Dear readers, we’re delighted to share another guest introduction to our monthly blog post!

Helen is a retired lawyer in Chicago’s north suburbs. In addition to reading, she enjoys studying French and Spanish, playing piano, and petting her cats.

You might think someone who loves to read as much as I always have would already have been a seasoned book group member when Vicki so kindly welcomed me to the East End Toronto Silent Book Club chapter’s monthly Zoom meetings earlier this year. Much as I love the idea of book groups, though, committing most of the limited time I have to reading books chosen by others — even dear friends — hasn’t appealed to me. So, with some wistfulness, I’d concluded that I just wasn’t a book group candidate.

But then I read one the Toronto chapter blog posts about Silent Book Clubs. Wow, I thought! Convening once a month with like-minded readers to talk about the book or books you’ve been reading and hear everyone else talk about their own reading? In a nice café, over good coffee and tasty pastries? And then sitting companionably for an hour or so of silent reading together? A weekend day doesn’t get much better than that! So I was delighted when, after having followed each other for years on social media, Vicki and I finally decided to connect one-on-one over Zoom and she added me to the East End Toronto SBC’s international membership. (Vicki and I also met for the first time in person this year, with our respective husbands, in Toronto!)

How I’ve enjoyed these meetings! Each has been an opportunity to gather my thoughts on whatever I’ve been reading that month and briefly tell the other members what has seemed to me most noteworthy. It’s an hour that I otherwise wouldn’t have set aside to think about my own reading and hear everyone else recount what they’ve found significant in their reading. After hearing others’ views, not only do I get ideas about what I want to read or reread down the road, but also I sometimes gain a different perspective or validation for my feelings about a book I’ve already read.

The monthly meetings help keep me on a reading track, too, since I too often allow tasks or other activities to eat into my reading time if I don’t make it enough of a priority. And the camaraderie of warm and welcoming readers based in Canada, the U.S., and elsewhere is priceless. The power of the internet to bring us together for fellowship across oceans, continents, national boundaries, and time zones gives me hope in these challenging times. Chicago is not too far from Toronto, so I hope I’ll be able to attend an in-person SBC meeting one day soon!

Here are some more images from our readers’ adventures in reading this month.

Photo credits: Kathryn Eastman, Jenn Ellis, Vicki Ziegler

Many thanks again this month for a warm welcome from our wonderful in-person meeting venue, Sprouty Cafe!

As Helen touches on in her reflections about our silent book club group, readers encourage their fellow readers to not only read, but to reread. Revisiting works, sometimes from years ago, even back to childhood/young adulthood, was definitely a theme this month. One book club member mentioned reading 1984 by George Orwell for the first time since it was assigned school reading, and being very grateful that she did so. Now she’s reading and pursuing books that re-examine and retell that work from different perspectives. Inspiring, eh?

The group booklist is dizzyingly delightful again this month. Multiple readers from our group have typically given considered attention to each title appearing on our our lists of varied and enticing reading. That doesn’t mean that every work on our lists is expressly recommended. However, rest assured that inclusion on our lists always means that our readers have devoted time and thought to each book, which counts for a great deal, we contend.

• Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
• What Is the World Cup? by Bonnie Bader
• The Tarot Reader of Versailles by Anya Bergman
• In a Riptide by Ronna Bloom
• The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles
• The Last White House at the End of the Row of White Houses by Michael e. Casteels
• God of Shadows by Lorna Crozier
• The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
• Love You More by Emily Giffin
• Family and Borghesia by Natalia Ginzburg
• Warlock by Oakley Hall
• The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
• Boudicca’s Daughter by Elodie Harper
• A Violent Masterpiece by Jordan Harper
• Pure Colour by Sheila Heti
• Swan Song by Elin Hilderbrand
• all about love by bell hooks
• Poppy Montgomery Gets Even by Gordon Jack
• The Children of Men by P.D. James
• total by Aisha Sasha John
• The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali
• The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali
• Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
• Doctor Sleep by Stephen King
• The Shining by Stephen King
• Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
• My Time in Paris with Gertrude Stein by Deborah Levy
• Persians: The Age of the Great Kings by Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones
• The Assassin’s Blade by Sarah J Maas
• The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna
• The Birth House by Ami McKay
• The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
• Circling the Sun by Paula McLain
• From Hell by Alan Moore with art by Eddie Campbell
• Hot Stew by Fiona Mozley
• 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
• Julia by Sandra Newman
• The Rocks by Peter Nichols
• Master and Commander by Patrick O’Brian
• 1984 by George Orwell
• The Last Mandarin by Louise Penny and Mellissa Fung
• The Parisian Heist by Jo Piazza
• London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe (audiobook)
• Frying Plantain by Zalika Reid-Benta, narrated by Ordena Stephens-Thompson
• The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
• The Sealey Challenge
• Beyond the Trees by Adam Shoalts
• Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit
• The Beginning Comes After the End by Rebecca Solnit
• The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett
• Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky
• Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon by Mizuki Tsujimura, translated by Yuki Teijima
• The Safekeep by Yael Van Der Wouden
• The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks
• Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
• The Martian by Andy Weir
• Still Life by Sarah Winman
• Undersong by Kathleen Winter, narrated by Tim Bruce, Nneka Okoye and Clare Kissane
• Rising, Falling, Hovering by CD Wright
• We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

We regularly have extra book-related articles, resources, news and recommendations to share. These items and tidbits are often companions to books on the list, or are inspired or offered by our members and/or come up during our discussions.

• This fall, our east end Toronto silent book club chapter will be celebrating its 9th anniversary! Here is how the very first meeting went.
• Training for a 5K, but with books … Naomi Alderman describes how to do it and why you would.
• The 2026 Toronto International Festival Authors runs October 28th to November 1st. Take a look at the lineup!
• Ilya Kaminsky’s acclaimed poetry work Deaf Republic has been adapted for the stage. Whether you’re fortunate enough to see a performance or not, these resources pertaining to the work are excellent.
• As a complement to some of this month’s reading recommendations, this podcast is a must-listen: Empire: World History.
• One of our intrepid readers is making her way through the shortlist for the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize. We love all kinds of adventures in reading!
• Guinevere de la Mare, co-founder with Laura Gluhanich of the Silent Book Club organization, pays splendid tribute to the Book Queen (and queen of much else), Dolly Parton.

You can always find our previous reports and book lists right here!

Learn more about the worldwide phenomenon of silent book clubs via the Silent Book Club web site. In fall 2023, they welcomed their 500th chapter … and since then, with continuing, breathtaking momentum, they now boast over 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, 2025 … and our chapter will celebrate its 9th anniversary in early November, 2026.

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.

… and don’t forget, through every kind of silent book club meeting, you’ll make friends from everywhere, united in reading.