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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 mind spread out on the ground
Elliott, Alicia
A meditation on trauma, legacy, oppression and racism in North America... that asks essential questions about Native people in North America while drawing on intimate details of her own life and experience with intergenerational trauma,…
A new earth : awakening to your life's purpose
Tolle, Eckhart, 1948-
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 based on an erroneous identification with the egoic mind, is one of dangerous insanity. However, there…
A room with a view
Forster, E. M. (Edward Morgan), 1879-1970.
When Lucy Honeychurch meets George Emerson in a hotel in Florence, she is intrigued but wary. Lucy's chaperone, her strict and overbearing cousin Charlotte, disapproves of Emerson because he is free-thinking in his opinions, unconventional…
A tale of two cities
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870
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 the guillotine.
A walk in the woods
Bryson, Bill
Bryson relates the adventures and misadventures of two totally unfit hikers as he and longtime friend Stephen Katz traverse the 2,100-mile Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. Returning from more than twenty years in Britain, he set…
All my puny sorrows
Toews, Miriam, 1964-
Elf and Yoli are two smart, loving sisters leading very different lives. Elfreida is a renowned pianist, wealthy, and happily married. Her younger sister Yolandi is a writer, divorced, broke, and forever chasing after the wrong men in her…
All the light we cannot see : a novel
Doerr, Anthony 1973-
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 II. Marie Laure lives with her father in Paris within walking distance of the Museum of Natural…
All things consoled : a daughter's story
Hay, Elizabeth, 1951-
Hay's memoir about the shift she experienced between being her parents' daughter to their guardian and caregiver; a memoir that addresses the exquisite agony of family, the unstoppable force of dementia, and the inevitability of aging
Beethoven : le prix de la liberté
Penet, Régis
En 1806, Beethoven réside chez le prince Alois von Lichnowsky alors que les troupes napoléoniennes occupent l'Autriche. Le prince refuse de se comporter en vaincu et organise un dîner pour les officiers français, au cours duquel Beethoven…
Beloved
Morrison, Toni
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 of "Beloved." Sethe and Denver take her in and then strange things begin to happen. Set in rural…
Braiding sweetgrass : Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the teachings of plants
Kimmerer, Robin Wall
Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, and as a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings - asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass - offer us gifts and lessons, even if we've…
Brother
Chariandy, David, 1969-
Brother explores questions of masculinity, family, race, and identity as they are played out in a Scarborough housing complex during the sweltering heat and simmering violence of the summer of 1991.
Bunny
Awad, Mona
Samantha Heather Mackey couldn't be more of an outsider in her small, highly selective MFA program at New England's Warren University. A scholarship student who prefers the company of her dark imagination to that of most people, she is…
Calypso
Sedaris, David
Personal essays share the author's adventures after buying a vacation house on the Carolina coast and his reflections on middle age and mortality.
Clyde Fans : a picture-novel in five parts
Seth, 1962-
Twenty years in the making, Clyde Fans peels back the optimism of mid-twentieth century capitalism. Legendary Canadian cartoonist Seth lovingly shows the rituals, hopes, and delusions of a middle-class that has long ceased to exist in…
Conversations avec un enfant curieux : instantanés
Tremblay, Michel, 1942-
L'enfance de Michel Tremblay est un coffre aux trésors inépuisables. Bonbons assortis nous avait comblés de bonheur avec des récits sur Luis Mariano, le père Noël et les petits Chinois à vendre. Le dramaturge nous offre ici un bouquet d'…
Daisy Jones & the Six
Reid, Taylor Jenkins
A novel about the whirlwind rise of a world-famous 1970s rock group and their beautiful lead singer--and the secret reasons behind their dramatic break up. Daisy Jones is a beautiful, broken girl growing up in L.A. with rich parents who…
Dark August
Tallo, Katie
Augusta (Gus) Monet is living an aimless existence with her grifter boyfriend when she learns that her great grandmother—her last living relative—has just died. Ditching her boyfriend, Gus returns to the home she left as a young girl…
David Copperfield
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870
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 of eccentrics, innocents, and villains who number among the author's greatest creation.
Dépasser ses limites : 6 récits d'aventures
Côté, Caroline
Caroline Côté est une exploratrice, cinéaste d’aventure et ultra-marathonienne qui parcourt la planète dans des conditions extrêmes pour nous offrir des documentaires époustouflants. Dans cet ouvrage alliant son talent pour l’image à sa…
Dernier arrêt avant l'automne : roman
Frégni, René
Le narrateur, écrivain, a trouvé un travail idéal dans un village de Provence : gardien d'un monastère inhabité, niché dans les collines. Il s'y installe avec pour seule compagnie un petit chat nommé Solex. Un soir, en débroussaillant l'…
Do not say we have nothing : a novel
Thien, Madeleine, 1974-
A novel set in China before, during and after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, that takes us inside an extended family in China, showing us the lives of two successive generations--those who lived through Mao's Cultural Revolution in…
Educated : a memoir
Westover, Tara
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 end of the world by stockpiling home-canned peaches and sleeping with her 'head-for-the-hills bag…
Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine
Honeyman, Gail
Eleanor Oliphant struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she's thinking. That, combined with her unusual appearance (scarred cheek, tendency to wear the same clothes year in, year out), means that Eleanor has…
Exit west : a novel
Hamid, Mohsin, 1971-
In a country teetering on the brink of civil war, two young people meet--sensual, fiercely independent Nadia and gentle, restrained Saeed. They embark on a furtive love affair, thrust into premature intimacy by the unrest roiling their…
Farida : roman
Mazigh, Monia
Victime du patriarcat qui régissait la société tunisienne au siècle dernier, Farida va toutefois résister au rôle qu’on lui assigne, en devenant un exemple de résistance dans cette culture arabo-musulmane qui nie le pouvoir des femmes.…
Five little indians
Good, Michelle
Taken from their families when they are very small and sent to a remote, church-run residential school, Kenny, Lucy, Clara, Howie and Maisie are barely out of childhood when they are finally released after years of detention. Alone and…
Fleishman is in trouble : a novel
Brodesser-Akner, Taffy
Dr. Toby Fleishman wakes up each morning surrounded by women. Women who are self-actualized and independent and know what they want--and, against all odds, what they want is Toby. Who knew what kind of life awaited him once he finally…
From the ashes : my story of being Métis, homeless, and finding my way
Thistle, Jesse
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 as a toddler, Jesse Thistle briefly found himself in the foster-care system with his two brothers…
Fun home : a family tragicomic
Bechdel, Alison, 1960-
Alison Bechdel’s graphic memoir charts her fraught relationship with her late father. Distant and exacting, Bruce Bechdel was an English teacher and director of the town funeral home, which Alison and her family referred to as the "Fun…
Génération sandwich : roman
Koscielniak, Hélène
Lianne Ménard fait partie de la « génération sandwich », appelée à prendre soin simultanément de ses vieux parents et de ses enfants adultes. Entre les besoins de son père souffrant d'alzheimer, de ses enfants malheureux en couple et de sa…
Homes : a refugee story
al Rabeeah, Abu Bakr, 2001-
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 war. It recounts what it was like living in Syria during this time -- the normal things like video…
I know why the caged bird sings
Angelou, Maya
The author and poet recalls the anguish of her childhood in Arkansas and her adolescence in northern slums.
Immigrant city : stories
Bezmozgis, David, 1973-
In these stories Bezmozgis pleads no special causes but presents immigrant characters with all their contradictions and complexities, their earnest and divided hearts. In the title story, a father and his young daughter stumble into a…
Indian horse : a novel
Wagamese, Richard
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, from the horrors of residential school to his triumphs on the hockey rink, he must question…
Jane Eyre
Brontë, Charlotte, 1816-1855
"Orphan Jane's childhood is full of trouble, but her stubborn independence and sense of self help her to steer through the miseries inflicted by cruel relatives and a brutal school. A position as governess at Thornfield Hall promises a…
Kuessipan À toi : roman
Fontaine, Naomi, 1987
Kuessipan est un livre bouleversant qui nous fait découvrir le quotidien sur une réserve innue.
La fille dans l'écran
Lubie, Lou
Coline vit en France et rêve de devenir illustratrice. En quête d'inspiration, elle contacte Marley, une photographe installée au Canada qui a abandonné sa passion pour une vie sociale trépidante. Ces deux jeunes femmes que tout oppose…
La maison aux lilas : nouvelles
Henrie, Maurice, 1936-
Dans ce recueil de nouvelles, Maurice Henrie combine humour, réflexion et expérience de vie pour faire découvrir son monde, insolite et fascinant.
Le suspendu de Conakry
Rufin, Jean-Christophe, 1952-
Au terme d'une carrière diplomatique sans éclat, Aurel Timescu, consul de France, se retrouve mis à l'écart et décide d'user de sa position officielle pour dénouer des énigmes et combattre l'injustice. Un jour, un riche Français est…
Little fires everywhere
Ng, Celeste
In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is planned -- from the layout of the winding roads, to the colors of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this…
Ma vie avec Mozart
Schmitt, Éric-Emmanuel
A quinze ans, Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt souffre d'une grosse dépression et songe au suicide. Il est "sauvé" un soir en assistant par hasard aux répétitions des "Noces de Figaro", de Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. L'air de la Comtesse le…
Moon of the crusted snow : a novel
Rice, Waubgeshig, 1979-
With winter looming, a small northern Anishinaabe community goes dark. Cut off, people become passive and confused. Panic builds as the food supply dwindles. While the band council and a pocket of community members struggle to maintain…
Never let me go
Ishiguro, Kazuo, 1954-
Hailsham seems like a pleasant English boarding school, far from the influences of the city. Its students are well tended and supported, trained in art and literature, and become just the sort of people the world wants them to be. But,…
Night
Wiesel, Elie, 1928-2016
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 concentration camp, and then to Buchenwald. Night is the terrifying record of Elie Wiesel's…
Oliver Twist, or, The parish boy's progress
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870
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
Koul, Scaachi
A debut collection of essays about growing up the daughter of Indian immigrants in Canada, 'a land of ice and casual racism,' addressing sexism, cultural stereotypes and the universal miseries of life by the irreverent, hilarious and…
Parable of the sower
Butler, Octavia E
When global climate change and economic crises lead to social chaos in the early 2020s, California becomes full of dangers… Fifteen-year-old Lauren Olamina lives inside a gated community with her preacher father, family, and neighbors,…
Paul a un travail d'été
Rabagliati, Michel
Michel Rabagliati raconte ici les aventures estivales de Paul qui décroche son emploi, moniteur dans un camp de vacances. Ce dernier va apprendre au cours de l'été à dominer ses angoisses et ses peurs, à vivre en collectivité et à s'…
Pride and prejudice
Austen, Jane, 1775-1817
When Elizabeth Bennet first meets eligible bachelor Fitzwilliam Darcy, she thinks him arrogant and conceited; he is indifferent to her good looks and lively mind. When she later discovers that Darcy has involved himself in the troubled…
Raconter Vanier
Anciennement Eastview, fusionnée depuis 2001 avec Ottawa, Vanier demeure de nos jours le carrefour de la francophonie au sein de la capitale nationale. Lieu de naissance de l'écrivaine et artiste Andrée Christensen, de l'homme politique…
Sans Capote ni Kalachnikov : roman
Ndala, Blaise, 1972-
Rwenzori, Afrique des Grands Lacs, Petit Che et Fourmi Rouge se retrouvent catapultés dans un camp de démobilisation. Ils ressortent leurs carnets et traquent les ombres fuyantes du conflit armé le plus meurtrier depuis la fin de la…
Sense and sensibility
Austen, Jane, 1775-1817
Marianne Dashwood wears her heart on her sleeve, and when she falls in love with the dashing but unsuitable John Willoughby she ignores her sister Elinor's warning that her behaviour leaves her open to gossip. Meanwhile, Elinor is…
Station Eleven : a novel
Mandel, Emily St. John, 1979-
A novel about art, fame and ambition set in the eerie days of civilization's collapse. One snowy night a famous Hollywood actor slumps over and dies on-stage during a production of King Lear. Hours later, the world as we know it begins to…
Talking about death won't kill you : the essential guide to end-of-life conversations
Kortes-Miller, Kathy
This practical handbook will equip readers with the tools to have meaningful conversations about death and dying. Death is a part of life. We used to understand this, and in the past, loved ones generally died at home with family around…
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Hardy, Thomas, 1840-1928
The life of a simple country girl in nineteenth-century England is destroyed by her father's determination to use her in order to regain the family's former social standing.
The age of innocence
Wharton, Edith, 1862-1937
At the heart of the story are three people whose entangled lives are deeply affected by the tyrannical and rigid requirements of high society. Newland Archer, a restrained young attorney, is engaged to the lovely May Welland but falls in…
The art of racing in the rain : a novel
Stein, Garth
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 custody battle between daughter Zoe's maternal grandparents and her father Denny, a race car driver.
The break
Vermette, Katherena, 1977-
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 isolated strip of land outside her house -- she calls the police to alert them to a possible crime. In a…
The color purple : a novel
Walker, Alice, 1944-
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 pours out her feelings in letters to God, but has no one to talk to, until she meets a woman who…
The dutch house : a novel
Patchett, Ann
At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is to buy the Dutch…
The farm : a novel
Ramos, Joanne
Nestled in the Hudson Valley is a sumptuous retreat boasting every amenity: organic meals, private fitness trainers, daily massages -- and all of it for free. In fact, you get paid big money -- more than you've ever dreamed of -- just…
The flatshare
O'Leary, Beth
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. And cheap. But the apartments in her budget have her wondering if astonishingly colored mold on the…
The girl on the train
Hawkins, Paula
Rachel takes the same commuter train every day, rattling over the same junctions, flashing past the same townhouses. The train stops at the same signal every day, and she sees the same couple, breakfasting on their roof terrace. Jason and…
The grapes of wrath
Steinbeck, John, 1902-1968
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 better life.
The home for unwanted girls : a novel
Goodman, Joanna, 1969-
In 1950s Quebec, French and English tolerate each other with precarious civility--much like Maggie Hughes' parents. Maggie's English-speaking father has ambitions for his daughter that don't include marriage to the poor French boy the next…
The Immortalists
Benjamin, Chloe
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 claims to be able to tell anyone the day they will die. The Gold children--four adolescents on the cusp of self-…
The inconvenient Indian : a curious account of native people in North America
King, Thomas, 1943
An illustrated edition of the award-winning, bestselling Canadian classic, featuring over 150 new images... At once a history and a subversion of history, this book has launched a national conversation about what it means to be 'Indian' in…
The innocents : a novel
Crummey, Michael, 1965-
In the late 1800s, a brother and sister are orphaned in an isolated cove on Newfoundland's northern coastline. Their home is a stretch of rocky shore governed by the feral ocean, by a relentless pendulum of abundance and murderous scarcity…
The Nickel boys : a novel
Whitehead, Colson, 1969-
As the Civil Rights movement begins to reach the black enclave of Frenchtown in segregated Tallahassee, Elwood Curtis takes the words of Dr. Martin Luther King to heart: He is "as good as anyone." Abandoned by his parents, but kept on the…
The right to be cold : one woman's story of protecting her culture, the Arctic, and the whole planet
Watt-Cloutier, Sheila
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 North for so long. And it's not just the Arctic. The whole world is changing. Sheila Watt-Cloutier…
The secret messenger
Robotham, Mandy
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 Reich; by night, she risks her life as a messenger for the Italian resistance. Against all odds, Stella…
The silent patient
Michaelides, Alex, 1977-
Alicia Berenson's life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London's most desirable areas. One evening her husband…
The skin we're in : a year of Black resistance and power
Cole, Desmond, 1982-
Desmond Cole's "The Skin I'm In" exposes the racist practices of the Toronto police force, detailing the dozens of times Cole had been stopped and interrogated under the controversial practice of carding. Cole uses his newfound profile to…
The spy who came in from the cold
Le Carré, John, 1931-2020
A veteran spy wants to come in from the cold to retirement. He undertakes one last assignment in which he pretends defection and provides the enemy with sufficient evidence to label their leader a double agent.
The starless sea
Morgenstern, Erin
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 by tales of lovelorn prisoners, key collectors, and nameless acolytes, he reads something strange: a…
The tattooist of Auschwitz : a novel
Morris, Heather (Screenwriter)
Imprisoned for over two and a half years, Lale witnesses horrific atrocities and barbarism but also incredible acts of bravery and compassion. Risking his own life, he uses his privileged position to exchange jewels and money from murdered…
The turn of the key
Ware, Ruth
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 opportunity to miss—with a staggeringly generous salary. And when she arrives at Heatherbrae House, she is…
The turn of the screw
James, Henry, 1843-1916
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 by a dark foreboding of menace within the house, she soon comes to believe that something…
The woman in the window
Finn, A. J.
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, watching old movies ... and spying on her neighbors. Then the Russells move next door: a father, a mother,…
The wonder
Donoghue, Emma, 1969-
A village in 1850s Ireland is baffled by Anna O'Donnell's fast. A little girl appears to be thriving after months without food, and the story of this "wonder" has reached fever pitch. Tourists flock in droves to the O'Donnell family's…
The year of magical thinking
Didion, Joan
Several days before Christmas 2003, John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion saw their only daughter, Quintana, fall ill with what seemed at first flu, then pneumonia, then complete septic shock. She was put into an induced coma and placed on…
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 enlightening journey through Indigenous wonderworks, psychic battles, and time travel. See how…
To speak for the trees : my life's journey from ancient Celtic wisdom to a healing vision of the forest
Beresford-Kroeger, Diana, 1944-
Canadian botanist, biochemist and visionary Diana Beresford-Kroeger's "insights into the hidden life of trees have already sparked a quiet revolution in how we understand our relationship to forests. Now... she shows us how forests can not…
To the lighthouse
Woolf, Virginia, 1882-1941
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 as the First World War looms, the integrity of family and society will be fatally challenged.
Un parcours bispirituel :récit d’une aînée ojibwé-crie lesbienne
Chacaby, Ma-Nee, 1950-
Vi
Thúy, Kim
En vietnamien, « Vi » désigne ce qui est infiniment petit, microscopiquement petit. Dans ce livre, Vi est le prénom d'une fillette, la plus jeune soeur de trois grands frères, le « petit trésor » qui se retrouve malgré elle dans la grande…
Washington Black : a novel
Edugyan, Esi
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 master's eccentric brother chooses him to be his manservant, Wash is terrified of the cruelties he is…
We have always been here : a queer Muslim memoir
Habib, Samra
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
Owens, Delia
For years, rumors of the "Marsh Girl" have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. She's barefoot and wild; unfit for polite society. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals…