national book critics circle award winner!!

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 guardian newspaper

welcome back helen humphreys!

“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. ”

— cloud lake literary review

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.”

— the chicago review of books

happy, healthy and entirely new year!

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 is returning for a zoom event

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. ”

— harper collins

“Darkly compelling, illuminated by the light of compassion and tenderness: Donoghue’s best novel since Room.”

— kirkus reviews (starred review)

a virtual meeting in september

“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.”

— quill and quire

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.”

— CBC books

a chance to go OUT (at least virtually)

“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.”

— NPR.org review

“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.”

— washington post review

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?

1. buy a ticket. pick up the book at wordsworth (or have it delivered). see wordsworthbooks.com for details. start reading

2. 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

3. 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

4. mix your drink. sit down in front of your computer and listen (and watch) lily talk about her book and answer questions

5. if you want, you can submit questions in real time (by chat) and she will answer them.

6. 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).

don't forget our friends

we are missing seeing everyone at our periodic gatherings. with no clear end to all this uncertainty, we dont know when we will gather again to sip a cocktail. share a meal. exchange ideas about a book we all read together.

dont forget that our friends at public kitchen and wordsworth are continuing to operate during this time.

you can order takeout lunches and dinners from public kitchen by clicking here to order your meal, a bottle of wine, cocktail supplies and more!

and wordsworth continues to sell and deliver books to get you through all this. go shopping here

everybody stay healthy. and remember, we’re all in this together so lets help each other out.

thanks.

emma donoghue event postponed

at this uneasy time, we have decided to postpone the event with emma donoghue on march 30. we have not yet determined a new date for the event but all tickets for this sold out event will be honoured on the new date.

once we have determined the new date, we will reach out to all ticket holders first. should the new date be unsuitable, we will make arrangements to refund all but the cost of the book. we will then reach out to people on the wait list for the newly available tickets.

please dont forget our good friends at wordsworth books and public kitchen. the impact on both of these small local businesses is enormous. wordsworth is making arrangements for home delivery of books (call 519.884.2665) and public kitchen is opening the restaurant for take out orders (call 519.954.8111).

keep washing your hands. and watch out for your friends.

emma donoghue is returning!

“What begins as a larky story of unlikely male bonding turns into an off-center but far richer novel about the unheralded, imperfect heroism of two women — Michael’s incarcerated mother and Noah’s long deceased one — and the way we preserve the past and prepare for the future. What is family, anyway, but an elaborate web of story and memory, stretching backward and forward to connect us through time? Whether we’re brought together by blood or circumstance, it’s the psychic inheritance that inevitably wins out, equipping us with a sense of who we are and how we might ourselves respond when life invites us to answer the call, to live with skin fully in the game.

”

— the new york times book review

many of you will remember the night when emma donoghue delighted us with her observations about her book, ‘the wonder’. emma has a new book, ‘akin’, and we are delighted to announce that she is returning to kitchener on monday march 30 to talk with us about it. for tickets, click here

A tale of love, loss and family, in which a retired New York professor’s life is thrown into chaos when he takes his great-nephew to the French Riviera, in hopes of uncovering his own mother's wartime secrets. Noah is only days away from his first trip back to Nice since he was a child when a social worker calls looking for a temporary home for Michael, his eleven-year-old great-nephew. Though he has never met the boy, he gets talked into taking him along to France. This odd couple, suffering from jet lag and culture shock, argue about everything from steak haché to screen time, and the trip is looking like a disaster. But as Michael's ease with tech and sharp eye help Noah unearth troubling details about their family’s past, both of them come to grasp the risks that people in all eras have run for their loved ones, and find they are more akin than they knew.

“If Room forced home truths on us, about parenthood, responsibility and love, Akin deals with similar subject matter more subtly, but in the end just as compellingly; like Noah and Michael, the books are superficially different, but fundamentally connected. This is a quietly moving novel that shows us how little we know one another, but how little, perhaps, we need to know in order to care.”

— the guardian

a cure for the january blahs

“Becky Blake takes us on an extraordinary journey through Barcelona’s underbelly, exploring with empathy and insight the human need for belonging and security, and what it means to lose everything. Finely crafted and richly imagined, ‘proof i was here’ is an enthralling, intelligent and fast-paced novel you wont be able to put down”

— ayelet tsabari, author of 'the art of leaving'

the busiest month of the year is almost upon us but, after december whizs by, we will be in deepest darkest january. enter the next edition of appetite for reading: becky blake’s ‘proof i was here’ on monday january 20 at public kitchen.

Becky Blake has been a literary force for her short stories for several years (in 2013 and 2017 she was awarded the CBC Literary Prize for non-fiction (2017) and short fiction (2013). With ‘Proof I was Here’ Blake brings that literary power to her debut novel.

Buy tickets here

“Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose in Proof I Was Here, the debut novel by Toronto writer Becky Blake. Expat Niki walks out of her Barcelona apartment, leaving her relationship – along with her keys and wallet so that she no longer needs to be wary of strangers and thieves – and suddenly the city opens up for her. When a thief on the subway steals the one thing left in her pocket – a paint chip – Niki falls into his orbit, finding community with the knock-off purse-sellers and street performers who are his friends. A shoplifter since childhood – and facing an assault charge in Toronto – Niki is at home among the misfits, sheltering with them at night in the skeleton of a half-built tower whose construction has been halted since the 2008 economic downturn.”

— Quill and Quire

“‘Proof i was Here’ is laced with grit, art and angst. This evocative novel explores the intersection of privilege and survival, ‘good’ and ‘bad’ behaviour, permanence and the ephemeral... it reminds us of the power of our choices, but also show how serendipity can, in a moment, change what we think about ourselves and the world”

— Leesa Dean, author of 'waiting for the cyclone'