• Rebecca and Tara have filled in the boxes with books they’ve read or that are on their TBR (the Bingo card and list of titles will be pinned to Rebecca and Tara’s Instagram accounts)
• The Challenge will begin June 5 and run through September 5, 2026
• When you complete a bingo line, dm Rebecca (@canadareadsinspired) or Tara (@onabranchreads) on Instagram or email them at  craspod2019@gmail.com with a screenshot or list of titles
• You may enter more than one Bingo line; one completed line equals one entry
• If you have already read a book on the card, you can count it towards your bingo
• At the end of the Challenge, they will draw the name of one winner and that person will receive a $50 gift card from the independent bookstore of their choice.
• The giveaway is not affiliated with YouTube or Instagram

2026 BINGO TITLES: 

• Small Ceremonies by Kyle Edwards – Indigenous fiction, 368 pages
• Breathing is How Some People Stay Alive by Alison Gadsby — short stories, 200 pages
• The Distance of a Shout by Michael Ondaatje – poetry, 240 pages
• Nowhere by Jon Claytor – graphic novel, 445 pages
• Doubles by Nora Gold – novella, 86 pages
• Lies I Told My Sister by Louise Ells – literary fiction, 268 pages
• Opposite Sully’s Gym by Alexis Stefanovich-Thomson – mystery, 320 pages
• Detective Aunty by Uzma Jalaluddin – cozy mystery, 329 pages
• Lilac People by Milo Todd – LGBT historical fiction, 303 pages
• The Hunger We Pass Down by Jen Sookfong Lee — horror, 367 pages
• Finding Flora by Elinor Florence – historical fiction, 384 pages
• All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whittaker — crime fiction, 576 pages
• I'm So Glad We Had This Time Together by Maurice Vellekoop – graphic novel, 496 pages
• Vanished Beyond the Map by Adam Shoalts – non-fiction, 288 pages
• Legendary Frybread Drive-In by Indigenous authors – YA short stories, 352 pages
• Nosy Parker by Lesley Crewe – historical fiction, 264 pages
• Outsider by Brett Popplewell – non-fiction, 384 pages
• Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson — memoir, humour, 363 pages
• Palm Meridian by Grace Flahive – LGBT romance
• Black Woods, Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey — literary fiction,320 pages
• Pennies by Lora Senf – middle grade horror, 384 pages
• Chasing Summer by Frankie Scott – romance, 368 pages
• Suddenly Light by Nina Dunic – short stories, 240 pages
• Same As It Ever Was by Claire Lombardo — literary fiction, 498 pages

If you have any comments or suggestions that you would like to share with Rebecca and Tara or you are interested in joining their monthly virtual book talk, please email them at craspod2019@gmail.com

Don't forget to join the Canada Reads Inspired Summer Reading Bingo Challenge beginning June 5, 2026.  Check out their YouTube live (6/5/26 at 10 am EDT) for more details:

https://www.youtube.com/@canadareadsinspired

Rebecca (@canadareadsinspired):

• Black Out Loud: The Revolutionary History of Black Comedy from Vaudeville to '90s Sitcoms by Geoff Bennett
• Poets and Pahlevans: A Journey into the Heart of Iran
• Seldom Seen Road by John Degen

https://www.kingorama.com/

https://www.glfc.org/sea-lamprey.php

Tara (@onabranchreads):

• An Evening with Birdy O'Day
• Somebody is Walking on Your Grave: My Cemetery Journeys by Mariana Enriquez; translated by Megan McDowell

https://nikidesaintphalle.org/nikis-sculptures-le-cimetiere-de-montparnasse/

https://ilgiardinodeitarocchi.it/en/about/materials-crew/

https://www.rottnestisland.com/learn/history/aboriginal-history

If you have any comments or suggestions that you would like to share with Rebecca and Tara or you are interested in joining their monthly virtual book talk, please email them at craspod2019@gmail.com

Rebecca:

• Black Out Loud: The Revolutionary History of Black Comedy from Vaudeville to ‘90s Sitcoms by Geoff Bennett
• Pennies by Lora Senf
• Run Away with Me by Brian Selznick
• Doubles by Nora Gold
• Class Lessons by Lucy Black
• Seldom Seen Road by John Degen
• Welcome to Sunny Town by Théodora Armstrong

Tara:

• Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker
• Chrysalis by Anuja Varghese
• Cannon by Lee Lai
• Day of Epiphany by Jerome J Bourgault
• The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts by Kim Fu
• A Little Feral by Maria Geisbrecht
• Wild Life by Amanda Leduc
• How to Be Okay When Nothing is Okay by Jenny Lawson

Check out Rebecca and Tara on Instagram:

@canadareadsinspired

@onabranchreads

If you have any comments or suggestions that you would like to share with Rebecca and Tara or you are interested in joining their monthly virtual book talk, please email them at craspod2019@gmail.com

https://guernicaeditions.com/en-us/products/doubles

"Doubles takes place in 1968 in an institution for troubled youth, and is told from the perspective of a brilliant, spunky, 12-year-old girl who is obsessed with math. Engagingly written and often funny, this novella explores how a sensitive young teenager changes over a six-month period from a polite, quiet “good girl” into a delinquent. Although set in the past, Doubles has direct relevance to today, with our recently heightened awareness of the harsh reality in some of our residential institutions during that era (including for Indigenous children, but not only)."

Recommended:

https://bookshop.org/lists/stunning-novellas

Embers by Sándor Márai; Carol Brown Janeway (translator)

https://www.noragold.com/

https://www.noragold.com/portfolio/jewish-fiction-com/

https://www.instagram.com/noragold1818/

https://guernicaeditions.com/en-us/products/breathing-is-how-some-people-stay-alive

"Breathing Is How Some People Stay Alive blurs the lines between horror, catastrophic speculative fiction, and psychological realism in a collection that might best be described as weird fiction. These connected stories offer dark reconstructions of lives brimming with desperate loneliness. They allow us to bear witness to the life-altering love of sisters, brothers, mothers… the life-altering love that buoys them as they struggle to stay afloat in the wake of childhoods they merely survived."

https://alisongadsby.ca/home/

https://junctionreads.ca

Books and Authors mentioned:

• Weird Babies by Jaclyn Desforges
• Tell Me Pleasant Things about Immortality by Lindsay Wong
• Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century by Kim Fu
• Rafael Has Pretty Eyes by Elaine McCluskey
• Widow Fantasies by Hollay Ghadery
• Every Night I Dream I'm a Monk, Every Night I Dream I'm a Monster by Damian Tarnopolsky
• Last Woman; Bad Endings by Carleigh Baker
• A Song for Wildcats by Caitlin Galway
• A Fast Horse Never Brings Good News by Cary Fagan
• Coexistence by Billy-Ray Belcourt
• Layaway Child by Chanel Sutherland
• Remaindered People & Other Stories by Pratap Reddy
• Skin by Catherine Bush
• Chrysalis; Kiss of Crimson Ash by Anuja Varghese
• Smash & Grab by Mark Anthony Jarman
• Death by a Thousand Cuts by Shashi Bhat
• Flights by Olga Tokarczuk
• The Longest Way to Eat a Melon by Jacquelyn Zong-Li Ross
• Pizza Before We Die: An Eyewitness Account in Gaza by Hassani Kanafani
• Cleo Dang Would Rather Be Dead by Mai Nguyen
• Wonderland Road by Carrianne Leung
• Stan on Guard by K.R. Wilson
• The Lost Queen by Heidi von Palleske

"Poet pals" going on tour with Alison:

• Sublunary by Lisa Richter
• Ajar by Margo LaPierre
• Inside Every Dream, a Raging Sea by Liz Worth

Join them live on Thursday, 4/16/26 @ 11:30am EDT on their YouTube Channel:

https://www.youtube.com/@canadareadsamericanstyle/streams

Their good friend Jolene, from Bookworm Adventure Girl, will be joining them to discuss the final day of this year's competition in which the ONE BOOK that all of Canada should read will be announced!

https://www.youtube.com/@BookwormAdventureGirl

Then join Rebecca and Tara live on YouTube on Friday, April 17 @ 9:45am EDT with their special guest, Canada Reads Host, Ali Hassan!

https://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads/meet-the-canada-reads-2026-contenders-9.7040200 :

• Filmmaker and actor Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers champions A Minor Chorus by Billy-Ray Belcourt
• Hockey YouTube personality and podcaster Steve (Dangle) Glynn champions Searching for Terry Punchout by Tyler Hellard
• Musician and writer Tegan Quin champions The Cure for Drowning by Loghan Paylor
• Broadway actor and kids TV host Josh Dela Cruz champions Foe by Iain Reid
• BookTok star Morgann Book champions It's Different This Time by Joss Richard

https://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads/meet-the-canada-reads-2026-contenders-9.7040200 :

• Filmmaker and actor Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers champions A Minor Chorus by Billy-Ray Belcourt
• Hockey YouTube personality and podcaster Steve (Dangle) Glynn champions Searching for Terry Punchout by Tyler Hellard
• Musician and writer Tegan Quin champions The Cure for Drowning by Loghan Paylor
• Broadway actor and kids TV host Josh Dela Cruz champions Foe by Iain Reid
• BookTok star Morgann Book champions It's Different This Time by Joss Richard

https://offtopicpublishing.com/product/redshirts-sometimes-survive-by-finnian-burnett/?srsltid=AfmBOoqqrDjkjomUw5LV1p4n7BFWy7-l2RrTh5Ty2L2VoSYamvlByFX8

"A neglected boy clings to an action figure like a lifeline. A trans man meets his childhood hero. An introvert finally finds her voice at a protest. Queer fans, lonely children, awkward convention-goers, and disillusioned adults seek out their favourite starships and captains for solace and strength. In these interconnected flash stories, the outcasts, the rebels, the bullied, and the weird find themselves, one other, and a place to call home. By turns moving, thoughtful, and wry, Redshirts Sometimes Survives offers connection and comfort. Being a redshirt doesn’t mean you’re doomed. Sometimes, it means you survive."

Books discussed:

• The House in the Cerulean Sea; Somewhere Beyond the Sea by T.J. Klune
• The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun
• Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
• Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid
• The Book of Delights by Ross Gay
• Hell Followed with Us by Andrew Joseph White
• Ravens Don’t Get High Blood Pressure and Other Tales of Queer Love; The Life and Dead Trees (two works in progress); The Clothes Make the Man; The Price of Cookies by Finnian Burnett

https://www.instagram.com/finnianburnett/

https://finnburnett.com/

https://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads/meet-the-canada-reads-2026-contenders-9.7040200

https://www.cbc.ca/books/thenextchapter

If you have any comments or suggestions that you would like to share with Rebecca and Tara or you are interested in joining their monthly virtual book talk for adults or the new one for youth books starting in May 2026, please email them at craspod2019@gmail.com

https://www.cormorantbooks.com/Books/T/The-Breakwater

"One morning in Toronto, Cathy Matsumoto’s father, Yasuo, calls to announce he intends to visit a dying cousin in British Columbia.

Cathy’s never heard of this mysterious relative before, but she begrudgingly agrees to plan a family trip with her father and daughter, Tessa, to Victoria, the hometown Yas was forcibly evicted from when Japanese Canadians were interned during World War Two. It's only in BC that Cathy learns this “cousin” is actually Yas’s younger brother, Stum, who’s been languishing in psychiatric care, abandoned, ever since Yas committed him to Essondale Asylum before the war.

Yas tries to fend off probing questions from his daughter and granddaughter, but revisiting old haunts brings back memories of the brothers’ boyhood rivalry and coming-of-age near Victoria’s Chinatown, when Yas’s resolve to hold their fractured family together clashed against Stum’s troublesome turn toward a life of gambling, crime, and consorting with prostitutes.

In this heartbreaking family story, two brothers, both old men not far from death, must at last confront long-buried family secrets — and their lingering effects on subsequent generations."

Recommended Books:

• Flashlight by Susan Choi
• Worldly Girls: A Memoir by Tamara Jong
• It Must Be Beautiful to Be Finished: A Memoir of My Body by Kate Gies

https://leslieshimotakahara.com/

https://www.instagram.com/leslieshimotakahara

Rebecca (@canadareadsamericanstyle):

• Director's Choice: Flint Institute of Arts by Tracee J. Glab
• Poets and Pahlevans: A Journey into the Heart of Iran; Walls: Travels Along the Barricades by Marcello Di Cintio
• Lost: Amelia Earhart's Three Mysterious Deaths and One Extraordinary Life by Rachel Hartigan

Tara (@onabranchreads):

• No Friend to This House by Natalie Haynes
• Bang Crunch by Neil Smith
• The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession by Michael Finkel
• Villain Hitting for Vicious Little Nobodies by Lindsay Wong
• The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
  • "A Fine Old Firm"
• Why I Love Horror: Essays on Horror Literature by Becky Siegel Spratford
• A Truce That is Not Peace by Miriam Toews
• Redshirts Sometimes Survive by Finnian Burnett
• The Tinder Sonnets by Jennifer LoveGrove
• Shoebox by Sean Paul Bedell
• Good Guys by Sharon Bala
• Stag Dance; Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters

If you have any comments or suggestions that you would like to share with Rebecca and Tara or you are interested in joining their monthly virtual book talk, please email them at craspod2019@gmail.com

Instagram:

@canadareadsamericanstyle

@onabranchreads

They kick off the inaugural episode discussing Run Towards the Danger: Confrontations with a Body of Memory by Sarah Polley and Walls: Travels Along the Barricades by Marcello Di Cintio.

Instagram: 

Rebecca @canadareadsamericanstyle

Tara @onabranchreads

If you have any comments or suggestions that you would like to share with Rebecca and Tara or you are interested in joining their monthly virtual book talk, please email them at craspod2019@gmail.com

Dundurn Press: https://www.dundurn.com/books_/t22117/a9781459755888-opposite-sully-s-gym

"A missing tenant, an irate mother-in-law, and a killer hiding in a Toronto rooming house — out-of-work PI Patrick Bird is back in business. Patrick Bird thought he was helping his mother-in-law collect back rent from a deadbeat tenant at her Ossington Avenue rooming house, not starting a new investigation. But when he discovers Jack Turner’s third-floor darkroom is demolished and the photographer is missing, the other tenants come under scrutiny: Mr. Yusuf, the international student training to be a doctor; Danny Blinken, the shifty taxi driver; and Shirley Burton, the young nurse far from home. As Bird investigates, he uncovers information about a former tenant, James Earl Ray, who had assassinated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. just weeks earlier and had been hiding out in a room on the second floor. The case takes Bird and the police down a path of intrigue reaching right into the center of one of the most infamous assassinations of the twentieth century, leading our truculent PI to just about the toughest spot he could imagine."

Authors and books recommended:

• "The Man Who Went Down Under" (Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine July/August 2022) by Alexis Stefanovich-Thomson
• The Lady in the Lake (Philip Marlowe #4) by Raymond Chandler
• Double Indemnity by James M. Cain
• The Chill (Lew Archer #11) by Ross Macdonald
• City Primeval; Unknown Man #89 (Jack Ryan #2); LaBrava by Elmore Leonard
• The Cold Six Thousand (Underworld USA #2) by James Ellroy
• Harry Bosch series by Michael Connelly
• Thursday Murder Club series by Richard Osman
• Hard Rain Falling by Don Carpenter

https://www.alexisstefanovichthomson.com/

https://www.instagram.com/alexis.stefanovich.thomson

https://houseofanansi.com/products/definitely-thriving?srsltid=AfmBOopZcn9yxB5pt-vRIlt94svRdfoXKN-f9wWfX41Q0InAKyLHhN4S

"After accidentally-on-purpose exploding her listless marriage by being discovered in bed with the next-door neighbours, Clemence Lathbury returns to her hometown resolved to build a life for herself that is good and substantial, to become the kind of sensible woman who won’t be distracted by frippery and romance. It’s supposed to be Eat, Pray, Love, without the love part. But no woman is an island, and soon Clemence finds herself embroiled in neighbourhood drama; beginning a crusade at the local bookshop; becoming adopted by a well-groomed, one-eyed cat; and being forced to admit her attraction to two very different men—each a romantic lead in his own right. But how to choose? And never mind the complications of her quirky family …

A novel about friendship, community, and church jumble sales, Definitely Thriving is a celebration of people who are perfectly imperfect, and all the love and support that’s required for one woman to make it on her own."

Authors, Book, and Bookstores recommended:

• Barbara Pym
• Laurie Colwin
• Standard Deviation; Early Morning Riser; Single, Carefree, Mellow; Games and Rituals by Katherine Heiny
• Penelope Lively
• Penelope Fitzgerald
• Women Among Monuments: Solitude, Permission, and the Pursuit of Female Genius by Kasia Van Schaik
• Olivia Laing
• https://whitewhalebookstore.com/
• https://citybookspgh.com/
• Why We Read: On Bookworms, Libraries, and Just One More Page Before Lights Out -- A Hilarious Guide for Book Lovers and Lifelong Readers by Shannon Reed

Bookspo Podcast wherever you get your podcasts:

https://kerryreads.substack.com/p/season-4-episode-8-shani-mootoo

https://www.instagram.com/kerryreads/

https://picklemethis.com/aboutme/

https://kerryreads.substack.com/

https://palimpsestpress.ca/books/the-unravelling-of-ou-hollay-ghadery/ : 

"Moving on is hard. Even harder when it’s from a make-believe friend—someone, or in this instance, some thing—who’s been your strongest source of support. On what should be one of the happiest days ever, the day her granddaughter is born, Minoo is faced with a terrible choice: make a clean break from her constant companion, a sock puppet named Ecology Paul, or lose her daughter and granddaughter, and maybe all of the people she loves. On an emotional drive home from the hospital, Ecology Paul shares the story of how Minoo got to this point, recalling Minoo’s early teenage pregnancy in Iran, her exile to Canada, her questions about her sexuality, and how a ragtag sock puppet came to her when she desperately needed to be seen. Full of imagination, whimsy and heart, The Unravelling of Ou follows Minoo’s struggles to justify the puppet’s existence and untangle herself from her dependence on it, and reconnect with the people she loves."

Books and authors discussed/recommended:

• Fuse: Memoir; Rebellion Box; Widow Fantasies; The Blades of Grass are Dreaming (chapbook); The Unravelling of Ou by Hollay Ghadery
• The Dowager Empress: Poems by Adele Wiseman by Elizabeth Greene (editor)
• Deviant by Patrick Grace
• Unravel: Poems by Tolu Oloruntaba
• Lockers Are for Bearcats Only by Mallory Tater
• The Last Unicorn; Tamsin by Peter S. Beagle
• author Aisha Sasha John
• Good Bones by Maggie Smith
• author Charlie Petch
• Syncopation: A Novel in Verse by Whitney French
• Stan on Guard; Call Me Stan: A Tragedy in Three Millenia by K.R. Wilson
• Elegy for Opportunity by Natalie Lim
• author Ali Hazelwood
• Restaurant Kid: A Memoir of Family and Belonging by Rachel Phan
• Breathing is How Some People Stay Alive by Alison Gadsby
• Weird Babies by Jaclyn Desforges
• The Dialogues: The Song of Francis Pegahmagabow by Armand Garnet Ruffo

https://www.instagram.com/hollayghadery/

https://www.instagram.com/river_street_writes/

https://www.riverstreetwriting.com/

https://www.dundurn.com/books_/t22117/a9781459752627-women-among-monuments :

A lyrical meditation on the enduring obstacles women artists and writers face in a world still unaccustomed to recognizing female genius. What does it take for a woman to don the mantle of genius — a title long reserved for male artists? From her studies in Montreal to a dead-end job in Berlin, a midnight tour of Paris, a bankrupt art residency on the Toronto Islands, and a mysterious sculpture garden in the Karoo desert, South African—Canadian author and professor Kasia Van Schaik considers what it means for a young woman to call herself an artist and claim a creative life. Drawing on a diverse web of literary and cultural sources and artistic icons — from Georgia O’Keeffe to Ana Mendieta, Gertrude Stein to Jamaica Kincaid, Leslie Marmon Silko to Bernadette Mayer — Women Among Monuments asks, What, beyond a room of one’s own, are the necessary conditions for female genius? Where does the inner flint of artistic permission come from? What is the oxygen that keeps it burning? In her memoir interwoven with incisive biographies of female solitude, constraint, and perseverance, Van Schaik blazes a trail for more inclusive artmaking practices, communities, and monuments.

Books and Authors mentioned:

• The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Along by Olivia Lainy
• Ginny Ross series (Amelia Earhart) by Heather Stemp 
• Voyage in the Dark; Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
• We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

https://www.unb.ca/faculty-staff/directory/arts-fr-english/van-schaik-kasia.html

https://gillerprize.ca/scotiabank-giller-prize-spotlight-kasia-van-schaik/

https://www.instagram.com/kasia_writes

https://electricliterature.com/why-i-left-men-for-books/

Rebecca (@canadareadsamericanstyle): 

• Anne of Windy Willows by L.M. Montgomery (British edition)
• Walls: Travels Along the Barricades by Marcello Di Cintio
• Patrick Bird Mysteries: Opposite Sully's Gym #2 (03-31-26); The Road to Heaven #1 by Alexis Stefanovich-Thomson
• Searching for Terry Punchout by Tyler Hellard
• The Breakwater (04-26-26) by Leslie Shimotakahara
• The Black Panther Party: A Graphic Novel History; Big Jim and the White Boy: An American Classic Reimagined by David F. Walker; illustrated by Marcus Kwame Anderson

Tara (@onabranchreads):

• Breathing is How Some People Stay Alive by Alison Gadsby
• The Winter Witch by Jennifer Chevalier
• Conversations with Birds by Priyanka Kumar
• Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito
• Tell Me Pleasant Things about Immortality: Stories; The Woo-Woo: How I Survived Ice Hockey, Drug Raids, Demons, and My Crazy Chinese Family by Lindsay Wong
• The Chorus Beneath Our Feet by Melanie Schnell
• Women Among Monuments: Solitude, Permission, and the Pursuit of Female Genius by Kasia Van Schaik
• Is This a Cry for Help? by Emily R. Austin
• Definitely Thriving (03/17/26) by Kerry Clare

If you have any comments or suggestions that you would like to share with Rebecca and Tara or you are interested in joining their monthly virtual book talk, please email them at craspod2019@gmail.com

(https://invisiblepublishing.com/product/searching-for-terry-punchout/?srsltid=AfmBOorr4I4nKSYii0VC97AkHUZzFN7b4XOqjmVDik46RSnQWhXeiC6B) :

A 2026 CBC Canada Reads Selection Shortlisted for the 2019 Amazon Canada First Novel Award Shortlisted for the 2019 Kobo Emerging Writer Prize

Garden State meets King Leary in this slapshot debut novel.

Adam Macallister’s sportswriting career is about to end before it begins, but he’s got one last shot—a Sports Illustrated profile about hockey’s most notorious goon, the reclusive Terry Punchout—who also happens to be Adam’s estranged father. Adam returns to Pennington, Nova Scotia, where Terry now lives in the local rink and drives the Zamboni. Going home means drinking with old friends, revisiting neglected relationships, and dealing with lingering feelings about his father and dead mother—and discovering that his friends and family are kinder and more complicated than he ever gave them credit for. Searching for Terry Punchout is a charming and funny tale of hockey, small-town Maritime life, and how, despite our best efforts, nothing can save us from becoming our parents.

https://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads/meet-the-canada-reads-2026-contenders-9.7040200

https://tylerhellard.com/

A Globe 100 Best Book of 2025 • One of The Hill Times’ Top 100 Best Books in 2025 • Winner of the 2024 Dave Greber Freelance Writers Book Award

https://www.biblioasis.com/shop/new-releases/precarious-the-lives-of-migrant-workers/

In 2023, after weeks of investigation, United Nations Special Rapporteur Tomoyo Obokata came to a scathing conclusion: Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker program is “a breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery.” Workers complained of excessive hours and unpaid overtime; of being forced to perform dangerous tasks or ones not specified in their contracts; of being physically abused, intimidated, and sexually harassed; and of overcrowded, unsanitary living conditions that deprived them of their privacy and dignity.

In Precarious: The Lives of Migrant Workers, Marcello Di Cintio ranges across the country speaking to those who have come from elsewhere to till our fields, bathe our elderly, and serve us our Double Doubles, uncovering stories of tremendous perseverance, resilience, and humanity, but also of precarity and vulnerability. He shows that vast swathes of our economy depend on the work of people we don’t see, while expanding our awareness of what migrant work now entails, and revealing that our mistreatment of the most vulnerable among us diminishes our own dignity.

Please check out Rebecca's previous interviews with Marcello:

January 11, 2021 - Pay No Heed to the Rockets: Life in Contemporary Palestine

June 28, 2021 - Driven: The Secret Lives of Taxi Drivers

https://www.instagram.com/marcello.di.cintio/

https://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads/meet-the-canada-reads-2026-contenders-9.7040200

The defenders, titles, and authors:

• Filmmaker and actor Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers champions A Minor Chorus by Billy-Ray Belcourt
• Hockey YouTube personality and podcaster Steve “Dangle” Glynn champions Searching for Terry Punchout by Tyler Hellard
• Musician and writer Tegan Quin champions The Cure for Drowning by Loghan Paylor
• Broadway actor and kids TV host Josh Dela Cruz champions Foe by Iain Reid
• BookTok star Morgann Book champions It's Different This Time by Joss Richard

If you have any comments or suggestions that you would like to share with Rebecca and Tara or you are interested in joining their monthly virtual book talk, please email them at craspod2019@gmail.com

Rebecca (@canadareadsamericanstyle):

• Patrick Bird Mysteries: Opposite Sully's Gym #2; The Road to Heaven #1 by Alexis Stefanovich-Thomson
• The Breakwater; Sisters of the Spruce by Leslie Shimotakahara
• To Touch the Water; The Solace of Open Spaces; A Match to the Heart: One Woman's Story of Being Struck by Lightning by Gretel Ehrlich
• Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
• Women Among Monuments: Solitude, Permission, and the Pursuit of Female Genius by Kasia Van Schaik
• Precarious: The Lives of Migrant Workers; Driven: The Secret Lives of Taxi Drivers; Pay No Heed to the Rockets: Palestine in the Present Tense by Marcello Di Cintio

Tara (@onabranchreads): 

• Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts by Margaret Atwood
• Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #20: The Black Wolf by Louise Penny
• The Haunting of Modesto O'Brien; The Wintermen trilogy by Brit Griffin
• The Staircase in the Woods by Chuck Wendig
• How about This by Michael Mirolla

If you have any comments or suggestions that you would like to share with Rebecca and Tara or you are interested in joining their monthly virtual book talk, please email them at craspod2019@gmail.com

Garnett is the author of four short story collections: Cravings; Lost Women, Banished Souls; How We Move the Air; and Swarm to Glory. Her chapbook, Passion Tour, was published by Finishing Line Press. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker online, Rumpus, The Gettysburg Review, Witness, The Literary Review, StoryQuarterly, The Antioch Review and elsewhere.

Check out Rebecca's interview with Garnett on Feb 13, 2024:

https://canadareadsamericanstyle.podbean.com/e/interview-garnett-kilberg-cohen-and-cravings/

Garnett's Hidden Gems:

• The Registry of Forgotten Objects: Stories by Miles Harvey
  • Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
  • A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
• Down the Steep by A.D. Nauman
• The Adventures of Cancer Bitch by S.L. Wisenberg
• French Girl by Jesse Lee Kercheval
  • Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
• You've Told Me Before by Jennifer Moses
• Simone in Pieces by Janet Burroway

https://garnettcohenauthor.com/

https://anotherchicagomagazine.net/2025/06/06/review-of-jesse-lee-kerchevals-french-girl-by-garnett-cohen/

https://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads/canada-reads-2026-longlist-9.7029177

• A Minor Chorus by Billy-Ray Belcourt
• Celestina's House by Clarissa Trinidad Gonzalez
• Crossroads by Kaleb Dahlgren 
• Everything Is Fine Here by Iryn Tushabe
• Foe by Iain Reid
• Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid
• It’s Different This Time by Joss Richard
• Julie Chan Is Dead by Liann Zhang
• Never Been Better by Leanne Toshiko Simpson
• Oxford Soju Club by Jinwoo Park
• Restaurant Kid by Rachel Phan
• Searching for Terry Punchout by Tyler Hellard
• Slice The Water by PP Wong 
• The Cure for Drowning by Loghan Paylor
• The Hunger We Pass Down by Jen Sookfong Lee

@canadareadsamericanstyle

@onabranchreads

If you have any comments or suggestions that you would like to share with Rebecca and Tara or you are interested in joining their monthly virtual book chat, please email them at craspod2019@gmail.com

• Favorite non-fiction book
• Favorite quote
• Happiest book
• A book that made you cry
• Most surprising read
• Most read genre
• Most read author
• Favorite reading experience
• What book do you wish you had buddy read
• Scariest/creepiest book
• Favorite fictional character
• Favorite setting or location
• First and last book of 2025

If you have any comments or suggestions that you would like to share with Rebecca and Tara or you are interested in joining their monthly virtual book chat, please email them at craspod2019@gmail.com

Rebecca (@canadareadsamericanstyle):

• Stories for Winter and Nights by the Fire by British Library Women Writers
• The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
• The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

Tara (@onabranchreads):

• Turning to Birds: The Power and Beauty of Noticing by Lili Taylor
• Call Me Ishmaelle by Xiaolu Guo
• 107 Days by Kamala Harris
• Grace & Henry's Holiday Movie Marathon by Matthew Norman
• Rabbit Foot Bill by Helen Humphreys
• the blades of grass are dreaming by Hollay Ghadery https://www.anstrutherpress.com/new-products/the-blades-of-grass-are-dreaming-by-hollay-ghadery

If you have any comments or suggestions that you would like to share with Rebecca and Tara or you are interested in joining their monthly virtual book chat, please email them at craspod2019@gmail.com

https://www.liisakovalabookcoach.com/

"In Nolin Creek, the water runs deep and the secrets run deeper. In the harsh landscape of a Depression-era Northern Ontario mining town, Finnish immigrant sisters Hanna and Essi Kivi scrape together a living as domestic workers, sharing a room in a disreputable boarding house owned by a protective madame.

​When Hanna's body is discovered in the icy waters of Nolin Creek, the police call it a tragic accident. But Essi knows better. Her sister would never have risked crossing unstable ice—not after they lost their youngest sister Martta to drowning years before.

​Haunted by guilt and driven by loyalty, Essi begins to unravel the secrets Hanna kept hidden. As Essi digs deeper into her sister's final days, she discovers that in a town built on desperation and dreams for a better future, everyone has something to hide.

​A gripping tale of love, family, sisterhood, and the search for truth."

Recommended Reading List:

• Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
• Everyone on This Train is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson
• Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie

https://www.youtube.com/@liisakovala

https://liisakovalawomenwriting.substack.com/

https://www.instagram.com/liisakovala/

Rebecca (@canadareadsamericanstyle):

• Prince Caspian (The Chronicles of Narnia #4) by C.S. Lewis
• The Godfather by Mario Puzo
• An English Murder by Cyril Hare
• A Holiday By Gaslight: A Victorian Christmas Novella by Mimi Matthews
• Once Upon a Wardrobe by Patti Callahan Henry

Tara (@onabranchreads):

• Starry Starry Night by Shani Mootoo
• The Christmas Jigsaw Murders by Alexandra Benedict
• Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher
• A Holly Jolly Diwali by Sonya Lalli
• The Kingdom of Sweets by Erika Johansen
• Grace & Henry's Holiday Movie Marathon by Matthew Norman
• The Family Game by Catherine Steadman
• Yours for the Season by Uzma Jalaluddin
• Small Things Like These by Claire Foster
• The Dead of Winter: Beware the Krampus and Other Wicked Christmas Creatures by Sarah Clegg

If you have any comments or suggestions that you would like to share with Rebecca and Tara or you are interested in joining their monthly virtual book chat, please email them at craspod2019@gmail.com

https://adamshoalts.com/literature/:

• Voted by over 200 Independent Bookstores as one of the “Must Read Books” of the Year (Canadian Independent Booksellers Association)
• Globe and Mail #1 National Bestseller/Toronto Star #1 National Bestseller
• CBC #1 National Bestseller

"In 1910, legendary explorer Hubert Darrell vanished in the uncharted wilderness of the Northwest Territories. A prospector who had been swept up in the Klondike Gold Rush, Darrell later made his name as a wanderer who ventured where few others dared. Famed for his solo journeys, contemporaries regarded Darrell as the hardiest explorer of his day. While his disappearance sparked headlines, soon Darrell’s name would also vanish from history, just as surely as he had in the wild.

Yet Darrell left behind a trail of letters, journals, and hand-drawn maps. With these faded clues, Adam Shoalts retraces Darrell’s forgotten routes through the wilderness, searching for cabin ruins and old campsites. Part detective story, part biography, and part first-person adventure narrative, Vanished Beyond the Map combines expeditions with historical research to solve one of exploration history’s enduring cold cases—the mystery of Hubert Darrell."

Public Events: https://adamshoalts.com/upcoming-book-events/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adam_shoalts/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@adamshoalts

Rebecca (@canadareadsamericanstyle):

• My Life: Growing Up Native in America edited by IllumiNative
• The Horse and His Boy (The Chronicles of Narnia #3) by C.S. Lewis
• The Road to Heaven (Patrick Bird Mystery #1) by Alexis Stefanovich-Thomson
• Mad Dog and the Sea Dragon by Lisa de Nikolits
• Foster by Claire Keegan
• Vanished Beyond the Map: The Mystery of Lost Explorer Hubert Darrell

Tara (@onabranchreads):

• Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy by Mary Roach
• The Whistler by Nick Medina
• As the Earth Dreams: Black Canadian Speculative Stories edited by Terese Mason Pierre
• Days of Feasting and Rejoicing by David Bergen
• Wolk, Moon, Dog: A Novel by Thomas Wharton
• The Pugilist and the Sailor by Nadia Ragbar
• The Upending of Wendall Forbes; The Undertaking of Billy Buffone by David Giuliano
• Machine Without Horses by Helen Humphreys

If you have any comments or suggestions that you would like to share with Rebecca and Tara or you are interested in joining their monthly virtual book chat, please email them at craspod2019@gmail.com

https://merilynsimonds.com/

"In the spring of 2021, Merilyn Simonds asked her friend Beth Robinson if she’d like to go for a walk. Simonds had just turned 70, still active, still writing, but entering what struck her as a mysterious, even frightening stage of life. Beth, a smart, vibrant woman who’d held a job until she was 99, lived on her own and was as awake to the world as a person half her age. Who better to ask what might come next?

During three years of weekly walks, the conversation between the two women only deepened, as they opened up about their heart-felt passions, the lingering influence of their pasts, and their hopes and fears for the future.

In Walking with Beth, Simonds shares these intimate exchanges, delving into corners of older women’s lives that are rarely seen or spoken about so openly. As Simonds looks forward into a future that seems unknowable, Beth looks back, offering her experience in surviving the later-life blows that batter us all, and more importantly, her wisdom about how to enrich every passing day."

Recommended Books:

• The Age of Creativity: Art, Memory, My Father, and Me by Emily Urquhart
• Code Noir: Fictions by Canisia Lubrin
• We, the Kindling by Otoniya J. Okot Bitek

https://freehand-books.com/product/the-taste-of-hunger/#tab-description

"In Saskatchewan in the late 1920s, a fifteen-year-old Ukrainian immigrant named Olena is forced into marriage with Taras, a man twice her age, who wants her even though she has refused him. Stuck in a hardscrabble life with a husband she despises, starved for a life of her own choosing, at every turn Olena rebels agains her husband and her fate. As Olena and Taras drag everyone around them into the maelstrom that is their marriage, they set off a chain of turbulent events whose aftershocks reverberate through generations."

Book Recommendations:

• All of Baba's Children by Myrna Kostash
• Endling; Good Citizens Need Not Fear: Stories by Maria Reva
• Late Breaking; All Saints: Stories; Holy Writ by K.D. Miller
• Gilead; Home; Lila; Jack; What are We Doing Here? by Marilynne Robinson

https://www.barbarajoanscott.com/

https://nonpublishing.com/a-quilting-of-scars

"Filled with the pleasure of recognizable yet distinctively original characters and a deftly drawn sense of time and place, A Quilting of Scars brings to life a story of forbidden love, abuse and murder. Pulsing with repressed sexuality and guilt, Larkin Beattie reveals the many secrets he has kept hidden throughout his lonely life. The character-driven narrative is a meditation on aging and remorse, offering a rich account of the strictures and rhythms of farming in the not-so-distant past, highlighting the confines of a community where strict moral codes are imposed upon its members and fear of exposure terrifies queer youth. As Larkin reflects upon key events, his recollections include his anger at the hypocrisy of the church, and the deep grief and loneliness that have marked his path. There is a timelessness to this story which transcends the period and resonates with heart-breaking relevance."

https://lucyemblack.com/books/a-quilting-of-scars-book/

A Quilting of Scars Discussion Questions

As many of you know, Rebecca highly recommends four of Lucy’s books: The Brickworks, Eleanor Courtown, Stella’s Carpet, and A Quilting of Scars.

Lucy's Reading Recommendations:

• In the Bear's House by Bruce Hunter
• Kate and the Composers by Joanne Culley

Reading recommendations:

• Aliens on the Moon by Thomas King
• My Friends by Fredrik Backman
• In Winter I Get Up at Night by Jane Urquhart

https://davidgiulianoca.wordpress.com/

https://latitude46publishing.com/

https://www.instagram.com/davidwgiuliano/

Jen was born and raised in Vancouver's East Side and now lives with her son in North Burnaby. Her memoir, Superfan: How Pop Culture Broke My Heart, was a finalist for the 2024 Forest of Reading Evergreen Award and the City of Vancouver Book Award, was named a best book of 2023 by the Globe and Mail and Apple Books Canada, and was a Today Show recommended read. Jen is also the author of The Conjoined, long listed for the International Dublin Literary Award and a finalist for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize; The Better Mother, a finalist for the City of Vancouver Books Award; The Shadow List; and Finding Home. In addition to writing, Jen also acquires and edits books for ECW Press. 

Recommended titles:

• Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves by Sophie Gilbert
• Variations on a Dream by Angelique LaLonde

http://sookfong.com/

https://www.instagram.com/jensookfonglee/

Rebecca (@canadareadsamericanstyle):

• The Laundryman's Boy by Edward Y.C. Lee
• A Song for Wildcats by Caitlin Galway
• Brushed Aside: The Untold Story of Women in Art by Noah Charney
• The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson
• The Taste of Hunger by Barbara Joan Scott

Tara (@onabranchreads):

• Walking with Beth: Conversations with My Hundred-Year-Old Friend; Woman Watching: Louise de Kiriline Lawrence and the Songbirds of Pimisi Bay by Merilyn Simonds
• Behind You by Catherine Hernandez
• Green by Zachari Logan, published by Radiant Press https://radiantpress.ca/
• May It Have a Happy Ending: A Memoir of Finding My Voice as My Mother Lost Hers by Minelle Mahtani
• A Mouth Full of Salt by Reem Gaafar
• Speech Dries Here on the Tongue: Poetry on Environmental Collapse and Mental Health -- Rasiqra Revulva (editor), Amanda Shankland (editor)
• The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
• https://www.differentdrummerbooks.ca/
• Post shared by Hollay Ghadery on Instagram (@river_street_writes): https://www.instagram.com/p/DNUPOihN91t/

If you have any comments or suggestions that you would like to share with Rebecca and Tara or you are interested in joining their monthly virtual book chat, please email them at craspod2019@gmail.com

Jinwoo obtained his bachelor’s degree from McGill in 2013, followed by a master’s in political economics from the London School of Economics in 2014, and a master’s in creative writing at the University of Oxford in 2015. 

In 2021 he won the Jim Wong-Chu Emerging Writers’ Award for his first manuscript, Oxford Soju Club, which will be published by Dundurn Press in September 2025. He has also been actively working as a literary translator after winning the Emerging Translator Award from the Literature Translation Institute of Korea in late 2023.

Jinwoo is also an avid book reviewer and is active on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.

Authors and books recommended:

• Chung Serang (정세랑) 
• Oh Seong-eun (오성은) 
• The Hypebeast by Adnan Khan
• The Eyes are the Best Part by Monika Kim

https://www.tiktok.com/@jinwoopark0721

https://www.instagram.com/jinwoopark0721/

https://www.youtube.com/@jinwoopark0721

https://www.dundurn.com/books_/t22117/a9781459755109-oxford-soju-club

Rebecca is excited to introduce author Marion Agnew whose debut novel, Making Up the Gods, from Latitude 46 Publishing, was released in October, 2023.  Kirkus Reviews calls it “A complex, heart-warming tale of love, absolution, and fortitude.”

Marion began writing creative nonfiction in the late 1990s, after her mother’s diagnosis with Alzheimer’s. Her essays were collected in Reverberations: A Daughter's Meditations on Alzheimer's, published in 2019 by Signature Editions. It was shortlisted for the Louise de Kiriline Lawrence Award.

A dual citizen of the US and Canada, Marion lives and writes in Shuniah, a community north of Thunder Bay, on Lake Superior, in Robinson-Superior Treaty Territory of the Anishinaabe and Métis peoples.

Rebecca interviewed Marion about Making Up the Gods on July 8, 2024.

Recommended books:

• Good to a Fault; Close to Hugh by Marina Endicott
• Lambsquarters: Scenes from a Handmade Life; Shepherd's Sight: A Farming Life by Barbara McLean
• McLean and Wils interview: https://www.tvo.org/video/barbara-mclean-with-her-husband-retired-doctor-thomas-wils 
• The Lightkeeper's Daughters by Jean E. Pendziwol
• We're All in This Together by Amy Jones

https://www.marionagnew.com/

https://latitude46publishing.com/

https://www.instagram.com/marionagnew/

https://www.entershinebookshop.ca/collections/all-books

https://caitlingalway.wixsite.com/caitlin-l-galway

https://www.dundurn.com/authors_/t156375/p149069-caitlin-galway

https://www.instagram.com/c.l.gals/

Caitlin's books:

• A Song for Wildcats:
  • A Song for Wildcats
  • Heatstroke
  • The Islanders
  • The Wisp
  • The Lyrebird's Bell
• Bonavere Howl

Other books discussed:

• Her Body Among Animals by Paola Ferrante
• We Do Not Part by Han Kang
• Oxford Soju Club by Jinwoo Park
• The Immortal Woman by Su Chang

Alma graduated from the Theatre and Drama Studies program at the University of Toronto Mississauga, a joint program with Sheridan College. She has been deeply involved with Tottering Biped Theatre (TBT) since 2016, serving as Associate Artistic Director and Associate Producer. Alma has performed in every "Shakespeare by Nature" production since its inception, portraying roles such as Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, among many other roles in numerous plays. Since 2020, she has also been the producing Director of TBT's Summer Shakespeare Project, an annual festival held at Dundurn Castle in Hamilton, co-led with Trevor Copp.

Books mentioned:

• Ruff by Rod Carley
• Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
• How to Make Love in a Canoe: Sex in Canada by Jeff Pearce
• Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent by Judi Dench, Brendan O'Hea
• The Great White Bard: How to Love Shakespeare While Talking About Race by Farah Karim-Cooper
• Whenever You're Ready: Nora Polley on Life as a Stratford Festival Stage Manager by Shawn Desouza-Coelho

Event details:

The Complete Works of Shakespeare (abridged)

August 12-30, 2025 @ 7:00 pm (Tues-Sat)

The Carnival of Animals (live music and mime)

August 17, 24, 31, 2025 @ 7:00 pm (Sun)

Dundurn Castle Park , 610 York Blvd, Hamilton, ON

https://www.totteringbiped.ca/

Rebecca (@canadareadsamericanstyle):

• Currently reading: A Lost Lady by Willa Cather
• 2025 Goals: Complete Anne of Green Gables and The Chronicles of Narnia series and read more Redwall; read children's books that have "mischievous, clever, independent girl characters"; track "mood reads"; plus, a secret goal!

Tara (@onabranchreads):

• Currently reading: The Queen's Spade by Sarah Raughley
• 2025 Goals: Carol Shields Prize for Fiction; Agatha Christie; Helen Humphreys; weed physical TBR; read more short stories

If you have any comments or suggestions that you would like to share with Rebecca and Tara, please email them at craspod2019@gmail.com

Books mentioned:

• Ley Lines by Tim Welsh
• Stella Maris; Blood Meridian; All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
• In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin
• The Sheltering Sky; Travels: Collected Writing 1950-1993; The Stories of Paul Bowles by Paul Bowles
• Abdullah Ansari of Herat: An Early Sufi Master by A.G. Farhadi

https://www.saadomarkhan.com/

https://www.instagram.com/s.omar.khan/

https://bookstore.wolsakandwynn.ca/collections/all/products/drinking-the-ocean

https://www.biblioasis.com/shop/fiction/short-fiction/best-canadian-stories-2025/

https://augursociety.org/

Rebecca (@canadareadsamericanstyle):

• https://www.thehenryford.org/
• A Song for Wildcats: Stories by Caitlin Galway
• Stella's Carpet by Lucy E.M. Black 
• Oxford Soju Club by Jinwoo Park
• A Psalm for the Wild-Built; A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers
• Drinking the Ocean by Saad Omar Khan
• The Fairy-Tale Detectives (The Sisters Grimm #1) by Michael Buckley
• Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton

Tara (@onabranchreads):

• https://therooms.ca/
• The Hunger We Pass Down by Jen SookfongLee
• The Yellow Wall-Paper and Other Stories by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
• Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane
• Pale Shadows; Paper Houses by Dominique Fortier; translated by Rhonda Mullins
• Sleepers and Ties by Gail Kirkpatrick
• Written on the Dark; The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay
• Tracking Giants: Big Trees, Tiny Triumphs, and Misadventures in the Forest by Amanda Lewis
• Hemo Sapiens by Emily A. Weedon

If you have any comments or suggestions that you would like to share with Rebecca and Tara, please email them at craspod2019@gmail.com

Highlighted books:

• Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien
• Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
• Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar
• Who's Irish? by Gish Jen
• Play by Jess Taylor
• A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
• Deep Water by Patricia Highsmith
• Kilworthy Tanner by Jean Marc Ah-Sen
• A Song for Wildcats by Caitlin Galway
• The Book of Records by Madeleine Thien

https://www.instagram.com/suchangwrites/

https://www.suchangauthor.com/

https://houseofanansi.com/products/the-immortal-woman?_pos=3&_sid=2cb7b9933&_ss=r

If you have any comments or suggestions that you would like to share with Rebecca and Tara, please email them at craspod2019@gmail.com

Rebecca (@canadareadsamericanstyle):

• A Psalm for the Wild-Built; A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers
• The Living Great Lakes by Jerry Dennis
• A Feast of Wolves by Wilson Coneybeare
• Stella's Carpet by Lucy E.M. Black

Tara (@onabranchreads):

• The Midnight Project by Christy Climenhage
• Tear by Erica McKeen

If you have comments or suggestions that you would like to share with Rebecca and Tara, please email them at craspod2019@gmail.com

Happy Reading!

Books and authors mentioned:

• Little Fish; A Dream of a Woman by Casey Plett
• Johnny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead
• Kai Cheng Thom
• Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann
• Zulaikha by Niloufar-Lily Soltani
• Spirals in Time: The Secret Life and Curious Afterlife of Seashells by Helen Scales
• House of Chains (Malazan Book of the Fallen #4/10) by Steven Erikson

https://www.instagram.com/harman.burns/

https://radiantpress.ca/shop/p/yellowbarksspider

Rebecca (@canadareadsamericanstyle): 

• One of Ours by Willa Cather
• Oxford Soju Club by Jinwoo Park
• King Leary by Paul Quarrington
• Pay Dirt by Sara Paretsky
• Looking for Smoke by K.A. Cobell
• Blue Horses by Mary Oliver
  • If I Wanted a Boat"
  • "Watering the Stones"
  • "Franz Marc's Blue Horses"
• "Garnett Kilberg Cohen and Cravings" podcast, February 13, 2024

Tara (@onabranchreads):

• https://riverbookshop.com/ in Amherstburg, Ontario
• The Immortal Woman by Su Chang
• The ANNEthology: A Collection of Kindred Spirits Inspired by the Canadian Icon, compiled by Judith Graves and edited by Robin Sutherland
• Black Woods, Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey
• Notes Towards Recovery by Louise Ells
• “Dr. Louise Ells and Lies I Told My Sister” podcast, February 1, 2025
• Our Green Heart: The Soul and Science of Forests by Diana Beresford-Kroeger
• The Weeping Degree: How Astrology Saved Me from Suicide by Kelly Watt
• No Credit River by Zoe Whittal
• Songs for the Brokenhearted by Ayelet Tsabari
• The Ghost Orchard by Helen Humphreys

Saskatchewan Hidden Gems:

--Beatrice and Virgil; The High Mountains of Portugal by Yann Martel

--Life on the Refrigerator Door; Polly Diamond series by Alice Kuipers

--Going to Beautiful; Russell Quant Mysteries by Anthony Bidulka

--Snake in the Raspberry Patch by Joanne Jackson

--A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews

--Author Gail Bowen

https://www.joannejackson.ca/

https://www.instagram.com/joannejacksonauthor/

• How did you become a reader?
• What book do you wish you could read again for the first time?
• Which author, living or dead, would you like to meet in person and why?
• What fictional character would you like to meet and why?
• What are you currently reading?

Responses:

• The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice
• Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series by Louise Penny
• The Iliad by Homer
• Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
• The Last Ranger by Peter Heller
• Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom by Ilyon Woo
• My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass
• Cabin: Off the Grid Adventures with a Clueless Craftsman by Patrick Hutchison

https://standupali.com/

https://standupali.com/my-book

https://www.instagram.com/standupali

Recommended books:

• American War; What Strange Paradise; One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad
• A History of Burning by Janika Oza

THIS YEAR’S WINNER:

• A Two-Spirit Journey by Ma-Nee Chacaby and Mary Louisa Plummer; championed by Indigenous advocate Shayla Stonechild

THE RUNNERS-UP:

• Dandelion by Jamie Chai Yun Liew; championed by "Pastry Nerd" Saïd M’Dahoma
• Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper; championed by actor Michelle Morgan
• Jennie's Boy by Wayne Johnston; championed by author Linwood Barclay
• Watch Out for Her by Samantha M. Bailey; championed by Olympic Gold Medal swimmer Maggie Mac Neil

https://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads

STILL IN:

• Dandelion by Jamie Chai Yun Liew; championed by "Pastry Nerd" Saïd M’Dahoma
• Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper; championed by actor Michelle Morgan
• A Two-Spirit Journey by Ma-Nee Chacaby and Mary Louisa Plummer; championed by Indigenous advocate Shayla Stonechild

NOW OUT:

• Watch Out for Her by Samantha M. Bailey; championed by Olympic Gold Medal swimmer Maggie Mac Neil
• Jennie's Boy by Wayne Johnston; championed by author Linwood Barclay

https://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads

Please note that on DAY FOUR Rebecca and Tara will be live on YouTube wrapping up the debates with Jolene (@bookwormadventure girl) on Thursday, March 20 @ 7:30 pm EDT:

https://www.youtube.com/@canadareadsamericanstyle

Also, make sure to check out Jolene's YouTube Channel:

https://www.youtube.com/@BookwormAdventureGirl

STILL IN:

• Dandelion by Jamie Chai Yun Liew; championed by "Pastry Nerd" Saïd M’Dahoma
• Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper; championed by actor Michelle Morgan
• Jennie's Boy by Wayne Johnston; championed by author Linwood Barclay
• A Two-Spirit Journey by Ma-Nee Chacaby and Mary Louisa Plummer; championed by Indigenous advocate Shayla Stonechild

NOW OUT:

• Watch Out for Her by Samantha M. Bailey; championed by Olympic Gold Medal swimmer Maggie Mac Neil

https://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads

• Dandelion by Jamie Chai Yun Liew; championed by "Pastry Nerd" Saïd M’Dahoma
• Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper; championed by actor Michelle Morgan
• Jennie's Boy by Wayne Johnston; championed by author Linwood Barclay
• A Two-Spirit Journey by Ma-Nee Chacaby and Mary Louisa Plummer; championed by Indigenous advocate Shayla Stonechild
• Watch Out for Her by Samantha M. Bailey; championed by Olympic Gold Medal swimmer Maggie Mac Neil

https://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads

Rebecca (@canadareadsamericanstyle):

• Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
• Victory. Stand!: Raising My Fist for Justice by Tommie Smith and Derrick Barnes; illustrated by Dawud Anyabwile
• Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts by Rebecca Hall; illustrated by Hugo Martinez
• Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life by Lulu Miller

Tara (@onabranchreads):

• The Bones of Ruin Trilogy: The Bones of Ruin; The Song of Wrath; The Lady of Rapture by Sarah Raughley.  (Check out Tara's interview with Sarah on October 2, 2024)
• The Queen's Spade by Sarah Raughley
• How to Survive a Bear Attack: A Memoir by Claire Cameron
• Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert by Bob the Drag Queen
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9B59wqgYNEM
• Beautiful Ugly; Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney
• Canadian author of thrillers--Nicole Lundrigan

2025 Canada Reads titles:

• Dandelion by Jamie Chai Yun Liew
• Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper
• Jennie's Boy by Wayne Johnston
• A Two-Spirit Journey by Ma-Nee Chacaby and Mary Louisa Plummer
• Watch Out for Her by Samantha M. Bailey

Also mentioned:

• Baltimore's Mansion: A Memoir by Wayne Johnston

Rebecca (@canadareadsamericanstyle):

• Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts by Rebecca Hall; illustrated by Hugo Martinez
• Stories Left in Stone: Trails and Traces in Cáceres, Spain by Troy Nahumko
• The Undertaking of Billy Buffone by David Giuliano (interviewed 6/25/22)
• A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers
• Dearborn by Ghassan Zeineddine
• Salt Houses by Hala Alyan
• Pay No Heed to the Rockets: Palestine in the Present Tense by Marcello Di Cintio (interviewed 1/11/21)
• Tenth of December by George Saunders
• Nora Watts series by Sheena Kamal (interviewed 12/6/22)
• The Street by Ann Petry
• Black Water Sister by Zen Cho

Tara (@onabranchreads):

• Daughter of Daring: The Trick-Riding, Train-Leaping, Road-Racing Life of Helen Gibson, Hollywood’s First Stuntwoman; Girly Drinks: A World History of Women and Alcohol; The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick by Mallory O’Meara
• Yellow Barks Spider by Harman Burns
• Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
• Fungal: Foraging in the Urban Forest by Ariel Gordon
• Ordinary Notes by Christina Sharpe
• Cravings by Garnett Kilberg Cohen (interviewed 2/13/24)
• Unwind series by Neal Shusterman

https://www.riverstreetwriting.com/

https://www.instagram.com/river_street_writes/

Sheena is an author, essayist, and screenwriter.  She wrote the critically acclaimed Nora Watts thriller series (The Lost Ones, It All Falls Down, and No Going Back).  As well as a YA novel titled, Fight Like a Girl.  You may have heard Rebecca and Tara rave about her novels many times on the podcast, so they encourage you to listen to Sheena's past interview on December 6, 2022.

Crime Fiction Hidden Gems:

• Wakeland series by Sam Wiebe:
  • Invisible Dead
  • Cut You Down
  • Hollywood North
  • Hell and Gone
  • Sunset and Jericho
  • The Last Exile 
• Julie Chan is Dead by Liann Zhang
• Rachel Getty & Esa Khattak series by Ausma Zehanat Khan
  • The Unquiet Dead
  • The Language of Secrets
  • Among the Ruins
  • A Dangerous Crossing
  • A Deadly Divide
• "Hammerhead" Jed series by A.J. Devlin
  • Cobra Clutch
  • Rolling Thunder
  • Five Moves of Doom
  • Bronco Buster
• Johnny Delivers by Wayne Ng
• Aunties series by Jesse Q. Sutanto
  • Dial A for Aunties
  • Four Aunties and a Wedding
  • The Good, the Bad, and the Aunties
• My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

https://www.sheenakamal.com/

https://www.instagram.com/sheenakamalwrites/

Joanne's recommendations:

• The Blue Hour by Paula Hawkins
• The Husband's Secrets by Liane Moriarty.

https://www.joannejackson.ca/

https://www.instagram.com/joannejacksonauthor/

https://www.stonehousepublishing.ca/store/sunset-lake-resort

Rebecca (@canadareadsamericanstyle): 

• How We Move the Air by Garnett Kilberg Cohen
• Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper
• American War; What Strange Paradise; One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad
• Dandelion by Jamie Chai Yun Liew
• The Immortal Woman by Su Change
• Watch Out for Her by Samantha M. Bailey
• Lost Women, Banished Souls by Garnett Kilberg Cohen

Tara (@onabranchreads):

• Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology 
• Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper
• The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard
• Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country by Louise Erdrich
• God Isn't Here Today by Francine Cunningham
• Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

Rebecca (@canadareadsamericanstyle):

• Anne of Windy Poplars by L.M. Montgomery
• Bob by Wendy Mass and Rebecca Stead
• Cam & Beau by Maria Cichosz
• The Magic of Ordinary Days by Ann Howard Creel
• https://www.hallmarkfamily.com/the-magic-of-ordinary-days
• Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf
• Griffin & Sabine Trilogy: Griffin & Sabine; Sabine's Notebook; The Golden Mean by Nick Bantock

Tara (@onabranchreads):

• The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard
• At a Loss for Words: Conversation in an Age of Rage by Carol Off
• The Outlander; Ridgerunner by Gil Adamson
• Hana Khan Carries On by Uzma Jalaluddin
• The River by Peter Heller
• The Brickworks by Lucy E.M. Black
• Leaving Earth by Helen Humphreys
• The Widow's Guide to Dead Bastards by Jessica Waite

https://www.louiseells.ca/

https://www.instagram.com/louiseellsauthor/?hl=en

https://store.latitude46publishing.com/products/lies-i-told-my-sister

Recommendations:

• Waiting for a Star to Fall by Kerry Clare
• A Mind Spread Out on the Ground by Alicia Elliott
• Treed: Walking in Canada's Urban Forests; Fungal: Foraging in the Urban Forest by Ariel Gordon
• Cottagers and Indians by Drew Hayden Taylor
• Death of Persephone: A Murder by Yvonne Blomer
• Poet Joy Williams
• Vandals by Alice Munro: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1993/10/04/vandals

https://adellepurdham.ca/

https://www.instagram.com/adellepurdham/?hl=en

https://www.dundurn.com/

Recommended titles:

• Shut Away: When Down Syndrome Was a Life Sentence by Catherine McKercher
• An Astonishment of Stars: Stories by Kirti Bhadresa
• The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff
• Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

https://www.cbc.ca/books/meet-the-canada-reads-2025-contenders-1.7431920

The Contenders:

• Olympic gold medalist Maggie Mac Neil champions Watch Out for Her by Samantha M. Bailey
• Podcaster and wellness advocate Shayla Stonechild champions A Two-Spirit Journey by Ma-Nee Chacaby, with Mary Louisa Plummer
• Heartland actor Michelle Morgan champions Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper
• Thriller writer Linwood Barclay champions Jennie's Boy by Wayne Johnston
• Pastry chef Saïd M'Dahoma champions Dandelion by Jamie Chai Yun Liew

Rebecca (@canadareadsamericanstyle):

• Anne of the Island (Anne of Green Gables) by L.M. Montgomery
• Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
• A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk & Robot, #1); A Prayer for the Crown-Shy (Monk & Robot, #2) by Becky Chambers
• Lies I Told My Sister by Louise Ells https://www.louiseells.ca/
• Arctic Predator: The Crimes of Edward Horne Against Children in Canada's North by Kathleen Lippa

Tara (@onabranchreads):

• Sunset Lake Resort by Joanne Jackson
• Grandfather of the Treaties: Finding Our Future Through Wampum Covenant by Daniel Coleman
• A Different Hurricane by H. Nigel Thomas
• The Reinvention of Love by Helen Humphreys

https://erinsteele.com/

https://www.instagram.com/erinsteelewrites/

https://caitlinpress.com/Contributors/S/Steele-Erin

Tara suggests at the end that their predictions are submitted as a podcast rather than as two individuals.  It seems they are looking to raise the odds on how many they get right! lol

(The asterisk below highlights the titles they predict will be announced on January 23, 2025 for the short list.)

• The Whispers by Ashley Audrain* • Watch Out for Her by Samantha M. Bailey* • A Two-Spirit Journey by Ma-Nee Chacaby, with Mary Louisa Plummer • What I Know About You by Éric Chacour, translated by Pablo Strauss* • The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue • When the Pine Needles Fall by Katsi’tsakwas Ellen Gabriel, with Sean Carleton* • Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper* • The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard** • Jennie’s Boy by Wayne Johnston • Becoming a Matriarch by Helen Knott • Dandelion by Jamie Chai Yun Liew • However Far Away by Rajinderpal S. Pal* • Clyde Fans by Seth • Girl Runner by Carrie Snyder* • All Our Ordinary Stories by Teresa Wong*

For extensive detail and ongoing coverage, see https://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads/the-canada-reads-2025-longlist-is-here-1.7421861

Rebecca (@canadareadsamericanstyle):

• 2024: Brothers Grimm; Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America by Matika Wilbur; Inclusive Picture Book Challenge; 12 classic women authors
• 2025: Complete Anne of Green Gables and The Chronicles of Narnia series and read more Redwall; read children's books that have "mischievous, clever, independent girl characters"; track "mood reads"

Tara (@onabranchreads):

• 2024: Giller Long List; Agatha Christie; Helen Humphreys
• 2025: Carol Shields Prize for Fiction; Agatha Christie; Helen Humphreys; weed physical TBR; read more short stories

Mentioned:

https://carolshieldsprizeforfiction.com/

https://www.instagram.com/carolshieldsprize/

https://www.riverstreetwriting.com/

https://www.instagram.com/river_street_writes/

Rebecca (@canadareadsamericanstyle):

• Ginny Ross Series by Heather Stemp: Amelia & Me; Under Amelia’s Wing; Beyond Amelia
• The Street by Ann Petry
• My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin
• Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
• Sisters of the Spruce by Leslie Shimotakahara
• Bird Suit by Sydney Hegele
• Making Up the Gods by Marion Agnew
• Eleanor Courtown by Lucy E.M. Black
• James by Percival Everett
•  Outsider: An Old Man, a Mountain, and the Search for a Hidden Past

Tara (@onabranchreads):

• Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast by John Vaillant
• Better Living Through Birding by Christian Cooper; The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan; Field Notes from an Unintentional Birder by Julia Zarankin
• I'm So Glad we Had This Time Together by Maurice Vellekoop
• My Body is Distant by Paige Maylott
• The Knowing by Tanya Talaga
• Coexistence by Billy-Ray Belcourt
• James by Percival Everett
• Followed by the Lark by Helen Humphreys
• All the Colours of the Dark by Chris Whittaker
• Same As It Ever Was by Claire Lombardo

Rebecca and Tara want to thank all of you for listening to and supporting the podcast this past year or longer.  They look forward to creating more fun and interesting content in 2025!

Rebecca (@canadareadsamericanstyle):

• Lady Sings the Blues by Billie Holliday
• The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty
• My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin
• Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain
• Skid Dogs by Emelia Symington-Fedy
• The Silent Boy by Lois Lowry
• The Pearl by John Steinbeck
• Passing by Nella Larsen
• Recollections of My Nonexistence: A Memoir by Rebecca Solnit

Tara (@onabranchreads):

• Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher
• The Frozen Thames by Helen Humphreys
• My Body is Distant: A Memoir by Paige Maylott
• The Memoirs of Miss Chief Eagle Testickle: Vol. 1 and 2: A True and Exact Accounting of the History of Turtle Island by Kent Monkman, Gisele Gordon
• I Don't Do Disability and Other Lies I've Told Myself by Adelle Purdham
• All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby

Rebecca (@canadareadsamericanstyle):

• Precious Cargo: My Year of Driving the Kids on School Bus 3077 by Craig Davidson
• Recollections of My Nonexistence: A Memoir by Rebecca Solnit
• Passing by Nella Larsen
• The Street by Ann Petry

Tara (@onabranchreads):

• The Queen by Nick Cutter
• The Saturday Night Ghost Club; Rust and Bone: Stories by Craig Davidson
• The Christmas Jigsaw Murders by Alexandra Benedict
• The Christmas Countdown by Holly Cassidy 
• Author Hannah Mary McKinnon
• The Christmas Party by Karen Swan
• Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher
• A Holly Jolly Diwali by Sonya Lalli
• The Kingdom of Sweets by Erika Johansen

Rebecca (@canadareadsamericanstyle): 

• Recollections of My Nonexistence by Rebecca Solnit
• The Pearl by John Steinbeck
• Pay No Heed to the Rockets: Palestine in the Present Tense; Driven: the Secret Lives of Taxi Drivers; Precarious: The Lives of Migrant Workers by Marcello Di Cintio
• The Lost Ones; In the Grip of It; It All Falls Down; No Going Back; Fight Like a Girl by Sheena Kamal
• The Red Chesterfield; Fall from Grace; A Killing Winter; Blood Red Summer; The Traitors of Camp 133 by Wayne Arthurson

Tara (@onabranchreads):

• I Don't Do Disability and Other Lies I Told Myself by Adelle Purdham
• The Christmas Jigsaw Murders by Alexandra Benedict
• The Doctor's Sweetheart and Other Stories by L.M. Montgomery
• Fayne; Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald
• The Fionavar Tapestry series; The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay
• The Spoon Stealer; Nosy Parker by Lesley Crewe
• Fallsy Downsies by Stephanie Domet
• Hollay Ghadery
• Helen Humphreys

Rebecca (@canadareadsamericanstyle):

• Loudmouth Books: https://loudmouthindy.com/ / https://www.instagram.com/loudmouthindy/
• President Benjamin Harrison House: https://bhpsite.org/
• Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum and Library: https://presidentlincoln.illinois.gov/
• Dana-Thomas House (Frank Lloyd Wright): https://dana-thomas.org/
• Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum: https://marktwainmuseum.org/
• Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum: https://www.ameliaearhartmuseum.org/
• Amelia Earhart Hangar Museum: https://ameliaearharthangarmuseum.org/
• Amelia & Me; Under Amelia’s Wing; Beyond Amelia by Heather Stemp
• Cahokia Mounds World Heritage & State Historic Site: https://cahokiamounds.org/
• Kurt Vonnegut Museum & Library: https://www.vonnegutlibrary.org/
• The Optimist’s Daughter by Eudora Welty
• Red Team Blues by Cory Doctorow

Tara (@onabranchreads):

• Invisible Prisons by Lisa Moore and Jack Whalen
• We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer
• I'm So Glad We Had This Time by Maurice Vellekoop
• Same As It Ever Was by Claire Lombardo
• Sugaring Off by Fanny Britt with Susan Ouriou
• The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich
• The Real Lolita by Sarah Weinman

Don't forget to check out Rebecca and Tara's latest "Reading from Our Shelves" on YouTube: https://studio.youtube.com/video/uAq2aptzpLc/edit

Brett is an author and journalist who joined Carleton University’s School of Journalism and Communication in 2017. His articles have been recognized by the National Magazine Awards Foundation in best short feature, profiles, investigative reporting, longform writing, sports and travel.

He has written for Bloomberg Businessweek, Mother Jones, The Canadian Press, The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Sportsnet, Maclean’s, The Walrus and more. He is the co-author of The Escapist: How One Man Cheated Death on the World’s Highest Mountains. Published in 2016).

https://brettpopplewell.ca/

https://www.harpercollins.ca/9781443457859/outsider/

https://thewalrus.ca/churchill-portrait/

https://sarahraughley.com/

https://www.instagram.com/s_raughley/

Rebecca (@canadareadsamericanstyle):

• Try Not to Be Strange: The Curious History of The Kingdom of Redonda by Michael Hingston
• The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
• Little Moons by Jen Storm
• Not Cancelled: Canadian Caremongering in the Face of Covid-19; Life After Loss: Reflections on Moments of Grace and Courage in Grief by Catherine Kenwell
• Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver
• Outsider: An Old Man, a Mountain and the Search for a Hidden Past by Brett Popplewell
• The Circle by Katherena Vermette
• Driving the Green Book: A Road Trip Through the Living History of Black Resistance by Alvin Hall

Tara (@onabranchreads):

• Field Notes from an Unintentional Birder by Julia Zarankin
• The Circle; Real Ones by Katherena Vermette
• Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich
• Wild Dogs by Helen Humphreys
• The Women by Kristin Hannah
• The Brickworks by Lucy E.M. Black
• Pay the Piper by George A. Romero, Daniel Kraus
• The River; Burn by Peter Heller

https://edenmillswritersfestival.ca/featured-writers/

Rebecca (@canadareadsamericanstyle):

• Driving the Green Book: A Road Trip Through the Living History of Black Resistance by Alvin Hall

Tara (@onabranchreads):

• Instagoner (A Bark and Blog Mystery Series) by Sydney Leigh
• God Isn't Here Today by Francine Cunningham
• Tear by Erica McKeen

Publishers:

• Radiant Press https://radiantpress.ca/
• Latitude 46 https://latitude46publishing.com/
• Wolsak & Winn https://www.wolsakandwynn.ca/

Literary Festivals:

• The Word on the Street Toronto https://toronto.thewordonthestreet.ca/
• Eden Mills Writers' Festival https://edenmillswritersfestival.ca/
• The & Festival https://theampersandreview.ca/the-festival-2024
• Wordstock Sudbury https://wordstocksudbury.ca/

Rebecca (@canadareadsamericanstyle):

• Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson
• Golden Boys: The Winnipeg Falcons of 1920 by Paul Keery; illustrated by Michael Wyatt https://shop.teachmag.com/collections/frontpage/products/golden-boys-the-winnipeg-falcons-of-1920
• Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America by Matika Wilbur
• The Book of Delights: Essays by Ross Gay
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
• The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers
• Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay

Tara (@onabranchreads):

• Where the Falcon Flies: A 3,400 Kilometre Odyssey From My Doorstep to the Arctic by Adam Shoalts
• Real Ones: A Novel by Katherena Vermette
• The Widow's Guide to Dead Bastards by Jessica Waite
• The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan
• Merlin Bird ID: https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/
• All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker
• The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren
• Road Ends by Mary Lawson
• The Puppet Master (Major Crimes #3) by Sam Holland
• The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

Rebecca (@canadareadsamericanstyle):

• True Gretch: What I've Learned About Life, Leadership, and Everything in Between by Governor Gretchen Whitmer
• Widow Fantasies by Hollay Ghadery
• Scarborough by Catherine Hernandez / Scarborough, Ontario
• Brother by David Chariandy / Scarborough, Ontario
• Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay / Hanging Rock, Victoria, Australia
• The Street by Ann Petry / Harlem, New York City
• My Ántonia by Willa Cather / Nebraska
• Denison Ave by Christina Wong / Chinatown, Kensington Market
• Bellevue Square by Michael Redhill / Toronto
• The Lost Ones (Nora Watts series) by Sheena Kamal / Vancouver
• The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty / Vacca Vale, Indiana
• Hotline by Dimitri Nasrallah / Montreal
• Chevy in the Hole by Kelsey Ronan / Flint, Michigan
• The Break by Katherina Vermette / Winnipeg's North End

Tara (@onabranchreads):

• Death & Other Inconveniences by Lesley Crewe
• Field Notes from an Unintentional Birder: A Memoir by Julia Zarankin
• Love That Story: Observations from a Gorgeously Queer Life by Jonathan Van Ness
• Road Ends by Mary Lawson
• Lost Girls by Andrew Pyper / Northern Ontario, Cottage Country
• The Dry by Jane Harper / Australia
• River Mumma by Zalika Reid-Benta / Toronto
• Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery / Prince Edward Island
• Galore by Michael Crummey / Newfoundland
• David Adams Richards / New Brunswick

The first two chapters of her debut novel, What the Living Do, (Regal House Publishing, 2024), won the Lazuli Group's Prose Contest, and were published in Azure Magazine.

Susan is a certified Amherst Writers and Artists (AWA) workshop facilitator.  She lives on a quiet river in South-Central Ontario with an odd assortment of humans and cats.

https://www.instagram.com/deepamwadds/

https://writeyourwayin.ca/about-me/

https://regalhousepublishing.com/susan-wadds/

Reading Recommendations:

• Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
• The Stones of Burren Bay by Emily de Angelis
• Unrest by Gwen Tuinman
• Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
• Story Genius: How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel by Lisa Cron

Michael is working towards a revolution that dismantles harmful systems and builds up new ones based on justice, equity and love. A community leader from Winnipeg's North End with family roots in Shamattawa First Nation, Michael is host, helper, published author, on-screen personality and sought-after public speaker. He happily shares his words, wisdom and welcoming energy across Canada and around the world.

He loves family friendly jokes, Tetris, Stevie Wonder music and celebrating the successes of others.

https://www.michaelredheadchampagne.com/

https://www.instagram.com/northendmc

We Need Everyone Free Teacher Guide:

https://www.portageandmainpress.com/Books/T/Teacher-Guide-for-We-Need-Everyone

Community Resources:

https://fearlessr2w.ca/

https://necrc.org/

https://www.facebook.com/MBHealthCoal/

Upcoming Graphic Novel--Little by Little You Can Change the World by Sonya Ballantyne: https://www.portageandmainpress.com/Books/L/Little-by-Little

Recommended Title--Tipiskawi Kisik: Night Sky Star Stories by Wilfred Buck:

https://mfnerc.org/product/tipiskawi-kisik-night-sky-star-stories/

1. How did you become a reader?
2. What book do you wish you could read again for the first time?
3. Which author, living or dead, would you like to meet in person and why?
4. What fictional character would you like to meet and why?
5. What are you currently reading?

Katie's responses include:

• CNIB (Canada): https://www.cnib.ca/en/library-services-people-who-are-blind?region=on
• LEO (Michigan): https://www.michigan.gov/leo/bureaus-agencies/bureau-of-services-for-blind-persons/btbl
• On Fragile Waves by E. Lily Yu
• Sara Hildreth: https://www.instagram.com/fictionmatters/ and https://www.instagram.com/novelpairingspod/
• Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea
• A Fake Girlfriend for Chinese New Year by Jackie Lau
• The Foghorn Echoes; Crooked Teeth: A Queer Syrian Refugee Memoir by Danny Ramadan
• The Philistine by Leila Marshy
• Shawn Breathes Books: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXFFuV_loS97oL-UTCazcXA
• The Book of Ramallah: A City in Short Fiction edited by Maya Abu al-Hayat

If you would like to be featured on a future episode of Reader Repartee, contact Rebecca through her Instagram account: @canadareadsamericanstyle

Other titles mentioned:

• Eris by Larry Gaudet
•  Serotonin; The Map and the Territory; Submission by Michel Houellebecq

https://emilyweedon.com/

https://www.cormorantbooks.com/emily-a-weedon

https://www.instagram.com/emily.weedon.creates/

Immediately after their discussion, Emily shared the following news with Rebecca:

"Dundurn Press Acquisitions Editor Russell Smith has acquired world rights to award-winning screenwriter and AUTOKRATOR author Emily A. Weedon’s HEMO SAPIENS, an erotic noir thriller, pitched as a sleek THE HUNGER meets a twisted HANNIBAL, that reimagines vampires through a lens of female sexuality and anthropology, wherein a homicide detective, while exposing a secret society of bloodthirsty women, will do anything to protect his wife and unborn child from a mysterious and powerful femme fatale for the ages. Publication is expected for Fall 2025."

https://www.marionagnew.com/ (includes citations to Marion's fiction and essays, short and collected)

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marionagnew/

Currently reading:

Fuse; Rebellion Box; Widow Fantasies by Hollay Ghadery

If Sylvie Had Nine Lives by Leona Theis

Rebecca (@canadareadsamericanstyle):

• Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America by Matika Wilbur
• 2024 Inclusive Picture Book Read Along Challenge @readingwithredandthemagpie
• My Ántonia by Willa Cather
• The Street by Ann Petry
• The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
• The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers
• Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay
• The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty
• My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin
• February by Lisa Moore

Tara (@onabranchreads): 

• The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan
• Merlin bird ID app

2023 Giller Books:

• Away from the Dead by David Bergen
• Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein
• Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton
• The Double Life of Benson Yu by Kevin Chong
• We Meant Well by Erum Shazia Hasan
• The Island: Stories by Dionne Irving
• Wait Softly Brother by Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer
• Girlfriend on Mars by Deborah Willis

Helen Humphreys:

• The Lost Garden
• The Frozen Thames
• Followed by the Lark
• Leaving Earth

Currently reading:

• I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
• All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker

Rebecca (@canadareadsamericanstyle):

• The People's Hospital: Hope and Peril in American Medicine by Ricardo Nuila
• The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers
• Autokrator by Emily A. Weedon
• The Street by Ann Petry
• The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
• Small Acts of Courage: A Legacy of Endurance and the Fight for Democracy by Ali Velshi

Tara (@onabranchreads):

• The Bones of Ruin by Sarah Raughley
• Indian Burial Ground; Sisters of the Lost Nation by Nick Medina
• The Shining; Salem's Lot by Stephen King
• The Residence; The Damned by Andrew Pyper
• Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
• Fungal: Foraging in the Urban Forest by Ariel Gordon

Leslie’s writing has appeared in the National Post, World Literature Today, and Changing the Face of Canadian Literature, among other anthologies and periodicals. She completed a PhD in English at Brown University, after which she returned to her hometown of Toronto, where she now resides with her husband. 

https://leslieshimotakahara.com/

https://www.instagram.com/leslieshimotakahara/

https://caitlinpress.com/Books/S/Sisters-of-the-Spruce

• From Slave Girls to Salvation: Gender, Race, and Victoria's Chinese Rescue Home, 1886-1923 by Shelly D. Ikebuchi
• We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies by Tsering Yangzom Lama
• Within the Barbed Wire Fence: A Japanese Man's Account of his Internment in Canada by Takeo Ujo Nakano

https://www.ekphrastic.net/

https://megpokrass.com/about/

The Work of Art: How Something Comes from Nothing by Adam Moss

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/192723955-the-work-of-art

• Curious Wine by Katherine V. Forrest
• Cold by Drew Hayden Taylor
• The Scourge by Jennifer A. Nielsen
• Poet Miranda Krogstad
• Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice
• All the Quiet Places by Brian Thomas Isaac
• Never Let Me Go; Klara in the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

Don't forget to check out Rebecca and Tara live on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@canadareadsamericanstyle/streams

Rebecca (@canadareadsamericanstyle): 

• Somehow by Anne Lamott
• Imagining Imagining: Essays on Language, Identity & Infinity by Gary Barwin
• Autokrator by Emily A. Weedon
• I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor's Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity by Izzeldin Abuelaish
• James by Percival Everett
• The Last Slave Ship: The True Story of How Clotilda Was Found, Her Descendants, and an Extraordinary Reckoning by Ben Raines
• Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" by Zora Neale Hurston
• Eleanor Courtown; The Brickworks; Stella's Carpet; The Marzipan Fruit Basket by Lucy E.M. Black
• Making Up the Gods by Marion Agnew

Tara (@onabranchreads): 

• Cold; Chasing Painted Horses by Drew Hayden Taylor
• Coexistence: Stories; A Minor Chorus by Billy-Ray Belcourt
• A Sweet Sting of Salt by Rose Sutherland
• Nosy Parker; The Spoon Stealer by Lesley Crewe
• Followed by the Lark by Helen Humphreys
• Walden by Henry David Thoreau
• A House with Good Bones; Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher

Reading From Our Shelves:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObgtKpEdnRE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lek38hy8jCA&t=93s

https://www.sydneyhegele.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sydneyhegele/

Titles mentioned:

• Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” by Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker (Foreword)
• Play by Jess Taylor

•  Imagining Imagining: Essays on Language, Identity and Infinity by Gary Barwin

Heather’s paternal roots lie in Harbour Grace, Newfoundland.  After 30 years as an English teacher, she retired to research her family history, discovering her Aunt Ginny’s friendship with Amelia Earhart in the process.  As a result, she began writing the Ginny Ross Series.  Amelia and Me was shortlisted for the 2014/2015 Red Cedar Award.  Under Amelia’s Wing was shortlisted for the 2021 Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People and the 2022 Red Maple Award.  Beyond Amelia, will be released April 16, 2024.

When not writing, Heather loves traveling with her husband, Don, and spending time at the cottage with her grandchildren and grand dogs.

https://www.heatherstemp.com/

https://www.instagram.com/authorheatherstemp/

https://visitatchison.com/highlight/amelia-earhart-festival

https://visitatchison.com/highlight_type/amelia-earhart

When the Dikes Breached by Martha Attema

Winterkill by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch

Dreadfall Water series by Thomas King 

Rebecca:

• I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor's Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity by Izzeldin Abuelaish
• Podcast episodes: Mark Tewksbury -- March 14, 2022 and April 30, 2022; Ali Hassan most recently on March 17, 2024; Adam Shoalts on December 11, 2024

Tara:

• The Hapless Milliner (Miss Austin Investigates #1) by Jessica Bull
• Podcast episodes: Keegan on July 24, 2022; Vince Ditrich mid-April 2024

Rebecca (@canadareadsamericanstyle):

• There There; Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange
• The Street by Ann Petry
• The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West
• Sisters of the Spruce by Leslie Shimotakahara
• My Ántonia by Willa Cather
• Wrong Time Wrong Place by Gillian McAllister

Tara (@onabranchreads):

• Peril in Pink by Sydney Leigh
• The Song of Achilles; Circe by Madeline Miller
• Son of Elsewhere: A Memoir in Pieces by Elamin Abdelmahmoud; Commotion (CBC Radio One)
• Fangirl Down by Tessa Bailey
• Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World; The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness, and Greed; The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival by John Vaillant
• The Lost Garden by Helen Humphreys
• World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments by Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Fumi Nakamura (illustrator)
• Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World by Christian Cooper
• A Man Downstairs by Nicole Lundrigan

https://standupali.com/

https://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads

https://www.loveclosely.com/

https://allpoetry.com/Do-Not-Ask-My-Love

Prairie Edge by Conor Kerr:

https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/prairie-edge

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sareshears/