The Big Read Evolves!

By now you have probably heard, but I want to mention it anyway, The National Endowment for the Arts has revamped their Big Read grant program. As reported in the Booklist Reader:

Earlier today, the NEA Big Read program—the National Endowment for the Arts’ literature initiative—announced that it’s celebrating its 10th anniversary by adding 13 new titles to the books the organization uses in programs at schools and public libraries. The organization has switched its focus, according to the press release, from classic tales to “contemporary authors and books written since the founding of the NEA 50 years ago.”

This addition of new titles with a focus on authors who are from diverse American backgrounds AND whose books were written in the last 50 years is a big deal for libraries all over the country.

The authors of the newly added books.
Click here to see a full list of the approved titles both new and old.

The Big Read has given out millions of dollars to libraries, money without which these large scale communities reads could not happen. Click here for the about page with all of the details. Most libraries have to apply for this grant to be able to have theses popular events but the catch is, you have to use one of the official “Big Read” titles.

With the addition of these new titles and the ones that remain from a purge to make room for these new books, there is now a much better list for libraries from all over the country to choose from. There are books that represent a wide range of genres and populations [both ethnically but also geographically].  The list is more varied to represent the “American” experience in it’s totality but most importantly, every single one of these titles provides opportunities to have rich and rewarding discussions.

That is the point of the Big Read, to take a book and have a community wide conversation about it.  Many libraries had avoided applying for Big Read grants because of the title choices. I am hopeful that with this influx of fresh, diverse, and contemporary titles the Big Read will become an option for more communities than ever before, opening up the powers and pleasures of the library to thousands of new patrons. And isn’t that the point of these programs-- to show our communities how vital the public library can be to their lives. This list of books will help to make that happen.

I am so excited because I truly believe that lives will be profounded effected and enriched by this change. Thank you NEA for stepping up to the plate and being brave enough to evolve in a way that many government funded programs have not been able to do. I am proud that my tax dollars go to this program.

If you are interested in pursuing a Big Read Grant for your community, click here.

Monday Discussion: What One Question Do You Want To Ask an Author?

Well today is the day, I am interviewing Ernest Cline via Skype at 10:30am Chicago time for Berwyn Reads!  We are recording the interview and will have it up on our You Tube Channel for everyone to see by the end of this week.

But the real audience for this interview is the students at Morton West High School who read the book and submitted questions as part of their English classes.  The kids were asked to submit questions for the interviews.  I spent last Wednesday going through the dozens of questions I received (yay kids, great job), rearranging them, and putting them into a general interview order.

I will only ask their questions. The students will then view the interview in their classrooms.  I am excited for them to see their questions answered by Cline.

But first, I also want to take a moment to talk about the questions themselves.  I was very impressed with the questions I received.  Yes I got a few stinkers, but very few.  Most of the questions were about the setting, the characters, and author purpose.  When you see the interview you will get a sense of those. They were all well done.

However, there were other questions that were among my favorites.  These were a little less obvious. Things like:

• Where do you like to write?
• What was the hardest thing about writing this book? What was the easiest?
• Do you really think the world will become as bad as you write it?

These questions made me think.  These kids had one shot to ask Cline something, and a few of them really went outside the box.

I was inspired by them to ask myself-- what would I ask if I could only ask an author of a book I just read and enjoyed only one question? 

That’s a lot of pressure and a great question for us today.  So for today’s Monday Discussion I thought we’d all have a try at this one?  If you had one chance to ask any current living author one question, and one question only, what would it be?

I’ll go first.  I have thought about this for awhile and I think I would go with: 

What would you write if you had no deadlines, not contracts to fulfill, no worries about how it would sell?

I would love to know for many bestselling authors what they secretly want to write-- a different genre, poetry, stories, etc.... I hope to find out what inspiration lies at the heart of their life as a writer with this question.

What about you? Let me know, and look for my interview with Cline later this week.

Luis Alberto Urrea and Me: A Recap with Pictures!

Well last night went great.  We had a nice crowd and I think people enjoyed it. As you can see I have a few pictures spread throughout this post, but for more pictures go to the Fox Valley Reads Facebook page.

As a reminder, here are the questions I was planning to ask Luis. I got to most of them.

Now here are some thoughts from me on what he said:

• Luis loves libraries and he loves visiting book groups.  He encouraged everyone to contact him about either visiting your book group in person or over Skype.  He estimates he has participated in at least 70 book clubs already and a man invited him to their Books and Guns book club in November.  He had his wife [who was in the audience] checking his schedule to see if he was available.  
• We began with Luis describing his early life as a poor kid living in Tijuana with an East Coast mother and a Mexican father.  Besides his funny and poignant impersonations of his parents, he talked about his first stabs at writing, his mother "publishing" his first book [he was the best selling author of his kitchen], and how he never thought a kid from his world could be a published author.
• His mom reading him Mark Twain is what really opened his eyes to literature and made him want to be a writer.
• Ursula Le Guin was his first big supporter and she was one of the first people to buy one of his pieces.
• We talked at length about the real people he based most of the characters off of.
• Aunt Irma is a real person.  It was his aunt.  She was the Mexican bowling champ.  And if you have read the book, the fight about Yul Brenner really happened.
• The Mexican Biker who falls for Vampy...he's a real guy from Aurora!
• Atomico is based on his cousin.
• Nayeli is a real girl.  In fact, you can listen to more from Luis and Nayeli on this episode of This American Life from 2003.  Luis is in the process of entertaining offers to turn Into the Beautiful North into a movie. He has always promised Nayeli a cut of the money he would get from a movie version.  He really hopes that happens.
• Mary Jo the librarian, who tragically passed while working at the library before the book was written, was a real librarian in Kankakee.  Her family is grateful that she now will spend eternity on library shelves.  Luis talked about a beautiful memorial to her that he participated in.
  
• That reminds me.  I did ask the question, "Why Kankakaee?" Luis shared his experiences in that city.  Most of what he said was also recounted in the New York Times by him here.  Luis has kept up his affiliation with the community and really feels it is a model city for working with the immigrant community.
• Much as I said in my review of Into the Beautiful North, Luis talked a lot about how he wanted to take a break from the heavy tomes he had been writing, and instead write a book that "made him laugh everyday as he was working on it," but still bore witness [his biggest drive as a writer] and was thought provoking.  He is honored that the book has had such "legs."  As he said most books are lucky to last 6 weeks.  The Devil's Highway is going on its 10th Anniversary and will have a new edition to honor that out next year, with new text. He said that every time something tragic or newsworthy happens on the border, the book's sales increase.  And now with Into the Beautiful North being an official NEA Big Read approved book, it's is selling well now, a few years after its publication.
• We talked about the ending and how the entire story is really about Nayeli's hero's quest to become a samurai warrior in her own right.  Luis said that he saw the book's ending not as abrupt, but as the end of Nayeli's journey to become the hero.  The audience [and I] agreed with him.  It is a powerful, epic hero's quest story even without knowing if she was successful in beating out the banditos. In fact, it is more about the quest because of the ending.   
• We did end the discussion of the book with my question about the unique set up of the book and it's subversive way of tackling the immigration issue.  I commented on how I thought the book would make anyone, from the right or the left, question how they feel about this complex issue.  He shared stories of visiting the border and the "wall," which by the way, is only 600 miles on an over 2,000 mile border, and you can simply walk around it at its end. He talked about the border jumpers and board patrol agents who both love his books.  He also expressed hope that there can be a resolution to this problem.  He thought we were moving in the right direction but then 9/11 put us in reverse.  He also mentioned that we have to solve the drug problems first.  Arms are going into Mexico and drugs are coming out all illegally and it is making everything worse. There is no easy answer, but he is confident there is an answer. He hopes to help to be part of the solution.
• He ended the night by talking about much of what he is currently working on.  He also told a poignant story about researching his mother's past as a Red Cross Doughnut Dolly on the front lines of WWII and finding pictures of her in a book.  He is working on a historical fiction novel to honor these brave but forgotten women.  He said it will freak out reviewers and fans because there will not be "a single Mexican in the book," but rather he is bearing witness to his American roots.

Overall, he was just a wonderful storyteller who cares passionately about using his work to speak for those who have been forgotten or do not have a platform to speak for themselves.  He is a honorable, good man, but he is also charming and funny.  A rare breed.  If you ever get a chance to see Luis in person, go.

Thank you to Fox Valley Reads for putting on a great program and for allowing me to be a part of it.

Some of the wonderful staff who made the
event possible [with Luis].

Luis Alberto Urrea and Me Live in Aurora: Info and Questions Below

Okay, we are moving into full on promotion mode here on RA for All leading up to my conversation with Luis Alberto Urrea live on stage this Thursday night. Have I mentioned it is absolutely free!  All you need to do is click here and register at some point before you show up.

Today's post is all about the details of the event, including a sneak peek at the questions I plan to ask him, while tomorrow, will be all about the book and include my review of Into the Beautiful North, the novel which is the impetus behind the event.

[For the record, I thought I would like the book, but I was surprised to find how much I loved it.]

First, here is the article that appeared in The Daily Herald about the event.  They did include quotes from me about the book and what to expect on Thursday.

But, what I really wanted to share with you here today are the questions I am planning to ask Urrea.  I wrote these questions in advance because they will also be used for the Spanish language interview which is taking place on Wednesday [you can register for that here].

Why am I sharing these questions with everyone who reads the blog, even those who are not going to come? I have 2 very good reasons that keep with the blog's overall mission and are not simply about me promoting me.

1.  I want to use these questions as a learning opportunity for all of you out there.  More and more librarians are getting the chance to interview authors, especially via Skype.  Authors have found that talking with readers, especially those who are attending library events (Big Read, book clubs, etc...) is a great way to promote themselves and their work to people who will not only buy and read their books, but who will also spread the word about how nice it was to communicate with the author.

However, while librarians are getting more opportunities to interview authors, there is very little training out there to teach them how best to do it.  I hope my questions will help in that regard a bit.  As you will see below, I am trying to ask questions that begin a conversation between Urrea and myself.  These are not book discussion questions.  I don't need to ask him how something in the book made him feel, like you would in a discussion group.  Rather, I am asking about inspiration, process, and author intent more. I hope these questions either help you if you are interviewing an author or inspire you to try to contact an author who is interested in being interviewed.

2.  Fox Valley Reads is not video taping the event, so I cannot share the interview with you.  I hope that a combination of seeing the questions here and me reporting on what happened will give you the best second hand experience I can provide.  Last year I felt like my report of the interview with Erin Morgenstern was not as useful as it could have been.  When I was on stage with Morgenstern in a conversational setting, I could not take notes on her answers.  And, when I went back to report on our conversation for all of you from memory, it was harder to recreate what happened since I did not post my planned questions ahead of time.

I did not want to rehash the entire thing in a question and answer format, and I still do not plan to do that this year, but I think my report will be better framed for those of you who only experience it here on the blog if you see the questions I am asking ahead of time. At least, that is the plan.  I just want to make my post about the conversation more useful to you.

Anyway, here are the questions.  Please note, some of these questions will not make sense if you haven't read the book. Also, I will probably not get to ask all of these questions, but it is much better to have more than you need going in.

Look for my review of Into the Beautiful North sometime tomorrow and look for a report on how the interview went on Friday. [In between on Thursday, I plan to run my book discussion group report]

Finally, much of what I am asking, I already know the answers to because of things I saw Urrea say in this interview.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

General Questions:

1.  You grew up in a unique multi-ethnic household in a border community. How did your early years shape the writer you are today?

2. Your years as a missionary in Tijuana have had an obvious influence in your work, beginning with The Devil’s Highway. While that book is literally based on your work as a missionary, there is an overwhelming spirituality to everything you have written. Can you elaborate on the role this spirituality plays itself out in your writing process?

3. You came to writing through an amusingly circuitous path.  Can you share your unique story with us beginning with your family’s tradition of telling stories?

4. If he doesn’t mention it in 3 above, ask who his writer influences are. Which writers have influenced you.

5. Not only was your route to becoming a writer nontraditional, but you are also “un-nichable” as a writer-- which must drive your publisher crazy-- haven written critically acclaimed nonfiction, contemporary fiction, historical fiction, poetry, and now even graphic novels. I think this is testament to your talent, but really, can you tell us how you are able to master all of these formats? Does a story or idea present itself to you in a genre, or do you let the story take you where it wants to and figure out the style or genre along the way?

Into the Beautiful North Specifically

6.  Let’s move to Into the Beautiful North now.  I have to begin with the most striking thing about the story-- it’s set up.  I love that they are sneaking into the US to bring the undocumented workers back home.  It is a funny, touching, bittersweet, and quite honestly a subversive premise.  And it is so very original since most of the crossing the border literature and news today is so polarizing and political.  Instead you turn the entire issue on its side, forcing readers to rethink their own beliefs and opinions about illegal immigration. Where did you come up with this unique idea and were you consciously trying to enter the immigration debate from a new angle?

7. I don’t want the seriousness of the previous question to lose sight of the fact that this book is quite funny. You were able to pair serious moments with laugh out loud ones. Like life at the dump in Tijuana with the entrance of Atomico! Can you talk about your use of humor here.  And, please can we talk about Atomico a bit too. He is obviously there for something more than comic relief.

8.  While we are talking about specific characters, I want to move into a few others.  As you said on your blog:

“...To make the three male heroes a gay man, a Mexican bowling alley janitor, and a scary cholo from the Tijuana municipal garbage dump.  It also felt subversive to make the action-hero a 19 year old young woman undertaking a heroine’s journey—Mad Max and Beowulf have nothing on Nayeli!”

Let’s talk in a bit more details about the three heroes here we haven’t mentioned yet.

9. The gang all get their inspiration to save their town from the movie The Magnificent Seven (and its inspiration, the Japanese film, The Seventh Samurai). How did those movies influence you before you wrote Into the Beautiful North?

10. And yet, the story veers from the inspiration works and turns into more of a spiritual journey/ road trip tale. Why the switch?

11. Okay, I have to ask.  Seriously, why Kankakee?

12. Nayeli is the moral center of the group and the novel as a whole, so it is very fitting to have her sum up the entire book with “We are all in God’s Hands.” What are you saying about Nayeli’s quest and about all of our journeys as people through this world here?

13. Interestingly this novel has received criticism from the Right and Left, from believers and atheists in equal measure.  First to that I say, well done.  You have offended everyone.  That is impressive.  But second, I want to ask: did you anticipate these responses?

14. Why end the novel just as the fight for the soul Tres Camarones is about to begin? It was an interesting choice since the two movies your work is modelled after end with the battle between the good guys and the bad guys. You obviously made a conscious choice to end the novel differently than its inspiration pieces.  Why?

At the end I plan to ask...

--What authors are exciting you these days? Who do you love to read?

--What are you working on now?  [I always like to end with this question.  FYI, he is working on a horror novel; click here for more on that.]

The Big Read Gets Big Attention

As I mentioned in this post, my local library works with 9 other libraries to present "The Big Read" each year.  This year's title, The Help is drawing a lot of interest, and not just locally.

My colleague from the Adult Reading Round Table, Ted Balcolm, wrote about us on Book Group Buzz. Click on over to see what he has to say.

The Big Read Begins!

Ten Libraries in my area plan a community "big read" every year.  Here is the collective web site for The Big Read, including a list of the participating libraries.

This year's title is The Help by Katheryn Stockett, which has been mentioned more than a few times on this blog.

If you are a card holder at one of the 10 member libraries you can start signing up on February 1 for all of the events, including multiple book discussions. Check the website for added content and program descriptions soon.

Not only do I love the book choice this year, I think it is great that these events begin in late winter and go into the spring.  Let's face it, Northern Illinois is cold for many months in a row.  We need exciting indoor activities, and the Big Read and its subsequent programming get people out of the house and interacting with each other, even in below zero weather.

As a patron, I love how this event also gets everyone talking about the same book.  Since it is promoted and spread out over a few months, many people have a chance to read the book.  For example, last year I actually enjoyed the conversations I had about the book more than I liked the book itself.

Thanks to all of the Big Read committee members who work so hard on The Big Read, especially this year's coordinator, Bridget Bittman.

What I'm Reading: March 2009

As I mentioned here, my local library is part of "The Big Read" in the Western suburbs of Chicago. I read the book this month, Animal Vegetable Mineral by Barbara Kingsolver. This is a nonfiction/memoir title by the popular novelist. With the help of her husband and 19-year-old daughter, Kingsolver wrote about her family's decision to move from Arizona to her summer home/farm full time and embarked on a 12 month journey to eat only food they grew, animals they raised, or, food that was produced within a 100 mile radius of their home.

Kingsolver is a very engaging writer, and I was intrigued by her descriptions of their experiences, but, there were times when I felt like she was berating me for eating cucumbers out of season. Despite feeling, at times, like she was telling me how much better she was than me, I still found myself passing on many of the tidbits of information I learned from Kingsolver's book. That is the sign of a good book; one that stays with you and compels you to share it with others.

I am not going to spend my time listing readalikes because The Big Read website has plenty of suggestions here. One of the things I teach my students is not to reinvent the wheel. This is a great example. Librarians share information; it is at the heart of what we do. That is why I started this blog. So go see all the great work that my local library colleagues have done.

I also read another bestselling nonfiction title this month, The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale. Summerscale tires to unravel the true story behind a particularly grizzly murder of a young boy in 1860. In a Victorian family home in Road England, a young boy disappears from his bed in the nursery and is found brutally murdered in the outhouse. This is the story of a strange family, the creation and rise of the police detective, and the dawning of the modern era.

What makes this true crime story different from many others is that the author takes an interesting angle. She uses this true event to show how it also gave rise to the modern mystery novel. She also throws in a quick discussion of the birth of Aquariums at the end too.

Personally, although I was intrigued by her arguments, I got bored in the middle and didn't really ever get back into the book. Once the sister confesses (don't worry, it's pretty clear from start that she did it), there are only minor revelations and wild speculations in the last third of the book. In fact, I felt it ended rather abruptly. Still, I think Summerscale's discussions of the emergence of the detective and the beginnings of mystery fiction at this time were worth reading it, IMO.

After reading Summerscale's book you will want to run out and read Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, all of whom are mentioned and quoted liberally throughout the book. I am all for books that want you to read more books! There is also the brand new title by Dan Simmons, Drood. In Drood, Simmons reimagines the inspiration behind Dickens' last, unfinished work, narrated by Wilkie Collins.

If true crime is more your thing, according an article by Neal Wyatt on EBSCO's NoveList Plus database, the five key titles to read in the genre are Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt, Helter Skelter: the True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, Blue Blood by Edward Conlon, and The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson.

Finally, I was less than impressed with the new satirical, superhero fantasy novel Captain Freedom by G. Xaiver Robillard. Basically it is a memoir by a celebrity obsessed and currently disgraced superhero in a near future America (mostly California). This book poked fun at just about everything in politics and pop culture today. When the hero becomes Governor of CA, he even uses a slogan ("Keep Freedom Free") and runs a campaign similar to Obama's. There is also a section devoted to lambasting the Da Vinci Code. In my opinion, this novel has too musch satire and not enough meat.

If you like Superhero stories, Perry Moore's Hero is much better, as long as you are fine with a parallel coming out of the closet plot line; I wrote about reading Hero here. Also Michael Chabon's Pulitzer Prize winning, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, about the comic book industry is one of my all time favorites. Even the Pixar film, The Incredibles, is better than Captain America.

However, there are many readers who loved this book. It has a 4 star rating on Amazon. Also, here is a link to the Shelfari page for Captain Freedom where you can read the opinions of people who loved the book and why. Although I am allowed to dislike a book, as a RA, I prefer to talk about books in a positive way. Just because I did not like a book, that does not mean there isn't another person for whom it is the perfect choice. As the Shelfari link shows, there are plenty of readers for whom this novel is a great choice; I will let them speak for it. They will do a much better job.

The Big Read: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

This year the libraries in the Western Suburbs of Chicago (including my home library) are reading Kingsolver's nonfiction work about her family's experiment of eating only local, in-season foods for 365 days.

Information about the book and a full schedule of Big Read events is available here.

I am currently listening to Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and will weigh in with my opinion in a few weeks. But for the record, regardless of how anyone feels about the book itself, the idea of getting a community to read one book at the same time, to have that common experience, is worth it.