Category Archives: All Campus Reads Programs

We Recommend: Mexican Whiteboy by Matt de la Pena

By bicadmin | Published: March 12, 2014

Danny has never felt that he fit in. In Matt de la Pena’s Mexican WhiteBoy, Danny is a bi-racial teenager struggling to find his identity. After living with his mother in a primarily white culture he decides to spend the summer in Mexico. It is here he stays with his absent father’s family and meets Uno. While his friendship with Uno is founded on a mutual love of baseball, the boys relate to each other on a much deeper level, as their life struggles are similar. It is within the confines of their friendship that Danny learns to accept his multi-cultural background and instead of trying to separate the pieces, learns to trust and accept himself as a whole.

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Also posted in Authors, Common Reads Programs, Community Reads Programs, Issue #5 | Tagged , , | Comments closed

Books In Common Supported Events!

By bicadmin | Published: March 12, 2014

Christina Baker Kline, NYT Best Selling author of Orphan Train, visited the community of Woodstock, CT in February. Coordinator Deb Sharpe: “Her presentation was loved by everyone. I have gotten several positive emails from our patrons already! I would highly recommend her to any library. Thanks for your help in getting her here!”

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Also posted in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Christina Baker Kline, Common Reads Programs, Community Reads Programs, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Issue #5, Jamie Ford, Songs of Willow Frost | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments closed

Evan Gets a Makeover: Garth Stein’s How Evan Broke His Head (And Other Secrets) Re-Launched by Soho Press

By bicadmin | Published: March 12, 2014

To commemorate the ten-year anniversary of its publication, Soho Press will release a new edition of How Evan Broke His Head, by Garth Stein, the author of New York Times Bestselling and beloved contemporary classic, The Art of Racing in the Rain. The new edition, which will hit shelves on March 18th, will include a never-before-released conversation between Garth and his editor, Bryan Devendorf, drummer of The National.

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Also posted in Common Reads Programs, Community Reads Programs, Garth Stein, Issue #5, Newsletters | Tagged , , , | Comments closed

Featuring the Film: How Book Adaptations Get Patrons Reading

By bicadmin | Published: March 12, 2014

For many readers, news that their favorite book will be adapted to film can be thrilling. Films bring the words to life, create new worlds and transform beloved characters into living, breathing flesh and blood. Films make us see these books in new ways, especially when artistic license is taken in condensing and enlivening long books into neat, two-hour packages.

And yet… how often have we heard friends lament, or complain ourselves: the book was better! Sure, films are great, but they don’t offer the same inclusion of the book. Watching a film, the viewer is merely an observer, and doesn’t feel everything the character feels, as you would when reading the book. There are no limits, no restrictions, no computer-generated-images trying to suspend your disbelief.

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Also posted in Common Reads Programs, Community Reads Programs, Garth Stein, Issue #5, Lisa Genova | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments closed

Yuma Rallies around The Blue Tattoo and Margot Mifflin

By bicadmin | Published: February 28, 2014
The Blue Tattoo, by Margot Mifflin

This February, the town of Yuma, AZ, united around this year’s One Book Yuma community read selection. Read More »

Also posted in Authors, Margot Mifflin | Tagged , , | Comments closed

A Conversation with Reyna Grande, author of The Distance Between Us: How to Engage Your Readers

By bicadmin | Published: November 21, 2013

Reyna Grande, author of Across a Hundred Mountains, Dancing with Butterflies, and The Distance Between Us, is a sought-after speaker at middle/high schools, colleges and universities around the country. Born in Mexico, Reyna was raised by her grandparents after her parents left her behind while they worked in the US. She came to the US at the age of nine as an undocumented immigrant and went on to become the first person in her family to obtain a higher education. We spoke with Reyna about her most recent book, The Distance Between Us, and her thoughts about how to engage readers, particularly students.

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Also posted in Issue #4, Newsletters, Reyna Grande, The Distance Between Us | Tagged , , , | Comments closed

Christina Baker Kline, author of Orphan Train, on the Power of Community Reading

By bicadmin | Published: November 21, 2013

We recently sat down with New York Times bestselling author, Christina Baker Kline. Her novel Orphan Train is about a young Irish immigrant who, as a child, is sent away from New York on a train that regularly transported unwanted and abandoned children from the East Coast to the farmlands of the Midwest. Moving between contemporary Maine and Depression-era Minnesota, Orphan Train is a powerful tale of upheaval and resilience. The novel (which is the authors fifth work of fiction) was selected as a Target book club pick, has held steady on 5 national bestseller lists, and has just gone to print for the fifth time!

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Also posted in Christina Baker Kline, Common Reads Programs, Community Reads Programs, Issue #4, Newsletters | Tagged , , | Comments closed

Black History Month: Celebrate with Award-Winning Authors

By bicadmin | Published: November 21, 2013

With February right around the corner, it’s a great time to think about adding an author event to your programming for Black History Month. Here are a few wonderful authors, with award-winning titles we’ve been recommending.

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Also posted in Common Reads Programs, Community Reads Programs, Issue #4, Newsletters | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments closed

In the Flesh or Between the Lines? The Benefits of Including the Author

By bicadmin | Published: November 21, 2013

As many all-campus and community reads organizers begin finalizing their decision for 2014 program titles, the account managers here at Books in Common often field an important question: why is it so critical for the author to participate, in person? We’ve worked with hundreds of event planners, on thousands of programs around the country. With nearly 100% agreement, the clients we work with say that having the author in the flesh dramatically increases the success of their programs.

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Also posted in Garth Stein, Issue #4, Newsletters, The Art of Racing in the Rain | Tagged , , , , | Comments closed

Biographies vs. Beach Books: Trends in All Campus Reads Selections

By bicadmin | Published: September 19, 2013

In the last decade, common reading programs have become a mainstay for library programming, literary organizations, and college campuses. The rise in First Year Experience, Freshman Reads, and All Campus Reads programs seems to correspond to the decline of core curricula in higher education — as colleges distance themselves from core curricula they find that students still need to have something in common academically. Books in common type programs on campuses have been a convenient answer to that need.

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Also posted in Andrew McCarthy, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Corban Addison, Enrique's Journey, Issue #3, Jamie Ford, Newsletters, Piper Kerman, Reyna Grande, Songs of Willow Frost, Sonia Nazario, The Distance Between Us, The Longest Way Home | Tagged , | Comments closed

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