[MD-Sligo] Announcing the next set of books for the Sligo Creek Chapter Book Club

[Jeff Baer]

A reminder to all Sligo Creek Chapter members that they all always invited to join our chapter's book club. Reach out to Jeff with any questions or with any need for assistance gaining free access to the books via the NLS / BARD system. All books discussed in our book club can be listened to for free! We had a good book club session via Zoom this past weekend and thank you to those who attended. After we voted on the next set of books, and here are the list of our upcoming book club dates as well as the new books that we will read together! - Jeff

Our May book discussion will be held on Sunday, May 3 @ 2:30 pm. We will be discussing "Blood Moon, an American Epic of War and Splendor in the Cherokee Nation" by John Sedgwick BARD DB # 92140

On Sunday, June 28 @ 2:30 pm, we will discuss "Born a Crime, Stories from a South African Childhood",  by Trevor Noah BARD NLS DB# 86608 Note that we have invited all of the young adult members of NFBMD to join the Sligo Creek Book Club for this Zoom discussion, and hopefully we will have a few who will join us.

The newly selected books and the months they will be discussed follow below. All book club discussion dates will be chosen by vote in our normal process.

Summary of newly selected books, with full descriptions further below.
July, 2026: "The Life Impossible"  by Matt Haig DB# DB123847
August, 2026: ""The Royal Librarian" by Daisy Wood DB126326
September, 2026: "The Violin Conspiracy" by Brendan Slocumb. DB# 106851
October, 2026: to commemorate Blind Equality Achievement Month: "The Country of the Blind:  A Memoir at the End of Sight" by Andrew Leland. BARD DB #115575 Duration  = 7 hours and 51 minutes
November, 2026: " The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post" by Allison Pataki DB# 107797
December, 2026:  "The Diva Runs Out of Thyme" by Krista Davis, DB# 101499
January, 2027: "The Kill Switch", a Tucker Wayne Mystery"" (Book 1 of the Tucker Wayne Series) by James Rollins and Grant Blackwood BARD DB #79633

Start of full descriptions for the newly selected books:

July, 2026: "The Life Impossible" by Matt Haig DB# DB123847 Duration: 10 hours, 46 minutes
GoodReads Synopsis: "When retired math teacher Grace Winters is left a run-down house on a Mediterranean island by a long-lost friend, curiosity gets the better of her. She arrives in Ibiza with a one-way ticket, no guidebook and no plan. Among the rugged hills and golden beaches of the island, Grace searches for answers about her friend’s life, and how it ended. What she uncovers is stranger than she could have dreamed. But to dive into this impossible truth, Grace must first come to terms with her past. Filled with wonder and wild adventure, this is a story of hope and the life-changing power of a new beginning."

August, 2026: "The Royal Librarian" by Daisy Wood DB126326 Duration = 11 hours 16 minutes GoodReads Synopsis: "Windsor, 1940: Secretly tasked with foiling a suspected plot, Sophie Klein is placed in the Royal Library at Windsor castle, where the princesses reside. But when she learns that Windsor is compromised, Sophie must sacrifice everything she knows to save the future queen of England Philadelphia, Present day: Looking through her grandmother's papers, Lacey Jones comes across a mysterious letter stamped with the Windsor Castle crest. But how did it come to be in her family's possession? And so begins a journey that will take Lacey deep into the heart of the oldest inhabited castle in the world, and change her life forever. "

September, 2026: "The Violin Conspiracy" by Brendan Slocumb. DB# 106851 Duration = 12 hours and 6 minutes.  GoodReads Synopsis: "Ray McMillian loves playing the violin more than anything, and nothing will stop him from pursuing his dream of becoming a professional musician. Not his mother, who thinks he should get a real job, not the fact that he can't afford a high-caliber violin, not the racism inherent in the classical music world. And when he makes the startling discovery that his great-grandfather's fiddle is actually a priceless Stradivarius, his star begins to rise. Then with the international Tchaikovsky Competition—the Olympics of classical music—fast approaching, his prized family heirloom is stolen. Ray is determined to get it back. But now his family and the descendants of the man who once enslaved Ray's great-grandfather are each claiming that the violin belongs to them. With the odds stacked against him and the pressure mounting, will Ray ever see his beloved violin again?"

October, 2026: to commemorate Blind Equality Achievement Month: "The Country of the Blind:  A Memoir at the End of Sight"  by Andrew Leland. BARD DB #115575 Duration  = 7 hours and 51 minutes Partial Synopsis from GoodReads:" We meet Andrew Leland as he’s suspended in the liminal state of the soon-to-be he’s midway through his life with retinitis pigmentosa, a condition that ushers those who live with it from sightedness to blindness over years, even decades. He grew up with full vision, but starting in his teenage years, his sight began to degrade from the outside in, such that he now sees the world as if through a narrow tube. Soon—but without knowing exactly when—he will likely have no vision left. Full of apprehension but also dogged curiosity, Leland embarks on a sweeping exploration of the state of being that awaits not only the physical experience of blindness but also its language, politics, and customs. He negotiates his changing relationships with his wife and son, and with his own sense of self, as he moves from his mainstream, “typical” life to one with a disability. Part memoir, part historical and cultural investigation, The Country of the Blind represents Leland’s determination not to merely survive this transition but to grow from it—to seek out and revel in that which makes blindness enlightening."

November, 2026: The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post" by Allison Pataki DB# 107797 Duration = 14 hours and 37 minutes  GoodReads Synopsis: "Mrs. Post, the President and First Lady are here to see you. So begins another average evening for Marjorie Merriweather Post. Presidents have come and gone, but she has hosted them all. Growing up in the modest farmlands of Battle Creek, Michigan, Marjorie was inspired by a few simple rules: always think for yourself, never take success for granted, and work hard—even when deemed American royalty, even while covered in imperial diamonds. Marjorie had an insatiable drive to live and love and to give more than she got. From crawling through Moscow warehouses to rescue the Tsar's treasures to outrunning the Nazis in London, from serving the homeless of the Great Depression to entertaining Roosevelts, Kennedys, and Hollywood's biggest stars, Marjorie Merriweather Post lived an epic life few could imagine. Marjorie's journey began gluing cereal boxes in her father's barn as a young girl. No one could have predicted that C. W. Post's Cereal Company would grow into the General Foods empire and reshape the American way of life, with Marjorie as its heiress and leading lady. Not content to stay in her prescribed roles of high-society wife, mother, and hostess, Marjorie dared to demand more, making history in the process. Before turning thirty she amassed millions, becoming the wealthiest woman in the United States. But it was her life-force, advocacy, passion, and adventurous spirit that led to her stunning legacy. And yet Marjorie's story, though full of beauty and grandeur, set in the palatial homes she built such as Mar-a-Lago, was equally marked by challenge and tumult. A wife four times over, Marjorie sought her happily-ever-after with the blue-blooded party boy who could not outrun his demons, the charismatic financier whose charm turned to betrayal, the international diplomat with a dark side, and the bon vivant whose shocking secrets would shake Marjorie and all of society. Marjorie did everything on a grand scale, especially when it came to love."

December, 2026:   "The Diva Runs Out of Thyme" by Krista Davis, DB# 101499 Duration = 8 hours and 46 minutes GoodReads Synopsis: "Few can compete with Natasha Smith when it comes to entertaining, but her childhood rival, Sophie Winston, certainly tries. Natasha may have stolen the spotlight, and Sophie's husband, but Sophie is determined to rob her of the prize for the Stupendous Stuffing Shakedown. She just needs the right ingredient. But Sophie's search for the perfect turkey takes a basting when she stumbles across a corpse. And when the police find her name and photo inside the victim's car, Sophie will have to set her trussing aside to solve the murder, or she'll be serving up prison grub."

January, 2027: 9)  "The Kill Switch", a Tucker Wayne Mystery"" (Book 1 of the Tucker Wayne Series) by James Rollins and Grant Blackwood BARD DB #79633 Duration = 11 hours and 26 minutes  GoodReads Synopsis: "From bestselling authors James Rollins and Grant Blackwood, the first installment in an exciting new thriller series based on the Sigma Force novels featuring former Army Ranger Tucker Wayne and his partner, Army working dog Kane, introduced in the New York Times bestseller Bloodline and the e-original story Tracker. Former Army Ranger Tucker Wayne and his military working dog Kane are recruited by Sigma Force to extract a Russian pharmaceutical magnate from Siberia. A scientific genius, the drug tycoon holds the biological key to a new weapon system, a danger engineered from the ancient past to terrorize the modern world. From the frozen steppes of Russia to the sun-blasted savannahs of Africa, Tucker and Kane must piece together a mystery going back to the origins of life on Earth—before the ancient peril can destroy the heartland of America, and with it, all of humankind.
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