TBP HOME

Upcoming Book Clubs  |  Author Talks  | All Book Club Selections

BOOK CLUB

Join the Talking Book Program (TBP) Book Club for discussions, reviews, and information about books available in the Talking Book Program's collection.

TBP Book Club discussions are hosted via Zoom. You can join via landline, phone, smartphone, tablet, or computer. We will email you an “one click” number or direct link to join the discussion. Patrons who register for the discussion will receive this information a week before the Book Club meeting. Please contact a Reader's Advisory Librarian at 1-800-252-9605 or at tbp.ral@tsl.texas.gov with any questions or to RSVP.

When you are ordering a title for TBP Book Club, let us know so we can get the title out to you as soon as possible. All selected titles are also available for download from BARD. Whether ordering or downloading, please let us know if you plan on joining our book club discussion.

Check this page often to read all about upcoming Book Club dates and titles! Subscribe to the TBP blog to receive Book Club and other informative posts via email. 

See the previous titles our Book Club has read on our Previous Book Club Titles page. 

UPCOMING BOOK CLUB TITLES
* * Titles and Dates Subject to Change * *

November 21 (Thursday), 7 - 8 p.m. (Central)
UNRAVELING: WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT LIFE WHILE SHEARING SHEEP, DYEING WOOL, AND MAKING THE WORLD’S UGLIEST SWEATER by Peggy Orenstein (DB 113482)
The COVID pandemic propelled many people to change their lives in ways large and small. Some adopted puppies. Others stress-baked. Peggy Orenstein, a lifelong knitter, went just a little further. To keep herself engaged and cope with a series of seismic shifts in family life, she set out to make a garment from the ground up: learning to shear sheep, spin and dye yarn, then knitting herself a sweater. Orenstein hoped the project would help her process not just wool but her grief over the recent death of her mother and the decline of her dad, the impending departure of her college-bound daughter, and other thorny issues of aging as a woman in a culture that by turns ignores and disdains them. What she didn’t expect was a journey into some of the major issues of our time: climate anxiety, racial justice, women’s rights, the impact of technology, sustainability, and, ultimately, the meaning of home. With her wry voice, sharp intelligence, and exuberant honesty, Orenstein shares her year-long journey as daughter, wife, mother, writer, and maker—and teaches us all something about creativity and connection. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

January 28 (Tuesday), 7 - 8 p.m. (Central)
FROZEN RIVER: A NOVEL by Ariel Lawhon (DB 117781, LB 0000144)
Maine, 1789: When the Kennebec River freezes, entombing a man in the ice, Martha Ballard is summoned to examine the body and determine cause of death. As a midwife and healer, she is privy to much of what goes on behind closed doors in Hallowell. Her diary is a record of every birth and death, crime and debacle that unfolds in the close-knit community. Months earlier, Martha documented the details of an alleged rape committed by two of the town's most respected gentlemen-one of whom has now been found dead in the ice. But when a local physician undermines her conclusion, declaring the death to be an accident, Martha is forced to investigate the shocking murder on her own. Over the course of one winter, as the trial nears, and whispers and prejudices mount, Martha doggedly pursues the truth. Her diary soon lands at the center of the scandal, implicating those she loves, and compelling Martha to decide where her own loyalties lie. Commercial audiobook.

Return to top.

Author Talks

A few times a year the Talking Book Program invites authors to discuss their published works and life. We'd love to have you join in for the conversation.

Our Author Talks meet via Zoom, however all you need to participate is a telephone. If you have a landline, you will use the telephone number. If you have a smart phone, you will use the "one-tap" number to join the discussion. Information will be sent to all those who RSVP a week prior to the author talk.

To RSVP or for more information call the Talking Book Program at 1-800-252-9605.

Upcoming Author Talks:

October 17, 2024: Donna Marie Miller
Join the Talking Book Program for an author talk on Thursday, October 17 at 7:00 p.m. (CT) with Texas author, Donna Marie Miller.

Reader’s Advisory Librarian, Laura Jean will talk with her about her career as an author as well as her book, BROKEN SPOKE: AUSTIN’S LEGENDARY HONKY-TONK (DBC 18774). A Q&A chat will follow.

Zoom information: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82041230265 
One tap mobile for smartphones
+13462487799,,82041230265# US 
Dial-in Number
1 346 248 7799
Meeting ID: 820 4123 0265

December 10, 2024: Dr. Ken Roberts
Join the Talking Book Program for an author talk on Tuesday, December 10 at 6:00 p.m. (CT) with Texas author, Dr. Ken Roberts. Please note that this is an earlier time than our usual events.

Reader’s Advisory Librarian, Laura Jean will talk with him about his career as an academic as well as his book, CEDAR CHOPPERS: LIFE ON THE EDGE OF NOTHING (DBC 18531). A Q&A chat will follow.

Zoom information: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89815389775
One tap mobile for smart phones
+13462487799,,89815389775# US 
Dial-in number
+1 346 248 7799 US 
Meeting ID: 898 1538 9775

Past Author Talk Recordings:
Coming soon.

Return to top.

2025 Book Club Selections
** Titles & Dates Subject to Change **

January 28 (Tuesday), 7 - 8 p.m. (Central)
FROZEN RIVER: A NOVEL by Ariel Lawhon (DB 117781, LB 0000144)
Maine, 1789: When the Kennebec River freezes, entombing a man in the ice, Martha Ballard is summoned to examine the body and determine cause of death. As a midwife and healer, she is privy to much of what goes on behind closed doors in Hallowell. Her diary is a record of every birth and death, crime and debacle that unfolds in the close-knit community. Months earlier, Martha documented the details of an alleged rape committed by two of the town's most respected gentlemen-one of whom has now been found dead in the ice. But when a local physician undermines her conclusion, declaring the death to be an accident, Martha is forced to investigate the shocking murder on her own. Over the course of one winter, as the trial nears, and whispers and prejudices mount, Martha doggedly pursues the truth. Her diary soon lands at the center of the scandal, implicating those she loves, and compelling Martha to decide where her own loyalties lie. Commercial audiobook.

March 20 (Thursday), 7 - 8 p.m. (Central)
COUNTRY OF THE BLIND: A MEMOIR AT THE END OF SIGHT by Andrew  Leland (DB 115575, BR 25166, LB 0000577)
We meet Andrew Leland as he’s suspended in the liminal state of the soon-to-be blind: he’s midway through his life with retinitis pigmentosa, a condition that ushers those who live with it from sightedness to blindness over years, even decades. He grew up with full vision, but starting in his teenage years, his sight began to degrade from the outside in, such that he now sees the world as if through a narrow tube. Soon—but without knowing exactly when—he will likely have no vision left. Full of apprehension but also dogged curiosity, Leland embarks on a sweeping exploration of the state of being that awaits him: not only the physical experience of blindness but also its language, politics, and customs. He negotiates his changing relationships with his wife and son, and with his own sense of self, as he moves from his mainstream, “typical” life to one with a disability. Part memoir, part historical and cultural investigation, The Country of the Blind represents Leland’s determination not to merely survive this transition but to grow from it—to seek out and revel in that which makes blindness enlightening. Thought-provoking and brimming with warmth and humor, The Country of the Blind is a deeply personal and intellectually exhilarating tour of a way of being that most of us have never paused to consider—and from which we have much to learn. Strong language. Commercial audiobook.

May 20 (Tuesday), 7 - 8 p.m. (Central)
THYME OF DEATH: A MYSTERY INTRODUCING CHINA BAYLE by Susan Wittig Albert (DBC 11964)
When ex-lawyer China Bayles left her job at a law firm in Houston to open an herb shop in Pecan Springs, Texas, she had hoped to leave big city problems behind her. But even a small town has its share of problems--including murder. When her friend Jo is found dead from an apparent suicide, China looks behind Pecan Springs' quaint facade and finds that one of her new neighbors may be a killer. Strong language. 1992.

July 24 (Thursday), 7 - 8 p.m. (Central)
ART THIEF: A TRUE STORY OF LOVE, CRIME, AND A DANGEROUS OBSESSION  by Michael Finkel (DB 115367, LB 14518)
For centuries, works of art have been stolen in countless ways from all over the world, but no one has been quite as successful at it as the master thief Stéphane Breitwieser. Carrying out more than two hundred heists over nearly eight years—in museums and cathedrals all over Europe—Breitwieser, along with his girlfriend who worked as his lookout, stole more than three hundred objects, until it all fell apart in spectacular fashion. In The Art Thief, Michael Finkel brings us into Breitwieser’s strange and fascinating world. Unlike most thieves, Breitwieser never stole for money. Instead, he displayed all his treasures in a pair of secret rooms where he could admire them to his heart’s content. Possessed of a remarkable athleticism and an innate ability to circumvent practically any security system, Breitwieser managed to pull off a breathtaking number of audacious thefts. Yet these strange talents bred a growing disregard for risk and an addict’s need to score, leading Breitwieser to ignore his girlfriend’s pleas to stop—until one final act of hubris brought everything crashing down. This is a riveting story of art, crime, love, and an insatiable hunger to possess beauty at any cost. Strong language. Commercial audiobook. Bestseller.

September 25 (Thursday), 7 - 8 p.m. (Central)
SHIP BENEATH THE ICE: THE DISCOVERY OF SHACKLETON'S ENDURANCE by Mensun Bound (DB 117258)
On November 21, 1914, after sailing more than ten thousand miles from Norway to the Antarctic Ocean, the Endurance finally succumbed to the surrounding ice. Ernest Shackleton and his crew had navigated the 144-foot, three-masted wooden vessel to Antarctica to become the first to cross the barren continent, but early season pack ice trapped them in place offshore. They watched in silence as the ship's stern rose twenty feet in the air and disappeared into the frigid sea, then spent six harrowing months marooned on the ice in its wake. Seal meat was their only sustenance as Shackleton's expedition to push the limits of human strength took a new form: one of survival against the odds. As this legendary story entered the annals of polar exploration, it inspired a new global race to find the wrecked Endurance, by all accounts "the world's most unreachable shipwreck." Several missions failed, thwarted, as Shackleton was, by the unpredictable Weddell Sea. Finally, a century to the day after Shackleton's death, renowned marine archeologist Mensun Bound and an elite team of explorers discovered the lost shipwreck. Nearly ten thousand feet below the ice lay a remarkably preserved Endurance, its name still emblazoned on the ship's stern. The Ship Beneath the Ice chronicles two dramatic expeditions to what Shackleton called "the most hostile sea on Earth." Bound experienced failure and despair in his attempts to locate the wreck, and, like Shackleton before him, very nearly found his vessel frozen in ice. This inspiring modern-day adventure narrative captures the intrepid spirit that joins two mariners across the centuries—both of whom accomplished the impossible. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

November 18 (Tuesday), 7 - 8 p.m. (Central)
STARTER VILLAIN by John Scalzi (DB 118263)
Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place. Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits. Jake had enemies, and now they're coming after Charlie. His uncle might have been a stand-up, old-fashioned kind of villain, but these are the real thing: rich, soulless predators backed by multinational corporations and venture capital. It's up to Charlie to win the war his uncle started against a league of supervillains. But with unionized dolphins, hyperintelligent talking spy cats, and a terrifying henchperson at his side, going bad is starting to look pretty good. In a dog-eat-dog world...be a cat. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2023.

Return to top.