It’s hard to believe, but our Community Book Club turns 10 in 2024! Picture the spring of 2014: our Program & Communications Coordinator, Jeanette, was working at Armchair Books, and started talking to our Public Services Librarian, Nadine, about a Book Club co-hosted by the library and the store. It only took a few months of scheming and dreaming to figure out, and on Wednesday, July 30, 2014, we held our first meeting, in beautiful Florence Petersen Park (tragically misspelled on our first poster!). Our first book? Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.
Over the years, we’ve read over 100 books together! From blockbuster memoirs to local short story collections and everything in between, there’s been a book for every reader. So, we’ve decided that we should determine our best pick EVER, and read it again for our 10th anniversary meeting.
The first step of this process is already done – in November 2023, our current Book Club members were given the full list of 102 titles, and voted to narrow this list down to 16 top-tier titles. Now, we’re calling on you, dear local readers, to determine the best of the best.
Image on the right: our first poster, typo and all.
Help us pick the best book EVER
In order to determine our most beloved Book Club pick, we’re using a Single-Elimination Tournament Bracket. If those words mean nothing to you, don’t worry – we had to learn about this too!
Basically, our top 16 books have been put into eight pairs, which you can see below. You’ll have a chance to vote on each of those pairs; the losing book from each pair is eliminated, leaving us with eight books. We’ll then make four pairs, then two, and we’ll be left with one book. (If you understand professional sports, you probably knew all of this already!)
Voting will take place in person at the library – you’ll spot a special display near the front desks starting on February 5. Or, you can email publicservices@whistlerlibrary.ca to submit your vote for each pairing. Keep reading to check out the pairings and when you’ll be able to vote.
The pairings
The second round of our competition is complete, so we’re moving into the next round, with four books remaining. Here are the new pairings and dates for voting:
Pair #1 – voting Monday, April 29 to Sunday, May 5
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
versus
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Pair #2 – voting Monday, May 6 to Sunday, May 12
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
versus
Five Little Indians by Michelle Good
The winners of these two pairings will go head-to-head the week of Monday, May 13!
Round two winners
Pair #1 winner: Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Educated by Tara Westover
versus
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Pair #2 winner: Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
versus
Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waub Rice
Pair #3 winner: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
versus
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Pair #4 winner: Five Little Indians by Michelle Good
Five Little Indians by Michelle Good
versus
Greenwood by Michael Christie
Round one winners
Pair #1 winner: Educated by Tara Westover
Becoming by Michelle Obama (read in January 2020)
versus
Educated by Tara Westover (read in March 2019)
Pair #2 winner: Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (read in April 2023)
versus
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman (read in July 2018)
Pair #3 winner: Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens (read in January 2021)
versus
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer (read in February 2021)
Pair #4 winner: Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waub Rice
Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice (read in February 2020)
versus
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (read in October 2019)
Pair #5 winner: The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune (read in November 2022)
versus
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (read in November 2021)
Pair #6 winner: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (read in 2015)
versus
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr (read in January 2023)
Pair #7 winner: Five Little Indians by Michelle Good
The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill (read in September 2015)
versus
Five Little Indians by Michelle Good (read in June 2022)
Pair #8 winner: Greenwood by Michael Christie
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles (read in January 2019)
versus
Greenwood by Michael Christie (April 2022)
What we've read
If you’re curious to explore all of the books we’ve read over the years, the full list is linked here! Click through to view the whole list, including a list for our books from 2023 onward.
