Every third Monday morning of the month, the bookclub gathers virtually by Zoom. We like a challenging read – stories of immigration, feminism, and moral dilemmas. We favour Canadian writers and try to choose titles available from our public libraries. Readers looking for an on-going discussion group and those who are attracted to a specific book but cannot commit to the ten book challenge are welcome.

The 2022-2023 Lineup

Scroll down for book descriptions.

September 19 My Italian Bulldozer by Alexander McCall Smith

October 17 Still Life by Sarah Winham

November 21 Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrel

December 19 The Generosity Habit by Matthew Kelly

January 16 (2023) The Day the World Stops Shopping by JB Mackinnon

February 20 State of Terror by Hilary Clinton and Louise Penny

March 20 Horse by Geraldine Brooks

April 17 TBA

May 22 The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michelle Richardson

June 19 A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult

July 17 Poetry, Prose, and Potluck in a Garden

My Italian Bulldozer
by Alexander McCall Smith

“When food writer Paul Stuart heads to the idyllic Italian hill town of Montalcino to finish his late manuscript, it seems like the perfect escape from complicated city life, and his recent heartbreak. Upon landing, however, things quickly take a turn for the worse when he discovers his rental car is nowhere to be found. With no record of any reservation and no other cars available, Paul is stuck at the airport until an enterprising stranger offers him an unheard-of alternative. While there may be no cars available, there is something else on offer: a bulldozer. With little choice in the matter, Paul accepts and so begins a series of surprising adventures in food, wine, Tuscan history and modern romance as Paul rumbles through the countryside on his Italian bulldozer, pursued soon after by unplanned visitors from home.”

Still Life
by Sarah Winman

Tuscany, 1944: As Allied troops advance and bombs fall around deserted villages, a young English soldier, Ulysses Temper, finds himself in the wine cellar of a deserted villa. There, he has a chance encounter with Evelyn Skinner, a middle-aged art historian who has come to Italy to salvage paintings from the ruins and recall long-forgotten memories of her own youth. In each other, Ulysses and Evelyn find a kindred spirit amongst the rubble of war-torn Italy, and set off on a course of events that will shape Ulysses’s life for the next four decades.

Hamnet
by Maggie O’Farrel

The author was fascinated with the little-known story behind Shakespeare’s most enigmatic play. Hamnet is a luminous portrait of a marriage, at its heart the loss of a beloved child.  Set in Warwickshire in the 1580s, Agnes is a woman as feared as she is sought after for her unusual gifts. She settles with her husband in Henley Street, Stratford, and has three children: a daughter, Susanna, and then twins, Hamnet and Judith. The boy, Hamnet, dies in 1596, aged eleven. Four years or so later, the husband writes a play called Hamlet.

Award-winning author Maggie O’Farrell’s new novel breathes full-blooded life into the story of a loss usually consigned to literary footnotes, and provides an unforgettable vindication of Agnes, a woman intriguingly absent from history.

The Generosity Habit
by Matthew Kelly

The Generosity Habit is built on a simple and profound principle: give something away every day. It doesn’t need to be money or material things. It could be complimenting a stranger, teaching someone how to do something, spreading a positive message, helping someone who is in a hurry, or simply smiling at someone generously. In fact, the philosophy behind the generosity habit rests on this singular truth: You don’t need money or material possessions to live a life of staggering generosity.

The Day the World Stops Shopping
by JB Mackinnon

Drawing from experts in fields ranging from climate change to economics, MacKinnon investigates how living with less would change our planet, our society, and ourselves. Along the way, he reveals just how much we stand to gain: An investment in our physical and emotional wellness.

State of Terror
by Hilary Clinton and Louise Penny

Tuscany, 1944: As Allied troops advance and bombs fall around deserted villages, a young English soldier, Ulysses Temper, finds himself in the wine cellar of a deserted villa. There, he has a chance encounter with Evelyn Skinner, a middle-aged art historian who has come to Italy to salvage paintings from the ruins and recall long-forgotten memories of her own youth. In each other, Ulysses and Evelyn find a kindred spirit amongst the rubble of war-torn Italy, and set off on a course of events that will shape Ulysses’s life for the next four decades.

Horse
by Geraldine Brooks

An enslaved groom named Jarret and a bay foal forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories across the South. When the nation erupts in civil war, an itinerant young artist who has made his name on paintings of the racehorse takes up arms for the Union.

A Spark of Light
by Robin Ward Kimmerer

A Spark of Light tells the stories of the lives of a group of people when a man enters an abortion center in Mississippi and begins shooting. The shooting develops into a hostage situation, and the hostage negotiator soon learns that his teen daughter, Wren McElroy, is one of the hostages inside.

The novel is told in reverse chronological order, with each chapter going back one hour to explore the motivations and stories of the people on the scene and how they ended up there.

In this well-researched novel, Picoult uses her narrative to provide a thought-provoking and thorough look at the issues surrounding abortion.

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek
by Kim Michelle Richardson

Set in 1936, tucked deep into the woods of Troublesome Creek, KY, lives blue-skinned 19-year-old Cussy Carter, the last living female of the rare Blue People ancestry. The lonely young Appalachian woman joins the historical Pack Horse Library Project of Kentucky and becomes a librarian, riding across slippery creek beds and up treacherous mountains on her faithful mule to deliver books and other reading material to the impoverished hill people of Eastern Kentucky. Along her dangerous route, Cussy, known to the mountain folk as Bluet, confronts those suspicious of her damselfly-blue skin and the government’s new book program. She befriends hardscrabble and complex fellow Kentuckians, and is fiercely determined to bring comfort and joy, in still literacy, and give to those who have nothing, a bookly respite, a fleeting retreat to faraway lands.