Our silent book club readers are a witty and articulate bunch, it probably won’t surprise you to learn. Sometimes as the conversation flows jauntily around one absorbing reading updates after another, the synopses of different books enchants as much as the books themselves. When, for example, one of our readers described a book as being a “twisted spiritual quest”, not only was I captivated, but it sent me off on a wee tangent (not for long, because I didn’t want to miss the next update) on how we’re often on different literary quests with our reading – and hence the title of our latest report. Nuff said!

Our discussion meeting this month revisited a previous topic that was shot through with new and troubling urgency. Can we/should we separate the person from the work? We’ve discussed variations on this subject before, but the shocking Alice Munro news has all of us very sadly contemplating this again.

Much has been written, was published as recently as a couple of days ago, and will still be written on this. We took as our cue this piece by American writer Brandon Taylor. We vented, we grieved, we expressed a range of emotions, we admitted that we didn’t know how to express our feelings, we acknowledged that privilege plays a part in what we should and should not be focusing on …

After the meeting, I was inspired to send this message to the group:

“Thank you” was not nearly sufficient, but I want to thank all of you for taking part in last night’s silent book club discussion pop-up. One of the many joys of assembling with you, virtually and in-person, is that it is literally a joy, a celebration, so uplifting. That we can also gather to take on the thornier aspects of being dedicated readers is, well, maybe not something we want to make a habit of … but when we do, I am so grateful to do that with such thoughtful, insightful, articulate and generous individuals.

Every title on our group’s lists means that at least one (but usually more) readers have given that title thoughtful consideration. To be honest, that doesn’t mean that every work on our lists is expressly recommended. However, inclusion on this list always means that our readers have devoted time and attention to a title – and that, dear readers, means a lot.

• Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• Blasphemy by Sherman Alexie
• Bunny by Mona Awad
• Concrete Island by JG Ballard
• Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum, translated by Shanna Tan
• Loved and Missed by Susie Boyt
• The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
• The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin
• Car: A Novel by Harry Crews
• An Anthology of Monsters – How Story Saves Us From Our Anxiety by Cherie Dimaline
• The Doll’s Alphabet by Camilla Grudova
• Killdeer by Phil Hall
• Feebleminded by Ariana Harwicz, translated by Annie McDermott and Carolina Orloff
• None of this is true by Lisa Jewell
• The Ghost Map – The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic–and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World by Steven Johnson
• Doppelganger by Naomi Klein (audiobook)
• Have You Eaten Yet? Stories from Chinese Restaurants Around the World by Cheuk Kwan
• The Devil in the White City – Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson
• In the Garden of the Beasts by Erik Larson
• Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy (audiobook)
• The Other Fab Four – A Memoir by Mary McGlory & Sylvia Saunders
• Unruly by David Mitchell
• The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
• Off the Tracks – A Meditation on Train Journeys in a Time of No Travel by Pamela Mulloy
• The Coast Road by Alan Murrin
• You Are Here by David Nicholls
• Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor
• How to Do Nothing – Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell
• Essays by George Orwell
• Lilith by Eric Rickstead
• The Guncle Abroad by Steven Rowley
• How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair
• My Name is Barbra by Barbra Streisand
• Her First Palestinian by Saeed Teebi
• Table for Two by Amor Towles
• Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
• On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
• The Killer in King’s Cove by Iona Whishaw
• Lightning Strikes the Silence by Iona Whishaw
• Policing Ireland’s Twisted History by Alan W. Wilson
• The Orphans of Mersea House by Marty Wingate
• Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
• The Chrysalids by John Wyndham
• Braised Pork: A Novel by An Yu

Need 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.

• The New York Public Library (NYPL) celebrates James Baldwin.
• The New York Public Library (NYPL) recommends 25 Books To Get You Excited for the Summer Olympics.
• Need some inspiration and ideas to take on The Sealey Challenge poetry challenge in August? Try some poetry podcasts, including The Poetry Exchange and Poetry Unbound | The On Being Project.

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. In fall 2023, they welcomed their 500th chapter … and with breathtaking momentum, they are now boasting over 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.

Hoping you succeed in all of your literary quests!