A meditation on trauma, legacy, oppression and racism in North America... that asks essential questions about Native people in North America...read more
Ottawa Public Library Book Club Kits will make choosing your book club’s next read easier than ever!
What is included in the kits?
Each kit comes in a sturdy denim bag and contains:
- 10 copies of the same book
- A laminated guide with additional resources, including discussion questions
How do I request a kit?
Kits can be reserved up to six months in advance. They can be borrowed for up to six weeks, with no renewals.
To get started:
- Browse the list of kits below
- Click Reserve this Kit to fill out the Request Form with your first and second choice of book
Library staff will check if the kits are available for the month you have selected. If the kit is available, they will reserve it for you. Please note, although a kit may appear available, it may be scheduled to fill a previous request and has not been updated in the system yet.
How do I pick up my kit?
- Your Book Club Kit will be sent to the branch of your choice two weeks before the beginning of the month you have chosen. You will receive an email notification to let you know when your kit is available for pick up.
How do I return the kit?
- Kits must be returned in full directly to staff at any library branch during opening hours and cannot be dropped in the return slot outside the branch.
What happens if I lose or damage the kit?
- Once you have checked out the Book Club Kit, you are responsible for the entire contents of the kit. Replacement fees are: $10 each for lost or damaged books, $10 for a lost or damaged bag, and $110 if the entire kit is lost or damaged.
Book Club Kits
A new earth : awakening to your life's purpose
Genre:
Nonfiction
Tolle presents readers with an honest look at the current state of humanity: he implores us to see and accept that this state, which is base...read more
A room with a view
Genre:
Romance
When Lucy Honeychurch meets George Emerson in a hotel in Florence, she is intrigued but wary. Lucy's chaperone, her strict and overbear...read more
A tale of two cities
Genre:
Historical Fiction
In the early days of the French Revolution, a young Englishman determines to do the utmost to save the husband of the woman he loves from th...read more
A walk in the woods
Genre:
Nonfiction
Bryson relates the adventures and misadventures of two totally unfit hikers as he and longtime friend Stephen Katz traverse the 2,100-mile A...read more
All my puny sorrows
Genre:
Fiction
Elf and Yoli are two smart, loving sisters leading very different lives. Elfreida is a renowned pianist, wealthy, and happily married. Her y...read more
All the light we cannot see : a novel
Genre:
Historical Fiction
Novel about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War ...read more
All things consoled : a daughter's story
Genre:
Autobiography
Hay's memoir about the shift she experienced between being her parents' daughter to their guardian and caregiver; a memoir that ad...read more
Beethoven : le prix de la liberté
En 1806, Beethoven réside chez le prince Alois von Lichnowsky alors que les troupes napoléoniennes occupent l'Autriche. Le prince refus...read more
Beloved
Genre:
Historical Fiction
After Paul D. finds his old slave friend Sethe in Ohio and moves in with her and her daughter Denver, a strange girl comes along by the name...read more
Braiding sweetgrass : Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the teachings of plants
Genre:
Nonfiction
Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, and as a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings - asters and goldenrod, strawberries ...read more
Brother
Genre:
Coming of age
Brother explores questions of masculinity, family, race, and identity as they are played out in a Scarborough housing complex during the swe...read more
Bunny
Genre:
Fiction
Samantha Heather Mackey couldn't be more of an outsider in her small, highly selective MFA program at New England's Warren Univers...read more
Calypso
Genre:
Nonfiction
Personal essays share the author's adventures after buying a vacation house on the Carolina coast and his reflections on middle age and...read more
Clyde Fans : a picture-novel in five parts
Genre:
Graphic novels
Twenty years in the making, Clyde Fans peels back the optimism of mid-twentieth century capitalism. Legendary Canadian cartoonist Seth lovin...read more
Conversations avec un enfant curieux : instantanés
L'enfance de Michel Tremblay est un coffre aux trésors inépuisables. Bonbons assortis nous avait comblés de bonheur avec des récits sur...read more
Daisy Jones & the Six
Genre:
Fiction
A novel about the whirlwind rise of a world-famous 1970s rock group and their beautiful lead singer--and the secret reasons behind their dra...read more
Dark August
Genre:
Thriller
Augusta (Gus) Monet is living an aimless existence with her grifter boyfriend when she learns that her great grandmother—her last living rel...read more
David Copperfield
Genre:
Historical Fiction
The story of an abandoned waif who discovers life and love in an indifferent world, this classic tale of childhood is populated with a cast ...read more
Dépasser ses limites : 6 récits d'aventures
Genre:
Nonfiction
Caroline Côté est une exploratrice, cinéaste d’aventure et ultra-marathonienne qui parcourt la planète dans des conditions extrêmes pour nou...read more
Dernier arrêt avant l'automne : roman
Genre:
Romans policiers
Le narrateur, écrivain, a trouvé un travail idéal dans un village de Provence : gardien d'un monastère inhabité, niché dans les colline...read more
Do not say we have nothing : a novel
Genre:
Historical Fiction, Domestic fiction
A novel set in China before, during and after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, that takes us inside an extended family in China, showi...read more
Educated : a memoir
Genre:
Autobiography
Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, she prepared for the...read more
Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine
Genre:
Romance
Eleanor Oliphant struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she's thinking. That, combined with her unusual...read more
Exit west : a novel
Genre:
Romance
In a country teetering on the brink of civil war, two young people meet--sensual, fiercely independent Nadia and gentle, restrained Saeed. T...read more
Farida : roman
Genre:
Romans sociaux
Victime du patriarcat qui régissait la société tunisienne au siècle dernier, Farida va toutefois résister au rôle qu’on lui assigne, en deve...read more
Five little indians
Genre:
Fiction
Taken from their families when they are very small and sent to a remote, church-run residential school, Kenny, Lucy, Clara, Howie and Maisie...read more
Fleishman is in trouble : a novel
Genre:
Domestic fiction
Dr. Toby Fleishman wakes up each morning surrounded by women. Women who are self-actualized and independent and know what they want--and, ag...read more
From the ashes : my story of being Métis, homeless, and finding my way
Genre:
Nonfiction, Autobiography
A memoir about hope and resilience, and a revelatory look into the life of a Métis-Cree man who refused to give up. Abandoned by his parents...read more
Fun home : a family tragicomic
Alison Bechdel’s graphic memoir charts her fraught relationship with her late father. Distant and exacting, Bruce Bechdel was an English tea...read more
Génération sandwich : roman
Genre:
Romans sociaux
Lianne Ménard fait partie de la « génération sandwich », appelée à prendre soin simultanément de ses vieux parents et de ses enfants adultes...read more
Homes : a refugee story
Genre:
Autobiography
Homes tells the story of Abu Bakr al Rabeeah, a young boy whose family moved from Iraq to Syria just before the start of the Syrian civil wa...read more
I know why the caged bird sings
Genre:
Autobiography
The author and poet recalls the anguish of her childhood in Arkansas and her adolescence in northern slums.
Immigrant city : stories
Genre:
Short stories
In these stories Bezmozgis pleads no special causes but presents immigrant characters with all their contradictions and complexities, their ...read more
Indian horse : a novel
Genre:
Coming of age
Saul Indian Horse is in trouble, and there seems to be only one way out. As he journeys his way back through his life as a northern Ojibway,...read more
Jane Eyre
Genre:
Historical Fiction
"Orphan Jane's childhood is full of trouble, but her stubborn independence and sense of self help her to steer through the miserie...read more
Kuessipan À toi : roman
Genre:
Romans sociaux
Kuessipan est un livre bouleversant qui nous fait découvrir le quotidien sur une réserve innue.
La fille dans l'écran
Coline vit en France et rêve de devenir illustratrice. En quête d'inspiration, elle contacte Marley, une photographe installée au Canad...read more
La maison aux lilas : nouvelles
Genre:
Nouvelles
Dans ce recueil de nouvelles, Maurice Henrie combine humour, réflexion et expérience de vie pour faire découvrir son monde, insolite et fasc...read more
Le suspendu de Conakry
Genre:
Romans policiers
Au terme d'une carrière diplomatique sans éclat, Aurel Timescu, consul de France, se retrouve mis à l'écart et décide d'user ...read more
Little fires everywhere
Genre:
Domestic fiction
In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is planned -- from the layout of the winding roads, to the colors o...read more
Ma vie avec Mozart
A quinze ans, Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt souffre d'une grosse dépression et songe au suicide. Il est "sauvé" un soir en assistan...read more
Moon of the crusted snow : a novel
Genre:
Dystopian
With winter looming, a small northern Anishinaabe community goes dark. Cut off, people become passive and confused. Panic builds as the food...read more
Never let me go
Hailsham seems like a pleasant English boarding school, far from the influences of the city. Its students are well tended and supported, tra...read more
Night
Genre:
Nonfiction
Born in the town of Sighet, Transylvania, Elie Wiesel was a teenager when he and his family were taken from their home in 1944 to Auschwitz ...read more
Oliver Twist, or, The parish boy's progress
Genre:
Historical Fiction
Tells the story of a poor orphan's adventures in the criminal underworld of mid-nineteenth-century London.
One day we'll all be dead and none of this will matter
Genre:
Nonfiction
A debut collection of essays about growing up the daughter of Indian immigrants in Canada, 'a land of ice and casual racism,' addr...read more
Parable of the sower
Genre:
Dystopian
When global climate change and economic crises lead to social chaos in the early 2020s, California becomes full of dangers… Fifteen-year-old...read more
Paul a un travail d'été
Michel Rabagliati raconte ici les aventures estivales de Paul qui décroche son emploi, moniteur dans un camp de vacances. Ce dernier va appr...read more
Pride and prejudice
Genre:
Romance, Historical Fiction
When Elizabeth Bennet first meets eligible bachelor Fitzwilliam Darcy, she thinks him arrogant and conceited; he is indifferent to her good ...read more
Raconter Vanier
Genre:
Nouvelles
Anciennement Eastview, fusionnée depuis 2001 avec Ottawa, Vanier demeure de nos jours le carrefour de la francophonie au sein de la capitale...read more
Sans Capote ni Kalachnikov : roman
Genre:
Fiction
Rwenzori, Afrique des Grands Lacs, Petit Che et Fourmi Rouge se retrouvent catapultés dans un camp de démobilisation. Ils ressortent leurs c...read more
Sense and sensibility
Genre:
Romance, Historical Fiction
Marianne Dashwood wears her heart on her sleeve, and when she falls in love with the dashing but unsuitable John Willoughby she ignores her ...read more
Station Eleven : a novel
Genre:
Thriller
A novel about art, fame and ambition set in the eerie days of civilization's collapse. One snowy night a famous Hollywood actor slumps ...read more
Talking about death won't kill you : the essential guide to end-of-life conversations
Genre:
Nonfiction
This practical handbook will equip readers with the tools to have meaningful conversations about death and dying. Death is a part of life. W...read more
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
The life of a simple country girl in nineteenth-century England is destroyed by her father's determination to use her in order to regai...read more
The age of innocence
Genre:
Romance
At the heart of the story are three people whose entangled lives are deeply affected by the tyrannical and rigid requirements of high societ...read more
The art of racing in the rain : a novel
Genre:
Experimental fiction
Nearing the end of his life, Enzo, a dog with a philosopher's soul, tries to bring together the family, pulled apart by a three year cu...read more
The break
Genre:
Fiction
When Stella, a young Métis mother, looks out her window one evening and spots someone in trouble on the Break -- a barren field on an isolat...read more
The color purple : a novel
Genre:
Domestic fiction, Historical Fiction
This book tells the story of Celie. Raped by the man she calls father, her two children taken from her and forced into an ugly marriage, she...read more
The dutch house : a novel
Genre:
Historical Fiction, Domestic fiction
At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propel...read more
The farm : a novel
Genre:
Fiction
Nestled in the Hudson Valley is a sumptuous retreat boasting every amenity: organic meals, private fitness trainers, daily massages -- and a...read more
The flatshare
Genre:
Romance
Tiffy and Leon share an apartment in London. Tiffy and Leon have never met. After a bad breakup, Tiffy Moore needs a place to live. Fast. An...read more
The girl on the train
Genre:
Thriller
Rachel takes the same commuter train every day, rattling over the same junctions, flashing past the same townhouses. The train stops at the ...read more
The grapes of wrath
Genre:
Domestic fiction
The story of a farm family's Depression-era journey from the Dustbowl of Oklahoma to the California migrant labor camps in search of a ...read more
The home for unwanted girls : a novel
Genre:
Historical
In 1950s Quebec, French and English tolerate each other with precarious civility--much like Maggie Hughes' parents. Maggie's Engli...read more
The Immortalists
Genre:
Domestic fiction
It's 1969 in New York City's Lower East Side, and word has spread of the arrival of a mystical woman, a traveling psychic who clai...read more
The inconvenient Indian : a curious account of native people in North America
Genre:
Nonfiction
An illustrated edition of the award-winning, bestselling Canadian classic, featuring over 150 new images... At once a history and a subversi...read more
The innocents : a novel
Genre:
Historical Fiction
In the late 1800s, a brother and sister are orphaned in an isolated cove on Newfoundland's northern coastline. Their home is a stretch ...read more
The Nickel boys : a novel
Genre:
Historical Fiction
As the Civil Rights movement begins to reach the black enclave of Frenchtown in segregated Tallahassee, Elwood Curtis takes the words of Dr....read more
The right to be cold : one woman's story of protecting her culture, the Arctic, and the whole planet
Genre:
Autobiography
The Arctic ice is receding each year, but just as irreplaceable is the culture, the wisdom that has allowed the Inuit to thrive in the Far N...read more
The secret messenger
Genre:
Historical Fiction, Romance
Venice, 1943: The world is at war, and Stella Jilani is leading a double life. By day she works in the lion's den as a typist for the R...read more
The silent patient
Genre:
Thriller
Alicia Berenson's life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house ...read more
The skin we're in : a year of Black resistance and power
Genre:
Nonfiction
Desmond Cole's "The Skin I'm In" exposes the racist practices of the Toronto police force, detailing the dozens of times...read more
The spy who came in from the cold
Genre:
Spy fiction
A veteran spy wants to come in from the cold to retirement. He undertakes one last assignment in which he pretends defection and provides th...read more
The starless sea
Genre:
Romance
Zachary Ezra Rawlins is a graduate student in Vermont when he discovers a rare book hidden in the stacks. As he turns the pages, entranced b...read more
The tattooist of Auschwitz : a novel
Genre:
Historical Fiction
Imprisoned for over two and a half years, Lale witnesses horrific atrocities and barbarism but also incredible acts of bravery and compassio...read more
The turn of the key
Genre:
Mystery, Thriller
When Rebecca stumbles across an ad for a live-in nanny, she's looking for something else completely. But it seems like too good an oppo...read more
The turn of the screw
The Turn of the Screw tells of a nameless young governess sent to a country house to take charge of two orphans, Miles and Flora. Unsettled ...read more
The woman in the window
Genre:
Thriller
It isn't paranoia if it's really happening ... Anna Fox lives alone-- a recluse in her New York City home, drinking too much wine,...read more
The wonder
Genre:
Historical Fiction
A village in 1850s Ireland is baffled by Anna O'Donnell's fast. A little girl appears to be thriving after months without food, an...read more
The year of magical thinking
Genre:
Nonfiction, Autobiography
Several days before Christmas 2003, John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion saw their only daughter, Quintana, fall ill with what seemed at first...read more
This place : 150 years retold
Explore the past 150 years through the eyes of Indigenous creators in this graphic novel anthology. These stories are an emotional and enlig...read more
To speak for the trees : my life's journey from ancient Celtic wisdom to a healing vision of the forest
Genre:
Autobiography
Canadian botanist, biochemist and visionary Diana Beresford-Kroeger's "insights into the hidden life of trees have already sparked...read more
To the lighthouse
Genre:
Domestic fiction
For years now the Ramsays have spent every summer in their holiday home in Scotland, and they expect these summers will go on forever; but a...read more
Vi
Genre:
Fiction
En vietnamien, « Vi » désigne ce qui est infiniment petit, microscopiquement petit. Dans ce livre, Vi est le prénom d'une fillette, la ...read more
Washington Black : a novel
Genre:
Historical Fiction
Washington Black is an eleven-year-old field slave who knows no other life than the Barbados sugar plantation where he was born. When his ma...read more
We have always been here : a queer Muslim memoir
Genre:
Autobiography
A queer Muslim searches for the language to express her truest self, making peace with her sexuality, her family, and Islam.
Where the crawdads sing
Genre:
Coming of age
For years, rumors of the "Marsh Girl" have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. She's barefoot and...read more