Monthly Archives: July 2019

Glorious silent book club in the park

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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)

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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!

    2019-books1-600

  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

  8. City Poems
    Joe Fiorito
    2018

  9. Reproduction
    Ian Williams
    2019

  10. Wuthering Heights
    Emily Bronte
    1847
    (read aloud)

  11. Indecency
    Justin Phillip Reed
    2018

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

  13. Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk
    Kathleen Rooney
    2017

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

  15. Human Hours
    Catherine Barnett
    2018

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

  17. The Quaker
    Liam McIlvanney
    2018

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

    19. 2019-books3-600

  19. Wonderland
    Matthew Dickman
    2018

  20. Gingerbread
    Helen Oyeyemi
    2019

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

  22. Quarrels
    Eve Joseph
    2018

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

  24. No Bones
    Anna Burns
    2001

  25. The Perseverance
    Raymond Antrobus
    2018

  26. Women Talking
    Miriam Toews
    2018

  27. Girl of the Southern Sea
    Michelle Kadarusman
    2019

  28. Watching You Without Me
    Lynn Coady
    2019

  29. Normal People
    Sally Rooney
    2018

  30. The Art of Dying
    Sarah Tolmie
    2018

    31. 2019-books4-600

  31. There Are Not Enough Sad Songs
    Marita Dachsel
    2019

  32. Most of What Follows is True
    Michael Crummey
    2019

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

  34. Heave
    Christy Ann Conlin
    2002

  35. Into That Fire
    MJ Cates
    2019

  36. The Teardown
    by David Homel
    2019

  37. Watermark
    Christy Ann Conlin
    2019

  38. 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?