'Wayne Reads' program deciding on book for 2009
By Bonnie Edwards
Published in News on July 27, 2008 10:34 AM
'From staff reports
Readers are choosing a book to read and discuss during next year's Wayne County Reads project.
Wayne County Reads is a countywide "one book, one community" reading project organized and supported by many community partners.
In previous years, the Wayne County Reads Committee has chosen books like "To Kill a Mockingbird" in 2004, "Big Fish" in 2005 and "Night" in 2006.
The upcoming Wayne County Reads project will be the committee's third year of having the readers pick what they want to read.
The two books chosen by readers were "Walking Across Egypt" in 2007 and "Blood Done Sign My Name" this year.
For next year, the committee is asking people to select from five finalists for the campaign, which will kick off in January. Votes can be turned into to any branch of the Wayne County Public Library or can be emailed to mshaw007@nc.rr.com.
The deadline to cast votes is Thursday, Aug. 8.
Earlier this year, readers who attended the Wayne County Reads events and library patrons were asked to nominate 40 books or genres for 2009.
A steering committee has narrowed the list down to the five finalists.
The following books have been nominated for the 2009 Wayne County Reads project:
*"House Made of Dawn," by N. Scott Momaday, which was the 1969 Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction. This novel is about a Native American named Abel who returns from fighting in World War II and feels torn between his nature-based culture and the modern world.
*"The House of the Spirits," by Isabel Allende was first published in Spanish in 1982 and has been since translated into 20 languages. This novel traces a Latin American family through four generations and political and social upheavals in their country.
*"The Books of Dr. Seuss." Theodor Seuss Geisel (1904-1991) published more than 60 books, including some for adult audiences. His work remains as well-read as ever and three books have been adapted recently into feature-length movies.
*"Blackbeard: America's Most Notorious Pirate" by Angus Konstam, which was published in 2007. Konstam has written more than 50 maritime history books, wrote this nonfiction account of Blackbeard's life and times, including a look at colonial life on North Carolina's Outer Banks.
*"Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury was published in 1953. The classic science fiction book looks at a future where firemen destroy books and where society no longer values knowledge or ideas, only trivia.