A Book Club, Downtown (ABCD)

[RESULTS of the poll for this event]

:: ABOUT THE BOOK ::
"With biting wit, Aurora Stewart de Peña satirizes the creative industry she’s spent years in.
From the people who brought you the invention of advertising comes Julius Julius, a rambling architectural wonder, outpost of the very first ad man of ancient Pompeii, built on the backs of generations of creative survivors who just want to lie on the floor of a conference room and cry about the lumber account without being sexually harassed.
Stewart de Peña’s debut novel reveals the cracks in the veneer of the creative industries, and the crisis of consciousness underneath in a novel full of compassion, humour, and blonde sausage dogs." (from the Goodreads)

"How do ad campaigns fundamentally affect the way we think – and how do ghosts help grease the wheels of corporate greed?
Julius Julius, the quirky, ethereal debut novel by playwright and essayist Aurora Stewart de Peña, seeks to answer those questions in its haunting portrait of an advertising agency built atop a maze of mysterious catacombs.
Presented as a mosaic of short vignettes, Julius Julius highlights advertising’s capacity to change the world, while critiquing the means by which it has historically done so. The book, a toothy, tender satire, betrays Stewart de Peña’s lived experience: She has spent years employed as a marketing strategist." (from The Globe and Mail)

:: ABOUT THE EVENT ::
You are welcome to arrive 30 minutes before the event and stay 30 minutes or longer afterward to connect with other attendees outside the book talk.

Please ensure you have read the book before attending (though finishing any book is not a barrier to participating, as long as you don't mind spoilers).

First-time attendees can join for free. If the event is full, we maintain an unofficial waitlist. Please send Michael a direct message for more information, in either case.

We request a $3 contribution from regular attendees to help cover our monthly meetup costs.

:: ABOUT OUR NEXT BOOK ::
At the end of each event, we will ask for nominees for our next book. If you have a good one in mind, please ensure it is between 200-400 pages long, available from the Toronto Public Library, and counts as contemporary literary fiction (though these are not hard and fast rules). When enough nominees are collected, Michael will send the members a direct message with a link where you can vote.

[RESULTS of the poll for this event]

:: ABOUT THE BOOK ::
"George Bernard Shaw once said that the privilege of joking in public should only be granted to people who know thoroughly what they are joking about. I thought of his words as I devoured Endling, the virtuosic debut novel by Maria Reva, a Canadian writer who was born in Ukraine and still has family there.
Starting out as a straightforward story about a Ukrainian biologist, this witty, shape-shifting book turns into something trickier and more interesting. Like so many works from or about the former Soviet bloc, Endling takes on bleak subjects — environmental ruin, the business in brides, the war in Ukraine — and dresses them up in playful irony."
(from NPR)

"Ukraine, 2022. Yeva is a loner and a maverick biologist who lives out of her mobile lab. She scours the country’s forests and valleys, trying and failing to breed rare snails while her relatives urge her to give up, settle down, and start a family. What they don’t know: Yeva already dates plenty of men—not for love, but to fund her work—entertaining Westerners who come to Ukraine on guided romance tours believing they’ll find docile brides uninfluenced by feminism and modernity.
Nastia and her sister Solomiya are also entangled in the booming marriage industry, posing as a hopeful bride and her translator while secretly searching for their missing mother—a flamboyant protestor who vanished after years of fierce activism against the romance tours. So begins a journey of a lifetime across hundreds of miles: three angry women, a truckful of kidnapped bachelors, and Lefty, a last-of-his-kind snail with one final shot at perpetuating his species. But their plans come to a screeching halt as Russia invades." (from Goodreads)

:: ABOUT THE EVENT ::
You are welcome to arrive 30 minutes before the event and stay 30 minutes or longer afterward to connect with other attendees outside the book talk.

Please ensure you have read the book before attending (though finishing any book is not a barrier to participating, as long as you don't mind spoilers).

First-time attendees can join for free. If the event is full, we maintain an unofficial waitlist. Please send Michael a direct message for more information, in either case.

We request a $3 contribution from regular attendees to help cover our monthly meetup costs.

:: ABOUT OUR NEXT BOOK ::
At the end of each event, we will ask for nominees for our next book. If you have a good one in mind, please ensure it is between 200-400 pages long, available from the Toronto Public Library, and counts as contemporary literary fiction (though these are not hard and fast rules). When enough nominees are collected, Michael will send the members a direct message with a link where you can vote.

[RESULTS of the poll for this event]

ABCD Reads AND Watches "Hamnet", a novel by Maggie O'Farrell, and a theatrical release directed by Chloé Zhao.

(***The movie is scheduled for release on November 27, 2025. As the date approaches, we’ll plan a group outing to see it together before the Meetup. DM Michael if you’re interested.***)

:: ABOUT THE BOOK ::
"Drawing on Maggie O'Farrell's long-term fascination with the little-known story behind Shakespeare's most enigmatic play, Hamnet is a luminous portrait of a marriage, at its heart the loss of a beloved child.
Warwickshire in the 1580s. Agnes is a woman as feared as she is sought after for her unusual gifts. She settles with her husband in Henley street, Stratford, and has three children: a daughter, Susanna, and then twins, Hamnet and Judith. The boy, Hamnet, dies in 1596, aged eleven. Four years or so later, the husband writes a play called Hamlet.
Award-winning author Maggie O'Farrell's new novel breathes full-blooded life into the story of a loss usually consigned to literary footnotes, and provides an unforgettable vindication of Agnes, a woman intriguingly absent from history." (from Goodreads)

(NOTE: Some versions of the book carry the alternate title "Hamnet & Judith".)

:: ABOUT THE MOVIE ::
"In William Shakespeare’s day, the names Hamlet and Hamnet were interchangeable. The newest film by Chloé Zhao, director of TIFF ’20 People’s Choice Award winner Nomadland, also an Oscar winner, uses that context as the basis for a tender exploration of Shakespeare’s domestic life, connecting a family tragedy to one of his most famous works. Maybe we can better understand Hamlet, Zhao suggests, if we consider that it was developed while the most famous writer in the Western canon was mourning the death of his 11-year-old son, Hamnet.
Based on the novel by Maggie O’Farrell, Hamnet’s main character isn’t The Bard — played here by an impressive Paul Mescal — or even the child who gives the film its name. Hamnet belongs to Agnes, Shakespeare’s thoughtful wife, played by an enthralling Jessie Buckley, who bathes the film in her warmth.
Many historical accounts preface reports of Hamnet’s death with statistics about how common child mortality was in the 16th century, as though it barely made an impact. Hamnet rejects that premise, presenting Shakespeare not as a distant, untouchable genius but as a real man whose literary prowess was irrevocably impacted by his domestic life.
Grief is a theme here, but Hamnet is not just a film about death. Like any family story, this one contains joy alongside sorrow." (from TIFF.net)

:: ABOUT THE EVENT ::
Instead of just reading the book as usual, this time we're asking that you also watch the movie adaptation. During our discussion, we'll explore the strengths of both the book and the movie, evaluate the adaptation's effectiveness, and touch on any other topics that arise.

You are welcome to arrive 30 minutes before the event and stay 30 minutes or longer afterward to connect with other attendees outside the book talk.

Please ensure you have read the book and watched the movie before attending (though finishing either is not a barrier to participating, as long as you don't mind spoilers).

First-time attendees can join for free. If the event is full, we maintain an unofficial waitlist. Please send Michael a direct message for more information, in either case.

We request a $3 contribution from regular attendees to help cover our monthly meetup costs.

:: ABOUT OUR NEXT READ&WATCH ::
At the end of each event, we will ask for nominees for our next Read & Watch (date TBA). If you have a good pairing in mind, please ensure that the book is between 200-400 pages long, available from the Toronto Public Library, and counts as contemporary literary fiction (though these are not hard and fast rules), and that the movie or TV-series is readily available. When enough nominees are collected, Michael will send the members a direct message with a link where you can vote.