Now in its fourth year, One City, One Book: Walnut Creek Reads creates a "citywide book club" by encouraging commuinty members to read the same book at the same time and then participate in a series of community-wide events that celebrate the book. Book selections are typically announced in the May-June timeframe and the community events are planned in the fall giving the community the summer months to read and enjoy the book.
PREVIOUS SELECTIONS
2009
"The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society," by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, is an epistolary novel, a genre in which a story unfolds in a series of letters. This enchanting novel is the story of an English author living in the shadow of World War II and what she learns about the power of friendship, books, love, and the human spirit from the Guernsey Islanders.
Community events included an evening with Annie Barrows; dramatic reading from the book at the Lesher Center; book discussions and World War II recollections by Walnut Creek residents.
2008
"The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid" is Bill Bryson’s hilarious memoir about growing up in America in the 1950's. "Bill Bryson's laough-out-loud pilgrimage through his Fifties childhood in heartland America is a national treasure," says Tom Brokaw, former anchor of NBC News. "It's full of insights, wit, and wicked adolescent fantasies." Bryson is best knonw as a travel author; his books include A Walk in the Woods and In a Sunburned Country.
Community events included a lecture by author and former San Francisco Chronicle columnist Adair Lara, book discussions, and a nostalgic presentation on Walnut Creek in the 1950's by Walnut Creek historian Brad Rovenpera.
2007
Set in the late 1960's, All the Little Live Things is the story of Joe Allston, a cantankerous retired literary agent, who moves to the Santa Cruz mountains with his wife, Ruth, expecting idyllic bliss for their golden years.
Their new world is no Eden, however, as Joe is confronted with a bearded graduate sudent who reminds him of his recently deceased son. The hippie squats on his property and does a Tarzan bit in a treehouse. His new neighbors also include a young woman who is fiercely defensive of "all the little live things" and a belief that there are no evil forces in nature.
His neighbors, both animal and human, challenge Joe to rethink values of his generation and his own past.
2006
The Namesake, written by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri, was named best book of the year in 2003 by, among others, the New York Times, USA Today, and Entertainment Weekly. The story deals with identity, the importance of name, and the effect of the immigrant experience on family ties.
Celebrity-led book discussions, a three-film Indian movie festival, a civic lecture on immigration and civic integreation, and an evening of traditional Indian music, fashion and dance were among the events that culminated Walnut Creek's first-ever One City, One Book program.
Sponsors include Minuteman Press of Lafayette, and the Contra Costa Times.
Did You Know?
In 1968, the Friends of Ygnacio Valley Library was formed to establish a new library facility in the eastern end of the Ygnacio Valley.
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