Common Read

In the first week of school I received a catalog advertising books for "common reads." I didn't throw it out. In fact, I began making a short list of my own of books I might consider if I were ever to try one here at school. Then out of the blue last week, the superintendent contacted me with a three-day deadline for expending $1500 on a REAP Grant for library resources. Really?

So I shared my idea of applying the dollars towards a library-administered common read program. She was very supportive.

I submitted my PO to her today. I have gone with 20 copies of six different titles; figuring that twenty people reading the same book in a small school like ours constitutes "common." Plus, I like the idea of voluntary participants. So here are the books. I'll post again when I have firmed-up the "program." What do you think?

Imperfect: an improbable life - Jim Abbott

The Devil and the White City - Erik Larson

Quiet; the power of introverts in a world that can't stop talking - Susan Cain

The Simple Truth: poems - Philip Levine

The Tiger's Wife: a novel - Tea Obreht

Winter World: the ingenuity of animal survival - Bernd Heinrich