Books and More: One Community, One BookOne Community, One Book
A Community Reading Project
One Community-One Book: All Johnson County Reads is a community-wide reading project that annually runs from the middle of September through the middle of November. The book is selected by a committee and announced in the Spring preceding the reading project.
One Community, One Book 2012
The Latehomecomer: a Hmong Family Memoir by Kao Kalia Yang
In search of a place to call home, thousands of Hmong families made the journey from the war-torn jungles of Laos to the overcrowded refugee camps of Thailand and onward to the United States, but their experiences remain largely unknown. Driven to tell her family's story after her grandmother's death, Kao Kalia Yang's memoir is a tribute to the remarkable woman whose spirit held them together through their imprisonment in Laos, their narrow escape into Thailand's Ban Vinai Refugee Camp, their immigration to St. Paul when Yang was only six years old, and their transition to life in America. It is also an eloquent, firsthand account of a people who have worked hard to make their voices heard.
Discussion
Join us for a discussion of The Latehomecomer: a Hmong Family Memoir on Wednesday, October 3rd, 2012 at 10:30 a.m. in meeting room B.
Visit http://calendar.icpl.org/view.php?did=22455 for additional information.
More Book Information and Discussion Questions:
- The University of Iowa Center for Human Rights
- Reading Group Guide (coming soon)
- Publisher's Information Page
Get The Latehomecomer at the ICPL:
One Community, One Book 2011
Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
The true story of one family, caught between America's two biggest policy disasters: the war on terror and the response to Hurricane Katrina.
Abdulrahman and Kathy Zeitoun run a house-painting business in New Orleans. In August of 2005, as Hurricane Katrina approaches, Kathy evacuates with their four young children, leaving Zeitoun to watch over the business. In the days following the storm he travels the city by canoe, feeding abandoned animals and helping elderly neighbors. Then, on September 6th, police officers armed with M-16s arrest Zeitoun in his home. Told with eloquence and compassion, Zeitoun is a riveting account of one family's unthinkable struggle with forces beyond wind and water.
More Book Information and Discussion Questions:
Get Zeitoun at the ICPL:
One Community, One Book 2010
Gardens of Water by Alan Drew
Gardens of Water is an enthralling story of two families, and two faiths, in Turkey at the time of the cataclysm of 1999. It tells of Sinan, whose daughter, Irem, dreams of escaping the confines of her family and the duties of a devout Muslim woman. She sees in Dylan, an American boy and her upstairs neighbor, the enticing promise of another life. But then a massive earthquake forces Sinan and his family to live as refugees in their own country and leads to a dangerous intimacy with their American neighbors, as Irem and Dylan fall in love. When Sinan finds himself entangled in a series of increasingly dangerous decisions, he will be pushed toward a final betrayal that will change everyones lives forever.