As I’ve said before, not everyone makes it to every book club meeting, every month. But the book beat goes on, and individual members and the group as a whole keeps it going, pretty much every month of the year – now going on eight years straight!

Without further ado, here are some images from our group’s July gatherings, followed by another gorgeous combined reading list from the group.

Photo credits: Jess Bootsma, Jennifer D. Foster

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 counts for so very much.

• How to Be Eaten by Maria Adelmann
• Saltwater by Jessica Andrews
• If I Knew Then: Finding Wisdom in Failure and Power in Aging by Jann Arden
• The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry
• Death in Diamonds by S.J. Bennett
• Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel, narrated by Cassandra Campbell (audiobook)
• Last Look by Charles Burns
• Black Hole by Charles Burns
• Final Cut by Charles Burns
• What is History, Now? Helen Carr and Susan Lipscomb
• Not My Type by E. Jean Carroll
• The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares
• Monica by Daniel Clowes
• The Vet’s Daughter by Barbara Comyns
• The Mystery of the Haunted Dance Hall by Charis Cotter
• Recipe for a Good Life by Lesley Crewe
• Turncoat by Aaron Elkins
• Fire in The Stars by Barbara Fradkin
• Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves by Sophie Gilbert
• The Retirement Plan by Sue Hincenbergs
• The Family Recipe by Carolyn Huynh
• Always Look on the Bright Side of Life – A Sortabiography by Eric Idle
• Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin
• Detective Aunty by Uzma Jalaluddin
• Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, narrated by Jeff Woodman (audiobook)
• Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
• The Courage to Be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga
• Cyndi Lauper: A Memoir by Cyndi Lauper with Jancee Dunn
• Where Reasons End by Yiyun Li
• Murder Takes a Vacation by Laura Lippman
• Human Nature by Kate Marvel
• I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
• The Road to Goderich by Linda McQuaig
• Rag Pickers by Blaine Newton
• Death in Focus by Anne Perry
• Inverted World by Christopher Priest
• In Search of Lost Time Volume I – Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust, translated by C.K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin, revised by D.J. Enright
• Don’t Let Me Be Lonely – An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
• A Most Agreeable Murder by Julia Seales
• The Village Newcomers by Rebecca Shaw
• On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder
• The Queen of Sugar Hill: A Novel of Hattie McDaniel by Reshonda Tate
• White Walls: Collected Stories by Tatyana Tolstaya
• Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte

Our group’s previous reports and book lists never take the month off, either – they’re 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.) And oh, SBC will be celebrating its 10th anniversary this fall!

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 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.

Happy reading till next we meet … or don’t, but that’s OK, too.

• We’ve discussed the 50-page rule at more than one meeting over the years of our group. Some can and will, and some can’t or won’t, set a book aside if it isn’t sparking their interest by 50 pages in. Now, 50-page proponent Mary is raising the bar, sticking with books where she “can’t wait to get back” to them. If a book isn’t softly (or not so softly) calling to her, well then …
   
• We don’t often discuss readers returning to books they’ve set aside, for some reason. But one reader reported this month that she recently gave a book a second chance and was very, very glad she did. So, sometimes a book will still keep a wee spark burning …
   
• Silent book club member Lisa kicked off her zoom report by showing off a lovely cross stitch bookmark. Oh, this has sparked an idea for a future meeting and discussion!

Our group offers another combined list of titles that will shake your reading out of the summer doldrums (if need be). It and all our lists are here, to heat up or cool down your reading (again, if need be).

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 counts for so very much.

• Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
• The Zone of Interest by Martin Amis, narrated by Matthew Lloyd Davies (audiobook)
• What You Are Looking For Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama, translated by Alison Watts, narrated by Hanako Footman, etc. (audiobook)
• Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield
• Private Rites by Julia Armfield
• Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
• The Drowned by John Banville, narrated by John Lee (audiobook)
• The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry
• The Impossible Man: Roger Penrose and the Cost of Genius by Patchen Barss
• Men Who Hate Women: From Incels to Pickup Artists – The Truth about Extreme Misogyny and How it Affects Us All by Laura Bates
• Strong Female Character by Fern Brady (audiobook)
• These Days by Lucy Caldwell
• A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr
• Boy Parts by Eliza Clark
• She’s Always Hungry by Eliza Clark
• Ghost World by Daniel Clowes
• Care of – Letters, Connections and Cures by Ivan Coyote (audiobook)
• Recipe for a Good Life by Lesley Crewe
• The Adversary by Michael Crummey
• Fieldwork by Sadiqa de Meijer
• The Paris Express by Emma Donoghue, narrated by Justin Avoth (audiobook)
• The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• Turncoat by Aaron Elkins
• Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney
• A Dark Death by Alice Fitzpatrick
• Curiosities by Anne Fleming, narrated by Anna Tierney, etc. (audiobook)
• Finding Flora by Elinor Florence
• The Life Impossible by Matt Haig
• The Mare by Angharad Hampshire
• Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf
• Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix
• The Story She Left Behind by Patti Callahan Henry
• The Convenient Marriage by Georgette Heyer
• Maria Chapdelaine by Louis Hermon
• King of Envy by Ana Huang
• Lost Signal by Chris Hutchinson
• Detective Aunty by Uzma Jalaluddin
• Travels with Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuscinski
• Cobalt Red by Siddharth Kara
• Fairy Tale by Stephen King
• Softie by Kirby
• The Orange Eats Creeps by Grace Krilanovich
• The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern by Lynda Cohen Loigman, narrated by Gabra Zackman & author (audiobook)
• All You Can Kill by Pasha Malla
• Held by Anne Michaels (audiobook)
• Skippy Dies by Paul Murray, narrated by Patrick Moy (audiobook)
• Sandwich by Catherine Newman
• Sandwich by Catherine Newman, narrated by Nan McNamara (audiobook)
• Ex-Wife by Ursula Parrott
• Adventures in the Louvre – How to fall in love with the world’s greatest museum by Elaine Sciolino
• Whispers in the Village by Rebecca Shaw
• The Village Green Affair by Rebecca Shaw
• The North Star by Julian Sher
• Minor Detail by Adania Shibli
• The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling
• Miss Buncle’s Book by DE Stevenson
• The Queen of Sugar Hill: A Novel of Hattie McDaniel by Reshondra Tate
• Living Expenses by Teri Vlassopolous
• Remember Me as Human by Lucy Walsh
• Augustus by John Williams
• Bitter Sweet by Hattie Williams
• Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis
• The Fun Times Brigade by Lindsay Zier-Vogel

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.

• “But here’s the thing about words: They don’t have fixed, Platonic meanings that float in an ethereal realm outside human usage.” Ponder these recent reflections from Washington Post book reviewer Ron Charles.
• One of our sbc members reminds us that the beloved Lakefield Literary Festival is happening July 18-19th, 2025.
• Stephen Fry’s thoughts on the enduring appeal of Georgette Heyer are grand!

Our group’s previous reports and book lists don’t take the summer off – they’re 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 different in 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.

Wherever you’re taking your time off – cottage, beach, on the road, wherever – we know books are traveling with you!

During our silent book club group’s latest go-round of what everyone has been reading lately – from which we all add new selections to our teetering tbr piles, often putting holds on titles on the library web site as the meeting progresses – the phrase “light reading” came up more than once. Used neither pejoratively or dismissively, our readers used it to describe books that delight, entertain, divert, but don’t necessarily overly demand. In doing all that, readers also observed that light reading can still teach, reveal, redeem and more. Does that make sense? Certainly, it made perfect sense to our group.

Everyone’s idea of light reading (and conversely, heavy reading) is different. When we seek or are receptive to one versus the other is different, too. Thank goodness there are so many “weights” of books out there to suit our every reading need, at any time!

Every title on our group’s generous combined reading lists means that at least one (but usually more) readers have given that title thoughtful attention. That doesn’t mean that every work on our lists is expressly recommended, of course. (But, of course, the lists as presented never give that away …) Inclusion on this list always means that our readers have devoted time and an open attitude to each title, and that counts for a lot.
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• The Assault by Reinaldo Arenas
• The Honditsch Cross by Ingeborg Bachman
• Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird by Agustina Bazterrica, translated by Sarah Moses
• A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder by Ma-Nee Chacaby with Mary Louisa Plummer
• Eddie Winston is Looking for Love by Marianne Cronin
• Clear by Carys Davies
• The Woman Destroyed by Simone de Beauvoir
• The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
• The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• Full-Rip 9.0: The Next Big Earthquake in the Pacific Northwest by Sandi Doughton
• One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad
• The Wedding People by Alison Espach
• Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito
• Curiosities by Anne Fleming
• Isola by Allegra Goodman
• Fair Play by Louise Hegarty
• The Margaret Code by Richard Hooton
• Miss Austen by Gill Hornby, narrated by Juliet Stevenson (audiobook)
• The Secret Life of Pigs by Richard Hoyle and Anita Krajnc
• Best Canadian Poetry 2025, edited by Aislinn Hunter
• Detective Aunty by Uzma Jalaluddin
• Murder in Highbury by Vanessa Kelly
• Cattail Lane by Fran Kimmel
• She by Kirby
• The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson
• Crow Lake by Mary Lawson
• A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson
• Cautery by Lucía Lijtmaer, translated by Maureen Shaughnessy
• The Crash by Freida McFadden
• The Hour After Happy Hour by Mary O’Donoghue
• Widows and Orphans by Elizabeth Renzetti and Kate Hilton
• The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge by Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by Michael Hulse
• Mistress of My Fate – The Confessions of Henrietta Lightfoot by Hallie Rubenhold
• Tales from Turnham Malpas by Rebecca Shaw
• The New Rector by Rebecca Shaw
• Trouble in the Village by Rebecca Shaw
• The Love of a Family by Rebecca Shaw
• Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
• Long Island< by Colm Toibin
• Three Days in June by Anne Tyler
• The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

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.

• “To know everyone is going back to their world in the book, whatever that world may be – whether it’s Middle Earth, a dystopian future or the here and now with some detective sleuthing through the city – it’s comforting to be around.” Another fine article about the joys and delights of silent book club gatherings, from our beloved sbc member Kathryn …
• Harresh Sivamohan runs another of Toronto’s silent book club chapters. His friendly group gathers largely in downtown Toronto, several times a month. (I enjoyed one of their meetings at the Imperial Pub this past month.) Harresh recently spoke about his group on the CBC podcast This is Toronto.
• “Should I be disqualified from my book club because I use audiobooks?” asks Douglas Lawrence in a recent essay in The Globe and Mail. Absolutely not, sez our silent book club group, which boasts many discerning consumers of audiobooks.

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 different in 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.

Every time you lift a book to your eyes and/or ears, here’s hoping it lifts your mind and spirit!

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!

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.

• The Power by Naomi Alderman
• The Bittlemores by Jann Arden
• The Incident Report by Martha Baillie
• Critical Injuries by Joan Barfoot
• Havoc by Christopher Bollen
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
• Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops by Jen Campbell
• The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier, narrated by Lisa Flanagan (audiobook)
• The Lions of Fifth Avenue by Fiona Davis
• The Magnolia Palace by Fiona Davis
• The Vanished Bride by Bella Ellis (aka Rowan Coleman)
• The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
• Every Summer After by Carley Fortune
• Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten
• Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall
• I Who Have Never Known Men by by Jacqueline Harpman, translated by Ros Schwartz, narrated by Nikki Massoud (audiobook)
• Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes (audiobook)
• Miss Austen by Gill Hornby
• Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby
• Raffles by E.W. Hornung
• The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
• Your Forma (manga/graphic novel format) by Mareho Kikuishi, art by Yoshinori Kisaragi, Tsubata Nozaki
• Your Forma (novel format) by Mareho Kikuishi, art by Tsubata Nozaki, translated by Roman Lempert
• Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
• I Love Dick by Chris Kraus
• Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon
• Dandelion by Jamie Chai Yun Liew, narrated by Jennifer Hui (audiobook)
• The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern by Lynda Cohen Loigman
• The Matchmaker’s Gift by Lynda Cohen Loigman
• The Two Family House by Lynda Cohen Loigman
• The Enigma of Garlic by Alexander McCall Smith, narrated by Robert Ian Mackenzie (audiobook)
• Behind You is the Sea by Susan Muaddi Darraj, narrated by Rasha Zamamiri & Ali Nasser (audiobook)
• A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor, narrated by Marguerite Gavin (audiobook)
• No Comfort For the Dead by R.P. O’Donnell
• BUtterfield 8 by John O’Hara
• Swanfolk by Kristin Omarsdottir
• The Collected Breece D’J Pancake
• The Messy Lives of Book People by Phaedra Patrick
• The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny
• The Briar Club by Kate Quinn
• Song of Roland by Michel Rabagliati, translated by Helge Dascher
• Rose à l’île by Michel Rabagliati
• What is Wrong with You? by Paul Rudnick
• A Room Above A Shop by Anthony Shapland
• The Irish Girl by Ashley E Sweeney, narrated by Aoife McMahon (audiobook)
• Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
• Long Island by Colm Toibin, narrated by Jessie Buckley (audiobook)
• Three Days in June by Anne Tyler
• In Winter I Get Up at Night by Jane Urquhart, narrated by Christine Horne (audiobook)
• Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
• This is Happiness by Niall Williams
• Beartooth by Callan Wink
• Butter by Asako Yuzuki, translated by Polly Barton

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.

• In case you missed it, east end Toronto silent book club member Joylyn Chai recently reviewed Secrets in the Water by Alice Fitzpatrick.
• Enjoy videos of the poet/musician Haleh Liza Gafori, who has translated various Rumi poems.

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!

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!

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.

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.

• Three Plays by Edward Albee: The Death of Bessie Smith, The Sandbox, The American Dream
• Dancing with Diana by Anne Allan
• An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine
• Parable of the Sower by Octavia E Butler, narrated by Lynne Thigpen (audiobook)
• Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
• The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern by Lynda Cohen Loigman
• Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
• The Librarianist by Patrick de Witt
• Attic by Katherine Dunn
• Polysecure: Attachment, Trauma and Consensual Nonmonogamy by Jessica Fern
• Bystander Society: Conformity and Complicity in Nazi Germany by Mary Fulbrook
• Zak George’s Dog Training Revolution – The Complete Guide to Raising the Perfect Pet with Love by Zak George and Dina Roth Port
• The Dream Life of Sukhanov by Olga Grushin
• The Venetian Sanctuary by Philip Gwynne Jones
• Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad, narrated by Nadia Albina (audiobook)
• Late Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay
• Blue Giant Volumes 1-2 by Shinichi Ishizuka
• Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson
• Ward Toward by Cindy Juyoung Ok
• The Kamogawa Food Detective by Hisashi Kashiwai, translated by Jesse Kirkwood
• Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
• Grown Ups by Marian Keyes
• The Wall Between by Raja Khouri and Jeffrey Wilkinson
• The Sequel by Jean Hanff Korelitz, narrated by Julia Whelan (audiobook)
• The Vixen Amber Halloway by Carol LaHines
• School For Love by Olivia Manning
• Proof by Beverley McLachlin
• The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
• BUtterfield 8 by John O’Hara
• The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny
• A Gaze Hound That Hunteth By the Eye by V. Penelope Pelizzon
• A Question of Betrayal by Anne Perry
• The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl
• Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
• American Pastoral by Philip Roth
• A Boy in Winter by Rachel Seiffert
• Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout
• Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout
• Table for Two by Amor Towles
• Butter by Asako Yuzuki, narrated by Hanako Footman (audiobook)

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.

• “In the end, it falls to readers to recognize what is happening and to seek out books from publishers that are genuinely interested in transcendent, creative work.” Where the Big Five publishers have undermined literary fiction, serious readers can and should expand their tastes to smaller presses if they haven’t already.
• I suspect many silent book club members and readers of these blog posts are librocubicularists!
• A recommended companion to Blue Giant Volumes 1-2 by Shinichi Ishizuka is the movie version.
• Explore NYPL’s Best Books of 2024 lists.

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!