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).

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:

• The Aftermath by Rhidian Brook
• The Central Park Five by Sarah Burns
• Fever by Sharon Butala
• The Perfection of the Morning by Sharon Butala
• Wild Stone Heart: An Apprentice in the Fields by Sharon Butala
• Into That Fire by MJ Cates
• Past Tense by Lee Child
• Gentleman Jack by Anne Choma
• Watching You Without Me by Lynn Coady
• The Truth About Delilah Blue by Tish Cohen
• Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club by Megan Gail Coles
• Heave by Christy Ann Conlin
• The Round House by Louise Erdrich (audiobook)
• The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
• The 2019 Griffin Poetry Prize Anthology edited by Kim Maltman
• 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
• The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street by Helene Hanff
• The Chai Factor by Farah Heron
• The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
• Learning to See by Elise Hooper
• Meat is for Pussies by John Joseph
• The Wheel of Life – A Memoir of Living and Dying by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
• The Grandmothers by Doris Lessing
• A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
• Teardown: Rebuilding Democracy from the Ground Up by Dave Meslin
• February by Lisa Moore
• Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
• Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
• What Comes with the Dust by Gharbi M. Mustafa
• Becoming by Michelle Obama
• The Library Book by Susan Orlean
• Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
• Between Friends by Amos Oz
• Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
• A Few Green Leaves by Barbara Pym
• Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
• The Gown by Jennifer Robson
• Finding Ultra by Rich Roll
• Normal People by Sally Rooney
• The Long Shot by Kennedy Ryan
• The Maze at Windermere by Gregory Blake Smith
• The Art of Dying by Sarah Tolmie
• The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters (audiobook)
• Educated by Tara Westover
• Wicked Wallflowers podcast
• A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

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.