Category Archives: Airedale Terriers

A gathering of readers, like a grove of trees

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My silent book club friends can rest assured I’m paying close and avid attention when I chair our meetings each month (and by “chair”, I mean simply introduce each reader and then sit back and enjoy the insights and delights each one has to share). But sometimes reader’s book summaries and comments will set my mind down interesting paths, as was the case here:

“In Finding the Mother Tree, ecologist Suzanne Simard explains her decades-long research on the relationships among trees in the forests of British Columbia. Simard shows that the long-held “competition” model of forest ecology is inaccurate, and that instead the major dynamic among plant life in forests is cooperation and interdependence. She has discovered that trees in a forest are interconnected — they communicate and share resources through a complex underground network of fungi.”
(summarized in ShortForm)

Book cover for Finding the Mother Treeby Suzanne SimardAs wonderful in many ways as traditional book clubs (everyone reading and discussing the same book together) can be, this consideration of how trees may be interconnected immediately made me think of our silent book club orchard? copse? grove? differs from such groups in equally wonderful ways. Every month for close to six years now, I come away from every meeting and every scan of our combined reading list having learned, been nurtured, been challenged in good ways, had gates flung open, feeling throughout that my enrichment has been in concert with, not in competition with, my fellow readers.

Those I’ve spoken to about joining or starting their own silent book club groups often mention disenchantment with traditional book clubs that does sound like perverse forms of competition: that certain members always get to take the lead in selecting the reading, that getting through the reading is sometimes an unpleasant endurance race, that some readers’ interpretations of the assigned reading “wins” over others’. No, not all single book clubs are like that, but the complaints are a recurring theme that you won’t find with silent book club groups.

So as not to get too proud of how great a silent book club group can be … well, that such a group’s nurturing and “biodiversity” can be described with an analogy related to fungi will surely keep us all humble.

The question that kicked off this month’s themed discussion meeting was:

Do you keep track of your reading? If so, do you use a journal, spreadsheet, Goodreads or something else? If not, why not? Do you also keep track of recommendations / what you plan to read next?

Our conversation touched on lots of great ideas and options, including:

Silent book club member Vicki (that's me, with my signature rumpled curly hair and glasses), on screen getting ready for our zoom meeting, with books stacked next to my computer (including my Sealey Challenge poetry collections and the novel The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne) with Airedale puppy Mavis sitting under the desk. More books and a painting of our other Airedale, Tilly, are visible in the background.

Silent book club member Sue reads Affinity by Sarah Waters, holding the book up to hide her face

While away running a weekend marathon, silent book club members Jenn and Sven spotted a Little Free Library box on the running/hiking trail. The LFL is nestled amidst trees.

Silent book club member Dawn, with shoulder length silver hair and handsome reading glasses, wearing a green hoodie, gestures ruefully with two books on the white table before her: Snacking Cakes and Breaking Up With Sugar

Here is our group’s latest combined book list (it’s breathtaking!), gathering up books mentioned and discussed at our end of August meeting. Each list reflects the reading of many of our members. Many provide their reading lists even when they can’t attend a meeting. The titles featured in each of our reports encompass print and digital versions of books, along with audiobooks.

Any title on any of our group’s lists means that at least one (but often more) readers have given that title some consideration. That’s encouragement for you and other readers checking out our reports and lists to consider it, too. Is that a recommendation? It might be, but not exactly or necessarily. Inclusion on this list always means that a title has been given thoughtful consideration and attention by our readers, which counts for a lot.


Here are some extra book-related articles, resources, news and recommendations. 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 and chat.

  • Blended in to our combined reading list this month is one reader’s (er, my) list of Sealey Challenge selections – a challenge to read 31 poetry works in the 31 days of August – completed so far. When the challenge is over, I’ll post that list separately, in the order in which the works were read.
  • The SciFri Book Club, from Science Friday
  • Gamify Your Reading With This Readathon Board Game! (from Book Riot)
  • Books & Boba – An Asian American Book Club & Podcast – Books & Boba is a book club and podcast dedicated to spotlighting books written by authors of Asian descent. Every month, hosts Marvin Yueh and Reera Yoo pick a book by an Asian or Asian American author to read and discuss on the podcast. In addition to book discussions, they also interview authors and cover publishing news, including book deals and new releases.
  • 2022 Recipients of The Dragon Award – The award is described as following: “In a world of the ordinary, the Dragon is most astonishing. Its heart burns with determination and desire as it soars from page to canvas to screen. The Dragon’s inner fire elevates it above the mundane, and once released, inspires respect and awe from all who witness its greatness.”
  • Manga of the Month, from Reverse Thieves, a site that delves deep into character- and story-focused analysis of anime and manga, and sometimes look at the fandoms that surround those hobbies as well.
  • Hip-Hop Books for Adults from The New York Public Library – As part of hip-hop’s 50 year anniversary,NYPL’s recommended reads for all ages that explore the influence and impact of hip-hop, including memoirs by landmark artists, explorations of fashion, fiction inspired by hip-hop culture, and more

Our previous reports and book lists are always available right here, growing every month.

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 silent book clubs via Guinevere and Laura’s Silent Book Club web site. 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.

Wishing you and the grove of readers around you – in person and virtually – all the literary sunshine, shade, precipitation and nutrition you need to thrive!

A Ride in the Sun, or Gasoline Gypsy, by Peggy Iris Thomas

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A Ride in the Sun, or Gasoline Gypsy, by Peggy Iris Thomas

I’ve mentioned before that my husband Jason and I have combined our love of books with our love of dogs (Airedale terriers in particular) by building a library of books in which Airedales have starring or supporting roles, or at least appear in all their handsome splendour on book covers. Jason and I also, by the way, regularly enjoy sharing our books by reading aloud to each other. We combined all of these pleasures when we read together A Ride in the Sun, or Gasoline Gypsy, by Peggy Iris Thomas, earlier this year.

This book has many charms. The author recounts the myriad adventures she and her Airedale, Matelot, enjoyed as they embarked on a 14,000-mile motorcycle trek through Canada, the United States and Mexico from 1950 to 1952. As an unassuming paean to a considerably more innocent time, it’s a delight. At every hairpin turn along the way, Peggy miraculously finds a trucker who will pick up her woefully underpowered and overloaded motorcycle and transport it to the next garage. With only one or two comically villainous exceptions, those garages are staffed by resourceful mechanics willing to figure out the vagaries of her unusual model of bike and get her back on the road again – often no charge. At times fearless and self-sufficient, at times naively hapless, Peggy is always captivating, and Matelot is the epitome of canine patience and fidelity.

We relished all of these charms and they seemed to shine through most brilliantly when we were sharing the book together, reading it aloud, laughing, pausing to comment on Peggy’s misadventures, close calls and feisty spirit, and to stray into our own stories. When we paused to stumble just a bit over yet another repetition of Peggy’s stock phrases or stilted prose, the fact that we were reading it all aloud helped us to compensate, laugh it off and carry on. The few times we tried to read portions of the books to ourselves, the story fell calamitously flat, freighted under the words of someone more comfortable riding a motorcycle or training dogs than capturing any of it in sentences. And hence the glory of reading aloud to redeem great stories somewhat awkwardly told.

See also:

60th anniversary edition of A Ride in the Sun, or Gasoline Gypsy, by Peggy Iris Thomas

Benefits of reading aloud
(While there is much to be said about children reading aloud, adults reading aloud to children, and adults reading their own prose aloud to remedy problems in expression, it’s hard to find much about the joys of adults reading aloud to adults. Leave a comment on this post if you find anything, OK?)

The Money Tree, by Sarah Stewart, illustrated by David Small

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My husband Jason and I are dog lovers. We adore dogs in all shapes, sizes and breeds, but our hearts were especially captured by and we have shared our home for over two decades with devastatingly charming, handsome, rambunctious Airedale terriers.

We’re as passionate about books as we are about our companion beasts. What better way to combine the two then, than by building a subset of our library to focus on Airedales? Thanks to Jason’s particular eye for and terrier-like tenacity for researching and seeking out rare, obscure and offbeat books, we’ve amassed and are constantly on the lookout for books that feature, depict and even just mention Airedales in passing, in pictures and print. (1) One day, we aim to publish an annotated bibliography of what we’ve gathered.

Through that search for all things both bookish and Airedalian, The Money Tree, by Sarah Stewart, illustrated by David Small recently came our way … and I am besotted.

The Money Tree, by Sarah Stewart, illustrated by David Small

The Money Tree tells its story through deceptively simple, almost circumspect text and rich, endlessly evocative illustrations. Miss McGillicuddy shares a pastoral life on a lush piece of land with a warmly appointed farmhouse with three dogs (one of which, of course, is an Airedale), a cat, some birds (including a parrot) and farm animals, including a horse and some goats. Miss McGillicuddy is quietly self reliant, planting and harvesting and caring for her animals, and finding time to quilt, read, fly a kite and make a Maypole for the neighbourhood children. Over the course of a year, she discovers a strange tree growing on her property, watches as it yields a puzzling but compelling bounty, shares that bounty with her community, and then wisely brings the bounty to an end, clearly with much thought and no alarm or rancour.

David Small’s illustrations are rich in colour and detail, and offer character and storytelling details that deepen Sarah Stewart’s understated, poetic text. How do we know that over the seasons, the enigmatic Miss McGillicuddy has made her decisions with such benevolence, tempered with such prudent moderation? Small’s particular strength has been to focus on this independent woman’s face, throwing beams of the subtly changing seasonal light on her musing, absorbed and absorbing expressions.

The Money Tree movingly captures the enduring beauty and reassurances of and in the changes of the seasons. The book simultaneously pays tribute to personal resilience and communal generosity.

This is a sweet and gentle tale for young children. There is also much to entrance and, evinced in Miss McGillicuddy’s Mona Lisa smile on the last page, to ever so softly provoke adult readers, too.

Notes:

1. Here are some of our Airedale books that I’ve previously mentioned on this blog:

See also:

The Money Tree by Sarah Stewart, from the Experiencing Nature blog

Useless Dog, by Billy C. Clark

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Useless Dog, by Billy C. Clark

This sweet-natured story of a boy and his dog is distinguished by its authentic-sounding voice of the farming and hunting communities of the Kentucky mountains. Published in the early 1960s, it captures a time, place and people, but avoids being a dated read. The bond between young teenage Caleb and Outcast, the part-Airedale hound who everyone else initially rejects but who proves himself to be a wily and reliable hunting dog, is genuinely and sensitively traced without becoming maudlin. It’s an affecting and timeless tale.