Tara speaks with Canadian author Jen Sookfong Lee regarding her latest novel, The Hunger We Pass Down, which is available September 30, 2025 from Erewhon Books.

Jen was born and raised in Vancouver's East Side and now lives with her son in North Burnaby. Her memoir, Superfan: How Pop Culture Broke My Heart, was a finalist for the 2024 Forest of Reading Evergreen Award and the City of Vancouver Book Award, was named a best book of 2023 by the Globe and Mail and Apple Books Canada, and was a Today Show recommended read. Jen is also the author of The Conjoined, long listed for the International Dublin Literary Award and a finalist for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize; The Better Mother, a finalist for the City of Vancouver Books Award; The Shadow List; and Finding Home. In addition to writing, Jen also acquires and edits books for ECW Press.

Recommended titles:

• Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves by Sophie Gilbert
• Variations on a Dream by Angelique LaLonde

http://sookfong.com/

https://www.instagram.com/jensookfonglee/

Rebecca and Tara are back with their "monthly" chat about the books they've read and recommend. Please check out the link below to the Instagram post by Hollay Ghadery on her River Street Writes account regarding independent and small press books sold through Indigo.

Rebecca (@canadareadsamericanstyle):

• The Laundryman's Boy by Edward Y.C. Lee
• A Song for Wildcats by Caitlin Galway
• Brushed Aside: The Untold Story of Women in Art by Noah Charney
• The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson
• The Taste of Hunger by Barbara Joan Scott

Tara (@onabranchreads):

• Walking with Beth: Conversations with My Hundred-Year-Old Friend; Woman Watching: Louise de Kiriline Lawrence and the Songbirds of Pimisi Bay by Merilyn Simonds
• Behind You by Catherine Hernandez
• Green by Zachari Logan, published by Radiant Press https://radiantpress.ca/
• May It Have a Happy Ending: A Memoir of Finding My Voice as My Mother Lost Hers by Minelle Mahtani
• A Mouth Full of Salt by Reem Gaafar
• Speech Dries Here on the Tongue: Poetry on Environmental Collapse and Mental Health -- Rasiqra Revulva (editor), Amanda Shankland (editor)
• The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
• https://www.differentdrummerbooks.ca/
• Post shared by Hollay Ghadery on Instagram (@river_street_writes): https://www.instagram.com/p/DNUPOihN91t/

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 speak with Korean Canadian author Jinwoo Park. Born and raised in Seoul, he has lived in various parts of North America and the UK since the age of 11 and is now based in Montreal.

Jinwoo obtained his bachelor’s degree from McGill in 2013, followed by a master’s in political economics from the London School of Economics in 2014, and a master’s in creative writing at the University of Oxford in 2015.

In 2021 he won the Jim Wong-Chu Emerging Writers’ Award for his first manuscript, Oxford Soju Club, which will be published by Dundurn Press in September 2025. He has also been actively working as a literary translator after winning the Emerging Translator Award from the Literature Translation Institute of Korea in late 2023.

Jinwoo is also an avid book reviewer and is active on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.

Authors and books recommended:

• Chung Serang (정세랑)
• Oh Seong-eun (오성은)
• The Hypebeast by Adnan Khan
• The Eyes are the Best Part by Monika Kim

https://www.tiktok.com/@jinwoopark0721

https://www.instagram.com/jinwoopark0721/

https://www.youtube.com/@jinwoopark0721

https://www.dundurn.com/books_/t22117/a9781459755109-oxford-soju-club