There are so many kinds of bookish joy that we can relish as readers, individually and collectively. Every silent book club blog post is suffused with joy, wouldn’t you agree? Well, here are just two of the many kinds of bookish joy that were top of mind this past month.

• Our discussion meeting this month celebrated the mystique of books that make us laugh. Rolling out of that meeting was a generous list guaranteed to raise a chuckle or one’s spirits!
• Silent book clubs’ core function, inspiration, raison d’être is readers reading silently together, relishing bookish community. While our zoom meetings each month remain popular, we’re also doing more in-person meetings every month (as East End Toronto Coffee Co). We had an especially well-attended, companionable gathering captured in some of the photos here.

Every title on our group’s lists means that at least one (but usually more) readers have given that title thoughtful consideration. 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 – and that, dear bookish friends, means a lot.

• Watership Down by Richard Adams, narrated by Peter Capaldi (audiobook)
• The Idiot by Elif Batuman (audiobook)
• The World in a Grain – The story of sand and how it transformed civilization by Vince Beiser
• The Talk by Darrin Bell
• Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden
• Loved and Missed by Susie Boyt
• The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
• Also a Poet – Frank O’Hara, my father, and me by Ada Calhoun
• The Bodyguard by Katherine Center, narrated by Patti Murin (audiobook)
• Primary Obsessions by Charles Demers
• My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
• Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot
• Do What They Say Or Else by Annie Ernaux, translated by Christopher Beach and Carrie Noland
• Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
• James by Percival Everett
• Ask the Dust by John Fante
• The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World by Max Fisher
• The Spare Room by Helen Garner
• Messages of Hope by Suzanne Giesemann
• Olga Dies Dreaming: A Novel by Xochitl Gonzalez, narrated by Almarie Guerra, Armando Riesco, Inés del Castillo (audiobook)
• The Inheritance by Joanna Goodman
• Diva by Daisy Goodwin
• Green Dot by Madeleine Gray
• Late Edition: A Love Story by Bob Greene
• The Last Word by Elly Griffiths
• Uncommon Type – Some stories by Tom Hanks (audiobook)
• The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins
• Happy Place by Emily Henry
• Behind You by Catherine Hernandez
• Barbara Comyns: A savage innocence by Avril Horner
• Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance by Alex Hutchinson
• Denison Avenue by Daniel Innes & Christina Wong (audiobook)
• Dante’s Equation by Jane Jensen
• Poet Cop by Hans Jewinski
• Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village by Maureen Johnson
• Maureen by Rachel Joyce
• I was a Child by Bruce Eric Kaplan
• Dark Matter by Phillip Kerr
• Under the Dome by Stephen King
• Grey Bees by Andrey Kurkov, translated by Boris Dralyuk
• Pew by Catherine Lacey
• Whiskey When We’re Dry by John Larison
• Mobile by Tanis MacDonald
• The Swedish Art of Aging Exuberantly – Life wisdom from someone who will (probably) die before you by Margareta Magnusson
• How to Blow Up a Pipeline: Learning to Fight in a World on Fire by Andreas Malm
• Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy (audiobook)
• Tear by Erica McKeen
• The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality by Amanda Montell
• The Upside-Down World – Meetings with the Dutch Masters by Benjamin Moser
• The Progress of Love by Alice Munro
• Knife Skills for Beginners by Orlando Murrin
• Ernie’s America – The Best of Ernie Pyle’s 1930s Travel Dispatches by David Nichols
• If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane, narrated by Sara Novak (audiobook)
• A Year of Last Things by Michael Ondaatje
• Did Ye Hear Mammy Died by Séamas O’Reilly
• The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki
• Finding Margaret Fuller by Allison Pataki
• I’m a Fan by Sheena Patel
• Family Style: Memories of an American from Vietnam by Thien Pham
• Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe
• River Mumma by Zalika Reid-Benta, narrated by Tymika Tafari (audiobook)
• Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice
• All the Colour in the World by CS Richardson
• Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson
• Over My Dead Body: The Sensational Age of the American Paperback: 1945-1955 by Lee Server
• Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley
• Please Look After Mom by Kyung-Sook Shin, translated by Kim Chi-Young
• On Tyranny Graphic Edition – Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder and Nora Krug
• The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne
• Memphis by Tara M. Stringfellow, narrated by Karen Murray, Adenrele Ojo, Tara Stringfellow (audiobook)
• Her First Palestinian by Saeed Teebi
• The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood
• Human Transit: How Clearer Thinking About Public Transit Can Enrich Our Communities and Our Lives (Revised Edition) by Jarrett Walker
• Remember Me as Human by Lucy Walsh
• Harnessing Peacocks by Mary Wesley
• The Push & The Pull by Darryl Whetter
• Disorientation – Being Black in the world by Ian Williams (audiobook)
• The Bookbinder of Jericho by Pip Williams
• One Last Good Look by Michael Winter
• How Much of These Hills is Gold by C Pam Zhang, narrated by Catherine Ho, Joel de la Fuente (audiobook)

You can always find and immerse yourself in our group’s previous reports and book lists 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 the worldwide phenomenon of silent book clubs via Guinevere and Laura’s Silent Book Club web site. Last fall, they welcomed their 500th chapter … and with breathtaking momentum, they are now boasting 1,000 chapters!!! (There were around 60 chapters when we joined as the first Toronto chapter in 2017.) 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.

Wishing you many, many kinds of bookish joy!