Our silent book club group’s collected reading, which we regularly share here, is not just lists of titles, author’s name, publishing information, reviews – although they’re still mighty fine lists we hope everyone is sparked by, inspired by and enjoys.

In its tidy, alphabetical arrangement, the list cannot convey all the intriguing interminglings and intertwined intimacies that our conversations lend it, but oh, they are there. That is the alchemy of our books, our readers and our wonderful interactions. Today’s meeting was no exception. One reader’s update flowed to the next reader’s, and recurring themes and connections emerged. Zoom might have its shortcomings, but it’s easy to see when everyone is smiling – some smiles tinged with surprise and unexpected realization – and nodding in agreement.

In that intoxicating conversational flow from book to book, from book experience to book experience, from insight to insight, here are some of the flashes that glinted off the waves.

• As instructive and empowering as reading a respected book on how to make a marriage thrive, is coupling that with a comforting reread of Pride and Prejudice. In fact, don’t Elizabeth and Darcy offer an interesting model for constructive or productive fighting, perhaps?
• One book club member observed that she’d ending reading a lot of romance and relationship books of late. Even more satisfying than how many of those books concluded, she remarked “I love watching relationships develop.”
• Another member commented on how she slogged through but did not ultimately savour a book with an unlikeable main character. Isn’t it interesting, though, how we might appreciate the writer’s craft in creating an authentically unappealing or unsympathetic, but that same craft might alienate us from the book?
• Revisiting books from our past can be a comforting return to old friends and familiar words. It can be a revelation, as we see and learn new things absorbing the same words at different ages, from different life vantage points. It can also be fraught, as words and how they are used are now interpreted differently, through different social, historical or other lenses. Breaking Bread with the Dead: A Reader’s Guide to a More Tranquil Mind by Alan Jacobs posits some challenging approaches to books from other eras, whether or not they are part of our personal past reading.
• Reading aloud to a loved one is like your own personalized audiobook, isn’t it?

As I note with every report, our latest combined book list gathers the recent reading of many of our members, whether or not they attended the 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). Any title on any of our group’s lists means that at least one (often more) readers have given that title some consideration. That is enough, to my mind, to say that another reader reading our reports and lists might consider it, too. Is that an out-and-out recommendation? Not necessarily, but it means a title has been given attention and thought, which always counts for a lot.

• Historic Shelburne by Sarah Acker and Lewis Jackson
• Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, narrated by Campbell Scott (audiobook)
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson
• Lady Clementine by Marie Benedict
• O Pioneers! by Willa Cather
• Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
• One of Ours by Willa Cather
• Collected Stories of Willa Cather
• The View Was Exhausting by Mikaella Clements & Onjuli Datta
• Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club by Megan Gail Coles
• The Lighthouse Witches by CJ Cooke, narrated by Eva Feiler, Lesley Harcourt, Jess Nesling and Joshua Manning (audiobook)
• Sweet Home by Wendy Erskine
• The Trees by Percival Everett
• Relic by Alan Dean Foster
• The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work by John Gottman and Nan Silver
• Come Closer by Sara Gran, narrated by Julie McKay (audiobook)
• Toronto Reborn: Design Successes and Challenges by Ken Greenberg
• Not the Apocalypse I Was Hoping For by Leslie Greentree
• The Blood Card by Elly Griffiths
• Now You See Them by Elly Griffiths
• 10 Days That Shaped Modern Canada by Aaron W. Hughes
• Breaking Bread with the Dead: A Reader’s Guide to a More Tranquil Mind by Alan Jacobs
• The Unseen by Roy Jacobsen
• Bloomsbury Girls by Natalie Jenner
• The Friend Zone by Abby Jimenez, narrated by Teddy Hamilton and Erin Mallon (audiobook)
• Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
• Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid
• Thunderstruck by Eric Larson
• The Colony by Audrey Magee, narrated by Stephen Hogan (audiobook)
• Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
• Lessons by Ian McEwan
• One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston, narrated by Natalie Naudus (audiobook)
• The City Baker’s Guide to Country Living by Louise Miller, narrated by Jorjeana Marie (audiobook)
• Gathie Falk: Revelations by Sarah Milroy
• The Love Story of Missy Carmichael by Beth Morrey, narrated by Harriet Walter (audiobook)
• Home by Toni Morrison (audiobook)
• When We Lost Our Heads by Heather O’Neill
• The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman
• This is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett
• The Messy Lives of Book People by Phaedra Patrick
• Run Towards the Danger by Sarah Polley
• The Heart Is an Involuntary Muscle by Monique Proulx
• The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness by Elyn R. Saks
• Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly
• Paradise Lodge by Nina Stibbe
• Intruder by Bardia Sinaee
• On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
• Ragged Company by Richard Wagamese
• Places Lost – In Search of Newfoundland’s Resettled Communities by Scott Walden
• The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware
• In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware
• Thank You for Listening by Julia Whelan (audiobook)
• We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker
• Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zanier

Here are some additional book-related articles, resources, news, recommendations and more. These items and tidbits are often companions to books on the list, or are inspired or offered by our members and/or come up during our discussions and chat.

• “The pen is in our hands. A happy ending is ours to write.”
  Our group of readers joined in feeling with readers around the world at the sad news of the passing of British writer Hilary Mantel, whose historical fiction (two works of which won the Booker Prize), short stories and memoirs were much admired and beloved.
• Canada’s national newspaper The Globe and Mail is touting its newly reinvigorated Books section and coverage. We’re monitoring accordingly.
• The Brooklyn Book Festival, with in-person and virtual programs, is running from September 25 to October 3, 2022. Our Jersey City silent book club member will be there, and she is particularly looking forward to Chen Chen’s reading.
• Climate Week NYC from September 19-25, 2022 has an excellent reading list compiled by the New York Public Library.
• Cosplay: A History by Andrew Liptak, shared at a recent meeting, pairs well with this TED talk on cosplay.

Our previous reports and book lists are always available to inform, delight and inspire … 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 carefully running in-person gatherings again. Please feel free to contact me for more information about our club and its offerings.

Wishing you reading that flows and riffs and ripples from one entrancing experience to the next …