Download - Seattle Public Library

Seattle Reads
The Washington Center for the Book at The Seattle Public Library invites
everyone to take part in “Seattle Reads” (formerly “If All of Seattle Read the Same
Book”), a project designed to deepen an appreciation of and engagement in literature
through reading and discussion.
Each year the Washington Center for the Book hosts an author for a series of
free programs. Prior to the visit, the Library hosts programs, panel discussions, film
screenings, and other events around the themes of the featured work. The Library
develops background material and study guides (called “reading group toolboxes”)
and encourages book groups and individuals throughout the region to read and
discuss the featured book.
Featured Works
2006: Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (Pantheon Books, 2003)
2005: When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka (Anchor Books, 2002)
2004: Seattle Reads Isabel Allende
My Invented Country (HarperCollins, 2003)
City of the Beasts (HarperCollins, 2002)
Paula (HarperCollins, 1995)
The Infinite Plan (HarperCollins, 1993)
The Stories of Eva Luna (Atheneum, 1991)
Eva Luna (Knopf, 1988)
The House of the Spirits (Knopf, 1985)
Note: The 2004 series featured seven titles from Allende’s body of work
2003: A Gesture Life by Chang-rae Lee (Riverhead Books, 1999)
2002: Wild Life by Molly Gloss (Mariner Books, 2001)
2001: Fooling with Words: A Celebration of Poets and Their Craft by Bill Moyers
(Morrow, 1999)
1999: A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines (Vintage Books, 1994)
1998: The Sweet Hereafter by Russell Banks (HarperCollins, 1991)
Books for Book Groups
The Washington Center for the Book lends hundreds of copies of the featured
book to book discussion groups during the two months prior to the author’s visit. To
request books for your book group, contact:
Washington Center for the Book
at The Seattle Public Library
bookgroups@spl.org
(206) 615-1747
For more information, contact:
Washington Center for the Book
at The Seattle Public Library
1000 Fourth Ave.
Seattle, WA 98104-1109
Chris Higashi, Program Manager
chris.higashi@spl.org
(206) 386-4650
Contributors to this toolbox include Jennifer Baker, Hayden Bass, Jennifer
Bisson, Ann Dalton, Susan Fort, Chris Higashi, Linda Johns, Jane Lopez-Santillana,
Hannah Parker, Carol Salomon, Misha Stone, and Brenda Tom.
Generous grants from The Wallace Foundation have supported Seattle Reads since its
inception. Thanks to private gifts to The Seattle Public Library Foundation and a major grant from
the National Endowment for the Humanities, Seattle Reads is now an annual program series of
the Washington Center for the Book at The Seattle Public Library.
Seattle Reads is a project designed to foster reading and discussion of works by authors
of diverse cultures and ethnicities. The 2007 series is made possible with additional support from
Houghton Mifflin Company, KUOW 94.9 Public Radio, the Simpson Center for the Humanities at
the University of Washington, Seattle Theatre Group, and the Alexis Hotel.
Reading Group Toolboxes
Reading group toolboxes are designed to enhance a book group’s discussion of
the author’s work. Toolboxes are available at all Seattle Public Library locations as
well as at many local bookstores. Toolboxes are also available on The Seattle Public
Library’s web site: www.spl.org.
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