CCR Book Club - December 17, 2023

The CCR Book Club's holiday season meeting will be at lunchtime. The group will discuss "A World of Curiosities" by Louise Penny, a best-selling detective story set in Quebec in the 18th century. 

When: Sunday, Dec. 17, 2023

Time: 1 p.m.

Where: Private residence of CCR member; exact address sent to confirmed participants by email. Open only to current members of the CCR. 

Potluck: Please let Lucy know what you'll be bringing.

Further info & RSVP: canadarome@gmail.com ATTN Lucy.

CCR Book Club - July 3, 2016

Our last meeting of the 2015-2016 season will take place on a beautiful terrace at lunchtime. It will be a truly special end to the CCR Book Club season and an opportunity to plan our summer reading!

At this get-together we'll be discussing "Telex from Cuba" by Rachel Kushner. The Guardian review calls it "epic and enjoyable: the style is lush and precise; the parties and cookouts, the drinks and affairs are beautiful and poignant, full of the pleasures of wealth overshadowed by loss." 

When: Sunday, July 3, 2016
Time: 12:30 p.m.
Where: Piazza Cavour area -- exact address sent to confirmed participants by email.
Potluck Dinner: Please RSVP letting Nicoletta know what dish you will be preparing for 6 people.
Further info & RSVP: canadarome@gmail.com ATTN Nicoletta Barbarito.

CCR Book Club - May 25, 2016

For its May meeting, Canadian Club of Rome book club members will be reading "A Constellation of Vital Phenomena" by Anthony Marra. The Washington Post review calls it "a flash in the heavens that makes you look up and believe in miracles."

When: Wednesday, May 25, 2016
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Where: Piazza Vittorio area -- exact address sent to confirmed participants by email.
Potluck Dinner: Please RSVP letting Nicoletta know what dish you will be preparing for 6 people.
Further info & RSVP: canadarome@gmail.com ATTN Nicoletta Barbarito.

CCR Book Club - November 20, 2015

The CCR Book Club's choice for the month of November is "The Other Side of You" by Salley Vickers, which the Guardian describes as a "remarkable, life-affirming story of love and loss" told through the lens of a therapist-patient relationship.

When: Friday, November 20, 2015
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Where: Gianicolo/Viale Trastevere area -- exact address sent to confirmed participants by email.
Potluck Dinner: Please RSVP letting Nicoletta know what dish you will be preparing for 6 people.
Further info & RSVP: canadarome@gmail.com ATTN Nicoletta Barbarito

CCR Book Club - October 21, 2015

At our October meeting we'll be discussing "Three Day Road" by Canadian author Joseph Boyden. Set in the late 19th century and during the First World War, the novel revolves around the lives of two young Cree men who become snipers and scouts in the horrors of trench warfare and of the aunt of one of the two, who goes to pick up and bring home her nephew, who returns from the front without a leg, with a morphine addiction and with many battle scars, both physical and existential.

When: Wednesday, October 21, 2015
Time: 7:30 p.m. 
Where: Piazza Vittorio area -- exact address sent to confirmed participants by email. 
Potluck Dinner: Please RSVP letting Nicoletta know what dish you will be preparing for 6 people. 
Further info & RSVP: canadarome@gmail.com ATTN Nicoletta Barbarito

CCR Book Club - December 17, 2014

In December the CCR Book Club is going to discuss "Missing Person" (original French title "Rue des Boutiques Obscures") by 2014 Nobel Prize for Literature winner Patrick Modiano. As usual, the evening will include both a discussion of the novel and a jovial potluck supper.

When: Wednesday, December 17, 2014
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Where: Piazza di Donna Olimpia area -- exact address sent to confirmed participants by email.
Potluck Dinner: Please RSVP letting Nicoletta know what dish you will be preparing for 6 people.
Further info & RSVP: canadarome@gmail.com ATTN Nicoletta Barbarito

CCR Book Club - November 13, 2013

The CCR's group of avid readers has grown to record numbers! After a lively discussion of October's book pick and a hearty potluck meal, a new selection was chosen for November: "The Yacoubian Building" by Egyptian author Alaa al-Aswany.

When: Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Time: 7:30 p.m. 

Where: Piazza Bologna area; exact address sent to confirmed participants
Pot Luck Dinner: Please RSVP letting Nicoletta know what dish you will be preparing for 6 people
Further info & RSVP: canadarome@gmail.com ATTN Nicoletta Barbarito

CCR Book Club - May 13, 2013

In May the CCR Book Club group will be reading and discussing The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka. "A small jewel of a book," according to The Guardian review, this novel tells the story of Japanese women sent as mail-order brides to the United States between the first and second world wars.

When: Monday, May 13, 2013
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Where: Piazza Bologna area; details sent to confirmed participants
Pot Luck Dinner: Please RSVP letting Nicoletta know what dish you will be preparing for 6 people
Further info & RSVP: canadarome@gmail.com ATTN Nicoletta Barbarito

CCR Book Club - January 22, 2013

The bookclub meeting in December was delightful, with a blazing fireplace, glittering decorations and a most festive atmosphere. The book was interesting as it provided abundant information about Caravaggio's life and times, in particular about the painstaking, multi-faceted procedure required to have a painting of uncertain provenance be finally ascertained as a master's authentic work.

At CCR book club meeting in January, we will be discussing "The Bastard of Istanbul" by Elif Shafak.

When: Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2013
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Where: Via Nazionale area, details sent to confirmed participants
Pot Luck Dinner: Please RSVP letting Nicoletta know what dish you will be preparing for 6 people
Further info & RSVP: canadarome@gmail.com ATTN Nicoletta Barbarito 

CCR Book Club - October 17, 2012

Our Book Club is a great way to find out about new books and to read and discuss them among friends.

This is how the Book Club works: the members suggest titles they are interested in reading, we pick one title a month and then meet for an informal discussion over a pot luck dinner on a Wednesday every month. Dinners rotate through the member's homes. We also bring books we do not want returned and swap them at our meetings.

Club members are responsible for obtaining their own copies of the book each month. This is our 8th year running; you can find our past reading lists on the blog archived under CCR Resources. Choices reflect contemporary fiction from around the world. We read through about 8 titles a season, with at least 2 coming from Canadian authors. Everyone is welcome but participation requires reading the book chosen for the month.

Our first meeting of the season:

When: Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012
Time: 7:30pm
Where: Villa Torlonia area, details sent to confirmed participants
Pot Luck Dinner: Please RSVP letting me know what dish you will be preparing for 6 people
RSVP: canadarome@gmail.com ATTN Nicoletta Barbarito

CCR Book Club - June 22, 2011

NB - DATE CHANGE
After numerous dates proposed and email exchanges, here it is! The final CCR Book Club meeting for this season.

The Book Club selection for this month is British author Ian McEwan's "Solar". Published this year it is the satirical story of an over-the-hill physicist who, through a freak accident, is given the chance to disentangle his personal life, rejuvenate his career and save the world from environmental disaster.

Date: Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Time: 7:30pm Pot Luck Dinner
Place: Address provided when participants RSVP
RSVP: cindi .emond@yahoo.ca and alessandra.tonazzi@gmail.com

Please let us know what you will be bringing for the pot luck dinner (a dish for 5-6 people)

CCR Book Club - Season 2010-2011

Dear CCR Book Enthusiasts,

Our Book Club will be launching our new season in October. Book Club is a great way to find out about new books and to read and discuss them among friends. We select eight books for the season from a list suggested by group members. We read one a month and then meet for a potluck dinner to discuss the book. The discussions are informal, there are no presentations. The group also trades copies of books they don't necessarily want to receive back. Everyone is welcome!

We welcome back old members and encourage new members to join us in discovering both new and familiar authors over the next eight months. Our first book for this year is "Deaf Sentence" by David Lodge (2008). The first meeting and dinner will be scheduled for the first week of October, details to follow.

Please contact Cindi Emond at canadarome@gmail.com for information.

CCR Book Club - June 2010

The last meeting for the season will be held Monday, June 21 at 7:30 pm at the house of Jeannine Ouimet to discuss "The Book of Negroes" by Canadian author Lawrence Hill.

When: Monday, June 21, 2010
Where: Jeannine Ouimet's home
RSVP: to Cindi by June 18th and let me know what you are able to bring
to the potluck dinner & discussion.
Contact me by e-mail at cindi.emond@yahoo.ca

Lawrence Hill's novel tells the story of Aminata Diallo, a woman kidnapped at the age of 11 from West Africa who lives through the height of slavery in the Americas. Along the ways she serves as a scribe to British forces during the American revolutionary war, is resettled to Nova Scotia and even makes a harrowing journey back to Africa. The title is inspired by an actual historical "Book of Negroes," that recorded the names of loyalist black slaves who could escape slavery in what would become the United States.

Look forward to seeing everyone there,

Cindi Emond

The following is a reprint of an article published in the National Post. Ron Nurwisah looks at one of the challenges facing the author and publishers of this month's pick.

Lawrence Hill's novel The Book of Negroes is a genuine hit in Canada. It may have
missed out on Canada's big literary awards, the Governor-General and the Giller, but it made up for it by winning the Commonwealth Writer's Prize and, more recently, this year's edition of Canada Reads.



Hill's novel tells the story of Aminata Diallo, a woman kidnapped at the age of 11 from West Africa who lives through the height of slavery in the Americas. Along the ways she serves as a scribe to British forces during the American revolutionary war, is resettled to Nova Scotia and even makes a harrowing journey back to Africa. The title is inspired by an actual historical "Book of Negroes," that recorded the names of loyalist black slaves who could escape slavery in what would become the United States.

The title would spark controversy in the U.S. Hill's editors and publishers in the U.S. got nervous about the word "negro." This, despite the historical context of the novel. The title was changed to the slightly more vague, definitely more prosaic Someone Knows My Name. Hill talks about the title controversy here and acknowledges that the word is not nearly as charged with history in Canada. He even goes as far to say that some readers may have stayed away from the book with its original title. That would've been a real tragedy.

When I began touring with the novel in some of the major US cities, literary African-Americans kept approaching me and telling me it was a good thing indeed that the title had changed, because they would never have touched the book with its Canadian title.

On to the covers. With the book's success, the Canadian cover is pretty familiar now but let's take a look at the foreign treatments. Despite the title change in the U.S., the American edition is actually quite handsome. The book pays homage to another great novel that explores African-American history, Edward Jones' The Known World, note the horizontal band at the bottom of both books. Both books were published by HarperCollins in the U.S. What's surprising is the spareness of copy on the American jacket. The book got some positive press in the U.S., so it's curious that HarperCollins chose not to take advantage of this.


The U.K. edition sticks closely to the American edition, but decides to go with Hill's original title. It discards that elegant design element at the bottom, probably because the homage to Edward Jones' might not be nearly as effective in that market.



Finally, there's the Australian edition, which takes an interesting tack and goes the "blockbuster" route. The cover almost makes you want to go see Someone Knows My Name the movie and one wonders whether a few Australian readers gave it a second glance because they may have missed a new art house flick and wanted to read the novel it was adapted from.

April 2, 2009
The Afterword
Postings from the literary world.
National Post

"Air-Bel" - Invitation to a Presentation

The Canadian Embassy is pleased to invite the CCR Book Club and the members of the Canadian Club of Rome to the presentation of Canadian author Rosemary Sullivan's recently published book:

Villa Air-Bel: World War II, Escape and a House in Marseille
(Air-Bel: Seconda Guerra Mondiale – Una casa in Francia per artisti in fuga )

When: May 20th, 2010

Time: Registration 10:30 AM
Presentation: 11:00 AM

Place: Embassy of Canada in Rome
via Salaria 243

a light, stand-up buffet lunch will follow

Villa Air-Bel: World War II, Escape, and a House in Marseille

France, 1940. The once glittering boulevards of Paris teem with spies, collaborators, and the Gestapo now that France has fallen to Hitler's Wermacht. For André Breton, Max Ernst, Marc Chagall, Consuelo de Saint-Exupéry, and scores of other cultural elite who have been denounced as enemies of the Third Reich the fear of imminent arrest, deportation, and death defines their daily life. Their only salvation is the Villa Air-Bel, a château outside Marseille where a group of young people will go to extraordinary lengths to keep them alive. A powerfully told, meticulously researched true story filled with suspense, drama, and intrigue, Villa Air-Bel delves into a fascinating albeit hidden saga in our recent history. It is a remarkable account of how a diverse intelligentsia—intense, brilliant, and utterly terrified—was able to survive one of the darkest chapters of the twentieth century.

Rosemary Sullivan has written poems, short stories, biographies, literary criticisms articles and works of non-fiction. She is the bestselling author of Labyrinth of Desire: Women, Passion, and Romantic Obsession and The Red Shoes: Margaret Atwood Starting Out. Her biography of Gwendolyn MacEwen, Shadow Maker, won the Governor General's Literary Award for nonfiction. A poet and a Professor of History and English Literature at the University of Toronto, Rosemary lives in Toronto with her husband.

In addition to Prof. Sullivan, other speakers will include Anna Foa, Professor of Modern History at the Università di Roma "La Sapienza", and the Roman journalist and author, Luciano Tas. The audience will consist of other historians and journalists, students, Italian government officials and representatives of NGOs, religious communities and foreign diplomats posted to Rome. The event will also include the screening of "The Road Out", a 10-minute documentary on "Villa Air-Bel" featuring Rosemary Sullivan. The debate will feature a discussion of human rights, inter-ethnic and ideological tolerance and the role of intellectuals and artists in modern society. The presentations will be made in English by Prof. Sullivan and in Italian by Prof. Foa and Mr. Tas, with consecutive translation of Prof. Sullivan's presentation to the audience.

We look forward to your participation and ask that Club members confirm their registration as soon as possible, but no later than the morning of May 18th.
RSVP to: peter.egyed@international.gc.ca.

For the information of members planning to attend please note that only Rosemary Sullivan will be speaking in English with translation into Italian. The Italian speakers will be translated in English only for Prof. Sullivan's benefit.

Please note that Villa Air Bel is the current read for our CCR Book Club.

CCR Book Club - April 2010

The Book Club's next book is Rosemary Sullivan's "Villa Air Bel" and the meeting will be scheduled for the end of April, the date to be agreed upon by the group.

Canadian author Rosemary Sullivan will be presenting her book "Villa Air-Bel: World War II, Escape and a House in Marseille" at a press conference at the Canadian Embassy on May 20, 2010 to launch the Italian edition of her celebrated novel. In addition to the CCR Book Club, and literary critics, the Embassy will also be inviting a group of students from the University of Bologna. CCR members and guests are invited to participate at the conference and can do so by RSVP'ing to Peter Egyed at peter.egyed@international.gc.ca. The conference should take place on the afternoon of May 20th, details to follow.

Villa Bel-Air: A brief description

France, 1940. The once glittering boulevards of Paris teem with spies, collaborators, and the Gestapo now that France has fallen to Hitler's Wermacht. For André Breton, Max Ernst, Victor Serge, Marc Chagall, Consuelo de Saint-Exupéry, Remedios Varo, Benjamin Péret, and scores of other cultural elite denounced as enemies of the Third Reich, fear and uncertainty define daily life. One wrong glance, one misplaced confidence, could mean arrest, deportation, and death. Their only salvation is the Villa Air-Bel, a château outside Marseille where a group of young people will go to extraordinary lengths to keep them alive.

Financed by the Emergency Rescue Committee, a private American relief organization, unlikely heroes—feisty graduate student Miriam Davenport, Harvard-educated classical scholar Varian Fry, beautiful and compelling heiress Mary Jayne Gold, and brilliant young Socialist and survivor of the Battle of Dunkerque Danny Bénédite and his British wife, Theo—cajole, outwit, and use every means possible to stave off the Nazis and newly installed Vichy government officials circling closer with each passing day. The château was a vibrant artistic salon, home to lively debates and clandestine affairs, to Sunday art auctions and subversive surrealist games. Relationships within the house were tense and arguments were common, but the will to survive kept the covert operation under wraps. Beyond the château's luscious façade war raged, yet hope reverberated within its halls. With the aid of their young rescuers, this diverse intelligentsia—intense, brilliant, and utterly terrified—was able to survive one of the darkest chapters of the twentieth century.

Villa Air-Bel is a powerfully told, meticulously researched true story. Rosemary Sullivan explores the diaries, memoirs, and letters of the individuals involved while uncovering their private worlds and the web of relationships they developed. Filled with suspense, drama, and intrigue, Villa Air-Bel is an excellent work of narrative nonfiction that delves into a fascinating albeit hidden saga in our recent history.


Rosemary Sullivan - A Profile

Rosemary Sullivan is an award-winning writer, journalist, a Canada Research Chair at the University of Toronto in Creative Non-fiction and Biographical Studies, and the director of the MA Program in English in the Field of Creative Writing, who has taught at universities in France, India and Canada. Born in Montreal, she received her B.A. from McGill University, an M.A. from the University of Connecticut and a Ph.D. from the University of Sussex. She has travelled widely in Europe and Latin America, and has published in numerous magazines and literary journals, including Saturday Night, Toronto Life, This Magazine, Quill & Quire, The Malahat Review, Descant, and Books in Canada. She has taught at universities in France, India and British Columbia, and is currently a Professor of English at the University of Toronto.

Her latest book, Villa Air-Bel: World War II, Escape and a House in Marseille (HarperCollins) won the Canadian Jewish Book Prize for Non-Fiction in 2006. It was published in Canada, the U.S., England, Spain, Brazil, and the Czech Republic and is scheduled to appear in Italy. She is the author of eleven books including Cuba: Grace Under Pressure with photographs by Malcolm David Batty (2003); Labyrinth of Desire: Women, Passion, and Romantic Obsession (2001) published in Canada, the U.S., England, Spain, and Latin America; and the national best seller The Red Shoes: Margaret Atwood Starting Out (1998).Her 1995 biography Shadow Maker: The Life of Gwendolyn MacEwen won the Governor General's Award for Non-Fiction, the Canadian Author's Association Literary Award for Non-Fiction, the University of British Columbia's Medal for Canadian Biography, the City of Toronto Book Award and was nominated for the Trillium prize. It became the basis for Brenda Longfellow's award-winning documentary Shadow Maker (1998). Sullivan's first biography, By Heart: Elizabeth Smart/A Life (1991) was nominated for the Governor General's Award for Non-Fiction. Her first poetry collection The Space a Name Makes (1986) won the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. In 2001, Black Moss Press released Memory-Making: The Selected Essays of Rosemary Sullivan that included essays published in Canadian and International magazines.


Her journalistic pieces have won her a National Magazine Awards silver medal and a Western Journalism Awards first prize for travelogue. She is the recipient of Guggenheim, Killam, and Jackman fellowships. In 2008, she was the recipient of the Lorne Pierce Medal from the Royal Society of Canada for her distinguished contribution to Canadian literature and culture. A Montrealer by birth, Rosemary Sullivan received her B.A. from McGill University, her M.A. from the University of Connecticut, and her Ph.D. from theUniversity of Sussex.


Happy Reading,

Cindi Emond

CCR Book Club - February 2010

Book Club is a great way to find out about new books and to read and discuss them among friends. This is how the Book Club works, our members have suggested titles they are interested in reading and the group picks from these titles.We read one a month and then meet for a potluck dinner to discuss the book. Our discussions are informal, there are no presentations. The group also trades copies of books they don't necessarily want to receive back. Everyone is welcome!

Our February book will be "The History of the Siege of Lisbon" by Portuguese author Jose Saramago, published in 1989 (in translation in 1996) and our meeting is going to be held on February 24. Saramago, born in Portugal in 1922, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1998.

When: February 24, 2010
Time: 7:30pm
Where: Evelyn Beller's house
Via Di Bravetta, 494
Interno 17
Name on answerphone: Palmieri Beller
Phone: Evelyn's cell is 338 177 5974
RSVP: by Friday Feb 19 to cindi.emond@yahoo.ca and send an sms to Evelyn telling her what you are bringing for our pot luck dinner

Notes from the book jacket:

The protagonist of this story is Raimundo Silva, an innocuous bachelor who has chosen the safe occupation of proof reader at a distinguished publishing house. One day he inexplicably takes it upon himself to alter a key word in a history text. His alteration leads him into an affair of the heart that changes the course of European history. Around a seemingly minor incident José Saramago has constructed one of his most ambitious, sweeping novels to date: a broad, multifaceted tableau involving meditations on historiography, the uses and abuses of language, and the life under authoritarian rule. This rollicking love story is a delight.

"The Book of Negroes" by Canadian author Lawrence Hill, 2007 will be our March pick. Remember to order your copies in time to read them!

CCR Book Club members at January's pot luck: (left to right) Cindi Emond, Françoise Rastel, Jeannine Ouimet, Linda Champoux Ares, Nicoletta Barbarito, Evelyn Beller, Alice Crocco and Silia Fasciani.

CCR Book Club - January 2010

Book Club is a great way to find out about new books and to read and discuss them among friends. This is how the Book Club works, our members have suggested titles they are interested in reading and the group has made 4 of the 8 selections from these titles. We read one a month and then meet for a potluck dinner to discuss the book. Our discussions are informal, there are no presentations. The group also trades copies of books they don't necessarily want to receive back. Everyone is welcome!

We are meeting on Wedesday, January 27 at CCR member Linda Champoux's home for our potluck dinner and discussion of the January book pick: "Dreams of My Russian Summers" by Russian author Andrei Makine. The author wrote the novel in French and it was published in 1995 under the original title " Le Testament Français". It was then translated into English in 1997 by Geoffrey Strachan.

Meeting: January 27, 2010

Place: Linda's house


Time: 7:30 pm

RSVP: By Friday January 22 to Cindi Emond at cindi.emond@yahoo.ca

Please let me know what you will be bringing.

Two books to follow will be "The History of the Siege of Lisbon" by Portuguese author Jose Saramago, (right) published in 1989 (in translation in 1996) and "The Book of Negroes" by Canadian author Lawrence Hill, 2007. We have still to decide on 4 more titles. Remember to order your copies in time to read them!

CCR Book Club

Dear CCR Book Enthusiasts,

Our Book Club is a great way to find out about new books and to read and discuss them among friends. We select eight books for the season from a list suggested by group members. We read one a month and then meet for a potluck dinner to discuss the book. the discussions are informal, there are no presentations. The group also trades copies of books they don't necessarily want to receive back. Everyone is welcome!

A big welcome to the new and old members, we had our first meeting November 18 where we discussed we Monica Ali's "In The Kitchen".

Our December book is "March" by Australian author Geraldine Brooks, published 2005. We will be meeting on Monday, December 21, 2009. Details to follow shortly.

Other books we have chosen for this season are "Dreams of My Russian Summers" by Russian author Andrei Makine published in translation 1995, for our January meeting. Two books to follow will be "The History of the Siege of Lisbon" by Portuguese author Jose Saramago, published in translation 1996 and "The Book of Negroes" by Canadian author Lawrence Hill, 2007. Please get your copies ordered to allow you enough time to read them.

Contact me with any questions at canadarome@gmail.com

Cindi Emond
CCR Book Club