appetite for reading is taking an early summer break. stay tuned for our first event in the fall when we hope (really really hope) to be welcoming you back to an in person! live! in the flesh! dinner with friends and authors. in the meantime, stay healthy and enjoy the freedom that summer brings.
even though it’s a bit early for new year’s greetings, we are thinking ahead to reading over the holidays and gathering in the new year to hear from our latest author.
join us on monday january 24 for lunch before joining sarah winman (who will be in the UK) to talk about her new book, ‘still life’. for tickets and details, click here
“There are not enough superlatives to contain the magnitude and beauty of this novel. It explores the very foundations of the meaning of family; is it really a collective gene pool or does the heart of family mean something else entirely?
Besides being a story of ordinary lives surrounded by extraordinary art, it manages to be a short, extremely entertaining encyclopaedia of Italian, and in particular Florentine, art history.”
“...I felt like I could’ve packed my bag and taken off for Italy myself after reading this, although none of us can right now, but it makes this book almost that more special. It’s perfect for this moment in time and I found myself quite content escaping into this book, exploring Italy, the Tuscan hills, the Florentine piazzas, the art, food and language.”
“Sentence after sentence, character by character, “Still Life” becomes poetry.”
watch for details about an upcoming event with the author of this book!
join us on monday september 27*** for dinner and a conversation with Linda Rui Feng about her first novel - and giller prize nominee - ‘swimming back to trout river”.
A lyrical novel set against the backdrop of China’s Cultural Revolution that follows a father’s quest to reunite his family before his precocious daughter’s momentous birthday, which Garth Greenwell calls “one of the most beautiful debuts I’ve read in years.”
“With lean prose and assured storytelling, this debut novel describes a family fractured by geography, ambition and the ripple effects of China’s tumultuous 20th-century history.”
*****we are really really hoping that this event can be a hybrid event: some guests will be in the restaurant, some guests may join by zoom and the author will join us by zoom. go to the join us page for details about the ticketing options.
we are beyond excited to welcome maggie o’farrell, author of the award winning book ‘hamnet’, to our book club on june 21. because maggie is joining us from her home in the UK, this event will take place at 1:00 in the afternoon with a take out lunch.
three ticket options available here
A luminous portrait of a marriage, a shattering evocation of a family ravaged by grief and loss, and a hypnotic recreation of the story that inspired one of the greatest literary masterpieces of all time, Hamnet is mesmerizing and seductive, an impossible-to-put-down novel from one of our most gifted writers.
Hamnet is a novel inspired by the son of a famous playwright. It is a story of the bond between twins, and of a marriage pushed to the brink by grief. It is also the story of a kestrel and its mistress; flea that boards a ship in Alexandria; and a glovemaker’s son who flouts convention in pursuit of the woman he loves. Above all, it is a tender and unforgettable reimagining of a boy whose life has been all but forgotten, but whose name was given to one of the most celebrated plays ever written.
“There is an elliptical, dreamlike quality to her prose in Hamnet that, though not obviously steeped in 16th-century language, is essential to creating a world that feels at once wholly tangible and somehow otherworldly, as if the membrane between the natural and supernatural was more porous then. The depth of her research is evident on every page. Anyone who has visited Shakespeare’s birthplace will recognise her descriptions of his former home, but O’Farrell plunges the reader into the vivid life of the house, with its smells of a glover’s workshop, the heat and bustle of a cookhouse, the physical effort of planting a garden or twisting out newly washed sheets.Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.”
“The novel is beautifully written in prose both lyrical and clear. Descriptions of the Saskatchewan landscape capture both the beauty and severity of the prairies and the hard lives of those who live there. Humphreys addresses the unconscionable use of mentally ill human beings as LSD test subjects with subtlety and strength, and she ties this, and Leonard’s own mental health issues to a more universal theme of how mental health is viewed today. ”
helen humphreys returns to appetite for reading to talk to us about her most recent book of fiction, “rabbit foot bill”.
join us for a zoom call with helen over a takeout dinner from public kitchen on april 19 at 6:30 pm
“Celebrated Canadian writer Helen Humphreys’s novels almost always find their footing in historical events, often during or around war time, and they seamlessly blend meticulously researched factual detail with the elegantly understated storytelling we’ve come to expect from this author. Humphreys’s latest book, her ninth novel, is no different. Based on the true story of a murder that happened in the small prairie town of Canwood, Saskatchewan in 1947, Rabbit Foot Bill is a haunting tale of an unusual friendship, a shockingly violent act, and the lasting, devastating aftermath of war on returned soldiers and their families”
“Told with tenderness and tremendous insight into human nature, Rabbit Foot Bill is really about the profound power humans have to create such damage in the lives of others, but also to offer such love and salvation.”
well, we are back into lockdown with plenty of time on our hands. time to get reading!
for several years, we have been hoping to have omar el akkad join us for an appetite for reading event but the cost of bringing him here from portland oregon was a bit beyond our budget. enter the pandemic and zoom. happily, omar is willing to speak with us about his book ‘american war’ and maybe even let us in on a few secrets about his forthcoming book, ‘what strange paradise’.
born in egypt and raised in canada, omar is an author and a journalist who has reported from Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, and many other locations around the world. his debut novel, ‘american war’, was listed listed as one of the best books of the year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, GQ, NPR, and Esquire, and was selected by the BBC as one of 100 Novels That Shaped Our World.
join us on zoom on MONDAY FEBRUARY 22 at 6:30pm. and pick up a cozy dinner prepared by public kitchen to reheat in the comfort of your own home. TICKETS for sale on the join us page
emma donoghue will join us via zoom on monday october 26 at 6:30 pm. pick up dinner beforehand from public kitchen and settle in on your own - or maybe with a friend - to hear about emma’s experiences writing this book, dealing with this crazy world, anything you want to hear about.
buy a ticket that includes the book, dinner and the event here. and if you want to bring a friend along, buy a ticket for dinner + the event here
set in dublin in 1918 at the height of the “great flu”, emma’s latest book is particularly relevant as we face down COVID 19. the story follows a nurse, a physician and a volunteer all working an understaffed hospital where expectant mothers have been sent to quarantine.
“Emma Donoghue once again finds the light in the darkness in this new classic of hope and survival against all odds. ”
“Darkly compelling, illuminated by the light of compassion and tenderness: Donoghue’s best novel since Room.”
“What comes through most strikingly in Warren’s narrative is Estella’s frustration at her circumstances. From childhood she believes Oliver when he tells her she will inherit the brick plant. Until the day he reveals he was just humouring her and of course it will be her brothers who will take over when he eventually retires. Estella’s reward is instead the responsibility of playing nursemaid for him in his dotage. This pattern carries on throughout her life, and we ache for the wasted potential, the opportunities just out of reach. At the same time we cheer her small rebellions – taking lovers, buying a flashy car, and proving herself an astute business woman after all.”
the summer drags on and while a lot has changed; so much remains the same. we hope that news of a virtual book club gathering will be something to look forward to.
on monday september 21, dianne warren will join us from her home in regina to talk to us about her latest book, the diamond house. we will pick up dinner (with the ingredients for a cocktail as well) from public kitchen that afternoon then settle in for a reading and a chat with dianne on zoom.
we heard your suggestions about our last meeting and have some suggestions for a better zoom experience. first, we encourage you to submit your questions via the “chat” button in zoom. you can do this at the beginning of the meeting or as the questions come to you. all will be read by the moderator and dianne and, time-permitting, all should be answered.
we also encourage you to set up your own “mini book club” in your backyard with a few friends. that way you encourage a safe gathering with friends and maybe even carry on the discussion after the zoom meeting ends.
“Estella grows up planning her future in the image of her father’s daring first wife, rather than that of her traditional mother. When her plans are derailed again and again by the family patriarchy, she longs to rebel and be like Salina. Unable to openly challenge her father, and with a chorus of sisters-in-law passing judgment, she does the right thing instead, and plays the role of the good daughter.
Until she doesn’t.”
“At a nadir, King’s narrator stops in a bookstore on her way to work and browses through William Styron’s memoir of depression, Darkness Visible. She notes, “The writing has that stark lucidity of someone trying to tell you the truest thing they know.”
That isn’t exactly King’s achievement in this novel. Writers & Lovers is too generously infused with heart and soul and wit and wisdom to be called stark.”
“Now on her fifth novel, King has a lifetime of experience with the pressures and absurdities of being an aspiring writer — and a successful one. She’s also in a position to cast a knowing, satiric eye across the whole enterprise of fiction workshops, graduate seminars, bookstore readings and publishing parties. Casey endures the condescension of insecure, egotistical men who “wrote tender, poetic sentences that tried to hide the narcissism and misogyny of their stories.” Such acerbic insights ensure that “Writers & Lovers” isn’t just a novel for other writers. It explores a culture determined to shame young women’s sexuality, hobble their motivation and mock their ambition.”
well, not exactly “out” but, on tuesday june 9, pick up dinner at public kitchen, grab a drink and sit down in front of your computer to hear author, lily king, talk about her fifth novel, “writers and lovers”.
Written with King’s trademark humour, heart, and intelligence, Writers & Lovers is a transfixing novel that explores the terrifying and exhilarating leap between the end of one phase of life and the beginning of another.
so how will this virtual book club event work?
buy a ticket. pick up the book at wordsworth (or have it delivered). see wordsworthbooks.com for details. start reading
a few days before the meeting you will get an email from harper collins publishers inviting you to “join” the zoom call. click on the link in the email to set yourself up with zoom to be ready to join the meeting at 6pm
the afternoon of the meeting, pick up the appetite for reading dinner package (see the menu below)* at public kitchen (300 victoria st). wine for the cocktail is not included in the dinner; however, you can buy wine at public kitchen at half price! go to kwpublictakeout.com for details
mix your drink. sit down in front of your computer and listen (and watch) lily talk about her book and answer questions
if you want, you can submit questions in real time (by chat) and she will answer them.
finally. no need to worry about hair and makeup. only lily will be on the screen!
*dinner includes: smoked salmon and cream cheese mousse with crisps, tender greens with grilled chicken and goat cheese dressing, creme brulee with sponge toffee crumble, sangria mix (add your own wine).