10 benefits of joining a book clubMembers of the West Sides Stories book club share what they've gained from participating in a book club.
The West Sides Stories book club has been meeting since 1994, and its members (all women living in west-end Toronto) have discovered the sometimes surprising benefits of joining a book club.
20 tips for book club successThese quick and easy tips will help you create an enriching and enjoyable book club.
The West Sides Stories book club has been meeting since 1994. Some of their members even turned their love of literature into a charitable organization called Read for the Cure, which raises funds to fight cancer. We polled the members of West Side Stories for their tips on what makes a successful book club. Here are their responses.
Book club guide: The Flying Troutmans, by Miriam ToewsDays after being dumped by her boyfriend, Hattie hears her sister Min has been checked into a psychiatric hospital, and finds herself flying back to Winnipeg to take care of Thebes and Logan, her niece and nephew. Not knowing what else to do, she loads the kids, a cooler, and a pile of CDs into their van and they set out on a road trip in search of the children's long-lost father, Cherkis.
Book club guide: Summer of My Amazing Luck, by Miriam ToewsLucy Van Alstyne always thought she'd grow up to become a forest ranger. Instead, at the age of eighteen, she's found herself with quite a different job title: Single Mother on the Dole. As for the father of her nine-month-old son, Dillinger, well…it could be any of number of guys.
Book club guide: Swing Low - A Life, by Miriam ToewsPublished in 2000, Swing Low: A Life won both the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award and the Alexander Kennedy Isbister Award for Non-Fiction. The book garnered praise for, among other things, the remarkable courage and candour Toews displayed in writing about her father's struggle with bipolar disorder and his suicide.
Book club guide: A Complicated Kindness, by Miriam ToewsWinner of the Governor General's Award and a Giller Prize Finalist, Miriam Toews's third novel has earned both critical acclaim and a long and steady position on national bestseller lists.
Excerpt: Irma VothRead an excerpt from Miriam Toews' latest novel, which brings us back to the beloved voice of her award-winning, #1 bestseller A Complicated Kindness, and to a Mennonite community in the Mexican desert.
Jorge said he wasn't coming back until I learned how to be a better wife. He said it's okay to touch him with my arm or my leg or my foot, if it's clean, when we're sleeping but not to smother him like a second skin. I asked him how could that be, I hardly saw him any more and he said that's a good thing for you. He said people always lie about their reasons for leaving and what difference does it make? I blocked the doorway so he wouldn't leave and I begged him not to go. He put his hands on my shoulders and then he rubbed my arms like he was trying to warm me up and I put my hands on his waist.
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