Download: New Book Discussion Kits for Spring 2026 (PDF)
Book Kit #1254 The Showman: Inside the Invasion That Shook the World and Made a Leader of Volodymyrr Zelensky
"Acclaimed journalist Simon Shuster gives us the first inside account of the Russian invasion of Ukraine from the perspective of President Volodymyr Zelensky and his team, who granted him unprecedented access"- (Provided by publisher) NON-FICTION
Book Kit #1255 Mama Said: Stories
"Set in Louisville, Kentucky, these linked stories evoke Black family life in all its complexity, following JayLynn, along with her cousins Zaria and Angel, as they come of age struggling against their mothers' drug addictions." (Provided by publisher) FICTION
Book Kit #1256 Erasure: A Novel
“Thelonius "Monk" Ellison is an erudite, accomplished but seldom-read author who insists on writing obscure literary papers rather than the so-called "ghetto prose" that would make him a commercial success. He finally succumbs to temptation after seeing the Oberlin-educated author of We's Lives in da Ghetto during her appearance on a talk show, firing back with a parody called My Pafology, which he submits to his startled agent under the gangsta pseudonym of Stagg R. Leigh. Ellison quickly finds himself with a six-figure advance from a major house, a multimillion-dollar offer for the movie rights and a monster bestseller on his hands.” (Adapted from publisher) FICTION
Book Kit #1257 Catalina: A Novel
"Catalina is trying to work out her own life as she leaves her undocumented family behind to enter Harvard. Suffering from bouts of PTSD, she struggles to connect to her new world just as she struggled to make sense of her old one. She infiltrates the subcultures of elite undergrads-internships and college newspapers, parties and secret societies-and observes them like an anthropologist, but then falls in love, or something like love, with a fellow student, an actual anthropology scholar who wants to teach her about the Andean world she was born in but never knew.” (Adapted from publisher) FICTION
Book Kit #1258 The Waters: A Novel
A master of rural noir returns with a fierce, mesmerizing novel about exceptional women and the soul of a small town. On an island in the Great Massasauga Swamp―an area known as “The Waters” to the residents of nearby Whiteheart, Michigan―herbalist and eccentric Hermine “Herself” Zook has healed the local women of their ailments for generations. As stubborn as her tonics are powerful, Herself inspires reverence and fear in the people of Whiteheart, and even in her own three estranged daughters.” (Adapted from publisher) FICTION
Book Kit #1259 Smoke and Ashes: Opium’s Hidden Histories
"Amitav Ghosh unravels the impact of the opium trade on global history and in his own family-the climax of a years long project.” (Provided by publisher) NON-FICTION
Book Kit #1260 The Covenant of Water
“Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere.” (Adapted from publisher) FICTION
Book Kit #1261 We Had a Little Real Estate Problem: The Unheralded Story of Native Americans in Comedy
It was one of the most reliable jokes in Charlie Hill’s stand-up routine: “My people are from Wisconsin. We used to be from New York. We had a little real estate problem.” In We Had a Little Real Estate Problem, acclaimed comedy historian Kliph Nesteroff focuses on one of comedy’s most significant and little-known stories: how, despite having been denied representation in the entertainment industry, Native Americans have influenced and advanced the art form. (Adapted from publisher) NON-FICTION
Book Kit #1262 Big Gay Wedding: A Novel
Two grooms. One mother of a problem. Barnett Durang has a secret. No, not THAT secret. His widowed mother has long known he’s gay. The secret is Barnett is getting married. At his mother’s farm. In their small Louisiana town. She just doesn’t know it yet. (Adapted from publisher) FICTION
Book Kit #1263 The Patron Saint of Liars
St. Elizabeth’s, a home for unwed mothers in Habit, Kentucky, usually harbors its residents for only a little while. Not so Rose Clinton, a beautiful, mysterious woman who comes to the home pregnant but not unwed, and stays. She plans to give up her child, thinking she cannot be the mother it needs. But when Cecilia is born, Rose makes a place for herself and her daughter amid St. Elizabeth’s extended family of nuns and an ever-changing collection of pregnant teenage girls. (Adapted from publisher) FICTION