Rebecca reveals her 2025 secret reading goal to Tara! And she and Tara offer their best reading recommendations for the holiday season!

Rebecca (@canadareadsamericanstyle):

• Prince Caspian (The Chronicles of Narnia #4) by C.S. Lewis
• The Godfather by Mario Puzo
• An English Murder by Cyril Hare
• A Holiday By Gaslight: A Victorian Christmas Novella by Mimi Matthews
• Once Upon a Wardrobe by Patti Callahan Henry

Tara (@onabranchreads):

• Starry Starry Night by Shani Mootoo
• The Christmas Jigsaw Murders by Alexandra Benedict
• Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher
• A Holly Jolly Diwali by Sonya Lalli
• The Kingdom of Sweets by Erika Johansen
• Grace & Henry's Holiday Movie Marathon by Matthew Norman
• The Family Game by Catherine Steadman
• Yours for the Season by Uzma Jalaluddin
• Small Things Like These by Claire Foster
• The Dead of Winter: Beware the Krampus and Other Wicked Christmas Creatures by Sarah Clegg

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 is excited to chat with professional explorer Adam Shoalts about his latest book, Vanished Beyond the Map: The Mystery of Lost Explorer Hubert Darrell.

https://adamshoalts.com/literature/:

• Voted by over 200 Independent Bookstores as one of the “Must Read Books” of the Year (Canadian Independent Booksellers Association)
• Globe and Mail #1 National Bestseller/Toronto Star #1 National Bestseller
• CBC #1 National Bestseller

"In 1910, legendary explorer Hubert Darrell vanished in the uncharted wilderness of the Northwest Territories. A prospector who had been swept up in the Klondike Gold Rush, Darrell later made his name as a wanderer who ventured where few others dared. Famed for his solo journeys, contemporaries regarded Darrell as the hardiest explorer of his day. While his disappearance sparked headlines, soon Darrell’s name would also vanish from history, just as surely as he had in the wild.

Yet Darrell left behind a trail of letters, journals, and hand-drawn maps. With these faded clues, Adam Shoalts retraces Darrell’s forgotten routes through the wilderness, searching for cabin ruins and old campsites. Part detective story, part biography, and part first-person adventure narrative, Vanished Beyond the Map combines expeditions with historical research to solve one of exploration history’s enduring cold cases—the mystery of Hubert Darrell."

Public Events: https://adamshoalts.com/upcoming-book-events/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adam_shoalts/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@adamshoalts

Rebecca and Tara return after a two-month hiatus and are ready to share the best of their recent reads!

Rebecca (@canadareadsamericanstyle):

• My Life: Growing Up Native in America edited by IllumiNative
• The Horse and His Boy (The Chronicles of Narnia #3) by C.S. Lewis
• The Road to Heaven (Patrick Bird Mystery #1) by Alexis Stefanovich-Thomson
• Mad Dog and the Sea Dragon by Lisa de Nikolits
• Foster by Claire Keegan
• Vanished Beyond the Map: The Mystery of Lost Explorer Hubert Darrell

Tara (@onabranchreads):

• Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy by Mary Roach
• The Whistler by Nick Medina
• As the Earth Dreams: Black Canadian Speculative Stories edited by Terese Mason Pierre
• Days of Feasting and Rejoicing by David Bergen
• Wolk, Moon, Dog: A Novel by Thomas Wharton
• The Pugilist and the Sailor by Nadia Ragbar
• The Upending of Wendall Forbes; The Undertaking of Billy Buffone by David Giuliano
• Machine Without Horses by Helen Humphreys

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 chats with a special guest, the prolific and award-winning Canadian author Merilyn Simonds regarding her latest book, Walking with Beth: Conversations with My 100-year-old Friend.

https://merilynsimonds.com/

"In the spring of 2021, Merilyn Simonds asked her friend Beth Robinson if she’d like to go for a walk. Simonds had just turned 70, still active, still writing, but entering what struck her as a mysterious, even frightening stage of life. Beth, a smart, vibrant woman who’d held a job until she was 99, lived on her own and was as awake to the world as a person half her age. Who better to ask what might come next?

During three years of weekly walks, the conversation between the two women only deepened, as they opened up about their heart-felt passions, the lingering influence of their pasts, and their hopes and fears for the future.

In Walking with Beth, Simonds shares these intimate exchanges, delving into corners of older women’s lives that are rarely seen or spoken about so openly. As Simonds looks forward into a future that seems unknowable, Beth looks back, offering her experience in surviving the later-life blows that batter us all, and more importantly, her wisdom about how to enrich every passing day."

Recommended Books:

• The Age of Creativity: Art, Memory, My Father, and Me by Emily Urquhart
• Code Noir: Fictions by Canisia Lubrin
• We, the Kindling by Otoniya J. Okot Bitek

Rebecca is excited to speak with award-winning Canadian author Barbara Joan Scott about her debut novel, The Taste of Hunger.

https://freehand-books.com/product/the-taste-of-hunger/#tab-description

"In Saskatchewan in the late 1920s, a fifteen-year-old Ukrainian immigrant named Olena is forced into marriage with Taras, a man twice her age, who wants her even though she has refused him. Stuck in a hardscrabble life with a husband she despises, starved for a life of her own choosing, at every turn Olena rebels agains her husband and her fate. As Olena and Taras drag everyone around them into the maelstrom that is their marriage, they set off a chain of turbulent events whose aftershocks reverberate through generations."

Book Recommendations:

• All of Baba's Children by Myrna Kostash
• Endling; Good Citizens Need Not Fear: Stories by Maria Reva
• Late Breaking; All Saints: Stories; Holy Writ by K.D. Miller
• Gilead; Home; Lila; Jack; What are We Doing Here? by Marilynne Robinson

https://www.barbarajoanscott.com/

Rebecca is excited to welcome back to the podcast Canadian author Lucy E.M. Black regarding her new historical novel, A Quilting of Scars, with its unforgettable main character, Larkin Beattie.

https://nonpublishing.com/a-quilting-of-scars

"Filled with the pleasure of recognizable yet distinctively original characters and a deftly drawn sense of time and place, A Quilting of Scars brings to life a story of forbidden love, abuse and murder. Pulsing with repressed sexuality and guilt, Larkin Beattie reveals the many secrets he has kept hidden throughout his lonely life. The character-driven narrative is a meditation on aging and remorse, offering a rich account of the strictures and rhythms of farming in the not-so-distant past, highlighting the confines of a community where strict moral codes are imposed upon its members and fear of exposure terrifies queer youth. As Larkin reflects upon key events, his recollections include his anger at the hypocrisy of the church, and the deep grief and loneliness that have marked his path. There is a timelessness to this story which transcends the period and resonates with heart-breaking relevance."

https://lucyemblack.com/books/a-quilting-of-scars-book/

A Quilting of Scars Discussion Questions

As many of you know, Rebecca highly recommends four of Lucy’s books: The Brickworks, Eleanor Courtown, Stella’s Carpet, and A Quilting of Scars.

Lucy's Reading Recommendations:

• In the Bear's House by Bruce Hunter
• Kate and the Composers by Joanne Culley

Tara is excited to chat with Canadian author David Giuliano, who lives on the north shore of Lake Superior. His storytelling has been compared to Miriam Toews and Elizabeth Strout in its emotional insight and narrative warmth. His books include The Undertaking of Billy Buffone, winner of the 2022 Bressani Prize; the bestselling Postcards from the Valley; and the cancer memoir It's Good to Be Here. His latest book is The Upending of Wendall Forbes from Latitude 46 Publishing.

Reading recommendations:

• Aliens on the Moon by Thomas King
• My Friends by Fredrik Backman
• In Winter I Get Up at Night by Jane Urquhart

https://davidgiulianoca.wordpress.com/

https://latitude46publishing.com/

https://www.instagram.com/davidwgiuliano/

• The Wolves of Eternity by Karl Ove Knausgård
• The Problem with Having a Body by Jessica Popeski
• All the Little Monsters: How I Learned to Live with Anxiety by David A. Robertson
• Runs in the Blood by Matthew J. Trafford