The Cathedral Reading Group has been reading together for over 25 years.
We were founded by The Rev'd William Derby, Vicar at the Cathedral in the 1980's.
The focus of the Reading Group has been to read good fiction rather than non-fiction, although there have been a few exceptions.
Book Review and Bookclub Links:
Reviews of Books - book reviews from major online media sites
Bookbrowse - 'recommends only the best and most interesting books'
Books Unlimited - for Guardian Newspapers
Cathedral Reading Group Booklist
sort by clicking on any column header (except Comments)
| Date | Stars | Author | Title | Publisher | Published | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010-Mar | Kazuo Ishiguro | Never Let Me Go | Knopf Canada | 2006 | Date and location: TBA | |
| 2010-Feb | Muriel Barbery and Alison Anderson | The Elegance of the Hedgehog | Europa Editions | 2008 | Meeting Date: February 28 Location: Diana's |
|
| 2010-Jan | Anna Quindlen | How Reading Saved My Life | Ballantine Books | 1998 | As expected, we all told our stories about how reading changed our lives! |
|
| 2009-Dec | Movie Night | Miss Potter |
Phoenix Pictures
|
2007 | We enjoyed the movie and its portrayal of an independent woman fit right in with the previous book. | |
| 2009-Nov | Claire Rothman | The Heart Specialist | Cormorant Books | 2009 | Much enjoyed, especially the scenes of Montreal and McGill. | |
| 2009-Oct | Aravind Adiga | The White Tiger | Atlantic Books | 2008 | Interesting. We discussed at length whether it had a different message than other books of India that we have read. | |
| 2009-Sept | Lawrence Hill | The Book of Negroes | HarperCollins | 2007 | It well deserves the awards it has received. | |
| 2009-May | Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows | The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society | Dial Press | 2008 | Seems the mail then was almost as fast as email today! Telling the story via correspondence reminded us of 84 Charring Cross Road. | |
| 2009-Apr | Ann Patchett | The Magician's Assistant | Harcourt | 1997 | Not as good as Bel Canto, but we had a good discussion. | |
| 2009-Mar | 3 | Steff Penney | The Tenderness of Wolves | Quercus | 2006 | A mystery in Canada's north circa 1867. We had a lively discussion. The fact that we discussed the characters so much must have meant they felt very real to us. And they did. Or maybe it was because the book was all about the classic Canadian theme of survival. |
| 2009-Feb | Dave Eggers | What is the What | McSweeney's | 2006 | The story of a lost boy of the Sudan. Very well written and an amazing story. | |
| 2008-Dec | Movie night: | WALL*E | Disney-Pixar | 2008 | Great movie, and the special about the sound design was especially interesting. | |
| 2008-Nov | 4 | Sandy Tolan | The Lemon Tree: An Arab, A Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East | Bloomsbury USA | 2007 | A very good book to help one understand the situation. |
| 2008-Oct | Elizabeth Hay | Late Nights on Air | McClelland & Stewart | 2008 | We thought the canoe trip at the best part. | |
| 2008-09 | Heinrich Harrer | Seven Years in Tibet | Harpercollins Canada | 1997 | A good discussion about Tibet. Jane had watched the film, and recommended it, even though it added 'human interest' (i.e. females) not in the book. | |
| 2008-06 | Greg Mortensen | Three Cups of Tea | Penguin | 2007 | It made us want to read 'Seven Years in Tibet'... | |
| 2008-05 | Victor Lam | Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures | Anchor Canada | 2006 | |
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| 2008-04 | 5 | Ann Patchett | Bel Canto | Perennial Classics | 2005 | We all enjoyed this book a lot. The fact that many of the things that happened really occurred in the real event hostage taking in Peru made it even more intriguing. We all said we wanted to read more of her books. |
| 2008-04 | Helen Dewitt | Last Samurai | Hyperion | 2002 | Quite an interesting book - lots to talk about. Plus we watched the first half of the film, 'The Seven Samurai'. | |
| 2008-03 | Alice Munro | View from Castle Rock | Penguin | 2007 | We don't often read short stories, but Alice Munro's are the ones to read when you do. We had an interesting discussion around her portrait of life in Northen Ontario and how it compared with Mary Lawson's recent novel. | |
| 2008-01 | 4 | Ayaan Hirsi Ali | Infidel | Free Press | 2007 | An amazing autobiography - very topical re reasonable accomodation. Highly recommended. |
| 2007-12 | 4 | Sue Monk Kidd | The Secret Life of Bees | Penguin Books | 2002 | We all enjoyed this book and found it very well written. |
| 2007-11 | Movie night | Tea with Mussolini | Franco Zeffirelli, director | 1999 | Apparently the story is based on Zeffirelli's childhood. | |
| 2007-10 | Kim Edwards | The Memory Keeper's Daughter | Viking | 2005 | Another book for which we asked - why did the character do that?! | |
| 2007-09 | Julia Glass | Three Junes | Pantheon | 2002 | Most of us quite liked the book; lots of discussion about the story and how the reader's expectations were not necessarily followed. | |
| 2007-06 | Sarah Dunant | The Birth of Venus | Virago | 2004 | We also discussed 'Arthur and George', about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Both books are recommended. | |
| 2007-05 | Julien Barnes | Arthur and George | Vintage Canada | 2006 | Meeting Date: postponed... | |
| 2007-04 | 4 | Steven Galloway, editor | The Journey Prize Stories 18 | McClelland & Stewart | 2006 | We don't usually read short stories, so we had an interesting discussion about which we liked best - and our choice wasn't the one that won the actual Journey prize! |
| 2007-02 | Orson Scott Card | Pastwatch: the redemption of Christopher Columbus | TOR Books | 1996 | An intriguing idea - what would happen if you could change a pivotal event in history? The book went over well, even with members who don't usually read science fiction. | |
| 2007-01 | 3 | Louis De Bernières | Birds without Wings | Random House | 2004 | A great turnout and discussion. Those of us who had read 'Paris, 1919' found the interspersing of Ataturk's story with the fictional characters particularly interesting. Some felt it made the book too long. |
| 2006-12 | Movie night | Joyeux Noël (Merry Christmas) | Nord-Ouest Productions | 2005 | The moving story of the soldiers' truce in the trenches during Christmas 1914. The music is particularly good. Some critics think it merits annual Christmas viewing. | |
| 2006-11 | Guy Vanderhaeghe | Last Crossing | McClelland & Stewart | 2003 | An interesting work. We talked about the character development. Its grittiness was off-putting to some, yet it seemed to grow on us. It is interesting how some books generate discussions more about why and how things were written, than about the story itself. | |
| 2006-10 | 5 | Mary Doria Russell | A Thread of Grace | Random House | 2005 | A powerful, fictional retelling of a part of World War II history we didn't know much about - the sheltering of Jews in Italian mountain villages. Highly recommended. |
| 2006-09 | 4 | Salley Vickers | Mr. Golightly's Holiday | Harpercollins | 2004 | Good book and good discussion. The layers are many and fascinating to explore. |
| 2006-06 | 4 | Jhumpa Lahiri | The Namesake | Houghton Mifflin | 2004 | We all liked this first novel very much and were amazed at how the author bought such vivid pictures to mind with so few words. |
| 2006-05 | 4 | Ian McEwan | Saturday | Knopf Canada | 2005 | A great discussion, thanks for our having to recap the story for Marjorie. An interesting way to discover how each of us interpreted what was happening, and why. |
| 2006-03 | 4 | Karen Armstrong | The Spiral Staircase | Vintage Canada | 2005 | A fascinating read. We all felt that Oxford owes Karen Armstrong an honourary degree at the every least! |
| 2006-02 | Marilynne Robinson | Gilead | Harpercollins Canada | 2004 | Feelings were mixed about this book. Some appreciated the quiet, meditative feel to the book; others found it lacklustre. A good discussion ensued! | |
| 2006-01 | 5 | Audrey Niffenegger | The Time Traveler's Wife | Harvest Books | 2004 | One of our best - one of those books that you give away copies of, you like it so much. |
| 2005 | Movie night: | Millions | 2005 | We enjoyed the movie very much. The saints were especially well done. | ||
| 2005 | Miriam Toews | A Complicated Kindness | Afred A. Knopf Canada | 2004 | Well written, but some felt the main character's thought process was too mature, improbable at times for a sixteen year old. | |
| 2005 | 3 | David Mitchell | Cloud Atlas | Vintage Canada | 2004 | We discussed the 'mechanics' of the book; some liked his technique and others didn't. We felt it had been worth reading. |
| 2005 | Jonathan Safran Foer | Everything is Illuminated | Houghton Mifflin Co. | 2004 | ||
| 2005 | 4 | Khaled Hosseini | The Kite Runner | Riverhead Books | 2003 | An excellent read - recommended. |
| 2005 | Rudyard Kipling | Kim (the movie) Starring Errol Flynn and Dean Stockwell as Kim. | MGM | 1950 | Finally got to see the video! | |
| 2005 | Monica Ali | Brick Lane | Simon & Schuster | 2004 | We enjoyed the book, but were not sure if the ending rang true. | |
| 2004 | 4 | Ian McEwan | Atonement | Vintage | 2002 | Recommended. This book provoked a lot of discussion, especially after everyone helped Jane figure out what the last chapter meant! |
| 2004 | 3 | Dan Brown | The Da Vinci Code | Doubleday | 2003 | We agreed it was a highly entertaining read, with every quasi-christian conspiracy theory there is included in the mix. |
| 2004 | 4 | Iain Pears | The Dream of Scipio | Riverhead Books | 2002 | 3 stories linked across time - times of social disintegration. How much would you compromise to save your 'civilization'? It provoked a good discussion. |
| 2004 | Alice Sebold | The Lovely Bones | Little, Brown | 2002 | Uneven, but it certainly makes you think about what Heaven would be for you. | |
| 2004 | Chang-rae Lee | A Gesture Life | Riverhead Books | 1999 | Slow at the start, but a good read. | |
| 2004 | Vikram Seth | An Unequal Music | McArthur & Company | 2000 | We had mixed feelings. Some thought it captured the life of musicians superbly; others thought it a tad melodramatic. | |
| 2004 | David Guterson | Snow Falling on Cedars | Harcourt Brace | 1994 | We enjoyed the book and all thought he really knew how to describe snow beautifully. | |
| 2004 | 3 | Michel Faber | Crimson Petal and the White | Harcourt | 2002 | A big 'Victorian' read which we all enjoyed. |
| 2003 | Rohinton Mistry | Family Matters | McClelland & Stewart | 2003 | Real estate really makes a difference in India! | |
| 2003 | 4 | Mary Lawson | Crow Lake | Vintage Canada | 2003 | An excellent read. |
| 2003 | 5 | Nuala O'Faolain | My dream of you | Riverhead Books | 2001 | Wow! A great summer read. Two of us have already followed the priest's advise. |
| 2003 | Nancy Huston | The Mark of the Angel | McArthur | 1999 | Our pot luck supper was as enjoyable as the book discussion. | |
| 2003 | 4 | Yann Martel | Life of Pi | Vintage Books | 2002 | A fascinating book. Worth the read. |
| 2003 | Susan Vreeland | Girl In Hyacinth Blue | Penguin Books | 2000 | We had an interesting discussion about art and its value. | |
| 2003 | 4 | Diane Schoemperlen | Our Lady of the Lost and Found | PerennialCanada | 2001 | This was one of those books where we read out our favourite bits - always a sign that we like the book. |
| 2003 | 3 | Audrey Thomas | Isobel Gunn | Penguin Books | 1999 | A glimpse of life at a Hudson's Bay Company fort, and on Scotland's Orkney islands. Is it true Orcadians joined the Company to come to James' Bay to warm up? We all found it a fascinating glimpse into Canadian history. The audio book is excellent and we have no doubt it will make a good movie. |
| 2002 | Sandra Birdsell | The Russlander | McClelland & Stewart | 2002 | Interesting for its historical glimpse into Revolutionary Russia especially. | |
| 2002 | 4 | Andre Dubus | The House of Sand and Fog | W.W. Norton | 1999 | A compelling read. It isn't happy books that provoke discussion - this is a truly tragic story, and we found lots of 'whys' to discuss. |
| 2002 | Graham Swift | Last Orders | Sony Pictures - video | 2001 | Unlike Hollywood films, this British production remains true to the book and how the story is told with many voices. We were most impressed. | |
| 2002 | 3 | Graham Swift | Last Orders | Vintage | 1996 | A good discussion book - what is your 'ashes' story? (A review by Adrian Poole from The Guardian) |
| 2002 | 5 | Salley Vickers | Miss Garnet's Angel | Harper | 2001 | Another tale set in Venice. Lots of things to discuss in this book. We all enjoyed it very much. Her web site is incredible. |
| 2002 | Rudyard Kipling | Kim (the movie) Starring Errol Flynn and Dean Stockwell as Kim. | MGM | 1950 | Viewing date: to be re-scheduled - the video was out, so we watched 'Oh Brother, where art thou?' instead. | |
| 2002 | Alistair MacLeod | No Great Mischief | McClelland & Stewart | 2001 | The closeness of the clan.. them and us .. together in music? | |
| 2002 | Sharon Butala | The Garden of Eden | Harper | 1998 | A good turnout on a snowy night and a good discussion. | |
| 2002 | Rudyard Kipling | Kim | Penguin | 1989 | Much enjoyed - the way of action and the way of contemplation. We plan to watch the video on May 5th | |
| 2002 | Anita Diamant | The Red Tent | Picador | 1997 | Lots to discuss - we liked it, and thanked God we live in this century. | |
| 2001 | Robert Sawyer | Calculating God | TOR | 2000 | We liked the swipes at Canadians' foibles. Good humour and generated discussion about the scientists' views of God. | |
| 2001 | Tracy Chevalier | Girl with a Pearl Earring | Dutton | 2000 | We thought it a very good period piece. And the movie is amazing! | |
| 2001 | 3 | Gina Nahai | Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith | Harcourt Brace | 1999 | Great story telling - Iran through the eyes and tears of Iranian Jewish women. |
| 2001 | Timothy Findley | Pilgrim | Harper | 1999 | Should you believe a person, even if they seem crazy? - Some of us liked the book, some did not. | |
| 2001 | Michael Cunningham | The Hours | Picador | 1998 | Winner of the Pulitzer Prize. About Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway then, and Mrs. Dalloway today, living in New York... Very cleverly done. Read Mrs Dalloway again first, to make the most of it. | |
| 2001 | 4 | Ann Wroe | Pilate | Vintage | 2000 | 'The biography of an invented man'. A fascinating look at all the speculations about Pilate across the ages, from mystery plays to Hollywood movies. An excellent book to have read over Lent. |
| 2001 | 3 | J.M. Coetzee | Disgrace | Vintage | 2000 | Sparsely written, yet the characters are vivid and the feel of a new South Africa is real. We found lots to discuss. |
| 2001 | 4 | Barry Unsworth | Stone Virgin | Penguin | 1985 | Lots of layers in Unsworth's works, and he always provides a mystery - we had a good discussion |
| 2000 | 5 | Mary Doria Russell | The Sparrow | Ballantine | 1996 | A Jesuit mission to another planet. One of the best. |
| 2000 | 5 | Barbara Kingsolver | The Poisonwood Bible | HarperCollins | 1998 | Top notch. A view of Africa like no other. |
| 2000 | 4 | Barry Unsworth | After Hannibal | Norton | 1998 | The Italian landscape. Another multi-age story from Unsworth, one of our favourite authors. |
| 1999 | 3 | Thomson Highway | The Kiss of the Fur Queen | Doubleday | 1998 | Read this to understand what havoc the residential schools caused. |
| 1999 | Kate Atkinson | Behind the Scenes at the Museum | Saint Martin's Press | 1999 | Another dysfunctional family. | |
| 1999 | Arthur Golden | Memoirs of a Geisha | Vintage | 1997 | Most interesting is the glimpse of what it was like in Japan during the Second World War. | |
| 1999 | 5 | Charles Frazier | Cold Mountain | Vintage | 1998 | National Book Award Winner. A civil war soldier's trek back home. Stunning images of the land. |
| 1999 | 3 | Pat Barker | Regeneration | NAL | 1993 | A British officer denounces the war (World War I) and is sent for 'rehabilitation'. |
| 1999 | 2 | Carol Shields | Larry's Party | Vintage | 1997 | |
| 1998 | Louis De Bernières | The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman | Vintage | 1993 | South American surrealism. | |
| 1998 | Ann-Marie MacDonald | Fall on Your Knees | Vintage | 1996 | ||
| 1998 | Robert Hellenga | The Sixteen Pleasures | Delta | 1995 | Art and love in Italy. | |
| 1998 | 5 | E. Annie Proulx | The Shipping News | Simon & Schuster | 1993 | Pulitzer Prize Winner |
| 1998 | 5 | Keri Hulme | The Bone People | Picador | 1986 | Searing. One of our best reads. |
| 1997 | T. Coraghessan Boyle | The Tortilla Curtain | Penguin | 1995 | The Mexican/US border and lives of contrast. Something to re-read now that Bush is President? | |
| 1997 | Ursula Hegi | Stones from the River | Scribner | 1994 | Examines the lives of the people in a German town as the time moves from the first to the second world war. | |
| 1997 | 4 | Jill Paton Walsh | Knowledge of Angels | Green Bay | 1994 | An examination of faith and intolerance, told as a fable. |
| 1997 | David Malouf | Remembering Babylon | Knopf | 1993 | ||
| 1997 | 5 | Anne Michael | Fugitive Pieces | McClelland & Stewart | 1996 | Reads like poetry. Orange Prize winner. |
| 1997 | 5 | Barry Unsworth | Morality Play | Norton | 1995 | A medieval murder mystery. Unsworth explores the medieval morality play and the roles played by those in medieval society. |
| 1997 | 5 | Louis De Bernières | Captain Corelli's Mandolin | Vintage | 1994 | An unlikely but beautiful love story set on the Greek island of Cephallonia beginning during the Axis occupation in the late 1930s. |
| 1996 | A.S. Byatt | Angels and insects | Vintage | 1992 | ||
| 1996 | Timothy Findley | The Piano Man's Daughter | HarperCollins | 1995 | ||
| 1996 | Mary Gordon | The Rest of Life | Viking | 1993 | ||
| 1996 | Joanna Trollope | The Choir | Black Swan | 1988 | ||
| 1996 | Jane Smiley | A Thousand Acres | Fawcett Columbine | 1992 | ||
| 1995 | Alice Munro | Open Secrets | Penguin | 1994 | ||
| 1995 | Vikram Seth | A Suitable Boy | HarperPerennial | 1993 | A long read, but if you just let it flow over you... | |
| 1995 | Carol Shields | Happenstance | Vintage | 1982 | Her story/his story - which one did you read first? | |
| 1995 | 5 | Salman Rushdie | Midnight's Children | Penguin | 1980 | The best Booker! |
| 1995 | Carol Shields | The Stone Diaries | Vintage | 1983 | ||
| 1995 | P.D. James | Children of Men | A.A. Knopf | 1993 | What would happen if we could no longer procreate? | |
| 1994 | Susan Sontag | The Volcano Lover | Anchor Books | 1993 | ||
| 1993 | Susan Howatch | Mystical Paths | Fawcett | 1993 | An Anglican Church reading group has to read at least one Susan Howatch. A good discussion about good and evil. | |
| 1993 | Shusaku Endo | Silence | Taplinger Publishing Company | 1980 | Jesuits in Japan | |
| 1993 | Joyce Carol Oates | Black Water | Plume | 1993 | ||
| 1993 | Bruce Chatwin | Utz | Penguin | 1988 | ||
| 1993 | Naguib Mahfuz | Palace Walk | Doubleday | 1990 | Fascinating glimpse behind veiled lives. Some of us also read the other 2 volumes of the Cairo Trilogy: Palace of Desire and Sugar Street. | |
| 1993 | Susan Cooper | The Dark is Rising | Collier | 1973 | Magical struggle between good and evil. | |
| 1993 | Toni Morrison | Beloved | Plume | 1988 | 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction | |
| 1993 | Stephen Hawking | A Brief History of Time | Bantam Books | 1988 | ||
| 1992 | Brian Moore | The Color of Blood | McClelland & Stewart | 1987 | ||
| 1992 | Rohinton Mistry | Such a Long Journey | McClelland & Stewart | 1991 | The movie is excellent as well. | |
| 1992 | 4 | William Golding | The Spire | Faber and Faber | 1964 | We read this not long after the Development underneath and behind the Cathedral. And kept a close watch on our Dean... |
| 1992 | Edith Wharton | The Age of Innocence | Collier | 1992 | A Pulitzer Prize book, first published in 1920. We also watched and enjoyed the movie. | |
| 1992 | Samuel Beckett | Waiting for Godot | Faber and Faber | 1965 | ||
| 1992 | Vaclav Havel | Disturbing the Peace | Vintage | 1991 | ||
| 1992 | 4 | Ben Okri | The Famished Road | Vintage | 1991 | There isn't another book like this one. You are transported to a surreal, spiritual world. |
| 1992 | William Shakespeare | Measure for Measure | Cambridge U.P | 1969 | We had a fun time trying to figure out what Shakespeare was getting at. | |
| 1992 | Jennifer Johnston | The Invisible Worm | Penguin | 1992 | The first in the genre of dysfunctional families? | |
| 1992 | Julian Barnes | A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters | Vintage | 1989 | If you only ever read one Julian Barnes, why not try this one? Highly entertaining. | |
| 199? | Bernhard Schlink | The Reader | Pantheon Books | 1997 | ||
| 199? | Mikhail Bulgakov | The Master and Margarita | Vintage | 1996 | ||
| 199? | Carol Shields | The Republic of Love | Fawcett | 1992 | ||
| 199? | A.S. Byatt | Possession: a romance | Vintage | 1991 | ||
| 199? | Amy Tan | The Kitchen God's Wife | Ivy Books | 1991 | ||
| 199? | Nino Ricci | Lives of the Saints | Cormorant Books | 1990 | Winner of the Governor General's award | |
| 199? | Kazuo Ishiguro | The Remains of the Day | Penguin | 1990 | ||
| 199? | 4 | John Irving | A Prayer for Owen Meany | Ballantine | 1989 | What a great character! |
| 199? | Penelope Lively | Tiger Moon | Penguin | 1988 | 1987 Booker Prize Winner. | |
| 199? | Bruce Chatwin | The Songlines | Penguin | 1987 | ||
| 199? | Margaret Atwood | The Handmaid's Tale | Bantam-Seal | 1986 | Apparently written after a visit to Afghanistan. | |
| 199? | Orson Scott Card | Speaker for the Dead | TOR | 1986 | Winner of the Hugo and Nebula awards. A science fiction treat. | |
| 199? | Timothy Findley | Not Wanted on the Voyage | Viking | 1984 | The tale of a woodworm on Noah's Ark! Great discussion. | |
| 199? | Graham Greene | Monsignor Quixote | Penguin | 1983 | ||
| 199? | Marion Zimmer Bradley | The Mists of Avalon | Del Rey | 1982 | The Arthurian legend, re imagined from the perspective of the women. | |
| 198? | Charles Williams | All Hallow's Eve | Eerdmans | 1982 | ||
| 199? | 5 | Stephen Jay Gould | The Mismeasure of Man | W. W. Norton | 1981 | One of our rare non-fiction titles. An important book whose points you don't forget - the misuse of science and the fallacies of reification. |
| 198? | A.N. Wilson | Who was Oswald Fish? | Penguin | 1981 | ||
| 198? | A.N. Wilson | The Healing Art | Penguin | 1980 | ||
| 198? | Iris Murdoch | The Bell | Panther | 1976 | ||
| 198? | Elie Wiesel | Night | Avon | 1960 | ||
| 198? | C.S. Lewis | Till We Have Faces | Collins | 1956 |
This list is dedicated to the glory of God, and in loving memory of one of our members, Dr. John A. Oliver, who died in September 2000. I picture him sitting out on the porch in front of a mansion in Heaven, rediscovering old favourites remembered from across the years, and others he never had time to read in this life.
The table sorting is due to the talents of Matt Kruse.
