Monthly Archives: January 2019

As winter blasts in, silent book club too engrossed in reading to notice …

Winter returned to Toronto with a frigid vengeance this Saturday morning. Us silent book clubbers didn’t notice it at the time, mind you, so wrapped up were we in the company of other readers and our wonderful books, in cozy book/coffee shop Press. I’m confident silent book club is going to see us through a harsh winter, if that’s what we now have before us, judging by today’s meeting’s record attendance, which included four new participants.

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Today’s recap was a nice blend of revisits with books that are making their rounds from reader to reader – again, testament to the trust in tastes and recommendations this group has fostered – with a cavalcade of new and varied titles. So let’s get right to the book list which, as always, encompasses all titles presented and discussed within the group. Each reader offers 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. 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.

I can hardly wait to see who joins us – books and people – next meeting!

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

Our silent book club was included in a recent 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.

What, where and how I read in 2018

As I confessed recently, 2018 was a challenging reading year for me. I read some great books and attended some memorable readings and book events, but how I read (mostly books, sometimes on screen) and my normal reading tempo was impeded by vision problems. My vision deteriorated in an alarmingly short period of time due to the swift and severe onset of cataracts. (I didn’t mind being told I was too young to be experiencing this problem so acutely, but that was the only meagre comfort at the time.)

For a time, I didn’t know if these vision problems would be protracted or even permanent. If it was, I knew I had to accept changing how I read and would have to adapt accordingly. Other readers read in other ways, and I could too if I had to. As it turns out, surgery and support from excellent professionals means I’ll be able to continue casting my gaze on the printed page, my preferred way of reading. I’m grateful I have that option, and have heightened respect for those who come to the written word with patience and resourcefulness in other ways.

Because I was tussling just to read, I didn’t write about my reading much this year – except, as you may have noticed, about our beloved silent book club. Still, I did my best to share a few thoughts on my reading as I went along, and managed to put up some snippets on Goodreads, Twitter and even Instagram. Sometimes those wee comments sparked a bit of conversation with fellow readers, which was nice and some continued reassurance that not all of social media is a relentless dumpster fire.

I continued my commitment in 2018 to a daily devotion to at least one poem … and usually more, as friends on Twitter continued to generously share their poem choices and reflections via the #todayspoem hashtag. I’m now heading into my eighth uninterrupted year of poetry tweets. In 2017, I gathered up all my tweets here. I’ll try to do something similar with my 2018 #todayspoem tweets in the near future.

Another reading practice that sparks joy (ahem) as I navigate through books is that of #sundaysentence, tirelessly championed and curated by author David Abrams. Seeking a weekly gem seems to sharpen my attention when I’m reading, and I love discovering new works through the #sundaysentence choices of other readers.

An important milestone this reading year just past is that my treasured but admittedly battered, over 35-year-old book of books got a much needed restoration.

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My husband arranged for the book (in which I’ve recorded my reading since I graduated from university in 1983) to be beautifully rebound, by bookbinder Don Taylor. If you need something that further sparks reading joy, get yourself a gorgeous book in which to record your reading – you won’t regret it.

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Here are the books I read and read aloud in 2018, with a few recollections of where I was when I was reading them.

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  1. Stranger, by David Bergen
  2. The Left-Handed Dinner Party and Other Stories, by Myrl Coulter
  3. Cat’s Eye, by Margaret Atwood … here too
  4. This was the only book I reread this year, but it was a splendid one to revisit. As I remarked at the time, it’s a moving, intimate and instructive look at how women can be each other’s best allies and worst enemies.

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  5. Scarborough, by Catherine Hernandez
  6. The Finest Supermarket in Kabul, by Ele Pawelski
  7. This book was good company during my subway travels.

  8. Quantum Typography, by Gary Barwin
  9. The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas
  10. Still Life, by Louise Penny
  11. I very much enjoyed this introduction to Louise Penny and Chief Inspector Armand Gamache thanks to enthusiastic recommendations from my silent book club friends.

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    Still Life … with beagle-basset …

    A post shared by Vicki Ziegler (@vzbookgaga) on

  12. Loop of Jade, by Sarah Howe
  13. Wisdom in Nonsense – Invaluable Lessons from My Father, by Heather O’Neill
  14. Studio Saint-Ex, by Ania Szado
  15. Seven Fallen Feathers, by Tanya Talaga
  16. Sun of a Distant Land, by David Bouchet, translated by Claire Holden Rothman
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  18. This is How You Lose Her, by Junot Diaz
  19. Antigone Undone, by Will Aitken
  20. Not only was the book captivating, but it was great to hear about it firsthand from Aitken and Anne Carson (gasp!) about a month later at the Toronto Reference Library.

  21. Winter’s Bone, by Daniel Woodrell
  22. This stunning book was a Little Library find!

  23. Magenta Soul Whip, by Lisa Robertson
  24. French Exit, by Patrick deWitt
  25. I have to live. by Aisha Sasha John
  26. This Wound Is a World, by Billy-Ray Belcourt
  27. A Death in the Family, by Karl Ove Knausgaard
  28. Kudos, by Rachel Cusk
  29. The Built Environment, by Emily Hasler
  30. I enjoyed both Kudos and The Built Environment at silent book club.

  31. The Bleeds, by Dimitri Nasrallah
  32. Warlight, by Michael Ondaatje
  33. Dreampad, by Jeff Latosik
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  35. Collected Tarts & Other Indelicacies, by Tabatha Southey
  36. My husband and I read this book aloud. Much, much laughter …!

  37. Ties, by Domenico Starnone, translated by Jhumpa Lahiri
  38. Muskoka Holiday, by Joyce Boyle
  39. My husband and I read this book aloud at the cottage. I remember quite vividly that this was when my vision was just about at its worst, about a month before the first of two eye surgeries. I was pleased to be able to read this book, though, because of its large print.

  40. On Not Losing My Father’s Ashes in the Flood, by Richard Harrison
  41. Chicken, by Lynn Crosbie
  42. Deer Life – A Fairy Tale, by Ron Sexsmith
  43. The Deserters, by Pamela Mulloy
  44. If you’ve read them both, you might not think Lynn Crosbie’s Chicken and Pamela Mulloy’s The Deserters have much in common. I gathered notes for, but my weary eyes never allowed me to complete a review comparing the two books on the theme of troubled relationships.

  45. Wade in the Water, by Tracy K. Smith
  46. The Outlaw Album, by Daniel Woodrell
  47. Heartbreaker, by Claudia Dey
  48. Beartown, by Fredrik Backman, translated by Neil Smith
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  50. Transcription, by Kate Atkinson
  51. As I remarked when I finished it, Transcription‘s Juliet is an endlessly fascinating creature – who, of course, we still don’t entirely know in the end – and her adventures and dilemmas are absorbing and, at times, horrifying. This incredible book was a favourite amongst the readers in our silent book club, and a bunch of us went to here her read from it and converse with Rachel Giese at the lovely Church of the Holy Trinity in downtown Toronto.

  52. The Blue Clerk, by Dionne Brand
  53. Both a stunning book and a gorgeous book object, this was one of the most pleasurable reading experiences of my year.

  54. Split Tooth, by Tanya Tagaq
  55. God of Shadows, by Lorna Crozier
  56. Sugar and Other Stories, by A.S. Byatt
  57. If They Come For Us, by Fatimah Asghar
  58. Zolitude, by Paige Cooper
  59. The Game, by A.S. Byatt
  60. The Mobius Strip Club of Grief, by Bianca Stone
  61. Stereoblind, by Emma Healey
  62. Dear Evelyn, by Kathy Page
  63. Theory, by Dionne Brand
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  65. My Private Property, by Mary Ruefle
  66. Virgin, by Analicia Sotelo
  67. No Good Asking, by Fran Kimmel
  68. Liminal, by Jordan Tannahill
  69. The Library Book, by Susan Orlean
  70. We read this aloud – voraciously and with immense delight – and finished it on New Year’s Eve, which felt rather perfect.

In 2018, I read a total of 54 works: 33 works of fiction (novels and short story collections), 16 poetry collections and 5 works of non-fiction. I reread one book, read 4 works in translation, and read 36 works by Canadian authors. My husband and I read three books aloud to each other this year and have another one in progress as we greet the new year.

I also kept track this year of the publication dates of the books I read. In 2018, the oldest book I read was published in 1953, and I also read books published in 1967, 1987 and 1988, fulfilling last year’s intention to read some more older books. Exactly half of the books I read in 2018 were published in 20 18.

Currently in progress, heading into 2019:

  • Milkman
    by Anna Burns

  • Voodoo Hypothesis
    by Canisia Lubrin

  • Wuthering Heights
    by Emily Brontë
    (reread and … read aloud!)

For yet another year, I’m looking back fondly on my 2018 reading, looking forward eagerly, with anticipation and even some curiosity to my 2019 reading, I’ll simply conclude (as I always do) …

It’s not how many you read that counts. It’s that you read that counts.