Podcast
Canada Reads Inspired
Hosted by Canada Reads Inspired · EN
Two friends -- one American, one Canadian -- who share a love for CBC’s Canada Reads and Canadian literature! https://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads
38episodes
Episodes
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CBC's 2026 Canada Reads DAY TWO Wrap Up
Apr 1400:47:49Tap to summarizeRebecca is back from vacation and she and Tara discuss CBC's 2026 Canada Reads DAY TWO debate. Listen to Tara's DAY ONE wrap up on her Instagram live: @onabranchreads. 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
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Interview – Finnian Burnett and Redshirts Sometimes Survive
Apr 1000:31:10Tap to summarizeTara welcomes back Canadian author Finnian Burnett to discuss their latest novella-in-flash, Redshirts Sometimes Survive. 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/
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2026 CBC's Canada Reads Review
Apr 800:29:35Tap to summarizeRebecca and Tara discuss their impressions of the 2026 CBC's Canada Reads books and defenders for this year's debate. Don't forget to check out Rebecca's interview with author Tyler Hellard and Searching for Terry Punchout on February 10, 2026. 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
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Interview - Leslie Shimotakahara and The Breakwater
Mar 2900:31:23Tap to summarizeRebecca is excited to chat with Canadian author Leslie Shimotakahara about her latest novel, The Breakwater, which will be published by Cormorant Books in April 2026. 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
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Book Chat 33
Mar 2400:54:25Tap to summarizeIt's Book Chat time! Rebecca had a meh reading month and Tara crushed it!! 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
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Coming Soon - Canada Reads Inspired!
Mar 2200:03:16Tap to summarizeRebecca and Tara have an announcement!! Instagram: @canadareadsamericanstyle @onabranchreads
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Literary Rabbit Holes 1
Mar 1800:23:21Tap to summarizeRebecca and Tara introduce a new feature for the podcast in which books they've read prompted them to do a deeper dive into some aspect of the subject or story, in other words, they went down a rabbit hole. 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
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Interview - Alexis Stefanovich-Thomson and Opposite Sully's Gym
Mar 1500:37:55Tap to summarizeRebecca is excited to chat with Canadian author Alexis Stefanovich-Thomson about his second book in the Patrick Bird Mystery series; the first is The Road to Heaven, published by Dundurn Press in 2024. Opposite Sully's Gym, book two, is available beginning March 31, 2026. 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
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Interview - Kerry Clare and Definitely Thriving
Mar 800:31:45Tap to summarizeTara chats with Canadian author, blogger, and podcaster Kerry Clare to discuss her latest novel, Definitely Thriving, which is available March 17, 2026 from House of Anansi Press: 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/
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Interview - Hollay Ghadery and The Unravelling of Ou
Mar 100:54:32Tap to summarizeTara sits down with Iranian-Canadian author Hollay Ghadery to discuss her first novel, The Unravelling of Ou, published by Palimpsest Press in February 2026. Later in the interview, Hollay talks about poetry and how best to read it for those who may be new to it. 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/
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