Islington Reads

Our next Islington Reads book club meeting will be on Jan. 27, 2026 at 7 pm when we will welcome David Giuliano and discuss his book The Upending of Wendall Forbes.

Wendall and Ruby Forbes, married for more than fifty years, are confronting the vagaries of aging boomers: sleeplessness, loneliness, memory loss, fear that Ruby is showing signs of dementia, considering the pros and cons of ending life, and the failures of their generation.

A blizzard hits and a remarkable, perhaps unbelievable, band of strangers pay the Forbeses a visit. An indigenous Colombian refugee, his wife, an environmental academic and their child; a young man on an accidental journey quest; a teenage activist and her ten-year-old gay half-brother; and the voice of a sleep consultant in Indianapolis―they all take refuge in Wendall and Ruby’s home in the isolated town of Twenty-Six Mile House in northern Ontario.

The companionship of strangers, and a chance encounter with a foul-mouthed raven and talking lynx and her cub restore Wendall and Ruby’s hope for the future. This is a heartbreaking, funny, wise, and hopeful story.

David Giuliano was the 39th Moderator of the United Church of Canada and is an author, speaker and spiritual guide.

Join Islington Reads by visiting this page and you will be sent the meeting link.