The whole premise of silent book club gatherings is based on readers reading what they want to read, versus a book club dictating what everyone will read together). An interesting development in our group is that titles are making repeat appearances, a natural progression from a group of readers coming to know each other and respect each other’s recommendations. Further, some readers are having or suggesting side discussions to – wait for it – just discuss one title and delve into it more deeply. Oh my! Just like a traditional book club, eh?

I’m a reader, not a writer, so maybe I don’t have the gifts to express this precisely, but I wonder if we’re coming full circle in some ways because we’re coming to the same books through developing trust, not imposing taste. Over time – our group is over six years old now, with many long-time members – that trust has been nurtured both virtually and again, gradually, in person. Does it make some sense, perhaps, that our individual branches, roots and vines are intertwining? Just a thought …

In addition to our monthly go-round meetings, we continue to devote a second meeting every month to a bookish topic of discussion. The topic of this month’s themed discussion meeting was:

* Reading challenges – do you take them up? Do reading challenges – presented by libraries, Goodreads, events like Canada Reads, or ones you and your fellow readers make up yourselves – spark and inspire your reading, take you in new directions, etc.?

One of our regular members is all about the challenges … so we were very disappointed when she couldn’t make it to the meeting. Wherever she was that evening, her ears must have been burning, though, because we referenced and praised her commitment to challenges throughout the discussion. Coming a distant second to that member’s dedication is my own taking up of the Sealey Challenge (a community challenge to read a work of poetry every day for the month of August) for the last three years. Beyond that, our group agreed that apart from awards longlists and shortlists and the like, our greatest inspirations come from … book clubs like ours, and fellow readers such as the ones with which we surround ourselves.

As always, I can confidently predict you’re going to love our group’s latest combined book list and will find more than one book that will pique your interest. This list gathers up books mentioned and discussed by the end of our February 2024 meetings. Each list reflects the reading of many of our members, so dedicated to the group that they regularly 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.

Every title on our group’s lists means that at least one (but usually more) readers have given that title thoughtful consideration. That’s encouragement for you and other readers checking out our reports and lists to consider it, too. Does that mean every work on our lists is expressly recommended? Not exactly or necessarily. Inclusion on this list always means that our readers have devoted time and attention to a title, which means a lot.

• Aloud Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, edited by Miguel Algarin and Bob Holman
• The Bittlemores by Jann Arden
• Home of Sudden Service by Elizabeth Bachinsky
• God of Missed Connections by Elizabeth Bachinsky
• Things That Cause Inappropriate Happiness by Danila Botha
• The Rest of God by Mark Buchanan
• The Mountain and the Valley by Ernest Buckler
• We Are Mermaids by Stephanie Burt
• Living at the Movies by Jim Carroll
• The Basketball Diaries by Jim Carroll
• The Churchgoer by Patrick Coleman
• Sharp Notions, edited by Marita Dachsel and Nancy Lee
• Don’t Look Down by Hilary Davidson
• David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
• Childhood, Youth, Dependency – The Copenhagen Trilogy by Tove Ditlevsen
• The Between by Tananarive Due
• A New Season by Terry Fallis
• The Art Thief by Michael Finkel
• The Magus by John Fowles
• Heroes: the Greek myths reimagined by Stephen Fry (audiobook)
• The Checklist Manifesto: how to get things right by Atul Gawande, narrated by John Bedford Lloyd (audiobook)
• The Solitude of Prime Numbers by Paolo Giordano
• Happy Hour by Marlowe Granados
• Hidden Potential: the science of achieving greater things by Adam Grant (audiobook)
• The Talking Horse and the Sad Girl and the Village Under the Sea by Mark Haddon
• Sapiens (The Pillars of Civilization) by Yuval Noah Harari
• Weyward by Emilia Hart
• Directions for an Opened Body by Kenneth J. Harvey
• Time by Eva Hoffman
• Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson
• Slaves of New York by Tama Janowitz
• Vladimir by Julia May Jonas
• Happiness Falls by Angie Kim
• The Gwendy Trilogy (Gwendy’s Button Box, Gwendy’s Magic Feather, Gwendy’s Final Task) by Stephen King and Richard Chizmar
• Doppelganger by Naomi Klein
• The Biggest Bluff: how I learned to pay attention, master the odds, and win by Maria Konnikova (audiobook)
• Biography of X by Catherine Lacey
• Enter the Chrysanthemum by Fiona Tinwei Lam
• The Collected Poems of Irving Layton
• Essex County by Jeff Lemire
• The Future by Catherine Leroux
• Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman
• Kids Say The Darndest Things! by Art Linkletter
• Prophet Song by Paul Lynch
• How Canada Works by Peter Mansbridge
• Child of God by Cormac McCarthy
• The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
• The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donoghue, narrated by Tara Flynn (audiobook)
• Dictionary People by Sarah Ogilvie
• The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman
• What Really Happens in Vegas by James Patterson and Mark Seal
• Edge of Reality by Jacques Peretti
• The Mountains Sing by Nguy?n Phan Qu? Mai
• The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid, narrated by Alma Cuervo, Julia Whelan, Robin Miles (audiobook)
• Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice
• Come and Get It by Kiley Reid, narrated by Nicole Lewis (audiobook)
• Writing Home – A PEN Canada Anthology, edited by Constance Rooke
• The Lamp at Noon and Other Stories by Sinclair Ross
• There Are Places in the World Where Rules Are Less Important Than Kindness by Carlo Rovelli
• Love Novel by Ivana Sajko, translated by Mima Simic
• Love and Courage: my story of family, resilience, and overcoming the unexpected by Jagmeet Singh (audiobook)
• 24/6 by Matthew Sleeth
• The Coral Sea by Patti Smith
• Just Kids by Patti Smith
• M Train by Patti Smith
• New Selected Poems by Mark Strand
• Koko by Peter Straub
• Vinegar Hill by Colm Toibin
• Moccasin Square Gardens by Richard Van Camp
• Her Blue Body Everything We Know by Alice Walker
• Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
• The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
• Only This Blue by Betsy Warland
• The Right to Be Cold: one woman’s story of protecting her culture, the Arctic, and the whole planet by Sheila Watt-Cloutier
• Scoop by Evelyn Waugh
• Denison Avenue by Christina Wong, with illustrations by Daniel Innes
• The Fly in Autumn by David Zieroth
• Black Friend: Essays by Ziwe


Here are some extra book-related articles, resources, news and recommendations. 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.

• “We have all come across a book we were excited to read and have finally found the time to start but it is not gripping us the way we would like.” Kriti, a voracious reader, tackles Dealing with DNF: The Practice of Did Not Finish on her blog Armed with a Book.
• Can We Please Put an End to Overperformed Audiobooks? LitHub’s Maris Kreizman really doesn’t need to hear your version of a Cockney accent.
• ‘God forbid that a dog should die’: when Goodreads reviews go bad – Whether you use and find Goodreads a useful resource or not, it can definitely influence readers and writers.

 

Last fall, the worldwide Silent Book Club network welcomed its 500th chapter … and that incredible growth and momentum has continued into the new year. When Silent Book Club founders Guinevere de La Mare and Laura Gluhanich graciously hosted a couple of virtual meet-ups for club organizers around the world at the end of 2023 (I joined a meeting that spanned the US, and included representation from Canada, South Africa, Finland and more), they revealed that in fact, the SBC explosion continues and they now top 600 chapters! It had around 60 chapters when we joined as the first Toronto chapter in 2017.

You can always find our previous reports and book lists 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.

Tying this back to the hint of a theme with which I started this blog post, as the organization grows, so grows each chapter … and the branches, the roots, the vines, the myriad ways we connect as readers and connect with writers, grows and thrives too!