It’s been a busy, sometimes fraught, sometimes challenging week – smack dab in the midst of which was what our group calls a “pop-up” silent book club meeting, assembled on shorter notice than our usual monthly meetings. In addition to affording us continued connection throughout the pandemic, Zoom has also allowed us to have meetings somewhat more spur of the moment than if we were meeting in person. (Not not NOT that we don’t want to meet in person, but …)

Anyhow, the pop-up meeting was smaller in attendance than our monthly gatherings, but still cozy and collegial. It was an oasis. It mitigated what had gone before in the week, and eased what came after, setting everything in perfect balance.

Even mid-month, on short notice, our combined reading list boasts of plenty. 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 White Lie: Women’s Voices from Gaza by Madeeha Hafez Albatta, edited by Ghada Ageel, Barbara Bill
• The Unwomanly Face of War by Svetlana Alexievich
• Intolerable: A Memoir of Extremes by Kamal Al-Solaylee
• Feeding My Mother: Comfort and Laughter in the Kitchen as My Mom Lives with Memory Loss by Jann Arden
• What Kind of Woman: poems by Kate Baer (audiobook)
• Suzanne by Anais Barbeau-Lavalette
• The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker, narrated by Kristin Atherton and Michael Fox (audiobook)
• Mad Shadows by Marie-Claire Blais, translated by Merloyd Lawrence
• Fungus the Bogeyman by Raymond Briggs
• Orwell by Pierre Christin and Sebastien Verdier
• The Spoon Stealer by Lesley Crewe
• Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan, narrated by Kyle Riley (audiobook)
• H of H Playbook, Euripides translated by Anne Carson
• Hex by Jenni Fagan
• Eminent Hipsters by Donald Fagen
• Mother’s Boy by Patrick Gale
• Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande
• Chhotu: A Tale of Partition and Love by Varud Gupta
• An American Sunrise: poems by Joy Harjo (audiobook)
• How to Be Yourself: Quiet Your Inner Critic and Rise Above Social Anxiety by Ellen Hendriksen (audiobook)
• Dog Stories by James Herriot
• Evening Chorus by Helen Humphreys
• Infinity Network by Jim Johnstone
• An American Marriage by Tayari Jones, narrated by Sean Crisden, Eisa Davis (audiobook)
• Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
• So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan (short story in The New Yorker)
• The Mad Women’s Ball by Victoria Mas
• Rizzio by Denise Mina
• Christmas Pudding by Nancy Mitford
• The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery
• Homesick for Another World by Ottessa Moshfegh
• Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh
• Hotline by Dimitri Nasrallah
• Holding by Graham Norton
• Hail, the Invisible Watchman by Alexandra Oliver
• Brood by Jackie Polzin
• The Maid by Nita Prose
• A Glass of Blessings by Barbara Pym
• The Carbon Cycle: Crossing the Great Divide by Kate Rawles
• Munnu: A Boy From Kashmir by Malik Sajad
• Suit by Samarth
• Pastoralia by George Saunders
• How to Be Perfect by Michael Schur
• Autumn by Ali Smith, narrated by Melody Grove (audiobook)
• The Ex Talk by Rachel Lynn Solomon
• The Truth Will Set You Free, But First It Will Piss You Off!: Thoughts on Life, Love, and Rebellion by Gloria Steinem
• How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa
• The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Jennifer Croft
• The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant by Michel Tremblay, translated by Sheila Fischman
• French Braid by Anne Tyler
• The books of Dorothy Whipple
• Falling into Place by Amy Zhang

The works of Miriam Toews are much beloved in this group, and we know we’re not alone or unique among readers and book groups. Toews’ oeuvre is rooted semi-autobiographically in the oppressive Canadian Mennonite community. Each book delves into how spirited protagonists and their families either cope or don’t, either escape or don’t, the fierce restrictions and expectations of the religion. Dark as that sounds, Toews’ themes and circumstances are tragicomic, meaning the darkness is leavened with sometimes astonishing and life-affirming humour.

How perfect, then, that film distributor Mongrel Media wisely assessed that a group like ours would be very interested in the movie version of Toews’ 2014 novel All My Puny Sorrows, and offered us passes to an advance screening. All who attended agreed that the movie is a splendid and accurate rendering of the book, well cast and beautifully presented on all levels. Here is a lovely interview with the stars, Sarah Gadon and Alison Pill, and an equally lovely review in The Globe and Mail by Johanna Schneller.

Our previous silent book club reports (for online and in-person meetings) and book lists are always available for you to enjoy and get some reading inspiration 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 or modified schedules, 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.