Canada Reads Inspired

Canada Reads Inspired
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Two friends -- one American, one Canadian -- who share a love for CBC’s Canada Reads and Canadian literature! https://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads

  1. 1 MAY

    Interview - Alison Gadsby and Breathing Is How Some People Stay Alive

    Tara sits down for a chat with Canadian author Alison Gadsby, a first-generation Canadian living in Tkaronto, about her debut collection of short stories, Breathing Is How Some People Stay Alive, published by Guernica Editions in spring 2026. 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

    33 min

  2. 15 APR

    CBC's 2026 Canada Reads DAY THREE Wrap Up

    Rebecca and Tara cover CBC's 2026 Canada Reads DAY THREE debate. Less surprises perhaps, but more great content!   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

    40 min

  3. 14 APR

    CBC's 2026 Canada Reads DAY TWO Wrap Up

    Rebecca 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

    48 min

  4. 10 APR

    Interview – Finnian Burnett and Redshirts Sometimes Survive

    Tara 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/

    31 min

  5. 8 APR

    2026 CBC's Canada Reads Review

    Rebecca 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

    30 min

  6. 29 MAR

    Interview - Leslie Shimotakahara and The Breakwater

    Rebecca 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

    31 min

  7. 24 MAR

    Book Chat 33

    It'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

    54 min

  8. 22 MAR

    Coming Soon - Canada Reads Inspired!

    Rebecca and Tara have an announcement!!   Instagram: @canadareadsamericanstyle @onabranchreads

    3 min
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About

Two friends -- one American, one Canadian -- who share a love for CBC’s Canada Reads and Canadian literature! https://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads

Information

  • Creator
    Canada Reads Inspired
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2026
  • Episodes
    100
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2022 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Canada Reads Inspired

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