Canada Reads American Style

Literary Rabbit Holes 1

Rebecca 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

 

Interview - Alexis Stefanovich-Thomson and Opposite Sully's Gym

Rebecca 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

 

Interview - Kerry Clare and Definitely Thriving

Tara 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/

 

 

Interview - Hollay Ghadery and The Unravelling of Ou

Tara 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/

 

Interview - Kasia Van Schaik and Women Among Monuments: Solitude, Permission, and the Pursuit of Female Genius

Rebecca is excited to chat with Dr. Kasia Van Schaik about her latest book, Women Among Monuments: Solitude, Permission, and the Pursuit of Female Genius,  published on February 17, 2026 by Dundurn Books. 

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/

 

 

Book Chat 32

Rebecca and Tara both share a book in which the main character is seeking a return to community. And Tara brings more horror to the podcast!

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

 

 

Interview - Tyler Hellard and Searching for Terry Punchout

Rebecca welcomes Canadian Tyler Hellard, the author of Searching for Terry Punchout, a funny, heartwarming novel published in 2018 by Invisible Publishing that will be defended on CBC’s Canada Reads by Steve “Dangle” Glynn beginning April 13, 2026.

(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/

 

 

Interview - Marcello Di Cintio and Precarious: The Lives of Migrant Workers

Rebecca welcomes award-winning Canadian author Marcello Di Cintio for his third podcast visit to discuss his latest book, Precarious: The Lives of Migrant Workers, published by Biblioasis in September 2025.

 

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/

 

 

Alice Fitzpatrick and the Meredith Island Mysteries

Join Tara for a captivating interview with Alice Fitzpatrick and discover her connection with Carol Burnett and notable Canadian poet George Bowering.

 

Alice is the author of the Meredith Island Mysteries, which include Secrets in the Water and A Dark Death.  The Meredith Island Christmas Mystery, A Killing Cold, will be released June 2026. The traditional mystery appeals to Alice's fascination with what makes seemingly ordinary people commit murder. She lives in Toronto, Ontario, but dreams of a cottage on the Welsh coast.

 

Books for your TBR:

• Ruth Galloway series; Harbinder Kaur series by Elly Griffiths
• Magpie Murders series; Moonflower Murders series; Marble Hall series by Anthony Horowitz
• Helen Dexter - Seaview Hotel series by Glenda Young
• Cait Morgan series; WISE Enquiries Agency series by Cathy Ace
• Christine Lane Mystery series by Dianne Scott

 

https://www.alicefitzpatrick.com/

https://www.alicefitzpatrick.com/newsletter

https://www.stonehousepublishing.ca/

2026 CBC’s Canada Reads Short List

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

 

 

Book Chat 31

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

 

Hidden Gems with Garnett Kilberg Cohen

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/

 

 

2026 CBC’s Canada Reads Long List

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

Old Goals - New Goals

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

2025 Reading Wrap Up

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