Winter returned to Toronto with a frigid vengeance this Saturday morning. Us silent book clubbers didn’t notice it at the time, mind you, so wrapped up were we in the company of other readers and our wonderful books, in cozy book/coffee shop Press. I’m confident silent book club is going to see us through a harsh winter, if that’s what we now have before us, judging by today’s meeting’s record attendance, which included four new participants.
Today’s recap was a nice blend of revisits with books that are making their rounds from reader to reader – again, testament to the trust in tastes and recommendations this group has fostered – with a cavalcade of new and varied titles. So let’s get right to the book list which, as always, encompasses all titles presented and discussed within the group. Each reader offers capsule positive, negative or mixed – always refreshingly constructive – reviews. Our list as I present it here has no rating system, just a link to either publisher information or generally positive reviews or informational pieces. The list is not inherently a list of recommendations, just a record of what we discussed. The list continues to reflect a diverse and vibrant range of subjects and genres that might spark the interest of anyone keeping up with our club.
- This Wound is a World by Billy-Ray Belcourt
- Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
- Milkman by Anna Burns
- The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie
- The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side by Agatha Christie
- Heartbreaker by Claudia Dey
- The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline
- The Art of Fiction by John Gardner
- The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard
- Woods Cop Mysteries by Joseph Heywood
- Harder Ground by Joseph Heywood
- Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
- Lightfoot by Nicholas Jennings
- Independent People by Halldor Laxness
- Get in Trouble by Kelly Link
- The Lost Vintage by Ann Mah
- Get the Picture – A Personal History of Photojournalism by John G. Morris
- Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill
- Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje
- There There by Tommy Orange
- Why Religion? by Elaine Pagels
- Foe by Iain Reid
- Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice
- Red Joan by Jennie Rooney
- Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney
- Rembrandt’s Eyes by Simon Schama
- Animal Liberation by Peter Singer
- Seven Fallen Feathers by Tanya Talaga
- Take Us to Your Chief by Drew Hayden Taylor
- Flights by Olga Tokarczuk
- Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler
- Affinity by Sarah Waters
- Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
- Educated by Tara Westover
- The Hidden Life of Trees, What They Feel, How They Communicate by Peter Wohlleben
- The Woo Woo by Lindsay Wong
I can hardly wait to see who joins us – books and people – next meeting!
As always, you can enjoy our previous silent book club meeting reports and book lists here.
Our silent book club was included in a recent feature about silent book clubs in the international news publication The Christian Science Monitor. Enjoy the article here. San Francisco-based Silent Book Club founders Guinevere de La Mare and Laura Gluhanich are featured in the February 2019 issue of O, the Oprah Magazine, describing the club’s genesis and extolling its virtues (if we haven’t done that enough here!) as the concept and clubs spread worldwide.
If you’re interested in starting your own silent book club or are in the Toronto area and perhaps interested in checking ours out, please feel free to contact me for more information.