One Maryland, One Book 2010: The Blind Side and more
Fresh off the 2009 community reading series that featured James McBride's "Song Yet Sung," the One Maryland, One Book program is looking ahead to its next selection. Tuesday, a group that includes educators and librarians (and me) will meet at the Maryland Humanities Council to review a short list of choices for the 2010 program. The goal: to pick a book that can be used to spark a statewide conversation about race and identity.
My homework assignment: to read and review "How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez. It's the tale of four sometimes warring, sometimes loving sisters. Let me know if you have opinions about it -- or the other books on the OMOB short list:
"The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game" by Michael Lewis
"The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears" by Dinaw Mengestu
"The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood" by Ta-Nehesi Coates
"A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier" by Ishmael Beah
"Six of One" by Rita Mae Brown
"Tortilla Curtain" by T.C. Boyle
"An Island Out of Time" by Tom Horton
"Ace of Spades" by David Matthews
"Outcasts United" by Warren St. John.
Comments
Dave: "The Blind Side" by Michael Lewis is, to borrow a phrase, a thumping good read. The portraits that Lewis draws of Michael Oher and the Tuohys, interspersed with his descriptions and analyses of the evolution of offensive line play in the NFL, are well worth any reader's time. Even if you are not a football fan, you will be grabbed and taken far. For an inveterate football fan like me, Lewis took me into the land of "the big uglies up front," as Keith Jackson used to say, whose play determines the outcome of nearly every game. And although Lewis never mentions him, he hearkens back to, Jim Parker, the Baltimore Colts' Hall of Fame blind side tackle who kept John Unitas clean. I gobbled this book up in three evenings of reading.
Posted by: trebort49 | January 31, 2010 12:46 PM
I love Michael Oher's story but THE TORTILLA CURTAIN is one of the most powerful books I have ever read. I probably read it 12 years ago and it still resonates.
Posted by: joanie | January 31, 2010 4:29 PM
"An Island Out of Time" is very much like Smith Island itself. Not riveting, not fast paced, and a little sad, but something as a Marylander that you must experience. Please read it.
Posted by: JR | January 31, 2010 7:52 PM
Having read most of Rita Mae Brown's work, I thought Six of One must new. I was a bit disappointed - but then glad - when I checked Amazon and realized that I read this several years ago and enjoyed the craziness.
Posted by: Eve | February 1, 2010 9:57 AM
I loved Dinaw's book... THE BEAUTIFUL THINGS THAT HEAVEN BEARS is evocative, heart-rending--and hopeful. It is a story of love, loss, friendship and renewal, carefully tracing the delicate tissue that connects one person to another--and the steel webbing that connects us to our pasts, no matter what strange streets we call home today.
Posted by: Sandra | February 1, 2010 11:13 AM
THE BEAUTIFUL THINGS THAT HEAVEN BEARS is one of my favorite novels of the last few years. The writing is stunning, and it manages to get at big issues (race, identity, etc.) without being at all heavy-handed, which is a rarity for a first novel. It's a beautiful and heartbreaking story, and well worth your consideration.
Posted by: Amber | February 1, 2010 4:41 PM