CCR Book Club - September 22, 2026

The first meeting of the 2026-27 season will discuss "What We Can Know" by Ian McEwan. Globo describes the novel as "a masterpiece, a fictional tour de force that reclaims the present from our sense of looming catastrophe, and imagines a future world where all is not quite lost."

When: Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026
Time: 6 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 food you'll be bringing.
Further info & RSVP: canadarome@gmail.com ATTN Lucy. As space is limited, reservation is compulsory.

CCR Book Club - June 18, 2026

The last novel to be discussed in the 2025-2026 club season is "Pick a Colour" by Souvankham Thammavongsa. Bloomsbury says that this novel, "told over a single day with razor-sharp precision and wit... confirms Souvankham Thammavongsa's place as literature's premier chronicler of the immigrant experience, in its myriad, complex, and slyly subversive forms." 

When: Thursday, June 18, 2026
Time: 5:30 p.m.
Where: Private residence of CCR member (Piazza Cavour area). Exact address sent to confirmed participants by email. Open only to current members of the CCR. 
Potluck: Please let Lucy know what food you'll be bringing.
Further info & RSVP: canadarome@gmail.com ATTN Lucy. As space is limited, reservation is compulsory.

CCR Book Club - December 14, 2025

NB: Full/wait list open.

The CCR Book Club's Christmas-themed gathering will be a jovial lunchtime potluck around a discussion of the novel "The Berry Pickers" by Amanda Peters. In this story, a four-year-old Mi’kmaq girl goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, in a mystery that haunts the survivors, unravels a community, and remains unsolved for nearly fifty years. Themes include the search for truth, the shadow of trauma, and the persistence of love across time.

When: Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025

Time: 1 p.m.

Where: Private residence of CCR member (Villa Pamphili area). Exact address sent to confirmed participants by email. Open only to current members of the CCR. 

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

Further info & RSVP: canadarome@gmail.com ATTN Lucy. As space is limited, reservation is compulsory.

CCR Book Club - September 18, 2025

The CCR Book Club's will be discussing their summer reading, "My Father’s House" by Joseph O’Connor, over aperitivo snacks and drinks. This literary thriller is set during World War II in Nazi-occupied Rome, as an Irish priest strives to smuggle the persecuted out of the country.

When: Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025

Time: 6:00 p.m.

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

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

Further info & RSVP: canadarome@gmail.com ATTN Lucy. As space is limited, reservation is compulsory.

CCR Book Club - May 27, 2025

"Black River" by Nilanjana Roy has been chosen as the CCR Book Club's May book. Both a "riveting murder mystery" and an "elegy for India," this novel touches on issues of politics, class, religion, friendship, grief and revenge.

When: Tuesday, May 27, 2025

Time: 6 p.m.

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

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

Further info & RSVP: canadarome@gmail.com ATTN Lucy. As space is limited, reservation is compulsory.

CCR Book Club - February 23, 2025

The CCR Book Club's February book choice is "Baumgartner" by Paul Auster. The celebrated novelist's 2023 creation features, according to the Guardian review, a sort of alter-ego reflecting "on the mind-body problem" of ageing and loss.

When: Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025

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. As space is limited, reservation is compulsory.

CCR Book Club - December 15, 2024

The CCR Book Club's Christmastime meeting will be a cozy lunchtime get-together. The group has decided to discuss a Christmas tale, "Brightly Shining" by Ingvild Rishoi (translated by Caroline Waight).  According to the New York Times, this short novel is "an emotionally packed little gem" that includes a "dose of Christmas magic."

When: Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024

Time: 1 p.m.

Where: Private residence of CCR member (Villa Pamphili area); 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. As space is limited, reservation is compulsory.

CCR Book Club - November 21, 2024

The novel chosen for discussion in November is "Horse" by Geraldine Brooks.

The narrative moves between the perspective of a biracial British son of diplomats who is a grad student in the U.S. studying "the equestrian art of the antebellum south" and the life of the enslaved stableman and racehorse depicted in a painting 160 years before. As both the Guardian review and that of the Atlantic point out, the fact the novel is written by a white Australian-American woman is both a bold and controversial undertaking. "Brooks signals that she enters her latest project knowingly. A gauntlet has been thrown, and she will take it up."

When: Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024

Time: 6 p.m.

Where: Private residence of CCR member (San Paolo-Marconi area); 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. As space is limited, reservation is compulsory.

CCR Book Club - October 27, 2024

The October meeting will be a Sunday afternoon affair! Viola Ardone's "The Children's Train" will be the topic of discussion. It is available in English and the original Italian version.

When: Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024

Time: 3 p.m.

Where: Private residence of CCR member (Piazza Bologna area); 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. As space is limited, reservation is compulsory.

CCR Book Club - September 19, 2024

You can start reading "An Unthinkable Thing" (2022) by Nicole Lundrigan over the summer to prepare for the first CCR Book Club get-together of the 2024-2025 season.

In this eighth novel by Canadian author Nicole Lundrigan, the reader is faced with the following question: could an eleven-year-old boy really have committed cold-blooded murder? Set against the backdrop of the late 1950s, a tragedy brings the boy to the home of a ‘perfect’ family until, according to Penguin Random House, "a horrifying moment changes everything." The novel was shortlisted for Best Crime Novel by the Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence and was one of CBC Book’s Fiction Books to Watch for.

When: Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024

Time: 6 p.m.

Where: Private residence of CCR member (Flaminio area); 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. As space is limited, reservation is compulsory.

CCR Book Club - June 20, 2024

"The Hummingbird" by Sandro Veronesi (Il colibrì in the original Italian, 2019) has been chosen for the last get-together of the book club season. The Guardian review review says "This time-hopping, form-swapping story about a man pummelled by events shows the Italian author at the height of his powers."

When: Thursday, June 20, 2024

Time: 6 p.m.

Where: Private residence of CCR member (San Paolo-Marconi area); 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. As space is limited, reservation is compulsory.

CCR Book Club - May 21, 2024

In May, the club is going to discuss "Demon Copperhead" by Barbara Kingsolver. This Pulitzer Prize-winner for 2023 is the story of a boy born into poverty in Appalachia who dreams of being a Marvel Comics superhero. In this homage to the classic "David Copperfield" the author weaves a story that critiques an American social system that not simply fails to lift up, but actually dooms, those entrapped by poverty and drug addiction.

When: Tuesday, May 21, 2024

Time: 6 p.m.

Where: Private residence of CCR member (near Piazza Cavour); 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 - April 24, 2024

"Black Water Lilies" by Michel Bussi ("Nymphéas noirs" in French) is the book pick for the month of April. One reviewer said "this very stylish crime novel" celebrates "sensuous and cerebral pleasures to get down and dirty with crime scene decomposition and suchlike. The Frenchman writes with chutzpah and all the more so as the audacious story develops."

When: Wednesday, April 24, 2024

Time: 5 p.m.
Where: Private residence of CCR member (Quartiere Flaminio); 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 - March 24, 2024

A novel about a photographer killed during the 1980s civil war in Sri Lanka who finds himself in a surprising Buddhist afterlife, "The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida" by Shehan Karunatilaka won the Booker Prize in 2022. The Guardian review praised the "mordant wit and surrealism" of the CCR Book Club's pick for March.

When: Sunday, Mar. 24th, 2024

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 - January 21, 2024

The CCR Book Club's first novel choice of the year is "The Lincoln Highway" by Amor Towles. This story of young men travelling across the United States in the 1950s is both fast-paced and moving.

When: Sunday, Jan. 21st, 2024

Time: 1 p.m.

Where: Private residence of CCR member (Pantheon area); 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 - 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 - November 18, 2023

"Nowhere Girl: A Memoir of a Fugitive Childhood" by Cheryl Diamond is the CCR Book Club's pick for discussion in November. It "tells the harrowing story of how crippling a childhood can be under the despotic narcissistic rule of a controlling father" as it describes the protagonist's life on the run, though, according to the New York Journal of Books, she "eventually finds her freedom through books" and inner strength.

When: Saturday, Nov. 18, 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 - June 13, 2023

At the June meeting, the CCR Book Club is going to discuss "The Marriage Portrait" by Maggie O’Farrell. This "dark Renaissance fable" is, as explained by the Guardian review, a novel inspired by a poem which is in turn inspired by the tragic life and death of Lucrezia de' Medici. 

When: Tuesday, June 13, 2023

Time: 7 p.m.

Where: Private residence of CCR member in the Gianicolo/Monteverde Vecchio area; 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. As space is limited, reservation is compulsory.

CCR Book Club - May 24, 2023

In May the CCR Book Club will have a potluck meal in the early evening to discuss "Small Things Like These" by Claire Keegan. This work of historical fiction is set in a small Irish town in the period leading up to Christmas, when the protagonist is confronted with the realities of the country's infamous Magdalene Laundries.

When: Wednesday, May 24, 2023

Time: 6 p.m.
Where: Private residence of CCR member in the Piazza Cavour area; 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. As space is limited, reservation is compulsory.

CCR Book Club - April 23, 2023

The Canadian Club of Rome Book Club is going to meet at lunchtime in April so that we can take advantage of sunny spring weather! "Trust" by Hernan Diaz will be the focus of discussion. This novel in the historical fiction genre is set during the Great Depression. The Guardian review describes it as "a collection of four manuscripts at different stages of completion... [that] tell different versions of the story of a Wall Street businessman and his wife," revealing "the book’s central obsession: the creepy similarities between the worlds of fiction and finance" and "our weakness for self-deception."

When: Sunday, Apr. 23, 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. As space is limited, reservation is compulsory.