, Greg Sinclair | August 11, 2002 (2002-08-11) |
| 4 | 4 | "Ian McEwan, Atonement" | Jann Arden, Jackie Maxwell, Barry Newhook | August 18, 2002 (2002-08-18) |
| 5 | 5 | "Alice Munro, Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage" | Jan Wong, John Frizzell, Jackie Maxwell | August 25, 2002 (2002-08-25) |
| 6 | 6 | "Bruce Chatwin, The Songlines" | Mark McKinney, Diana Swain, John Frizzell | September 1, 2002 (2002-09-01) |
| 7 | 7 | "V.S. Naipaul, Half a Life" | Evelyn Lau, Michael Crummey, David Gilmour | September 8, 2002 (2002-09-08) |
| 8 | 8 | "Pat Barker, Regeneration" | David Gilmour, David Macfarlane, Janice Stein | September 22, 2002 (2002-09-22) |
| 9 | 9 | "Joan Didion, Political Fictions" | Jan Wong, Diana Swain, John Frizzell | September 29, 2002 (2002-09-29) |
| 10 | 10 | "J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" | Albert Schultz, Susan Musgrave, Kenneth Oppel | October 6, 2002 (2002-10-06) |
| 11 | 11 | "David Foster Wallace, A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" | Mark Farrell, Greg Sinclair, Noreen Golfman | October 13, 2002 (2002-10-13) |
| 12 | 12 | "Mary Karr, The Liar's Club" | Jann Arden, Jan Wong, Susan Musgrave | October 20, 2002 (2002-10-20) |
| 13 | 13 | TBA | TBA | TBA |

### Season 2

| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Guests | Original release date |
| 14 | 1 | "Sandra Gulland, The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B." | John Frizzell, Sheila McCarthy, Scott Thompson | October 12, 2003 (2003-10-12) |
| 15 | 2 | "JT LeRoy, Sarah" | David Gilmour, Noreen Golfman, Bryden MacDonald | October 19, 2003 (2003-10-19) |
| 16 | 3 | "Robert D. Kaplan, Balkan Ghosts: A Journey Through History" | Margaret MacMillan, Heather Mallick, Carolyn McCool | October 26, 2003 (2003-10-26) |
| 17 | 4 | "Margaret Drabble, The Peppered Moth" | Eleanor Wachtel, Fiona Reid, Susan Goyette | November 2, 2003 (2003-11-02) |
| 18 | 5 | "Margaret Visser, Much Depends on Dinner" | Heather Mallick, Neville MacKay, Patricia Rozema | November 9, 2003 (2003-11-09) |
| 19 | 6 | "Antonia White, Frost in May" | Shirley Douglas, Bette MacDonald, Wendy Crewson | November 16, 2003 (2003-11-16) |
| 20 | 7 | "Greg Critser, Fat Land" | David Foot, Diana Swain, Fiona Reid | November 23, 2003 (2003-11-23) |
| 21 | 8 | "Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita" | Greg Malone, Ed Macdonald, Lynn Coady | November 30, 2003 (2003-11-30) |
| 22 | 9 | "Alice Sebold, The Lovely Bones" | Sylvia Hamilton, Sheila McCarthy, John Frizzell | December 7, 2003 (2003-12-07) |
| 23 | 10 | "Ian Rankin, Tooth and Nail" | Paul Gross, Jerome Kennedy, Alison Gzowski | December 14, 2003 (2003-12-14) |
| 24 | 11 | "Louise Erdrich, Love Medicine" | Ed Macdonald, Jennifer Podemski, Evelyn Lau | December 21, 2003 (2003-12-21) |
| 25 | 12 | "Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass" | David Gilmour, Noreen Golfman, Spider Robinson | December 28, 2003 (2003-12-28) |
| 26 | 13 | "Elizabeth Smart, By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept" | Katherine Govier, David Macfarlane, Jackie Burroughs | January 4, 2004 (2004-01-04) |
| 27 | 14 | "Margaret MacMillan, Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World" | Lloyd Axworthy, Warren Kinsella, Lesley Choyce | January 4, 2004 (2004-01-04) |
| 28 | 15 | "Robert Penn Warren, All the King's Men" | Svend Robinson, Kim Campbell, Stevie Cameron | January 11, 2004 (2004-01-11) |
| 29 | 16 | "Margaret Laurence, The Diviners" | Lisa Moore, Susan Goyette, Jackie Burroughs | January 18, 2004 (2004-01-18) |
| 30 | 17 | "William Trevor, The Collected Stories" | Geoff Pevere, Evelyn Lau, Michael Winter | January 25, 2004 (2004-01-25) |
| 31 | 18 | "Mary Gordon, The Shadow Man" | Kathleen Edwards, Brian D. Johnson, Sylvia Hamilton | February 1, 2004 (2004-02-01) |
| 32 | 19 | "Ruth Rendell, A Dark-Adapted Eye" | Alexa McDonough, Jerome Kennedy, Evelyn Lau | February 8, 2004 (2004-02-08) |
| 33 | 20 | "Iris Murdoch, The Sea, the Sea" | Stevie Cameron, Paul Greenhalgh, Vincent Walsh | February 22, 2004 (2004-02-22) |
| 34 | 21 | "Fay Weldon, Down Among the Women" | Cameron Bailey, Michael Winter, Shirley Douglas | February 29, 2004 (2004-02-29) |
| 35 | 22 | "Doris Lessing, Martha Quest" | Erica Ehm, Hana Gartner, Lesley Choyce | March 14, 2004 (2004-03-14) |
| 36 | 23 | "Percy Janes, House of Hate" | Geoff Pevere, Peter MacNeill, Susan Goyette | March 21, 2004 (2004-03-21) |
| 37 | 24 | "Graham Greene, The Comedians" | Michael Crummey, Mark Critch, Elizabeth May | March 28, 2004 (2004-03-28) |
| 38 | 25 | "Claire Tomalin, Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self" | Elliott Leyton, Margaret MacMillan, Fiona Reid | April 4, 2004 (2004-04-04) |
| 39 | 26 | "Virginia Woolf, Orlando" | Michael Crummey, Marni Jackson, Ian Brown | April 18, 2004 (2004-04-18) |

### Season 3

| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Guests | Original release date |
| 40 | 1 | "Janice Kulyk Keefer, Thieves" | Katherine Govier, Fiona Reid, Greg Malone | October 3, 2004 (2004-10-03) |
| 41 | 2 | "James Joyce, Dubliners" | Geoff Pevere, Andy Jones, Robert MacNeil | October 10, 2004 (2004-10-10) |
| 42 | 3 | "Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea" | David Gilmour, Ralph Benmergui, Valerie Buhagiar | October 17, 2004 (2004-10-17) |
| 43 | 4 | "Joel Thomas Hynes, Down to the Dirt" | Cameron Bailey, Ed Macdonald, David Gilmour | October 24, 2004 (2004-10-24) |
| 44 | 5 | "Martin Clark, The Many Aspects of Mobile Home Living" | Heather Mallick, Michael Winter, Leo Furey | October 31, 2004 (2004-10-31) |
| 45 | 6 | "Nuala O'Faolain, Are You Somebody?" | Diana Swain, Michael Winter, Fiona Reid | November 7, 2004 (2004-11-07) |
| 46 | 7 | "J. M. Coetzee, Disgrace" | Ed Macdonald, Austin Clarke, Ian Brown | November 14, 2004 (2004-11-14) |
| 47 | 8 | "Jane Smiley, The Greenlanders" | Michael Crummey, Jackie Burroughs, Jennifer Baichwal | November 21, 2004 (2004-11-21) |
| 48 | 9 | "Sebastian Faulks, Birdsong" | Jackie Burroughs, Susan Goyette, Noreen Golfman | November 28, 2004 (2004-11-28) |
| 49 | 10 | "John Cheever, The Stories of John Cheever" | Brian D. Johnson, Geoff Pevere, John Frizzell | December 5, 2004 (2004-12-05) |
| 50 | 11 | "Richard Ford, Independence Day" | Mark McKinney, Michael Winter, Kerri Sakamoto | December 12, 2004 (2004-12-12) |
| 51 | 12 | "Jonathan Bate, John Clare: A Biography" | Mark McKinney, Susan Goyette, Stephen Kimber | December 19, 2004 (2004-12-19) |
| 52 | 13 | "Rian Malan, My Traitor's Heart" | John Frizzell, Marni Jackson, Hana Gartner | January 2, 2005 (2005-01-02) |
| 53 | 14 | "Christopher Byron, Testosterone Inc: Tales of CEOs Gone Wild" | Robert MacNeil, Heather Mallick, Ralph Benmergui | January 9, 2005 (2005-01-09) |
| 54 | 15 | "Hugh MacLennan, Two Solitudes" | Linden MacIntyre, Cameron Bailey, Émile Gaudreault | January 16, 2005 (2005-01-16) |
| 55 | 16 | "Elizabeth Bowen, The Last September" | Susan Goyette, Heather Mallick, Seamus O'Regan | January 23, 2005 (2005-01-23) |
| 56 | 17 | "William Boyd, Any Human Heart" | Marivel Taruc, Bill Casselman, Seamus O'Regan | January 30, 2004 (2004-01-30) |
| 57 | 18 | "Jonathan Lethem, Motherless Brooklyn" | Mark McKinney, Johanna Schneller, Julie Stewart | February 6, 2005 (2005-02-06) |
| 58 | 19 | "Gil Courtemanche, A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali" | Linden MacIntyre, Rick Salutin, Don Connolly | February 13, 2005 (2005-02-13) |
| 59 | 20 | "Tobias Smollett, The Expedition of Humphry Clinker" | Ralph Benmergui, David Gilmour, Katherine Govier | February 27, 2005 (2005-02-27) |
| 60 | 21 | "Roland Huntford, The Last Place on Earth" | Ralph Benmergui, Douglas Bell, Lisa Taylor | March 6, 2005 (2005-03-06) |
| 61 | 22 | "Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment" | Greg Malone, Ed Macdonald, Julie Stewart | March 13, 2005 (2005-03-13) |
| 62 | 23 | "Olivia Manning, The Balkan Trilogy" | David Gilmour, Julie Stewart, Linden MacIntyre | March 20, 2005 (2005-03-20) |
| 63 | 24 | "Gabriel García Márquez, Living to Tell the Tale" | Tal Bachman, M. G. Vassanji, Jane Urquhart | March 27, 2005 (2005-03-27) |
| 64 | 25 | "Anthony Powell, A Dance to the Music of Time" | Linden MacIntyre, Michael Crummey, Julie Stewart | April 3, 2005 (2005-04-03) |

## Impact

The show was spoofed on Royal Canadian Air Farce as Open Book with Marg the Princess Warrior, with Roger Abbott impersonating Walsh in her Marg Delahunty persona from This Hour Has 22 Minutes, discussing books with her guests (including Luba Goy's Margaret Atwood). The running gag was Marg's tendency to rant incessantly about each book and then stray off-topic into her political views and declaring her opinion supreme, eventually driving away her guests.