Reyna Grande’s memoir, The Distance Between Us, has recently been chosen for University of Iowa’s One Community, One Book annual reading program. Books in Common helped arrange Reyna Grande’s events for the One Community, One Book program.
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Thor Hanson, author of The Impenetrable Forest and Feathers: The Evolution of a Natural Miracle, was recently announced as a Guggenheim Fellow for science writing.
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The story of American orphan trains is relatively unknown to the general public, yet shaped the lives of thousands of riders and the people they lived with. By merging history into fiction Christina Baker Kline has reached a whole new audience that enjoys learning while their imaginations are delighted. Which is why Orphan Train is often the most wait-listed book at libraries and has been a book club favorite across the country.
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It’s a pivotal moment for an author’s book to be turned into a movie. Mardi Jo Link’s book, Bootstrapper: From Broke to Badass on a Northern Michigan Farm, has now been optioned for a film with Rachel Weisz and Daniel Craig. From Mardi Jo Link’s struggle to prevent foreclosure on her 100 year-old farm to gaining notoriety in her writing, and now watching her personal story being told on the big screen is an exceptional way for Mardi Jo to come full circle.
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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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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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We recently chatted with Sulin Jones, senior librarian at the Mono County Free Library, about their community reads program. Mono County Community Reads recently hosted Luis Carlos Montalvan, author of Until Tuesday, in 2013, and will host David Carle, author of Traveling the 38th Parallel: A Water Line Around the World, in April.
Books In Common: Would you tell us a bit about your program? For instance, how long has the Mono County Free Library been hosting a Community Reads event, how did it get started, and how have you seen it change since your involvement with it?
Sulin Jones: Mono County library first hosted a community read in 2008, when we received a grant to participate in the NEA’s Big Read.
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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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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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Ted Kavich, program and educational services manager for Fairfax County Library, takes All Fairfax Reads in a new and exciting direction!
BIC: The Fairfax Reads program was recently transitioned into a Book Club Conference model. What made you decide to make this switch, and how has the experience been so far?
TK: Actually, September’s Book Club Conference was just one of the new directions we hope to explore in the coming months/years. There are so many cool, “outside the box” kinds of events we’d like to coordinate, and of course our time and resources are limited. Thus, All Fairfax Reads (a successful program series for sure) was retired so we could move forward with some new and innovative types of events. The Book Club Conference was an amazing start to this effort – a hugely successful event with great turnout (250 attendees, our max capacity due to venue size), completely positive feedback, and an excellent keynote speaker (Will Schwalbe). We are so glad we reached out to book club members in our community – they came out in force to support an event geared to their interests and needs.
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