One Book, One San Diego

What if we all read the same book at the same time?

In partnership with KPBS, the Library brings all of San Diego together to read and discuss the same book in the One Book, One San Diego Program. The program features author events, book discussions at libraries and other events to explore the themes discussed in the featured book. Visit here for more details.

---

One Book, One San Diego Kick Off Event
Wednesday, February 29, 2012 at 7 p.m.
Joe & Vi Jacobs Center
404 Euclid Avenue
Meet the 2012 One Book, One San Diego authors!

Space is limited, please RSVP here.

---

The 2012 One Book program is taking an exciting turn this year. Beginning January 2012, all three top selections will be featured, one at a time (read the press release). Book lovers will have an opportunity to read, discuss and attend free community events focused on:

• Moloka’i by Alan Brennert. This richly imagined novel, set in Hawaii more than a century ago, is an extraordinary epic and moving testament to the resiliency of the human spirit. Rachel is a spirited seven-year old who dreams of visiting far-off lands like her father, a merchant seaman. Then one day a rose-colored mark appears on her skin and those dreams are stolen from her. Taken from her home and family, Rachel is sent to Kalaupapa, the quarantined leprosy settlement on the island of Moloka’i. Here her life is supposed to end, but instead she discovers it is only just the beginning.Read an interview with Alan Brennert.

• Sky of Red Poppies by Zohreh Ghahremani. This poetic novel begins with a casual friendship between two schoolgirls coming of age in the politically divided 1960’s Iran. Roya, the daughter of a prominent family, is envious of the fierce independence of her religious classmate Shireen. But Shireen has secrets of her own. Together, Roya and Shireen contend with becoming the women they want to be, and in doing so, make decisions that will cause their tragic undoing. Set against the backdrop of a nation forced to mute its profound identity, Sky of Red Poppies is a novel about culture, politics and the redeeming power of friendships. Read an interview with Zoe Ghahremani.

• Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea. Nayeli is a young woman in the poor but tight-knit coastal Mexican town of Tres Camarones. Abandoned by her father, who headed north for work years before, Nayeli is hit with the realization that her hometown is all but abandoned by men, leaving it at the mercy of drug gangsters. So she hatches an elaborate scheme inspired by The Magnificent Seven: with three friends, she heads north to find seven Mexican men and smuggle them back to protect the town. Urrea's poetic sensibility and journalistic eye for detail in painting the Mexican landscape and sociological complexities create vivid, memorable scenes. The colorful characters, strong narrative and humor carry this uplifting and very human story. Read an interview with Luis Urrea.

Library One Book activities will begin in winter 2012. Previous One Book, One San Diego titles are The Gangster We Are All Looking For, The Outcasts United, The Zookeeper’s Wife, Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace…One School at a Time and Enrique’s Journey.  

Cubic Corporation, The Samuel I. & John Henry Fox Foundation, Lloyd Pest Control and the Linden Root Dickinson Foundation are program supporters. For more information on supporting One Book, One San Diego or any of the Library's literacy programs, contact Susan Howe at (619) 238-6643 or showe@supportmylibrary.org.

The 2011 One Book, One San Diego

On February 1, 2011, the San Diego Public Library and KPBS kicked off One Book, One San Diego with its first nonfiction selection, The Gangster We Are All Looking For by lê thi diem thúy. Througohut the year, nearly 6,000 San Diegans attended countless programs at branch libraries and throughout the community.

thúy was in San Diego in early February for a series of presentations about her novel, life as a young Vietnamese refuge growing up in San Diego and the powerful impact the Library had on her.

thúy grew up in San Diego in the Linda Vista area and at one time wrote for the Union-Tribune. "It is especially meaningful to me that the San Diego Public libraries play such a large part in the One Book program," said thúy. "It was in the public libraries of San Diego that I learned to love being in the company of books, and experienced both the consolation of words, and their power to challenge and transport."

View a special video message from the 2011 One Book author.