With the 2021 Virtual Capital Pride Queer Market and the 2021 Virtual Pride Parade coming up this month how could we not recommend some titles that celebrate Pride!  Check out the Capital Pride website for more virtual events taking place this August and choose a book from our recommendations below to enjoy between events or to host a Pride themed book club.  The titles are either from our “Always Available” collection or there are copies enough for a group to read together.

This month’s eAudio suggestion is Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo.  A fantastic story of an interconnected group of Black British women. Winner of the 2019 Booker Prize and short-listed for the Gordon Burn Prize, Girl, Woman, Other paints a vivid portrait of the state of post-Brexit Britain. From a nonbinary social media influencer to a ninety-three-year-old woman living on a farm in Northern England, these unforgettable characters intersect in shared aspects of their identities, from age to race to sexuality to class.

For those who prefer to read rather than listen we recommend two critically acclaimed works of historical fiction about women loving women.

Here Comes the Sun, by Nicole Dennis Benn is set in Jamaica during the 1990s, juxtaposing the opulence of the tourist industry against the reality of life for residents. Margot, who secretly does sex work at the local resort to pay for her younger sister’s education, is looking for a way to get a better life for her family as well as the freedom to express her love for another woman.

The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue, set in Dublin at the height of the Great Flu, takes place over an intense three days in a maternity ward. With little help and insufficient supplies, Nurse Julia struggles to keep her patients and their babies safe in the midst of chaos and mass death. Help arrives, in the form of a scrappy volunteer, Bridie Sweeney, who awakens something surprising in Julia’s heart.

To celebrate Pride, we recommend the biography Laurent McCutcheon et la révolution gaie et lesbienne du Québec by Denis-Martin Chabot. Laurent McCutcheon overcame difficulties and become an important activist for the rights of the LGBTQ+ community. Laurent McCutcheon died in 2019

In the poetic novel Ça raconte Sarah by Pauline Delabroy-Allard, the author describes the passion between two women in Trieste, in Italy. Ça raconte Sarahwas shortlisted for the Goncourt in 2018, and was the only novel written by a woman. This audiobook edition includes an interview with the author.

Suggestions and Resources for a successful online Book Club  

In order to have your Book Club take place online you can try creating Facebook groups, or using various social media channels to discuss books.  Or you could try meeting live via online video conferencing tools. The following tools are free: 

• Google Hangouts provides free video/chat/voice conferencing and does not have a time limit 
• Jitsi is a free open source video conferencing tool 
• In French, there is a platform built by Les libraires that allows book clubs to meet online! You can request to create your own club, or there are groups that are already running that you can join. All book clubs, including the current book club picks and comments, are visible to anyone accessing the site
• Le Regroupement des éditeurs franco-canadiens is offering a monthly book club called D’un océan à l’autre – here is more information (in French only), and the books available at OPL!

Finding eBooks and eAudiobooks for your Book Club 

• Always Available eAudio from OverDrive – many great Book Club reads in this list 
• Books with 100 simultaneous checkouts  -- this new format offered by publishers to libraries lets your whole book club borrow a book at once!
• Special Collection of Always Available eBooks and eAudio from Overdrive– a quality collection available until the end of 2021
• Always Available ebook Classics from Duke Publishing 
• OPL streaming eBook and eAudio collections 
• Some French publishers OPL purchases from through Cantook Station offer many loans of the same title at once.  You can search the Cantook platform for these publishers and make your choice.  Participating publishers include Gallimard, Actes Sud, Rivages, POL, Flammarion, and Payot.
• Radio-Canada offers free “Always Available” French eAudio - stream from the ICI Première website or download the Radio-Canada OHdio app.
• D'un océan à l'autre | club de lecture 2021

Contact OPLs InfoService 613-580-2940 if you need help accessing these titles and resources 

Hosting and Discussions 

If you would like discussion questions for your book, here is a list of 40 Great Book Club Discussion Questions from Book Riot.  They work for any book. 

Here are some great tips about how to host an online book club from Bustle Magazine: 10 Tips For Hosting A Digital Book Club 

Enjoy your Book Club – online or off!