August Evening (Chorus)

Redstart 

Thank you to Saara for the gracious hospitality last evening. What a view of Toronto!  What a sunset!
And thank you for starting off our book discussion with an unforgettable bird anecdote.

We set up some future dates and book topics:

• September 17th at Wanda's - Ellen in Pieces by Caroline Adderson
• October 15th at Jane's - The Children Act by Ian (FU) McEwen
• November 26th at Jan's - The Back of the Turtle by Thomas King
• ***Please note that there has been a change of location in October and November.*** 

Also mentioned last evening were:

• The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
• Adult Onset by Ann-Marie Macdonald
• 10:04 by Ben Lerner  
• Lila by Marilynne Robinson
• The Betrayers by David Bezmozgis
• Mr Mac and Me by Esther Freud
• Black Rock by John Fetridge

I forgot to mention an noteworthy book that I read recently: Family Life by Akhil Sharma.  It's at once heart-breaking and comic.

If like me you missed the two sources of colourful gossip in print here they are again:

• The Journey to Rebuild a Life: Camilla Gibb's Memoir
• Jian Ghomeshi: His Life of an Outcast

And here's a trailer for the recommended movie Best of Enemies.

New Date in August

Heads up - we've had to change the date of Saara's book club evening to Monday August 17th.

Wake

Isn't life grand when we can meet on a perfect summer evening at Maureen's to enjoy each other's company and assorted refreshments?  Thank you Maureen.  Everything was just right.

In response to Wake here are pictures of the Canadian Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, the subject of Wake.

Canadian Tomb of the Unknown Soldier 

Tomb of the Unknown Warrior 

Remember that our next meeting will be on August 18th at Saara's.  The book we chose for that evening is Evening Chorus by Helen Humphreys, and we thought that we'd also look at Helen Humphreys' memoir Nocturne.  If you have any books to share, bring them along as well.

Books mentioned last night:

• The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters
• The Truth and Other Lies by Sascha Arango
• The Green Road by Anne Enright
• At The Water's Edge by Sara Gruen
• River Music by Mary Soderstrom
• Boo by Neil Smith
• Family Life by Akhil Sharma
• The Damned by Andrew Pyper

Thanks again to Maureen for providing the link to Day 6's summer reading list, the source for six of these titles.

The website for Lifeline Syria is online now.  Wanda and I have plans to attend the information session on July 29th.  Meanwhile check out another option, AURA for Refugees. 

Save a Family From Syria

Thanks to Saara we have a contact for joining the effort to bring Syrian refugees to Canada.
Here is an organization called Save a Family From Syria collecting donations through CanadaHelps.  Exploring the donation page at CanadaHelps I see that aside from the default donation option there's also an option to fundraise.
Any thoughts? 

H is for Hawk

As always, it was a treat to see each friendly face again and spend some time together.

H is for Hawk led us to consider much that was new territory for most of us.  Here's more about T.H.White and in case anyone wants to try falconry you can even buy your own bird.  Who knew?

Helen MacDonald has coincidently combined our April book choice about the world of spying with birds in this Guardian article, Spies in the Sky.  

A reminder that we have the next two months planned.
On July 9th we'll be at Maureen's and the book will be Wake.
On August 18th the book will be Evening Chorus and we'll be at Saara's.
There was talk of meeting at a restaurant, or perhaps the islands in September, so no book.  But we decided to leave that decision for later on. 

Books mentioned:

• Confidence by Russell Smith
• The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
• The Man in the Wooden Hat and Last Friends by Jane Gardam
• Clearing the Plains by James Daschuk
• The Chemistry of Tears by Peter Carey

Topics discussed:

• Truth and Reconciliation: Have you seen the 8th Fire television series?  If not here are links to the complete videos:
  At the Crossroads
  Whose Land is it Anyway?
  It's Time 
  Indigenous in the City 
• Syrian Refugees:  I sent an email this morning to the LifelineSyria contact to ask them to let me know when the organization is in business. I'll let you know how that works out.
  And here are the best sources of information about sponsoring refugees that I've found so far:
  The Refugee Sponsor Training Program
  The United Church Refugees and MigrationCanadian Lutheran World Relief

Recommended on Netflix:

• The Fall
• The Bridge
• Rita

Finally, I looked up Shad on Canada Reads and am pleased to confirm that I didn't imagine it. 

Our Book for April

A big thank you to Lynda for hosting a wonderful book club evening. And what a treat to have the whole group together at once.

A Spy Among Friends sparked some spirited conversation on various topics.  This BBC documentary from 2013 is fascinating.



We made some plans for future occasions:

• On Tuesday June 2nd we'll be at my place (Marian) and for that evening the book will be H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald.  
• In July our meeting will be at Maureen's house on Thursday July 9th.  The book then will be Wake by Anna Hope. 
• The book in August will be Evening Chorus by Helen Humphreys.  We'll meet at Saara's place on Tuesday August 18th.   

Here are the books mentioned last night:

• A Measure of Light by Beth Powning (not Christine Powntney, the author of Sweet Jesus)
• Nocturne by Helen Humphreys
• Delicious Foods by James Hannaham
• Do Muslim Women Need Rescuing by Lila Abu-Lughod
• They Left Us Everything by Plum Johnson

I neglected to mention a book that I read recently - one that I could hardly stand to put down and finished in a day - The Children Act by Ian McEwan.

Another piece of information I forgot to pass along last night was The Ultimate E-Book Library, a Canadian website where you can easily and legally download shared e-books.

And don't forget about In Your Neighbourhood for University of Toronto graduates. 

Click here for the documentary video about Andy Barrie and his Parkinson's treatment (permission is required to embed it but we can watch it on vimeo.com)

All My Puny Sorrows

The book was quite a conversation starter.  Was it because of our sensitivity to the book, or maybe because we were sitting around the kitchen table, that our talk was about topics both personal and universal?  Thank you to Jo for arranging another wonderful book club evening.

The next will be on April 16th at Lynda's place.  The book for this evening is A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal.

Canada Reads 2015 is over now; today was the last day.  With Wab Kinew as the new host, and an articulate and passionate panel it's worth a listen, and even better to watch.  If you missed it you can watch or listen online here.

We didn't get to books of interest last night, but since my daytime book club is in the process of accumulating book suggestions for next year here are some to consider:

• Love Marriage by V.V. Ganeshananthan
• The Third Secret by Steve Berry
• The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt
• Stones from the River by Ursala Hagi
• A Cup of Friendship by Deborah Rodriguez
• Delicious Foods by James Hannaham
• And the Birds Rained Down by Jocelyn Saucier
• Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver
• Nocturne by Helen Humphreys