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

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

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/

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

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

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

Rebecca and Tara have an announcement!!

Instagram:

@canadareadsamericanstyle

@onabranchreads

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