We know it can be tough to find time and motivation to read, especially when school and work stressors are at their peak. These book clubs are all about building up a community of readers who encourage each other to read when they can as a way to decompress and learn together. Books can help us escape, heal, and broaden our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
These are low-barrier discussions, so feel free to join if you’re interested in a book even if you can’t commit to reading it all right now. Book club discussion questions will be accessible regardless of whether or not participants have started the book (or finished it!).
The SVPS Centre offers two different book clubs—learn more below. For both clubs, the first 15 participants will get a free copy of the chosen book.
UTSG: Restorative Reading
Restorative Reading is a book club that centres joy, compassion, and love. Together we’ll discuss books that focus on healing, care, and healthy, consensual relationships of all kinds.
Reading is resistance meets in-person at UTSG.
In 2026, Restorative Reading is reading People Change, by Vivek Shraya.
UTSC: Reading is Resistance
Reading is Resistance is a book club that explores difficult themes and challenges power structures through the discussion of book content. Together we’ll discuss books that deal directly with gender-based violence, racism, homophobia, and the powerful, radical forces that counter oppression.
Reading is Resistance meets in-person at UTSC.
In 2026, Reading is Resistance is reading Scarborough, by Catherine Hernandez.
Upcoming Sessions
About last year’s book club selection
2025 Registration Process
We launched Restorative Reading 2025 at Hart House, where the Hart House Literary and Library Committee’s Indigenous Book Club met to discuss three exceptional books from Indigenous authors.
Participants signed up for follow-up sessions on Braiding Sweetgrass from the SVPS Centre. After completing our registration form, they received emails from us shortly afterwards about book pick-ups and meeting reminders.
25 copies of the book were available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Readers were also welcome to join with their own copies!
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, a mother, and a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings—asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass—offer us gifts and lessons, even if we’ve forgotten how to hear their voices.
In a rich braid of reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.