Previous TBP Book Club Selections

These are the books we have read in past months of the TBP Book Club.  Visit each book's individual web page for more information about the book, the author, and related reading. Some of our book clubs are recorded and posted as MP3 Podcasts on our blog at: https://www.tsl.texas.gov/texastalkingbooks/?cat=20. Subscribe to the TBP blog to receive Book Club and other informative posts via email. 

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 to future Book Club discussions. All titles available from the TBP library. 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.

January 2025 - FROZEN RIVER: A NOVEL by Ariel Lawhon
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.  DB 117781, LB 0000144

November 2024 - UNRAVELING: WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT LIFE WHILE SHEARING SHEEP, DYEING WOOL, AND MAKING THE WORLD’S UGLIEST SWEATER by Peggy Orenstein
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. DB 113482

September 2024 - LIAR’S DICTIONARY by Eley Williams
Peter Winceworth, Victorian lexicographer, is toiling away on Swansby’s multivolume Encyclopaedic Dictionary, but boredom leads him to insert fictitious entries. In the present day, Mallory, a young intern employed by the publisher, is tasked with uncovering these fake words before the work is digitized. Some strong language. Commercial audiobook. 2021. DB 103312, LB 13379

August 2024 - TEXAS GREAT READ BONUS BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION!
WHICH WAY TREE by Elizabeth Crook
After a panther attacks her family and kills her mother, young Samantha sets out to stalk and kill the ferocious creature. She travels along with her half-brother, Benjamin, a Tejano outlaw, and a preacher. The group is, in turn, pursued by a sadistic Confederate soldier with a score to settle. Violence and some strong language. Commercial audiobook. 2018. DB 90644

TEXAS GREAT READ BONUS BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION!
Every year, the Library of Congress asks each state Center for the Book to select a title that represents the state’s literary landscape to highlight at the National Book Festival. The event showcases the importance of books and reading. The festival is sponsored by the Library of Congress and takes place during Labor Day weekend in Washington, D.C.

In honor of this event, the Texas Talking Book Program will host a Bonus Book Club meeting so that our patrons can participate in the Texas Great Read initiative. More information about Texas Great Read 2024 is here. The Texas Great Read is an event sponsored by Texas Center for the Book.

July 2024 - MY SISTER, THE SERIAL KILLER by Oyinkan Braithwaite
Though it wears on her, Korede has grown very good at cleaning up her sister’s messes—namely, those left after she murders her boyfriends. The bright spot in Korede’s life is a kind doctor at the hospital where she works--until the day he meets Korede’s sister and asks for her number. Some violence. Bestseller. Commercial audiobook. 2018. DB 93043

May 2024 - MERCURY RISING: JOHN GLENN, JOHN KENNEDY, AND THE NEW BATTLEGROUND OF THE COLD WAR by Jeff Shesol
A riveting history of the epic orbital flight that put America back into the space race. If the United States couldn’t catch up to the Soviets in space, how could it compete with them on Earth? That was the question facing John F. Kennedy at the height of the Cold War—a perilous time when the Soviet Union built the wall in Berlin, tested nuclear bombs more destructive than any in history, and beat the United States to every major milestone in space. The race to the heavens seemed a race for survival—and America was losing. On February 20, 1962, when John Glenn blasted into orbit aboard Friendship 7, his mission was not only to circle the planet; it was to calm the fears of the free world and renew America’s sense of self-belief. Mercury Rising re-creates the tension and excitement of a flight that shifted the momentum of the space race and put the United States on the path to the moon. Drawing on new archival sources, personal interviews, and previously unpublished notes by Glenn himself, Mercury Rising reveals how the astronaut’s heroics lifted the nation’s hopes in what Kennedy called the “hour of maximum danger.” Commercial audiobook. 2021. DB 110864

March 2024 - LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY by Bonnie Garmus
In the early 1960s, chemist Elizabeth Zott has a lot of challenges as the only woman on her team at Hastings Research Institute. She falls for colleague Calvin Evans, but the double standards of the day eventually have her looking for a new chapter outside academia, hosting a television cooking show. Strong language and some violence. Commercial audiobook. Bestseller. 2022. DB 107538, BR 24813, LB 13735

January 2024 - ANTHROPOCENE REVIEWED: ESSAYS ON A HUMAN-CENTERED PLANET by John Green
In this collection of personal essays adapted and expanded from his podcast, the author reviews the contradictions found within humanity. He discusses how mankind is both far too powerful and not nearly powerful enough and covers topics ranging from the QWERTY keyboard to Canada geese. Commercial audiobook. Bestseller. 2021. DB 103903, LB 13412