Yes, yes, we know April showers bring May flowers, and we’re grateful for that … but while April is doing that dreary thing, how better to pass the time than in the company of a warm gathering of readers?

As one of our readers observed this time round, she enjoys the experience in her reading of peeking over the shoulders of different characters and observing them living their lives, thinking their thoughts and so on. By extension, we get in some respects to peek over the shoulders of writers sharing their craft and of course, groups like ours get to peek over each others’ shoulders as we read and absorb the work before us. And further, you get to peek over our shoulders when we share our discussions and reading lists with you every month.

We now balance our silent book club virtual meetings each month with a mid-month themed discussion, and a month-end round-up of our reading delights, challenges and recommendations – not quite bookends, but just as desirable, sturdy and reliable.

Now that we’ve given ourselves space for exploring themes, more seem to surface every time we gather. In this most recent meeting, interestingly, many readers reported balancing dark reading – different degrees of forbidding, depressing, disturbing, unsettling – with light – entertaining, amusing, diverting, perhaps somewhat less demanding. Maybe that could be expanded into a discussion, along with what The Book of Forgotten Authors by Christopher Fowler might invite: why do popular and/or acclaimed authors slip off readers’ collective radar?

During her trip to Dordrecht, Netherlands, silent book club member Beth encountered this charming little library box

Silent book club member Anne-Louise acquired a stack of delicious books to replenish her tbr pile from the Fairlawn United Church book sale, celebrating its 60th anniversary

Silent book club member Catherine borrowed a bundle of colourful poetry chapbooks from the New York Public Library

Silent book club member Sue R’s book pile of recent reading

Silent book club member Tom’s dog is an affectionate reading companion

Me, getting ready for our silent book club’s latest zoom meeting

Here is our group’s latest combined book list, reflecting books mentioned and discussed at our end of April meeting. As you know, each list reflects the reading of many of our members. Many 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.

Any title on any of our group’s lists means that at least one (but often more) readers have given that title some consideration. That is encouragement, I’d say, for other readers checking out our reports and lists to consider it, too. Is that a recommendation? It might be, but not exactly or necessarily. It always means that a title has been given thoughtful consideration and attention by our readers, which counts for a lot.

• Son of Elsewhere by Elamin Abdelmahmoud (audiobook)
• The Return of Faraz Ali by Aamina Ahmad, narrated by Homer Todiwala, Nina Wadia (audiobook)
• Big Sky by Kate Atkinson
• Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
• Longbourn by Jo Baker
• Humanly Possible – Seven Hundred Years of Humanist Freethinking, Inquiry, and Hope by Sarah Bakewell
• In Search of Al Howie by Jared Beasley
• The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
• This Accident of Being Lost by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson (audiobook)
• Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown, narrated by Anna Paquin (audiobook)
• The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World by Steve Brusatte
• Milkman by Anna Burns
• Mr. Wilder & Me by Jonathan Coe
• Our Spoons Came From Woolworths by Barbara Comyns
• The German Girl by Armando Lucas Correa
• Changing Gears: A Distant Teen, a Desperate Mother, and 4,228 Miles Across the Transamerica Bicycle Trail by Leah Day
• A Killing of Innocents by Deborah Crombie
• Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis
• Trust by Hernan Diaz, narrated by Edoardo Ballerini, Jonathan Davis, Mozhan Marnò, Orlagh Cassidy (audiobook)
• Secret Path by Gord Downie and Jeff Lemire
• Exorcism Becomes Habit by Nikki Dudley
• Shadow Tag by Louise Erdrich
• Old Baggage by Lissa Evans
• Exile Issue 45.2
• Human Voices by Penelope Fitzgerald
• The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald
• The Book of Forgotten Authors by Christopher Fowler
• Retribution by Anthea Fraser
• Afterlives by Abdulrazak Gurnah, narrated by Damian Lynch (audiobook)
• In a Country Garden by Maeve Haran
• Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes
• Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes (audiobook)
• Some Hellish by Nicholas Herring
• Dr. Stone Volumes 1-10, created by Riichiro Inagaki and Boichi
• Fault Lines by Emily Itami, narrated by Lydia Wilson (audiobook)
• Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson
• Bad Cree by Jessica Johns, narrated by Tanis Parenteau (audiobook)
• Trespasses by Louise Kennedy, narrated by Brid Brennan (audiobook)
• The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
• Dear Current Occupant by Chelene Knight
• On the Ravine by Vincent Lam
• How Words Get Good: The Story of Making a Book by Rebecca Lee
• So Shall You Reap by Donna Leon, narrated by David Colacci (audiobook)
• Do Hard Things: Why We Get Resilience Wrong and the Surprising Science of Real Toughness by Steve Magness
• The Road Headed West: America Coast to Coast: A Cycling Odyssey by Leon McCarron
• Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy
• Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore, narrated by Brittany Pressley (audiobook)
• A Touch of Jen by Beth Morgan
• Someone Else’s Shoes by Jojo Moyes
• If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English by Noor Naga
• Welcome Me to the Kingdom by Mai Nardone
• Hotline by Dimitri Nasrallah
• Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls: Stories by Alissa Nutting
• Animal Life by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir, translated from the Icelandic by Brian Fitzgibbon
• Did Ye Hear Mammy Died by Séamas O’Reilly
• All the Devils Are Here by Louise Penny
• The Pact by Jodi Picoult, narrated by George Guidall (audiobook)
• Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys
• Tell Me I’m Worthless by Alison Rumfitt
• Gold: Poems by Rumi, translated by Haleh Liza Gafori
• Diagnosing Minor Illness in Children by Kerry Ryan
• The Fortnight in September by R.C. Sherriff
• Spring by Ali Smith
• You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith
• Ai Ladki by Krishna Sobti
• The Wish by Nicholas Sparks
• Immortal North by Tom Stewart
• Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
• From the Ashes by Jesse Thistle
• Scars and Stars by Jesse Thistle
• In the Upper Country by Kai Thomas
• Dead Heat by Benedek Totth
• Growing Things and Other Stories by Paul Tremblay
• The Strangers by Katherena Vermette
• One Native Life by Richard Wagamese
• Life is a Wheel: A Passage Across America by Bicycle by Bruce Weber

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

• It’s not retirement, she says: “I see it more as a change of pace. I’m planning to stay in the game. I’m hoping to use the wealth of my experience to take on different projects.” Still, faithful Canadian readers are sad to see the incomparable Eleanor Wachtel leave CBC Radio’s Writers and Company after 33 years.
• Poetry Foundation invites poetry lovers to make a suncatcher.
• Cillian Murphy is producing and starring in the film adaptation of Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These.
• Kate Beaton’s Ducks won the 2023 Canada Reads competition. (Yes, this came up – in a good way – during our recent discussion about book awards and competitions.)
• Silent book club member Jenn’s literary Instagram feed is gorgeous and engrossing – check it out!

Our previous reports and book lists are available to captivate, amuse, intrigue and add to your tbr pile … 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 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. Some clubs are on hiatus or modified schedules, many are running virtual meetings in different formats, and many are back to running in-person and hybrid gatherings. Please feel free to contact me for more information about our club and its offerings.

Even when you can’t make it to our book club or your book club, or you don’t currently have a book club to gather with bookloving friends, we hope our readings lists and discussions here providing nourishing, bookish fodder for everyone!

At the start of the new year, our silent book club group members pondered and decided to try switching up the format of our meetings to delve into some of the themes we touch on and skim over during our regular meetings. The usual refrain from those of us moderating each meeting was, “But that’s a subject for another day …” Well, we decided to make those subjects the focus of another day and another meeting.

Themed discussions depart from but did not replace our usual meeting format, where we go round the real or virtual circle and invite everyone to update the group on recent reading delights and challenges. Since we have continued to keep up the twice-monthly tempo we established at the start of the pandemic, we decided to still have our Saturday morning, month end meetings for those regular and very lively go-rounds. Mid-month, we have what are called pop-up meetings, because they pop up with somewhat less advance notice than the Saturday meetings, typically take place in the early evening on a weekday, but vary from month to month. We’ve made the pop-up meetings our themed discussion meetings.

We’ve now had four such meetings, and I think it’s safe to say they’re a successful addition to our silent book club community. The meetings have somewhat fewer attendees – maybe 7-10, versus 12 to 15 or more for our go-round meetings. Striving to keep the meeting to around an hour, maybe a bit more, everyone in these smaller gatherings has plenty of opportunity to contribute to the conversation. In fact, I wonder if the somewhat smaller gatherings make it a little more comfortable for all to speak up. (We continue to offer a “listen only” option for all of our meetings, but I don’t recall if anyone has opted for that during our themed discussions.)

Here are the topics we’ve delved into in our themed discussion meetings so far. We always have two topics ready to go at the start of each meeting, in case one discussion runs out of steam or runs its course – although most of the discussions seem to have lots of momentum.

• Rereading – Do you revisit books, or do you always forge ahead to something new? If you do reread, what kinds of experiences have you had – more or less appreciation for a given work, etc.? Is a revisit more likely if you are rereading with your eyes or ears (relistening to an audiobook)?
• Influential authors and books – What is the book or who is the author that has been the greatest influence on you as a reader, and has stayed with you over the years? What is the book or author that has inspired some of your fondest or funniest memories?
• Unpleasant reading – What if a book turns unpleasant and out of your comfort zone? If an author is doing a commendable job of creating a graphic, disturbing or overly suspenseful situation, but it is not a comfortable reading experience, do you carry on or stop?
• Authors and lived experience – To what extent must an author have lived the experiences of their characters? As a reader, are you concerned or do you even check first to find out if an author knows firsthand about the socio-economic status, race, functional abilities, credos and so on of their characters? Or can an author achieve convincing authenticity with research, imagination and sympathy?
• Literature in translation – Do you read works in translation? (If not, why not?) What is satisfying or leaves you with questions about reading works that you are not able to read in their anguages of origin?

Highlights from these discussions are included in our previous meeting reports.

This past week, we tackled this timely subject:

• Literary awards, lists and competitions – Are they important, are they resources that guide your reading decisions, do they influence what you read? Or not? In addition to how they serve readers, how do awards, competition and bestseller lists best serve writers and publishers?

Certainly not to downplay the monetary benefits to writers and publishers of awards purses and increased book sales, our readers were less convinced that such recognitions still serve readers particularly well. Not all awards shortlists and bestseller lists seem to offer the sense of revelation and discovery that maybe they used to – are some awards performative for the founders or organizations behind them? Or is a group like ours already pretty fortunate to, well, have ourselves and our collective and diverse reading experiences to steer each other in new and interesting directions? Other readers might not have those same trusted connections and resources, so award and the like are still useful literary starting points.

One thing we did agree on is that awards and initiatives that bolster emerging talents and underrepresented demographics were worthy and offered that sense of discovery many avid readers crave. How interesting that a day or two after our discussion, this reaction to how some Canadian awards are being administered – for good or for bad – came out:

Two Canada-connected literary prizes have announced shortlists short on Canadians
by Marsha Lederman
The Globe and Mail
April 21, 2023

Are some award stickers look a bit tarnished these days?

We have more topics and questions banked and are always on the lookout for provocative articles and debates, which will likely keep our at-times-not-so-silent book club fueled for lots of future such meetings and discussions. Through them, we’ll continue to grow as readers, as neighbours and as a reading community and, I’m sure, as people who have become friends through books.

I know I’ve mentioned before that the east end Toronto silent book club is very fortunate to have a sister silent book club group in midtown Toronto. (Here is founder Beth Gordon’s story about how it got started.)

Midtown was always a short subway ride away from east end Toronto pre-pandemic, and they’re still close at hand via zoom. Here is their latest combined reading list, from a meeting just a few days ago. Full disclosure: I had to miss the meeting – and miss it a lot I did – but I volunteered to compile the reading list from all attendees, proving once again that even when you miss a meeting, that good book club and its wise and wonderful readers can sustain you.

• Love, Pamela by Pamela Anderson
• Not Good for Maidens by Toro Bovalino
• Dying of Politeness by Geena Davis
• VenCo by Cherie Dimaline
• Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes (audiobook)
• Confessions With Keith by Paulina Holdstock
• The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin (audiobook)
• Until Further Notice by Amy Kaler
• Heaven by Mieko Kawakami
• Trespasses by Louise Kennedy, narrated by Brid Brennan (audiobook)
• Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
• Lessons by Ian McEwan
• Songs for the End of the World by Saleema Nawaz
• Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
• Elena Knows by Claudia Piñeiro
• Bewilderment by Richard Powers (audiobook)
• Wan by Dawn Promislow
• The Ministry For the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson
• Tell Me I’m Worthless by Alison Rumfitt
• The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

Here is an adorable but seemingly unrelated-to-books picture of an Airedale puppy brimming with teenaged attitude.

Mavis* has just started attending obedience classes. Those classes are as necessary, if not more, for us two-leggeds as for the four-leggeds. If the class happens to fall at the same time as a silent book club meeting – well, hard choices must be made.

* Yes, her name is in part inspired by Mavis Gallant – so, further proof our puppy is book-related!

But, while Mavis and I were marching studiously around a small gymnasium*, I was also happy that our book club was carrying on and in good hands. Our February meeting was kindly and very ably led by longtime member Sue Reynolds.

* The dog obedience class location is just steps away from one of our group’s favourite bookstores, The Great Escape! Even more proof this is all book-related!

It’s so gratifying to see that our 5 1/2-year-old group need not rely on any one person to thrive. At the same time, while the whole is perhaps more than the sum of its parts, it’s each part, each reader, each unique library of books and authors and genres and subjects, that makes this group (and, I’m guessing, every silent book club group around the world) unique and vital to each of its parts. Each person and their reading choices and insights are essential to the group’s chemistry, vibe and steadfast reliability as a resource and source of comfort. Can the same be said of the more single-book-oriented groups from which many silent book club members have come?

What also made me happy as I was dog-obediencing instead of silent-book-clubbing was that when it came time to compile a list of the books discussed in the meeting, I know I would hear the voices making recommendations and offering brief critiques. I hope everyone enjoying these reports can hear those voices, too.

At mid-month, we again convened a meeting focused on a couple of discussion topics:

• Influential authors and books – What is the book or who is the author that has been the greatest influence on you as a reader, and has stayed with you over the years? What is the book or author that has inspired some of your fondest or funniest memories?
• Unpleasant reading – What if a book turns unpleasant and out of your comfort zone? If an author is doing a commendable job of creating a graphic, disturbing or overly suspenseful situation, but it is not a comfortable reading experience, do you carry on or stop?

Surprise, surprise – the discussion was lively and eclectic, once again! The influential authors and books cited ranged from one’s early reading days to the present. We all realized that those significant writers and works that inspire, inform and take our reading in new directions can come to us at any time or age. It’s not just about the compelling Nancy Drew formula that got us into a early reading groove, is it?

How we each face or work around unpleasant reading – be it graphic, troubling, triggering or otherwise problematic – made for a discussion during which, in the safe space that we’ve created with our group, readers could reveal how certain kinds of words and images have troubled and challenged us. If reading is viewed as a comforting diversion, an escape from the world’s cruelties, is one obliged to let those cruelties intrude on the page? As one group member observed, if a writer has gone to the arduous task of putting difficult things on the page, maybe we need to honour that work and look.

After two such meetings, it feels like what we’re learning about each other and ourselves – as readers and as people – means we’ll be tackling some more book-related themes together in the months to come.

Here is our group’s latest combined book list, reflecting books mentioned and discussed at the meeting at the end of February. As I’ve mentioned before, each list reflects the reading of many of our members, whether or not they attended the meetings in question. The titles featured in each of our reports encompass print and digital versions of books, along with audiobooks.

Any title on any of our group’s lists means that at least one (often more) readers have given that title some consideration. That is encouragement, I’d say, for other readers reading our reports and lists to consider it, too. Is that a recommendation? It might be, but not exactly or necessarily. It always means that a title has been given thoughtful consideration and attention by our readers, which counts for a lot.

• Becoming Duchess Goldblatt by Anonymous, narrated by Gabra Zackman, J. Smith-Cameron, Lyle Lovett (audiobook)
• Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton
• Shadows of Eternity by Gregory Benford
• A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers, narrated by Emmett Grosland (audiobook)
• Greenwood by Michael Christie
• Consumed by David Cronenberg
• The Deep by Nick Cutter
• Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enríquez
• Taking a Chance: The First 25 years of Fishers’ Loft Inn: An Urban To Rural Journey: 80+ Inn recipes by John & Peggy Fisher and Roger Pickavance
• The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
• Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
• Unlikely Animals by Annie Hartnett, narrated by Mark Bramhall, Kirby Heyborne (audiobook)
• Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray: River of Dreams by Anita Heiss
• Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia, edited by Anita Heiss
• Confessions With Keith by Paulina Holdstock
• The Lost Garden by Helen Humphreys
• Until Further Notice by Amy Kaler
• Antarctica by Claire Keegan
• Foster by Claire Keegan
• Trespasses by Louise Kennedy, narrated by Bird Brennan (audiobook)
• Living in the Tall Grass: Poems of Reconciliation by Chief R. Stacey Laforme
• On the Ravine by Vincent Lam
• Superfan: A Pop Culture Memoir by Jen Sookfong Lee (audiobook)
• The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett by Annie Lyons, narrated by Nicolette McKenzie (audiobook)
• The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture by Gabor Maté with Daniel Maté, narrated by Daniel Maté (audiobook)
• Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
• Lessons by Ian McEwan
• Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor
• Bay of Spirits by Farley Mowat
• Songs for the End of the World by Saleema Nawaz
• The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell
• Did Ye Hear Mammy Died by Séamas O’Reilly
• Ten Thousand Roses: The Making of a Feminist Revolution by Judy Rebick
• Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, narrated by Kirsten Potter (audiobook)
• The Nine by Gwen Strauss, narrated by Juliet Stevenson (audiobook)
• Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart, narrated by Angus King (audiobook)
• In the Upper Country by Kai Thomas
• A Quality of Light by Richard Wagamese
• The Life and Loves of a She Devil by Fay Weldon
• Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson, narrated by Lynnette R. Freeman, Simone Mcintyre (audiobook)
• Toward the North, edited by Hua Laura Wu, Xueqing Xu, and Corinne Bieman Davies
• The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

Our previous reports and book lists are available to tantalize, entertain, provoke and add to your tbr pile … 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 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. Some clubs are on hiatus or modified schedules, many are running virtual meetings in different formats, and some are carefully running in-person and hybrid gatherings. Please feel free to contact me for more information about our club and its offerings.

Even when you can’t make it to our book club or your book club, or you don’t currently have a book club to gather with bookloving friends, we hope our readings lists and discussions here help sustain you as a reader.

How many ways have we shared and celebrated with our silent book club group members how books feed our minds and spirits? Every time we assemble, virtually or in person, I find myself counting the ways and never stopping … from inspirational subject matter and moving depictions in specific books, to the warm company and often eye-opening insights of fellow readers.

Let me add to those many ways another delicious angle, thank you to one of our readers’ delightful perspective. We all love cookbooks, whether we cook, aspire to cook better or differently, or are cooked for (what a blessing!). Cookbooks vary in terms of the quality of their instructional layout and design, and the beauty of the ingredients, processes and finished products they illustrate. But how about cookbooks as literary experiences, too? That reader mentioned that she was indulging in some time off from work to immerse herself in Mi Cocina by Rick Martinez not only for the culinary inspiration, but to relish (see what I did there?) the storytelling. As the linked article says, “For Martínez, every recipe in the book is connected to a memory.” So, many kinds of nourishment …!

Heading into this new year, our group members pondered and decided to try switching up the format of our meetings to delve into some of the themes we touch on and skim over during our regular meetings. This departs from but does not replace our usual meeting format, where we go round the real or virtual circle and invite everyone to update the group on recent reading delights and challenges.

At mid-month, we convened a meeting focused on the topic of rereading: Do you revisit books, or do you always forge ahead to something new? If you do reread, what kinds of experiences have you had – more or less appreciation for a given work, etc.? Is a revisit more likely if you are rereading with your eyes or ears (relistening to an audiobook)?

The discussion was lively – I know, I know, so surprising with this group! For some, rereading is an exercise in comfort and recapturing another time in one’s life. For others, it’s a challenge or reinvestigation, to give a work a second chance, to seek new insights or clarification. From rereading, we wandered to other lovely topics, such as signing and annotating books and treasuring those books that hold our loved ones’ handwriting. Specific book titles came up during the discussion, as vivid examples and subjects of debate on the merits (or not) of rereading.

That first themed discussion meeting went so well, we’ve decided to try it again next month. Stay tuned for more on the topics we tackle next time.

[In addition to our virtual meetings this month, two group members had a mini in-person meeting to read quietly together at Budapest, a local restaurant here in east end Toronto.]

Here is our group’s first combined book list of the new year. This list reflects books mentioned and discussed in two meetings in January: our themed discussion at mid-month and our end-of-month go-round with all readers. As I’ve mentioned before, each list reflects the reading of many of our members, whether or not they attended the meetings in question. The titles featured in each of our reports encompass print and digital versions of books, along with audiobooks.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m regularly asked if our group recommends specific books. I answer that any title on any of our group’s lists means that at least one (often more) readers have given that title some consideration. That is encouragement, I’d say, for other readers reading our reports and lists to consider it, too. Is that a recommendation? It might be, but not exactly or necessarily. It always means that a title has been given thoughtful consideration and attention by our readers, which counts for a lot.

• The Joyce Girl by Annabel Abbs
• Son of Elsewhere by Elamin Abdelmahmoud (audiobook)
• The Bone Cage by Angie Abdou
• Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson
• Dearly by Margaret Atwood (audiobook)
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, borrowed as a Blind Date with a Book!
• The Metaverse And How It Will Revolutionize Everything by Matthew Ball
• Young Skins by Colin Barrett
• Indigenous Toronto – Stories That Carry This Place, edited by Denise Bolduc, Mnawaate Gordon-Corbiere, Rebeka Tabobondung, and Brian Wright-McLeod
• The Paris Apartment by Kelly Bowen, narrated by Polly Lee, Marisa Calin, Gemma Dawson, Steve West (audiobook)
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
• Milkman by Anna Burns
• Milkman by Anna Burns, narrated by Brid Brennan (audiobook)
• Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency by Chen Chen
• Counterfeit by Kirstin Chen
• The works of Agatha Christie
• Red Comet by Heather Clark
• Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke
• American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
• Boule de Suif by Guy de Maupassant (audiobook and e-book) en francais
• Trust by Hernan Diaz
• The Sentence by Louise Erdrich (audiobook)
• The works of William Faulkner
• A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor
• The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley
• Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller
• Bitter Oranges by Claire Fuller
• Life in the Fasting Lane: How to Make Intermittent Fasting a Lifestyle – and Reap the Benefits of Weight Loss and Better Health by Dr. Jason Fung, Eve Mayer, Megan Ramos
• Still Alice by Lisa Genova
• Pandora’s Jar Women in the Greek Myths by Natalie Haynes
• Pandora’s Jar: Women in the Greek Myths by Natalie Haynes (audiobook)
• Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey, narrated by Julia Whelan (audiobook)
• Book Lovers by Emily Henry
• Machine Without Horses by Helen Humphreys
• Deafening by Frances Itani
• The works of PD James
• Little Gods by Meng Jin, narrated by Karen Huie, Francois Chau, Emily Woo Zeller (audiobook)
• The White Hare by Jane Johnson
• Good Behaviour by Molly Keane
• Walk the Blue Fields by Claire Keegan
• Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
• The Dickens Boy by Thomas Keneally
• The Feast by Margaret Kennedy
• Things in Jars by Jess Kidd
• ‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King
• Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon (audiobook)
• Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li, narrated by Eunice Wong, Austin Ku (audiobook)
• Good Riddance by Elinor Lipman (audiobook)
• Fayne by Ann-Marie MacDonald (audiobook)
• Light, Gesture and Color by Jay Maisel
• Mi Cocina by Rick Martinez
• Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May, narrated by Rebecca Lee (audiobook)
• A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing by Eimear McBride
• A Girl is a Half-formed Thing by Eimear McBride (audiobook)
• Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
• Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy, narrated by Julia Whelan and Edoardo Ballerini (audiobook)
• The Other End of the Leash by Patricia McConnell
• Lessons by Ian McEwan
• The Education of Augie Merasty by Joseph Auguste Merasty with David Carpenter
• The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
• Regenesis by George Monbiot
• Bay of Spirits by Farley Mowat
• Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
• If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English by Noor Naga (audiobook)
• You Don’t Look Your Age and Other Fairy Tales by Sheila Nevins, narrated by Lena Dunham, Meryl Streep, Katie Couric, RuPaul, Martha Stewart, full cast (audiobook)
• Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
• Jawbone by Monica Ojeda
• The No-Show by Beth O’Leary
• The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
• The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman
• A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny
• Beaverland by Leila Philip
• Barkskins by Annie Proulx
• Engraved: Canadian Stories of World War One, edited by Bernadette Rule
• Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
• The Jewel in the Crown by Paul Scott
• Towards a General Theory of Love by Clare Shaw
• The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb, narrated by JD Jackson and Brendan Slocumb (audiobook)
• A Song of Comfortable Chairs by Alexander McCall Smith, narrated by Lisette Lecat (audiobook)
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
• The Acoustic World of Early Modern England by Bruce R. Smith
• The works of Muriel Sparks
• The Secret History by Donna Tartt
• Address Unknown by Kathrine Kressmann Taylor
• The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Jennifer Croft, narrated by Allen Lewis Rickman, Gilli Messer (audiobook)
• The Meaning in the Making by Sean Tucker
• The Last Beekeeper by Siya Turabi, narrated by Devesh Kishore (audiobook)
• The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler
• Tranquility by Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters by Laura Vanderkam (audiobook)
• The Broom of the System by David Foster Wallace
• Integral Meditation by Ken Wilber
• The works of PG Wodehouse
• A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

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

• Here are 10 Booker-nominated books to inspire a fresh start to your 2023 reading.
• Ann-Marie MacDonald’s acclaimed novel Fall On Your Knees has been adapted for the stage, is now in performances and will be touring Canada.
• “This is when you are so absorbed in what you are doing that you lose all sense of yourself, and time seems to fall away, and you are flowing into the experience itself. It is the deepest form of focus and attention that we know of.” Like, say, reading …?
• Take a look at the Canada Reads 2023 contenders.
• Tim Ferris interviews James Clear (author of Atomic Habits). Get ready for an interesting discussion of how Clear launched the book and breaks down how to build good habits.

Our previous reports and book lists are available to intrigue, amuse, provoke and add to your tbr pile … 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 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. Some clubs are on hiatus or modified schedules, many are running virtual meetings in different formats, and some are carefully running in-person and hybrid gatherings. Please feel free to contact me for more information about our club and its offerings.

Hoping your new year in reading is off to an amazing and scrumptuous start!

Have I mentioned that the east end Toronto silent book club is very fortunate to have a sister silent book club group in midtown Toronto? Yes I have, but it bears repeating. (Here is founder Beth Gordon’s story about how it got started.

Midtown always was a short subway ride away from east end Toronto pre-pandemic, and they’re still close at hand via zoom. Here is their latest combined reading list, from a meeting just a few days ago.

• The Palace Papers by Tina Brown
• A Month in the Country by JL Carr
• Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath by Heather Clark, narrated by Laura Jennings (audiobook)
• The Lighthouse Witches by CJ Cooke
• The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline
• Haven by Emma Donoghue
• The World’s Wife by Carol Ann Duffy
• You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi
• The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi
• Hitch 22 by Christopher Hitchens
• Motherthing by Ainslie Hogarth
• The Year of the Puppy by Alexandra Horowitz
• Dubliners by James Joyce
• Forest For The Trees by Rita Leistner
• Straggle – Adventures in Walking While Female by Tanis MacDonald
• Dopesick by Beth Macy (audiobook)
• Solved: How the World’s Great Cities are Fixing the Climate Crisis by David Miller
• The Whole Singing Ocean by Jessica Moore
• Anna by Amy Odell
• The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell
• The Bedlam Stacks by Natasha Pulley
• Downfall by Robert Rotenberg
• This Accident of Being Lost by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
• The Victorian and the Romantic by Nell Stevens (audiobook)

As the midtown and east end Toronto readers would all recommend: find your cozy spot, find your cuddly reading companion, and enjoy your reading or seek out some of ours!