Hello reader friends,
If you or anyone you know is thinking of joining our monthly Cover to Cover book club, I am so happy to give you some overview of some of our next selections.
With book club I have been attempting to introduce the group to a variety of styles, genres and even time periods in hopes there will be something for everyone. While there isn’t always a projected or overt faith or religious tenet to the books, there is always something that will either apply to a faith walk or at least something to inspire a reader to want to think more about how they engage with life and the people around them.
If you want to catch up on some reading, here are the books we’ve done since the Cover to Cover relaunch:
- Who Has Seen the Wind by WO Mitchell
- A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
- Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
- Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson
- Anxious People by Fredrick Backman
After a break in August to let people soak up the last weekends of the summer, September’s book The Midnight Library by Matt Haig is a perfect gateway to Autumn. This juggernaut of a bestseller was immensely popular during the pandemic lockdowns and continues to be so. In a magical library between life and death, a woman unhappy with existence finds the opportunity to explore the lives she might have lived and the chances she might have taken. A luminous look at grief and regret, it is a quiet and introspective book that will spark a lot of discussion.
October’s book The Wonder by Emma Donoghue is written by one of our most alluring Canadian writers. Set in post-famine Ireland, a young English nurse is hired to care for a supposedly miraculous girl --- who has lived without food for four months subsisting instead on what her mother calls “manna from heaven.” The blurred lines between faith and spectacle are explored in some very arresting prose. I read this in one sitting.
In November, special guest book club host Amy Lavender Harris will be presenting another Canadian treasure Followed by the Lark by Helen Humphreys. Featuring her poetic background and her penchant for painting nature in words, this artistic biographical study of nineteenth century naturalist, poet and abolitionist Henry David Thorough is a rich historical study.
Followed by a break in December, we will read the recent The Berlin Apartment by Toronto author and international bestseller Bryn Turnbull. The exceptionally researched novel features a couple who, due to fate and circumstance, are separated on either side of Berlin when the iron curtain falls severing them indefinitely. A fascinating look at how a divided city existed in such staggeringly different ways is a backdrop for a tale about hope, fortitude and love. It’s also a page turner!
By Rachel McMillan