This past week’s virtual silent book club gathering was a little smaller than usual. But on a cold, blustery winter night, it still brought much-needed connection, warmth and light. I just wish we could have extended that to the book club member who couldn’t attend … because that blustery night meant her power was out.

Not only was there the cozy glow of our zoom screens, but a pleasant sidebar of our bookish exchanges was a discussion about how to light the book pages we turn to in the middle of the night when we can’t sleep (a challenge perhaps happening more frequently during the pandemic). Of course, ebook readers such as Kindles and Kobos are lighted by design, but what to do when you’re trying to enjoy a traditional paper book in the darkness, also trying not to disturb others who share your sleeping space? This discussion rather happily reminded me that I had a wonderful and steadfast book light (of which I’ve purchased a few, to make sure I’m never without one) that helped me through numerous recent sleepless nights.

Even when the gatherings are smaller, our reading lists associated with each meeting are plentifully composed of many members’ recent selections, because they send them to me for inclusion in the blog reports whether or not they’re in attendance. 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).

• Strange Things by Margaret Atwood
• Emma by Jane Austen
• Us Against You by Fredrik Backman, translated by Neil Smith, narrated by Marin Ireland (audiobook)
• Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden, narrated by Robert Ramirez, Ruth Ann Phimister (audiobook)
• The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
• Reacher: Killing Floor by Lee Childs
• The Haunting Season – Eight Ghostly Tales for Long Winter Nights by Bridget Collins, Imogen Hermes Gowar, Kiran Millwood Hargrave, Andrew Michael Hurley, Jess Kidd, Elizabeth Macneal, Natasha Pulley and Laura Purcell
• The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin
• Thousand Plateaus – Capitalism and Schizophrenia by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari
• It’s OK That You’re Not OK: Meeting Grief and Loss in a Culture That Doesn’t Understand by Megan Devine
• Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
• This Place by Sam Donaldson and Mike Sprout
• Washington Black by Esi Edugyan, narrated by Dion Graham (audiobook)
• What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad
• Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self by Danielle Evans
• Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
• Twelve Nights by Urs Faes
• Root of All Evil by E.X. Ferrars
• Love People, Use Things: Because the Opposite Never Works by Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus
• The Wars by Timothy Findley
• Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen
• The Liar by Stephen Fry (audiobook)
• Five Little Indians by Michelle Good, narrated by Kyla Garcia (audiobook)
• Scarborough by Catherine Hernandez
• Selected Short Stories of Franz Kafka
• In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson (audiobook)
• The Art of Falling by Danielle McLaughlin
• The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self by Alice Miller
• The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave, narrated by Jessie Buckley (audiobook)
• This Must Be the Place by Maggie O’Farrell
• Dog Songs by Mary Oliver
• Erebus: The Story of a Ship by Michael Palin
• The Hero’s Walk by Anita Rau Badami, narrated by Laara Sadiq (audiobook)
• Some Integrity by Padraig Regan
• Warmth: Coming of Age at the End of Our World by Daniel Sherrell
• Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
• Such Color by Tracy K. Smith
• Surviving the City. Vol. 2, From the Roots Up by Tasha Spillett-Sumner and Natasha Donovan
• Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
• Life in the City of Dirty Water: a memoir of healing by Clayton Thomas-Müller
• We Two Alone by Jack Wang
• The Colossus of New York by Colson Whitehead
• The Diversity of Life by Edward O. Wilson

More book-related articles, resources, news, recommendations and more are often inspired or offered by our members and/or come up during our discussions and chat, including:

• That book light that is my insomnia saviour is from Mighty Bright. Not only is it lightweight and clips securely to your book, it’s rechargeable. It’s seen me through several occasions throughout the pandemic when I used the #cantsleepreading hashtag.
• The Auschwitz Museum on Twitter is a compelling companion to the book In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson.
• Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self by Danielle Evans got its title from a line in “The Bridge Poem” by Donna Kate Rushin.

Our previous silent book club meeting reports (online and in-person versions) and book lists are always available for you to read and enjoy right 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 hiatus, many are running virtual meetings in different formats, and some are re-emerging carefully with in-person gatherings. Please feel free to contact me for more information about our club and its offerings.

Stay safe and cozy, with a stack of books (in whatever form) to warm heart and mind, and to always light your way.