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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 * *

July 23 (Thursday), 7-8 p.m. (Central)
DINOSAURS AT THE DINNER PARTY: HOW AN ECCENTRIC GROUP OF VICTORIANS DISCOVERED PREHISTORIC CREATURES AND ACCIDENTALLY UPENDED THE WORLD by Edward Dolnick (DB 123653)
In the early 1800s the world was a safe and cozy place. But then a twelve-year-old farm boy in Massachusetts stumbled on a row of fossilized three-toed footprints, the size of dinner plates: the first dinosaur tracks ever found. In Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party, celebrated storyteller and historian Edward Dolnick leads us through a compelling true adventure as the paleontologists of the first half of the 19th century puzzled their way through the fossil record to create the story of dinosaurs we know today. The tale begins with Mary Anning, a poor, uneducated woman who had a sixth sense for finding fossils buried deep inside cliffs; and moves to a brilliant, eccentric geologist named William Buckland, a kind of Doctor Doolittle on a mission to eat his way through the entire animal kingdom; and then on to Richard Owen, the most respected and the most despised scientist of his generation. Entertaining, erudite, and featuring an unconventional cast of characters, Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party tells the story of how the accidental discovery of prehistoric creatures upended humanity's understanding of the world and their place in it, and how a group of paleontologists worked to bring it back into focus again. Provided by publisher.

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Author Talks

Throughout 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 Talk: www.tsl.texas.gov/tbp/authortalks

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2026 Book Club Selections
** Titles & Dates Subject to Change **

January 27 (Tuesday), 7-8 p.m. (Central)
SIPSWORTH by Simon Van Booy (DB 127199)
Over the course of a single week, a woman who is ready to die discovers an unexpected reason to live. Following the deaths of her husband and son, Helen Cartwright returns to the English village of her childhood after living abroad for six decades. Her only wish is to die quickly and without fuss. Helen retreats into her home on Westminster Crescent, becoming a creature of routine and habit. Then, one cold autumn night, a chance encounter with an abandoned pet mouse on the street outside her house sets Helen on a surprising journey of friendship. From publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

March 19 (Thursday), 7-8 p.m. (Central)
WOMEN IN THE VALLEY OF THE KINGS: THE UNTOLD STORY OF WOMEN EGYPTOLOGISTS IN THE GILDED AGE by Kathleen Sheppard (DB 124801)
The never-before-told story of the women Egyptologists who paved the way of exploration in Egypt and created the basis for Egyptology. Sheppard begins with the earliest European women who ventured to Egypt as travelers: Amelia Edwards, Jenny Lane, and Marianne Brocklehurst. Their travelogues, diaries and maps chronicled a new world for the curious. In the vast desert, Maggie Benson, the first woman granted permission to excavate in Egypt, met Nettie Gourlay, the woman who became her lifelong companion. They battled issues of oppression and exclusion and, ultimately, are credited with excavating the Temple of Mut. Emma Andrews' success as a patron and archaeologist helped to pave the way for Margaret Murray to teach. Murray's work in the university led to the artists Amice Calverley's and Myrtle Broome's ability to work on site at Abydos, creating brilliant reproductions of tomb art, and to Kate Bradbury's and Caroline Ransom's leadership in critical Egyptological institutions. Women in the Valley of the Kings upends the grand male narrative of Egyptian exploration and shows how a group of courageous women charted unknown territory and changed the field of Egyptology forever. Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

May 19 (Tuesday), 7-8 p.m. (Central)
LISTEN FOR THE LIE: A NOVEL by Amy Tintera (DB 119654)
What would you do if you thought you murdered your best friend? And if everyone else thinks so too? What if the truth doesn't matter? As Lucy Chase's Texas hometown begins to tell versions of what happened and who Lucy is to a nationwide, true crime obsessed audience, at the bequest of her grandmother, she returns to the place she vowed never to set foot in again to solve her friend's murder, even if she is the one that did it. Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

July 23 (Thursday), 7-8 p.m. (Central)
DINOSAURS AT THE DINNER PARTY: HOW AN ECCENTRIC GROUP OF VICTORIANS DISCOVERED PREHISTORIC CREATURES AND ACCIDENTALLY UPENDED THE WORLD by Edward Dolnick (DB 123653)
In the early 1800s the world was a safe and cozy place. But then a twelve-year-old farm boy in Massachusetts stumbled on a row of fossilized three-toed footprints, the size of dinner plates: the first dinosaur tracks ever found. In Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party, celebrated storyteller and historian Edward Dolnick leads us through a compelling true adventure as the paleontologists of the first half of the 19th century puzzled their way through the fossil record to create the story of dinosaurs we know today. The tale begins with Mary Anning, a poor, uneducated woman who had a sixth sense for finding fossils buried deep inside cliffs; and moves to a brilliant, eccentric geologist named William Buckland, a kind of Doctor Doolittle on a mission to eat his way through the entire animal kingdom; and then on to Richard Owen, the most respected and the most despised scientist of his generation. Entertaining, erudite, and featuring an unconventional cast of characters, Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party tells the story of how the accidental discovery of prehistoric creatures upended humanity's understanding of the world and their place in it, and how a group of paleontologists worked to bring it back into focus again. Provided by publisher.

September 24 (Thursday), 7-8 p.m. (Central)
CIRCE by Madeline Miller (DB 90711; LB 13680; BR 22648)
Circe grows up in the court of her father, the sun god Helios. Despised by her parents and others, she falls in love with a mortal who shuns her. When she takes revenge, she is banished. Those who wish her and others harm are transformed into pigs. Contains some descriptions of sex, some strong language and violence. Commercial audiobook. 2018.

November 17 (Tuesday), 7-8 p.m. (Central)
HUMANKIND: A HOPEFUL HISTORY by Rutger Bregman (DB 99915)
Although many philosophers and psychologists assume humans are innately selfish and aggressive, the author provides a new perspective on human history. He sets out to prove that we are hardwired for kindness, geared toward cooperation rather than competition, and more inclined to trust than distrust one another. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2020.

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