This month’s “go round” silent book club meeting offered up another intriguing recurring observation. Almost to a person, each reader reported that something about their recent reading surprised them – mostly pleasantly, but not always.

Do we / should we always go into our reading with expectations? If so, are those expectations set by our previous experiences with that author or publisher, by awards conferred or good reviews garnered that suggest a certain standard or quality to the work, by recommendations from trusted sources (such as a really great group of book club members?) Or, might we head into the pages of a particular book with lowered expectations because you don’t trust the recommendation or recommendations, but feel obliged to read the book for some reason? And then – oh my! – the reading experience is better than you expected?

Do obligatory reads take the joy out of the reading experience … even if there’s the chance the book you really didn’t want to read might reward your efforts? Is it even possible to open (or start playing/streaming) any book with truly no expectations?

That recurring comment or allusion, and the cascade of questions it provokes, just might become the topic for further discussion at our next themed discussion meeting. That’s what happened last month, when the amusing and enigmatic title Duck Eats Yeast, Quacks, Explodes; Man Loses Eye led to a discussion of how sometimes an alluring title, an enchanting book cover design, or a wonderfully tactile, well-constructed book object draws us in to, perhaps, an enchanting reading experience …

I was so absorbed in this latest discussion (we’ve scheduled them mid-month every month since the start of this year) that I didn’t keep complete notes, but some observations and examples jumped out of what little I did scribble down:

• Really good book cover design makes you want to climb into the picture.
• Do beautiful book covers make you purchase those books? Well, did beautiful record album covers ever make you purchase those albums?
• Someone cited Zandra Rhodes’ cover of Treasures of Time by Penelope Lively as a favourite.
• Another book club member cited the striking cover of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley as a favourite.
• Another book club member praised the bright and intricate mosaic design of The Lost Letters of William Woolf by Helen Cullen.
• Over decades and generations, the Rupert annuals have a pleasing, comforting and consistent aesthetic.
• And for something completely different, but completely entrancing, take a look at Lit Hub’s 12 Best Book Covers of June, 2023.

Here is our group’s latest, always tempting and yes, often surprising combined book list, gathering up books mentioned and discussed at our end of June meeting, plus some mentioned in passing during our mid-month themed discussion. (You are probably going to have to click on every link to check each book’s cover!) Each list reflects the reading of many of our members. Many provide their reading lists even when they can’t attend a meeting. The titles featured in each of our reports encompass print and digital versions of books, along with audiobooks.

Any title on any of our group’s lists means that at least one (but often more) readers have given that title some consideration. That’s encouragement for you and other readers checking out 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.

• A Spell of Good Things by Ayobami Adebayo
• Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen
• The Testaments by Margaret Atwood, narrated by full cast (audiobook)
• The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood, narrated by Laural Merlington (audiobook)
• Old Babes in the Wood by Margaret Atwood, narrated by Margaret Atwood & 7 others (audiobook)
• Humanly Possible by Sarah Bakewell
• Griffin and Sabine by Nick Bantock
• Duck Eats Yeast, Quacks, Explodes; Man Loses Eye by Gary Barwin & Lillian Necakov
• Exit by Belinda Bauer
• spill simmer falter wither by Sara Baume
• The Postcard by Anne Berest, narrated by Barrie Kealoha (audiobook)
• Strong Female Character by Fern Brady
• Carering by Daisy Buchanan
• Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum, narrated by Jorjeana Marie (audiobook)
• The German Girl by Armando Lucas Correa, narrated by Joy Osmanski (audiobook)
• Mercy Gene by JD Derbyshire
• Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott (audiobook)
• The Great War by Marc Ferro
• Peace Talks by Tim Finch
• Fruit by Brian Francis
• Travelling In, Travelling Out: A Book of Unexpected Journeys by Namita Gokhale, Mishi Saran
• Coffee First, Then the World: One Woman’s Record-Breaking Pedal Around the Planet by Jenny Graham
• The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
• Not the Apocalypse I Was Hoping For by Leslie Greentree
• You Are Here – Around the World in 92 Minutes by Chris Hadfield
• Force of Nature by Jane Harper
• Exiles by Jane Harper
• The Other Black Girl: A Novel by Zakiya Dalila Harris, narrated by Aja Naomi King, with Joniece Abbott-Pratt, Heather Alicia Simms, & Bahni Turpin (audiobook)
• A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes (audiobook and ebook)
• The Story of Us by Catherine Hernandez
• The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson
• The Lost Garden by Helen Humphreys
• We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter, narrated by Kathleen Gati, Robert Fass (audiobook)
• Bullet Train by Kotaro Isaka, translated by Sam Malissa, narrated by Pun Bandhu (audiobook)
• Train Dreams by Denis Johnson
• A Garden for the Rusty-Patched Bumblebee by Lorraine Johnson
• The Perfumist of Paris by Alka Joshi
• Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit, What Inuit Have Always Known to Be True, edited by Joe Karetak, Frank Tester, and Shirley Tagalik
• Walk the Blue Fields by Claire Keegan
• Foster by Claire Keegan, narrated by Aoife McMahon (audiobook)
• The Dutch Wife by Ellen Keith
• The Dutch Orphan by Ellen Keith
• The Night Ship by Jess Kidd
• Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
• Letter to a Stranger: Essays to the Ones Who Haunt Us by Colleen Kinder
• This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger
• Diary of An Invasion by Andrey Kurkov, narrated by David Aranovitch (audiobook)
• Eavesdropping by Stephen Kuusisto
• Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger, narrated by Kinsale Hueston (audiobook)
• The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu
• The Giver by Lois Lowry
• Severance by Ling Ma
• The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning by Margareta Magnusson
• The Second-Worst Restaurant in France by Alexander McCall Smith, narrated by Timothy Ackroyd (audiobook)
• Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
• Outer Dark by Cormac McCarthy
• The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy, narrated by MacLeod Andrews & Julia Whelan (audiobook)
• The Council of Animals by Nick McDonell
• The Birth House by Ami McKay, narrated by Genevieve Steele (audiobook)
• Losing the Signal by Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff
• Hurricane Season by Nicole Melleby, narrated by Stina Nielsen (audiobook)
• Anne’s House of Dreams by Lucy Maud Montgomery
• Come As You Are by Dr Emily Nagoski
• Things I Learned from Falling by Claire Nelson
• The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man by Paul Newman, narrated by Paul Newman (previously taped) and 7 others (audiobook)
• Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
• Nala’s World by Dean Nicholson and Garry Jenkins
• Animal Life by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir, translated from the Icelandic by Brian Fitzgibbon
• There There by Tommy Orange
• Timecode of a Face by Ruth Ozeki (audiobook)
• Tell Me How to Be by Neel Patel, narrated by Vikas Adam (audiobook)
• Invisible Women: World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez (audiobook)
• Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
• Boat by Lisa Robertson
• Coronation Year by Jennifer Robson
• The Guncle by Steven Rowley (audiobook)
• No Crystal Stair by Mairuth Sarsfield
• Conquered City by Victor Serge, translated by Richard Greeman
• Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson
• Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson
• The Nine by Gwen Strauss, narrated by Juliet Stevenson (audiobook)
• The Kind Worth Saving by Peter Swanson, narrated by Keith Szarabajka, Kathleen Early, Helen Laser & Micky Shiloah (audiobook)
• Em by Kim Thúy (audiobook and ebook)
• Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
• Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
• The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verges
• The Call of the Wrens by Jenni L Walsh
• These Are Not the Potatoes of My Youth by Matthew Walsh
• Other People’s Houses by Abbi Waxman
• The Liar’s Dictionary by Eley Williams
• Don’t Tell Anybody The Secrets I Told You by Lucinda Williams
• Still Life by Sarah Winman (audiobook)
• Young Jane Young by Gabrielle Zevin

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.

• A great article recommended by one of our book club members:
  Have You Been to the Library Lately?
  Librarians once worried about shushing patrons. Now they have to deal with mental health episodes, the homelessness crisis, and random violence
  The Walrus (June, 2023)
• Still on the subject of book covers … 75 Covers of The Master and Margarita, Ranked, With Comment (Lit Hub, 2017)
• ‘The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning’ Is Your New Reality-TV Addiction – If you loved the book, you will want to check out how Amy Poehler has transformed it for TV.
• Nala’s World by Dean Nicholson comes to life on Instagram @1bike1world.

Our previous reports and book lists are always available to surprise, delight, captivate, challenge and add to your tbr pile. They’re always right here, growing every month.

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. Every club is a different size, format (in-person, virtual or combinations) and vibe, so contact a club’s organizers beforehand if you have any questions or preferences. Please feel free to contact me for more information about our club and its offerings.

We hope your reading is surprising you in good ways every day!