The east end Toronto silent book club is very fortunate to have a sister silent book club group in midtown Toronto, featured a year ago in this blog post by founder Beth Gordon. The midtown Toronto group is taking a summer hiatus – just from meeting, to be clear, certainly not from reading, especially during a season perfect for some of the most idyllic reading experiences. Before they go offline for a few months, the midtown group members would like to share their latest combined reading list, from which you might find some great summer reads.

• O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker
• The Women of Troy by Pat Barker
• Seven Steeples Sara Baume
• Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica, translated by Sarah Moses
• Checkout 19 by Claire-Louise Bennett
• The Palace Papers by Tina Brown
• A Terrible Kindness by Jo Browning Wroe
• In a Good Light by Clare Chambers
• The Braid by Laetitia Colombani
• Care Of by Ivan Coyote
• The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
• Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
• The Hole in the Middle by Kate Hilton
• Blue Portugal and Other Essays by Theresa Kishkan/li>
• Palaces for the People – How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life by Eric Klinenberg
• Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason
• Hotline by Dimitri Nasrallah
• Erebus: The Story of a Ship by Michael Palin
• Ruth & Pen by Emilie Pine
• Less Than Angels by Barbara Pym, narrated by Patience Tomlinson (audiobook)
• Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
• All We Shall Know by Donal Ryan, narrated by Sonya Macari (audiobook)
• From a Low and Quiet Sea by Donal Ryan, narrated by Alana Kerr Collins, Gerard Doyle, Alan Smyth, Vikas Adam, Tim Gerard Reynolds (audiobook)
• Cluster by Souvankham Thammavongsa
• The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Jennifer Croft
• This is Water by David Foster Wallace

In addition to some great reading suggestions, the midtown group also offers some most excellent settings in which (and reading companions with whom) to enjoy your reading. So, dear readers, get to it!

A couple of years ago, many of us probably thought online meetings and gatherings were a temporary measure. We were willing for a time to put up with technical challenges and zoom fatigue to conduct business, to keep in touch with family and friends, to be entertained, to maintain all types of connections and so on. But eventually we would go back to in person activities, back to, er, normal – right?

Even as our silent book club group contemplates and actually makes good on live gatherings – and enjoys them immensely – we know that the online component, which often continues to be a genuine lifeline, is not going away. Because our virtual meetings have allowed us to include participants from elsewhere in the world, expanding our horizons and enriching our bookish camaraderie, we can’t and won’t close that door now that we can potentially head back to coffee shops and local parks. We still haven’t mapped out how a hybrid meeting would or could work, but as pictures from this month’s online and park gatherings attest, we’ll be doing both henceforth – and we’re all better readers and friends for it.

Our latest combined book list gathers the recent reading of many of our members, whether they are in attendance or not. This list is distinctly (blooming!) plentiful, as it gathers books mentioned in both May meetings, our mid-month “pop-up” and our regular end-of-month Saturday meeting. The titles featured in each of our reports combine print and digital versions of books, along with audiobooks (which are indicated separately, with narrator/performer information where possible).

• Amongst Our Weapons (Rivers of London series) by Ben Aaronovitch
• What’s in a Name by Ana Luísa Amaral, translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa
• The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker, narrated by Kristin Atherton and Michael Fox (audiobook)
• The Women of Troy by Pat Barker, narrated by Kristin Atherton (audiobook)
• The Secret to Superhuman Strength by Alison Bechdel
• The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict
• Wise as Fu*k: Simple Truths to Guide You Through the Sh*tstorms of Life by Gary John Bishop
• Selected Poems by Gwendolyn Brooks
• A Terrible Kindness by Jo Browning Wroe
• The Bottom Billion by Paul Collier
• The Braid by Laetitia Colombani
• Our Spoons Came From Woolworths by Barbara Comyns
• Precious Cargo by Craig Davidson, narrated by John Cleland (audiobook)
• Sink Into Sleep: a step-by-step workbook for reversing insomnia by Judith R. Davidson
• The Red Tent by Anita Diamant, narrated by Carol Bilger (audiobook)
• Where I Was From by Joan Didion
• Dying on the Vine by Aaron Elkins
• A Long Time Coming by Aaron Elkins
• Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann, narrated by Stephanie Ellyne (audiobook)
• Things Are Against Us by Lucy Ellmann (audiobook)
• A Practical Guide to Evil – Do Wrong Right by Erratic Errata
• Wished by Lissa Evans (audiobook)
• Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman
• Eminent Hipsters by Donald Fagen
• Out There by Kate Folk
• Friendly Fire by Patrick Gale
• Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
• Five Little Indians by Michelle Good
• Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann
• Chhotu by Varud Gupta and Ayushi Rastogi
• My Broken Language by Quiara Alegría Hudes (audiobook) + additional link
• Leaving Earth by Helen Humphreys
• The Lost Garden by Helen Humphreys
• Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
• A Little Hope by Ethan Joella
• The Journey Prize Anthology
• Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky
• The Confidence Code: The Science and Art of Self-Assurance—What Women Should Know by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman
• Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
• Say This by Elise Levine
• Breaking the Age Code: How Your Age Beliefs Determine How Long and Well You Live by Becca Levy
• The Slow Road to Tehran by Rebecca Lowe
• Room to Dream by David Lynch and Kristine McKenna
• Light Lifting by Alexander MacLeod
• Animal Person by Alexander MacLeod
• My Conversations with Canadians by Lee Maracle
• Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason
• Shaheen Bagh by Ita Mehrotra
• The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford, narrated by Bessie Carter (audiobook)
• Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford (audiobook)
• Don’t Tell Alfred by Nancy Mitford (audiobook)
• So Many Beginnings: a Little Women Remix by Bethany C. Morrow, narrated by Adenrele Ojo (audiobook)
• Highly Irregular: Why Tough, Through and Dough Don’t Rhyme – And Other Oddities of the English Language by Arika Okrent
• The No-Show by Beth O’Leary
• Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver
• Mediocre – The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America by Ijeoma Oluo
• The Library Book by Susan Orlean (audiobook)
• Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by ZZ Packer
• These Precious Days by Ann Patchett
• The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw
• Ruth & Pen by Emilie Pine
• The Carbon Cycle: Crossing the Great Divide by Kate Rawles
• Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds (audiobook)
• Laundry Love: Finding Joy in a Common Chore by Patric Richardson and Karin B. Miller
• High Conflict by Amanda Ripley
• Swimming Back to Trout River by Linda Rui Feng
• All We Shall Know by Donal Ryan
• Suit by Samarth
• Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr.
• Martha in Paris by Margery Sharp
• Next Time There’s a Pandemic by Vivek Shraya
• Tomb of Sand by Geetanjali Shree, translated from Hindi by Daisy Rockwell
• Almost Visible by Michelle Sinclair
• Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
• The Art of Focused Conversation by Brian Stanfield
• One Day I Will Astonish the World by Nina Stibbe, narrated by Joanna Scanlan (audiobook)
• The Fabulous Zed Watson! by Basil Sylvester and Kevin Sylvester
• Sailor Moon Eternal Edition Vol 1-2 by Naoko Takeuchi
• Cluster by Souvankham Thammavongsa
• All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews
• The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Jennifer Croft
• Kyrie by Ellen Bryant Voigt
• Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, narrated by Phyllida Law (audiobook)

More book-related articles, resources, news, recommendations and more are often inspired or offered by our members and/or come up during our discussions and chat. Here are the latest:

• Can you tell from our pictures that many of our silent book club members are also dog lovers? Our four-legged friends are often our fondest reading companions … which is why Off Leash, the new podcast from dog cognition expert and author Alexandra Horowitz, is darned near perfect for us. Maybe for you, too …
• Back in April (aka National Poetry Month), NPR (National Public Radio) featured TikTok poet Donovan Beck.
• The New York Public Library strongly recommends – and helps make easy – fighting book banning by reading banned books.

Our previous silent book club reports (for online and in-person meetings) and book lists are always available for you to enjoy and get some reading inspiration 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 currently on hiatus or modified schedules, many are running virtual meetings in different formats, and some are re-emerging carefully with in-person gatherings. Please feel free to contact me for more information about our club and its offerings.

Toronto silent book club member Dawn Power offers a truly inspiring introduction to our latest silent book club meeting report. Dawn is a retired actuary who moved to Toronto from Winnipeg five years ago to be closer to her family. She is currently working on reviving her reading life – and wow, as she does so, she sparks the interests, imagination and reading lists of her fellow book club members!

After receiving an offer I didn’t want to refuse, I decided to retire from actuarial consulting years earlier than planned — our oldest daughter, at the urging of her husband, asked if we would be interested in living with her family (my daughter, her husband and our two year old granddaughter) if they were able to find a house with a suitable space for her father and me. (The Universe must have been paying attention when a year earlier, as I read about a helpful grandmother living with her daughter’s family in their basement “granny suite”, I thought “I’d like that.”)

They found a house, we divested ourselves of most of our belongings, and moved to Toronto (from Winnipeg) in 2017. Our second granddaughter was born later that year. And, over the next few years, our other two daughters each bought houses within walking distance of our new digs.

But looking after my grandchildren, although delightful, doesn’t fill all my time, especially not when they keep growing and heading off to school!

What to do, what to do?

I was not much of a reader as a child; while my twin sister devoured all books, I had to be coaxed to read … for years. (Relative to my twin, I was slow at everything – crawling, bike riding, swimming, understanding calculus …) I finally started to read after an older sister took me to the library and pulled books off the shelf – mostly Enid Blyton to start, then later Agatha Christie mysteries and Georgette Heyer’s Regency romances. But later, with required reading for University courses and professional exams, full-time employment, eventually three daughters, and a penchant for losing sleep to finish books, I mostly stopped reading, for pleasure, that is. I continued to read for work, of course – generally very close reads of legislation related to defined benefit pensions, and communications issued by my professional body, the Canadian Institute of Actuaries (the other “CIA”!), important reading although “a little” dry.

It’s not that I didn’t want to read other things. From the start of the Canada Reads competition in 2002, I wanted to be that Canadian reader. Each year, with every new competition I was reminded again and again of the reader I wanted to be. And every year, I fell short, with the exception of reading Miriam Toews’ A Complicated Kindness, the 2006 winner.

In 2019, I dipped a toe into the Canada Reads competition by reading 3 of the 5 contenders. About the same time, I heard of the Silent Book Club by way of a CBC radio interview with Vicki Ziegler, owner of this blog. Another dream come true.

As they say, if you want to get fit, hang around with fit people. And, if you want to read more, hang around with readers! The Silent Book Club has been like having an even bigger family (with more widely varying tastes) to recommend books to me.

Because I always know what I’m going to read next (so many great recommendations, how will I get to them all!), I’ve gone from reading nearly nothing each year to reading lots (in the first 3 months of this year I’ve already read more than 40 books). And even better, included in all those books, I’ve read more than half of the 105 Canada Reads contenders (from 2002 to 2022). I have started thinking about my next reading challenge but I may have to slow down a little – I’ve got a new grandson coming in April. I expect to listen to audiobooks though as I walk over for visits.

Take a look at what we’re reading, where we’re reading and who we’re reading with these days.

Our combined reading list – always reflecting the recent reading of many of our members, whether they are in attendance or not – is particularly bountiful this month because it covers reading lists from two meetings instead of just one. The titles featured in each of our reports combine print and digital versions of books, along with audiobooks (which are indicated separately, with narrator/performer information where possible).

• Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo, narrated by Elizabeth Acevedo & Melania-Luisa Marte (audiobook)
• Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, narrated by Zainab Jah (audiobook)
• A Place to Hang the Moon by Kate Albus
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, narrated by C. M Hebert (audiobook)
• The Light of the World: A Memoir by Elizabeth Alexander
• Twilight of Democracy by Anne Applebaum
• If I Knew Then: Finding Wisdom in Failure and Power in Aging by Jann Arden
• Company Town by Madeline Ashby
• Exit by Belinda Bauer
• Immigrant City by David Bezmozgis
• The Most Precious Substance on Earth by Shashi Bhat
• Once Upon a Wardrobe by Patti Callahan
• Reacher: Killing Floor by Lee Childs
• The Jade Peony by Wayson Choy
• White Nights by Ann Cleeves, narrated by Gordon Griffin (audiobook)
• Hubbub: Filth, Noise and Stench in England, 1600-1770 by Emily Cockayne
• The Favourite Game by Leonard Cohen
• The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan, narrated by Lucy Price-Lewis (audiobook)
• Finlay Donovan is Killing It by Elle Cosimano
• Olive, Mabel & Me: Life and Adventures with Two Very Good Dogs by Andrew Cotter
• The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin
• God of Shadows by Lorna Crozier
• The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
• Poor Cow by Nell Dunn
• Atlas of Improbable Places: A Journey to the World’s Most Unusual Corners by Travis Elborough
• The Zen of Therapy by Mark Epstein
• The Walk Series (5 Books) by Richard Paul Evans
• Complete Tao De Ching, Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English translation. bilingual (chinese/english) version with photos
• Me, Myself, They: Life beyond the binary by Joshua M./Luna M. Ferguson
• Stolen Girl by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
• A Mistress of the Art of Death Novel Series by Ariana Franklin
• A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon
• Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey
• Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande
• Something to Hide by Elizabeth George, narrated by Simon Vance (audiobook)
• The Future is History by Masha Gessen
• Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
• Leonard Cohen: On a Wire by Philippe Girard, translated by Helge Dascher and Karen Houle
• Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry by Joya Goffney
• Five Little Indians by Michelle Good
• Refugee by Alan Gratz
• The Judge’s List by John Grisham
• Clever Girl by Tessa Hadley
• Free Love by Tessa Hadley
• The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
• Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin by Fiona Hill
• A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962 by Alistair Holmes
• And a Dog Called Fig: Solitude, Connection, the Writing Life by Helen Humphreys
• Red Blood: One (Mostly) White Guy’s Encounters with the Native World by Robert Hunter
• The Case of Windy Lake – Book 1 in The Mighty Muskrats Mystery Series by Michael Hutchinson
• Mrs Caliban by Rachel Ingalls
• Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby
• The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
• Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations by Mira Jacob
• Infinity Network by Jim Johnstone
• The Dairy Restaurant by Ben Katchor
• Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis
• Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
• On the Road by Jack Kerouac
• The Mystery of Mercy Close by Marian Keyes (audiobook)
• Rachel’s Holiday by Marian Keyes
• Again Rachel by Marian Keyes
• Under the Duvet by Marian Keyes
• The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America by Thomas King, illustrated version
• Local Woman Missing by Mary Kubica
• Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, narrated by Allison Hiroto (audiobook)
• The books of Donna Leon
• The Voice in My Ear by Frances Leviston
• Martha, Jack & Shanco by Caryl Lewis, translated by Gwen Davies
• Toronto: Biography of a City by Allan Levine
• A Life Worth Living by Marsha Linehan
• Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
• Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
• The Arctic Fury by Greer MacAllister
• Two Solitudes by Hugh MacLennan, narrated by Alain Goulem (audiobook)
• Dragon’s Breath And Other True Stories by MariNaomi
• Deacon King Kong by James McBride, narrated by Dominic Hoffman (audiobook)
• Cinder by Marissa Meyer
• Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery (audiobook and ebook versions)
• Roughing It In the Bush by Susanna Moodie
• Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss
• Hotline by Dimitri Nasrallah
• Black Drop by Leonora Nattrass
• Jameela Green Ruins Everything by Zarqa Nawaz
• Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
• Binti (Binti #1) by Nnedi Okorafor
• Hail, the Invisible Watchman by Alexandra Oliver
• Upstream by Mary Oliver
• When We Lost Our Heads by Heather O’Neill
• When We Lost Our Heads by Heather O’Neill, narrated by Jeanna Phillips (audiobook)
• The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
• Erebus: The Story of a Ship by Michael Palin
• These Precious Days by Ann Patchett
• Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult
• Musical Chairs by Amy Poeppel
• Run Towards the Danger by Sarah Polley
• Brood by Jackie Polzin
• The Latinist by Mark Prins
• A Glass of Blessings by Barbara Pym
• A Glass of Blessings by Barbara Pym, narrated by Patience Tomlinson (audiobook)
• The Homecoming by Andrew Pyper
• The Lost Diaries of Susanna Moodie by Cecily Ross
• A River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross
• Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley
• The Guncle by Steven Rowley
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling (audiobook)
• Munnu: A Boy From Kashmir by Malik Sajad
• Every Family Has a Story by Julia Samuel
• A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders
• How to be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question by Michael Schur
• A Carnival of Snackery by David Sedaris, narrated by David Sedaris and Tracey Ullman (audiobook)
• Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard
• Such Color by Tracy K. Smith
• The Wish by Nicholas Sparks
• The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
• The Truth Will Set You Free, But First It Will Piss You Off!: Thoughts on Life, Love, and Rebellion by Gloria Steinem
• Seven Fallen Feathers by Tanya Talaga
• Sculpting in Time by Andrey Tarkovsky
• Motorcycles and Sweetgrass by Drew Hayden Taylor
• Confident Women by Tori Telfer
• How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa
• Fight Night by Miriam Toews
• The Master by Colm Toibin
• The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Jennifer Croft
• The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
• Beyond the Gender Binary by Alok Vaid-Menon
• The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival by John Vaillant (audiobook)
• Allergic: A Graphic Novel by Megan Wagner Lloyd
• Xi’an Famous Foods by Jason Wang
• Women’s Work: The First 20,000 Years: Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times by Elizabeth Wayland Barber (audiobook)
• The Woo Woo: How I Survived Ice Hockey, Drug Raids, Demons and My Crazy Chinese Family by Lindsay Wong

More book-related articles, resources, news, recommendations and more are often inspired or offered by our members and/or come up during our discussions and chat, including:

• As we’ve mentioned before, the easternmost reaches of our east end Toronto silent book club group extend to Pontypridd, Wales. Our dear member Kathryn Eastman reported that part of her Dydd Gwyl Dewi Hapus (St David’s Day) celebrations on March 1st included, of course, the purchasing of books.
• One of our members came across the Sentimental Garbage podcast in her online travels. Hosted by Caroline O’Donoghue, Sentimental Garbage bills itself as a podcast about the culture we love that society can sometimes make us feel ashamed of, formerly a chick-lit podcast, sometimes a Sex and the City podcast. Take a scan through the episode list for lots of delights!
• Ah, here is another resourceful way to incorporate an excess of books into one’s home and decor … Oh. Wait. Is there such a thing as an excess of books?
• Not only do the Cobalt Poets offer virtual readings every Tuesday at 7:30 pm (Pacific), they create digital broadsides of a poem from each reader. Check them out!
• Our Jersey City silent book club member shares that Bryant Park in New York City is a truly beautiful space, and offers this video of poet Chen Chen reading there as wonderful proof.
• The New York Public Library is, as always, such a treasure trove! Take a look at these NYC Historical Postcards from the library’s digital collection, winners of their most recent book display contest, and celebrate Women’s History Month with them.
• As part of National Poetry Month (aka April), the Academy of American Poets offers an Online Poetry Gala and Reading Event on April 28th. U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo will make a special appearance, and readers include Willem Dafoe, Ann Dowd, Jack Gilpin, Gregory Gourdet, Josh Groban, Bill T. Jones, Debra Monk and Dr. Saad Omer.
• One of our members strongly recommends And a Dog Called Fig: Solitude, Connection, the Writing Life by Helen Humphreys … and not just if you’re a dog lover. The recommendation got our group talking about our own dogs, and the other writers we know who have or have had dogs in their lives, including Stephen King.
• A strong contingent of our members are excited about the news that a new Kate Atkinson novel, Shrines of Gaiety, is coming this September.
• You will learn so much about the intelligence of the octopus from member-recommended Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery. Here is an incredible example.

Our previous silent book club reports (for online and in-person meetings) and book lists are always available for you to enjoy and get some reading inspiration 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 currently on hiatus or modified schedules, many are running virtual meetings in different formats, and some are re-emerging carefully with in-person gatherings. Please feel free to contact me for more information about our club and its offerings.

Are you becoming the reader you want to be?

Not only did we wend our way through another dazzling and diverse array of books in all forms during today’s silent book club meeting, we sprinkled some random word magic over the proceedings by sharing our Wordle experiences and tips. Not everyone in the group even plays the word puzzle that has captivated so many so swiftly, but everyone knows about it, has at least tried it and has a reaction to it. That people are connecting and bonding over, essentially, one word every 24 hours is a gratifying marvel.

One book club member mused today that one of their recent reading experiences did not culminate in a satisfying ending. I’ve been mulling the phrase over and over since the meeting, and I love the thoughts it provokes. What the reader is seeking is a *satisfying* ending, not necessarily a happy ending. What does that mean, and is it different for every reader? And is it different for the same reader at different times, with different books depicting different characters, places and actions or contexts? What is a satisfying ending in different genres, not just the fabricated circumstances of fiction, but in the supposedly predictable endings of non-fiction or the open-endedness of interpretation of endings in poetry? (And while we’re on the subject, what is the satisfying ending to the Wordle du jour?)

Words and books are both shelter from all that is challenging us in these uncertain days, and potent ammunition for contending with those challenges. Whether one’s reading provides escape or confronts what is troubling us, the ending of each reading experience surely provides a measure of satisfaction, because we emerge equipped with something new or renewed that will guide us.

Our silent book club meetings, celebrating words and books and all they do for us, continue to be such vital sanctuary. As far as I’m concerned, that’s the most satisfying ending of all.

Our reading lists associated with each meeting are plentifully composed of many members’ recent selections, because they send them to me for inclusion in the blog reports whether or not they’re able to attend a given meeting. The titles featured in each of our reports combine print and digital versions of books, along with audiobooks (which are indicated separately, with narrator/performer information where possible).

• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
• Emma by Jane Austen
• The Boat People by Sharon Bala, narrated by Athena Karkanis (audiobook)
• April in Spain by John Banville, narrated by John Lee (audiobook)
• Exit by Belinda Bauer, narrated by Rupert Degas (audiobook)
• Ten Poems About Snow, edited by Carole Bromley
• The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
• Black Hole by Charles Burns
• Reacher: Killing Floor by Lee Childs
• Whylah Falls by George Elliott Clarke
• Olive, Mabel & Me: Life and Adventures with Two Very Good Dogs by Andrew Cotter
• The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin
• God of Shadows by Lorna Crozier
• Waterlog by Roger Deakin, narrated by Roy McMillan (audiobook)
• The Start of Something by Miranda Dickinson
• Up the Junction by Nell Dunn
• Twelve Nights by Urs Faes
• Huda F Are You? by Huda Fahmy
• Root of All Evil by E.X. Ferrars
• 18 Tiny Deaths: The Untold Story of the Woman Who Invented Modern Forensics by Bruce Goldfarb
• Matrix by Lauren Groff (audiobook)
• Scarborough by Catherine Hernandez
• Eyes That Kiss in the Corners by Joanna Ho, illustrated by Dung Ho
• A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962 by Alistair Holmes
• Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson, narrated by Peter Jay Fernandez (audiobook)
• Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
• Death in Holy Orders by P.D. James
• A Very Punchable Face by Colin Jost
• Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis
• A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher
• The Topeka School by Ben Lerner
• The Circle by Peter Lovesey, narrated by Simon Prebble (audiobook)
• Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
• When the Stars Go Dark by Paula McLain
• The Art of Falling by Danielle McLaughlin
• Talking to Canadians by Rick Mercer
• The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave, narrated by Jessie Buckley (audiobook)
• February by Lisa Moore
• Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
• Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche
• Dog Songs by Mary Oliver
• Erebus: The Story of a Ship by Michael Palin
• These Precious Days by Ann Patchett
• 1066: The Year That Changed Everything by Jennifer Paxton, The Great Courses (audiobook)
• State of Terror by Louise Penny and Hillary Clinton
• The Maid by Nita Prose
• The Maid by Nita Prose, narrated by Lauren Ambrose (audiobook)
• The Whale Tattoo by Jon Ransom
• Consolation by Michael Redhill
• The Foolish Gentlewoman by Margery Sharp
• Such Color by Tracy K. Smith
• Fan Fiction, A Mem-Noir by Brent Spiner
• Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild, illustrated by Diane Goode
• Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout, narrated by Kimberly Farr (audiobook)
• Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
• The Betrayal of Anne Frank by Rosemary Sullivan
• Split Tooth by Tanya Tagaq (audiobook)
• Seven Fallen Feathers by Tanya Talaga
• Life in the City of Dirty Water: a memoir of healing by Clayton Thomas-Müller
• The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
• The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang
• All Systems Red – The Murderbot Diaries #1 by Martha Wells
• The Indigenous City Edit, presented by West End Phoenix (audiobook)
• They Were Sisters by Dorothy Whipple
• Is It Really Green: Everyday Eco-Dilemmas Answered by Georgina Wilson-Powell
• Still Life by Sarah Winman

More book-related articles, resources, news, recommendations and more are often inspired or offered by our members and/or come up during our discussions and chat, including:

• Scarborough by Catherine Hernandez is much admired by many readers in this silent book club group. The book has now been made into a movie currently playing at the TIFF Bell Lightbox.
• Some good companions to Waterlog by Roger Deakin? Try the iconic 1964 short story “The Swimmer” by John Cheever, and its haunting 1968 movie adaptation starring Burt Lancaster.
• Margery Sharp, author of The Foolish Gentlewoman, also wrote the beloved children’s novel The Rescuers.

Our previous silent book club reports (for online and in-person meetings) and book lists are always available for you to enjoy and get some reading inspiration 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 currently on hiatus or modified schedules, many are running virtual meetings in different formats, and some are re-emerging carefully with in-person gatherings. Please feel free to contact me for more information about our club and its offerings.

Seek from books and words what you need for comfort, respite and renewed focus and determination. With mind and spirit bolstered by prose and poetry, we know you will head back to the world and its demands with recharged energy and resolve. Every story and every ending can and will be satisfying.

“I don’t want to be in 2022, so I’m glad to be in [this book’s] time period instead.”

“[This protagonist’s] life has its problems, but I’m glad to be in hers rather than mine for a bit.”

Somber as those comments might sound, that we could speak them in a warm, safe virtual gathering with bookish friends is immense comfort. This same gathering had a strong undercurrent of giggles running through it, too, you know – teed off by one reader’s disappointing encounter with a sci-fi work’s harsh treatment of a character’s orifices. (We kid you not.) So yes, our meetings run the same rollercoasterish waves that the news, the pandemic and life in general do, but we wouldn’t miss their companionship, humour and solace for the world.

Even when they can’t attend, because they’re double booked on zoom or zoom fatigued, our silent book club members faithfully share what they’ve been reading lately, so we can always provide a generous reading list with each meeting. The titles featured in each of our reports combine print and digital versions of books, along with audiobooks (which are indicated separately, with narrator/performer information where possible).

• Home of the Floating Lily by Silmy Abdullah
• What Stars Are Made Of by Sarah Allen
• Strange Things by Margaret Atwood
• Beartown by Fredrik Backman, translated by Neil Smith, narrated by Marin Ireland (audiobook)
• It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey
• Alma Cogan by Gordon Burn
• Incontinent on the Continent by Jane Christmas
• Before She was Helen by Caroline B. Cooney
• Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz
• The Lie by Helen Dunmoor
• Hell Light Flesh by Klara du Plessis
• phases by h. duxbury
• The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich
• Twelve Nights by Urs Faes
• The Collected Stories of Mavis Gallant
• Matrix by Lauren Groff
• The Storyteller by Dave Grohl
• The Appeal by Janice Hallett
• Permanent Astonishment by Tomson Highway
• A Line to Kill by Anthony Horowitz
• The Empty Greatcoat by Rebecca F. John
• Everything Under by Daisy Johnson
• Eat or We Both Starve by Victoria Kennefick
• House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune, narrated by Daniel Henning (audiobook)
• The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson
• Jade Legacy by Fonda Lee
• The Premonition: a pandemic story by Michael Lewis
• Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim
• Year of the Reaper by Makiia Lucier
• The Art of Falling by Danielle McLaughlin
• Dog Songs by Mary Oliver (audiobook)
• The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
• Run by Ann Patchett
• The Madness of Crowds: A Novel by Louise Penny
• The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry
• Excellent Women by Barbara Pym, narrated by Jayne Entwistle (audiobook)
• Curtain Call by Anthony Quinn
• The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
• Death in Ten Minutes by Fern Riddell
• Return of the Trickster by Eden Robinson
• Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford, narrated by Imogen Church (audiobook)
• Threadneedle by Cari Thomas
• I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness by Claire Vaye Watkins
• Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
• Undersong by Kathleen Winter
• Pride by Ibi Zoboi, narrated by Elizabeth Acevedo (audiobook)

More book-related articles, resources, news, recommendations and more are often inspired or offered by our members and/or come up during our discussions and chat, including:

• Olga Tokarczuk presents her latest, The Books of Jacob, with translator Jennifer Croft on February 19th. Register for tickets for this online event here.
• Replay this year’s Martin Luther King Jr celebration reading.
• NYC School Students Celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. with words and art.
• The Center for Book Arts promotes active explorations of artistic practices related to the book as an art object. Check out their online classes.
• The Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) Virtual Book Club kicks off another year of online book club events, facilitated by author and award-winning educator Catherine Graham and featuring author guest appearances. Check out the lively 2022 schedule here.

Our previous silent book club meeting reports (online and in-person incarnations) and book lists are always waiting for you to read and enjoy them 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 currently on hiatus, but many are running virtual meetings in different formats, and some are re-emerging carefully with in-person gatherings. Please feel free to contact me for more information about our club and its offerings.

Keep reading. Just keep reading.