READ. MEET. DISCUSS.

WHO WE ARE: Lisa Morrison, Heather Shapiro, Eileen Silver, Rise Schwartz, Shelly Brook, Bella Fox, Carol Grubert, Michelle Katz, Ellen Rosenbluth, Ronnit Holtzman, Deborah Kestenbaum, Naomi Kestenbaum, Susan Lieff, Carolyn Lipton, Rochelle Reichert, Jacqui Markowitz, Cathy Stein. WHERE WE ARE: Toronto, Ont. WHEN WE STARTED: Some of us started with the group in 1990 (nursing our babies). That group fizzled out in 1995. We resurrected the group in 2010 (with more time and grown-up kids). OUR MEETING FORMAT: We meet in our homes about eight times a year. One member offers to research and lead the discussion and another to host. Often, the host will decorate the home, dress in costume, or prepare food to correspond with the book. HOW WE CHOOSE WHAT TO READ: It often takes us as long to choose a book as it does to discuss it! We sidestep and tap dance around the titles and authors that some love, others hate, some believe are too political, others believe are not literary enough. Some like non-fiction, others historical fiction. Some love the bestsellers while others love the classics. To please everyone, we try and choose a wide range of titles and authors. AN INTERESTING ANECDOTE ABOUT THE CLUB: Each host puts time and effort to incorporate a thematic food and/or decor element from the book. This has resulted in some wonderful experiences that literally transformed us into the book. For ‘Room’, we gathered in a back yard garage, sitting in a circle on folding chairs, which was quite impactful to the sense of displacement in the book. For ‘ The Lowland’, our host dressed up in an Indian sari and we nibbled on traditional Indian delicacies.