Canada Reads Inspired

Rebecca is back from a two-week road trip and shares her stops along the way and only two books.  Tara, on the other hand, had a great month of reading! Rebecca (@canadareadsamericanstyle): Loudmouth Books: https://loudmouthindy.com/ / https://www.instagram.com/loudmouthindy/ President Benjamin Harrison House: https://bhpsite.org/ Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum and Library: https://presidentl...

Rebecca is excited to chat with author Brett Popplewell about his latest book, Outsider: An Old Man, a Mountain and the Search for a Hidden Past. Brett is an author and journalist who joined Carleton University’s School of Journalism and Communication in 2017. His articles have been recognized by the National Magazine Awards Foundation in best short feature, profiles, investigative reporting, long...

Tara chats with author Sydney Leigh about her latest novel, Instagoner, published on August 27, 2024 by Level Best Books; it is the first book in the Bark and Blog Mystery series. When lifestyle blogger Emily finds the body of the local controversial talk show host who also happens to be her arch-nemesis, she enlists the help of her online audience, her best friend and barista Fitz, and furry, fou...

Tara interviews author Sarah Raughley about her trilogy, The Bones of Ruin (The Bones of Ruin, The Song of Wrath, The Lady of Rapture), as well as her new novel, The Queen's Spade, out January 14, 2025.    Sarah grew up in southern Ontario writing stories about freakish little girls with powers because she secretly wanted to be one. She is a huge fangirl of anything from manga to sci/fi fantasy TV...

Rebecca and Tara close out September with what they are currently reading and what they've read since their last book chat. Rebecca (@canadareadsamericanstyle): Try Not to Be Strange: The Curious History of The Kingdom of Redonda by Michael Hingston The Sentence by Louise Erdrich Little Moons by Jen Storm Not Cancelled: Canadian Caremongering in the Face of Covid-19; Life After Loss: Reflections o...

Rebecca and Tara chat about their great day at the annual Eden Mills Writers' Festival in Eden Mills, Ontario.  Check out the link below for the entire day's lineup of authors and titles discussed on the podcast.  https://edenmillswritersfestival.ca/featured-writers/ Rebecca (@canadareadsamericanstyle): Driving the Green Book: A Road Trip Through the Living History of Black Resistance by Alvin Hal...

Tara talks with Hollay Ghadery, an award-winning Iranian-Canadian multi-genre writer living in rural Ontario on Anishanaabe land. Fuse, her acclaimed memoir of mixed-race identity and mental illness, was published by Guernica Editions' Microland imprint in 2021 and won the 2023 Canadian Bookclub Award for nonfiction/memoir. (Check out Rebecca's interview with Hollay on the January 11, 2023 episode...

Rebecca and Tara share their latest good reads! Rebecca (@canadareadsamericanstyle): Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson Golden Boys: The Winnipeg Falcons of 1920 by Paul Keery; illustrated by Michael Wyatt https://shop.teachmag.com/collections/frontpage/products/golden-boys-the-winnipeg-falcons-of-1920 Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America by Matika Wilbur...

Rebecca and Tara highlight books they've read in which the location or place is a distinct character in the novel. Rebecca (@canadareadsamericanstyle): True Gretch: What I've Learned About Life, Leadership, and Everything in Between by Governor Gretchen Whitmer Widow Fantasies by Hollay Ghadery Scarborough by Catherine Hernandez / Scarborough, Ontario Brother by David Chariandy / Scarborough, Onta...

Tara chats with Canadian Susan Wadds, author of What the Living Do.  Winner of the Writer's Union of Canada's Prose Contest in 2016, Susan's award-winning work has appeared in The Blood Pudding, Room, Quagmire, Waterwheel Review, Funicular, WOW--Women on Writing, and many more. The first two chapters of her debut novel, What the Living Do, (Regal House Publishing, 2024), won the Lazuli Group's Pro...

Rebecca chats with author Michael Redhead Champagne about his first children’s book, We Need Everyone, which premiered with HighWater Press in January 2024. Michael is working towards a revolution that dismantles harmful systems and builds up new ones based on justice, equity and love. A community leader from Winnipeg's North End with family roots in Shamattawa First Nation, Michael is host, helpe...

Rebecca welcomes Katie from Whitehorse, Yukon Canada to answer the Five Reader Repartee Questions.  How did you become a reader? What book do you wish you could read again for the first time? Which author, living or dead, would you like to meet in person and why? What fictional character would you like to meet and why? What are you currently reading? Katie's responses include: CNIB (Canada): https...

Rebecca chats with the author of Autokrator, Emily A. Weedon.  Emily is a debut novelist and a screenwriter from Toronto Canada. Her web series Chateau Laurier was the most awarded web series on the entire planet in 2023 and won a Canadian Screen Award. Her novel Autokrator released by Cormorant Books in April 2024 is already receiving acclaim for its thoughtful messages, especially about women's...

Rebecca interviews author Marion Agnew.  Marion is a dual US/Canadian citizen, who moved north mid-life, after a career in technical writing and editing. MAKING UP THE GODS (Latitude 46, Sudbury, 2023) is her first novel. Her previous book, REVERBERATIONS: A DAUGHTER’S MEDITATIONS ON ALZHEIMER’S (Signature Editions, Winnipeg, 2019) was shortlisted for the Louise de Kiriline Lawrence award for nonf...

Rebecca and Tara provide an update on their 2024 goals! Rebecca (@canadareadsamericanstyle): Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America by Matika Wilbur 2024 Inclusive Picture Book Read Along Challenge @readingwithredandthemagpie My Ántonia by Willa Cather The Street by Ann Petry The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers Picnic at Hanging...

Rebecca and Tara share their latest reads! Rebecca (@canadareadsamericanstyle): The People's Hospital: Hope and Peril in American Medicine by Ricardo Nuila The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers Autokrator by Emily A. Weedon The Street by Ann Petry The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark Small Acts of Courage: A Legacy of Endurance and the Fight for Democracy by Ali Velshi Tara (@onab...

Rebecca welcomes Canadian author Leslie Shimotakahara, whose third novel, Sisters of the Spruce, is on Quill & Quire's "2024 Spring Preview: Fiction" and the 49th Shelf's "Most Anticipated: Our 2024 Spring Fiction Preview." Her memoir, The Reading List, won the Canada-Japan Literary Prize and has been translated into Japanese, and her fiction has been shortlisted for the KM Hunter Artist Award...

Tara interviews author Barbara Black, a self-described "serial artist", who was born in North Vancouver, B.C. and currently resides in Victoria, B.C.     As a writer and editor, Barbara has worked in journalism, public relations, government policy, education, and the arts. As a creative writer, Barbara has explored the genres of poetry, fiction, flash fiction, non-fiction, and libretto.   As a cla...

Tara welcomes author Finnian Burnett, who is a professor, writer and lifelong learner.  Their work often explores the intersection of the human body, mental health and gender identity.  Finnian holds a doctorate in English pedagogy from Murray State University and teaches college English, creative writing and early British Literature, using story-based pedagogy to create equity in multicultural cl...

Rebecca and Tara share their latest reads and links to their new feature on YouTube: Reading From Our Shelves! Rebecca (@canadareadsamericanstyle):  Somehow by Anne Lamott Imagining Imagining: Essays on Language, Identity & Infinity by Gary Barwin Autokrator by Emily A. Weedon I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor's Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity by Izzeldin Abuelaish James by Perciv...

Rebecca is excited to speak with Sydney Hegele, a queer Anglo-Catholic writer from the Greenbelt in Southern Ontario. They are the author of Bird Suit (Invisible Publishing, May 7, 2024) and The Pump (Invisible Publishing 2021), which was the winner of the 2022 ReLit Literary Award for Short Fiction and a finalist for the 2022 Trillium Book Award. Their essays have appeared in Catapult and Electri...

Rebecca is excited to chat with Heather Stemp, author of the Ginny Ross historical fiction series for tween and teen readers.  Rebecca also recommends it for adult fans of Anne of Green Gables. Heather’s paternal roots lie in Harbour Grace, Newfoundland.  After 30 years as an English teacher, she retired to research her family history, discovering her Aunt Ginny’s friendship with Amelia Earhart in...

Tara chats with Vince R. Ditritch, the author of the Tony Vicar series which includes The Liquor Vicar, The Vicar's Knickers, and The Vicar Vortex.  He is also the drummer and manager of the band Spirit of the West.  He has circled the world, earned more than a dozen gold and platinum albums, and been enshrined in several Halls of Fame.  Vince currently lives on Vancouver Island.    

Rebecca and Tara celebrate their 100th episode as co-hosts by sharing ten facts about themselves and their top three podcasts.  Interestingly, they both had near death experiences and divulged youthful criminal secrets. Rebecca: I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor's Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity by Izzeldin Abuelaish Podcast episodes: Mark Tewksbury -- March 14, 2022 and April 30, 202...

Rebecca and Tara discuss their latest reads! Rebecca (@canadareadsamericanstyle): There There; Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange The Street by Ann Petry The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West Sisters of the Spruce by Leslie Shimotakahara My Ántonia by Willa Cather Wrong Time Wrong Place by Gillian McAllister Tara (@onabranchreads): Peril in Pink by Sydney Leigh The Song of Achilles; Circe by Madelin...