Our latest silent book club meeting report is introduced by long-time member Kim Maxwell. Kim is a retired bookkeeper/income tax preparer, widowed with 2 children and 2 grandchildren. She is a long time Toronto East Ender and a fervent fan of audiobooks. Her many interests include life enhancement learning, the arts and travel. She inherited her love of reading from her mother who always said “If you have a book to read, then you will never be bored or lonely”.

I have always wanted to join a book club but felt inhibited by the required book selection and the fact that I am a slow reader. When I heard about the SBC in East Toronto, I was intrigued. Not only could I read a book of my choice but would have the opportunity to read silently for an hour without guilt. I rarely sat at home alone to read due to many chores that were beckoning. Hence my love for audiobooks. I could “read” while I worked, cooked, cleaned etc. – no time wasted and boredom at bay.

I have been an audiobook fan for many years. It started with being stuck in traffic on my way to work and discovering that listening to audiobooks helped me pass the time without frustration – the only downside was that sometimes I was so engrossed in the story that I missed my exit but that just gave me more time to listen. Audiobooks are becoming more mainstream now with an abundance of titles. Almost any book in print can be downloaded as either an e-book or an audiobook. At one time there was a snobbery with regards to reading versus listening; the former being supposedly superior. It was as if “listening” to a book did not count. Fortunately, that attitude has changed.

To me, the narrator is the most important feature of the book. If the story is dull but the narrator is excellent, then the experience is ok, a decent time waster. If the story is compelling but the narrator speaks in a monotone, then the book is only good for sleep inducing and you will wonder what all the fuss is about. But if the story is interesting and/or exciting with the addition of an outstanding narrator, then the experience is absolutely joyful. Currently, the trend is to use talented, versatile and often well-known performers to narrate these audiobooks. In my opinion, the voice makes all the difference to the audio experience.

My biggest surprise in joining the SBC was not the luxury of reading silently for an hour but rather being exposed to so many different authors and types of reading material. I listen intently to the reading choices of the other members, noting their reviews, both good and bad. I certainly have expanded my reading interests and have been introduced to quite an eclectic list of authors and titles. For me this has been one of the best benefits to my belonging to this book club.

Again this month, our silent book club meetings ranged from zoom gatherings from our homes and cottages to, thankfully, the great outdoors of our favourite local park.

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Our always generous reading list is especially extensive this month because it combines discussions from two meetings, a pop-up weeknight evening meeting and our regular Saturday morning meeting. 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).

• Stay with Me by Ayobami Adebayo
• Calling a Wolf a Wolf by Kaveh Akbar
• My Name is Jensen by Heidi Amsinck
• Nothing Ventured by Jeffrey Archer
• The Traveling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa, translated by Philip Gabriel, narrated by George Blagden (audiobook)
• Postbox Kashmir: Two Lives in Letters by Divya Arya
• Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, narrated by Nadia May (audiobook)
• Windsor Knot by S.J. Bennett
• Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury
• The Whispering House by Elizabeth Brooks
• The Tradition by Jericho Brown, narrated by JD Jackson (audiobook)
• Bearwalker by Joseph Bruchac
• This Time Together: Laughter and Reflection by Carol Burnett
• A Tiding of Magpies by Steve Burrows
• The Other Passenger by Louise Candlish
• The Longest Road, Overland in Search of America, from Key West to the Arctic Ocean by Philip Caputo
• Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter (audiobook)
• Heads or Tails by Lilli Carré
• Yolk by Mary H.K. Choi
• The Skin We’re In by Desmond Cole (audiobook)
• Chop Suey, USA by Yong Chen
• Nemesis by Agatha Christie
• Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
• The Austen Years by Rachel Cohen
• The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins
• Rain and Other Stories by Mia Couto, translated by Eric M.B. Becker
• The Golden Rule by Amanda Craig
• The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin
• The Bohemians by Jasmin Darznik
• Empire of Wild by Cherie Dimaline
• Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann
• Miss Treadway and the Field of Stars by Miranda Emmerson
• V for Victory by Lissa Evans
• Old Baggage by Lissa Evans
• Crooked Heart by Lissa Evans
• Their Finest Hour and a Half by Lissa Evans
• Horten’s Miraculous Mechanisms by Lissa Evans
• The Searcher by Tana French, narrated by Roger Clark (audiobook)
• Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller
• Just Let Me Look At You by Bill Gaston
• The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh
• Mrs Death Misses Death by Salena Godden
• Five Little Indians by Michelle Good
• Spoonbenders by Daryl Gregory
• The Comfort Book by Matt Haig
• The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
• Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz
• Chop Suey Nation by Ann Hui (audiobook)
• Names of New York by Joshua Jelly-Shapiro
• Malibu Rising: A Novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid, narrated by Julia Whelan (audiobook)
• Me by Elton John
• Indigenous Relations – Insights, Tips & Suggestions to Make Reconciliation a Reality by Bob Joseph with Cynthia F. Joseph
• Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce
• Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce, narrated by Juliet Stevenson (audiobook)
• Touring the Land of the Dead by Maki Kashimada translated from the Japanese by Haydn Trowell
• Grown Ups by Marian Keyes
• Intimations: Stories by Alexandra Kleeman
• Pie in the Sky by Remy Lai
• Crow Lake by Mary Lawson
• A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson
• Papaya Salad by Elisa Macellari
• Duran Duran, Imelda Marcos & Me by Lorina Mapa
• When the Stars Go Dark by Paula McLain
• Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss, narrated by Christine Hewitt (audiobook)
• Outlawed by Anna North
• Hamnet & Judith by Maggie O’Farrell, narrated by Daisy Donovan (audiobook)
• The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
• A Corruption of Blood by Ambrose Parry
• The Bees by Laline Paull
• An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears
• The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher
• Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher
• The Sober Diaries by Clare Pooley
• Close Range by Annie Proulx, narrated by William Dufris (audiobook)
• The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley
• The Duke and I by Julia Quinn, narrated by Rosalyn Landor (audiobook)
• Say Nothing: A true story of murder and memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe, narrated by Matthew Blaney (audiobook)
• Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe
• Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
• Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice
• New Teeth: Stories by Simon Rich
• Ant Farm and Other Desperate Situations by Simon Rich
• Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson, narrated by Therese Plummer (audiobook)
• Not Dark Yet by Peter Robinson
• The Secret She Keeps by Michael Robotham, narrated by Lucy Price-Lewis (audiobook)
• Honey and Salt by Carl Sandburg
• A Time of Changes by Robert Silverberg
• Love & Courage: My Story of Family, Resilience, and Overcoming the Unexpected by Jagmeet Singh
• Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford
• The Great Hotel Murder by Vincent Starrett
• We Should Hang Out Sometime by Josh Sundquist (audiobook)
• A Test of Wills by Charles Todd
• A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
• Why We Swim by Bonnie Tsui (audiobook)
• Why We Sleep: Unlocking the power of sleep and dreams by Matthew P. Walker
• Stargazing by Jen Wang
• The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, BBC Radio version (audiobook)
• Still Life by Sarah Winman
• The Annotated Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, annotated by Merve Emre
• Version Zero by David Yoon, narrated by Kevin Free (audiobook)
• Some are Always Hungry by Jihyun Yun

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:

• The Sealey Challenge started in 2017, when American poet Nicole Sealey challenged herself and others to read a poetry work a day for every day in the month of August. I took up the challenge again this year and am in the homestretch, after also successfully completing it in 2020. Those taking part note their progress on social media using the hashtag #TheSealeyChallenge. Take a look and, maybe, dip into some poetry yourself.
• August is also Women in Translation Month (#WITMonth). It was initiated in 2014 by book blogger Meytal Radzinski. She grew up speaking English and Hebrew, and her multilingual family often encouraged her to read literature in translation.
• Book festivals around the world are looking at hybrid versions of their series, with online programs and carefully mounted, social distancing compliant live events. Some recommended by our members include the Edinburgh International Book Festival and the Brooklyn Book Festival.
• As A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles is much beloved by many of our book club members, it’s no wonder Towles’ latest, The Lincoln Highway, is highly anticipated.
• Lighten your heart with selections from the Comedy Women in Print 2021 longlist. This is the UK & Ireland’s first comedy literary prize.
• Who Said It: Pooh or Proust? Thanks to the New York Public Library for this diverting quiz.

Fellow readers, you are always welcome to boost your 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 new and unexpected bookish delights!

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 hiatus, 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, stay immersed in wonderful, inspiring and rejuvenating books!