Posted on 31 July 2025 by Chris Brown.
For Marty, whose heart belongs to both the road and the page.
May your journeys always lead to wonder, and your stories never find an end.
In every passport stamp and well-worn book spine, you carry the spirit of adventure—quiet, curious, and endlessly alive.
This is for the woman who finds home in faraway places and in the turning of a page.
- The Best Book Club Ever
Those words are found inside three book club kits available to borrow at Medicine Hat Public Library. It’s a fitting tribute to Marty Simmonds, whose death in January left a gaping hole in what members say is “The Best Book Club Ever.”
“It's just that once in a lifetime coming together of a bunch of great people that absolutely clicked and Marty was such an essential part of it,” says Donna Kirchner, who founded the club. “And I don't think a book club has passed since Marty passed that Marty isn't talked about in some way, shape or form.”
Marty passed away on book club meeting day, when the club was to discuss “Mad Honey” chosen by her at the previous meeting.
“We were all upset and we were all expecting to go to the meeting, so we all met at Dayz Off Pub just to have a drink and just talk about her and just be together, eat together,” club member Pam Francis says.
It was then that the group decided to donate to the library’s book club kits as a way to honour Marty and always have her remembered.
“We were very, very blessed in that, you know, to have eight women come together and click the way our group of women has clicked. We have laughed together, we've cried together, we've supported each other through family losses and family celebrations and grandchildren and different things. And it just felt right to do this,” Donna says emotionally.
The club donated $625, enough for the library to purchase kits for “American Dirt” by Jeanine Cummins, Louise Penny’s “Still Life” and “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” by Taylor Jenkins Reid. All three kits are now in circulation.
Many of the books the group read were borrowed from the library’s collection and Marty was such a huge library person that it just felt right to do this for her, says Pam.
Marty and the rest of "The Best Book Club Ever" met almost monthly - 10 times a year - for the past decade and read well over 100 books in that time. Pam and Donna both put “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” - one of the books donated for Marty - among their favourite books they’ve read in the club.
The group has read fiction and non-fiction from varying genres, including books they would have never picked up on their own.
“You know it's funny because some of the books that we didn't enjoy as a group or some did and some didn't, those tend to be the ones that we come back to and talk about them,” Donna says.
Marty was partially responsible for the name of the club too. Pam says they just called themselves “The Book Club” for the longest time. Some members were double-dipping though, spending time with other book clubs.
They avoided confusion in the simplest way possible.
“I was doing another one, but this was the best one,” Pam says.
As evidence of that, Donna points to the offer made by Marty’s husband at the funeral, offering their house whenever it is Marty’s turn to host.
She says it was touching that even in the midst of his own grief Corey recognized what a big part of Marty’s life book club was and what they as a group meant to each other.
“I don't know sometimes if our husbands get how excited we get,” she says. “Like, it's pretty rare that anybody misses book club. We move Heaven and Earth to be together once a month as a group, and it just touched me to my core that in his deep grief that Corey would think about us book club ladies”
The Best Book Club Ever, indeed.
Follow us on social media: @mhpubliclibrary
An early meeting of "The Best Book Club Ever."
The club meeting over Zoom during COVID.
Club members celebrating Halloween.