With the announcement of the five titles and defenders, Rebecca and Tara make their predictions for the winner of the 25th Anniversary edition of CBC's Canada Reads! Per the CBC website: "This year's edition will air April 13 to 16 on CBC TV, CBC Radio, CBC Listen, CBC Gem and CBC Books. It will also be on YouTube and available as a podcast."

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 and Tara are back with Book Chat #31. Included are the books they are currently reading as well as their first recommendations of the New Year!

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

Welcome to the podcast's first Hidden Gems episode of 2026! This is a special feature Rebecca and Tara offer in which they invite guests to recommend authors or titles that may be new to their listeners. Today’s guest is author and retired professor Garnett Kilberg Cohen from Chicago, IL.

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/