Jane lived camp. Here's a camp review of her camp funeral by one of Halifax’s masters of the form, Thom Fitzgerald:

https://wayves.ca/jane-kansas-funeral-review

As book lovers in Halifax, perhaps you might be interested in supporting the Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia and our upcoming fundraiser: The Writing Rumble! It's a a 6-hour writing relay event, where two teams of 6 Nova Scotia writers will be competing to “chain-write” a short story, each of us writing up to 300 words before passing it on to the next author to try to figure out where to take the story next!
If you would like to sponsor us, I am on team Draft Dodgers as Rodzilla. To find out more, visit https://www.facebook.com/RonanODriscollAuthor/posts/pfbid02SbpGurTJTHDMjE6YAFni333rtU33Mba3y2oinyHiNuQdV2bHxs1EZfQruKtsFZZKl

Thank you to everyone who was able to make it to our remote discussion for The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune! As the days start to get warmer and the weather nicer, we will start to explore the possibility of meeting in person again, outside, for social distancing purposes. Book Club picnics, anyone?

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Our next book will be Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. Thanks, /u/lrpgwlkr for the suggestion!

This is the final list of titles from the March 2021 title pool. Please vote for any titles you'd like to read.

Feel free to discuss any aspects of the books as well, just note that child comments are hidden by default in contest mode. Please also refrain from making top level comments, as this will ensure that everyone has an easy time casting their votes.

This thread will remain open until Saturday, March 27, after which the most upvoted book will be our book for March.

The meetup for The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune will be Tuesday, March 23 at 7pm.

Due to COVID we are continuing to meet remotely, via Discord video call. If anyone is interested in joining us, please message me for the link!

Full availability results will follow in a comment for transparency.

We've lost February again. To keep things fresh (ish) in our minds we'll be going slightly off schedule, both early and late simultaneously, for the discussion of The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune. Please complete this doodle poll and help plan our next meetup!

Meanwhile, let's take this opportunity to suggest a book for next month. Top level comments must take the following format:

Title - Author

Short description or synopsis

Any other comments should be made as replies to top level comments. This will facilitate the book selection process. This thread will remain open until Sunday, March 21st, at which time five titles from the pool will be randomly selected for voting.

The meetup for The Water Dancer and our 2021 social hour will be Saturday, February 6 at 7pm. We will start with a one-hour social for everyone interested, followed by our book discussion. If you're new, drop in and say hello!

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Due to COVID we are continuing to meet remotely, via Discord Video Call. If anyone is interested in joining us, please message me for the link!

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We also now have a Goodreads group! We have no idea what that really means yet, but if you want to easily compare our list of prior selections against your own shelves instead of checking out our super-high-tech Google Doc in the sidebar, you can request to join us here! Thanks for the suggestion, /u/IronManHole.

Our next book will be The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune. Thanks, /u/lrpgwlkr for the suggestion!

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Please complete this doodle poll and help plan our next meetup! Based on responses, we had equal interest in discussing The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates, as having a social meetup. Therefore, we will plan on a social hour before we launch into The Water Dancer. Pop in, meet everyone, have a chat about what you've been reading lately! Then, feel free to stay for our book discussion, or drop out early. It's up to you! We'll be meeting via Discord video chat for convenience once again.

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The poll will remain open until Saturday, January 23.

This is the final list of titles from the January 2021 title pool. Please vote for any titles you'd like to read.

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Feel free to discuss any aspects of the books as well, just note that child comments are hidden by default in contest mode. Please also refrain from making top level comments, as this will ensure that everyone has an easy time casting their votes.

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This thread will remain open until Friday, January 15, after which the most upvoted book will be our book for January.

Hello and welcome to Halifax Book Club: 2021 Edition! We'll get the ball rolling right off the bat with the January Title Pool.

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Please take this opportunity to suggest a book for next month. Top level comments must take the following format:

Title - Author

Short description or synopsis

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Any other comments should be made as replies to top level comments. This will facilitate the book selection process. This thread will remain open until end of day Friday, January 8th, at which time five titles from the pool will be randomly selected for voting.

Hi Folks! Very excited to see a number of new users eager to get the ball rolling again on Book Club. Even before New Year's Resolutions!

In following with our scheduling, our first 2021 Title Pool will be posted this Friday, January 1st. Stay tuned!

Meanwhile, attempts to organize a discussion for The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates have not been met with much engagement (even via Discord, which, if you're new and would like the link to our channel, send me a message! All readers welcome). So: a poll! Would you like to finally get a discussion planned for our COVID Wave 1 book? Or would you rather we shelve the discussion for good?

View Poll

Hi all, is there any interest in picking a new book for the new year for people to read and discuss?

Hello All!

In a scheduling error, we haven't determined the next book to read after we discuss The Water Dancer; if we meet now, we'll be directionless! So, let's get the ball rolling. Apologies for those used to our previously well-regimented weekly threads. We are, sincerely, working to get back to that.

Please take this opportunity to suggest a book for next month. Top level comments must take the following format:

Title - Author

Short description or synopsis

Any other comments should be made as replies to top level comments. This will facilitate the book selection process. This thread will remain open until end of day Friday, October 9, at which time five titles from the pool will be randomly selected for voting.

Please also complete this doodle poll to help plan our next meetup to discuss The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Hello Bookworms!

After a short lull this summer (always a difficult time to organize meetups, let alone with COVID!), let's get back into the swing of things, shall we?

To reiterate: We left off currently reading The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates. As I know some members have only finally recently started it, we'll plan for meeting up to discuss during the first full week of October to get back to our regular schedule (and to monitor how schools and transit being back to "normal" affect our case numbers). A Doodle poll will be posted in a week or two to get member availability.

If you're just joining us now and need to get a copy, be aware that the paperback version has not yet been released; don't accidentally pre-order it or you'll receive it after our planned meetup! However, hot tip, there are currently 21 hardcover copies at the Chapters in Bayers Lake, and 4 at Bookmark on Spring Garden. Also, if you haven't dropped by our Discord, send me a message for the link!

Meanwhile: Have you already read The Water Dancer and are looking to start something new? Are you interested in a short story read? We can try something concurrent with a shorter poll/vote/discussion timeline! Vote in the poll!

View Poll

any help? Thanks

The meetup for The Island of Doctor Moreau will be Friday, July 10 at 7pm.

Due to continuing COVID restrictions we are continuing to meet remotely, via Discord. If anyone is interested in joining us, please message me for the link!

Our next book will be The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Thanks, /u/lrpgwlkr for the suggestion!

This is the final list of titles from the June 2020 title pool. Please vote for any titles you'd like to read. Thank you to everyone who helped provide such a diverse set of books this month!

Feel free to discuss any aspects of the books as well, just note that child comments are hidden by default in contest mode. Please also refrain from making top level comments, as this will ensure that everyone has an easy time casting their votes.

This thread will remain open until Saturday, June 27, after which the most upvoted book will be our book for June.

Thank you to everyone who was able to make it to our remote discussion for Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club by Megan Gail Coles. It was lovely to see everyone again (and it was certainly a divided discussion)!

As noted, we're working to get back to our regular scheduling. Please complete this doodle poll and help plan our next meetup to discuss The Island of Doctor Moreau by H.G. Wells.

The poll will remain open until Friday, June 26.

It's time to choose our June book (for discussion in early August). In light of all that has been happening across the continent recently, we would like to encourage you suggest a book by a black author.

You may feel that book clubs should be kept apolitical. However, this isn't about politics. This is about the basic right to live without fear. While there isn't much that we, as a book club, can do, we can educate ourselves. We can elevate and celebrate black voices and experiences. It is imperative that we take the time to learn from our historically marginalized peers. The BLM movement isn't only important in America; Africville is a notable (and shameful) part of Halifax's history. An inquiry into racial profiling in street checks found that black people were 6 times more likely to be stopped by HRP. The systematic racism exists here at home too.

Please take this opportunity to suggest a book for next month. Top level comments must take the following format:

Title - Author

Short description or synopsis

Any other comments should be made as replies to top level comments. This will facilitate the book selection process. This thread will remain open until end of day Friday, June 19, at which time five titles from the pool will be randomly selected for voting.

As Canadians, it is also important to recognize the struggles of Indigenous peoples in a Canadian context. An upcoming Title Pool will be dedicated to Indigenous, Native, and Inuit authors.

Hi all! Sorry it's taken so long. Although we're spending more time at home with the pandemic, it's been quite the whirlwind so far.

After our discussions in March, we ultimately determined that we would still like to have some scheduled 'meetups' even if they'll have to be online. I have built us a Discord server. Unfortunately, invite links only last 24hrs at a time, so I will message our regular members directly. Obviously, anyone is welcome to message me for the link if they don't receive it and want to join. If you haven't used Discord before, don't let that stop you! I've been figuring it out as I go!

We have gotten a little off-schedule with our meetup discussion for Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club. As Easter is also in the mix, I will be opening up a poll for our next 'meetup' date, with some slightly unusual options. Roll with me here. Please vote here for when you would like to meet for a voice chat in Discord about the book.

Conveniently, the winner of our March 2020 Shortlist is the freely-available The Island of Doctor Moreau by H.G. Wells. Thanks, /u/Flower725 for the suggestion! As discussed, we highly encourage you obtain a free e-copy of this book to diminish the number of deliveries required during this difficult time. Going forward, we will continue to limit our Title Pools to freely-available works until the isolation measures are lessened.

As ebooks aren't for everyone, we would like to maintain a venue for discussion/recommendations outside of our usual group reads. And although we've been quiet here on the /r/HalifaxBookClub front, we know you guys haven't stopped reading. So! What are you reading right now?

The comments below include the final list of titles from the March 2020 title pool. Please vote for any titles you'd like to read.

Feel free to discuss any aspects of the books as well, just note that child comments are hidden by default in contest mode. Please also refrain from making top level comments, as this will ensure that everyone has an easy time casting their votes.

Voting on books will also remain open until Sunday, March 22nd, after which the most upvoted book will be our book for March.

Also: if you haven't yet participated in our planning discussion thread on how to handle meetups and group discourse during COVID-19, please head over there after voting to give us your thoughts and help us out!

Hi all. We've been a little quiet lately, and we would like your feedback. With the events surrounding COVID-19, we find it difficult to forge ahead scheduling the meetup for Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club. However, we also acknowledge that these trying times of social distancing and self-isolation mean folks will be reading now more than ever!

We don't want to cramp anyone's style by pausing our group reads, so we are opening this thread to get opinions from members on how they would like to see our meetups take form during this pandemic. Historically, we haven't had much uptake on discussion threads, but we also haven't had online discussions be the primary discourse. How do you see yourself partaking in the next few weeks? Should we try to organize some form (what form?) of online participation?

The March 2020 shortlist will be posted soon. Thanks in advance!

Please take this opportunity to suggest a book for next month. Top level comments must take the following format:

Title - Author

Short description or synopsis

Any other comments should be made as replies to top level comments. This is necessary to facilitate the book selection process. This thread will remain open until end of day Saturday, March 7, at which time five titles from the pool will be randomly selected for voting.

The meetup for Annihilation will be Tuesday, March 3rd, at 7pm.

We will once again be meeting at The Arms Public House. A table will be reserved prior to; if you did not participate in the meetup poll and are planning to attend, please send us a message to avoid awkward shuffling!

If anyone arrives late and can't find the group, please reach out via modmail. If there's anything you'd like to earmark for discussion, feel free to leave a comment about it here. Please also remember to use spoiler tags until the meetup.

Please complete this doodle poll and help plan our next meetup to discuss Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer.

The poll will remain open until Friday, 28 February.

Our next book will be Small Game Hunting at the Local Cowards Gun Club by Megan Gail Coles. Thanks, /u/flower725 for the suggestion!

This is the final list of titles from the February Title Pool. Please vote for any titles you'd like to read.

Feel free to discuss any aspect of the books as well, just note that child comments are hidden by default in contest mode. Please also refrain from making top level comments, as this will ensure that everyone has an easy time casting their votes.

Voting will remain open until Saturday, February 22, as this was posted late.

Please take this opportunity to suggest a book for next month. Top level comments must take the following format:

Title - Author

Short description or synopsis

Any other comments should be made as replies to top level comments. This is necessary to facilitate the book selection process. This thread will remain open until end of day Saturday, February 15, at which time five titles from the pool will be randomly selected for voting.