January 2026:
\nA Mercy by Toni Morrison: 167pp: In the 1680 s the slave trade in the Americas is still in its infancy. Jacob Vaark is an Anglo-Dutch trader and adventurer\, with a small holding in the harsh N orth. Despite his distaste for dealing in &ldquo\;flesh\,&rdquo\; he takes a small slave girl in part payment for a bad debt from a plantation owner in Catholic Maryland.
\nFebruary 2026:
\nThey Dared Return: The True Story of Jewish Spies b ehind the Lines in Nazi Germany by Patrick K. O&rsquo\;Donnell: 264 pp: At the height of World War II\, with the Third Reich&rsquo\;s Final So lution in full operation\, a small group of Jews who were naturalized Amer ican citizens\, having themselves barely escaped the Nazis\, did the unthi nkable: they went back. Trained as spies\, these men took on a perilous co vert mission to strike back at the Third Reich behind enemy lines. They Da red Return is their story &mdash\; a gripping tale of adventure\, espionag e\, love\, and revenge.
\nMarch 2026:
\nLady Tan&rsquo\;s Circle of Women by Lisa See: 352pp: An immersive historical novel inspired by the true story of a woma n physician in 15th-century China.
\nApril 2026:
\nSister Revolutions: French Lightning\, Ame rican Light by Susan Dunn: 272pp: The American and French revolutio ns presented the world with two very different visions of democracy. Altho ugh both professed similar Enlightenment ideals of freedom\, equality\, an d justice and set similar political agendas\, there were also fundamental differences. The French sought a complete break with a thousand years of h istory\; the Americans were content to preserve many aspects of their Engl ish heritage. Why did the two revolutions follow such different trajectori es? And what lessons do they offer us about democracy today?
\nMay 2 026:
\nSarah&rsquo\;s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay: 294pp: Paris\, July 1942: Ten-year-old Sarah is brutally arrested with her family in the Vel' d'Hiv' roundup\, the mos t notorious act of French collaboration with the Nazis. but before the pol ice come to take them\, Sarah locks her younger brother\, Michel\, in thei r favorite hiding place\, a cupboard in the family's apartment. She keeps the key\, thinking that she will be back within a few hours.
\nJune 2026:
\nAmerican Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America b y Colin Woodard: 371pp: An illuminating history of North America's eleven rival cultural regions that explodes the red state-blue state myth. North America was settled by people with distinct religious\, political\, and et hnographic characteristics\, creating regional cultures that have been at odds with one another ever since. Subsequent immigrants didn't confront or assimilate into an "American" or "Canadian" culture\, but rather into one of the eleven distinct regional ones that spread over the continent each staking out mutually exclusive territory.
\nJuly 2026:
\nThe Ugly American by Eugene B urdick &\; William Lederer: 288pp: A piercing exposé\; of America n incompetence and corruption in Southeast Asia\, The Ugly American captiv ated the nation when it was first published in 1958. The book introduces r eaders to an unlikely hero in the titular &ldquo\;ugly American&rdquo\;&md ash\;and to the ignorant politicians and arrogant ambassadors who ignore h is empathetic and commonsense advice. In linked stories and vignettes set in the fictional nation of Sarkhan\, William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick draw an incisive portrait of American foreign policy gone dangerously wro ng&mdash\;and how it might be fixed.
\nAugust 2026:
\nThe Strange Career of Jim Crow b y C. Vann Woodward: 245pp: One of the great works of Southern history\, th is book actually helped shape that history. Published in 1955\, a year aft er the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education ordered schools desegr egated\, Strange Career was cited so often to counter arguments for segreg ation that Martin Luther King\, Jr. called it "the historical Bible of the civil rights movement." Offering a clear and illuminating analysis of the history of Jim Crow laws\, it presents evidence that segregation in the S outh dated only to the 1890s. Woodward shows that\, even under slavery\, t he two races had not been divided as they were under the Jim Crow laws of the 1890s. In fact\, during Reconstruction\, there was considerable econom ic and political mixing of the races. The segregating of the races was a r elative newcomer to the region.
\nSeptember 2026:
\nAll the Pretty Horses by Cormac Mc Carthy: 302pp: Teenager John Grady Cole\, the last of a long line of Texas ranchers\, has nothing left to stay for. Across the border Mexico beckons &mdash\;beautiful and desolate\, rugged and cruelly civilized. With neighb or Rawlins\, and scruffy boy\, he rides toward an idyllic\, sometimes comi c adventure\, to a place where dreams are paid for in blood.
\nOctob er 2026:
\nThirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis by Robert F. Kennedy: 185pp: During the thirteen days in October 1962 when the United States confronted the Soviet Union over its installation of missiles in Cuba\, few people s hared the behind-the-scenes story as it is told here by the late Senator R obert F. Kennedy. In this unique account\, he describes each of the partic ipants during the sometimes hour-to-hour negotiations\, with particular at tention to the actions and views of his brother\, President John F. Kenned y.
\nNovember 2026:
\nThe Able Archers by Brian J. Morra: 330pp: In 1983\, the world s tands at the brink of nuclear annihilation\, and only a few people are awa re of it. A riveting story of how two men's lives intersect in the midst o f an existential crisis\, The Able Archers is told through the eyes of two key a young American intelligence officer\, Captain Kevin Cattani\; and h is more experienced Soviet counterpart\, Colonel Ivan Levchenko.
\nD ecember 2026:
\nGod Bless You\, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut Jr: 290pp: Second only to Sla ughterhouse-Five of Vonnegut's canon in its prominence and influence\, God Bless You\, Mr. Rosewater (1965) presents Eliot Rosewater\, an itinerant\ , semi-crazed millionaire wandering the country in search of heritage and philanthropic outcome\, introducing the science fiction writer Kilgore Tro ut to the world and Vonnegut to the collegiate audience which would soon m ake him a cult writer.
\nhttps://mdpls.libnet.info/event/15431232 URL;VALUE=URI:https://mdpls.libnet.info/event/15431232 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR