How many ways have we shared and celebrated with our silent book club group members how books feed our minds and spirits? Every time we assemble, virtually or in person, I find myself counting the ways and never stopping … from inspirational subject matter and moving depictions in specific books, to the warm company and often eye-opening insights of fellow readers.

Let me add to those many ways another delicious angle, thank you to one of our readers’ delightful perspective. We all love cookbooks, whether we cook, aspire to cook better or differently, or are cooked for (what a blessing!). Cookbooks vary in terms of the quality of their instructional layout and design, and the beauty of the ingredients, processes and finished products they illustrate. But how about cookbooks as literary experiences, too? That reader mentioned that she was indulging in some time off from work to immerse herself in Mi Cocina by Rick Martinez not only for the culinary inspiration, but to relish (see what I did there?) the storytelling. As the linked article says, “For Martínez, every recipe in the book is connected to a memory.” So, many kinds of nourishment …!

Heading into this new year, our group members pondered and decided to try switching up the format of our meetings to delve into some of the themes we touch on and skim over during our regular meetings. This departs from but does not replace our usual meeting format, where we go round the real or virtual circle and invite everyone to update the group on recent reading delights and challenges.

At mid-month, we convened a meeting focused on the topic of rereading: Do you revisit books, or do you always forge ahead to something new? If you do reread, what kinds of experiences have you had – more or less appreciation for a given work, etc.? Is a revisit more likely if you are rereading with your eyes or ears (relistening to an audiobook)?

The discussion was lively – I know, I know, so surprising with this group! For some, rereading is an exercise in comfort and recapturing another time in one’s life. For others, it’s a challenge or reinvestigation, to give a work a second chance, to seek new insights or clarification. From rereading, we wandered to other lovely topics, such as signing and annotating books and treasuring those books that hold our loved ones’ handwriting. Specific book titles came up during the discussion, as vivid examples and subjects of debate on the merits (or not) of rereading.

That first themed discussion meeting went so well, we’ve decided to try it again next month. Stay tuned for more on the topics we tackle next time.

[In addition to our virtual meetings this month, two group members had a mini in-person meeting to read quietly together at Budapest, a local restaurant here in east end Toronto.]

Here is our group’s first combined book list of the new year. This list reflects books mentioned and discussed in two meetings in January: our themed discussion at mid-month and our end-of-month go-round with all readers. As I’ve mentioned before, each list reflects the reading of many of our members, whether or not they attended the meetings in question. The titles featured in each of our reports encompass print and digital versions of books, along with audiobooks.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m regularly asked if our group recommends specific books. I answer that 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 encouragement, I’d say, for other readers reading our reports and lists to consider it, too. Is that a recommendation? It might be, but not exactly or necessarily. It always means that a title has been given thoughtful consideration and attention by our readers, which counts for a lot.

• The Joyce Girl by Annabel Abbs
• Son of Elsewhere by Elamin Abdelmahmoud (audiobook)
• The Bone Cage by Angie Abdou
• Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson
• Dearly by Margaret Atwood (audiobook)
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, borrowed as a Blind Date with a Book!
• The Metaverse And How It Will Revolutionize Everything by Matthew Ball
• Young Skins by Colin Barrett
• Indigenous Toronto – Stories That Carry This Place, edited by Denise Bolduc, Mnawaate Gordon-Corbiere, Rebeka Tabobondung, and Brian Wright-McLeod
• The Paris Apartment by Kelly Bowen, narrated by Polly Lee, Marisa Calin, Gemma Dawson, Steve West (audiobook)
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
• Milkman by Anna Burns
• Milkman by Anna Burns, narrated by Brid Brennan (audiobook)
• Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency by Chen Chen
• Counterfeit by Kirstin Chen
• The works of Agatha Christie
• Red Comet by Heather Clark
• Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke
• American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
• Boule de Suif by Guy de Maupassant (audiobook and e-book) en francais
• Trust by Hernan Diaz
• The Sentence by Louise Erdrich (audiobook)
• The works of William Faulkner
• A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor
• The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley
• Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller
• Bitter Oranges by Claire Fuller
• Life in the Fasting Lane: How to Make Intermittent Fasting a Lifestyle – and Reap the Benefits of Weight Loss and Better Health by Dr. Jason Fung, Eve Mayer, Megan Ramos
• Still Alice by Lisa Genova
• Pandora’s Jar Women in the Greek Myths by Natalie Haynes
• Pandora’s Jar: Women in the Greek Myths by Natalie Haynes (audiobook)
• Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey, narrated by Julia Whelan (audiobook)
• Book Lovers by Emily Henry
• Machine Without Horses by Helen Humphreys
• Deafening by Frances Itani
• The works of PD James
• Little Gods by Meng Jin, narrated by Karen Huie, Francois Chau, Emily Woo Zeller (audiobook)
• The White Hare by Jane Johnson
• Good Behaviour by Molly Keane
• Walk the Blue Fields by Claire Keegan
• Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
• The Dickens Boy by Thomas Keneally
• The Feast by Margaret Kennedy
• Things in Jars by Jess Kidd
• ‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King
• Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon (audiobook)
• Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li, narrated by Eunice Wong, Austin Ku (audiobook)
• Good Riddance by Elinor Lipman (audiobook)
• Fayne by Ann-Marie MacDonald (audiobook)
• Light, Gesture and Color by Jay Maisel
• Mi Cocina by Rick Martinez
• Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May, narrated by Rebecca Lee (audiobook)
• A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing by Eimear McBride
• A Girl is a Half-formed Thing by Eimear McBride (audiobook)
• Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
• Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy, narrated by Julia Whelan and Edoardo Ballerini (audiobook)
• The Other End of the Leash by Patricia McConnell
• Lessons by Ian McEwan
• The Education of Augie Merasty by Joseph Auguste Merasty with David Carpenter
• The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
• Regenesis by George Monbiot
• Bay of Spirits by Farley Mowat
• Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
• If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English by Noor Naga (audiobook)
• You Don’t Look Your Age and Other Fairy Tales by Sheila Nevins, narrated by Lena Dunham, Meryl Streep, Katie Couric, RuPaul, Martha Stewart, full cast (audiobook)
• Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
• Jawbone by Monica Ojeda
• The No-Show by Beth O’Leary
• The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
• The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman
• A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny
• Beaverland by Leila Philip
• Barkskins by Annie Proulx
• Engraved: Canadian Stories of World War One, edited by Bernadette Rule
• Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
• The Jewel in the Crown by Paul Scott
• Towards a General Theory of Love by Clare Shaw
• The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb, narrated by JD Jackson and Brendan Slocumb (audiobook)
• A Song of Comfortable Chairs by Alexander McCall Smith, narrated by Lisette Lecat (audiobook)
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
• The Acoustic World of Early Modern England by Bruce R. Smith
• The works of Muriel Sparks
• The Secret History by Donna Tartt
• Address Unknown by Kathrine Kressmann Taylor
• The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Jennifer Croft, narrated by Allen Lewis Rickman, Gilli Messer (audiobook)
• The Meaning in the Making by Sean Tucker
• The Last Beekeeper by Siya Turabi, narrated by Devesh Kishore (audiobook)
• The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler
• Tranquility by Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters by Laura Vanderkam (audiobook)
• The Broom of the System by David Foster Wallace
• Integral Meditation by Ken Wilber
• The works of PG Wodehouse
• A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

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.

• Here are 10 Booker-nominated books to inspire a fresh start to your 2023 reading.
• Ann-Marie MacDonald’s acclaimed novel Fall On Your Knees has been adapted for the stage, is now in performances and will be touring Canada.
• “This is when you are so absorbed in what you are doing that you lose all sense of yourself, and time seems to fall away, and you are flowing into the experience itself. It is the deepest form of focus and attention that we know of.” Like, say, reading …?
• Take a look at the Canada Reads 2023 contenders.
• Tim Ferris interviews James Clear (author of Atomic Habits). Get ready for an interesting discussion of how Clear launched the book and breaks down how to build good habits.

Our previous reports and book lists are available to intrigue, amuse, provoke and add to your tbr pile … 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 on hiatus or modified schedules, many are running virtual meetings in different formats, and some are carefully running in-person and hybrid gatherings. Please feel free to contact me for more information about our club and its offerings.

Hoping your new year in reading is off to an amazing and scrumptuous start!