Updates - 2025

February

This month the book club will be discussing "The English Wife" by Adrienne Chinn who was born in Grand Falls, Newfoundland, grew up in Quebec, and eventually made her way to London, England. As described by amazon.ca, "The English Wife is about two women, a world apart. A secret waiting to be discovered." 

Goodreads outlines the story of the two women beginning on "VE Day, 1945 when war bride Ellie's Newfoundland husband is still missing in action. A letter arrives explaining he is back home recovering from his injuries. Ellie must be very brave as she travels to a distant country to live with a man she barely knows and deal with the harsh realities of her new home.

On September 11, 2001 the second woman, Sophie Parry is on a plane which is rerouted to a tiny town in Newfoundland where she is forced to seek refuge with her estranged Aunt Ellie. She is determined to discover what it was that forced her family apart all those years ago. This is a timeless story of love, sacrifice and resilience."

January

The first book in the new year that the ladies will be discussing is "Absolution" by Alice McDermott described as a "riveting account of women's lives on the margins of the Vietnam War".  In Amazon.ca's outline "American women have been mostly minor characters in the literature of the Vietnam War but in Absolution they take centre stage.  Tricia is a shy newlywed and Charlene is a practiced corporate spouse, mother of three, a beauty and a bully. In Saigon in 1963 they form a wary alliance.

Sixty years later Charlene's daughter reaches out to Tricia and together they look back at their time in Saigon discovering how their own lives as women have been shaped and burdened by the same sort of unintended consequences that followed America's tragic interference in Southeast Asia. It is a story about folly and grace, obligation, sacrifice, and finally, the quest for Absolution in a broken world."

Updates - 2024

December

In December the book club will be reading and discussing "The Five Wishes of Murray McBride" by Joe Siple.  Google.ca describes the story as follows.  "With all his family and friends gone except an estranged grandson, retired Major League ballplayer Murray McBride is looking for a reason to live. He finds it in Jason Cashman, a spirited 10-year old boy with a terminal heart defect and a list of five things he wants to do before he dies. Murray is determined to help Jason fulfill his dreams. Together, they race against the limited time each has left, ticking off Jason's wishes one by one. Along the way, Murray remembers what it's like to be young and Jason fights for the opportunity  to grow old. But when tragedy strikes, their worlds are turned upside-down and an unexpected gift is the only tthing that can make Jason's final wish come true."

November

In November the members of the book club will be discussing the novel "Horse" by Geraldine Brooks.  As outlined by Goodreads, "A discarded painting in a junk pile, a skeleton in an attic, and the greatest racehorse in American history: from these strands, a Pulitzer Prize winner braids a sweeping story of spirit, obsession, and injustice across American history". 

"1850. 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. On a perilous night, he reunites with the stallion and his groom, very far from the glamor of any racetrack."

"New York City, 1954. Martha Jackson, a gallery owner celebrated for taking risks on edgy contemporary painters, becomes obsessed with a nineteenth-century equestrian oil painting of mysterious provenance."

"Washington, DC, 2019. Jess, a Smithsonian scientist from Australia, and Theo, a Nigerian-American art historian, find themselves unexpectedly connected through their shared interest in the horse--one studying the stallion's bones for clues to his power and endurance, the other uncovering the lost history of the unsung Black horsemen who were critical to his racing success."

"Based on the remarkable true story of the record-breaking thoroughbred Lexington, Horse is a novel of art and science, love and obsession, and our unfinished reckoning with racism."

October

In October the ladies in the book club will be discussing the novel "The Jazz Club Spy" by Roberta Rich.  As outlined by Goodreads "This is a fresh and sweeping historical novel following a Jewish woman attempting to bring justice to her family on the eve of WW ll."  

"In New York City in 1939 at the height of the Great Depression when President Roosevelt is trying to keep America out of World War II, Giddy Brodsky is lucky to have a job as a cigarette girl at a Manhattan jazz club. She dreams of establishing a cosmetics business and leaving the poverty-

stricken Lower East Side tenements where she has lived ever since the 

family fled Russia, forced to emigrate after a group of Cossacks burned down their village, and her memories continue to haunt her.She tries to focus on the future until, during an evening streetcar ride, she thinks she recognizes one of the Cossacks who changed her life forever. She enlists the help of Carter van der Zalm, the Chief Commissioner of Immigration at Ellis Island, who is hunting the same man. He suspects the Russian is involved in an assassination plot and he enlists Giddy to moonlight as a spy for him. But when she finally tracks down the man they’re both seeking, she finds herself in the middle of a shocking political conspiracy that changes everything she once held true.

September

In September, the ladies of the book club will be back meeting in our members' homes after the summer break.  

We will be discussing the novel A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson, a Canadian novelist who began writing when her children went to school. This is her fourth novel and is another top-ten best seller which was long-listed for the Booker Prize.

As outlined by the CBC,  "The story opens on a family in crisis- Rose, a rebellious teenager has been missing for weeks with no word and her younger feisty sister Clara keeps a daily vigil hoping for her return. Liam Kane a newly divorced thirtyish gentleman arrives in town and moves next door where Clara is able to watch his comings and goings.  Clara's elderly friend Mrs. Orchard owns this house but was sent for a short stay in the hospital and Clara agrees to keep an eye on the house.

The novel is told through three points of view, Clara's, Mrs. Orchard;s and Liam's. It is a masterful suspenseful and deeply humane novel written by a great Canadian storyteller.

July/August

The Words Worth Reading group will be on a break during July and August.  We will reconvene in September!

June

In June the ladies in the book club will be getting together for a luncheon followed by a discussion of the novel, Bluebird by Genevieve Graham, a best-selling Canadian author of eleven novels.  As outlined on her website, this is a "tender moving tale illuminating a fascinating lesser-known chapter of World War ll history. It is a compelling luminous novel about the strength of the human spirit and the power of love to call us home."  Google describes Bluebird as "a dazzling novel set during the Great War and postwar Prohibition about a young nurse, a soldier, and a family secret that binds them together for generations to come."  Genevieve explains that "her passion lies in discovering forgotten or little-known moments in Canada's history because she feels our history is so often in the shadows of other countries' stories."

May

In May, the Words Worth Reading book club will be discussing the novel "The Wonder" by Emma Donoghue, an Irish-Canadian novelist. The story takes place in the 1800's in the Irish Midlands. As outlined by Goodreads, "An English nurse, Lib Wright, is summoned to a tiny village to observe what some are claiming as a medical anomaly or a miracle - a girl said to have survived without food for months. Tourists have flocked to the cabin of eleven-year-old Anna O'Donnell, and a journalist has come down to cover the sensation. The Wonder is a tale of two strangers who transform each other's lives, a psychological thriller, and a story of love pitted against evil." 

In 2016 it was nominated for both Best Historical Fiction by Goodreads Choice Award and the Scotiabank Giller Prize. The Guardian, a British daily newspaper called it "a thrilling domestic psychodrama".

April

As outlined by Goodreads, The Lost Apothecary is a New York Times bestseller debut book of historical fiction by Sarah Penner that takes place over two time periods, the late 1700's and present day.  Sarah herself says her novel is a story about women controlling their own destinies. "A female apothecary secretly dispenses poisons to liberate women from the men who have wronged them - setting three lives across centuries on a dangerous collision course. The two rules that must be followed when the poison is handed out  are the poison must never be used to harm another woman and the names of the murderer and her victim must be recorded in the apothecary's register." 

According to the Bibliofile, a book review site, "In this novel the past and the present collide, resulting in a story about female relationships, full of bitter betrayals and intrigue."

March

In March, the book club will be reading the novel Saving Grace by Jane Green.  As outlined by Goodreads, a site for readers and book recommendations, "Grace and Ted Chapman are widely regarded as the perfect literary power couple. But the marriage is not all that it seems to be. Ted is a successful novelist but Grace must try to deal with his rages and mood swings. When his longtime assistant and mainstay leaves, Grace finds herself in need of help but with no one to turn to. But then a new assistant comes to assist Ted although just maybe she is too good to be true. With everything at stake and no one to confide in, Grace must find a way to save herself before it's too late."

February

In February, the book club will be discussing the novel "The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post" by Allison Pataki.

As outlined by Goodreads, "The author has crafted an intimate portrait of a larger-than-life woman, a powerful story of one woman falling in love with her own voice and embracing her own power while shaping history in the process. From crawling through Moscow warehouses to rescue the Tsar's treasures to outrunning the Nazis in London, from serving the homeless of the Great Depression to entertaining Roosevelts, Kennedys, and Hollywood's biggest stars, Marjorie Merriweather Post lived an epic life few could imagine.  Not content to stay in her prescribed roles of high-society wife, mother, and hostess, Marjorie dared to demand more, making history in the process. Before turning thirty she amassed millions, becoming the wealthiest woman in the United States. But it was her life force, advocacy, passion, and adventurous spirit that led to her stunning legacy." She even had the now very famous Mar-a-Lago built in Florida.