Book Clubs

2024 Book Clubs

Seats are limited, so save your spot today!

Registration and MPL library card required.

JANUARY TO APRIL

Book Club @ Main

Thursdays, 7:00-8:00pm at Main – Raspberry Room

• January 18: In the Upper Country by Thomas Kai
  The fates of two unforgettable women–one just beginning a journey of reckoning and self-discovery and the other completing her life’s last vital act–intertwine in this sweeping, deeply researched debut set in the Black communities of Ontario that were the last stop on the Underground Railroad.
  
• February 15: Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff
  Geeta’s no-good husband disappeared five years ago. She didn’t kill him, but everyone thinks she did–no matter how much she protests. But she soon discovers that being known as a “self-made” widow has some surprising perks. Freedom must look good on Geeta, because other women in the village have started asking for her help to get rid of their own no-good husbands… but not all of them are asking nicely.
• March 14: Much Ado About Nada by Uzma Jalaluddin
  Nada Syed is stuck. On the cusp of thirty, she’s still living at home with her brothers and parents, resolutely ignoring her mother’s unsubtle pleas to get married already. Nothing in her life has turned out the way it was supposed to, and Nada feels like a failure. Something needs to change, but the past is holding on too tightly to let her move forward.
• April 17: Biography of X by Catherine Lacey
  When X—an iconoclastic artist, writer, and polarizing shape-shifter—falls dead in her office, her widow, wild with grief and refusing everyone’s good advice, hurls herself into writing a biography of the woman she deified. Though X was recognized as a crucial creative force of her era, she kept a tight grip on her life story. Not even CM, her wife, knew where X had been born, and in her quest to find out, opens a Pandora’s box of secrets, betrayals, and destruction.

Book Club @ Sherwood 

Thursdays, 7:00-8:00pm at Sherwood – Program Room

• January: No Meeting (4th meeting will be held in May)
  
• February 22: My Mother’s Daughter by Perdita Felicien
  Decades before Perdita Felicien became a World Champion hurdler running the biggest race of her life at the 2004 Olympics, she carried more than a nation’s hopes–she carried her mother Catherine’s dreams. Facing literal and figurative hurdles, she learned to leap and pick herself back up when she stumbled. This book is a daughter’s memoir–a book about the power of a parent’s love to transform their child’s life.
• March 21: Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
  The teenage son of an Appalachian single mother who dies when he is eleven uses his good looks, wit, and instincts to survive foster care, child labor, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses.
• April 25: In the Upper Country by Thomas Kai
  The fates of two unforgettable women–one just beginning a journey of reckoning and self-discovery and the other completing her life’s last vital act–intertwine in this sweeping, deeply researched debut set in the Black communities of Ontario that were the last stop on the Underground Railroad.
• May 23: The Story of Us by Catherine Hernandez
  Like many Overseas Filipino Workers, Mary Grace Concepcion has lived a life of sacrifices. But when she arrives in Toronto, she must navigate a series of bewildering and careless employers and unruly children. Beautifully narrated by the all-seeing eye of Mary Grace’s newborn baby, The Story of Us is a novel about sisterhood, about blood and chosen family, and about how belonging can be found where we least expect it.

Cook the Book Club

Thursdays, 7:00-8:00pm at Main – Raspberry Room

• February 1: Comfort Food Essentials by Kim Wilcox (eBook on Hoopla here)
  Nothing beats a warm, cozy meal, and Comfort Food Essentials is here to provide you with endless ideas for everyone’s favorite kind of food! From breakfast, lunch, and dinner to sides, breads, desserts, and even toppings and condiments, this comfort food cookbook features over 100 hearty recipes the whole family is sure to love. Featuring recipes for chicken noodle soup, pizza, mac and cheese, meatloaf, chili, and so much more, each all-time favorite, down-home recipe is sure to warm your heart and soul as you gather around the table and dig in.
• February 29: Maman and Me by Roya Shariat and Gita Sadeh (eBook on Hoopla here)A gorgeous cookbook filled with 78 delicious cook-at-home Iranian American recipes. You will fall in love with Roya Shariat and her mother, Gita Sadeh, as they welcome you into their home and share their favorite cherished family recipes.T he book takes a unique approach to Iranian cuisine, with recipes and twists that celebrate the evolution of Iranian food in America. Lush, full-color photographs accompany these stunning recipes, many of which are vegetarian, vegan, and/or gluten-free.
• March 28: Homemade Simple by Amanda Haas (eBook on Hoopla here)
  Effortless dishes for a busy life. 100+ simple, healthy recipes to feed everyone in your family-from the picky eater to the voracious omnivore. Making homemade meals doesn’t have to be hard, take a lot of time, or cost a lot of money to be simply delicious.
• April 25 – Homage by Chris Scott (access here)
  Recipes and Stories from an Amish Soul Food Kitchen, a richly narrative cookbook that celebrates an under-explored foodway in the African diaspora: Amish soul food. Scott shares 100 dishes born of a unique blend of Southern, German, and Dutch cuisines, including Chicken Fried Steak with Sassafras Country Gravy, Charred Radicchio Salad with Roasted Grapes, and Shaved Amish Cheddar, and the ultimate Whoopie Pies. HOMAGE is a must-have for home cooks who love JUBILEE and Carla Hall, who enjoy soul flavors or Midwestern food, or who are drawn to cookbooks with vivid storytelling, a sense of place, and a new point of view.
• May 23 – The Complete Arab Cookery by Arto der Haroutunian (access here)
  The basis of society in Arabia, especially in the south, was agriculture – cereals, aromatics and spices were produced and exported via the caravan routes which passed from Syria through Arabia to the Yemen. Thus Arab dishes are subtle, varied and exotic. The basic diet largely comprised, and still does, dates, rice, milk, goat or lamb meat and coffee. Incorporating the history, traditions, and techniques of these countries Arto der Haroutunian has assembled an unparalleled breadth of recipes representing the whole gamut of Arab cooking.
• June 20 – Cooking up Memories One Meal at a Time by Barbara Harris (access here)
  Cooking Up Memories One Meal at a Time brings you the heartwarming story and legendary recipes of Barbara Harris, founder of Celebrity Cafe and Bakery in Highland Park Village in Dallas, Texas.

Mindfulness Book Club

Mondays, 7:00-8:00pm at Sherwood – Program Room

Develop and enhance your mindfulness techniques and practices through a curated e-book list. Read each monthly selection, found on Hoopla, then share and discuss your newly learned mindful habits and learning experiences.

• January 29: What is Reality? by Ervin Laszlo
  Bringing together science, philosophy, and metaphysics, Laszlo takes aim at accepted wisdom, such as the dichotomies of mind and body, spirit, and matter, being and nonbeing, to show how we are all part of an infinite cycle of existence unfolding in spacetime and beyond. (eBook here)
• February 26: Silence – The Power of Quiet in a World Full of Noise by Thich Nhat Hanh 
  A practical guide to understanding and developing our most powerful inner resource-silence-to help us find happiness, purpose, and peace. Through careful breathing and mindfulness techniques, learn how to become truly present in the moment, to recognize the beauty surrounding us, and to find harmony. (eBook here)(eAudio here)
• March 25: Arriving at Your Own Door by Jon Kabat-Zinn
  Mindfulness opens us up to the possibility of being fully human as we are, and of expressing the humane in our way of being. Within these 108 selections lie messages of profound wisdom in a contemporary and practical form that can lead to both healing and transformation. Welcome to the threshold . . . to the fullness of arriving at your own door! (eBook here)

Sunday Book Club

Sundays, 2:00-3:00pm at Main – Teal Room

• January 21: The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times by Michelle Obama
  When we are able to recognize our own light, we become empowered to use it. A rewarding blend of powerful stories and profound advice that will ignite conversation, The Light We Carry inspires readers to examine their own lives, identify their sources of gladness, and connect meaningfully in a turbulent world.
• February 18: Cassandra in Reverse by Holly Smale
  If you had the power to change the past…where would you start? Cassandra Penelope Dankworth is a creature of habit. She likes what she likes (museums, jumpsuits, her boyfriend, Will) and strongly dislikes what she doesn’t (mess, change, her boss drinking out of her mug). Her life runs in a pleasing, predictable order…until now. Then, something truly unexpected happens: Cassie discovers she can go back and change the past. One small rewind at a time, Cassie attempts to fix the life she accidentally obliterated, but soon she’ll discover she’s trying to fix all the wrong things.
• March 17: The Maid by Nita Prose
  Molly Gray is not like everyone else. She struggles with social skills and misreads the intentions of others. Her gran used to interpret the world for her, codifying it into simple rules that Molly could live by. But Molly’s orderly life is upended the day she enters the suite of the infamous and wealthy Charles Black, only to find it in a state of disarray and Mr. Black himself dead in his bed. A Clue-like, locked-room mystery and a heartwarming journey of the spirit, The Maid explores what it means to be the same as everyone else and yet entirely different—and reveals that all mysteries can be solved through connection to the human heart.
• April 14: Yellowface by R. F. Kuang
  White lies. When Athena dies in a freak accident, June steals her unpublished manuscript and publishes it as her own under the ambiguous name Juniper Song. Dark humour.
  But as evidence threatens June’s stolen success, she will discover exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves. Deadly consequences…. What happens next is entirely everyone else’s fault. With an immersive first-person voice, Yellowface grapples with questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation, as well as the terrifying alienation of social media.
• May 12: Just the Nicest Couple by Mary Kubica
  Jake is missing. At first, his wife, Nina, thinks he is blowing off steam at a friend’s house after their heated fight the night before. But then a day goes by. Two days. Five. And Jake is still nowhere to be found. Lily, Nina’s friend and coworker, thinks she may have been the last to see Jake before he went missing. After Lily confesses everything to her husband, Christian, the two decide that nobody can find out what happened leading up to Jake’s disappearance, especially not Nina. But Nina is out there looking for her husband, and she won’t stop until the truth is discovered.
• June 09: My Mother’s Daughter by Perdita Felicien
  Decades before Perdita Felicien became a World Champion hurdler running the biggest race of her life at the 2004 Olympics, she carried more than a nation’s hopes–she carried her mother Catherine’s dreams. Facing literal and figurative hurdles, she learned to leap and pick herself back up when she stumbled. This book is a daughter’s memoir–a book about the power of a parent’s love to transform their child’s life.

Virtual Book Club

Tuesdays, 7:00-8:00pm on Zoom
*Participants will receive an email invitation on the day of the program with sign-in details.

• February 6: Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
  The teenage son of an Appalachian single mother who dies when he is eleven uses his good looks, wit, and instincts to survive foster care, child labor, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses.
• March 5: Biography of X by Catherine Lacey
  When X—an iconoclastic artist, writer, and polarizing shape-shifter—falls dead in her office, her widow, wild with grief and refusing everyone’s good advice, hurls herself into writing a biography of the woman she deified. Though X was recognized as a crucial creative force of her era, she kept a tight grip on her life story. Not even CM, her wife, knew where X had been born, and in her quest to find out, opens a Pandora’s box of secrets, betrayals, and destruction.
• April 16: Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley
  Daunis Fontaine has never quite fit in—both in her hometown and on the nearby Ojibwe reservation. When her family is struck by tragedy, Daunis puts her dreams on hold to care for her fragile mother and reluctantly becomes involved in the investigation of a series of drug-related deaths. How far will she go to protect her community if it means tearing apart the only world she’s ever known?
• May 7: My Mother’s Daughter by Perdita Felicien
  Decades before Perdita Felicien became a World Champion hurdler running the biggest race of her life at the 2004 Olympics, she carried more than a nation’s hopes–she carried her mother Catherine’s dreams. Facing literal and figurative hurdles, she learned to leap and pick herself back up when she stumbled. This book is a daughter’s memoir–a book about the power of a parent’s love to transform their child’s life.

Need more information?
Email: bookclubs@beinspired.ca or give us a call: 905-875-2665 x3263
Looking for a list of all MPL Book Club Kits? Click here for a printable .pdf