The holiday season is meant to bring us peace and joy. Here’s hoping that been largely fulfilled so far, but of course the season can be fraught, too. I hope this bonus silent book club in the midst of the season brought some peace where other aspects of the holidays perhaps demanded too much or did not meet expectations. The warm conversation and the relaxed faces bent over books and reading devices suggest this extra gathering was most beneficial.

With pending new year’s resolutions on some minds, some titles discussed and read today are perhaps inspirational fodder, everything from 50 Ways to Soothe Yourself Without Food and Zero Waste to My Year of Living Spiritually and The Art of Living.

One silent book club member finished her year having completed a long term goal to read all of the CBC Canada Reads winning books. Well done!

Our silent book club members regularly inspire and challenge each other every month, in a variety of ways. Last month, I mentioned that I was rereading a favourite novel, which encouraged other members to revisit old favourites this month.

So devoted are our regular silent book club members that one of them emailed in a report of what she was reading while she was in the midst of her holiday travels. It was great to have her virtually at the table and to be able to picture her reading her book on a train travelling through mountains on the U.S. west coast as we gathered in our beloved coffee shop/bookstore in east end Toronto.

The following is this gathering’s gorgeous cascade of bookish delights. This list, presented after every gathering, is not only a service to everyone who attends in person, but it’s meant to extend what we share at each meeting to a virtual network of fellow readers – so enjoy! Each title links to additional information about the book, either from the publisher, from articles about the book or author, or from generally positive and/or constructive reviews.

• Walk Through Walls by Marina Abramovic
• 50 Ways to Soothe Yourself Without Food by Susan Albers
• Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
• The Baffler
• The Lady in the Van by Alan Bennett
• My Year of Living Spiritually by Anne Bokma
• The Orenda by Joseph Boyden
• Welcome To The Goddamn Ice Cube: Chasing Fear And Finding Home In The Great White North by Blair Braverman
• Canada Reads winners
• Falling Angels by Tracy Chevalier
• Just One Look by Harlan Coben
• Scar Lover by Harry Crews
• Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann
• Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott
• Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow
• The Ocean at the End of the Lane (Illustrated Edition) by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Elise Hurst
• Too Close to the Falls by Catherine Gildiner
• After the Falls by Catherine Gildiner
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
• The Art of Living by Thich Nhat Hanh
• Help, Thanks, Wow – The Three Essential Prayers by Ann Lamott
• Rocannon’s World by Ursula K. Le Guin
• That Time I Loved You by Carrianne Leung
• Female Fortune by Jill Liddington
• An Invitation to Celtic Wisdom: A Little Guide to Mystery, Spirit, and Compassion by Carl McColman
• Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language by Gretchen McCulloch
• I.M. by Isaac Mizrahi
• The Paris Review
• At Knit’s End: Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
• The books of Louise Penny
• Popshot Quarterly
• The German Midwife by Mandy Robotham
• The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli
• Calypso by David Sedaris
• Swing Time by Zadie Smith
• Zero Waste by Shia Su
• Blood in the Water by Heather Ann Thompson
• The Reality Bubble by Ziya Tong
• A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
• The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
• Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughan
• Crow Gulch by Douglas Walbourne-Gough
• Carsick by John Waters
• The Witches Are Coming by Lindy West
• Worry by Jessica Westhead
• Who Do We Choose To Be? Facing Reality | Claiming Leadership | Restoring Sanity by Margaret J. Wheatley

As always, you can catch up on 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 most recently featured in a wonderful piece on the NPR web site (yes, National Public Radio, thank you very much!). Extensive and enthusiastic coverage silent book club coverage includes this piece 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.

Our dear friends at Press books. coffee. vinyl. thanked us with holiday greetings (and chocolate!) for continuing to make them our bookish and comfy home away from home for all our silent book club meetings.

There is no place we’d rather be, Press! (We suspect our perfect silent book club setting is the envy of other groups …) Thank you!

If you’ve so far enjoyed the silent book club experience virtually, might you resolve in the new year to experience it firsthand? Via Guinevere and Laura’s Silent Book Club web site, you can find information on meetings happening around the world and close to where you live. If you’re interested in starting your own silent book club or are in the Toronto area and perhaps interested in checking ours out, check out the resources on the Silent Book Club web site, or please feel free to contact me for more information.