[MD-Sligo] Sligo Creek Chapter book club - announcement of next set of books!

[Jeff Baer]

Dear Sligo Creek members,
A friendly reminder that you’re invited to our monthly book club meetings, conveniently hosted on Zoom. There’s never any obligation to read every book or attend every meeting. You can simply let me know if you want to receive the Zoom links. Below is the brand-new information on the next 5 months of books we will be reading and discussing together, as chosen by the club members. Full book details are at the very end of this message. All books are available for free via BARD / NLS.

First, on Saturday, August 3, at 1:30pm, we will meet to discuss the fun book “Lessons in Chemistry”. The book is so popular that they made a TV version, which was just nominated for some Emmy awards.

Our newly selected books are:

September's book will be: "Murder on Astor Place”, the first book in the Gaslight mystery series.  Author is Victoria Thompson.  BARD#80853.

October’s book (in honor of Blind Equality Achievement Month!): will be: "The Imprisoned Guest: Samuel Howe  Bridgman, the Original Deaf-Blind Girl," by Elizabeth Gitter DB# 51840

November’s book will be: "The Thread Collectors:  A Novel" by Shauna J. Edwards and Alyson Richmon BARD # DB113815

December’s book will be: "Defiant Dreams: The journey of an Afghan girl who risked everything for education" by Sola Mahfouz,  Malaina Kapoor,  DB# 118484

The full book details with plot descriptions are directly below.
E-mail, call, or text me with any questions or feedback.
Sincerely,
Jeff Baer
(410) 499-0143
Book details section:

August's book:  "Lessons in Chemistry" by Bonnie Garmus  DB# 107538   Duration = 11 hours and 57 minutes
Good Reads summary: Good Reads Choice Award Nominee for Best Historical Fiction (2022), Winner for Best Debut Novel (2022)Plot: "Meet Elizabeth Zott: a “formidable, unapologetic and inspiring scientist in 1960s California whose career takes a detour when she becomes the unlikely star of a beloved TV cooking show.
Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel–prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with—of all things—her mind. True chemistry results.
But like science, life is unpredictable. Which is why a few years later Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star of America’s most beloved cooking show Supper at Six. Elizabeth’s unusual approach to cooking (“combine one tablespoon acetic acid with a pinch of sodium chloride”) proves revolutionary. But as her following grows, not everyone is happy. Because as it turns out, Elizabeth Zott isn’t just teaching women to cook. She’s daring them to change the status quo."

September's book: "Murder on Astor Place”, the first book in the Gaslight mystery series. Author is Victoria Thompson.  BARD#80853. Duration = approximately 8 hours 25 minutes. ( Note- The audiobook version via BARD comes along with books # 2 and #3 in the series)
Good Reads Synopsis:
"After a routine delivery, midwife Sarah Brandt visits her patient in a rooming house and discovers that another boarder, a young girl, has been killed. At the request of Sergeant Frank Malloy, she searches the girl's room, and discovers that the victim is from one of the most prominent families in New York and the sister of an old friend. The powerful family, fearful of scandal, refuses to permit an investigation. But with Malloy's help, Sarah begins a dangerous quest to bring the killer to justice, before death claims another victim."

October's book (in honor of Blind Equality Achievement Month): will be: "The Imprisoned Guest Samuel Howe and  Laura Bridgman, the Original Deaf-Blind Girl," by Elizabeth Gitter DB# 51840 Duration = 11 hours and 22 minutes Amazon.com synopsis: "The inspiring story of deaf-blind Laura Bridgman's troubling, tumultuous relationship with the director of Boston's Perkins Institution for the Blind, who rode Laura's outstanding achievements to his own fame but who could not cope with the intense, demanding adult she became."

November's book: "The Thread Collectors:   A Novel" by Shauna J. Edwards and Alyson Richmon -  BARD # DB113815  Duration 10 hours and 45 minutes
Good Reads synopsis: "1863: In a small Creole cottage in New Orleans, an ingenious young Black woman named Stella embroiders intricate maps on repurposed cloth to help enslaved men flee and join the Union Army. Bound to a man who would kill her if he knew of her clandestine activities, Stella has to hide not only her efforts but her love for William, a Black soldier and a brilliant musician.
Meanwhile, in New York City, a Jewish woman stitches a quilt for her husband, who is stationed in Louisiana with the Union Army. Between abolitionist meetings, Lily rolls bandages and crafts quilts with her sewing circle for other soldiers, too, hoping for their safe return home. But when months go by without word from her husband, Lily resolves to make the perilous journey South to search for him.
As these two women risk everything for love and freedom during the brutal Civil War, their paths converge in New Orleans, where an unexpected encounter leads them to discover that even the most delicate threads have the capacity to save us. Loosely inspired by the authors' family histories, this stunning novel will stay with readers for a long time."

December's book: "Defiant Dreams: The journey of an Afghan girl who risked everything for education" by Sola Mahfouz,  Malaina Kapoor,   DB# 118484 Duration = 9 hours and 4 minutes
Good Reads Synopisis:
"Sola Mahfouz was born in Afghanistan in 1996. That same year, the Taliban took over her country for the first time. They banned television and photographs, presided over brutal public executions, and turned the clock backwards on women's rights, practically imprisoning women within their own homes and forcing them to wear all-concealing burqas. At age eleven, Sola was forced to stop attending school after a group of men threatened to throw acid in her face if she continued. After that she was confined to her home, required to cook and clean and prepare for an arranged marriage. She saw the outside world only a handful of times each year. As time passed, Sola began to understand that she was condemned to the same existence as millions of women in Afghanistan. Her future was empty. The rest of her life would be controlled entirely by men, fathers and husbands and sons who would never allow her to study, to earn money, or even to dream.

Driven by this devastating realization, Sola began a years-long fight to change the trajectory of her life. She decided that education would be her way out. At age sixteen, without even a basic ability to add or subtract, she began secretly to teach herself math and English. She progressed rapidly, and within just two years she was already studying topics such as philosophy and physics. Faced with obstacles at every turn, Sola still managed to sneak into Pakistan to take the SAT. In 2016, she escaped to the United States, where she is now a quantum computing researcher at Tufts University.

An engrossing, dramatic memoir, co-written with young Indian American human rights activist Malaina Kapoor, Defiant Dreams is the story of one girl, but it's also the untold story of a generation of women brimming with potential and longing for freedom."
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