History Book Club

September 10, 2025 | Hosted by Bayou Bend
The Year of Living Constitutionally: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Constitution’s Original Meaning by A.J. Jacobs

November 12, 2025 | Hosted by Rienzi
Jane Austen at Home: A Biography by Lucy Worsley

January 14, 2026 | Hosted by Bayou Bend
The Painter’s Fire: A Forgotten History of the Artists Who Championed the American Revolution by Zara Anishanslin

March 18, 2026 | Hosted by Rienzi
Something from the Oven: Reinventing Dinner in 1950s America by Laura Shapiro

May 13, 2026 | Hosted by Bayou Bend
The Indispensables: The Diverse Soldier-Mariners Who Shaped the Country, Formed the Navy, and Rowed Washington Across the Delaware by Patrick K. O’Donnell

July 15, 2026 | Hosted by Rienzi
The Secrets of Alchemy by Lawrence M. Principe

September 11, 2024 | Hosted by Bayou Bend
The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea by Jack E. Davis

November 13, 2024 | Hosted by Rienzi
A Perfect Red: Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire by Amy Butler Greenfield

January 8, 2025 | Hosted by Bayou Bend
The Sergeant: The Incredible Life of Nicholas Said: Son of an African General, Slave of the Ottomans, Free Man Under the Tsars, Hero of the Union Army by Dean Calbreath

March 12, 2025 | Hosted by Rienzi
Uproar! Satire, Scandal & Printmakers in Georgian London by Alice Loxton

May 14, 2025 | Hosted by Bayou Bend
Knowing What We Know: The Transmission of Knowledge: From Ancient Wisdom to Modern Magic by Simon Winchester

July 9, 2025 | Hosted by Rienzi
The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook by Hampton Sides

September 13, 2023
97 Orchard: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement by Jane Ziegelman | Reading Guide

November 8, 2023
The Last Emperor of Mexico: The Dramatic Story of the Habsburg Archduke Who Created a Kingdom in the New World by Edward Shawcross

January 10, 2024
South to Freedom: Runaway Slaves to Mexico and the Road to the Civil War by Alice L. Baumgartner

March 13, 2024
The Great Fire of London: In That Apocalyptic Year, 1666 by Neil Hanson

May 8, 2024
American Eclipse: A Nation’s Epic Race to Catch the Shadow of the Moon and Win the Glory of the World by David Baron | Reading Guide

July 17, 2024
Before Mrs Beeton: Elizabeth Raffald, England’s Most Influential Housekeeper by Neil Buttery

September 14, 2022 
Wondrous Beauty: Betsy Bonaparte, the Belle of Baltimore Who Married Napoleon’s Brother by Carol Berkin

November 9, 2022 
The Radical Potter: The Life and Times of Josiah Wedgwood by Tristram Hunt

January 11, 2023 
An American Quilt: Unfolding a Story of Family and Slavery by Rachel May | Reading Guide

March 8, 2023
In the Shadow of the Empress: The Defiant Lives of Maria Theresa, Mother of Marie Antoinette, and Her Daughters by Nancy Goldstone

May 10, 2023
The Sun and the Moon: The Remarkable True Account of Hoaxers, Showmen, Dueling Journalists, and Lunar Man-Bats in Nineteenth-Century New York by Matthew Goodman

July 12, 2023 
The Lunar Men: Five Friends Whose Curiosity Changed the World by Jenny Uglow

September 8, 2021 | Virtual | Rienzi
Mexican American Odyssey: Felix Tijerina, Entrepreneur and Civic Leader, 1905–1965 by Thomas H. Kreneck

November 10, 2021 | Virtual | Bayou Bend
Craft: An American History by Glenn Adamson

January 12, 2022 | Bayou Bend
Jefferson’s Daughters: Three Sisters, White and Black, in a Young America by Catherine Kerrison

March 9, 2022 | Rienzi
Handel in London: The Making of a Genius by Jane Glove

May 11, 2022 | Bayou Bend
American Eden: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic by Victoria Johnson

July 13, 2022 | Rienzi
The Age of Wood: Our Most Useful Material and the Construction of Civilization by Roland Ennos

September 9, 2020 | Bayou Bend
A Revolution in Color: The World of John Singleton Copley by Jane Kamensky

November 11, 2020 | Rienzi 
The Church in the Barrio: Mexican American Ethno-Catholicism in Houston by Roberto R. Treviño

January 13, 2021 | Bayou Bend
New England Bound: Slavery and Colonization in Early America by Wendy Warren

March 10, 2021 | Rienzi
Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel

May 19, 2021 | Bayou Bend
The Poison Plot: A Tale of Adultery and Murder in Colonial Newport by Elaine Forman Crane | Reading Guide

July 14, 2021 | Rienzi
Caesar of Paris: Napoleon Bonaparte, Rome, and the Artistic Obsession That Shaped an Empire by Susan Jaques | Reading Guide

September 11, 2019 | Bayou Bend
A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience by Emerson W. Baker

November 13, 2019 | Rienzi
Daughters of the Winter Queen: Four Remarkable Sisters, the Crown of Bohemia, and the Enduring Legacy of Mary, Queen of Scots by Nancy Goldstone

January 8, 2020 | Bayou Bend
Love and Hate in Jamestown: John Smith, Pocahontas, and the Start of a New Nation by David A. Price

March 11, 2020 | Rienzi
The Apothecaries’ Garden: A History of the Chelsea Physic Garden by Sue Minter

May 20, 2020 | Bayou Bend
At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson

July 8, 2020 | Rienzi
Old Masters, New World: America’s Raid on Europe’s Great Pictures by Cynthia Saltzman

September 12, 2018 | Bayou Bend
Ima Hogg: The Extraordinary Cultural Patron behind the Unusual Name by David B. Warren

November 14, 2018 | Rienzi
The Paper Garden: Mrs. Delany Begins Her Life’s Work at 72 by Molly Peacock | Reading Guide

January 9, 2019 | Bayou Bend
What She Ate: Six Remarkable Women and the Food That Tells Their Stories by Laura Shapiro

March 13, 2019 | Rienzi
The Taste of Conquest: The Rise and Fall of the Three Great Cities of Spice by Michael Krondl | Reading Guide

May 15, 2019 | Bayou Bend
One Summer: America 1927 by Bill Bryson

July 10, 2019 | Rienzi
Aristocrats: Caroline, Emily, Louisa, and Sarah Lennox, 1740–1832 by Stella Tillyard | Reading Guide

September 13, 2017 | Bayou Bend
Eight Flavors: The Untold Story of American Cuisine by Sarah Lohman | Reading Guide

November 8, 2017 | Rienzi
Darjeeling: The Colorful History and Precarious Fate of the World’s Greatest Tea by Jeff Koehler | Reading Guide

January 10, 2018 | Bayou Bend
Capital Dames: The Civil War and the Women of Washington, 1848–1868 by Cokie Roberts | Reading Guide

March 7, 2018 | Rienzi
The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science by Richard Holmes

May 16, 2018 | Bayou Bend
Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad by Eric Foner | Reading Guide

July 11, 2018 | Rienzi
The Diary of Samuel Pepys (Modern Library Classics) by Samuel Pepys | Reading Guide

September 2016
The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris
by David McCullough | Reading guide

November 2016
Passionate Minds: Emilie du Châtelet, Voltaire, and the Great Love Affair of the Enlightenment
by David Bodanis

January 2017
The Kingdom of Matthias: A Story of Sex and Salvation in 19th-Century America
by Paul E. Johnson and Sean Wilentz | Reading Guide

March 2017
A Royal Experiment: The Private Life of King George III
by Janice Hadlow | Reading Guide

May 2017
Cotton: The Biography of a Revolutionary Fiber
by Stephen Yafa | Reading Guide

July 2017
Jewels: A Secret History
by Victoria Finlay | Reading Guide

September 2015
The Refinement of America: Persons, Houses, Cities (Part 2)
by Richard Lyman Bushman | Reading Guide

November 2015
Ambition and Desire: The Dangerous Life
of Josephine Bonaparte by Kate Williams

January 2016
Unwise Passions: A True Story of a Remarkable Woman—and the First Great Scandal
of 18th-Century America by Alan Pell Crawford | Reading Guide

March 2016
The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth
of Modern Geology by Simon Winchester | Reading Guide

May 2016
When America First Met China: An Exotic History of Tea, Drugs, and Money in the Age of Sail
by Eric Jay Dolan | Reading Guide

July 2016
Our Tempestous Day: A History of Regency England
by Carrolly Erickson | Reading Guide