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.

“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.

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.

• The Lock Up by John Banville, narrated by John Lee (audiobook)
• The Hollow Beast by Christophe Bernard, translated by Lazer Lederhendler
• Four Seasons in Japan by Nick Bradley
• Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers
• Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
• Les Enfants Terribles by Jean Cocteau
• Murder at the Monastery by The Reverend Richard Coles
• The Vanished Bride by Bella Ellis (aka Rowan Coleman)
• The Wedding People by Alison Espach, narrated by Helen Laser (audiobook)
• The Goat by Anne Fleming, narrated by Michelle Monteith (audiobook)
• Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet by Ben Goldfarb
• The Midnight Hour by Elly Griffiths
• The Last Remains by Elly Griffiths
• Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad, narrated by Nadia Albina (audiobook)
• A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
• Orbital by Samantha Harvey
• Late Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay
• Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes (audiobook)
• Miss Austen by Gill Hornby
• Miss Austen by Gill Hornby, narrated by Juliet Stevenson (audiobook)
• The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs
• Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez
• The Vegetarian by Han Kang, translated by Deborah Smith
• Foster by Claire Keegan
• White Tears by Hari Kunzru
• The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern by Lynda Cohen Loigman
• The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo
• Cold Moon Over Babylon by Michael McDowell
• Out of the London Mist by Lyssa Medana
• All the Rage: Stories from the frontline of beauty by Virginia Nicholson
• Bel Canto by Ann Patchett (annotated)
• Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher
• The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher
• Vineland by Thomas Pynchon
• The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan
• Heart, Be at Peace by Donal Ryan
• After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz
• Pretty Birds by Scott Simon
• Miss Morgan’s Book Brigade by Janet Skeslien Charles
• I’ve Got a Home in Glory Land – A Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad by Karolyn Smardz Frost
• The Fraud by Zadie Smith
• The Fraud by Zadie Smith (audiobook)
• Your Absence is Darkness by Jon Kalman Stefansson, translated by Philip Roughton
• Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler
• A Lively Midwinter Murder by Katy Watson
• How to Argue with a Meat Eater (and Win Every Time) by Ed Winters
• Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
• My Stupid Intentions by Bernardo Zannoni

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 Booker Prize offers simple tips for transforming reading into a rewarding resolution.
• “They are my retreats, my quiet energy-givers, my intellectual refuge.” Relish the poem So Many Books, So Little Time by Haki R. Madhubuti.
• Anne Carson’s recent essay on hands and handwriting is moving and wonderful to listen to and/or read.

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!

A neighbour walks into a favourite local coffee shop (East Toronto Coffee Co!), spots our group ensconced in a cozy corner, silently reading and enjoying our beverages, pastries and the company of fellow readers, and addresses us:

“Hey, are you the book club from TV?”

and we reply, “Why yes, we are!”

and he declares, smiling:

“You’re famous!”

Why yes, I guess we are!

… and not only are we famous, but we’re effing brilliant!

… and not only are we all that, but our group’s continuous celebration takes many forms, including sharing moving passages from our reading:

“The desk is empty except for a pewter mug – a polo trophy won by her grandfather – holding pens, and a small Persian box with a design in dull blue and gold. It had been her mother’s, and had held paper clips. The box gives Sarah a sweet tiny rush of feeling. It still holds her mother’s paper clips, she has never emptied it. She feels a near magical connection to the box, and to the paper clips inside, which her mother had touched. She can’t explain why – her mother had touched many things in the house – but the little box is charged. It was part of her mother’s daily life, and is still here, whole. She knows this feeling is only hers. Her children may know that the box was her mother’s, that the paper clips were hers, but it can’t matter to them as it does to Sarah. She never uses the paper clips. She wants to keep the link intact, as though the presence of the paper clips themselves, light and silvery and insubstantial, means that her mother might use them still.”

excerpt from Leaving by Roxana Robinson

Our discussion meeting this month took a different tack. Rather than a topic related to reading and readers, group members Tom and Lisa led a discussion on a specific book: Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. As they described it, “SBC is founded on the subtle quality of silence. Addressing Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus, [we] will be hosting a chat about silence as a powerful trope, and the importance and implications of confronting difficult issues out loud.” So yes, we were kind of gathering like a more traditional book club. It was an interesting change of pace, beautifully facilitated and instructive even if you had not yet finished the book or, in some cases, had blurred recollection of it because, say, one had read it during the early days of the pandemic.

Oh my heavens, what another dizzyingly gorgeous and varied reading list we have to share again this month! Every title on our group’s 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 – but that’s more than OK, we think. Inclusion on this list always means that our readers have devoted time and attention to a title – and that, dear readers, means a lot.

• Dogs of Summer by Andrea Abreu, translated by Julia Sanches
• Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, narrated by Adjoah Andoh (audiobook)
• Penguin Book of Spiritual Verse, edited by Kaveh Akbar
• Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood
• Lovely War by Julie Berry, narrated by Jayne Entwistle, Allan Corduner, Julie Berry, Dion Graham, Fiona Hardingham, John Lee, Nathaniel Parker, Steve West (audiobook)
• Immigrant City by David Bezmozgis
• Indigenous Toronto: stories that carry this place, edited by Denise Bolduc & Mnawaate Gordon-Corbiere, Rebeka Tabobondung, Brian Wright-McLeod
• Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum, translated by Shanna Tan
• The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
• Look After Her by Hannah Brown
• Going Into Town: A Love Letter to New York by Roz Chast
• The Quiet Damage by Jesselyn Cook
• Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
• Clearing the Plains – Disease, Politics of Starvation, and the Loss of Indigenous Life by James Daschuk
• Shakespeare: the man who pays the rent by Judi Dench and Brendan O’Hea, narrated by Barbara Flyn and the authors (audiobook)
• Independence by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, narrated by Sneth Mathan (audiobook)
• Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City by Andrea Elliott
• As You Wish: inconceivable tales from the making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes and Joe Layden, narrated by author and members of cast (audiobook)
• Gone-Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright
• Some People Need Killing by Patricia Evangelista
• James by Percival Everett, narrated by Dominic Hoffman (audiobook)
• Mystery in the Title by Ian Ferguson and Will Ferguson
• Natural Order by Brian Francis
• The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths
• The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths
• Afterlives by Abdulrazak Gurnah, narrated by Damian Lynch (audiobook)
• Cook Korean!: A Comic Book with Recipes by Robin Ha
• Vita Contemplativa: In Praise of Inactivity by Byung-Chul Han
• The Truths We Hold: An American Journey by Kamala Harris
• The Warehouse by Rob Hart
• The Chicago Way by Michael Harvey
• Die, My Love by Ariana Harwicz, translated by Sarah Moses and Carolina Orloff
• Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins
• Skyward, Volume 1: My Low-G Life by Joe Henderson
• The Story of Us by Catherine Hernandez (audiobook)
• Search: a memoir with recipes by Dana Louise Potowski: a novel by Michelle Huneven, narrated by Cassandra Campbell (audiobook)
• Good Talk: a memoir in conversations by Mira Jacob
• Kalooki Nights by Howard Jacobson
• An Island by Karen Jennings, narrated by Ben Onwukwe (audiobook)
• […] by Fady Joudah
• Babel by R.F. Kuang
• When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut
• The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson, narrated by Erik Larson, John Lee (audiobook)
• Same As It Ever Was by Claire Lombardo
• The Lola Quartet by Emily St. John Mandel, narrated by Sarah Scott (audiobook)
• Sea of Tranquility by Emily St John Mandel, narrated by John Lee/Dylan Moore/Kirsten Potter/Arthur Morey (audiobook)
• No Country For Old Men by Cormac McCarthy (audiobook)
• The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
• Earthlings by Sayaka Murata
• The Eight by Katherine Neville
• Chinese Poems for Students of Chinese Volume 1 by Robert New
• Are You Willing to Die for the Cause by Chris Oliveros
• Mona by Pola Oloixarac
• Last Night at the Lobster: a novel by Stewart O’Nan, narrated by Jonathan Davis (audiobook)
• The Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange
• The Stories of Breece D’J Pancake by Breece D’J Pancake
• Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
• The Floating Girls by Lo Patrick, narrated by Taylor Meskimen (audiobook)
• The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters, narrated by Aaliya Warbus, Jordan Waunch (audiobook)
• Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips, narrated by Karissa Vacker/Theo Stockman/Maggi-Meg Reed (audiobook)
• How to Age Disgracefully by Clare Pooley
• The Caretaker by Ron Rash
• The Caretaker by Ron Rash, narrated by James Patrick Cronin (audiobook)
• The Risen by Ron Rash
• Frying Plantain by Zalika Reid-Benta, narrated by Ordena Stephens-Thompson (audiobook)
• Leaving by Roxana Robinson
• Le Freak: An Upside Down Story of Family, Disco, and Destiny by Nile Rodgers
• Something to Live For (aka How Not to Die Alone) by Richard Roper, narrated by Simon Vance (audiobook)
• Wordhunter by Stella Sands
• The Downloaded by Robert J. Sawyer
• Dark Diversions by John Ralston Saul
• Seven Empty Houses by Samanta Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowell
• The Sealey Challenge (with the tweets from this silent book club member’s 31 days of poetry reading)
• Boldly Go: Reflections on a Life of Awe and Wonder by William Shatner
• The Core of the Sun by Johanna Sinisalo
• Maus: a survivor’s tale by Art Spiegelman
• Everyone on This Train is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson
• Holiness Here by Karen Stiller
• A Talent for Murder by Peter Swanson
• Long Island< by Colm Toibin
• Long Island by Colm Toibin, narrated by Jessie Buckley (audiobook)
• The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
• Table for Two by Amor Towles
• Fire Weather by John Vaillant
• I’m So Glad We Had This Time Together: a memoir by Maurice Vellekoop
• The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
• On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
• One Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware
• The Maid’s Diary by Loreth Anne White
• The Colossus of New York by Colson Whitehead
• Night by Elie Wiesel (audiobook)
• Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, narrated by Jennifer Kim, Julian Cihi (audiobook)
• Therese Raquin by Emile Zola, narrated by Juliet Stevenson (audiobook)

Wait, there’s more! How about 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.

• Have you had a look at the 2024 Booker Prize longlist? The shortlist will be announced September 16, 2024 and the winner will be announced November 12, 2024.
• Enjoy the gorgeous smiles and bookish camaraderie at the Fertil3 poetry fest at The Printed Word Bookshop in Dundas, Ontario on August 25, 2024.
• Need some poetry podcasts? Try Poem-a-Day and The Slowdown.
• Need some poetry events, including livestreams? Try Fady Joudah at the 2024 Jackson Poetry Prize Reading and Ada Limon at the New York Public Library.

Immerse yourself in our group’s previous reports and book lists 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 1,000 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.

And yes, if you see us silently reading “in the wild” … we are the book club from TV! 🙂

Our silent book club readers are a witty and articulate bunch, it probably won’t surprise you to learn. Sometimes as the conversation flows jauntily around one absorbing reading updates after another, the synopses of different books enchants as much as the books themselves. When, for example, one of our readers described a book as being a “twisted spiritual quest”, not only was I captivated, but it sent me off on a wee tangent (not for long, because I didn’t want to miss the next update) on how we’re often on different literary quests with our reading – and hence the title of our latest report. Nuff said!

Our discussion meeting this month revisited a previous topic that was shot through with new and troubling urgency. Can we/should we separate the person from the work? We’ve discussed variations on this subject before, but the shocking Alice Munro news has all of us very sadly contemplating this again.

Much has been written, was published as recently as a couple of days ago, and will still be written on this. We took as our cue this piece by American writer Brandon Taylor. We vented, we grieved, we expressed a range of emotions, we admitted that we didn’t know how to express our feelings, we acknowledged that privilege plays a part in what we should and should not be focusing on …

After the meeting, I was inspired to send this message to the group:

“Thank you” was not nearly sufficient, but I want to thank all of you for taking part in last night’s silent book club discussion pop-up. One of the many joys of assembling with you, virtually and in-person, is that it is literally a joy, a celebration, so uplifting. That we can also gather to take on the thornier aspects of being dedicated readers is, well, maybe not something we want to make a habit of … but when we do, I am so grateful to do that with such thoughtful, insightful, articulate and generous individuals.

Every title on our group’s lists means that at least one (but usually more) readers have given that title thoughtful consideration. To be honest, that doesn’t mean that every work on our lists is expressly recommended. However, inclusion on this list always means that our readers have devoted time and attention to a title – and that, dear readers, means a lot.

• Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• Blasphemy by Sherman Alexie
• Bunny by Mona Awad
• Concrete Island by JG Ballard
• Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum, translated by Shanna Tan
• Loved and Missed by Susie Boyt
• The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
• The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin
• Car: A Novel by Harry Crews
• An Anthology of Monsters – How Story Saves Us From Our Anxiety by Cherie Dimaline
• The Doll’s Alphabet by Camilla Grudova
• Killdeer by Phil Hall
• Feebleminded by Ariana Harwicz, translated by Annie McDermott and Carolina Orloff
• None of this is true by Lisa Jewell
• The Ghost Map – The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic–and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World by Steven Johnson
• Doppelganger by Naomi Klein (audiobook)
• Have You Eaten Yet? Stories from Chinese Restaurants Around the World by Cheuk Kwan
• The Devil in the White City – Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson
• In the Garden of the Beasts by Erik Larson
• Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy (audiobook)
• The Other Fab Four – A Memoir by Mary McGlory & Sylvia Saunders
• Unruly by David Mitchell
• The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
• Off the Tracks – A Meditation on Train Journeys in a Time of No Travel by Pamela Mulloy
• The Coast Road by Alan Murrin
• You Are Here by David Nicholls
• Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor
• How to Do Nothing – Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell
• Essays by George Orwell
• Lilith by Eric Rickstead
• The Guncle Abroad by Steven Rowley
• How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair
• My Name is Barbra by Barbra Streisand
• Her First Palestinian by Saeed Teebi
• Table for Two by Amor Towles
• Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
• On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
• The Killer in King’s Cove by Iona Whishaw
• Lightning Strikes the Silence by Iona Whishaw
• Policing Ireland’s Twisted History by Alan W. Wilson
• The Orphans of Mersea House by Marty Wingate
• Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
• The Chrysalids by John Wyndham
• Braised Pork: A Novel by An Yu

Need 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.

• The New York Public Library (NYPL) celebrates James Baldwin.
• The New York Public Library (NYPL) recommends 25 Books To Get You Excited for the Summer Olympics.
• Need some inspiration and ideas to take on The Sealey Challenge poetry challenge in August? Try some poetry podcasts, including The Poetry Exchange and Poetry Unbound | The On Being Project.

Immerse yourself in our group’s previous reports and book lists 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 breathtaking momentum, they are now boasting over 1,000 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.

Hoping you succeed in all of your literary quests!