Halfway through the lively reading recap during our almost standing-room-only silent book club gathering, someone remarked that as a group, we sure do seem to read a lot of bleak books. A scan of any of our recent book lists might indeed bear this observation out … but that doesn’t seem to deter us from gathering so eagerly every month (and in fact, even more frequently, since this was a bonus holiday gathering), does it? Somehow, the sometimes challenging and yes, regularly troubling or solemn subject matter is transcended and made very worthwhile by the thoughtfulness, passion, good humour and collegiality with which this ever blossoming group shares their reading enthusiasms.

And hey, there was nothing bleak about the latest beautiful bouquet of books spread before us for consideration and consumption today!

In addition to the bright cornucopia of books, today’s gathering welcomed several new voices to our booklovers’ chorus. As the group grows, so do the opportunities for each member to broaden reading horizons and gain new insights and revelations.

What follows, as always, is the list of the books we read and discussed at our latest silent book club meeting. Each title is presented and discussed within the group with readers’ capsule positive, negative or mixed – always refreshingly constructive – reviews. Our list as I present it here has no rating system, just a link to either publisher information or generally positive reviews or informational pieces. The list is not inherently a list of recommendations, just a record of what we discussed. Still, I think you’ll agree it’s an eclectic and intriguing selection that might spark the interest of anyone keeping up with our club.

• Purple Hibicus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• Amish romance novels
• I Have Something to Tell You by Natalie Appleton
• Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
• Whose Names Are Unknown by Sanora Babb
• Living Up to a Legend by Diana Bishop
• A Darkness of the Heart by Gail Bowen
• French Exit by Patrick deWitt
• Heartbreaker by Claudia Dey
• The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline
• Fur, Fortune and Empire by Eric Jay Dolin
• American War by Omar El Akkad
• 26a by Diana Evans
• The Witch Elm + more by Tana French
• A Forger’s Tale by Shaun Greenhalgh
• Take Us to Your Chief by Drew Hayden Taylor
• The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard
• They Left Us Everything by Plum Johnson
• No Good Asking by Fran Kimmel
• O Jerusalem by Laurie R. King
• The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner
• Independent People by Halldor Laxness
• A Book of Silence by Sara Maitland
• All We Leave Behind by Carol Off
• Warlight by Michael Ondaatje
• There There by Tommy Orange
• The Library Book by Susan Orlean
• Kingdom of the Blind by Louise Penny
• The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry
• Melmoth by Sarah Perry
• Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice
• Year One by Nora Roberts
• The End of Imagination by Arundhati Roy
• Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution by Simon Schama
• Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie
• Autumn by Ali Smith
• Harry’s Last Stand by Harry Leslie Smith
• Every Breath by Nicholas Sparks
• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
• Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck
• Seven Fallen Feathers by Tanya Talaga
• Liminal by Jordan Tannahill
• Educated by Tara Westover

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

Our silent book club was also included in a recent feature about silent book clubs in the international news publication The Christian Science Monitor. Enjoy the article here.

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.

I’m thrilled to share with everyone that our Toronto-based silent book club, held monthly at PRESS books. coffee. vinyl, is included in a lovely feature in the international news publication The Christian Science Monitor. Congratulations to all who have made this club such a success, in person and online. Enjoy the article here.

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Did I mention that the night before a silent book club meeting, it feels like Christmas Eve? How wonderful then to be packing my book bag this month in the light of our little Christmas tree.

How wonderful, too, to have a group of reading friends who concur that the holidays aren’t always wonder and joy … and so we’ve agreed to pencil in an interim silent book club meeting between Christmas and New Year’s, as a companionable sanctuary amidst the demands of the season.

Thank you, Press on the Danforth, for having our table set up and extra scones awaiting as we all arrived, eager to spread our books out on the table and start sharing them. That sharing has evolved from the engaging discussions about we’re reading to, almost as a matter of course now, a passing of books across the table to the next eager reader. In just over a year, such trust has developed that if someone from silent book club had recommended it, we’re all willing to roam beyond our reading comfort zones and try new things.

What follows, as always, is this month’s list of the books we read and discussed at our silent book club. Each title is presented and discussed within the group with readers’ capsule positive, negative or mixed – always refreshingly constructive – reviews. (We segued briefly in today’s discussions into the drive-by, non-constructive book “reviews” often encountered via Goodreads.) 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. Still, I think it’s a pretty diverse and intriguing selection that might spark the interest of anyone keeping up with our club.

• Purple Hibicus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• Theory by Dionne Brand
• Little Beast by Julie Demers
• Heartbreaker by Claudia Dey
• All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
• Fur, Fortune and Empire by Eric Jay Dolin
• 26a by Diana Evans
• The Witch Elm + more by Tana French
• The Winters by Lisa Gabriele
• The Punishment She Deserves by Elizabeth George
• Take Us to Your Chief by Drew Hayden Taylor
• No Good Asking by Fran Kimmel
• O Jerusalem by Laurie R. King
• The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner
• The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner
• Any Other Way – How Toronto Got Queer edited by John Lorinc, Jane Farrow, Stephanie Chambers, Maureen FitzGerald, Tim McCaskell, Rebecka Sheffield, Tatum Taylor, Rahim Thawer, & Ed Jackson
• A Book of Silence by Sara Maitland
• There There by Tommy Orange
• Dear Evelyn by Kathy Page
• The End of Imagination by Arundhati Roy
• My Private Property by Mary Ruefle
• Harry’s Last Stand by Harry Leslie Smith
• Virgin by Analicia Sotelo
• The Mobius Strip Club of Grief by Bianca Stone
• Liminal by Jordan Tannahill
• Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead

One book club member’s reading choice for this month – A Book of Silence by Sara Maitland – was inspired by some lovely book club cross-pollination. In addition to promoting our silent book club meetings on social media, I’d recently tweeted about Literary North’s Slow Book Club, one of our silent book club members saw my tweets and she signed up for that club’s thoughtful consideration of a book per season. I’m joining, too, with their first reading choice for the new year, and am very much looking forward to this complement to our monthly silent book club. (Slow Book Club, you might see a few more sign-ups from Toronto in the near future!)

A couple of meetings ago, one of our silent book club members mentioned that for her 70th birthday, she was asking everyone to share with her the gift of stories and storytelling. She had an excellent and generous response to her request, and she is now gradually posting the story gifts she received on her blog. Take a look at jofacilitator.ca/.

At the end of today’s silent book club gathering, the other readers indulged my request to read aloud a poem from my recent reading that I found particularly striking and moving – “Migration” from The Mobius Strip Club of Grief by Bianca Stone. We’ve decided that at our next get-together, everyone will be given the opportunity to share a poetry or prose excerpt. It is so gratifying and heartening to see how our group and what we share has evolved.

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

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.

Finally, I just want to offer my gratitude for our silent book club’s special sense of community and, in its way, almost a type of gentle worship that I know has seen me through a somewhat trying year. I hope what almost palpably radiates from our quiet, bookish gatherings takes us all (those who assemble around the coffee/bookstore table, and those following along with us and/or building their own groups of readers) into a new year filled with every kind of happiness, bolstered by the books that buoy us and bring us together.