One of my vital and ongoing sources of joy again this year was our silent book club group: meeting, discussing and sharing online and in person and savouring and expanding one’s horizons every month through our endlessly rich and varied combined reading lists. It never feels like homework or competition, just the most splendid kinds of sharing, encouragement and discovery.

How wonderful then to be able to fit in one more set of meetings before the end of this year!

Those meetings left me and, I hope, my fellow readers (including those of you relishing our meetings after the fact through this blog post) abuzz with more reading aspirations that will send me happily into another new year of reading.

One of yesterday’s zoom attendees praised Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet by Hannah Ritchie. According to the reader, not only were the book’s themes and examples heartening and optimistic, but the author’s contention that “I’ve done the sums” was also reassuring.

I’ve never “done the sums” with our collected reading lists, as the sums really aren’t the point, are they? But just for fun, I scanned through our 2025 lists … and discovered that we shared an average of 52 books amongst ourselves and with readers of this blog every month in the past year. So, it’s not homework or competition, as we’ve always contended, but isn’t it nice to know a new, fresh wave of books of all kinds awaits you every month?

Chapbook of poems from Wales on a table at East Toronto Coffee Co, accompanied by coffee and pastries (Photo by Vicki Ziegler)

Every title on our group’s always generous lists means that at least one (usually more) readers have given that title thoughtful attention. That doesn’t mean that every work on our lists is explicitly recommended, of course. Inclusion on this list always means that our readers have devoted time and consideration to a title – and that counts for a lot!

• Algospeak by Adam Aleksic
• The Long Game by Elena Armas
• All the Broken Places by John Boyne
• Death at the White Hart by Chris Chibnall
• Your Utopia by Bora Chung, translated by Anton Hur
• Austen Years: A Memoir in Five Novels by Rachel Cohen
• The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern by Lynda Cohen Loigman
• The Tortoise’s Tale by Kendra Coulter
• Emilie by Arlette Cousture
• Blonde Dust by Tatiana de Rosnay
• Wild Animal by Joël Dicker, translated by Robert Bononno
• Into the Magic Shop – A Neurosurgeon’s Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart by James R. Doty, MD
• The Wasp Trap by Mark Edwards
• The Wasp Trap by Mark Edwards, narrated by John Hopkins & Anna Burnett (audiobook)
• A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst
• Off Limits by Nawal El Saadawi
• Finding Flora by Elinor Florence
• Blood Dark by Louis Guilloux, translated by Laura Marris
• The Winemaker’s Wife by Kristin Harmel
• I Become Her by Joe Hart
• Flight Paths by Rebecca Heisman
• Skinny Dip by Carl Hiaasen
• Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
• Followed by the Lark by Helen Humphreys, narrated by Jennifer Pickens (audiobook)
• Let Me Hear a Rhyme by Tiffany D. Jackson (audiobook)
• The Shining by Stephen King
• Audition by Katie Kitamura
• The Names by Florence Knapp
• On the Edge of Reason by Miroslav Krleza
• Give Unto Others by Donna Leon
• Seasonal Work: Stories by Laura Lippman
• Frostfire by Elly MacKay
• The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller
• Earthlings by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori
• Shut Up You’re Pretty by Tea Mutonji
• Wreck by Catherine Newman
• True Biz by Sara Novic, narrated by Lisa Flanagan, Kaleo Griffith (audiobook)
• We the Kindling by Otoniya J Okotbitek, narrated by Shelby Mwambu (audiobook)
• A Field Guide to Birds of Ontario by Mark Peck
• How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin
• In Search of Lost Time – Volume IV, Sodom and Gomorrah by Marcel Proust, translated by C.K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin, revised by D.J. Enright
• In Search of Lost Time – Volume V, The Captive & The Fugitive by Marcel Proust, translated by C.K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin, revised by D.J. Enright
• Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid
• Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet by Hannah Ritchie
• Colony by Anne Rivers Siddons
• Atomweight by Emi Sasagawa
• Cafe with No Name by Robert Seethaler, translated by Katy Derbyshire
• Seth’s Christmas Ghost Stories: Lady Ferry by Sarah Orne Jewett, The Mistress in Black by Rosemary Timperley and Lucky’s Grove by H. Russell Wakefield
• Hirayasumi by Keigo Shinzo
• Walking with Beth – Conversations with My Hundred-Year-Old Friend by Merilyn Simonds
• Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld, narrated by Carrington MacDuffie (audiobook)
• Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson
• Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson
• Arcadia by Tom Stoppard, narrated by Kate Burton, etc. (audiobook)
• The Solitary Gourmet by Jiro Taniguchi and Masayuki Kusumi, translated by Kumar Sivasubramanian
• Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
• Pick a Colour by Souvankham Thammavongsa, narrated by Zoe Doyle (audiobook)
• Murder on the Marlow Belle by Roger Thorogood
• A Truce That is Not Peace by Miriam Toews (audiobook)
• Phineas Redux by Anthony Trollope
• Why We Swim by Bonnie Tsui
• The Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman
• Time of the Child by Niall Williams
• Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood, narrated by Ailsa Piper (audiobook)
• Goodnight Tokyo by Atsuhiro Yoshida, translated by Haydn Trowell
• Hello Sunshine by Keezy Young

And yes, we usually have some extra book-related articles, resources, news and recommendations to share. These are items and tidbits that are often companions to books on the list, or are inspired or offered by our members and/or come up during our discussions and chat.

• Starting in January 2026, Silent Book Club headquarters will be offering new book recommendations, shining a spotlight on a new book release each month.
• Take a look at the New York Public Library Top Checkouts of 2025, Best Books of 2025 and New Yorker 100 Exhibition at the library. (One of our zoom members lives near and is fortunate to visit the New York Public Library on a regular basis!)
• As Wikipedia defines it, cozy mysteries “are a sub-genre of crime fiction in which sex and violence occur offstage, the detective is an amateur sleuth, and the crime and detection take place in a small, socially intimate community.” In this month’s zoom meeting, a reader mentioned that she was embarking on an exploration of cozy mysteries in Asian settings. As you can see from that previous link, the cozymystery.com web site can steer interested readers to any variation of this sub-genre imaginable!
• A vital companion to Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet by Hannah Ritchie is the Our World in Data web site.

Our group’s previous reports and book lists are always available right here!

You can also check out links to articles, interviews and more here – some with San Francisco-based Silent Book Club founders Guinevere de La Mare and Laura Gluhanich, and some with us here in east end Toronto.

Learn more about the worldwide phenomenon of silent book clubs via Guinevere and Laura’s Silent Book Club web site. In fall 2023, they welcomed their 500th chapter … and with continuing, breathtaking momentum, they now boast almost 2,000 chapters … (There were around 60 chapters when we joined as the first Toronto chapter in 2017.) The SBC organization celebrated its 10th anniversary throughout October … and our chapter celebrated its 8th anniversary in early November.

You can find information on meetings happening around the world and close to where you live. Every club is different in size, format (in-person, virtual or hybrid) and vibe, so contact a club’s organizers beforehand if you have any questions or preferences. Please feel free to contact me for more information about our club and its offerings.

The happiest of happy reading, however you keep track … or don’t!

Confessions of a Non-Reader

by Rev. J. Ruth Bartlett

As 2025 draws to a close, we get to enjoy another guest introduction to our monthly blog post. Dear fellow readers, meet Ruth Bartlett, who is a pastor at the Calvary Baptist Church, which is a short walk from East Toronto Coffee Co, where our readers meet in person.

I live in a world surrounded by books.

The collection of books and bookshelves where I reside fill every nook and cranny of our home with books my aunt has picked up over the years of mysteries, spy thrillers, and nursing research. At work, I look around my office, and I see shelves of books on all manners of theology, philosophy, spiritual help, self-help, church-help, international and community development, and ministry resources.

But I find it so so so hard to read any of it …

During my studies, we used the phrase “alone-together-time” for all the times when we knew we needed to do work, but knew we just could not concentrate on doing the work if we were trying to do it by ourselves. As a capital E Extrovert, I think that anything and everything is done better together, so it really helped me with my studies and forcing myself to reach and research alongside friends who were doing the same.

And so, when I was scrolling through Instagram one evening (instead of picking up a book and reading), the algorithm brought me to a silent book club chapter somewhere in the UK. The concept was so cute and cozy I just had to see if they were something here in Toronto – after all, Toronto seems to have pretty well every kind of group going!

After some research, I was so excited to find that not only was there a silent book club chapter in Toronto, but right here, in my very own neighbourhood!

Vicki has been so incredibly warm and welcoming, and I’ve been so inspired by all of the readers in this group, hearing many, varied types of books that I never find on my own shelves, but find myself intrigued to try.

Joining the silent book club helped me reconnect with the genres that brought me joy before the days of university and seminary. I’ve enjoyed a biography of one of my favourite actors, reread a novel that piqued my attention as an elementary school kid, and now I’m reading the classic Jane Austen novel Pride and Prejudice in anticipation of trying my first murder mystery novel The Murder of Mr. Wickham!

Though I still can’t quite call myself a reader, per se, I think I can finally shed the non-reader title knowing how much I enjoy reading alongside the wonderful people of the East End Toronto chapter of the silent book club.

Every title on our group’s always immense lists means that at least one (usually more) readers have given that title thoughtful attention. That doesn’t mean that every work on our lists is expressly recommended, of course. Inclusion on this list always means that our readers have devoted time and consideration to a title – and that counts for a lot!

• The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto by Mitch Albom
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, borrowed as a Blind Date with a Book!
• Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
• The Fleur de Sel Murders by Jean-Luc Bannalec (#3 in the Brittany Mystery Series)
• Checkout 19 by Claire-Louise Bennett
• The Queen Who Came in from the Cold: Her Majesty The Queen Investigates by S.J. Bennett
• The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne
• All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me by Patrick Bringley
• Horse by Geraldine Brooks
• The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter
• Austen Years: A Memoir in Five Novels by Rachel Cohen
• I Would Like to Say Thank You by Joseph Dandurand
• The Finest Hotel in Kabul: A People’s History of Afghanistan by Lyse Doucet
• Things That Disappear by Jenny Erpenbeck
• The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians by Matt Eversmann and James Patterson
• Jenny Cooper Has a Secret by Joy Fielding
• The Beguiling by Zsuzsi Gartner
• The Murder of Mr Wickham by Claudia Gray
• The Gardener’s Guide to Native Plants of the Southern Great Lakes Region by Rick Gray and Shaun Booth
• The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
• Encampment by Maggie Helwig, narrated by Maggie Helwig (audiobook)
• Summerhouse, Later by Judith Hermann
• The Girl from Berlin by Kate Hewitt
• The Retirement Plan by Sue Hincenbergs
• The History of Iceland by Guðni Thorlacius Jóhannesson
• The Homemade God by Rachel Joyce
• Meet the Neighbors: Animal Minds and Life in a More-than-Human World by Brandon Keim
• Cattail Lane by Fran Kimmel
• The Names by Florence Knapp
• The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus by Emma Knight
• Burr by Brooke Lockyer
• Death in Venice and Other Stories by Thomas Mann
• Northanger Abbey by Val McDermid
• Never Lie by Freida McFadden
• The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller
• Circe by Madeline Miller
• Miss Iceland by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir
• Overdue by Stephanie Perkins
• The Maid’s Secret by Nita Prose, narrated by Lauren Ambrose (audiobook)
• Sodom and Gomorrah by Marcel Proust, translated by C.K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin, revised by D.J. Enright
• The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz
• With a Vengeance by Riley Sager
• Kick the Latch by Kathryn Scanlan
• The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See
• The Cafe With No Name by Robert Seethaler
• Walking with Beth – Conversations with My Hundred-Year-Old Friend by Merilyn Simonds
• The Ruins by Scott Smith
• Remain by Nicholas Sparks and M. Night Shyamalan
• The Secret Lives of Color by Kassia St Clair
• Hakim’s Odessey – Book 1: From Syria to Turkey by Fabien Toulmé
• The Palliser novels by Anthony Trollope
• Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West
• The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods
• The Conscious Style Guide: A Flexible Approach to Language that Includes, Respects, and Empowers by Karen Yin

Here are some extra book-related articles, resources, news and recommendations, items and tidbits that are often companions to books on the list, or are inspired or offered by our members and/or come up during our discussions and chat.

• Silent book club member Richard took part of his book update time this month to introduce us all to the ICCT Book Club, the Icelandic Canada Club of Toronto’s gathering of readers, who rally round the motto: Að ganga með bók í maganum: To walk with a book in your stomach. Everyone gives birth to a book. As you’ll see at the link, they’ve jumped enthusiastically into their relaunch this fall with some great books, with more ahead going into 2026.
• The Walrus recently showcased the many book club choices readers in Toronto can consider, of which silent book clubs are just one.

Our group’s previous reports and book lists are always available right here!

You can also check out links to articles, interviews and more here – some with San Francisco-based Silent Book Club founders Guinevere de La Mare and Laura Gluhanich, and some with us here in east end Toronto.

Learn more about the worldwide phenomenon of silent book clubs via Guinevere and Laura’s Silent Book Club web site. In fall 2023, they welcomed their 500th chapter … and with continuing, breathtaking momentum, they now boast almost 2,000 chapters … (There were around 60 chapters when we joined as the first Toronto chapter in 2017.) The SBC organization celebrated its 10th anniversary throughout October … and our chapter celebrated its 8th anniversary in early November.

You can find information on meetings happening around the world and close to where you live. Every club is different in size, format (in-person, virtual or hybrid) and vibe, so contact a club’s organizers beforehand if you have any questions or preferences. Please feel free to contact me for more information about our club and its offerings.

Happy reading till next we gather!

I came away from another set of warm, welcoming and elucidating silent book club meetings this past weekend … with head, heart and to be read list brimming!

As readers share their delights and challenges during our zoom and in-person gatherings every month, I always discern interesting recurring themes. This time, there was an undercurrent of mild disappointment with each reader’s perceived amount and pace of reading since we last gathered. And then every reader reported on numbers of books and pages read that surely would make any reader proud … really.

My reaction? Just as every read in our group is legitimate in every way, the pace at which every reader reads is also just right, whatever that pace and volume of books and pages that represents from month to month. If you’ve read more of or less of or differently than you did the last time you took note … well, it’s all good. That you’re reading is the essential constant. The rest might be interesting to record or monitor – on Goodreads, in a book diary, in a text file, whatever – but it need not be a competition, with other readers or even with yourself.

Your reaction?

Photo credits: Jennifer D. Foster, Helen Gunnarsson, Vicki Ziegler

Every title on our group’s always brimming lists means that at least one (usually more) readers have given that title thoughtful attention. That doesn’t mean that every work on our lists is expressly recommended, of course. Inclusion on this list always means that our readers have devoted time and consideration to a title – and that counts for so very much.

• Martyr by Kaveh Akbar, narrated by Arian Moayed (audiobook)
• There is No Blue by Martha Baillie (audiobook)
• Dream When You’re Feeling Blue by Elizabeth Berg
• In a Riptide by Ronna Bloom
• Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert by Bob the Drag Queen
• The Solitary Friend by Gail Bowen
• The Elements by John Boyne
• Horse by Geraldine Brooks, narrated by James Fouhey, Lisa Flanagan, Graham Halstead, Katherine Littrell, Michael Obiora (audiobook)
• American Salvage by Bonnie Jo Campbell
• The Killing Stones by Ann Cleeves
• Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton
• Welcome to Murder Week by Karen Dukess
• Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis with art by Darick Robertson
• A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst
• The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians by Matt Eversmann and James Patterson
• Being a Beast by Charles Foster
• Burst Your Bubble! Outsmart the Algorithms and See What You’re Missing by Joyce Grant
• The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths
• The Murder of Mr Wickham by Claudia Gray
• The Late Mrs. Willoughby by Claudia Gray
• The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau by Kristin Harmel
• I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
• Awake by Jen Hatmaker (audiobook)
• Killing Stella by Marlen Haushofer, translated by Shaun Whiteside
• That Librarian by Amanda Jones
• Rebel with a Clause by Ellen Jovin
• The Liars’ Club by Mary Karr
• We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer
• The Chain of Chance by Stanislaw Lem, translated by Louis Iribarne
• Lady in the Lake by Laura Lippman
• The Housemaid is Watching trilogy by Freida McFadden
• The Tenant by Freida McFadden
• The Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors
• Ultramarine by Mariette Navarro, translated by Eve Hill-Agnus
• Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
• The Black Wolf by Louise Penny, narrated by Jean Brassard (audiobook)
• Restaurant Kid by Rachel Phan
• Grief is the Thing With Feathers by Max Porter
• The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose, narrated by Lauren Ambrose (audiobook)
• The Maid’s Secret by Nita Prose, narrated by Lauren Ambrose (audiobook)
• In Search of Lost Time Volume IV, Sodom and Gomorrah by Marcel Proust, translated by C.K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin, revised by D.J. Enright
• 52 Ways to Reconcile: How to Walk with Indigenous Peoples on the Path to Healing by David A. Robertson
• Intermezzo by Sally Rooney
• Mona’s Eyes by Thomas Schlesser, translated by Hildegarde Serle
• A Most Agreeable Murder by Julia Seales
• Country Wives by Rebecca Shaw
• Walking with Beth – Conversations with My Hundred-Year-Old Friend by Merilyn Simonds
• The Great Hippopotamus Hotel by Alexander McCall Smith, narrated by Bianca Amato (audiobook)
• In the Time of Five Pumpkins by Alexander McCall Smith, narrated by Bianca Amato (audiobook)
• The Secret Lives of Color by Kassia St Clair
• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, narrated by Dylan Baker (audiobook)
• Rosewater by Tade Thompson
• The Rosewater Insurrection and The Rosewater Redemption by Tade Thompson
• The Eustace Diamonds by Anthony Trollope
• Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte, narrated by multiple readers (audiobook)
• A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler
• Three Days in June by Anne Tyler
• Three Days in June by Anne Tyler, narrated by J. Smith-Cameron (audiobook)
• Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
• Labrador Skies by Kayla Williams

Here are some extra book-related articles, resources, news and recommendations, items and tidbits that are often companions to books on the list, or are inspired or offered by our members and/or come up during our discussions and chat.

• The Silent Book Club 10th Anniversary this fall culminated in a very special meeting on the Today Show’s Read With Jenna:

• “If you, too, yearn for a way out of the despair and disconnection that is the zeitgeist of our time, let me suggest a tried and true remedy: join a book club.”
• Author Barbara Kingsolver lays the foundation for women in Appalachia to beat addiction.

Our group’s previous reports and book lists are always available right here!

You can also check out links to articles, interviews and more here – some with San Francisco-based Silent Book Club founders Guinevere de La Mare and Laura Gluhanich, and some with us here in east end Toronto.

Learn more about the worldwide phenomenon of silent book clubs via Guinevere and Laura’s Silent Book Club web site. In fall 2023, they welcomed their 500th chapter … and with continuing, breathtaking momentum, they now boast almost 2,000 chapters … (There were around 60 chapters when we joined as the first Toronto chapter in 2017.) The SBC organization celebrated its 10th anniversary throughout October … and our chapter celebrates its 8th anniversary ths month, thank you very much!

You can find information on meetings happening around the world and close to where you live. Every club is different in size, format (in-person, virtual or hybrid) and vibe, so contact a club’s organizers beforehand if you have any questions or preferences. Please feel free to contact me for more information about our club and its offerings.

However much and frequently you’re doing it, relish every moment you get to read!

… and we’re one of them! Read all about it, including the other nine chapters with which we share this honour, right here!

Fresh from back-to-back silent book club meetings (on zoom, followed by in person at a coffee shop just down the street), I realize so much dazzles me about our gatherings, from the selections our members discuss to the enthusiasm and eloquence with which they describe the books and their reading experiences. Vibrant adjectives abound in each description, of which the ones in this report’s title are just a few – and those were applied to one book, thank you very much!

Why not give a ponder to how you would describe your reading in lively ways … maybe using alliteration the way our fellow reader did. Sweet, sentimental and sensitive? Wild, wicked and whimsical? Thorough, thoughtful and therapeutic? Dark, dazzling and dangerous?

… and oh my goodness, did our online and offline meetings this month produce another delectable combined reading list from the group!

As we always note in these reports, every title on our group’s generous lists means that at least one (but usually more) readers have given that title considered attention. That doesn’t mean that every work on our lists is expressly recommended, of course. Inclusion on this list always means that our readers have devoted time and thought to a title – and that counts for so very much.

• What You Are Looking For Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama, translated by Alison Watts, narrated by Hanako Footman, etc. (audiobook)
• The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
• The Hospital by Ahmed Bouanani
• Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley
• Milkman by Anna Burns
• My Beloved Monster by Caleb Carr, narrated by James Lurie (audiobook)
• Not My Type by E. Jean Carroll (audiobook)
• What is Broken Binds Us by Lorne Daniel
• The Eyes and the Impossible by Dave Eggers, Shawn Harris
• The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
• Secrets in the Water by Alice Fitzpatrick
• One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune
• This is How it Always Is by Laurie Frankel, narrated by Gabra Zackman (audiobook)
• The Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard
• Country by Michael Hughes
• Paradise Rot by Jenny Hval
• Always Look on the Bright Side of Life – A Sortabiography by Eric Idle
• The Cat Who Could Read Backwards by Lilian Jackson Braun
• Jennie’s Boy by Wayne Johnston
• Easy Beauty by Chloe Cooper Jones
• Six Days in Bombay by Alka Joshi, narrated by Sneha Mathan (audiobook)
• Rebel with a Clause: Tales and Tips from a Roving Grammarian by Ellen Jovin
• Men in the Sun and Other Palestinian Stories by Ghassan Kanafani
• The White Book by Han Kang
• An Evening with Birdy O’Day by Greg Kearney, narrated by Sky Gilbert (audiobook)
• The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer
• Mr Potter by Jamaica Kincaid, narrated by Robin Miles (audiobook)
• Penitence by Kristin Koval
• Between the Woods and the Water by Patrick Leigh Fermor
• Murder Takes a Vacation by Laura Lippman
• The Little Book of Drag: Pearls of Wisdom from Your Favourite Glam Queens, published by Headline Publishing Group Limited
• Barometer Rising by Hugh MacLennan
• Fortunes of War novel series by Olivia Manning
• Fury: A Novel by Clyo Mendoza, translated by Christina MacSweeney
• The Secret Hours by Santa Montefiore
• After Dark by Haruki Murakami
• May Contain Murder by Orlando Murrin
• The New Yorker, August 18, 2025
• All the Words We Know by Bruce Nash
• Caledonian Road by Andrew O’Hagan
• Akira Vol. 1 by Katsuhiro Otomo
• The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters
• How to Age Disgracefully by Clare Pooley
• True Grit by Charles Portis, narrated by Donna Tartt (audiobook)
• In Search of Lost Time Volume I – Swann’s Way, Volume II – Within a Budding Grove and Volume III – The Guermantes Way by Marcel Proust, translated by C.K. Scott Moncreiff and Terence Kilmartin, revised by D.J. Enright
• The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis
• Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe
• How to Share an Egg by Bonny Reichert (audiobook)
• Death on the Island by Eliza Reid
• The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year by Margaret Renkl
• The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak
• Village Fortunes by Rebecca Shaw
• A Murder in Hollywood by Casey Sherman
• Mother-Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon
• Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
• I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue, narrated by Nasim Pedrad (audiobook)
• Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
• Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
• Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams

Here are some extra book-related articles, resources, news and recommendations, items and tidbits that are often companions to books on the list, or are inspired or offered by our members and/or come up during our discussions and chat.

• Check out this great review of a popular video game … about running a Tiny BookShop!
• Silent book club member Catherine loved this U.S. exhibition dedicated to Tove Jansson, the beloved Finnish artist, writer and creator of the Moomins.



• “People may draw particular benefits from thinking deeply about what they read and talking about it with others” … so it is worrying that a new study reveals that from 2003 to 2023, the share of Americans who read for pleasure fell 40 percent, a sharp decline that is part of a continuing downward trend.
• “It’s all about having tea, listening, paying attention, showing up.” Kitchen table readings!

Our group’s previous reports and book lists are always available right here!

You can also check out links to articles, interviews and more here – some with San Francisco-based Silent Book Club founders Guinevere de La Mare and Laura Gluhanich, and some with us here in east end Toronto.

Learn more about the worldwide phenomenon of silent book clubs via Guinevere and Laura’s Silent Book Club web site. In fall 2023, they welcomed their 500th chapter … and with continuing, breathtaking momentum, they now boast closer and closer to 2,000 chapters … (There were around 60 chapters when we joined as the first Toronto chapter in 2017.) The SBC organization will be celebrating its 10th anniversary this fall … and our chapter will be celebrating its 8th anniversary not long after that.

You can find information on meetings happening around the world and close to where you live. Every club is different in size, format (in-person, virtual or combinations) and vibe, so contact a club’s organizers beforehand if you have any questions or preferences. Please feel free to contact me for more information about our club and its offerings.

Whatever adjectives your readings inspire, savour them all!

As I’ve said before, not everyone makes it to every book club meeting, every month. But the book beat goes on, and individual members and the group as a whole keeps it going, pretty much every month of the year – now going on eight years straight!

Without further ado, here are some images from our group’s July gatherings, followed by another gorgeous combined reading list from the group.

Photo credits: Jess Bootsma, Jennifer D. Foster

Every title on our group’s generous lists means that at least one (but usually more) readers have given that title considered attention. That doesn’t mean that every work on our lists is expressly recommended, of course. Inclusion on this list always means that our readers have devoted time and thought to a title – and that counts for so very much.

• How to Be Eaten by Maria Adelmann
• Saltwater by Jessica Andrews
• If I Knew Then: Finding Wisdom in Failure and Power in Aging by Jann Arden
• The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry
• Death in Diamonds by S.J. Bennett
• Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel, narrated by Cassandra Campbell (audiobook)
• Last Look by Charles Burns
• Black Hole by Charles Burns
• Final Cut by Charles Burns
• What is History, Now? Helen Carr and Susan Lipscomb
• Not My Type by E. Jean Carroll
• The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares
• Monica by Daniel Clowes
• The Vet’s Daughter by Barbara Comyns
• The Mystery of the Haunted Dance Hall by Charis Cotter
• Recipe for a Good Life by Lesley Crewe
• Turncoat by Aaron Elkins
• Fire in The Stars by Barbara Fradkin
• Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves by Sophie Gilbert
• The Retirement Plan by Sue Hincenbergs
• The Family Recipe by Carolyn Huynh
• Always Look on the Bright Side of Life – A Sortabiography by Eric Idle
• Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin
• Detective Aunty by Uzma Jalaluddin
• Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, narrated by Jeff Woodman (audiobook)
• Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
• The Courage to Be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga
• Cyndi Lauper: A Memoir by Cyndi Lauper with Jancee Dunn
• Where Reasons End by Yiyun Li
• Murder Takes a Vacation by Laura Lippman
• Human Nature by Kate Marvel
• I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
• The Road to Goderich by Linda McQuaig
• Rag Pickers by Blaine Newton
• Death in Focus by Anne Perry
• Inverted World by Christopher Priest
• In Search of Lost Time Volume I – Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust, translated by C.K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin, revised by D.J. Enright
• Don’t Let Me Be Lonely – An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
• A Most Agreeable Murder by Julia Seales
• The Village Newcomers by Rebecca Shaw
• On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder
• The Queen of Sugar Hill: A Novel of Hattie McDaniel by Reshonda Tate
• White Walls: Collected Stories by Tatyana Tolstaya
• Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte

Our group’s previous reports and book lists never take the month off, either – they’re always available right here!

You can also check out links to articles, interviews and more here – some with San Francisco-based Silent Book Club founders Guinevere de La Mare and Laura Gluhanich, and some with us here in east end Toronto.

Learn more about the worldwide phenomenon of silent book clubs via Guinevere and Laura’s Silent Book Club web site. In fall 2023, they welcomed their 500th chapter … and with continuing, breathtaking momentum, they now boast closer and closer to 2,000 chapters … (There were around 60 chapters when we joined as the first Toronto chapter in 2017.) And oh, SBC will be celebrating its 10th anniversary this fall!

You can find information on meetings happening around the world and close to where you live. Every club is different in size, format (in-person, virtual or combinations) and vibe, so contact a club’s organizers beforehand if you have any questions or preferences. Please feel free to contact me for more information about our club and its offerings.

Happy reading till next we meet … or don’t, but that’s OK, too.

• We’ve discussed the 50-page rule at more than one meeting over the years of our group. Some can and will, and some can’t or won’t, set a book aside if it isn’t sparking their interest by 50 pages in. Now, 50-page proponent Mary is raising the bar, sticking with books where she “can’t wait to get back” to them. If a book isn’t softly (or not so softly) calling to her, well then …
   
• We don’t often discuss readers returning to books they’ve set aside, for some reason. But one reader reported this month that she recently gave a book a second chance and was very, very glad she did. So, sometimes a book will still keep a wee spark burning …
   
• Silent book club member Lisa kicked off her zoom report by showing off a lovely cross stitch bookmark. Oh, this has sparked an idea for a future meeting and discussion!

Our group offers another combined list of titles that will shake your reading out of the summer doldrums (if need be). It and all our lists are here, to heat up or cool down your reading (again, if need be).

Every title on our group’s generous lists means that at least one (but usually more) readers have given that title considered attention. That doesn’t mean that every work on our lists is expressly recommended, of course. Inclusion on this list always means that our readers have devoted time and thought to a title – and that counts for so very much.

• Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
• The Zone of Interest by Martin Amis, narrated by Matthew Lloyd Davies (audiobook)
• What You Are Looking For Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama, translated by Alison Watts, narrated by Hanako Footman, etc. (audiobook)
• Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield
• Private Rites by Julia Armfield
• Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
• The Drowned by John Banville, narrated by John Lee (audiobook)
• The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry
• The Impossible Man: Roger Penrose and the Cost of Genius by Patchen Barss
• Men Who Hate Women: From Incels to Pickup Artists – The Truth about Extreme Misogyny and How it Affects Us All by Laura Bates
• Strong Female Character by Fern Brady (audiobook)
• These Days by Lucy Caldwell
• A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr
• Boy Parts by Eliza Clark
• She’s Always Hungry by Eliza Clark
• Ghost World by Daniel Clowes
• Care of – Letters, Connections and Cures by Ivan Coyote (audiobook)
• Recipe for a Good Life by Lesley Crewe
• The Adversary by Michael Crummey
• Fieldwork by Sadiqa de Meijer
• The Paris Express by Emma Donoghue, narrated by Justin Avoth (audiobook)
• The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• Turncoat by Aaron Elkins
• Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney
• A Dark Death by Alice Fitzpatrick
• Curiosities by Anne Fleming, narrated by Anna Tierney, etc. (audiobook)
• Finding Flora by Elinor Florence
• The Life Impossible by Matt Haig
• The Mare by Angharad Hampshire
• Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf
• Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix
• The Story She Left Behind by Patti Callahan Henry
• The Convenient Marriage by Georgette Heyer
• Maria Chapdelaine by Louis Hermon
• King of Envy by Ana Huang
• Lost Signal by Chris Hutchinson
• Detective Aunty by Uzma Jalaluddin
• Travels with Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuscinski
• Cobalt Red by Siddharth Kara
• Fairy Tale by Stephen King
• Softie by Kirby
• The Orange Eats Creeps by Grace Krilanovich
• The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern by Lynda Cohen Loigman, narrated by Gabra Zackman & author (audiobook)
• All You Can Kill by Pasha Malla
• Held by Anne Michaels (audiobook)
• Skippy Dies by Paul Murray, narrated by Patrick Moy (audiobook)
• Sandwich by Catherine Newman
• Sandwich by Catherine Newman, narrated by Nan McNamara (audiobook)
• Ex-Wife by Ursula Parrott
• Adventures in the Louvre – How to fall in love with the world’s greatest museum by Elaine Sciolino
• Whispers in the Village by Rebecca Shaw
• The Village Green Affair by Rebecca Shaw
• The North Star by Julian Sher
• Minor Detail by Adania Shibli
• The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling
• Miss Buncle’s Book by DE Stevenson
• The Queen of Sugar Hill: A Novel of Hattie McDaniel by Reshondra Tate
• Living Expenses by Teri Vlassopolous
• Remember Me as Human by Lucy Walsh
• Augustus by John Williams
• Bitter Sweet by Hattie Williams
• Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis
• The Fun Times Brigade by Lindsay Zier-Vogel

Here are some extra book-related articles, resources, news and recommendations, items and tidbits that are often companions to books on the list, or are inspired or offered by our members and/or come up during our discussions and chat.

• “But here’s the thing about words: They don’t have fixed, Platonic meanings that float in an ethereal realm outside human usage.” Ponder these recent reflections from Washington Post book reviewer Ron Charles.
• One of our sbc members reminds us that the beloved Lakefield Literary Festival is happening July 18-19th, 2025.
• Stephen Fry’s thoughts on the enduring appeal of Georgette Heyer are grand!

Our group’s previous reports and book lists don’t take the summer off – they’re always available right here!

You can also check out links to articles, interviews and more here – some with San Francisco-based Silent Book Club founders Guinevere de La Mare and Laura Gluhanich, and some with us here in east end Toronto.

Learn more about the worldwide phenomenon of silent book clubs via Guinevere and Laura’s Silent Book Club web site. In fall 2023, they welcomed their 500th chapter … and with continuing, breathtaking momentum, they now boast closer and closer to 2,000 chapters … (There were around 60 chapters when we joined as the first Toronto chapter in 2017.) You can find information on meetings happening around the world and close to where you live. Every club is different in size, format (in-person, virtual or combinations) and vibe, so contact a club’s organizers beforehand if you have any questions or preferences. Please feel free to contact me for more information about our club and its offerings.

Wherever you’re taking your time off – cottage, beach, on the road, wherever – we know books are traveling with you!

During our silent book club group’s latest go-round of what everyone has been reading lately – from which we all add new selections to our teetering tbr piles, often putting holds on titles on the library web site as the meeting progresses – the phrase “light reading” came up more than once. Used neither pejoratively or dismissively, our readers used it to describe books that delight, entertain, divert, but don’t necessarily overly demand. In doing all that, readers also observed that light reading can still teach, reveal, redeem and more. Does that make sense? Certainly, it made perfect sense to our group.

Everyone’s idea of light reading (and conversely, heavy reading) is different. When we seek or are receptive to one versus the other is different, too. Thank goodness there are so many “weights” of books out there to suit our every reading need, at any time!

Every title on our group’s generous combined reading lists means that at least one (but usually more) readers have given that title thoughtful attention. That doesn’t mean that every work on our lists is expressly recommended, of course. (But, of course, the lists as presented never give that away …) Inclusion on this list always means that our readers have devoted time and an open attitude to each title, and that counts for a lot.
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• The Assault by Reinaldo Arenas
• The Honditsch Cross by Ingeborg Bachman
• Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird by Agustina Bazterrica, translated by Sarah Moses
• A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder by Ma-Nee Chacaby with Mary Louisa Plummer
• Eddie Winston is Looking for Love by Marianne Cronin
• Clear by Carys Davies
• The Woman Destroyed by Simone de Beauvoir
• The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
• The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• Full-Rip 9.0: The Next Big Earthquake in the Pacific Northwest by Sandi Doughton
• One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad
• The Wedding People by Alison Espach
• Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito
• Curiosities by Anne Fleming
• Isola by Allegra Goodman
• Fair Play by Louise Hegarty
• The Margaret Code by Richard Hooton
• Miss Austen by Gill Hornby, narrated by Juliet Stevenson (audiobook)
• The Secret Life of Pigs by Richard Hoyle and Anita Krajnc
• Best Canadian Poetry 2025, edited by Aislinn Hunter
• Detective Aunty by Uzma Jalaluddin
• Murder in Highbury by Vanessa Kelly
• Cattail Lane by Fran Kimmel
• She by Kirby
• The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson
• Crow Lake by Mary Lawson
• A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson
• Cautery by Lucía Lijtmaer, translated by Maureen Shaughnessy
• The Crash by Freida McFadden
• The Hour After Happy Hour by Mary O’Donoghue
• Widows and Orphans by Elizabeth Renzetti and Kate Hilton
• The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge by Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by Michael Hulse
• Mistress of My Fate – The Confessions of Henrietta Lightfoot by Hallie Rubenhold
• Tales from Turnham Malpas by Rebecca Shaw
• The New Rector by Rebecca Shaw
• Trouble in the Village by Rebecca Shaw
• The Love of a Family by Rebecca Shaw
• Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
• Long Island< by Colm Toibin
• Three Days in June by Anne Tyler
• The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Here are some extra book-related articles, resources, news and recommendations, items and tidbits that are often companions to books on the list, or are inspired or offered by our members and/or come up during our discussions and chat.

• “To know everyone is going back to their world in the book, whatever that world may be – whether it’s Middle Earth, a dystopian future or the here and now with some detective sleuthing through the city – it’s comforting to be around.” Another fine article about the joys and delights of silent book club gatherings, from our beloved sbc member Kathryn …
• Harresh Sivamohan runs another of Toronto’s silent book club chapters. His friendly group gathers largely in downtown Toronto, several times a month. (I enjoyed one of their meetings at the Imperial Pub this past month.) Harresh recently spoke about his group on the CBC podcast This is Toronto.
• “Should I be disqualified from my book club because I use audiobooks?” asks Douglas Lawrence in a recent essay in The Globe and Mail. Absolutely not, sez our silent book club group, which boasts many discerning consumers of audiobooks.

Our group’s previous reports and book lists are always available right here!

You can also check out links to articles, interviews and more here – some with San Francisco-based Silent Book Club founders Guinevere de La Mare and Laura Gluhanich, and some with us here in east end Toronto.

Learn more about the worldwide phenomenon of silent book clubs via Guinevere and Laura’s Silent Book Club web site. In fall 2023, they welcomed their 500th chapter … and with continuing, breathtaking momentum, they now boast closer and closer to 2,000 chapters … (There were around 60 chapters when we joined as the first Toronto chapter in 2017.) You can find information on meetings happening around the world and close to where you live. Every club is different in size, format (in-person, virtual or combinations) and vibe, so contact a club’s organizers beforehand if you have any questions or preferences. Please feel free to contact me for more information about our club and its offerings.

Every time you lift a book to your eyes and/or ears, here’s hoping it lifts your mind and spirit!