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Historical Book Discussion - Upcoming Titles
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The Ride: Paul Revere and the Night That Saved America
by Kostya Kennedy
June 2, 2026 - 10:00 a.m.
On April 18, 1775, a Boston-based silversmith, engraver, and anti-British political operative named Paul Revere set out on a borrowed horse to fulfill a dangerous but crucial mission: to alert American colonists of advancing British troops, which would seek to crush their nascent revolt. Revere was not the only rider that night, and indeed, he had completed at least 18 previous rides throughout New England, disseminating intelligence about British movements. But this ride was like no other, and its consequences in the months and years to come--as the American Revolution morphed from isolated skirmishes to a full-fledged war--became one of our founding legends. In The Ride, Kostya Kennedy presents a dramatic new narrative of the events of April 18 and 19, 1775, informed by fresh primary and secondary source research into archives, family letters and diaries, contemporary accounts, and more.
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The Great Contradiction: Liberty, Slavery, an the Tragic Paradox at the Birth of America
by Ava Stone
July 7, 2026 - 10:00 a.m.
From the revolutionary fervor of 1776 to the complex compromises of the Constitution, this book uncovers the moral paradox that shaped a nation. Through vivid storytelling, careful research, and compelling narratives of both the founders and the people they enslaved, Stone brings history to life, exposing the contradictions that continue to echo in modern America.
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The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War
by Erik Larson
August 4, 2026 - 10:00 a.m.
Master storyteller Erik Larson offers a gripping account of the chaotic months between Lincoln's election and the Confederacy's shelling of Sumter--a period marked by tragic errors and miscommunications, enflamed egos and craven ambitions, personal tragedies and betrayals. Lincoln himself wrote that the trials of these five months were so great that, could I have anticipated them, I would not have believed it possible to survive them.
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The Spinach King: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty
by John Seabrook
October 6, 2026 - 10:00 a.m.
At the heart of the narrative is a multigenerational succession battle. It's a tale of family secrets and Swiss bank accounts, of half-truths, of hatred and passionand lots and lots of liquor. The Seabrooks' colorful legal and moral failings took place amid the trappings of extraordinary privilege. But the story of where that money came from is not so pretty.
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The Great Halifax Explosion: A World War I Story of Treachery, Tragedy, and Extraordinary Heroism
by John U. Bacon
November 3, 2026 - 10:00 a.m.
A gripping work of narrative nonfiction about the fateful decisions that led to doom, the human faces of the blast's 11,000 casualties, and the equally moving individual stories of those who lived and selflessly threw themselves into urgent rescue work that saved thousands.The shocking scale of the disaster stunned the world, dominating global headlines even amid the calamity of the First World War.
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Dust Bowl Girls: The Inspiring Story of the Team That Barnstormed Its Way to Basketball Glory
by Lydia Reeder
December 1, 2026 - 10:00 a.m.
Combining exhilarating sports writing and exceptional storytelling, conveys the intensity of an improbable journey to an epic showdown with the prevailing national champions, helmed by the legendary Babe Didrikson. And it captures a moment in American sports history when a visionary coach helped his young athletes achieve more than a winning season.
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Ghosts of Hiroshima
by Charles Pellegrino
January 5, 2027 - 10:00 a.m.
No one recognized the flashes of bright light that filled the sky. The blast wave that followed seemed to strike with no sound at all. In that silence came the dawn of atomic death for two hundred thousand souls in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Based on years of forensic archaeology combined with interviews of more than two hundred survivors and their families, this is a immediate account of ordinary human beings thrust into extraordinary events, during which our modern civilization entered a nuclear adolescence.
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Narcotopia: In Search of the Asian Drug Cartel That Survived the CIA
by Patrick Winn
February 2, 2027 - 10:00 a.m.
Uncovers the truth behind Asia’s top drug-trafficking organization, as told by a Wa commander turned DEA informant. This gripping narrative shreds drug war myths and leads to a chilling revelation: the Wa syndicate’s origins are smudged with CIA fingerprints.
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The Boys of Riverside: A Deaf Football Team and a Quest for Glory
by Thomas Fuller
March 2, 2027 - 10:00 a.m.
The incredible story of an all-deaf high school football team’s triumphant climb from underdog to undefeated, their inspirational brotherhood, a fascinating portrait of deafness in America, and the indefatigable head coach who spearheaded the team.
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The Button: The New Nuclear Arms Race and Presidential Power from Truman to Trump
by William J. Perry
April 6, 2027 - 10:00 a.m.
William J. Perry, Secretary of Defense in the Clinton administration and Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering in the Carter administration, and Tom Z. Collina, Director of Policy at Ploughshares Fund, a global security foundation in Washington, DC, reveal the shocking tales and sobering facts of nuclear executive authority throughout the atomic age, delivering a powerful condemnation against ever leaving explosive power this devastating under any one person's thumb.
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