Book club reads

by Deborah Rogers -  We held our July meeting outdoors and a larger group meant lots of insights into our selection, Emily St John Mandel's Sea of Tranquility. It's a book that defies easy categorization, but our starting point of agreement was that Mandel's writing is beautiful. Sea of Tranquility spans hundreds of years and [...]

by Deborah Rogers -  What a pleasure to be able to hold our book club at the library again and talk together in person. Dave Eggers certainly gave us lots to discuss with The Every, a terrifying vision of a near future where the world is in the grip of a large tech company. The

by Deborah Rogers -  Lorna Crozier’s Through the Garden - A Love Story (with cats) was a beautiful read, appreciated by our group for its openness and honesty. This memoir, published in 2020, tells the story of Crozier’s life with poet Patrick Lane. She started writing it in 2017 when Lane became seriously ill. It’s

by Deborah Rogers -  We had selected Liz Levine's Nobody Ever Talks About Anything But the End to discuss at our March meeting. Unfortunately due to job action at the library, we have not held meetings in March or April, but I didn't want this exquisite little book to go undiscussed. The book is a

by Deborah Rogers - Our February meeting saw some new faces to the group, and a weird and wonderful book to discuss. Susanna Clarke's Piranesi has critical acclaim and awards, but our past experience as a group is that award-winning doesn't always translate into readable or enjoyable books! On first approach Piranesi could seem similarly

by Deborah Rogers - We are back for our sixth year of the Seaside Magazine book club! At our January meeting we didn't discuss a specific book; instead we had a "book chat" introducing each other to the titles we've been enjoying since we last met. There were 22 of us at the meeting so

by Deborah Rogers -  In a wonderful act of symmetry, our Book Club finished the year as we started: with an author Q&A. In January we welcomed Jennifer Manuel to our meeting. In November we were very grateful to have Tricia Dower join us to answer our questions about her novel, Becoming Lin. Tricia is

by Deborah Rogers The life and politics of Petra Kelly, German Green Party pioneer, seem to have been forgotten in the years since her murder in 1992. One of the aspects of this month's read that our group enjoyed so much was being immersed into the past and learning about this charismatic, passionate young activist.

by Deborah Rogers In 2015 Sylvia Olsen and her partner (now husband) Tex McLeod embarked on a cross-Canada road trip to conduct a series of knitting workshops. Along the way they met knitters from all backgrounds and exchanged knitting stories and experiences. The trip also turned into an opportunity to explore Canada: physically as they

by Deborah Rogers From the outset it seemed likely that Alyssa Cole's When No One is Watching would be divisive. Billed as a psychological thriller, the story is set in a traditional Brooklyn "brownstone" neighbourhood undergoing rapid gentrification. The main character, Sydney, is disturbed by the way that the black neighbours she has grown up