During our silent book club group’s latest go-round of what everyone has been reading lately – from which we all add new selections to our teetering tbr piles, often putting holds on titles on the library web site as the meeting progresses – the phrase “light reading” came up more than once. Used neither pejoratively or dismissively, our readers used it to describe books that delight, entertain, divert, but don’t necessarily overly demand. In doing all that, readers also observed that light reading can still teach, reveal, redeem and more. Does that make sense? Certainly, it made perfect sense to our group.

Everyone’s idea of light reading (and conversely, heavy reading) is different. When we seek or are receptive to one versus the other is different, too. Thank goodness there are so many “weights” of books out there to suit our every reading need, at any time!

Every title on our group’s generous combined reading lists means that at least one (but usually more) readers have given that title thoughtful attention. That doesn’t mean that every work on our lists is expressly recommended, of course. (But, of course, the lists as presented never give that away …) Inclusion on this list always means that our readers have devoted time and an open attitude to each title, and that counts for a lot.
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• The Assault by Reinaldo Arenas
• The Honditsch Cross by Ingeborg Bachman
• Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird by Agustina Bazterrica, translated by Sarah Moses
• A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder by Ma-Nee Chacaby with Mary Louisa Plummer
• Eddie Winston is Looking for Love by Marianne Cronin
• Clear by Carys Davies
• The Woman Destroyed by Simone de Beauvoir
• The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
• The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• Full-Rip 9.0: The Next Big Earthquake in the Pacific Northwest by Sandi Doughton
• One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad
• The Wedding People by Alison Espach
• Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito
• Curiosities by Anne Fleming
• Isola by Allegra Goodman
• Fair Play by Louise Hegarty
• The Margaret Code by Richard Hooton
• Miss Austen by Gill Hornby, narrated by Juliet Stevenson (audiobook)
• The Secret Life of Pigs by Richard Hoyle and Anita Krajnc
• Best Canadian Poetry 2025, edited by Aislinn Hunter
• Detective Aunty by Uzma Jalaluddin
• Murder in Highbury by Vanessa Kelly
• Cattail Lane by Fran Kimmel
• She by Kirby
• The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson
• Crow Lake by Mary Lawson
• A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson
• Cautery by Lucía Lijtmaer, translated by Maureen Shaughnessy
• The Crash by Freida McFadden
• The Hour After Happy Hour by Mary O’Donoghue
• Widows and Orphans by Elizabeth Renzetti and Kate Hilton
• The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge by Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by Michael Hulse
• Mistress of My Fate – The Confessions of Henrietta Lightfoot by Hallie Rubenhold
• Tales from Turnham Malpas by Rebecca Shaw
• The New Rector by Rebecca Shaw
• Trouble in the Village by Rebecca Shaw
• The Love of a Family by Rebecca Shaw
• Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
• Long Island< by Colm Toibin
• Three Days in June by Anne Tyler
• The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

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

• “To know everyone is going back to their world in the book, whatever that world may be – whether it’s Middle Earth, a dystopian future or the here and now with some detective sleuthing through the city – it’s comforting to be around.” Another fine article about the joys and delights of silent book club gatherings, from our beloved sbc member Kathryn …
• Harresh Sivamohan runs another of Toronto’s silent book club chapters. His friendly group gathers largely in downtown Toronto, several times a month. (I enjoyed one of their meetings at the Imperial Pub this past month.) Harresh recently spoke about his group on the CBC podcast This is Toronto.
• “Should I be disqualified from my book club because I use audiobooks?” asks Douglas Lawrence in a recent essay in The Globe and Mail. Absolutely not, sez our silent book club group, which boasts many discerning consumers of audiobooks.

Our group’s previous reports and book lists are always available 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 continuing, breathtaking momentum, they now boast closer and closer to 2,000 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 different in 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.

Every time you lift a book to your eyes and/or ears, here’s hoping it lifts your mind and spirit!