The mark of an accomplished meeting facilitator is how they handle with aplomb the arrival of unexpected attendees. Full marks to our east end Toronto silent book club co-founder and zoom maven Jo, who was taking advantage of warmer weather hereabouts and running our latest zoom meeting while ensconced under a tree in her backyard … and who didn’t miss a beat when a possum arrived unannounced.

Possum in Jo’s backyard – Photo by Jo Nelson

Sadly, the possum departed without reporting on its latest reading, so we’ll never know if it leans towards fiction or non-fiction, or would be open to a bit of poetry. But happily, we’re left with further proof of a few things, including:

• There’s always room for one more whenever we gather.
• Ours is a group – like many of our peer silent book club groups around the world – that relishes the surprising and unexpected, in our reading and in our meetings.

Perhaps you’ll encounter the enticingly unexpected with our combined reading lists. As always, the books we share run the gamut of subjects, formats, genres, styles and much 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).

• NISHGA by Jordan Abel
• One Thousand and One Nights: A Retelling by Hanan Al-Shaykh
• Tall Bones by Anna Bailey
• The Sea by John Banville
• Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury
• Why the Devil Chose New England for His Work by Jason Brown
• Nomadland by Jessica Bruder
• The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather (audiobook)
• If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha (audiobook)
• Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
• What is Sound Healing? by Lyz Cooper
• Blueshift by Joshua Dalzelle
• The Bohemians by Jasmin Darznik
• The Beguiling by Zsuzsi Gartner
• The Beguiling by Zsuzsi Gartner, narrated by Amanda Cordner (audiobook)
• Wild Embers by Nikita Gill (audiobook)
• The Hill We Climb: an inaugural poem for the country by Amanda Gorman
• People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
• Crow by Ted Hughes
• When These Mountains Burn by David Jay
• Home Body by Rupi Kaur
• The Reason You Walk by Wab Kinew
• Sufferance by Thomas King
• The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune
• The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design by Roman Mars and Kurt Kohlstedt
• Life of Pi by Yann Martel
• The Right Attitude to Rain by Alexander McCall Smith
• Elmet by Fiona Mozley (audiobook)
• Shadowplay by Joseph O’Connor (audiobook)
• Dual Citizens by Alix Ohlin
• This is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett
• Sure, I’ll Be Your Black Friend: notes from the other side of the fist bump by Ben Philippe
• Harvest Poems by Carl Sandburg
• Salt Lane by William Shaw
• Love, Nina by Nina Stibbe (audiobook)
• Peace by Chocolate: the Hadhad family’s remarkable journey from Syria to Canada by Jon Tattrie
• How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa
• Ru by Kim Thúy, translated by Sheila Fischman
• Still Life by Sarah Winman
• Crying in H Mart: a memoir by Michelle Zauner (audiobook)
• Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots

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

• One of our silent book club members is making her way through the 2021 Women’s Prize shortlist, and other members have also enjoyed selections from this powerful list of finalists. The winner will be announced September 8, 2021.
• Take a look at at the New York Public Library Pride Month Books and Events.
• One of our silent book club members has found Lit Charts to be a useful resource for more deeply understanding and appreciating her reading.

As always, we invite our fellow readers to boost their reading with fodder from our previous silent book club meeting reports (online and in-person incarnations) and book lists – find them all here. Perhaps you’ll come across the unexpected!

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, stay hopeful … and, of course, do your best to keep reading!