{"id":37,"date":"2024-08-13T13:40:15","date_gmt":"2024-08-13T13:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/tcfb\/?p=37"},"modified":"2025-04-18T14:10:47","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T14:10:47","slug":"sam-houston-center-book-club-encourages-love-of-books-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tsl.texas.gov\/tcfb\/sam-houston-center-book-club-encourages-love-of-books-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Houston Center Book Club Encourages Love of Books, History"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The new book club at the Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center<\/a> in Liberty gives participants a chance to discuss novels set in the world of museums, archives, and libraries in a unique setting that offers many opportunities to connect with local and regional history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sam Houston Center Quarterly Book Club is halfway through its first year\u2014 the next meeting is Tuesday, August 27 at 6:00 p.m.<\/a>, when attendees will discuss The Lions of Fifth Avenue<\/em>, a historical novel by Fiona Davis. The Lions of Fifth Avenue<\/em> is set at the New York Public Library and involves the curator and her grandmother, missing library items, and a family story that spans decades. The book club meetings are open to everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So far, the club has discussed The Giver of Stars<\/em> by Jojo Moyes (based on the real-life story of the Packhorse Librarians of Kentucky<\/a>, who delivered books on horseback to families in Appalachia during the Great Depression) and The Personal Librarian<\/em> by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray. This historical novel is about J.P. Morgan\u2019s personal librarian, Belle da Costa Greene<\/a>, a Black woman who was forced to hide her true identity and pass as white as she becomes one of the most powerful people in the book world of the 1920s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 Alana Inman<\/strong>, Manager of the Center, began the book club \u201cso people could grow accustomed to attending an event regularly, and that would allow us to foster relationships with repeat visitors.\u201d Inman chose the museum and archives theme for the club: \u201cI wanted to ensure that it\u2019s still related to what we do here at the Center as an archives and a museum, because we\u2019re more of a special library than a public library.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inman said, \u201cThis focus might mean that the character is a librarian. The setting could be a museum, or the story may, you know, involve finding or saving a historic record. Whatever the connection, the story chosen always brings us back to learning more about the impact of libraries, archives, and museums and the people that work in them\u2014librarians, archivists, conservators, and museum curators,\u201d Inman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sandy Pickett<\/strong> is a regular attendee of the book club, as well as a longtime volunteer at the Center and Vice President of the Atascosito Historical Society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would say that the eagerness and enthusiasm of those who participated has really been terrific, and there’s a very genuine openness to the discussion,\u201d Pickett said. \u201cNo one hesitates to give their opinion, and if it’s not the consensus of everyone in the group, it really doesn’t matter. Everybody is welcome to their own opinion and feels very free to give it. And I really like that. I’ve also enjoyed getting to know some of the people. I’ve lived in Liberty almost forever, and I thought, \u2018I’ll know everybody who comes into this little gathering.\u2019 Well, no, there were people I had not met. I’m getting to know those people, and most of them are going to reach out to their other friends to encourage them to join. Certainly, I have enjoyed the books that Alana has chosen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finding personal connections to history<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sam Houston Center is a component of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission and serves as the official regional historical resource depository for the 10 Southeast Texas counties of Chambers, Hardin, Jasper, Jefferson, Liberty, Newton, Orange, Polk, San Jacinto, and Tyler. The Center’s primary mission is to collect, preserve, and provide access to historically significant state and local government records and publications of the designated region and secondarily to serve as a library of Texana and genealogical resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inman said one occurrence that surprises many visitors is when they find a personal connection to their own family histories when doing research at the Center. \u201cOften visitors who come here are from the Southeast Texas area. They end up seeing historic objects from their hometowns and from their home counties, and frequently we have something that does connect directly to the visitor\u2014we may have their high school yearbook, or we have their ancestor\u2019s land records,\u201d Inman said. \u201cPersonally, I\u2019m from one of our counties\u2014Newton County\u2014and I came across my mother\u2019s engagement photo in a newspaper here. So that is always fun when we\u2019re able to surprise people with a piece of their own past when they come to see us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Added Pickett, \u201cEach visitor is going to experience something new or wonderful in their own way. It could be in the museum, or it could be in the records. I\u2019ve been out here a long time, and I\u2019ve given a lot of tours as a volunteer, and it\u2019s wonderful when someone comes and brings their children and says, \u2018I haven\u2019t been here since the fourth grade, but I wanted my child to see it.\u2019 It\u2019s exciting when that happens.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next meeting of the Sam Houston Center Book Club is Tuesday, August 27, at 6:00 p.m. in the Center\u2019s main building at 650 FM 1011 in Liberty. The following meeting is November 26, when the club will be discussing The Paris Library<\/em> by Janet Skeslien Charles; in this book, a young librarian in Paris in 1939 joins the Resistance when the Nazis occupy Paris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interested participants may obtain a copy of the novels through their local library or favorite bookstore to prepare for the conversation. For more information, contact SHC staff at (936) 336-8821 or via email at SamHoustonCenter@tsl.texas.gov<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Sam Houston Center<\/strong><\/a> houses local government records, rare books, manuscripts, archival materials, photographs, and other media formats covering a wide range of Southeast Texas history. The holdings do not circulate but may be used in the Reading Room. The Center is also home to a museum and several historic buildings. The Center is open Tuesday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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