Yearly Archives: 2025

Meeting with friends, old and new

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During one of our zoom meetings this month, a silent book club member revealed that she reread a long beloved book that she hadn’t revisited for many years … but she reopened its cover nervously. She likened that moment to “meeting an old friend with trepidation”, worried that time had not treated well her fond memories and connection to the book.

Happily, she reported that the reread was as rich and wonderful as the first meeting with this friend. I’ll let you guess which book it was from the capacious list that always accompanies these posts. May we all have such great experiences, with old friends old and new!

Me (Vicki), on-screen, getting ready for the silent book club zoom meeting, with my books piled next to the laptop, including The Immortal Woman by Su Chang, The Harder I Fight The More I Love You by Neko Case, The Incident Report by Martha Baillie + more

Silent book club member Kathryn's book pile - Brooklyn by Colm Toibin, A Room Above a Shop by Anthony Shapland and Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon - with angled bookshelves in the background

Me (Vicki) in front of the East Toronto Coffee Co - My hair is short, curly, gray and wind-tossed, I'm wearing dark blue sunglasses and I'm wearing a plaid scarf and jean jacket

Books, hot beverages and pastries on the table at East Toronto Coffee Co, just before the start of the silent book club meeting - titles include Every Summer After by Carley Fortune and Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Readers around the table silently reading at East Toronto Coffee Co

Reader silently reading at East Toronto Coffee Co

The combined reading list spawned from our group’s meetings and discussions this month will positively dazzle you – trust me! It and all our lists are here to guide you down countless amazing paths. You can contemplate them, you can turn to them when/if you’re having a reading emergency or dry spell – again, trust me/us.

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, fair book lovers, counts for so very much.


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.

All of 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 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 your friends old and new – books and readers – warm and buoy your days!

The Sisterhood of Sleuthing
Joylyn Chai’s guest review of
Secrets in the Water by Alice Fitzpatrick

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Secrets in the Water by Alice Fitzpatrick (Stonehouse Publishing, 2020)

reviewed by Joylyn Chai

The best remedy after a bad day, whether it be work-related or personal, is the company of some good friends. We can talk, laugh, and cry. I can only imagine the kind of support I’d need if, for example, my grandmother had just died and I suspected that my aunt had been murdered. Actually, I don’t have to imagine much because this is what happens in Secrets in the Water.

In Alice Fitzpatrick’s debut novel, one woman befriends another to help solve the murders and mysteries happening on Meredith Island.

Truth be told, I don’t normally read murder mysteries. Though I enjoy a whodunit storyline, I am easily overwhelmed by all the facts and details as they become possible clues. I sit in full admiration of authors who dedicate their lives to writing mystery novels. I often wonder what kind of organizational systems they use to keep track of everything. Do the inside of their minds look like colour-coded spreadsheets or like tangled knots of string?

Fitzpatrick’s novel is set in an imaginary island in Wales and has a cast of eccentric characters, all of whom go about their daily lives in a fashion that makes me long to visit the country. The book showcases the appeal of living in a tight-knit community in a stunning location. Take in the fresh air. Go for a walk by the beach. Have a hot cup of tea with a friendly neighbour. Visit a local art studio. Wander down to the pub for a few pints. What else can you do on Meredith Island? Well, you can go to a funeral. More than one.

For me, as a murder mystery “newbie,” Secrets in the Water was fun to read primarily because of one woman whose hair is “reminiscent of a Pre-Raphaelite painting.” Wow. This, by the way, is not our protagonist, despite having a beautiful head of flowing locks. Siobhan Fitzgerald is an artist who befriends Kate Galway. Kate is convinced the death of her aunt, fifty years ago, was in fact an act of cold-blooded murder. Spoiler alert: her hunch is right on the money.

Kate Galway, who is the main character, has got a lot on her plate. Her grandmother just died, her marriage has disintegrated, and now she’s determined to catch a killer. If I was in Kate’s shoes, I would be on the verge of a pretty ugly nervous breakdown. But she’s not. Instead she’s tenacious and focused. She’s got that “keep calm and carry on” vibe about her. Pure boss. As we know, every boss needs a good assistant. Or, every super sleuth needs a sidekick. Who better than Siobhan Fitzgerald, an attractive redhead with a Celtic knot tattoo?

My absolute favourite part of the book happens when Kate is determined to stop Siobhan from snooping around the property of an affluent family, the Sutherlands. Siobhan is literally prepared to do Kate’s “dirty work.” In their search for answers and justice, Siobhan is the one leading the charge to trespass on private property in the middle of the night and upturn a family’s garden looking for evidence. In her words, she’s ready to “break all the rules of decent, civilized behaviour.” Throwing all caution to the wind, she’s willing to lend a helping hand to a friend in need.

By the way, it’s not easy for Siobhan on Meredith Island. She’s an artist, a bit of an outsider — and she’s got a stalker. Yet still, she’ll stand up to the locals, keep her wits about her, and more importantly, she never loses her sense of humour.

For someone who’s not schooled in the genre of murder mysteries, I do know that Sherlock Holmes had an ever-present companion in John H. Watson. From what I gather, Watson is a practical and loyal man. In a similar way, Kate Galway and Siobhan Fitzgerald make a clever and brave investigating duo. But for me, it is Siobhan’s free spirit and passion that are at the heart of Secrets ..in the Water. Truth be told, if I ever had a chance to visit Wales, I’d love to meet Siobhan at the local pub. We’d order a couple of pints, have a good chat, a great laugh – and maybe, solve the next murder on Meredith Island.

Concentric circles of reading

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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 …

Two Little Library boxes filled with books under trees with a beach and blue skies in the background (Myrtle Beach, South Carolina photo by Jenn Ellis)

A paperback copy of The Knockout Artist by Harry Crews sits on a white table on a balcony overlooking a beach and blue skies (Myrtle Beach, South Carolina photo by Jenn Ellis)

Me (Vicki), on-screen, getting ready for the silent book club zoom meeting, with my books piled next to the laptop, including The Size of Paradise by Dale Martin Smith, The Filling Station by Leesa Dean, The Incident Report by Martha Baillie + more

Holding up the book This is Happiness by Niall Williams in front of the window and signage of East Toronto Coffee Co

Books, hot beverages and pastries on the table at East Toronto Coffee Co, just before the start of the silent book club meeting - titles include We Were Dreamers - An Immigrant Superhero Origin Story by Simu Liu and I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

Books, hot beverages and pastries on the table at East Toronto Coffee Co, just before the start of the silent book club meeting - titles include The Grey Wolf by Louis Penny and The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd

Readers around the table silently reading at East Toronto Coffee Co

Readers around the table silently reading at East Toronto Coffee Co

Readers around the table silently reading at East Toronto Coffee Co

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.


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.

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!

Poetry and kindness on the online commons

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Social media is a fraught and frequently unpleasant environment these days, no debate. We all need to budget and even fully curtail our time spent there, for sure. But it started with a promise of borderless friendliness, spirit, discovery and plain old good things that can still happen. I had a great reminder of that recently.

For 14 years, I’ve had a daily social media practice of sharing my morning poetry reading. I take a snippet of a poem or poems, and post them to Twitter/X (and now other socmed platforms). I identify (and tag, where appropriate) the poets, publishers and/or publications in which I find my daily delights. Sometimes that results in messages of thanks back, from those tagged folks or from others who appreciate discovering and exploring new-to-them works.

For the whole story of how that #TodaysPoem habit started (with mention of some of the other fine folks who took part), check out www.todayspoem.ca.

In February, 2025, one of my #TodaysPoem selections was a poem by Canadian poet Leesa Dean, which I posted to Bluesky. Shortly after I posted it, she reposted it with these astonishing comments:

“@bookgaga.bsky.social tweeted a few lines of one of my poems in 2015. I had totally abandoned that manuscript and her tweet encouraged me to finish it: The Filling Station, published by @gaspereaupress.bsky.social … you never know when you will unassumingly save someone’s book! Thanks Vicki!! ❤️”

Here is the original tweet from 2015.

Thanks to Leesa, I now have that lovely collection, in its gorgeously packaged form courtesy of Gaspereau Press, in my hands. A wee, seemingly ephemeral bit of digital flotsam (sincerely composed and sent, mind you) … turned into beautiful concrete form.

Poetry collection The Filling Station by Leesa Dean (Gaspereau Press), with its striking dark gray and green cover, sits atop a handwritten letter

Close-up of the title page of the poetry collection The Filling Station by Leesa Dean, showing a personalized inscription

I invite others to do the same. It’s easy to send an observation, a compliment, a thank you out into the ether. It might make just the difference to someone, and might also collectively help to redeem our online commons at a time when we especially need to share beauty, kindness and respect for each other.

A thousand lives, a thousand loves, distant worlds, the end of time …

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“I have lived a thousand lives and I’ve loved a thousand loves. I’ve walked on distant worlds and seen the end of time. Because I read.”

This was quoted very appropriately at one of our most recent silent book club meetings. It’s attributed to George R.R. Martin (he of A Song of Ice and Fire / Game of Thrones fame, among other accomplishments), although there are interesting variations from other sources, too.

Whoever said it and however they said it, exactly … well, we readers live it and love it.

Me (Vicki), on-screen, getting ready for the silent book club zoom meeting, with my books piled next to the laptop, including Your Absence is Darkness by Jon Kalman Stefansson, translated by Philip Roughton, along with some colourful crocheting

Books and hot beverages on the table at East Toronto Coffee Co, just before the start of the silent book club meeting

Transcribing a Rachael Boast poem during the silent reading portion of the silent book club meeting at East Toronto Coffee Co. Afternoon light shines across the table.

We’re still in the early days of 2025, but already our group’s combined reading list is positively brimming! 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, always means a lot.


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.

Wasn’t that a fabulous book list? Well, all our group’s previous reports and book lists – equally fantastic – 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.

We hope what we’re shared here can help you in living those many lives and loving those many loves!

Bookish bounteousness

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As the cold and darkness have descended, the stalwart readers of our silent book club groups have turned in particular earnest to books to warm and brighten the way through … And yes, I said “groups” because between two meetings this past month – one virtual and one in-person – we had representation from all of midtown, east end and west end Toronto and also Mississauga, all neighbourhoods that have groups and venues in their locales. It’s wonderful how these groups intersect – and our reading and reading lists are the better for it.

While group members shared as generously as ever about the books they were reading and how those books were (or sometimes were not) enjoyable and worthwhile experiences, one observation stood out for me as I moderated the group. One reader remarked that sometimes the best book in certain circumstances is one that satisfies enough without demanding too much attention. For example, a book that does not compel you to stay up late reading is sometimes OK: “I never felt a need to read another chapter.”

Hmm, what do you think?

One group member shared from further afar than usual. She was not able to attend in person, but she sent pictures of her reading on Hawaiian beaches, as well of the crew library of the Battleship Missouri, a Pearl Harbor historic site.

Silent book club member Lisa reads on a Hawaiian beach [Photo by Lisa]

Silent book club member Lisa reads on a Hawaiian beach [Photo by Lisa]

Silent book club member Lisa views the crew library of the Battleship Missouri, part of a Pearl Harbor historic site [Photo by Lisa]

Silent book club member Lisa views the crew library of the Battleship Missouri, part of a Pearl Harbor historic site [Photo by Lisa]

Silent book club member Joylyn reads The Vixen Amber Halloway by Carol LaHines [Photo by Joylyn]

Me (Vicki), on-screen, getting ready for the silent book club zoom meeting, with my books piled next to the laptop, including Late Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay

Front window and signage of East Toronto Coffee Co

Books on the table at East Toronto Coffee Co, just before the start of the silent book club meeting, including a copy of The New Yorker and Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang

Readers around the table silently reading at East Toronto Coffee Co

Readers around the table silently reading at East Toronto Coffee Co

No sooner do we finish the year just past with a bountiful reading list … than we kick off the new, shiny year with yet another astonishing combined reading list from the members of our steadfast silent book club group. 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, dear readers, always means a lot.


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.

This year and every year, our group’s previous reports and book lists 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!!! (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.

Our group is clearly well equipped with good reading and listening to get through the colder, darker months of this new year. If what we’re shared here can help you too – well, all the better!

Celebrating 100 books in 2024

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Every year that you read is a good reading year. It doesn’t matter the subject, the format, the setting, the circumstances, the quantities, maybe even the quality, the company (or not), any of that … just read. You’ll be better for it.

Of course, the company often makes a wonderful difference. Whether it’s in person, silently, with other readers, or virtually, with others sharing oh, say, their poetry picks … it all enhances the experience. Combine that with an attentive partner who finds you books you didn’t even know you needed, and add a dash, or two, or more, of whimsy … and you have another astonishing year of words on the page or in your ears, taking you to amazing places.

Oh, and it’s not a competition … even if I do kinda keep track, and do kinda think 100 is a cool number on which to land at the end of the year. Here are some other things I kept track of:

Poetry works read: 58
Fiction works read: 34
Non-fiction works read: 8

Works reread: 11
Works by Canadian authors: 68
Works in translation: 4
Graphic novels: 2
Works read aloud (with partner): 1
Audiobooks: 10

My treasured Book of Books (purple leather bound volume logging books read every year since 1983) sits on a colourful crocheted afghan work in progress. Two books with which I'm starting my 2025 reading sit with the Book of Books: The Bee Sting by Paul Murray and Ward Toward by Cindy Juyoung Ok. The Book of Books is open to the first two pages of reading that I logged 2024 - from January 2 to April 6, ranging from books by Lynn Tait to Elena Ferrante.

The silent book club reports I also feature on this blog always includes a combined list of what everyone in the group is reading. As I remark when I introduce those lists, every title on our group’s generous lists means that at least one (but usually more) readers have given that title thoughtful consideration. That doesn’t mean that every work on our lists is expressly recommended, of course. Without weighing in too heavily on my own list, I’ll just say the same: that inclusion on this list always means that I’ve devoted time and attention to a title. I think that means something, because for good or for bad (and we’ve discussed this a lot at sbc meetings), I rarely do not finish (DNF) a book I start. I know, I know … life’s too short, etc., etc. …

Anyhow, I’m just going to unfurl the list, in all its glory …

    My treasured Book of Books (purple leather bound volume logging books read every year since 1983) sits on a colourful crocheted afghan work in progress. The Book of Books is open to two pages of reading that I logged 2024 - from January 2 to April 6, ranging from books by Lynn Tait to Elena Ferrante.

  1. You Break It You Buy It by Lynn Tait (2023 Guernica Editions)
  2. A Change in the Air by Jane Clarke (2023 Bloodaxe Books)
  3. 1934 – The Chatham Coloured All-Stars’ Barrier-Breaking Year by Heidi LM Jacobs (2023 Biblioasis)
  4. Care by Jaime Forsythe (2024 Opaat Press)
  5. Greenwood by Michael Christie (2020 McClelland & Stewart)
  6. Nobody by Anna Quon (2024 Opaat Press)
  7. Knife on Snow by Alice Major (2023 Turnstone Press)
  8. Service by Sarah Gilmartin (2023 Pushkin Press)
  9. The Ways We Touch by Miller Williams (1997 University of Illnois Press)
  10. Things That Cause Inappropriate Happiness by Danila Botha (2024 Guernica Editions)
  11. Love Novel by Ivana Sajko, translated by Mima Simic (2024 Biblioasis)
  12. Vinegar Hill by Colm Toibin (2023 Beacon Press)
  13. We Are Mermaids by Stephanie Burt (2022 Graywolf Press)
  14. Code Noir by Canisia Lubrin (2024 Knopf Canada)
  15. Ethel on Fire by Helen Humphreys (1991 Black Moss Press)
  16. Wrong Norma by Anne Carson (2024 New Directions)
  17. Lossless by Matthew Tierney (2024 Coach House Books)
  18. Love Language by Nasser Hussain (2023 Coach House Books)
  19. The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante, translated by Ann Goldstein (2020 Europa Editions)

    20.  

    My treasured Book of Books (purple leather bound volume logging books read every year since 1983) sits on a colourful crocheted afghan work in progress. The Book of Books is open to two pages of reading that I logged 2024 - from April 9 to July 9, ranging from books by Norma Cole to Pamela Mulloy.

  20. Rainy Day by Norma Cole (2024 knife|fork|book)
  21. She by Kirby (2024 knife|fork|book)
  22. A Year of Marvellous Ways by Sarah Winman (2015 Headline Publishing Group)
  23. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion (2005 Knopf)
  24. The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters (2023 HarperCollins Canada)
  25. Sonnets from a Cell by Bradley Peters (2023 Brick Books)
  26. Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell, narrated by Daisy Donovan (2020 Knopf Canada)
  27. Cabin Fever by Anik See (2024 Fish Gotta Swim Editions)
  28. Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent (2023 Simon & Schuster)
  29. A Year of Last Things by Michael Ondaatje (2024 Knopf)
  30. Mobile by Tanis MacDonald (2019 Bookhug Press)
  31. That Audible Slippage by Margaret Christakos (2024 University of Alberta Press)
  32. The Art of Floating by Melanie Marttila (2024 Latitude 46 Publishing)
  33. Blood by Tyler Pennock (2022 Brick Books)
  34. The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese (2023 Grove Atlantic)
  35. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy Gentleman by Laurence Sterne (1760)
  36. Northerny by Dawn Macdonald (2024 University of Alberta Press)
  37. ink earl by Susan Holbrook (2021 Coach House Books)
  38. Denison Avenue by Daniel Innes & Christina Wong (2023 ECW Press)
  39. Killdeer by Phil Hall (2011 Bookhug Press)
  40. Off the Tracks – A Meditation on Train Journeys in a Time of No Travel by Pamela Mulloy (2024 ECW Press)

    41.  

    My treasured Book of Books (purple leather bound volume logging books read every year since 1983) sits on a colourful crocheted afghan work in progress. The Book of Books is open to two pages of reading that I logged 2024 - from July 18 to August 17, ranging from books by Naomi Klein to Frances Boyle.

  41. Doppelganger by Naomi Klein (2023 Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
  42. An Anthology of Monsters – How Story Saves Us From Our Anxiety by Cherie Dimaline (2024 University of Alberta Press)
  43. Her First Palestinian by Saeed Teebi (2022 House of Anansi Press)
  44. Loved and Missed by Susie Boyt (2021 New York Review Books)
  45. Falling Awake by Alice Oswald (2016 Jonathan Cape)
  46. The Size of Paradise by Dale Martin Smith (2024 knife|fork|book)
  47. The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On by Franny Choi (2022 HarperCollins)
  48. Beast Body Epic by Amanda Earl (2023 AngelHousePress)
  49. Incrementally by Penn Kemp (2023)
  50. Deviant by Patrick Grace (2024 University of Alberta Press)
  51. Remedies for Chiron by m. patchwork monoceros (2023 Radiant Press)
  52. a Baltic Friday early in grey by Adele Graf (2017 above/ground press)
  53. The Stairwell by Michael Longley (2014 Wake Forest University Press)
  54. Pinhole Poetry – Volume One Selected, edited by Erin Bedford (2023)
  55. Long Island by Colm Toibin (2024 McClelland & Stewart)
  56. The Long Defeat by Patrick Connors (2024 Mosaic Press)
  57. The Tradition by Jericho Brown (2019 Copper Canyon Press)
  58. I Made You a Mixed Tape by Dave Bidini (2024 West End Phoenix)
  59. At Marsport Drugstore by Al Purdy (1977 Paget Press)
  60. OBITS. by tess liem (2018 Coach House Books)
  61. Ruin by Neil Surkan (2023 knife|fork|book)
  62. Apples and Roses by Frances Boyle (2019 above/ground press)

    63.  

    My treasured Book of Books (purple leather bound volume logging books read every year since 1983) sits on a colourful crocheted afghan work in progress. The Book of Books is open to two pages of reading that I logged 2024 - from August 17 to October 16, ranging from books by Kateri Lanthier to Michelle Berry.

  63. Siren by Kateri Lanthier (2017 Véhicule Press)
  64. Your tongue is as long as a Tuesday by Jay Besemer (2023 knife|fork|book)
  65. Pinhole Poetry – Volume Two Selected, edited by Erin Bedford (2024)
  66. The Albertine Workout by Anne Carson (2014 New Directions)
  67. Virgin by Analicia Sotelo (2018 Milkweed Editions)
  68. I Can Focus If I Try by Michael Flatt (2023 knife|fork|book)
  69. The Life of Tu Fu by Eliot Weinberger (2024 New Directions)
  70. Creeland by Dallas Hunt (2021 Harbour Publishing)
  71. No Meeting Without Body by Annick MacAskill (2018 Gaspereau Press)
  72. dayliGht by Roya Marsh (2020 MCD x FSG Originals)
  73. Crying Dress by Cassidy McFadzean (2024 House of Anansi Press)
  74. Disorder by Concetta Principe (2024 Gordon Hill Press)
  75. Look After Her by Hannah Brown (2019 Inanna Publications)
  76. 19 Ways of Looking at Wang Wei by Eliot Weinberger (1987/2016 New Directions)
  77. Widow Fantasies by Hollay Ghadery (2024 Gordon Hill Press)
  78. Held by Anne Michaels (2023 Knopf)
  79. Self-Esteem and the End of the World by Luke Healy (2024 Drawn and Quarterly)
  80. The Art of Dying by Sarah Tolmie (2018 McGill-Queen’s University Press)
  81. James by Percival Everett (2024 Doubleday)
  82. The Donoghue Girl by Kim Fahner (2024 Latitude 46 Publishing)
  83. Fleishman Is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner, narrated by Allyson Ryan (2019 Random House)
  84. Satellite Image by Michelle Berry (2024 Wolsak & Wynn)

    85.  

    My treasured Book of Books (purple leather bound volume logging books read every year since 1983) sits on a colourful crocheted afghan work in progress. The Book of Books is open to two pages of reading that I logged 2024 - from October 20 to December 30, ranging from books by Roxanna Bennett to rob mclennan.

  85. Uncomfortability by Roxanna Bennett (2023 Gordon Hill Press)
  86. Leaving by Roxana Robinson, narrated by Hannah Choi (2024 W.W. Norton)
  87. May It Have a Happy Ending by Minelle Mahtani (2024 Penguin Random House Canada)
  88. Votive by Annick MacAskill (2024 Gaspereau Press)
  89. Parade by Rachel Cusk (2024 Faber & Faber)
  90. from time to new by Lydia Kwa (2024 Gordon Hill Press)
  91. The Trouble With Poetry by Billy Collins (2005 Penguin Random House)
  92. The Empusium by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones (2024 Riverhead Books)
  93. Survivors of the Hive by Jason Heroux (2023 Radiant Press)
  94. Baby Cerberus by Natasha Ramoutar (2024 Wolsak & Wynn)
  95. Intermezzo by Sally Rooney (2024 Faber Books)
  96. Fire Weather by John Vaillant, narrated by Alan Carlson (2024 Knopf Canada)
  97. Songs for the Brokenhearted by Ayelet Tsabari (2024 HarperCollins Canada)
  98. Wintering by Katherine May, narrated by Rebecca Lee (2020 Riverhead Books)
  99. Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (2021 Grove Press)
  100. On Beauty by rob mclennan (2024 University of Alberta Press)