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/

It's that time of year again when Rebecca and Tara try to predict which five books will make CBC's Canada Reads Short List for 2026! Adding to the excitement is that this year is the 25th anniversary of the debate, so they are hoping for an entertaining look back to find the one book all of Canada should read!

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

Happy New Year!! Rebecca and Tara summarize the success of their 2025 goals and introduce new challenges for 2026!

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 and Tara hope you had a fantastic year of reading! And they wrap up their 2025 by answering the following questions:

• 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 and Tara close out 2025 with their 30th Book Chat! Rebecca is all about Narnia and C.S. Lewis and Tara ruminates on whether to DNF or finish the book she is currently reading.

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

Tara has a fascinating chat with Liisa Kovala, a Finnish Canadian author, book coach, and former teacher about historical fiction, cozy mysteries, sisu, her book coaching, podcast, and coffee. Her latest novel is, Like Water for Weary Souls.

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/