… although the dog was more interested in other dogs than in the books and booklovers … 🙂

Our latest online silent book club meeting did indeed runneth over …

… but no one seemed to mind, so there clearly continues to be an appetite for regularly sharing our bookish delights and challenges, in whatever way we can meet. As you’ll see from our always generous and varied combined book list, our Toronto group (where the eastern boundary of the city extends to Wales, don’t you know …) is keeping its collective reading groove going with a wide range of contemporary and classic works in many genres and formats, from established and emerging authors.

After the zoom meeting, as most were settling in to their favourite reading chairs for the silent reading portion of the festivities, a handful of us (within local group guidelines, appropriate distanced – rest assured) ventured out to the local park for a quick meetup in the snow. (As I walked over, I thought of one of our book club members waxing wise and poetic about Wintering by Katherine May – in which we are encouraged to embrace literal and more metaphorical winters – and mused about how appropriate this was …)

When the sun is shining just as brilliantly, but it’s maybe a touch warmer and greener, we look forward to gathering there again for some silent reading under the trees. Till then, we’ll gather round our screens and in the cozy spots where we curl up at home, grateful we’ve found ways to continue to connect with our fellow booklovers.

Here is the latest and always gorgeous combined reading list from our group. The titles featured in each of our reports combine print and digital versions of books, along with audiobooks (which are indicated separately, with narrator/performer information where possible).

• Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest by Hanif Abdurraqib
• They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraqib
• Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, narrated by Zainab Jah (audiobook)
• The Night Piece by Andre Alexis
• Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson
• Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
• The Atrocity Exhibition by J.G. Ballard
• A Visit to Don Otavio – A Mexican Journey by Sybille Bedford
• Written in the Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur
• The Craving Mind: From Cigarettes to Smartphones to Love – Why We Get Hooked and How We Can Break Bad Habits by Judson Brewer
• Wild Stone Heart: An Apprentice in the Fields by Sharon Butala
• Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo
• Galore by Michael Crummey
• All Together Now by Alan Doyle (audiobook)
• Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann
• Book of Wings by Tawhida Tanya Evanson
• Luckenbooth by Jenni Fagan
• The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2020, edited by Diana Gabaldon
• Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman (audiobook)
• The Moment of Lift by Melinda Gates
• The Wind by Lauren Groff (short story in The New Yorker)
• Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness
• The Tie That Binds by Kent Haruf, narrated by Danny Campbell (audiobook)
• For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
• Motherhood by Sheila Heti
• Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, narrated by Ruby Dee (audiobook)
• The Age of Phillis by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
• The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner
• The Known World by Edward B Jones, narrated by Kevin R Free (audiobook)
• Grown Ups by Marian Keys
• Indians on Vacation by Thomas King
• The Moor’s Account by Laila Lalami
• Two Trees Make a Forest by Jessica J. Lee
• Coming up for Air by Sarah Leipciger
• The Topeka School by Ben Lerner
• The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis
• Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in 40 Questions by Valeria Luiselli
• The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett by Annie Lyons, narrated by Nicolette McKenzie (audiobook)
• In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
• Celia’s Song by Lee Maracle
• Wintering by Katherine May
• Galatea by Madeline Miller (short story)
• In Ethiopia with a Mule by Dervla Murphy
• A Promised Land by Barack Obama
• Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
• The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa
• Humble Pi: When Math Goes Wrong in the Real World by Matt Parker
• Go Team Venture!: The Art And Making Of The Venture Bros. by Patton Cartoon Network, Jackson Publick, Doc Hammer
• A Better Man by Louise Penny
• All the Devils Are Here by Louise Penny
• The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher
• Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice
• The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, translated by Michele Hutchison
• Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
• Testimony by Robbie Robertson
• The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
• The Covent Garden Ladies by Hallie Rubenhold (audiobook)
• The Expendables by Jeff Rubin
• Chances Are by Richard Russo, narrated by Fred Sanders (audiobook)
• The Arab of the Future (book 4) by Riad Sattouf
• The Wonderful Adventures of Suzuki Beane by Sandra Scoppettone & Louise Fitzhugh
• A Wedding in December by Anita Shreve
• How to Raise an Elephant by Alexander McCall Smith, narrated by Adjoa Andoh (audiobook)
• Child of God by Cormac McCarthy
• Don’t Call Us Dead by Danez Smith
• A Far Cry from Kensington by Muriel Spark (audiobook)
• Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark (audiobook)
• Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
• The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis (audiobook)
• How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa
• On the Plain of Snakes: A Mexican Journey by Paul Theroux
• Flights by Olga Tokarczuk
• The Hobbit, or There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkien
• Celestial Navigation by Anne Tyler (audiobook)
• The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk
• Square Haunting by Francesca Wade
• Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead
• Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
• Word Problems by Ian Williams
• The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
• Swamp Angel by Ethel Wilson
• Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
• When Someone You Love has a Mental Illness by Rebecca Woolis

The chat window of today’s zoom meeting was also brimming with book and book-related articles, recommendations and more, including:

• Recording A Promised Land with Barack Obama (from Literary Hub)
• Alias Grace [by Margaret Atwood]: How a True-Crime Drama Became the Most Relevant Show on TV (Rolling Stone)
  on Netflix and CBC Gem
• A Discovery of Witches

Our previous silent book club meeting reports (online and in-person incarnations) and book lists are here.

You can also check out links to articles, CBC Radio interviews and more here – some with San Francisco-based Silent Book Club founders Guinevere de La Mare and Laura Gluhanich, and some with us here in east end Toronto.

Learn more about silent book clubs 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. Some clubs are currently on haitus, but many are running virtual meetings in different formats. Please feel free to contact me for more information about our club and its offerings.

Even if things get darker for a time, we can light our way and our spirits for now with reading and continued connections to our fellow readers.