May 9 | 6:30 PM CT in-person

The Orphan Keeper by Cameron Wright HF

Based on a true story of 7-year-old Chellamuthu's life that changed when he was kidnapped from his village in India, sold to an orphanage, and adopted by a US couple. When he can speak enough English he tells his parents that he has a family in India. They try unsuccessfully to track down his family. Meanwhile, they change his name to Taj and make him part of their family. But Taj's questions: Who am I? Why was I taken? How do I get home? More than a decade later, Taj meets Priya, a girl from India with ties to his past. Is she the key to unveiling the secrets of his childhood, or is it too late?

May 16 | 11:00 CT in-person/Noon Zoom 

Horse by Geraldine Brooks HF

Join us at 11:00 CT for lunch and a discussion of this story about: the stain and legacy of slavery in the U.S., the love we have for the animals around us; and the sacrifices we will make (or fail to make) to make the lives of those around us better. And at the center of it all, in a novel that spans 170 years? A horse named Lexington.

June 13 | 6:30 PM CT in-person

Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead HF

The story is set in early-1960s New York City, where furniture salesman Ray Carney is trying to be an upstanding family man. But with a second baby on the way and money tight, Ray dabbles with his cousin Freddie in some criminal activity—and a heist gone wrong puts them both in a sticky situation.

The book is a family saga masquerading as a crime novel, a hilarious morality play, a social novel about race and power, and ultimately a love letter to Harlem.

June 20 | 10:00 CT in-person/11:00 Zoom 

The Wedding Veil by Kristy Woodson Harvey HF

Join us at 11:00 CT for Brunch and a discussion of this story that follows four women across generations, bound by a beautiful wedding veil and a connection to the famous Vanderbilt family. All of the women shaped by love and circumstance-- find a way to summon their inner strength against the odds.

July 11 | 6:30 PM CT in-person

Biography of X by Catherine Lacey F

When the novel opens, X's biography is in the early stages of being researched by her grieving widow, a woman called CM, who comes to realize that pretty much everything she thought she knew about her late wife was false. The fragmented biography of X that CM slowly assembles is shored up by footnotes and photographs. Pulsing with suspense and intellect, Biography of X is a roaring epic that plumbs the depths of grief, art, and love.

July 18 | Noon Zoom 

Awful Beautiful Life by Becky Powell, Katherine Reay NF

A Join us at noon CT for a discussion of this gripping story of grace, faith, and triumph for a woman whose world shattered hours after her husband's suicide. Her once high-flying husband took his own life; leaving Becky not only suddenly widowed but mired deeply in debt. When Becky finds out of all of this, she relies on God and her family and friends for support.

August 8 | 6:30 PM CT in-person

Circe by Madeline Miller F

Set during the Greek Heroic Age and told from the perspective of the witch Circe, the novel explores Circe's origin story and narrates Circe's encounters with mythological figures such as Hermes, the Minotaur, Jason, and Medea, and her romance with Odysseus and his son, Telemachus.

Circe is a triumph of storytelling, an intoxicating epic of family rivalry, palace intrigue, love and loss, as well as a celebration of indomitable female strength in a man's world.

Aug. 15| 11:00 CT in-person/Noon Zoom 

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict HF

Join us at 11:00 CT for lunch and a discussion of the remarkable, little-known story of Belle da Costa Greene, J. P. Morgan's personal librarian—who became one of the most powerful women in New York despite the dangerous secret she kept in order to make her dreams come true.