After how glorious it was last month, it was a tiny bit disappointing that we wouldn’t be able to reprise our silent book club meeting in the park again this month, what with the rain teeming down this morning. But any day, any weather is a good day and fine and acceptable weather for a silent book club meeting. I knew this was going to be a special one as I arrived with book bag and umbrella at Press’ welcoming door …

The sounds of the rain and of car tires zipping past over wet pavement on the Danforth, coupled with some particularly sweet vinyl selections from Yo La Tengo (thanks, Victoria!) created the perfect reading soundtrack today. The round-the-table discussion beforehand, featuring a nice combination of updates and perspectives from regular, occasional and some brand new participants, was a fine segue into an uninterrupted hour of reading that apparently everyone was particularly yearning for this month.

What an exceptional cornucopia of books and other publications we highlighted, discussed and devoured for an hour this time:

• Arc Poetry Magazine
• Sofie & Cecilia by Katherine Ashenburg
• Midlife Action Figure by Chris Banks
• The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes
• The Trick by Emanuel Bergmann
• My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
• Bad Blood – Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou
• Kate Burkholder series by Linda Castillo
• Watermark by Christy Ann Conlin
• God of Shadows by Lorna Crozier
• A Feast of Snakes by Harry Crews
• Foreign Babes in Beijing – Behind the Scenes of a New China by Rachel DeWoskin
• The Wonder by Emma Donoghue
• The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis
• In Pieces by Sally Field (audiobook)
• A Maggot by John Fowles
• Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
• Detective D.D. Warren series by Lisa Gardner
• The Book of Delights by Ross Gay
• The Home for Unwanted Girls by Joanna Goodman (audiobook)
• Little Comfort by Edwin Hill (audiobook)
• The Illegal by Lawrence Hill
• The Comforts of Home by Susan Hill
• The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner
• I Know my Own Heart: The Diary of Anne Lister
• House Divided – How the Missing Middle Will Solve Toronto’s Affordability Crisis edited by John Lorinc, Alex Bozikovic, Cheryll Case and Annabel Vaughan
• The Bookshop of Yesterdays by Amy Meyerson
• Late Breaking by K.D. Miller
• Darktown by Thomas Mullen
• How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny (audiobook)
• Kingdom Come by Danica Power
• In Search of Lost Time Volume 3 – Guermantes Way by Marcel Proust
• The Gown by Jennifer Robson
• Normal People by Sally Rooney
• Theory of Bastards by Andrea Schulman
• The Maze at Windermere by Gregory Blake Smith
• Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays by Zadie Smith (audiobook)
• Past Tense by Star Spider
• Split Tooth by Tanya Tagaq
• The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

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.

• CBC Radio’s Ontario Morning (starting at 41:20)
• CBC Toronto web site
• a series of interviews across Canada with CBC Radio, including Toronto’s Here and Now
• The Christian Science Monitor – Witty banter optional: The no-pressure, no-homework book club

San Francisco-based Silent Book Club founders Guinevere de La Mare and Laura Gluhanich were most recently featured in a wonderful piece on the NPR web site (yes, National Public Radio, thank you very much!). Extensive and enthusiastic coverage silent book club coverage includes this piece 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.