Several of my silent book club friends are also my neighbours. It’s nice to be able to say “See you at silent book club” when I run into them around the neighbourhood between meetings. Now some of us are suggesting that maybe a month between meetings is too long. Hmmm …

The night before a silent book club meeting, it feels like Christmas Eve. I’m already planning which books I’m going to bring, reviewing the books I read over the past month to share observations on with the group, checking if there are additional books I need to bring to lend to other book club members, getting out my book bag and coffee mug … and in the morning, I get extra help to ensure that everything is packed.

I left early, wanted to take my dog …

… and when I got to Press on the Danforth, some silent book club members were already there, ordering their beverages and treats and getting settled in. So, I have the feeling I’m not the only one eagerly anticipating each meeting …

Have you ever heard folks describing what they don’t like about the book clubs of which they’re a part, or which they are reluctant to be a part, or which they’ve abandoned? One thing I know I hear a lot is that the book club is devoted to the book in question for a mere few moments, and then the get-together becomes a gossip session or otherwise goes decidedly off-topic. In the year that we’ve been enjoying this club, we have our usual go round the table to share recent reading delights and disappointments (always constructively couched), and we don’t typically stray too far from the subject of books. Even today, when we did stray a bit, the subjects were still bookish. We all chimed in on a discussion of childhood reading pleasures, some guilty, some forbidden, all adored: Nancy Drew! The Hardy Boys! The Bobbsey Twins! Swallows and Amazons! Puffin Books! Trixie Belden! Nurse Sue Barton! We all chimed in again to sing the praises of Little Library boxes, with which our east end Toronto neighbourhood seems to be particularly blessed.

Here, as usual, is this month’s list of the books we read and discussed at our silent book club. Each title is presented and discussed within the group with readers’ capsule positive, negative or mixed reviews. The list as I present it here has no rating system, just a link to either publisher information or generally positive reviews or informational pieces. The list is not inherently a list of recommendations, just a record of what we discussed. That said, it’s still a rich, varied and thought provoking collection that I think might spark the interest of anyone keeping up with our club.

• If They Come For Us by Fatimah Asghar
• Transcription by Kate Atkinson
• The Blue Clerk by Dionne Brand
• The Game by A.s. Byatt
• Sugar and Other Stories by A.S. Byatt
• A Long Way From Home by Peter Carey
• Brother by David Chariandy
• Zolitude by Paige Cooper
• God of Shadows by Lorna Crozier
• Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana Jr.
• Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond
• The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
• French Exit by Patrick deWitt
• Heartbreaker by Claudia Dey
• The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline
• Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
• A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
• The Punishment She Deserves by Elizabeth George
• Dead in the Water by Ann Granger
• The Reckoning by John Grisham
• Take Us to Your Chief by Drew Hayden Taylor
• Stereoblind by Emma Healey
• The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
• The Coal Tattoo by Silas House
• A Parchment of Leaves by Silas House
• The Journey Prize Stories 30
• Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver
• The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner
• The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner
• My Twenty-Five Years in Provence by Peter Mayle
• Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne
• There There by Tommy Orange
• Dear Evelyn by Kathy Page
• Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
• Sleeping in the Ground by Peter Robinson
• Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution by Simon Schama
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
• Split Tooth by Tanya Tagaq
• Irma Voth by Miriam Toews
• Women Talking by Miriam Toews
• Memory edited by Phillipe Tortell, Mark Turin and Margot Young
• Keeper’n Me by Richard Wagamese
• Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese

As always, you can enjoy our previous silent book club meeting reports and book lists here.

If you’re interested in starting your own silent book club or are in the Toronto area and perhaps interested in checking ours out, please feel free to contact me for more information.