Our latest silent book club meeting report is introduced by the easternmost member of our east end Toronto group – Kathryn Eastman of Pontypridd, Wales. Moving “in real life” gatherings online has been challenging and fraught, whether for business, personal or pleasure – but it has not been without its wonderful opportunities. We’ve discovered that we can fling the doors of our gatherings wide open to welcome guests from, well, anywhere. That’s how we and many silent book club groups have enjoyed the connections with and insights from readers far outside our physical neighbourhoods.

Because we connected first with dear Kath via her vibrant and book voracious presence online, it’s perhaps apropos to riff off her Twitter bio to present her here. She’s a … Writer. Book Squirrel. Bookblogger. Tea drinker. Chocoholic. Rugby fan. Collects Pontypool RFC supporters’ stories. Nuts about squirrels h/t @squizzey. You can learn more about Kath and Squizzey, her bookish partner in crime, and relish her book previews and reviews via Nut Press.

When Bookgaga (as I then knew her) invited me to join a silent book club meeting back in November 2020, I confess I had little idea what one was. I mean, I knew what a book club was, and I’d seen photos from the socially-distanced meetings held in Toronto’s Stephenson Park but the silent aspect of it? Not so much. How did that work, I wondered, and why silent?

Was Silent Book Club founded by librarians (frustrated or real, aspirational or retired) who delight in shushing its members, while spending time reorganising their book stacks? Did members play suitably muted games of charades for everyone to guess what they were reading each month? Or was this a cover, no doubt gloriously embossed with gold foil and beautiful endpapers, for some strange bookish cult? And, even if it was, how odd could that be, given it involved books?! “Count me in,” I told her. “I’d love to come along.” And shortly afterwards, I received my invitation complete with secret codes and unique password. (If you read more non-fiction than I do, you might call this a Zoom meeting invite.)

Five minutes before the meeting started, I had a fleeting moment of panic, thinking, ‘What are you doing? You’re about to go into an online meeting with complete and utter strangers, apart from Bookgaga, who you ONLY know through Twitter, by the way. What if she’s late or doesn’t show up? How awkward is this going to be?’ But before I had time to gather any momentum from chanting “They’re book people, book people are good people,” I was in. I’d zoomed across the Atlantic Ocean to the East End of Toronto from my hillside home here in South Wales and landed in my first silent book club. All while being in lockdown with a global pandemic raging around us.

I’m not sure if the first rule of silent book club is not to talk about what goes on in silent book club but, given covid travel restrictions and the miles between us, what the heck, I’ll share this little nugget with you: silent book club meetings are not as silent as I initially thought. Gently nudged by Jo, who expertly facilitates the meetings together with Vicki (aka Bookgaga on Twitter), everyone shares what they’ve been reading since the last time they met. We have about 3 or 4 minutes each, and are on mute until we’re up. And here’s your little moment of zen … There’s no pressure to do that. You can simply log on and listen while everyone else shares, if that’s what you want to do.

Silent book club is as calm and relaxed as anything because you don’t have a set book to read before each meeting (as with other book groups), so you choose what to read and report back on. Canny members refer to a book list, while others have notes jotted down about their reading choices. I really need to start doing this because I get about as excited as a new puppy when I see everyone and (enthusiastically but probably pretty incoherently) babble on about the books I’ve read when it’s my turn. Speaking of pups, pets are warmly welcomed whenever they join meetings, whether they’re on time and there from the start, drop in or out, or crash them part-way through.

Once the meeting’s over – and here’s what makes it a silent book club – everyone’s invited to spend an hour reading. And I love this: the idea that I’m curled up on my sofa, reading the book I was just talking about, while the others are all settling down with theirs and doing the same over in Toronto warms my bookish heart. Reading is usually such a solitary occupation, how wonderful to know that you’re in good company instead? In pre-Covid times, I think the club met up in a coffee shop and would stay on to read there, or head over to Stephenson Park for an open-air session. As the Canadian Autumn (or do you say Fall?) turned into Winter, it was photos of those hardy souls meeting up OUTSIDE to share their love of books and reading that first captured my admiration.

Happily, the Saturday meetings niftily side-stepped any clashes with Wales rugby matches (crucial to securing my attendance at anything during International seasons) and being a night owl means that I am (usually – sorry about missing the last one, folks!) wide awake for the mid-week meetings scheduled for 7pm Toronto time which is midnight here in Wales.

Since that first meeting back in November, I’ve joined as many of the group’s meetings as I can while they continue to be held online. And, for the first time since the pandemic began, I’ve found myself wishing for lockdown restrictions to last a little longer, so that we can have the next meeting. And maybe the one after that …?

I have loved every single minute of my initiation into silent book clubs. It’s been fascinating to meet an entirely new group of people and get to know them through their books: the way they talk about the ones they’re reading; what they choose to start, finish, abandon or avoid; as well as how they find their way to this author or why they’re interested in reading about that particular subject matter, geographical area or time period. They’ve introduced me to new authors and fiction, particularly Indigenous authors and their work, and made me even more aware of what a wealth of reading there is out there, riches simply waiting for us to discover and mine.

Bookgaga and I joke that the East end Toronto silent book club extended beyond its borders to incorporate Wales, and have even dubbed it the Far Eastern Reaches in our emails. Thanks to the internet, a global pandemic forcing events and meetings online (one of the few positives to come out of this), as well as the wonderful woman who sent that first serendipitous invite, it really feels as if it has. I’m so grateful for the warmth, wit and enthusiasm with which I’ve been welcomed and to be a part of this friendly and relaxed book club means so much to me, in what’s been a tough year for all of us.

At some point, Bookgaga (the Twitter handle by which I knew her) became Vicki, and we went from being Twitter follows to bookish friends. This phenomenon is also manifesting itself among other silent book club members and I couldn’t be happier about that. I love the way in which books bring us together, whether we’re thousands of miles apart, separated by oceans, or living just a couple of city blocks away. They help us to travel, experience lives different from our own, meet new people and make friends, even with all the limitations imposed by a global pandemic. It’s where the true magic lies in joining a book club, silent or otherwise. Call it bookish alchemy, if you will.

Thank you to Vicki, Jo, and everyone at East end Toronto silent book club for sharing that with me.

As always, the books we share comprise a veritable cornucopia of subjects, formats, genres, styles and so 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).

• A Long Petal of the Seas by Isabel Allende, narrated by Edoardo Ballerini (audiobook)
• The Push by Ashley Audrain
• Snow by John Banville
• Why the Devil Chose New England for His Work by Jason Brown
• Nomadland by Jessica Bruder
• The Toronto Book of Love by Adam Bunch
• The Toronto Book of the Dead by Adam Bunch
• Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave
• A Life’s Work by Rachel Cusk
• The Bohemians by Jasmin Darznik
• D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths by Ingri D’Aulaire and Edgar Parin D’Aulaire, narrated by Paul Newman, Sydney Poitier, Kathleen Turner, Matthew Broderick (audiobook)
• The Family Way by Christopher DiRaddo
• Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi
• The Ravishing of Lol Stein by Marguerite Duras
• “Unearth” in The Best American Short Stories, 2018 by Alicia Elliott
• Old Baggage by Lissa Evans
• Poisonous If Eaten Raw by Alyda Faber
• Bossypants by Tina Fey
• The Beguiling by Zsuzsi Gartner
• Five Little Indians by Michelle Good, narrated by Kyla Garcia (audiobook)
• The Shape of Family by Shilpi Somaya Gowda
• One Ordinary Day at a Time by Sarah J Harris
• Sleepless by Romy Hausmann
• Crow by Ted Hughes
• Cover Her Face by PD James
• The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
• Boy Wonders by Cathal Kelly (audiobook)
• A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson, narrated by Maggie Huculek, Tajja Isen, Ian Lake (audiobook)
• Hum If You Don’t Know the Words by Bianca Marais
• The Animals in That Country by Laura Jean McKay
• Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, narrated by Frazer Douglas (audiobook)
• Dying to Be Me by Anita Moorjani
• Breath by James Nestor
• Letters from Johnny by Wayne Ng
• Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
• Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor
• Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor
• If You See Me, Don’t Say Hi by Neel Patel
• That Old Ace in the Hole by Annie Proulx, narrated by Arliss Howard (audiobook)
• Salt Lane by William Shaw
• The Late Monsieur Gallet by Georges Simenon
• Grand Union by Zadie Smith, narrated by Zadie Smith and Doc Brown (audiobook)
• A Far Cry from Kensington by Muriel Spark, narrated by Pamela Garelick (audiobook)
• Memento Mori by Muriel Spark, narrated by (audiobook)
• Blindfold Game by Dana Stabenow
• Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann
• Ru by Kim Thúy, translated by Sheila Fischman
• Reproduction by Ian Williams
• The Weekend by Charlotte Wood
• Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots

During a recent silent book club virtual gathering, our group moderator Jo, who was zooming in from her backyard, was paid a visit by a curious possum. (They aren’t as ubiquitous as raccoons in this east end Toronto neighbourhood, but there have been more and more sightings of these somewhat scary-looking but very gentle creatures in recent years.) That visit has inspired our first list, courtesy of Awesome Possum, of non-human reading recommendations. Humans and non-humans alike are invited to explore and enjoy …

• Ticks and What You Can do About Them by Roger O Drummond
• Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot
• Appleblossom the Possum by Holly Goldberg Sloan, illustrated by Gary Rosen
• The Possum Always Rings Twice by Bruce Hale
• The Case of the Puzzling Possum by Cynthia Rylant
• Dead Possums are Fair Game by Taryn Souders *

* Awesome Possum refused to recommend, must less even read this title.

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, immerse yourself in good reading as we all stay the course.