This book club at the Parkville library has been around for at least five years, through deaths, bouts with cancer and other trials. An  international flavor (including members from Ireland and Guyana) and diversity of backgrounds "is what makes the club so rich," says Rosemary McFarland. 'We have radically different points of view."

Now reading: Pleasurable Kingdom by Jonathan Balcombe

Liked a lot: The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie and Ina Rilke, and Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

Not so much: Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain, The Dive from Clausen's Pier by Ann Packer