Although it was still cool, the sun was shining and trees were blossoming as I made my way to silent book club this morning. Part of its many pleasures is that our meetings are held at an establishment in the neighbourhood (PRESS Books Coffee Vinyl on the Danforth in east end Toronto), a mere 10-minute walk from home. So much is so good about silent book club.

I’ll save this news for my next silent book club post because there is an off chance it won’t happen, but I might have the opportunity very soon to share the joys of silent book clubbing before a rather prominent audience. Our club is working to manage the wonderful attention it’s received recently, balancing welcoming new members while keeping each meeting to a size that is still comfortable for all attending. If I get the chance with this potential speaking opportunity, I want to use it to emphasize how easy it is to set one of one’s own up, in one’s own neighbourhood. Silent book clubs are about books and readers, but as we have learned, it’s also about community, fellowship and even sanctuary. Whether this thing happens or not, I’ll expand a bit on the topic in my next post.

As I mentioned in my previous post, when CBC Toronto turned the spotlight on our group, another great benefit of the coverage was that it helped shed light on other silent book clubs in the Greater Toronto area and others that are re-inspired to give it a try. I took time since our last silent book club meeting to check out one at Famous Last Words, a literary-themed bar in the west end Junction neighbourhood of Toronto. (Check out their silent book club and other event listings here.)

At Famous Last Words’ evening silent book club gathering (ours at Press run on Saturdays from 10 am to noon-ish), I enjoyed a Negroni instead of a chai latte, for starters. FLW is a pleasantly appointed bar that provides a couple of corner tables – almost like cozy booths – at the back for their silent book club meeting. The one I attended had five participants in total, including owner Marlene. One participant, an amiable 30ish fellow named George, was visiting Toronto on business for the first time, coming in from Boston. He was clearly taking every moment of his visit to explore Toronto – including acquiring a Presto card and actually making his way from his hotel in Yorkville to an event in Don Mills, bless him – and finding a book club gathering was actually on his list – bless him again. Did I mention that silent book clubs bring together very special people?

The book chat portion of the meeting was brief but collegial, and the book reading portion was warm, comfortable and undistracted. Between FLW and my subway rides there and back, I got a ton of reading done that evening. I’d go back, and I recommend it to others seeking other silent book club offerings in the Toronto area.

And now, this meeting’s book list, summing up all the titles presented and discussed within the group this month. (Per last report’s comments, I’m definitely cooking up an idea for consolidating all our booklists into one searchable format – stay tuned!)

When we go round the table before the silent reading portion of the gathering, each reader offers capsule reviews of what they have finished or are in the midst of reading – positive or negative, always constructive. Our 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. Mind you, I think it is a pretty good list of recommendations, as it continues to reflect a diverse and vibrant range of subjects and genres that might spark the interest of anyone keeping up with our club.

• The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto by Mitch Albom
• Sofie & Cecilia by Katherine Ashenburg
• Homes by Abu Bakr al Rabeeah and Winnie Yeung (2019 Canada Reads runner-up)
• Welcome Home by Lucia Berlin
• The Wife by Alafair Burke (audiobook)
• No Bones by Anna Burns
• Canada Reads winners
• Watching You Without Me by Lynn Coady
• Black Apple by Joan Crate
• Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
• American War by Omar El Akkad (audiobook)
• Next Episode by B.D. Ferguson
• Lonely Planet’s Guide to Travel Writing by Don George
• The Assault on Reason by Al Gore
• 2019 Griffin Poetry Prize shortlist
• The Tie That Binds by Kent Haruf (audiobook)
• Girl of the Southern Sea by Michelle Kadarusman
• Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe
• Belonging by Nora Krug
• The Wheel of Life – A Memoir of Living and Dying by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
• Deep River Night by Patrick Lane (audiobook)
• No Time to Spare – Thinking About What Matters by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Spiderweb by Penelope Lively (audiobook)
• The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Girls by Mary S. Lovell
• Randy Craig Mysteries by Janice MacDonald
• Cast Iron by Peter May
• Three Silent Things by Margaret Mayhew
• The Path Between the Seas – The Creation of the Panama Canal 1870-1914 by David McCullough
• Refuse: CanLit in Ruins edited by Hannah McGregor, Julie Rak, and Erin Wunker
• I Called Him Necktie by Milena Michiko Flašar, translated by Sheila Dickie
• February by Lisa Moore
• Roadmap to Hell: Sex, Drugs and Guns on the Mafia Coast by Barbie Latza Nadeau (audiobook)
• In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje
• The Library Book by Susan Orlean
• Excellent Women by Barbara Pym (audiobook)
• Women Talking by Miriam Toews
• The Last Crossing by Guy Vanderhaeghe
• This Life or the Next by Demian Vitanza, translated by Tanya Thresher
• A Brief History of the Amazons : Women Warriors in Myth and History by Lyn Webster Wilde
• Night by Elie Weisel
• A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

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

In addition to the recent coverage by CBC Toronto, our silent book club was included in a late 2018 feature about silent book clubs in the international news publication The Christian Science Monitor. Enjoy the article here. San Francisco-based Silent Book Club founders Guinevere de La Mare and Laura Gluhanich are featured in the February 2019 issue of O, the Oprah Magazine, describing the club’s genesis and extolling its virtues as the concept and clubs spread worldwide.

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.