Heavy spring rain did not prevent some valiant silent book club members from meeting this past weekend. No readers or books were worse (or soggier) for wear, and even though it was a smaller group, the list of books discussed and read was still rich and robust. As usual, each reader offered capsule reviews of what they had finished or were in the midst of reading – positive or negative, always constructive. The list presented 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 was discussed. Mind you, each meeting’s list 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 the club. And if you start a club yourself, I’m betting you’ll find the very same things!
(Photo by Jo Nelson)
- Protest Kitchen: Fight Injustice, Save the Planet, and Fuel Your Resistance One Meal at a Time by Carol J. Adams and Virginia Messina
- The Very Bloody History of Britain by John Farman
- The Neapolitan Novels (My Brilliant Friend, The Story of a New Name, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, and The Story of the Lost Child) by Elena Ferrante
- Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness by Ingrid Fetell Lee
- The Mare by Mary Gaitskill
- Every Note Played by Lisa Genova
- My name’s not George: The story of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters by Stanley G. Grizzle
- Autumn Light: Season of Fire and Farewells by Pico Iyer
- Chasing Light ~ Telling Stories by Valerie Jardin
- Single Exposures: Random Observations on Photography, Art & Creativity by Brooks Jensen
- The Tony Hill and Carol Jordan series by Val McDermid
- Teardown: Rebuilding Democracy from the Ground Up by Dave Meslin
- Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty
- The Long Way Home by Louise Penny
- Glass Houses by Louise Penny
- The Jane Whitefield novels by Thomas Perry
- Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
- Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney
- Gene Smith’s Sink by Sam Stephenson
- Forge by Jan Zwicky
(Photo by Jo Nelson)
As always, you can enjoy our previous silent book club meeting reports and book lists here.
We’ve enjoyed some recent coverage by the CBC, on the CBC Toronto web site and via a series of interviews across Canada with CBC Radio.
In addition to the CBC, 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.