Category Archives: Silent Book Club

Glorious silent book club in the park

A year ago, we decided to take our silent book club outdoors … and it was wonderful. Weather permitted, quite beautifully, again this year, so we did it again … and oh, it was wonderful once again. In the hour before the silent book club meeting, some of us took part in a refreshing and restoring yoga class, making it a particularly well spent morning in the park.

This month’s gathering was a stimulating balance of insights from ongoing members of the group with fresh perspectives and recommendations from new attendees, some from the neighbourhood who had simply never had the chance to attend until now, along with participants who came from further afield (and might do some more of that planting of seeds we discussed last month.) One attendee didn’t have much to say about her reading, but was still very pleasant company.

Dog attends silent book club in the park

Everyone offers an introduction to their recent and current reading that is uniquely their own. Some rhyme off a breathless and eclectic inventory of titles, some reflect on two or three titles that were particular highlights since they last joined a silent book club meeting, and some rhapsodize and manage in a few minutes and with apt observations to go deep on a single title that made a profound impression. Along the way, there are a few rueful mentions of disappointments and reading gone astray … but it is all enchanting to listen to, and such a privilege to have shared.

Here is the non-editorialized but still very intriguing list of what was presented this month:

Selection of books at silent book club in the park

Selection of books at silent book club in the park

Selection of books at silent book club in the park

Leaf falls on page while I'm rading at silent book club in the park

As always, you can enjoy our previous silent book club meeting reports and book lists here.

We’re pleased and honoured to have been interviewed about the silent book club concept and how to start a club of one’s own.

San Francisco-based Silent Book Club founders Guinevere de La Mare and Laura Gluhanich were featured in the February 2019 issue of O, the Oprah Magazine, describing the club’s genesis and extolling its virtues 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.

2019 – The year in reading (so far)

Most years, I try to do a little check-in partway through every year to see how my reading is going. As I’ve done in years past, I’m taking a look around the halfway point (ish) in the year at the books I’ve read so far, with links where they exist to books that I’ve reviewed or at least jotted a brief note or impression on Goodreads. As I’ve always pointed out, it’s a competition with no one but myself, but it is always useful and interesting to stop and reflect a bit where one is at with one’s reading, both quantitatively and qualitatively.

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Here’s the quantitative part: Of the 38 books I’ve read so far this year, 6 were non-fiction, 14 were poetry and the balance of 18 were fiction (novels and short story collections). One book was a reread. Two books were works in translation. Twenty-one of the books were by Canadian writers. Three books were read aloud in their entirety (over a period of time, not in one sitting), which is a wonderful way to share the experience with another reader/listener.

I continue to keep track of my reading in my handwritten, 36-year-old, recently beautifully rejuvenated book of books. I’ll include some pictures of my 2019 pages in this blog post.

Qualitatively, it’s definitely another good year. There are some selections on this year inspired by book club recommendations, particularly from our much beloved local silent book club here in east end Toronto, which you know I go on and on about. I’ve been privileged to read some more books in advance of their release and hope to share some enthusiastic reviews of them in the late summer / early fall.

I always have multiple books on the go, with me wherever I go, and I am one happy reader so far in 2019. Hope you are too!

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  1. Milkman
    Anna Burns
    2018

  2. Years, Months, and Days
    Amanda Jernigan
    2018

  3. Voodoo Hypothesis
    Canisia Lubrin
    2017

  4. Machine Without Horses
    Helen Humphreys
    2018

  5. OBITS.
    tess liem
    2018

  6. The Emissary
    Yoko Tawada, translated by Margaret Mitsutani
    2018

  7. The Long Take
    Robin Robertson
    2018

  8. 2019-books2-600

  9. City Poems
    Joe Fiorito
    2018

  10. Reproduction
    Ian Williams
    2019

  11. Wuthering Heights
    Emily Bronte
    1847
    (read aloud)

  12. Indecency
    Justin Phillip Reed
    2018

  13. Can You Ever Forgive Me? Memoirs of a Literary Forger
    Lee Israel
    2008

  14. Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk
    Kathleen Rooney
    2017

  15. Nirliit
    Juliana Leveille-Trudel, translated by Anita Anand
    2018

  16. Human Hours
    Catherine Barnett
    2018

  17. Living Up To a Legend
    Diana Bishop
    2017
    (read aloud)

  18. The Quaker
    Liam McIlvanney
    2018

  19. The Organist – Fugues, Fatherhood and a Fragile Mind
    Mark Abley
    2019

  20. 2019-books3-600

  21. Wonderland
    Matthew Dickman
    2018

  22. Gingerbread
    Helen Oyeyemi
    2019

  23. These are not the potatoes of my youth
    Matthew Walsh
    2019

  24. Quarrels
    Eve Joseph
    2018

  25. Belonging – A German Reckons with History and Home
    Nora Krug
    2018

  26. No Bones
    Anna Burns
    2001

  27. The Perseverance
    Raymond Antrobus
    2018

  28. Women Talking
    Miriam Toews
    2018

  29. Girl of the Southern Sea
    Michelle Kadarusman
    2019

  30. Watching You Without Me
    Lynn Coady
    2019

  31. Normal People
    Sally Rooney
    2018

  32. The Art of Dying
    Sarah Tolmie
    2018

  33. 2019-books4-600

  34. There Are Not Enough Sad Songs
    Marita Dachsel
    2019

  35. Most of What Follows is True
    Michael Crummey
    2019

  36. On Looking – Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes
    Alexandra Horowitz
    2013
    (read aloud)

  37. Heave
    Christy Ann Conlin
    2002

  38. Into That Fire
    MJ Cates
    2019

  39. The Teardown
    by David Homel
    2019

  40. Watermark
    Christy Ann Conlin
    2019

  41. Casting Deep Shade
    C.D. Wright
    2019

Currently in progress:

  • The Flamethrowers
    Rachel Kushner
    2013

  • The Caiplie Caves
    Karen Solie
    2019

  • Broke City
    Wendy McGrath
    2019

  • Say Nothing
    Patrick Radden Keefe
    2019
    (read aloud)

How is your reading going so far in 2019?

Scattering and planting silent book club seeds

In the week leading up to our latest silent book club meeting, I had the pleasure once again to scatter silent book club seeds via the radio airwaves. This time, I chatted in studio with host Wei Chen of CBC Radio’s Ontario Morning. Her show is the morning show for communities across Ontario that do not have their own dedicated local shows – but for all the real estate the show covers, they manage to cover smaller towns and regions and give their broadcasts a friendly, community-oriented feel. The show features a regular weekly book segment, and when Wei Chen contacted me talk about silent book clubs, I immediately knew it was a perfect fit.

You can listen to our chat here (starting at 41:20).

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Will some seeds sprout and take hold in smaller communities across Ontario? Here’s hoping!

In keeping with that metaphor, this month’s silent book club was witness to the future blossoming of two new silent book clubs.

  1. We welcomed a first-time visitor who came in from the Port Credit area to see a silent book club meeting in action, to bolster the planning she already has under way for a club in her neighbourhood. Judging by the panache with which she offered a couple of enticing “what I’m currently reading” zingers during the go-round before the silent reading portion, she is going to be a lively and inspiring silent book club leader once her group gets under way. Bookish road trip to Port Credit!
  2. One of our regular attendees who comes from midtown to east end Toronto for our group is hoping to start running a new silent book club in her neighbourhood in the near future. Actually, her book club isn’t “new” exactly, just in its incarnation as a silent book club. She has been part of a traditional book club for close to 20 years – the book club itself has been in existence for 28 years – that was run, and clearly well, by a facilitator who is no longer able to run it. The rest of the club wants to continue to meet, so she suggested that they change the format to a silent book club. Not only is this an interesting evolution for a longstanding club – and we’ll want to learn how things turn out for them – but we won’t be losing a regular member of our group, as she still wants to be part of our meetings.

There are lots of great insights and revelations in every one of our meetings, but there was something special about what was shared this month. Many of the following titles were described and recommended so warmly, so enthusiastically, even touchingly … and I know as I’m compiling this list that many attendees are waiting for it impatiently, with bookish appetites and attentions sparked. Some of the titles (and we don’t give away which ones, as our lists are presented as is, for anyone reading them to judge as they see fit) disappointed, and it was nice to briefly discuss and commiserate about the rain that sometimes falls in every booklover’s experience. Finally, members shared how grateful they are for the group and for the new books and genres and subject matter they’ve explored through the group’s recommendations and encouragement. This bookish heart is aglow.

Without further ado, here is this month’s delicious book list:

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As always, you can enjoy our previous silent book club meeting reports and book lists here.

In addition to this week’s interview with CBC Ontario Morning, we’ve enjoyed other recent coverage by the CBC, on the CBC Toronto web site and via a series of interviews across Canada with CBC Radio.

In addition to the CBC, our silent book club was included in a late 2018 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 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.

Thank you, as always, to Press books. coffee. vinyl., our bookish and comfy home away from home for all our silent book club meetings.

Torrential downpours do not deter a determined silent book club

Heavy spring rain did not prevent some valiant silent book club members from meeting this past weekend. No readers or books were worse (or soggier) for wear, and even though it was a smaller group, the list of books discussed and read was still rich and robust. As usual, each reader offered capsule reviews of what they had finished or were in the midst of reading – positive or negative, always constructive. The list presented 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 was discussed. Mind you, each meeting’s list is a pretty good list of recommendations, as it continues to reflect a diverse and vibrant range of subjects and genres that might spark the interest of anyone keeping up with the club. And if you start a club yourself, I’m betting you’ll find the very same things!

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(Photo by Jo Nelson)

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(Photo by Jo Nelson)

As always, you can enjoy our previous silent book club meeting reports and book lists here.

We’ve enjoyed some recent coverage by the CBC, on the CBC Toronto web site and via a series of interviews across Canada with CBC Radio.

In addition to the CBC, our silent book club was included in a late 2018 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 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.

Talking to Canada about silent book clubs

reserved-for-book-club-reading-sign
(Photo by Maggie Macintosh, CBC Toronto)

On Wednesday, May 22nd, I had the absolute pleasure to sing the praises of silent book clubs to CBC Radio hosts in St. John’s, Toronto, Fredericton, Calgary, Yellowknife, Victoria, Kelowna, Whitehorse and Edmonton. At the same time, San Francisco silent book club originator and founder Guinevere de la Mare (she and Laura Gluhanich started the first club in 2012 – check www.silentbook.club for the latest on the more than 75 chapters worldwide that are spreading the sbc love!) spoke to CBC Radio in London ON, Cape Breton, Winnipeg, Halifax, Vancouver, Sudbury, Thunder Bay and Saskatoon.

So, I hope that means that friends across the country will soon have the chance to enjoy what I go on and on about every month – right in their own towns!

Enjoy my (dead nervous) interview with Reshmi Nair on CBC Toronto’s Here and Now.

Thanks again to Maggie Macintosh of CBC Toronto for making all this possible (and for taking one of my all-time favourite pictures of our group, above). Many thanks to our friends at PRESS Books Coffee Vinyl, and to all the avid readers who have supported our very special book club and have been such great inspirations.

Heading to silent book club with a spring in one’s step

Although it was still cool, the sun was shining and trees were blossoming as I made my way to silent book club this morning. Part of its many pleasures is that our meetings are held at an establishment in the neighbourhood (PRESS Books Coffee Vinyl on the Danforth in east end Toronto), a mere 10-minute walk from home. So much is so good about silent book club.

I’ll save this news for my next silent book club post because there is an off chance it won’t happen, but I might have the opportunity very soon to share the joys of silent book clubbing before a rather prominent audience. Our club is working to manage the wonderful attention it’s received recently, balancing welcoming new members while keeping each meeting to a size that is still comfortable for all attending. If I get the chance with this potential speaking opportunity, I want to use it to emphasize how easy it is to set one of one’s own up, in one’s own neighbourhood. Silent book clubs are about books and readers, but as we have learned, it’s also about community, fellowship and even sanctuary. Whether this thing happens or not, I’ll expand a bit on the topic in my next post.

As I mentioned in my previous post, when CBC Toronto turned the spotlight on our group, another great benefit of the coverage was that it helped shed light on other silent book clubs in the Greater Toronto area and others that are re-inspired to give it a try. I took time since our last silent book club meeting to check out one at Famous Last Words, a literary-themed bar in the west end Junction neighbourhood of Toronto. (Check out their silent book club and other event listings here.)

At Famous Last Words’ evening silent book club gathering (ours at Press run on Saturdays from 10 am to noon-ish), I enjoyed a Negroni instead of a chai latte, for starters. FLW is a pleasantly appointed bar that provides a couple of corner tables – almost like cozy booths – at the back for their silent book club meeting. The one I attended had five participants in total, including owner Marlene. One participant, an amiable 30ish fellow named George, was visiting Toronto on business for the first time, coming in from Boston. He was clearly taking every moment of his visit to explore Toronto – including acquiring a Presto card and actually making his way from his hotel in Yorkville to an event in Don Mills, bless him – and finding a book club gathering was actually on his list – bless him again. Did I mention that silent book clubs bring together very special people?

The book chat portion of the meeting was brief but collegial, and the book reading portion was warm, comfortable and undistracted. Between FLW and my subway rides there and back, I got a ton of reading done that evening. I’d go back, and I recommend it to others seeking other silent book club offerings in the Toronto area.

And now, this meeting’s book list, summing up all the titles presented and discussed within the group this month. (Per last report’s comments, I’m definitely cooking up an idea for consolidating all our booklists into one searchable format – stay tuned!)

When we go round the table before the silent reading portion of the gathering, each reader offers capsule reviews of what they have finished or are in the midst of reading – positive or negative, always constructive. 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. Mind you, I think it is a pretty good list of recommendations, as it continues to reflect a diverse and vibrant range of subjects and genres that might spark the interest of anyone keeping up with our club.

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As always, you can enjoy our previous silent book club meeting reports and book lists here.

In addition to the recent coverage by CBC Toronto, our silent book club was included in a late 2018 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 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.

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April showers also bring excellent opportunities for cozy silent book club gatherings

April was showering in earnest today, but it did not deter sufficient numbers of readers from carefully bundling up their books and reading devices and meeting for our largest gathering of silent book club devotees to date: 18 around the tables marked “Reserved for Book Club”. Several new readers joined the group that has made this book club inviting and compelling since its inception in the fall of 2017.

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After last month’s coverage of our silent book club, we put a lot of thought into how to manage the deluge of new interest. As we acknowledged, the charm and vitality of silent book club meetings comes from the size of the group and setting in which the meetings are held. At the same time, we were keen to welcome new readers and enjoy their company, hear new book recommendations and perspectives on the joys of reading, and just generally spread the silent book club love around. That love includes, by the way, our willingness to advise others on how to start clubs of their own. Be in touch if we can help you start a club of your own.

When CBC Toronto turned the spotlight on our group, another great benefit of the coverage was that it helped shed light on other silent book clubs in the Greater Toronto area and others that are re-inspired to give it a try. Some of the groups we discovered include:

The following is the book list which sums up all the titles presented and discussed within the group this month, with an infusion of many brand new titles thanks to the brand new attendees. If you follow our book lists from month to month, you’ll notice that some titles are repeated, which happens when a book gets passed to a new reader or another reader reads and wants to discuss the same book. At some point, I’m going to create a master list of all books discussed – eliminating duplicates – to get a sense of how many unique books our group has discussed since its inception in October, 2017. After today’s meeting, I estimate it’s around 350+ titles.

When we go round the table before the silent reading portion of the gathering, each reader offers capsule reviews of what they have finished or are in the midst of reading – positive or negative, always constructive. 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. Mind you, I think it is a pretty good list of recommendations, as it continues to reflect a diverse and vibrant range of subjects and genres that might spark the interest of anyone keeping up with our club.

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As always, you can enjoy our previous silent book club meeting reports and book lists here.

In addition to the recent coverage by CBC Toronto, our silent book club was included in a late 2018 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.

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A wave of silent book club love

Thanks to everyone for their warm interest in our silent book club. The volume and types of requests have been unprecedented since we were featured on the CBC Toronto web site this past weekend. We’re flattered and grateful for all of them!

The charm and vitality of silent book club meetings comes from the size of the group and setting in which the meetings are held. To accommodate potentially many more attendees, we’re assessing our capacity so all can get to enjoy what a silent book club is all about.

If you’re interested in attending a future meeting, please email sbc@ziegler.ca and give us permission to place you on our communications list for upcoming updates about future meetings, as well as news about other silent book club chapters and events that are in the works.

In the mean time, enjoy the chronicle of our silent book club here.

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(Photo by Maggie Macintosh, CBC Toronto)

Talking proud – in fact, almost waxing poetic – about our silent book club

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(Photo by Maggie Macintosh, CBC Toronto)

We had the pleasure today of welcoming Maggie Macintosh of CBC Toronto to this month’s edition of our silent book club gathering. She spent the morning with us and has crafted a lovely account of our meeting … so I’m going to let her give the silent book club meeting report this time!

Nice, eh?

Here is the book list which sums up all the titles presented and discussed within the group this month. If you follow our book lists from month to month, you’ll notice that some titles are repeated, which happens when a book gets passed to a new reader or another reader reads and wants to discuss the same book. At some point, maybe I should create a master list of all books discussed – eliminating duplicates – to get a sense of how many unique books our group has discussed since its inception in October, 2017. We estimate it’s around 300+ titles.

When we go round the table before the silent reading portion of the gathering, each reader offers capsule reviews of what they have finished or are in the midst of reading – positive or negative, always constructive. 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. Mind you, I think it is a pretty good list of recommendations, as it continues to reflect a diverse and vibrant range of subjects and genres that might spark the interest of anyone keeping up with our club.

New to the list this month: two people recommended magazines, and several readers singled out audiobook versions of books they are reading, so I will do my best to annotate titles according if they are discussed as audio versions.

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Enjoy our previous silent book club meeting reports and book lists here.

In addition to the coverage of this month’s meeting by CBC Toronto, our silent book club was included in a late 2018 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.

Silent book club as post-apocalyptic sanctuary

Particularly warm kudos are in order this month to the silent book club members who made it through the February cold and over the snowy, slippery streets to our bookish oasis. Some have been contending with the colds, flus and other ailments of the season, and all have been contending with the ever-changing and treacherous weather and how it permeates everyone’s moods, energy and ambition.

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As we were settling around our table (so nicely adorned now with a “Reserved For Book Club” sign – thanks, Press!), removing coats and scarves and layers, setting out our books, beverages and treats, an interesting thing happened. Our normally book-focused chit-chat strayed – innocuously at first – into the seemingly unavoidable state of the world today, including commentary on the latest shenanigans coming from the country to our south (aka the elephant next to which Canada sleeps). Suddenly, we seemed to realize we did not want to stray down that path – and we rapidly got back on the intended path. The refreshingly robust manner in which our group resisted – stayed true to what the group is about – did my heart and brain immense good. I hope the readers around the table with me today felt the same way.

I realize that by using the term “chit-chat”, I’ve possibly belittled what this group has come to mean to me. Our discussions are anything but inconsequential or unimportant. By sharing with open minds and hearts and without judgement the words and ideas that interest, inspire, challenge and comfort us, we’re doing something truly essential. We are taking time away from our daily demands to do that, and we’re stepping away from the newsfeeds and discourse that often inflame more than they inform. I would not call this practice a form of avoidance. On the contrary, I would assert that we’ve not only found a potent curative in this quiet fellowship, but we’ve found a very practical way to mentally and emotionally recharge before heading back into the fray.

We were not long into the “what I’ve been reading lately” portion of today’s gathering when it dawned on all of us that there was a consistent thread of darkness wending through all the reading choices we seem to be making in recent weeks. By the third or fourth mention of “post-apocalyptic”, we were conjecturing whether this was a collective response to the weather, our health, the state of the world … Whatever the cause, I think it made us aware that we all seek comfort, insight and diversion in interesting ways … and, we might all want to calibrate the brightness and lightness levels on our reading. Can’t hurt, eh.

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Here, as usual, is the book list which sums up all the titles presented and discussed within the group. Each reader offers capsule reviews – positive or negative, always constructive. 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.

After our hour of silent reading, we wrapped up today’s meeting with something new. Some members read aloud brief selections from their recent reading. Today’s selections included poems from 40 Sonnets by Don Paterson and Tell – poems for a girlhood by Soraya Peerbaye, a poem found online with no author attribution about the allures of Africa, and the opening lines of the introduction to A Brief History of the Amazons : Women Warriors in Myth and History by Lyn Webster Wilde. It’ll be interesting to see if this becomes an occasional or regular feature of our gatherings.

As always, you can enjoy our previous silent book club meeting reports and book lists here.

Our silent book club was included in a late 2018 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.