They always deserve it because they make us feel so good. However, I am going to minimize my usual rhapsodizing and fanfare about our recent silent book club meetings and great straight to the bookish deliciousness we shared in two warm, wonderful, witty online meetings this past week.

Our latest combined reading list blossoms, as always, with a diverse assortment of subjects, genres, styles and more. 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).

• The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo (audiobook)
• We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (audiobook)
• Magnetic Field – The Marsden Poems by Simon Armitage
• Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
• Beartown by Fredrik Backman
• The Cauliflower by Nicola Barker (audiobook)
• The Tradition by Jericho Brown (audiobook)
• Nomadland by Jessica Bruder
• More than Halfway to Somewhere, Collected Gems of a World Traveler by John Burbidge
• Constant Nobody by Michelle Butler Hallett
• Walking with Ghosts by Gabriel Byrne (audiobook)
• Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
• The Speed of Mercy by Christy Ann Conlin
• Vampire Never Get Old, edited by Zoraida Córdova and Natalie C. Parker
• South and West: From a Notebook by Joan Didion
• Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi, narrated by Vineeta Rishi (audiobook)
• The Graves of Whitechapel
  by Claire Evans
• Helium by Rudy Francisco
• Heroes: Mortals and Monsters, Quests and Adventures by Stephen Fry (audiobook)
• Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller
• Master of the Revels by Nicole Galland
• My Experiments with Truth: An Autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi by Mahatma Gandhi
• The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, narrated by Carey Mulligan (audiobook)
• Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks
• Mind Hacking – How to Change Your Mind for Good in 21 Days by John Hargrave
• The Patron Saint of Pregnant Girls by Ursula Hegi (audiobook)
• A Net for Small Fishes by Lucy Jago
• The Summer Book by Tove Janssen
• This Book Is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on How to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do the Work by Tiffany Jewel
• Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce
• Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri
• By Its Cover by Donna Leon
• The Topeka School by Ben Lerner (audiobook)
• Monstress Vol 1 by Majorie M. Liu, illustrated by Sana Takeda
• The Lost Words by Robert MacFarlane and Jackie Morris (audiobook)
• With the End in Mind: Dying, Death, and Wisdom in an Age of Denial by Kathryn Mannix
• From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks
• How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue
• Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan, narrated by Juliet Stevenson (audiobook)
• Paradise Regained by John Milton
• Voice of the Fire by Alan Moore
• Autobiography by Morrissey
• First Person Singular: Stories by Haruki Murakami
• The Ungrateful Refugee by Dina Nayeri
• Hamnet and Judith by Maggie O’Farrell
• Notes from a Young Black Chef: A Memoir by Kwame Onwuachi and Joshua David Stein
• A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki (audiobook)
• The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
• The Mind has Cliffs of Fall: Poems at the Extremes of Feeling, edited by Robert Pinsky
• Ant Farm and Other Desperate Situations by Simon Rich
• Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers
• Love, Lies and Hocus Pocus Beginnings by Lydia Sherrer
• Inspector Maigret Omnibus by Georges Simenon
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
• I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
• Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart, narrated by Angus King (audiobook)
• Introducing Sartre: A Graphic Guide by Philip Thody, illustrated by Howard Read
• Where the Line Bleeds by Jesmyn Ward (audiobook)
• In Tune: Music as the Bridge to Mindfulness by Richard Wolf
• Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots

More book-related articles, resources, recommendations and more were offered by our members and/or came up during this meeting’s discussions and chat, including:

• The Philadelphia Library has a number of virtual book club meetings and related programming associated with their One Book choices for this year: The Tradition by Jericho Brown and The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo. Learn more here.
• BBC Sounds is offering readings of Muriel Sparks’ works, by the author herself. Hurry here to enjoy A Far Cry from Kensington (abridged version) – it’s only available for a few more days.
• On May 20th, you don’t want to miss Nobel Prize winning author Olga Tokarczuk and author and translator Jennifer Croft in conversation, part of the Pittsburgh International LitFest Found in Translation events.
• To boost our young adult reading, silent book club member Sundus Butt has very kindly put together some great round-ups of mini reviews of recommended works. Take a look at her April and May selections.
• A fellow silent book club enthusiast from Seattle points out to us that Seattle Arts & Lectures (SAL) has created a Summer Book Bingo card for adults. Check it out here.

Boost your reading with fodder from our previous silent book club meeting reports (online and in-person incarnations) and book lists – you’ll find them here.

You can also check out links to articles, 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.

Stay safe, stay well, keep your spirits up … and seek out a sunny spot and keep reading!