A year ago, we decided to take our silent book club outdoors … and it was wonderful. Weather permitted, quite beautifully, again this year, so we did it again … and oh, it was wonderful once again. In the hour before the silent book club meeting, some of us took part in a refreshing and restoring yoga class, making it a particularly well spent morning in the park.

This month’s gathering was a stimulating balance of insights from ongoing members of the group with fresh perspectives and recommendations from new attendees, some from the neighbourhood who had simply never had the chance to attend until now, along with participants who came from further afield (and might do some more of that planting of seeds we discussed last month.) One attendee didn’t have much to say about her reading, but was still very pleasant company.

Everyone offers an introduction to their recent and current reading that is uniquely their own. Some rhyme off a breathless and eclectic inventory of titles, some reflect on two or three titles that were particular highlights since they last joined a silent book club meeting, and some rhapsodize and manage in a few minutes and with apt observations to go deep on a single title that made a profound impression. Along the way, there are a few rueful mentions of disappointments and reading gone astray … but it is all enchanting to listen to, and such a privilege to have shared.

Here is the non-editorialized but still very intriguing list of what was presented this month:

• The Healers by Kimo Armitage
• Big Sky by Kate Atkinson
• The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes
• Immigrant City by David Bezmozgis
• Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brené Brown
• The Perfection of the Morning by Sharon Butala
• Canada Reads winners
• Into That Fire by MJ Cates
• Gentleman Jack by Anne Choma
• Best American Travel Writing 2017 by Lauren Collins and Jason Wilson
• Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
• Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee
• Radicalized by Cory Doctorow
• The Wonder by Emma Donoghue
• American Gods by Neil Gaiman
• Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
• The Book of Delights by Ross Gay
• Lord of the Butterflies by Andrea Gibson
• City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
• Dancing with Raven and Bear – A Book of Earth Medicine and Animal Magic by Sonja Grace
• all we ever wanted by Emily Griffin
• The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
• Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings by Joy Harjo
• A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
• The Dry by Jane Harper
• The Lost Man by Jane Harper (audiobook – Playaway format)
• The Swimming-Pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst
• W. Eugene Smith: Shadow and Substance – The Life and Work of an American Photographer by Jim Hughes
• The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (audiobook)
• Hawaii Island Legends – Pele, Pikoi and Others edited by Mary Kawena Pukui
• The Stand by Stephen King
• The Wheel of Life – A Memoir of Living and Dying by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
• Life Lessons by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
• The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner
• The Home Place by Carrie La Seur
• That Time I Loved You by Carrianne Leung
• An Ocean of Minutes by Thea Lim
• Tea and Cake with Demons: A Buddhist Guide to Feeling Worthy by Adreanna Limbach
• I Know my Own Heart: The Diary of Anne Lister
• Island by Alistair MacLeod
• In Manchuria by Michael Meyer
• Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
• Arrival: The Story of CanLit by Nick Mount
• The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee
• The Greatest Love Story Ever Told: An Oral History by Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman
• Becoming by Michelle Obama
• 1984 by George Orwell (audiobook)
• A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny
• Kingdom Come by Danica Power
• Testament by Nino Ricci
• Connections in Death by J.D. Robb
• The Water Walker by Joanne Robertson
• The Gown by Jennifer Robson
• Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney
• Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
• Spring by Ali Smith
• The Help by Kathryn Stockett (audiobook)
• The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters
• The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters (audiobook)
• The Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman
• The Happiness Factor: How to Be Happy No Matter What by Kirk Wilkinson
• A Sorrowful Sanctuary by Iona Wishaw
• Casting Deep Shade by C.D. Wright
• A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

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

We’re pleased and honoured to have been interviewed about the silent book club concept and how to start a club of one’s own.

• CBC Radio’s Ontario Morning (starting at 41:20)
• CBC Toronto web site
• a series of interviews across Canada with CBC Radio, including Toronto’s Here and Now
• The Christian Science Monitor – Witty banter optional: The no-pressure, no-homework book club

San Francisco-based Silent Book Club founders Guinevere de La Mare and Laura Gluhanich were 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.