Wrapping up 2024 for the Toronto silent book club couldn’t be more wonderful with another guest introduction to our monthly blog post. Dear fellow readers, meet Joylyn Chai. She lives two doors up the street from Vicki, our delightful SBC host. Joylyn doesn’t like eating breakfast in the mornings, but in the evening she loves eating potato chips and watching TV. She has the habit of greeting trees and waving ‘hello’ to the moon. Her essays and poems have appeared in numerous publications; her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and selected as notable for Best American Essays 2024. She lives and works on the traditional territories of Tkaronto/Toronto.

The Book Club

Years ago, a colleague of mine, who was teaching English at the same school where I worked, asked his students to write a list of the top three things they love. When he told me he did this exercise with his classes, I asked him about his own list. Without hesitation, he unfolded a piece of paper from his pocket and read it aloud:

1. Wife
2. Daughter
3. Reading

I smiled and nodded as if it was a mass-produced inscription on the inside of a greeting card. “Of course,” I crooned approvingly. His choices were predictable — just the usual suspects standing on his podium of love.

I’m certain the gold and silver medal winners of innumerable lists are won by members of the immediate family, making their appearancepracticallybanal. But after careful consideration of my coworker’s list in which I imagined it to be my own, I wondered what I could live without. I wondered if I could live without number 3 even though I loved number 1 and 2 more. I wondered if reading should secretly be at the top of my list — and at the top of his.

Each month, or thereabouts, I join the Silent Book Club at a local café to talk and read. We talk about what we are reading and then we read aboutwhat we talked about. I like listening to other people talk about their books. They introduce their books like they’re good friends or sometimes like an exasperating lover they’ll soon be rid of.

After everyone has ordered a beverage of their choice (cappuccino, Italian soda, herbal tea) we settle into our seats and arrange our books on the table in front of us. Someone will have a slender copy of a poetry collection. Another will have a stack of mylar-covered library loans. Someone will bring along a dogeared, epic tome. Another will have their tablet propped up, open, and aglow.

In turn, each member speaks, carefully holding their book so everyone can look at the cover and see its title and author. We give a brief synopsis and share how long we’ve been reading it and how the book came to us. The conversation is not unlike those I’ve had with my friends who are dating: “OK, who are they? How long have you been seeing them? How did you meet? Do you like them? Tell me everything.”

What I especially like about attending the SBC is seeing how people physically interact with their books. When the books are lying on the table, I notice the way people press their fingers into the covers when they’re being emphatic or making a point. They’ll say something approving or disapproving about the main character, plot, or setting and pick the book up to fan its pages. When searching for the right word to describe a scene or the author’s style, people might flip the book on its back or drag a finger down its spine. Electronic users will scroll their screens, hold onto the device with two hands and straighten it — even though it was perfectly straight to begin with.

Innately, we are physically intimate with our books. For a short time, they are our constant companions. We wonder when we can steal a moment to escape with them privately. Occasionally, we fall deeply in love with them and can’t stop thinking about them; their presence clouds our every thought. And when we are out in the world together, we touch them when they’re sitting next to us, just as we would with our closest friends.

I’ve been thinking alot about rituals and the presence of them in my life. The ritual, as a communal practice that marks special occasions, invites its participants to do something together in unison. The SBC invites people to read in silence together and sometimes the people I’m sitting beside are complete strangers. Living in a bustling city like Toronto, I am no stranger to strangers. I sit thigh-to-thigh with unknown folks on public transit. I stand in a tight line with other cart-pushing shoppers at the grocery store. On transatlantic flights, I’ve even been the shoulder where another unnamed passenger has laid their weary head. We are all strangers until there is intention to acknowledge the specific importance of a person.

After our conversation, Vicki, our gracious host, will make eye contact with each member in the group — a gesture of unabashed interest and kindness — and ask if everyone is ready to read. Vicki, bright-eyed and smiling, will lovingly nod her head of darling, wavy locks. We’ll all murmur assent and open our books. It’s at this moment the ritual begins.

A few minutes pass before we leave each other. Then we leave the coffee house, this city. We leave the routine and responsibilities of our lives and dive into stories or explanations of other worlds. Immersed and engrossed, our silence becomes a haven as beautiful as a quiet garden in bloom. We read for an hour and when the time is up, it’s often hard to pull our attention away from the words on the page. We emerge gently, our minds and bodies still possessed by the power of imagination. We breathe in deeply. We exhale. Softly, Vicki welcomes us back as if we’ve been away for a very, very long time.

My family is ever so dear to me and when I think about losing them, my heart feels like it is being carved out of my chest. My morbid compulsion to imagine life without them comes from the loss I’ve already experienced, the impenetrable grief that sits indifferent, like stone, at the bottom of my gut. Forced without choice, I’ve learned to live without the people whom I have loved the most. And during those times when it seemed like nothing in the world could possibly console me, I read. Book after book, I read.

If I were to write down the top three things that I love most in the world, my list would have the same order as my colleague’s:

1. Husband
2. Daughters
3. Reading

But I know there’s only one thing on my list that I cannot live without.

Let’s also wrap up 2024 with another brimming, rich and spectacular combined reading list from our indefatigable silent book club group. As always, every title on our group’s generous lists means that at least one (but usually more) readers have given that title thoughtful consideration. That doesn’t mean that every work on our lists is expressly recommended, of course. Inclusion on this list always means that our readers have devoted time and attention to a title – and that, dear readers, means a lot.

• Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson
• The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
• Death by a Thousand Cuts by Shashi Bhat, narrated by Ellora Patnaik (audiobook)
• Biblioasis Christmas Ghost Stories 2024 (Podolo by L.P. Hartley, Captain Dalgety Returns by Laurence Whistler and Amethyst Cross by Mary Fitt)
• The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano
• We Used to Dream of Freedom – A Memoir of Family, the Holocaust, and the Stories We Don’t Tell by Sam Chaiton
• Dark Wives by Ann Cleeves
• Daddy by Emma Cline
• Murder at the Monastery by The Reverend Richard Coles
• The Vagabond by Colette
• First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston
• Curiosities by Anne Fleming, narrated by Anna Tierney, Richard Sheridan Willis, Zak Annette, Amanda Parfitt & 2 more (audiobook)
• There Is a God by Antony Flew
• Bystander Society: Conformity and Complicity in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust by Mary Fulbrook
• A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
• The Blue Hour by Paula Hawkins
• The Housekeepers by Alex Hay
• Wavewalker: A Memoir of Breaking Free by Suzanne Heywood
• Strangers in Their Own Land – Anger and Mourning on the American Right by Arlie Russell Hochschild
• The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
• The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell
• Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
• The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz, narrated by Kirby Heyborne (audiobook)
• Wicked by Gregory Maguire
• Wintering by Katherine May, narrated by Rebecca Lee (audiobook)
• On Beauty by rob mclennan
• The Ruin by Dervla McTiernan
• The Ruin by Dervla McTiernan, narrated by Aoife McMahon (audiobook)
• Held by Anne Michaels
• The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
• Homecoming by Kate Morton
• The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
• You Are Here by David Nicholls, narrated by Lee Ingleby and Lydia Leonard (audiobook)
• We Solve Murders by Richard Osman
• The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny
• Death in Focus by Anne Perry
• The Maid by Nita Prose
• Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
• Intermezzo by Sally Rooney
• The Guncle Abroad by Steven Rowley (audiobook)
• Wordhunter by Stella Sands
• How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair
• Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld
• Companion Piece by Ali Smith
• Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
• A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
• Songs for the Brokenhearted by Ayelet Tsabari
• Fire Weather by John Vaillant, narrated by Alan Carlson (audiobook)
• Michael Kohlhaas by Heinrich von Kleist

Here are some extra book-related articles, resources, news and recommendations, items and tidbits that are often companions to books on the list, or are inspired or offered by our members and/or come up during our discussions and chat.

• “I have a working theory that honest criticism, when it comes to new fiction, is getting more difficult to find.” What do you think?
• Recommended by silent book club member Sue R, The Modern Literature Society on Facebook invites readers to discuss, share and discover great modern books.
• A Neurologist’s Tips to Protect Your Memory (New York Times) include the active engagement with text that reading novels encourages.

This year and every year, our group’s previous reports and book lists are always right here!

You can also check out links to articles, interviews and more here – some with San Francisco-based Silent Book Club founders Guinevere de La Mare and Laura Gluhanich, and some with us here in east end Toronto.

Learn more about the worldwide phenomenon of silent book clubs via Guinevere and Laura’s Silent Book Club web site. In fall 2023, they welcomed their 500th chapter … and with continuing and astonishing momentum, they are now boasting over 1,500 chapters!!! (There were around 60 chapters when we joined as the first Toronto chapter in 2017.) You can find information on meetings happening around the world and close to where you live. Every club is a different size, format (in-person, virtual or combinations) and vibe, so contact a club’s organizers beforehand if you have any questions or preferences. Please feel free to contact me for more information about our club and its offerings.

Onward to a new year of reading challenges and delights!

Something sticks with me for days, weeks, months after each silent book club meeting – online or in person. They range from positive to cautionary book reviews, to readers connecting with shared enthusiasms and discoveries, to witticisms like the title of this blog post, especially brilliant coming from my well-read companions. (Another great one: “that book is not forgotten, just un-remembered” …)

Sometimes it’s a particularly sparkling light, and sometimes it’s a general and wonderful glow, as I’ve remarked on before. As the days and nights have grown darker again, books and book-lovers will be essential to warming and lighting the way!

Let us hasten to that which fuels us! Every title on our group’s generous lists means that at least one (but usually more) readers have given that title thoughtful consideration. That doesn’t mean that every work on our lists is expressly recommended, of course. Inclusion on this list always means that our readers have devoted time and attention to a title – and that, dear readers, means a lot.

• Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson
• Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner, narrated by Edoardo Ballerini and Taffy Brodesser-Akner (audiobook)
• The Wild Boys by William S. Burroughs
• Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
• Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers
• Dark Wives by Ann Cleeves
• The Trouble with Poetry by Billy Collins
• Parade by Rachel Cusk
• Fifth Business by Robertson Davies
• The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits by Emma Donoghue, narrated by Caroline Lennon + multiple narrators (audiobook)
• Middlemarch by George Eliot
• Spies by Michael Frayn
• The Women by Kristin Hannah, narrated by Julia Whelan and Kristin Hannah (audiobook)
• Piglet by Lottie Hazell, narrated by Rebekah Hinds (audiobook)
• Survivors of the Hive by Jason Heroux
• The Glorious Guinness Girls by Emily Hourican
• Black Woods, Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey
• The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell
• The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce
• Satantango by Laszlo Krasznahorkai
• from time to new by Lydia Kwa
• Votive by Annick MacAskill
• Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
• Adam & Eve by Sena Jeter Naslund
• Julia by Sandra Newman
• Inland by Téa Obreht
• Beauty: The Invisible Embrace by John O’Donohue (audiobook)
• At a Loss for Words by Carol Off
• The Capital of Dreams by Heather O’Neill
• We Solve Murders by Richard Osman
• Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
• Baby Cerberus by Natasha Ramoutar
• What She Said by Elizabeth Renzetti
• Intermezzo by Sally Rooney
• The Chilbury Ladies’ Choir by Jennifer Ryan
• There are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak, narrated by Olivia Vinall & Elif Shafak (audiobook)
• The Way of the Hermit by Ken Smith
• Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera
• The Empusium by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
• Who Could Ever Love You by Mary L. Trump
• What I Ate in One Year (and related thoughts) by Stanley Tucci
• Fire Weather by John Vaillant, narrated by Alan Carlson (audiobook)
• The Three-body Problem from Pythagoras to Hawking by Mauri Valtonen, Joanna Anosova, Konstantin Kholshevnikov, Aleksandr Mylläri, Victor Orlov and Kiyotaka Tanikawa
• The Widow’s Guide to Dead Bastards by Jessica Waite
• Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa, translated by Eric Ozawa
• Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, narrated by Jennifer Kim and Julian Cihi (audiobook)

Here are some extra book-related articles, resources, news and recommendations, items and tidbits that are often companions to books on the list, or are inspired or offered by our members and/or come up during our discussions and chat.

• Why are authors doing this? Have we lost trust in readers? – Here is some fascinating food for thought on how much writer do or do not, and should or should not, explain things to readers. This might be a topic coming soon to a book club pop-up discussion meeting near us …!
• One of our book club members shared these two sites for eclectic euro-centric films, some of which were adaptations of some of his recent reading: easterneuropeanmovies.com and sovietmoviesonline.com.
• Many of our book club members also take part in other book clubs. One of our new members is also part of a traditional, everyone-reads-the-same-book club that is now welcoming its second generation of participants. Here’s the story about the group’s founding generation.
• And oh, in case you missed it … yes, we’re that book club from TV!

Our group’s previous reports and book lists are right here!

You can also check out links to articles, interviews and more here – some with San Francisco-based Silent Book Club founders Guinevere de La Mare and Laura Gluhanich, and some with us here in east end Toronto.

Learn more about the worldwide phenomenon of silent book clubs via Guinevere and Laura’s Silent Book Club web site. In fall 2023, they welcomed their 500th chapter … and with continuing and astonishing momentum, they are now boasting over 1,500 chapters!!! (There were around 60 chapters when we joined as the first Toronto chapter in 2017.) You can find information on meetings happening around the world and close to where you live. Every club is a different size, format (in-person, virtual or combinations) and vibe, so contact a club’s organizers beforehand if you have any questions or preferences. Please feel free to contact me for more information about our club and its offerings.

May your reading keep you cozy and satisfied till next we meet!

This month, our east end Toronto silent book club chapter celebrates its 7th anniversary, thank you very much! Here’s how our first meeting went.

Our latest meetings, online and in-person, were just yesterday. Not every meeting is like this, but some like yesterday’s are an interesting balance of our fellow readers’ enthusiasms and delights and … disappointments or cautions. I actually really appreciate that our readers have so grown to trust each other that our discussions and reviews are not just about what we enjoyed reading, but what we didn’t. When the review is not necessarily glowing, we can also trust that the assessments will be measured or readers acknowledge when maybe it just wasn’t the right time for one to be challenged by a particular subject or author. It’s still constructive and informative.

As always, every title on our group’s lists means that at least one (but usually more) readers have given that title thoughtful consideration. That doesn’t mean that every work on our lists is expressly recommended (as I just suggested) – but that’s still more than OK, we think. Inclusion on this list always means that our readers have devoted time and attention to a title – and that, dear readers, means a lot.

• Fourteen Days by The Authors Guild, edited by Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston, narrated by Shayna Small (audiobook)
• A Future We Can Love by Susan Bauer-Wu
• Uncomfortability by Roxanna Bennett
• Satellite Image by Michelle Berry
• The Doctor’s Wife by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
• What Time the Sexton’s Spade Doth Rust by Alan Bradley
• Fleishman Is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner, narrated by Allyson Ryan (audiobook)
• Pests – How Humans Create Animal Villains by Bethany Brookshire
• Bloodchild and Other Stories by Octavia Butler
• What Happened by Hillary Rodham Clinton
• The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
• Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance by Alison Espach
• The Donoghue Girl by Kim Fahner
• Ford Nation by Rob Ford and Doug Ford
• Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller
• Witchcraft: A History in Thirteen Trials by Marion Gibson
• Warlock by Oakley Hall
• Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad
• The Moonlight Market by Joanne Harris
• Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth, narrated by Jessica Clarke (audiobook)
• Bury the Lead by Kate Hilton and Elizabeth Renzetti
• This Side of Murder by Anna Lee Hubet
• Search by Michelle Huneven
• The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan
• The Good People by Hannah Kent, narrated by Caroline Lennon (audiobook)
• Himself by Jess Kidd
• Sweet Water by Christina Baker Kline, narrated by Amy Rubinate and Suzanne Toren (audiobook)
• The River is Waiting by Wally Lamb
• Prophet Song by Paul Lynch
• May It Have a Happy Ending by Minelle Mahtani
• Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
• Showa 1926-1939 A History of Japan by Shigeru Mizuki
• Us by David Nicholls
• You Are Here by David Nicholls
• The Colony Club – A Captivating Tale of Ambition and Social Change by Shelley Noble
• We Solve Murders by Richard Osman
• Gull Island by Anna Porter, narrated by Madeleine Maby (audiobook)
• Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
• The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl
• What She Said by Elizabeth Renzetti
• The Evenings by Gerard Reve
• Leaving by Roxana Robinson, narrated by Hannah Choi (audiobook)
• 253 by Geoff Ryman
• L’Arabe du futur 5 Une Jeune ease au Moyen-Orient (1992-1994) by Riad Sattouf
• Seven Summers by Paige Toon
• A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
• Table for Two by Amor Towles
• Laugh More by Debbie Travis
• Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead
• Rewitched by Lucy Jane Wood
• Meet Me At the Museum by Anne Youngson

Here are some extra book-related articles, resources, news and recommendations, items and tidbits that are often companions to books on the list, or are inspired or offered by our members and/or come up during our discussions and chat.

• In case you missed it … yes, we’re that book club from TV!
• One of the creatures chronicled in Pests – How Humans Create Animal Villains by Bethany Brookshire is the cane toad. If that story sparks your interest, you might also enjoy the 1988 documentary Cane Toads: An Unnatural History.

Our group’s previous reports and book lists – all eminently trustworthy – areright here!

You can also check out links to articles, interviews and more here – some with San Francisco-based Silent Book Club founders Guinevere de La Mare and Laura Gluhanich, and some with us here in east end Toronto.

Learn more about the worldwide phenomenon of silent book clubs via Guinevere and Laura’s Silent Book Club web site. In fall 2023, they welcomed their 500th chapter … and with continuing and astonishing momentum, they are now boasting over 1,000 chapters!!! (There were around 60 chapters when we joined as the first Toronto chapter in 2017.) You can find information on meetings happening around the world and close to where you live. Every club is a different size, format (in-person, virtual or combinations) and vibe, so contact a club’s organizers beforehand if you have any questions or preferences. Please feel free to contact me for more information about our club and its offerings.

Happy, happy reading (or even sad, or challenging, or frustrating reading … but keep going!) until next we meet!

Not everyone makes it to every book club meeting, every month. (Mind you, many make it to many meetings, which makes every month’s meetings full, rich and special.)

But you know what? Every month’s meetings happen, and happy readers gather to generously share their reading, virtually and in person. Those meetings spawn a new and intriguing combined list of books that have delighted, challenged, maybe occasionally disappointed but always filled our time in interesting ways. So, I’m just going to get to the list right away … and I’ll chatter at more length about the books, the readers, the recurring themes and lively topics that emerge in our discussions … all that and more, next month.

As always, every title on our group’s lists means that at least one (but usually more) readers have given that title thoughtful consideration. That doesn’t mean that every work on our lists is expressly recommended – but that’s more than OK, we think. Inclusion on this list always means that our readers have devoted time and attention to a title – and that, dear readers, means a lot.

• Adventures of a Hollywood Secretary – Her Private letters from inside the Studios of the 1920s, annotated by Cari Beauchamp
• Hotel Splendide by Ludwig Bemelmans
• Look After Her by Hannah Brown
• Middlemarch by George Eliot
• The Wedding People by Alison Espach
• James by Percival Everett
• The Donoghue Girl by Kim Fahner
• Limbo by Dan Fox
• Carpenter’s Gothic by William Gaddis (audiobook)
• The Tunnel by William Gass
• Widow Fantasies by Hollay Ghadery
• Anita de Monte Laughs Last by Xochitl Gonzalez, narrated by Stacy Gonzalez, Jonathan Gregg and Jessica Pimentel (audiobook)
• Discretion by Faiza Guene, translated by Sarah Ardizzone
• Self-Esteem and the End of the World by Luke Healy
• The Earth in the Attic by Fady Joudah
• […] by Fady Joudah
• Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
• Kangaroo by D.H. Lawrence
• Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon
• The Elusive Samurai by Yusei Matsui
• Held by Anne Michaels
• The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery
• The Capital of Dreams by Heather O’Neill
• We Solve Murders by Richard Osman
• The Stories of Breece D’J Pancake by Breece D’J Pancake
• The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
• The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters, narrated by Aaliya Warbus and Jordan Waunch (audiobook)
• The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose
• Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid
• Sweetwater by Roxana Robinson
• Death in Spring by Merce Rodoreda
• The Dolphin House by Audrey Schulman
• Winter by Ali Smith
• The Art of Dying by Sarah Tolmie
• The Darwin Incident by Shun Umezawa
• Nothing Left to Fear from Hell by Alan Warner
• 19 Ways of Looking at Wang Wei by Eliot Weinberger
• The Comfort of Ghosts by Jacqueline Winspear
• The Attention Merchants by Tim Wu
• Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa, narrated by Catherine Ho (audiobook)
• Meet Me At the Museum by Anne Youngson

Here are some extra book-related articles, resources, news and recommendations, items and tidbits that are often companions to books on the list, or are inspired or offered by our members and/or come up during our discussions and chat.

• The Manga Taisho (translated as Cartoon Grand Prize) is a Japanese comics award recognizing achievement in manga. Take a look at the history of the prize, and its latest nominations and winners.
• Book Riot offers some good recommendations of books about media literacy.
• Fady Joudah is the eighteenth recipient of the Jackson Poetry Prize.

This month, we’re so pleased to have silent book club member Lori Schuett introduce our latest blog post. Lori joined our group just a few short months ago, but it already feels like she’s been with us as long as our tbr piles are tall!

After a 30-year career teaching English and Communications at both high school and college level, retirement was a welcome new beginning 24 years ago.

Teaching literature to impressionable minds requires patience and dissection skills, to name a few, along with a sense of humour and openness to some rather unusual opinions at times.

I was not sure reading was an activity at the top of the list for leisure with my new found freedom but books have been a significant part of my life since learning to read at a very early age.

I did not want to join a book club to read and discuss books with subject matter of no appeal to me no matter what the critics said, but I do love to share ideas and be with people. However I wanted to read about themes that spoke to me. There lay the challenge – how to find them! Yes, there are bestseller lists and friend recommendations, author interviews – but not enough personal insights to guide me to find the “perfect” read. I cannot begin to tally how many books I have read to page 30 and closed it at that point as it was just not for me – an exhausting pastime, I must say – and I was also missing meeting up with other readers.

A few months ago I was scrolling, looking for books, of course, and came across a site called the Silent Book Club. So do members sit around and read the same book silently at their meeting and then discuss it, I wondered?

My search led me to the East End Toronto Silent Book Club that I learned is just one of nearly 1000 SBC’s internationally.

To my delight as I live in Peterborough, they meet once monthly on Saturday mornings on Zoom. In person follows at a local Toronto coffee shop for those who can attend (how I wish!)

I contacted the facilitator, who is a delight and makes everyone feel so welcome, listening carefully to each member’s book comments, and decided to give it a go. I look forward to our monthly get-togethers and really enjoy the new friends I have made. Here’s the best part: I don’t have to read a specific book. Each person presents a short insightful summary of a book or books they have read during the past month while our moderator records the titles. There is opportunity to ask a few questions and after the meeting the titles are added to a huge ongoing file of books mentioned from all of the meetings.

Then it is time to read alone, together.

SBC checks all my boxes: a wealth of books to explore, lovely friendly people, and great conversation. Now I just need more time – and years – to delve into all of the books on my ever growing list!

Every title on our group’s lists means that at least one (but usually more) readers have given that title thoughtful consideration. Does that mean every work on our lists is expressly recommended? Not exactly or necessarily. Inclusion on this list always means that our readers have devoted time and attention to a title – and that, dear readers, means a great good deal.

• The Elephant Whisperer by Lawrence Anthony with Graham Spence, narrated by Simon Vance (audiobook)
• Bunny by Mona Awad
• Dark Ride by Lou Berney
• Crosses in the Sky: Jean de Brébeuf and the Destruction of Huronia by Mark Bourrie
• Burial of Ghosts by Ann Cleeves
• Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
• Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton, narrated by Stig Wemyss (audiobook)
• Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells – An Anthology of Gaslamp Fantasy, edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
• Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent by Judi Dench and Brendan O’Hea
• The White Album by Joan Didion
• Ask the Dust by John Fante
• In the Hour of War: Poems from Ukraine, edited by Carolyn Forche and Ilya Kaminsky
• The Diary of Anne Frank
• Diva by Daisy Goodwin
• Shadow Life by Hiromi Goto
• A Great Country by Shilpi Somaya Gowda, narrated by Vikas Adam (audiobook)
• The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff, narrated by January LaVoy (audiobook)
• Bury the Lead by Kate Hilton and Elizabeth Renzetti
• ink earl by Susan Holbrook
• Close to Death by Anthony Horowitz
• Denison Avenue by Daniel Innes & Christina Wong (audiobook)
• The Summer Book by Tove Janssen
• Pet Sematary by Stephen King
• Demon of Unrest by Erik Larson
• Northerny by Dawn Macdonald
• The Art of Floating by Melanie Marttila
• The Road Years by Rick Mercer (audiobook)
• The Woman They Could Not Silence by Kate Moore
• Wind Breaker Volumes 1-5 by Satoru Nii
• The Third Policeman by Flann O’Brien
• Poetry pamphlets from Opaat (One poem at a time) Press
• Blood by Tyler Pennock
• The Phoenix Crown by Kate Quinn and Janie Chang
• Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic by Sam Quinones
• Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe
• Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe
• The Caretaker by Ron Rash
• The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl
• Lilith by Eric Rickstead
• What We Buried by Robert Rotenberg
• On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder
• The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne
• Reasons to be Cheerful by Nina Stibbe
• The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood
• Summer of My Amazing Luck by Miriam Toews, narrated by Amy Rutherford (audiobook)
• The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese (audiobook)
• The Orphans of Mersea House by Marty Wingate, narrated by Henrietta Meire (audiobook)
• Blackwater Falls by Ausma Zehanat Khan, narrated by Farida Pasha (audiobook)

How about some extra book-related articles, resources, news and recommendations? 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.

• Looks like there’s something for everyone in the New York Public Library staff’s Summer 2024 Picks for Adults.
• Those who complete all of the National Book Foundation’s Summer Reading Adventures qualify for bookish prizes!
• 49th Shelf’s July Summer Reading List is “carefully curated for summer vibes and something for every kind of reader” – check it out!

You can always find and immerse yourself in our group’s previous reports and book lists right here!

You can also check out links to articles, interviews and more here – some with San Francisco-based Silent Book Club founders Guinevere de La Mare and Laura Gluhanich, and some with us here in east end Toronto.

Learn more about the worldwide phenomenon of silent book clubs via Guinevere and Laura’s Silent Book Club web site. Last fall, they welcomed their 500th chapter … and with breathtaking momentum, they are now boasting 1,000 chapters!!! (There were around 60 chapters when we joined as the first Toronto chapter in 2017.) You can find information on meetings happening around the world and close to where you live. Every club is a different size, format (in-person, virtual or combinations) and vibe, so contact a club’s organizers beforehand if you have any questions or preferences. Please feel free to contact me for more information about our club and its offerings.

Wishing y’all alone together silent reading time (plus not-so-silent bookish conversation!) that is endlessly rich and rewarding.

There are so many kinds of bookish joy that we can relish as readers, individually and collectively. Every silent book club blog post is suffused with joy, wouldn’t you agree? Well, here are just two of the many kinds of bookish joy that were top of mind this past month.

• Our discussion meeting this month celebrated the mystique of books that make us laugh. Rolling out of that meeting was a generous list guaranteed to raise a chuckle or one’s spirits!
• Silent book clubs’ core function, inspiration, raison d’être is readers reading silently together, relishing bookish community. While our zoom meetings each month remain popular, we’re also doing more in-person meetings every month (as East End Toronto Coffee Co). We had an especially well-attended, companionable gathering captured in some of the photos here.

Every title on our group’s lists means that at least one (but usually more) readers have given that title thoughtful consideration. Does that mean every work on our lists is expressly recommended? Not exactly or necessarily. Inclusion on this list always means that our readers have devoted time and attention to a title – and that, dear bookish friends, means a lot.

• Watership Down by Richard Adams, narrated by Peter Capaldi (audiobook)
• The Idiot by Elif Batuman (audiobook)
• The World in a Grain – The story of sand and how it transformed civilization by Vince Beiser
• The Talk by Darrin Bell
• Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden
• Loved and Missed by Susie Boyt
• The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
• Also a Poet – Frank O’Hara, my father, and me by Ada Calhoun
• The Bodyguard by Katherine Center, narrated by Patti Murin (audiobook)
• Primary Obsessions by Charles Demers
• My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
• Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot
• Do What They Say Or Else by Annie Ernaux, translated by Christopher Beach and Carrie Noland
• Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
• James by Percival Everett
• Ask the Dust by John Fante
• The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World by Max Fisher
• The Spare Room by Helen Garner
• Messages of Hope by Suzanne Giesemann
• Olga Dies Dreaming: A Novel by Xochitl Gonzalez, narrated by Almarie Guerra, Armando Riesco, Inés del Castillo (audiobook)
• The Inheritance by Joanna Goodman
• Diva by Daisy Goodwin
• Green Dot by Madeleine Gray
• Late Edition: A Love Story by Bob Greene
• The Last Word by Elly Griffiths
• Uncommon Type – Some stories by Tom Hanks (audiobook)
• The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins
• Happy Place by Emily Henry
• Behind You by Catherine Hernandez
• Barbara Comyns: A savage innocence by Avril Horner
• Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance by Alex Hutchinson
• Denison Avenue by Daniel Innes & Christina Wong (audiobook)
• Dante’s Equation by Jane Jensen
• Poet Cop by Hans Jewinski
• Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village by Maureen Johnson
• Maureen by Rachel Joyce
• I was a Child by Bruce Eric Kaplan
• Dark Matter by Phillip Kerr
• Under the Dome by Stephen King
• Grey Bees by Andrey Kurkov, translated by Boris Dralyuk
• Pew by Catherine Lacey
• Whiskey When We’re Dry by John Larison
• Mobile by Tanis MacDonald
• The Swedish Art of Aging Exuberantly – Life wisdom from someone who will (probably) die before you by Margareta Magnusson
• How to Blow Up a Pipeline: Learning to Fight in a World on Fire by Andreas Malm
• Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy (audiobook)
• Tear by Erica McKeen
• The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality by Amanda Montell
• The Upside-Down World – Meetings with the Dutch Masters by Benjamin Moser
• The Progress of Love by Alice Munro
• Knife Skills for Beginners by Orlando Murrin
• Ernie’s America – The Best of Ernie Pyle’s 1930s Travel Dispatches by David Nichols
• If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane, narrated by Sara Novak (audiobook)
• A Year of Last Things by Michael Ondaatje
• Did Ye Hear Mammy Died by Séamas O’Reilly
• The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki
• Finding Margaret Fuller by Allison Pataki
• I’m a Fan by Sheena Patel
• Family Style: Memories of an American from Vietnam by Thien Pham
• Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe
• River Mumma by Zalika Reid-Benta, narrated by Tymika Tafari (audiobook)
• Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice
• All the Colour in the World by CS Richardson
• Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson
• Over My Dead Body: The Sensational Age of the American Paperback: 1945-1955 by Lee Server
• Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley
• Please Look After Mom by Kyung-Sook Shin, translated by Kim Chi-Young
• On Tyranny Graphic Edition – Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder and Nora Krug
• The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne
• Memphis by Tara M. Stringfellow, narrated by Karen Murray, Adenrele Ojo, Tara Stringfellow (audiobook)
• Her First Palestinian by Saeed Teebi
• The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood
• Human Transit: How Clearer Thinking About Public Transit Can Enrich Our Communities and Our Lives (Revised Edition) by Jarrett Walker
• Remember Me as Human by Lucy Walsh
• Harnessing Peacocks by Mary Wesley
• The Push & The Pull by Darryl Whetter
• Disorientation – Being Black in the world by Ian Williams (audiobook)
• The Bookbinder of Jericho by Pip Williams
• One Last Good Look by Michael Winter
• How Much of These Hills is Gold by C Pam Zhang, narrated by Catherine Ho, Joel de la Fuente (audiobook)

You can always find and immerse yourself in our group’s previous reports and book lists right here!

You can also check out links to articles, interviews and more here – some with San Francisco-based Silent Book Club founders Guinevere de La Mare and Laura Gluhanich, and some with us here in east end Toronto.

Learn more about the worldwide phenomenon of silent book clubs via Guinevere and Laura’s Silent Book Club web site. Last fall, they welcomed their 500th chapter … and with breathtaking momentum, they are now boasting 1,000 chapters!!! (There were around 60 chapters when we joined as the first Toronto chapter in 2017.) You can find information on meetings happening around the world and close to where you live. Every club is a different size, format (in-person, virtual or combinations) and vibe, so contact a club’s organizers beforehand if you have any questions or preferences. Please feel free to contact me for more information about our club and its offerings.

Wishing you many, many kinds of bookish joy!

Over a year ago, our silent book club group members decided to add a virtual meeting to our monthly schedule to delve into some of the themes we touch on and skim over during our regular, go-round meetings. These meetings have helped us to both broaden our reading horizons and go more deeply into our reading, and we’re also getting to know each other more as readers and bookish friends.

Last month, our discussion topic was …

* Books that make us cry / upset us in some way – Do we “like” / enjoy them?

… and while it was a rich and revealing discussion, it’s safe to say we all departed the gathering perhaps feeling a little blue.

So, this month, our discussion topic just had to be …

* Books that make us laugh out loud – We need this subject as a counterpoint to our last discussion, about books that make/made us cry. Of course, we can extend this to reflections on the magic with which mere words on a page or screen can cause us to feel immense emotions of all kinds.

… and it was equally vibrant, and evoked more than a few laughs and chuckles along the way. Among the examples and recommendations, readers also asked some interesting questions and made thought-provoking observations about the words on a page or screen that make us merry.

• Is it harder for words to make us laugh than make us cry?
• Reading experiences that “literally make you LOL” are the most memorable!
• Humour that truly strikes a chord usually means you’ve recognized something or someone you know.
• One reader observed during this discussion that the power of words to make us laugh, cry and more had him thinking about bibliotherapy, a therapeutic approach employing books and other forms of literature, typically alongside more traditional therapies, to support a patient’s mental health.

Here is the list of authors and specific titles that emerged from this discussion. Inclusion in this list doesn’t necessarily mean a recommendation, nor does it mean a particular work will connect with your funny bone. Inclusion on this list always means that our silent book club readers have devoted time and attention to a title, which means a lot.

• Money: A Suicide Note by Martin Amis
• The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood
• Books by Jane Austen
• The Lady in the Van by Alan Bennett
• Murder Before Evensong by the Reverend Richard Coles
• Books by Billy Connolly
• Books by Terry Fallis
• Bridget Jones books by Helen Fielding
• Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg
• The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett
• Books by Chelsea Handler
• Books by Emily Henry
• Books by James Herriot
• The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer
• Books by Alexandra Horowitz
• Books by Anthony Horowitz
• Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey
• Did Ye Hear Mammy Died by Séamas O’Reilly
• Books by Richard Osman
• Books by Louise Penny
• That Old Ace in the Hole (Abridged) by Annie Proulx, narrated by Arliss Howard (audiobook)
• Books by Barbara Pym
• Stiff – The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
• The Guncle by Steven Rowley
• Nobody’s Fool by Richard Russo
• Books by David Sedaris
• The Fraud by Zadie Smith (audiobook)
• The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
• The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark
• A Far Cry from Kensington by Muriel Spark
• Man at the Helm by Nina Stibbe
• Books by Miriam Toews
• A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
• A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
• Adrian Mole books by Sue Townsend
• Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
• The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese (audiobook)

Happy (in every sense of the word) reading!