The Cathedral Reading Group has been reading together for over 35 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. See our book choices below.
Black Lives Matter - What to read
Reading suggestions are now available on the Black Lives Matter page.

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Cathedral Reading Group Booklist
Date | Title | Author | Publisher | Published | Stars | Comments (by Jane) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2024 Jan | Our Missing Hearts | Celeste Ng | Penguin Canada | 2023 | Jan 14 | |
2023 Dec | Movie Night! | Dec 10 | ||||
2023 Oct | Remarkably Bright Creatures | Shelby Van Pelt | Ecco | 2022 | ** | We had a great time discussing the book. We found the characters to be very well drawn. |
2023 Sept | Sea of Tranquility | Emily St. John Mandel | HarperCollins | 2022 | ** | Our second book by this author. We quite liked it; well written and edited better than a lot of books these days. Time travel! |
2023 July | The Starless Sea | Erin Morgenstern | Doubleday Canada | 2019 | Quite convoluted; a huge imagined world. Lots to discuss. | |
2023 May | Strange Bewildering Time | Mark Abley | House of Anansi Press | 2023 | We were joined by Mark and had a great discussion. | |
2023 April | Maureen: a Harold Fry novel | Rachel Joyce | Doubleday Canada | 2023 | A slender book with lots to talk about. The first novel we have read with a look back at our Covid lockdown experiences. | |
2023 March | Jack | Marilynne Robinson | McClelland & Stewart | 2020 | The discussion was lively. Some had little sympathy for Jack and wondered what Della saw in him - a project? We agreed that the writing was terrific, capturing the 50's so well. | |
2023 Feb | The Ministry for the Future | Kim Stanley Robinson | Orbit Books | 2020 | ** | Could we really make a better world if we were able to eliminate carbon? Robinson imagines what it would take - socially, scientifically, economically, politically. A book that left us with a lot of images and ideas about the future. Well paired with McKibbon's visit and his book Eaarth. |
2023 ? | Palmares | Gayl Jones | Beacon Press | 2021 | Zoom date: TBD - waiting for the paperback to come out... | |
2022 Dec | Supernova | We were few in number - the eggnog and popcorn was good! | ||||
2022 Nov | House on Endless Waters | Emuna Elon | Atria Books | 2020 | Very well written; much to learn and discuss about the fate of the Jews of Amsterdam during WWII. | |
2022 Sept | Sweet Sweet Revenge Ltd | Jonas Jonasson | HarperCollins | 2022 | Everyone enjoyed the book - it made us laugh out loud! We were a bit nervous about racial stereotyping. Someone on Goodreads called it the 'Swedish equivalent of a French farce'. | |
2022 Aug | Burnt Sugar | Avni Doshi | Hamish Hamilton | 2020 | Good discussion; it was well written. It was also hard to read; the damage of abandoning a child reverberating across the years between mother and daughter. | |
2022 July | Book Lovers | Emily Henry | Berkley | 2022 | A fun summer read. The characters and dialogue were well done. Some thought they would read another of hers! | |
2022 May | Cloud Cuckoo Land | Anthony Doerr | Simon & Schuster | 2021 | ** | Interwoven stories across six centuries all about the same book. We found it enthralling. Recommended. |
2022 Apr | The 7 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle | Stuart Turton | HarperCollins | 2018 | We all finished the book; whether we all really understood what was happening is another thing altogether! Lots to discuss and to try and figure out. | |
2022 Feb | Fight Night | Miriam Toews | Knopf Canada | 2021 | Bit of a wacky book, but we enjoyed it | |
2022 Jan | Discussion of the Rich Orloff plays - Unmute Me! | Rich Orloff | Performed by Dramatis Personae on Zoom - January 13,14, 15 and 16 at 8:00 pm | We were joined by two of the actors - great fun to dissect the plays! | ||
2021 Dec | Departures | A film by Yojiro Takita | Regent/Here Films | 2008 | We enjoyed the movie almost as much as seeing each other and drinking eggnog! | |
2021 Nov | Erotic Stories of Punjabi Widows | Balli Kaur Jaswal | William Morrow | 2017 | Interesting book! The experience of immigrants and cultural integration, or not. We had a good discussion. | |
2021 Oct | The Night Watchman | Louis Erdrich | HarperCollins | 2020 | We generally liked it, although some found it too long. It did teach us a lot about the fate of Indian tribes in the U.S. And about indigenous spirituality and family roots. | |
2021 Aug | The Midnight Library | Matt Haig | HarperCollins | 2020 | ** | Another good read and good discussion. Jane particularly liked the librarian and her library - of course! |
2021 July | Hamnet (aka Hamnet and Judith) | Maggie O'Farrell | Knopf Canada | 2020 | *** | An excellent book. It made us cry. |
2021 June | Klara and the Sun | Kazuo Ishiguro | Knopf Canada | 2021 | It's complicated. His world didn't hold together very well, we didn't think. Maybe that was why we had lots to discuss! | |
2021 May | Butter Honey Pig Bread | Francesca Ekwuyasi | Arsenal Pulp Press | 2020 | We all enjoyed the book; it made us want to visit a Nigerian restaurant together! | |
2021 Mar | The Dutch House | Ann Patchett | HarperCollins | 2019 | Excellent book, great discussion. The power of real estate! | |
2021 Feb | Station Eleven | Emily St John Mandel | HarperCollins | 2017 | We liked this book as well, if we nitpicked a bit. Some of us had read it pre-Covid. On re-reading it, it became more telling! | |
2021 Jan | The Jane Austen Society | Natalie Jenner | St. Martin's | 2020 | We all enjoyed the book - it was good to read a lighthearted book. We all had a favourite character. Interesting how she used some of the real history of the actual society! | |
2021 Jan | An Epiphany get-together. | Bring along a glass to toast the new year. | Also, a brief reading - your favourite poem or inspirational thought. | I think we forgot to toast the New Year! but we heard some great prose and poems, including Edward reading from a novel he wrote - fantastic! | ||
2020 Dec | Songs for the Cold of Heart | Eric Dupont | QC Fiction | 2018 | A good, long "Quebec" read. It was fun finding the common threads across the different voices. Originally published in French as "La Fiancee americaine" | |
2020 Oct | Girl Woman Other | Bernardine Evaristo | Grove Press | 2019 | ** | We had a very enjoyable discussion about Girl, Woman, Other which we found both touching and entertaining - highly recommended. |
2020 Aug | The Fire Next Time Between the World and Me | James Baldwin Ta-Nehisi Coates | Vintage Spiegal & Grau | 1963 2015 | Good discussion. We were struck by the similarity across the decades of black parents fearing for and trying to protect their sons. Also the delusional American Dream of 'the people who think they are white' and the assumption that blacks buy into this dream. | |
2020 June | The Casual Vacancy | JK Rowling | Back Bay Books | 2013 | Characters very well drawn; not many to love. The best of them dies at the beginning of the book and the fallout ensues. | |
2020 May | Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend | Matthew Dicks | St. Martin's Griffin | 2013 | *** | Ann redeemed herself with this month's book recommendation (after May's less than successful one). We all loved the imaginary friend; the book asked a lot of good existential questions. Could become a classic! |
2020 May | Reproduction: A Novel | Ian Wiliams | Vintage Canada | 2019 | We wondered why it won the Giller. The author is a poet; his playing with text doesn't work in this novel... maybe he should have called it Reproduction: An Experiment! | |
2020 April | Prodigal Summer | Barbara Kingsolver | Harper | 2000 | Three intertwined stories about a mountain and valley in Appalachia. Themes include ecological balance, subsistence farming and family bonds. Both nature and people are compelling. | |
2020 Feb | Indian Horse | Richard Wagamese | Douglas & McIntyre | 2012 | Wonderfully told - more intense than the movie - that is good writing! | |
2019 Dec | Indian Horse | Movie Night | Devonshire Productions | 2017 | Based on the novel, Indian Horse, by Richard Wagamese. How one young man survives residential school through hockey. A must view for Canadians, and we should read the book! | |
2019 Nov | The Break | Katherena Vermette | House of Anansi Press | 2016 | An intense read. Multi-generational story of Métis women and their families, coping with violence and the struggles of their lives. An important read for Canadians. | |
2019 Oct | Washington Black | Esi Edugyan | Knopf | 2018 | A story of a young slave on a Barbadan sugar plantation (early 19th century) 'rescued' by his owner's brother - a naturalist, explorer, inventor and abolitionist. The adventures are many and far flung. We were not happy with the way it ended! | |
2019 Sept | The Organist: Fugues, Fatherhood and a Fragile Mind | Mark Abley | University of Regina Press | 2019 | *** | What a treat - Mark came to our meeting and talked about how he came to write this memoir of his father. We discussed music, memories and time, and changing relationships between parents and children. Mark also read us a few of his poems. It was a lovely evening. |
2019 July | Educated | Tara Westover | HarperCollins | 2018 | ** | Another book about a person triumphing over their circumstances. This story is a true one. What was amazing to all of us was the fact that, out of such a dysfunctional family, emerged 3 children who ended up with PhDs. The book is a memoir of one of those 3. Excellent read. |
2019 June | A gentleman in Moscow | Amor Towles | Viking | 2016 | **** | What a charming novel! Count Alexander Rostov, an aristocrat in Tsarist Russia is sentenced by the communists. Sentenced to remain forever in the Metropol Hotel. His reaction: "if a man does not master his circumstances then he is bound to be mastered by them.” Masterful story telling, great characters. |
2019 April | The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics | James Daniel Brown | Penguin Books | 2013 | *** | An amazing story about the University of Washington's rowing program during the depression years and the team that made it all the way to the Olympics. You know how it ends, but the author is such a good writer that the story is full of suspense. |
2019 March | Across the China Sea | Gaute Heivoll | Graywolf Press | 2017 | Set in Norway, a story about family and 'respecting the dignity of every human being', as our baptismal phrase entreats us. The setting is a remote house; the place that five foster children and three men labeled “mentally disabled” call home for many years. | |
2019 Feb | Lear's Shadow | Claire Rothman | Penguin Random House | 2018 | A father/daughter/sister story, set in Montreal, complete with 'Shakespeare in the park' drama. | |
2019 Jan | Cancelled due to snow! A first. | |||||
2018 Dec | Our Souls at Night | Movie Night | Netflix | 2017 | We read the book back in February 2017. The movie was quite faithful to the book's atmosphere, but it did wimp out on the ending. Some were okay with that, others not. | |
2018 Nov | My October | Claire Rothman | Penguin Canada | 2014 | A French/English family enduring various separations echoes the tensions in Montreal during the October crisis. Very interesting for those of us who lived in Montreal when this happened. | |
2018 Oct | Annabel | Kathleen Winter | House of Anansi Press | 2011 | *** | Based in Newfoundland, this novel is about gender identity and social conformity. The descriptions of the people and the land are powerful. Recommended! |
2018 Sept | Let the Great World Spin | Colum McCann | Harper Perennial | 2011 | Interlocking stories all in some way connected to Philippe Patel’s famous tightrope walk between the World Trade Center towers in 1974. The characters were very well drawn. | |
2018 June | The Summer Before the War | Helen Simonson | Random House | 2016 | It felt very much like Downton Abbey. An interesting part was the treatment of the refugees from Belgium. | |
2018 Apr | Map of Glass | Jane Urquhart | McClelland & Stewart | 2005 | A family history on the waters of eastern Ontario, with the story moving back into the 19th century. | |
2018 Feb | The Essex Serpent | Sarah Perry | Custom House | 2017 | A 'Victorian novel' written today. Interestingly, we compared it to Eliot's Middlemarch and also to Gilbert's The Signature of All Things. Good discussion. | |
2018 Jan | Coventry | Helen Humphreys | HarperCollins Canada | 2009 | Coventry was bombed to the ground on November 14, 1940. Humphreys places her characters smack in the middle of it all and describes it vividly. | |
2017 Dec | Click! | Movie Night | Sony Pictures | 2006 | A harried workaholic who uses a magical remote control to 'fast forward' through the bad parts of his life, and speed towards the good life. A bit of a morality play - success is achieved at the cost of his humanity. But it's Hollywood, so redemption is possible... Not as good a movie as Groundhog Day, but it reminded me a bit of that movie. | |
2017 Nov | The Women in the Castle | Jessica Shattuck | William Morrow | 2017 | The castle is in Bavaria. The story centres around 3 widows caught up in Hitler's Reich and how they survived the war and its aftermath. | |
2017 Oct | Fifteen Dogs | André Alexis | Coach House Books | 2015 | A group of dogs are given human intelligence and the ability to speak by 2 Greek gods, who bet that animals, on their deaths would be just as unhappy as humans. One reviewer called it a blitz through Philosophy 101, as the dogs work to figure out what life is all about. | |
2017 Sept | Middlemarch | George Eliot | various | 1871 | This classic was our big summer read. Often called the best novel in the English language. We all enjoyed it and had lots to discuss! | |
2017 June | A Constellation of Vital Phenomena | Anthony Marra | Hogarth | 2014 | This book is about the war in Chechnya and how people struggle to survive in intolerable situations. Another tough read like City of Thieves. | |
2017 April | The Love Story of Queenie Hennessy | Rachel Joyce | Bond Street Books | 2014 | And then we thought the 'sequel' to Harold Fry would be lighter. It's about death in a hospice. But actually really well done. | |
2017 March | Little Bee | Chris Cleave | Simon & Schuster | 2010 | We thought we would read another by Chris Cleave. Little Bee is a refugee in England whose life is tangled up with a couple after a violent episode in Nigeria. Cleave looks at 'the Queen's English' in interesting ways... | |
2017 Feb | Our Souls at Night | Ken Haruf | Penguin | 2016 | His last novel, written as he knew death approached, written for his wife. Love in the final chapter of life. Beautiful. | |
2017 Jan | Everyone Brave is Forgiven | Chris Cleave | Simon & Schuster | 2017 | A Word War II love story based on that of the author's grandparents. The siege of Malta was particularly interesting. We all thought the book was very well written. | |
2016 Dec | The Course of Love | Alain de Botton | Simon & Schuster | 2016 | The story of love in a marriage, told with accompanying psychological analysis. Extra copies were bought to hand out to others! We also watched a movie - The Lady in the Van - starring Maggie Smith, based on a true story. | |
2016 Oct | The Housekeeper and the Professor | Yoko Ogawa | Picador | 2003 | An ode to the beauty of mathematics (and baseball) and friendships built in spite of the Professor's memory problems. | |
2016 Sept | The Dust That Falls From Dreams | Louis de Bernières | Vintage Books | 2015 | Edwardian family saga covering Word War I and its aftermath. The flying bits were well done. Some of us were annoyed at how it ended. | |
2016 June | Finding Home | Eric Wright | Cormorant Books | 2007 | Where is home for a Brit who has lived in Canada for decades? Or an American for that matter? A light book after the last two, but we had an interesting discussion on the topic of home. | |
2016 May | City of thieves | David Benioff | Penguin Books | 2009 | Absorbing but tough read about the siege of Leningrad and survival WWII in Russia. | |
2016 April | Preparation for the next life | Atticus Lish | Tyrant Books | 2014 | A very hard read about dysfunctional America. Interesting, some critics compared its examination of the underbelly of NYC with Dickens' of London. | |
2016 March | Mister Pip | Lloyd Jones | Vintage Canada | 2006 | Teaching Dickens in Papua New Guinea, in the middle of a civil war. | |
2016 February | All my puny sorrows | Miriam Teows | Knopf Canada | 2014 | Annoying at first, but it got better. | |
2016 January | Twenty-One Cardinals | Jocelyne Saucier | Coach House Books | 2015 | No every one was convinced about the ending. | |
2015 December | Interstellar | Movie Night | A Christopher Nolan film | 2014 | An interstellar journey to save the world. Science fiction with the emphasis on science. The organ in the Temple Church, London is the instrument in the soundtrack by Hans Zimmer. Great film! | |
2015 November | All the light we cannot see | Anthony Doerr | Scribner | 2014 | **** | We all enjoyed the book very much. A reviewer compared the author with Louis de Bernières; I imagine with Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – both a war story of innocents and soldiers. The writing is equally marvellous. |
2015 October | Us Conductors | Sean Michaels | Random House | 2014 | Fiction about a real person – well done, although Jane of course had to look up stuff about the real Lev Termen. | |
2015 June | Thaliad | Marly Youmans | Phoenicia Publishing | 2012 | Another dystopian future, done in blank verse. So interesting how that changed the story telling – much more left to one’s imagination! Beth, the publisher joined us and we had a great evening. | |
2015 May | Life After Life | Kate Atkinson | Random House | 2013 | Time travel, of a sort. The main character is born and reborn and reborn… Jane loved it! | |
2015 March | The Circle | Dave Eggers | Knopf | 2013 | Social networking and mind control – A book we had strong opinions about, so our discussion was lively. | |
2015 February | The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry | Gabrielle Zevin | Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill | 2014 | A lighter read – good characters. | |
2015 January | The Return of the Soldier | Rebecca West | various editions | 1918 | As Jane was taking a course on World War I, we read this short classic about a soldier who has returned from the war with no memory on the last 15 years of his life. The recommended edition is that of Broadview Press, 2010, which contains excellent accompanying material about the English class system at the time, shell shock and its treatment, and WWI art and poetry. | |
2014 December | Movie night – I am | A fascinating documentary, trying to answer the question of what is wrong with the world and what can we do about it. Highly recommended. | ||||
2014 November | Second Person Singular | Sayed Kashua | Grove Press | 2012 | The author is an Israeli Arab. The protagonist of the book is an Arab lawyer living in Jerusalem so the novel might be of particular interest to people who have visited Jerusalem or are interested in the tensions in this city. | |
2014 October | In the Garden of the Beasts | Erik Larson | Crown | 2011 | **** | One of our rare non-fiction reads. But it read like a good novel! The author was brilliant at evoking the atmosphere of pre-WWII Nazi Germany during Hitler’s rise to power – all seen through the eyes of the American ambassador in Berlin, William Dodd. I’m giving it 4 stars! |
2014 September | The Signature of All Things | Elizabeth Gilbert | Penguin Books | 2013 | We liked this one – a good big summer read. A good portrait of the times, we thought. | |
2014 June | The Light Between Oceans | M. L. Stedman | Scribners | 2011 | Was it a realistic hypothesis? Why do people do the things they do?! If something is done because of love, does that make it all right? Boy, lots of discussion for this one! | |
2014 May | Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth | Reza Aslan | Random House | 2013 | We thought it painted a vivid picture of the times. Weren’t sure of his premise that Paul and James were in opposition. | |
2014 March | The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window And Disappeared | Jonas Jonasson | Harper Perennial Canada | 2012 | ** | A fun read! He is a bit like Woody Allen’s Zelig. |
2014 Feb | A Hologram for the King | Dave Eggers | McSweeney’s | 2012 | Well… not one of Dave’s best. We have lots of problems with this book, but that lead to lots of discussion! A present-day Willie Loman. Also reminded people of ‘Waiting for Godot”. | |
2014 Jan | Il pleuvait des oiseaux And the birds rained down | Jocelyne Saucier | XYZ Coach House Books | 20112013 | We all liked the book; the characters were well drawn. Lots of discussion. We thought the translator had done an excellent job. | |
2013 Dec | The Way | Director: Emilio Estevez | 2010 | A movie about the Camino de Santiago. Well received. | ||
2013 Nov | Lucifer’s Flood | Linda Rios Brook | Realms | 2008 | Lots of discussion, as always when opinions are mixed. Some wondered about the author’s agenda. There are 3 more books in the ‘Reluctant Demon Diaries’ series. | |
2013 Oct | Beautiful Ruins | Jess Walter | Harper Collins | 2012 | The setting in Italy got me hooked… That’s why it is on this list! | |
2013 Sept | The Elephant Keepers’ Children | Peter Hoeg | Other Press | 2012 | Weird and wacky. Jane got a kick out of it, others just found it strange. | |
2013 June | The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry | Rachel Joyce | Random House | 2012 | **** | What a fascinating read! Highly recommended by the group. |
2013 May | 22 Britannia Road | Amanda Hodgkinson | Pamela Dorman Books | 2011 | Britain after the war, as experienced by Polish immigrants – with a history… | |
2013 April | Testament of Mary | Colm Toibin | McClelland & Stewart | 2012 | A fascinating idea – Mary’s life after the Crucifixion, from her viewpoint. | |
2013 March | State of Wonder | Ann Patchett | Harper Collins | 2012 | Another good read from Patchett. | |
2013 Feb | The Dovekeepers | Alice Hoffman | Scribner | 2012 | ||
2013 Jan | Half Blood Blues | Esi Edugyan | Thomas Allen Publishers | 2011 | ||
2012 Dec | Best Exotic Marigold Hotel | Movie Night | 20th Century Fox | 2012 | Judy Dench and Maggie Smith, among others. What’s not to like?! | |
2012 Sept | Running the Rift | Naomi Benaron | Algonquin Books | 2012 | “A genocide is a poisonous bush that grows not from two or three roots, but from a whole tangle that has mouldered underground without anyone noticing.” ~Claudine, genocide survivor. About the genocide in Rwanda. | |
2012 June | Ru | Kim Thúy | Random House Canada | 2012 | As a congregation who sponsored a Vietnamese family back in the 1970’s, this book of memories brought back memories for us as well. | |
2012 May | Left Neglected | Lisa Genova | Gallery Books | 2011 | An intelligent novel about an over achiever stopped in her tracks after an accident leaves her with neurological damage. Author is actually a neuroscientist. | |
2012 April | Ship Fever | Andrea Barrett | HarperCollins | 1999 | Short stories with an historical/ scientific bent. We quite liked them. | |
2012 March | Open City | Teju Cole | Random House Trade | 2012 | We liked the book, but thought it felt less like a novel than a collection of blog posts; i.e. there were quite a few continuity problems. | |
2012 Feb | The Sentimentalists | Johanna Skibsrud | Gaspereau Press | 2010 | Mixed reviews, which led to some good discussion… | |
2012 Jan | Cutting for Stone | Abraham Verghese | Vintage Canada | 2010 | **** | A great read! Terrific story and characters. And with Fred and John having been to Ethiopia as doctors, that made it extra special. |
2011 Dec | The King’s Speech | Movie Night | Anchor Bay Entertainment | 2010 | This was a ‘encore presentation’ for all but one, but all really enjoyed it. And a December eggnog party with no snow-boots! | |
2011 Nov | Player One: what is to become of us | Douglas Copeland | House of Anansi Press | 2010 | The CBC Massey Lectures: a novel in Five hours.Some were not impressed by it as a apocalyptic tale. Although we disagreed over its merits, we certainly has a good discussion about the characters. | |
2011 Oct | Far from the Madding Crowd | Thomas Hardy | various | c. 1874 | Unusually for us, a classic…And on October 23 we went to see the play put on by Persephone Productions – very well done. | |
2011 Sept | The Lacuna | Barbara Kingsolver | Harper Collins | 2009 | A good summer read. | |
2011 June | Room | Emma Donoghue | Back Bay Books | 2011 | The reviewers said it was riveting, and they were right. We had a good discussion. | |
2011 May | The Thousand Autumns of Jacob Zoet | David Mitchell | Random House | 2010 | ** | Well worth reading. |
2011 March | Old Filth | Jane Gardam | Europa Editions | 2006 | *** | We all really enjoyed this book. Quite a character. And were happy to learn there is a second novel – The Man in the Wooden Hat – that tells Betty’s story. |
2011 February | Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand | Helen Simonson | Doubleday Canada | 2010 | Enjoyed by all; quite witty, although some of the characters weren’t altogether believable. | |
2011 January | Motherless Brooklyn | Jonathan Lethem | Vintage | 1999 | An American detective novel with a Tourette’s twist. Jane liked it a lot; the others, not so much. | |
2010 December | The Ghostwriter | Movie night | A Roman Polanski film. | 2010 | A mystery/thriller. | |
2010 November | Island Beneath the Sea | Isabel Allende | Harper Collins | 2010 | Another historical novel. An interesting part of history – Häiti and its independence from France. Some thought the characters weren’t very nuanced. | |
2010 October | Wolf Hall | Hilary Mantel | Henry Holt | 2009 | A good book – and a good discussion on the fictionalization of history. It is written in the present tense – some didn’t like this; felt the author intruded too much because of it. | |
2010 June | Snowflower and the Secret Fan | Lisa See | Random House | 2005 | Foot-binding – eech! | |
2010-May | Never Let Me Go | Kazuo Ishiguro | Knopf Canada | 2006 | We had a lot to discuss about this book; the way the reader slowly comes to the realization of what is happening in the same way the youth in the story come to realize what they are. A very skilled author. | |
2010-Feb | The Elegance of the Hedgehog | Muriel Barbery and Alison Anderson | Europa Editions | 2008 | The beginning is a bit slow, but it turns into a great read. | |
2010-Jan | How Reading Saved My Life | Anna Quindlen | Ballantine Books | 1998 | As expected, we all told our stories about how reading changed our lives! | |
2009-Dec | Miss Potter | Movie Night | Phoenix Pictures | 2007 | We enjoyed the movie and its portrayal of an independent woman fit right in with the previous book. | |
2009-Nov | The Heart Specialist | Claire Rothman | Cormorant Books | 2009 | Much enjoyed, especially the scenes of Montreal and McGill. | |
2009-Oct | The White Tiger | Aravind Adiga | 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 | The Book of Negroes | Lawrence Hill | HarperCollins | 2007 | It well deserves the awards it has received. | |
2009-May | The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society | Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows | 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 | The Magician’s Assistant | Ann Patchett | Harcourt | 1997 | Not as good as Bel Canto, but we had a good discussion. | |
2009-Mar | The Tenderness of Wolves | Steff Penney | 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 | What is the What | Dave Eggers | McSweeney’s | 2006 | The story of a lost boy of the Sudan. Very well written and an amazing story. | |
2008-Dec | WALL*E | Movie night: | Disney-Pixar | 2008 | Great movie, and the special about the sound design was especially interesting. | |
2008-Nov | The Lemon Tree: An Arab, A Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East | Sandy Tolan | Bloomsbury USA | 2007 | *** | A very good book to help one understand the situation. |
2008-Oct | Late Nights on Air | Elizabeth Hay | McClelland & Stewart | 2008 | We thought the canoe trip was the best part. | |
2008-09 | Seven Years in Tibet | Heinrich Harrer | 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 | Three Cups of Tea | Greg Mortensen | Penguin | 2007 | It made us want to read ‘Seven Years in Tibet’… | |
2008-05 | Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures | Victor Lam | Anchor Canada | 2006 | ||
2008-04 | Bel Canto | Ann Patchett | 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 | Last Samurai | Helen Dewitt | Hyperion | 2002 | Quite an interesting book – lots to talk about. Plus we watched the first half of the film, ‘The Seven Samurai’. | |
2008-03 | View from Castle Rock | Alice Munro | 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 | Infidel | Ayaan Hirsi Ali | Free Press | 2007 | *** | An amazing autobiography – very topical re reasonable accomodation. Highly recommended. |
2007-12 | The Secret Life of Bees | Sue Monk Kidd | Penguin Books | 2002 | *** | We all enjoyed this book and found it very well written. |
2007-11 | Tea with Mussolini | Movie night | Franco Zeffirelli, director | 1999 | Apparently the story is based on Zeffirelli’s childhood. | |
2007-10 | The Memory Keeper’s Daughter | Kim Edwards | Viking | 2005 | Another book for which we asked – why did the character do that?! | |
2007-09 | Three Junes | Julia Glass | 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 | The Birth of Venus | Sarah Dunant | Virago | 2004 | We also discussed ‘Arthur and George’, about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Both books are recommended. | |
2007-05 | Arthur and George | Julien Barnes | Vintage Canada | 2006 | Meeting Date: postponed… | |
2007-04 | The Journey Prize Stories 18 | Steven Galloway, editor | 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 | Pastwatch: the redemption of Christopher Columbus | Orson Scott Card | 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 | Birds without Wings | Louis De Bernières | 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 | Joyeux Noël (Merry Christmas) | Movie night | 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 | Last Crossing | Guy Vanderhaeghe | 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 | A Thread of Grace | Mary Doria Russell | 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 | Mr. Golightly’s Holiday | Salley Vickers | Harpercollins | 2004 | **** | Good book and good discussion. The layers are many and fascinating to explore. |
2006-06 | The Namesake | Jhumpa Lahiri | 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 | Saturday | Ian McEwan | 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 | The Spiral Staircase | Karen Armstrong | Vintage Canada | 2005 | *** | A fascinating read. We all felt that Oxford owes Karen Armstrong an honourary degree at the every least! |
2006-02 | Gilead | Marilynne Robinson | 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 | The Time Traveler’s Wife | Audrey Niffenegger | Harvest Books | 2004 | **** | One of our best – one of those books that you give away copies of, you like it so much. |
2005 | Millions | Movie night: | 2005 | We enjoyed the movie very much. The saints were especially well done. | ||
2005 | A Complicated Kindness | Miriam Toews | 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 | Cloud Atlas | David Mitchell | 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 | Everything is Illuminated | Jonathan Safran Foer | Houghton Mifflin Co. | 2004 | ||
2005 | The Kite Runner | Khaled Hosseini | Riverhead Books | 2003 | ** | An excellent read – recommended. |
2005 | Kim (the movie) Starring Errol Flynn and Dean Stockwell as Kim. | Rudyard Kipling | MGM | 1950 | Finally got to see the video! | |
2005 | Brick Lane | Monica Ali | Simon & Schuster | 2004 | We enjoyed the book, but were not sure if the ending rang true. | |
2004 | Atonement | Ian McEwan | Vintage | 2002 | *** | Recommended. This book provoked a lot of discussion, especially after everyone helped Jane figure out what the last chapter meant! |
2004 | The Da Vinci Code | Dan Brown | Doubleday | 2003 | ** | We agreed it was a highly entertaining read, with every quasi-christian conspiracy theory there is included in the mix. |
2004 | The Dream of Scipio | Iain Pears | 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 | The Lovely Bones | Alice Sebold | Little, Brown | 2002 | Uneven, but it certainly makes you think about what Heaven would be for you. | |
2004 | A Gesture Life | Chang-rae Lee | Riverhead Books | 1999 | Slow at the start, but a good read. | |
2004 | An Unequal Music | Vikram Seth | McArthur & Company | 2000 | We had mixed feelings. Some thought it captured the life of musicians superbly; others thought it a tad melodramatic. | |
2004 | Snow Falling on Cedars | David Guterson | Harcourt Brace | 1994 | We enjoyed the book and all thought he really knew how to describe snow beautifully. | |
2004 | Crimson Petal and the White | Michel Faber | Harcourt | 2002 | ** | A big ‘Victorian’ read which we all enjoyed. |
2003 | Family Matters | Rohinton Mistry | McClelland & Stewart | 2003 | Real estate really makes a difference in India! | |
2003 | Crow Lake | Mary Lawson | Vintage Canada | 2003 | *** | An excellent read. |
2003 | My dream of you | Nuala O’Faolain | Riverhead Books | 2001 | **** | Wow! A great summer read. Two of us have already followed the priest’s advise. |
2003 | The Mark of the Angel | Nancy Huston | McArthur | 1999 | Our pot luck supper was as enjoyable as the book discussion. | |
2003 | Life of Pi | Yann Martel | Vintage Books | 2002 | *** | A fascinating book. Worth the read. |
2003 | Girl In Hyacinth Blue | Susan Vreeland | Penguin Books | 2000 | We had an interesting discussion about art and its value. | |
2003 | Our Lady of the Lost and Found | Diane Schoemperlen | PerennialCanada | 2001 | *** | This was one of those books where we read out our favourite bits – always a sign that we like the book. |
2003 | Isobel Gunn | Audrey Thomas | 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 | The Russlander | Sandra Birdsell | McClelland & Stewart | 2002 | Interesting for its historical glimpse into Revolutionary Russia especially. | |
2002 | The House of Sand and Fog | Andre Dubus | 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 | Last Orders | Graham Swift | 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 | Last Orders | Graham Swift | Vintage | 1996 | ** | A good discussion book – what is your ‘ashes’ story? (A review by Adrian Poole from The Guardian) |
2002 | Miss Garnet’s Angel | Salley Vickers | 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 | Kim (the movie) Starring Errol Flynn and Dean Stockwell as Kim. | Rudyard Kipling | MGM | 1950 | Viewing date: to be re-scheduled – the video was out, so we watched ‘Oh Brother, where art thou?’ instead. | |
2002 | No Great Mischief | Alistair MacLeod | McClelland & Stewart | 2001 | The closeness of the clan.. them and us .. together in music? | |
2002 | The Garden of Eden | Sharon Butala | Harper | 1998 | A good turnout on a snowy night and a good discussion. | |
2002 | Kim | Rudyard Kipling | Penguin | 1989 | Much enjoyed – the way of action and the way of contemplation. We plan to watch the video on May 5th | |
2002 | The Red Tent | Anita Diamant | Picador | 1997 | Lots to discuss – we liked it, and thanked God we live in this century. | |
2001 | Calculating God | Robert Sawyer | TOR | 2000 | We liked the swipes at Canadians’ foibles. Good humour and generated discussion about the scientists’ views of God. | |
2001 | Girl with a Pearl Earring | Tracy Chevalier | Dutton | 2000 | We thought it a very good period piece. And the movie is amazing! | |
2001 | Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith | Gina Nahai | Harcourt Brace | 1999 | ** | Great story telling – Iran through the eyes and tears of Iranian Jewish women. |
2001 | Pilgrim | Timothy Findley | Harper | 1999 | Should you believe a person, even if they seem crazy? – Some of us liked the book, some did not. | |
2001 | The Hours | Michael Cunningham | 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 get the most out of it. | |
2001 | Pilate | Ann Wroe | 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 | Disgrace | J.M. Coetzee | 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 | Stone Virgin | Barry Unsworth | Penguin | 1985 | *** | Lots of layers in Unsworth’s works, and he always provides a mystery – we had a good discussion |
2000 | The Sparrow | Mary Doria Russell | Ballantine | 1996 | **** | A Jesuit mission to another planet. One of the best. |
2000 | The Poisonwood Bible | Barbara Kingsolver | HarperCollins | 1998 | **** | Top notch. A view of Africa like no other. |
2000 | After Hannibal | Barry Unsworth | Norton | 1998 | *** | The Italian landscape. Another multi-age story from Unsworth, one of our favourite authors. |
1999 | The Kiss of the Fur Queen | Thomson Highway | Doubleday | 1998 | *** | Read this to understand what havoc the residential schools caused. |
1999 | Behind the Scenes at the Museum | Kate Atkinson | Saint Martin’s Press | 1999 | Another dysfunctional family. | |
1999 | Memoirs of a Geisha | Arthur Golden | Vintage | 1997 | Most interesting is the glimpse of what it was like in Japan during the Second World War. | |
1999 | Cold Mountain | Charles Frazier | Vintage | 1998 | *** | National Book Award Winner. A civil war soldier’s trek back home. Stunning images of the land. |
1999 | Regeneration | Pat Barker | NAL | 1993 | ** | A British officer denounces the war (World War I) and is sent for ‘rehabilitation’. |
1999 | Larry’s Party | Carol Shields | Vintage | 1997 | ** | |
1998 | The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman | Louis De Bernières | Vintage | 1993 | South American surrealism. | |
1998 | Fall on Your Knees | Ann-Marie MacDonald | Vintage | 1996 | ||
1998 | The Sixteen Pleasures | Robert Hellenga | Delta | 1995 | Art and love in Italy. | |
1998 | The Shipping News | E. Annie Proulx | Simon & Schuster | 1993 | *** | Pulitzer Prize Winner |
1998 | The Bone People | Keri Hulme | Picador | 1986 | **** | Searing. One of our best reads. |
1997 | The Tortilla Curtain | T. Coraghessan Boyle | Penguin | 1995 | The Mexican/US border and lives of contrast. Something to re-read now that Bush is President? | |
1997 | Stones from the River | Ursula Hegi | 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 | Knowledge of Angels | Jill Paton Walsh | Green Bay | 1994 | *** | An examination of faith and intolerance, told as a fable. |
1997 | Remembering Babylon | David Malouf | Knopf | 1993 | ||
1997 | Fugitive Pieces | Anne Michael | McClelland & Stewart | 1996 | **** | Reads like poetry. Orange Prize winner. |
1997 | Morality Play | Barry Unsworth | Norton | 1995 | *** | A medieval murder mystery. Unsworth explores the medieval morality play and the roles played by those in medieval society. |
1997 | Captain Corelli’s Mandolin | Louis De Bernières | 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 | Angels and insects | A.S. Byatt | Vintage | 1992 | ||
1996 | The Piano Man’s Daughter | Timothy Findley | HarperCollins | 1995 | ||
1996 | The Rest of Life | Mary Gordon | Viking | 1993 | ||
1996 | The Choir | Joanna Trollope | Black Swan | 1988 | ||
1996 | A Thousand Acres | Jane Smiley | Fawcett Columbine | 1992 | ||
1995 | Open Secrets | Alice Munro | Penguin | 1994 | ||
1995 | A Suitable Boy | Vikram Seth | HarperPerennial | 1993 | A long read, but if you just let it flow over you… | |
1995 | Happenstance | Carol Shields | Vintage | 1982 | Her story/his story – which one did you read first? | |
1995 | Midnight’s Children | Salman Rushdie | Penguin | 1980 | **** | The best Booker! |
1995 | The Stone Diaries | Carol Shields | Vintage | 1983 | ||
1995 | Children of Men | P.D. James | A.A. Knopf | 1993 | What would happen if we could no longer procreate? | |
1994 | The Volcano Lover | Susan Sontag | Anchor Books | 1993 | ||
1993 | Mystical Paths | Susan Howatch | Fawcett | 1993 | An Anglican Church reading group has to read at least one Susan Howatch. A good discussion about good and evil. | |
1993 | Silence | Shusaku Endo | Taplinger Publishing Company | 1980 | Jesuits in Japan | |
1993 | Black Water | Joyce Carol Oates | Plume | 1993 | ||
1993 | Utz | Bruce Chatwin | Penguin | 1988 | ||
1993 | Palace Walk | Naguib Mahfuz | 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 | The Dark is Rising | Susan Cooper | Collier | 1973 | Magical struggle between good and evil. | |
1993 | Beloved | Toni Morrison | Plume | 1988 | 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction | |
1993 | A Brief History of Time | Stephen Hawking | Bantam Books | 1988 | ||
1992 | The Color of Blood | Brian Moore | McClelland & Stewart | 1987 | ||
1992 | Such a Long Journey | Rohinton Mistry | McClelland & Stewart | 1991 | The movie is excellent as well. | |
1992 | The Spire | William Golding | 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 | The Age of Innocence | Edith Wharton | Collier | 1992 | A Pulitzer Prize book, first published in 1920. We also watched and enjoyed the movie. | |
1992 | Waiting for Godot | Samuel Beckett | Faber and Faber | 1965 | ||
1992 | Disturbing the Peace | Vaclav Havel | Vintage | 1991 | ||
1992 | The Famished Road | Ben Okri | Vintage | 1991 | **** | There isn’t another book like this one. You are transported to a surreal, spiritual world. |
1992 | Measure for Measure | William Shakespeare | Cambridge U.P | 1969 | We had a fun time trying to figure out what Shakespeare was getting at. | |
1992 | The Invisible Worm | Jennifer Johnston | Penguin | 1992 | The first in the genre of dysfunctional families? | |
1992 | A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters | Julian Barnes | Vintage | 1989 | If you only ever read one Julian Barnes, why not try this one? Highly entertaining. | |
199? | The Reader | Bernhard Schlink | Pantheon Books | 1997 | ||
199? | The Master and Margarita | Mikhail Bulgakov | Vintage | 1996 | ||
199? | The Republic of Love | Carol Shields | Fawcett | 1992 | ||
199? | Possession: a romance | A.S. Byatt | Vintage | 1991 | ||
199? | The Kitchen God’s Wife | Amy Tan | Ivy Books | 1991 | ||
199? | Lives of the Saints | Nino Ricci | Cormorant Books | 1990 | Winner of the Governor General’s award | |
199? | The Remains of the Day | Kazuo Ishiguro | Penguin | 1990 | ||
199? | A Prayer for Owen Meany | John Irving | Ballantine | 1989 | **** | What a great character! |
199? | Tiger Moon | Penelope Lively | Penguin | 1988 | 1987 Booker Prize Winner. | |
199? | The Songlines | Bruce Chatwin | Penguin | 1987 | ||
199? | The Handmaid’s Tale | Margaret Atwood | Bantam-Seal | 1986 | Apparently written after a visit to Afghanistan. | |
199? | Speaker for the Dead | Orson Scott Card | TOR | 1986 | Winner of the Hugo and Nebula awards. A science fiction treat. | |
199? | Not Wanted on the Voyage | Timothy Findley | Viking | 1984 | The tale of a woodworm on Noah’s Ark! Great discussion. | |
199? | Monsignor Quixote | Graham Greene | Penguin | 1983 | ||
199? | The Mists of Avalon | Marion Zimmer Bradley | Del Rey | 1982 | The Arthurian legend, re imagined from the perspective of the women. | |
198? | All Hallow’s Eve | Charles Williams | Eerdmans | 1982 | ||
199? | The Mismeasure of Man | Stephen Jay Gould | 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? | Who was Oswald Fish? | A.N. Wilson | Penguin | 1981 | ||
198? | The Healing Art | A.N. Wilson | Penguin | 1980 | ||
198? | The Bell | Iris Murdoch | Panther | 1976 | ||
198? | Night | Elie Wiesel | Avon | 1960 | ||
198? | Till We Have Faces | C.S. Lewis | Collins | 1956 | ||