Book Discussion Groups
- Groups meet different evenings of the week in members’ homes on a rotating basis.
- Members meet once a month from September through June
- Generally, one member hosts, another researches the author and the book and leads the discussion
- Participants enjoy a social time along with research and discussion
- The groups are lively and enjoy excellent sessions.
Book Exchange Group
- Members select a group of books to be read
- Each member buys one of the books and keeps it at the end of the year
- Books are rotated through the group at the beginning of each month, giving each member the opportunity to read every book
- Some groups have a social event at the end of the year to discuss the books that they have read
Group Descriptions:
These five book clubs each function a bit differently. Three of the Clubs have one or two spaces each available for new participants. Detail is provided only for those Clubs with available space. New groups can be started at any time.
1st Monday: The CFUW Diverse Opinion Literary Society has been meeting on the first Monday of each month for fifteen years. The booklist for 2018/2019 included: The Beautiful Mystery by Penny, Train in Winter by Monkhouse, A Daughter’s Deadly Deception by Grimaldi, The Little Paris Bookshop by George, Red Notice by Browder, Dead Wake by Larsen, Inside the O’Brien by Genova, Medicine Walk by Wagamese, and The Boat People by Bala. Our final meeting for the year included a potluck dinner and book selections for the upcoming year.
2nd Monday: At the June meeting, members select the title to be discussed in September, and each purchases a copy. After the discussion in September, the set is donated to the Guelph Public Library to be used as a book club set. Early in the summer, members submit suggested titles and then an electronic vote is taken to choose nine books for the remaining months that the group will operate. There is no particular theme to the choices. Members prefer an eclectic list of good reading. Literary award nominees and winners are often included. The list is submitted to the Guelph Public Library, who then supply book club sets for each month beginning in October. Books are read in the order that is most convenient for the Library. Meetings take place in members’ homes. No formal presentation is made at meetings, rather, participants come armed with opinions, questions and additional information, and discussion inevitably flows freely. The list of titles for 2018/19 was: Bellevue Square by Michael Redhill, The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro, Minds of Winter by Ed O’Loughlin, An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield, the Boat People by Sharon Bala, Come From Away by Genevieve Graham, Varina by Charles Frazier, Why Young Men by Jamil Jivani, and Brother by David Chariandy.
1st Thursday: The group is comprised of 13 members who meet in members’ homes for 9 sessions from September through May. They read a variety of fiction and non-fiction suggested by members at the final May meeting and they participate in the library’s service for book groups. They often include a piece of classic literature and an award – winning book in their selections. For each book, one member takes responsibility for providing some background information and raising a few issues from which a lively discussion follows. The list of titles discussed in 2018/19 was: Poles Apart, The Book that Matters Most, Do Not Say we have Nothing, Armageddon in Retrospect, A Man Called Ove, The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, The Nightingale, Full Disclosure, and Hillbilly Elegy.
If you would like information on joining any of these groups and don’t know how to contact the convenor, contact Member Services.