If the center is our love of reading – and oh, why wouldn’t it be? – how many circles ripple in and out from that essential core that can, with no exaggeration, anchor our lives?

I did enjoy some concentrated and delicious reading during today’s in-person sbc meeting. A couple of times, though, I did drift from the page to look up and around the table at the readers with me, all engrossed in their books and reading devices. What a wonderful circle to be part of, eh?

Just a couple of hours before then, I gazed around my computer screen at another group of readers sharing their insights with each other. What another wonderful circle to be part of, eh?

The fine people of both those circles are part of other book clubs, other circles, other settings in which they share their reading enthusiasms and passions, and learn from what inspires and enchants other readers. May all those circles be unbroken …

Our group’s combined reading lists always dazzle, every month – guaranteed. 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, fellow readers, counts for so very much.

• Emma by Jane Austen
• The Dressmaker by Beryl Bainbridge
• Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica
• Monster by Jowita Bydlowska
• 1983 by Tom Cox
• The Knockout Artist by Harry Crews
• The Manticore by Robertson Davies
• The Lions of Fifth Avenue by Fiona Davis
• The Death of Us by Abigail Dean
• The Filling Station by Leesa Dean
• David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
• The Vanished Bride by Bella Ellis (aka Rowan Coleman)
• The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis
• The Favorites by Layne Fargo
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• The Chalk Pit by Elly Griffiths
• The Comfort Book by Matt Haig
• The Life Impossible by Matt Haig
• I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
• Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes (audiobook)
• The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer
• Feeding Ghosts by Tessa Hulls
• All Fours by Miranda July (audiobook)
• Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
• So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan
• We Were Dreamers – An Immigrant Superhero Origin Story by Simu Liu
• The Two Family House by Lynda Cohen Loigman
• The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern by Lynda Cohen Loigman
• The Matchmaker’s Gift by Lynda Cohen Loigman
• Black Swan Green by David Mitchell
• Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori
• Sandwich by Catherine Newman
• The Messy Lives of Book People by Phaedra Patrick
• The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse
• The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny
• Enlightment by Sarah Perry
• The Maid by Nita Prose
• Dream State by Eric Puchner
• The Caretaker by Ron Rash
• All the Little Monsters by David A. Robertson
• The Queen of Dirt Island by Donal Ryan, narrated by Emma Lowe (audiobook)
• The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd
• The Size of Paradise by Dale Martin Smith
• Your Absence is Darkness by Jon Kalman Stefansson, translated by Philip Roughton
• The Moon is Down by John Steinbeck
• Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout, narrated by Kimberly Farr (audiobook)
• Three Days in June by Anne Tyler
• Strange Pictures by Uketsu
• Rare Flavours #2 by Ram V with Inês Amaro (Illustrator), Filipe Andrade (Illustrator), AndWorld Design (Contributor)
• Unreconciled by Jesse Wente

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 Kathryn E of Wales offers a vibrant list of her top 12 fiction picks by Welsh authors.
• Here’s how upcoming U.S. tariffs could impact Canadian independent bookstores … and how you as a Canadian book lover can respond and support them and Canadian writers and publishers.
• Decline in reading? What decline in reading?
• As the US president issues an executive order to eliminate the Institute of Museum and Library Services, America’s only federal agency for libraries, Silent Book Club calls for its membership to Show up for our libraries … in every possible way.
• It came up in conversation again this month, so it’s worth repeating: Recommended by silent book club member Sue R, The Modern Literature Society on Facebook invites readers to discuss, share and discover great modern books.

That book list was so bright we’re guessing you had to wear shades! Well, all our group’s previous reports and book lists – equally brilliant – are always 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 and astonishing momentum, they are now boasting over 1,500 chapters, thank you very much. (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 a different 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.

May the concentric circles of reading envelope and make you dizzy with delight!