Books and Meetings 2026

As of May 2026, the format of the blog for the Muse & Views Bookclub is being modified .  There will no longer be a resumé of the member comments from each meeting. The first page you will see on the blog is the list of books read and to be read for the current year.  Each book title will be  in red and when you "click" on the title, it will bring you to the Goodreads description of the book and for this year only, the resumé of member comments before May.   

The resumé of comments before May 2026 are still available. On the right hand side, you can click on the year you wish to consult and it will bring you to that year's list. 

This list will be updated as members choose their book. 

January 26  - Betty's choice, The Undertaker's Assistant by Amanda Skenandore - Marg hosts

February 23 - Colette's choice, The Maid by Anita Prose - Carla hosts

March 23 - Sharon's choice,   - Tom Lake  by Ann Patchett, Cathy hosts

April 27 - Marg's choice,   - Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano - Michèle hosts

May 25 - Michèle's choice, Pick a Colour by Souvankham Thammavongsa - Colette hosts

June 22 - Carla's choice - The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict - Kathleen hosts

September 28 - Kathleen's choice - The Air Raid Bookclub by Annie Lyons - Sharon hosts

October 26 - Book Club choice - Theo of Golden by Allen Levi - Michèle hosts

November 23 - Cathy's choice - The Spoon Stealers by Lesley Crewe - Betty hosts

The Spoon Stealer - by Leslie Crewe - November 23, 2026

Born into a basket of clean sheets—ruining a perfectly good load of laundry—Emmeline never quite fit in on her family's rural Nova Scotian farm. After suffering multiple losses in the First World War, her family became so heavy with grief, toxicity, and mental illness that Emmeline felt their weight smothering her. And so, she fled across the Atlantic and built her life in England. Now she is retired and living in a small coastal town with her best friend, Vera, an excellent conversationalist. Vera is also a small white dog, and so Emmeline is making an effort to talk to more humans. When she joins a memoir-writing course at the library, her classmates don't know what to make of her. Funny, loud, and with a riveting memoir, she charms the lot. As her past unfolds for her audience, friendships form, a bonus in a rather lonely life. She even shares with them her third-biggest secret: she has liberated hundreds of spoons over her lifetime—from the local library, Cary Grant, Winston Churchill. She is a compulsive spoon stealer. 

When Emmeline unexpectedly inherits the farm she grew up on, she knows she needs to leave her new friends and go see the farm and what remains of her family one last time. She arrives like a tornado in their lives, an off-kilter Mary Poppins bossing everyone around and getting quite a lot wrong. But with her generosity and hard-earned wisdom, she gets an awful lot right too. A pinball ricocheting between people, offending and inspiring in equal measure, Emmeline, in her final years, believes that a spoonful—perhaps several spoonfuls—of kindness can set to rights the family so broken by loss and secrecy. 

The Spoon Stealer is a classic Crewe book: full of humour, family secrets, women's friendship, lovable animals, and immense heart.

Theo of Golden by Allen Levi - October 26, 2026

One spring morning, a stranger arrives in the small southern city of Golden. No one knows where he has come from…or why…

His name is Theo. And he asks a lot more questions than he answers. 

Theo visits the local coffeehouse, where ninety-two pencil portraits hang on the walls, portraits of the people of Golden done by a local artist. He begins purchasing them, one at a time, and putting them back in the hands of their “rightful owners.” With each exchange, a story is told, a friendship born, and a life altered.

A story of giving and receiving, of seeing and being seen, Theo of Golden is a beautifully crafted novel about the power of creative generosity, the importance of wonder to a purposeful life, and the invisible threads of kindness that bind us to one another.