“California Reads” is a statewide “program of the California Council for the Humanities (CCH), in partnership with the California Center for the Book (CFB), [ … ] designed to support public libraries in developing programs that will stimulate meaningful dialogue among diverse community members by using works of fiction and non-fiction.” They have recently chosen five books (detailed below) for use in March-November 2012. That timeline doesn’t match our process very well but nevertheless…..Read on for more info.
Source: http://www.calhum.org/guidelines/dem_CAreads_guidelines.htm
More info: http://www.calhum.org/guidelines/downloads/CAreads2011/CA%20Reads%20Book%20Descriptions.pdf
The Books
Through a spirited public nomination and selection process, California Reads has chosen a diverse slate of books on a broad range of democracy-related themes. They are:
The Penguin Guide to the United States Constitution: A Fully Annotated Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution and Amendments, and Selections from The Federalist Papers, by Richard Beeman. Annotated by one of the nation’s foremost Constitutional scholars, this compact edition of our nation’s founding documents provides both text and context for readers seeking to understand their meaning, past and present.
Farewell to Manzanar, by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston. A heartbreaking and compelling memoir about the Japanese American internment experience, as seen through the eyes of a young girl, bears witness to a failure of American democracy.
A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster, by Rebecca Solnit. A masterwork of narrative nonfiction by a contemporary California writer reaches surprising conclusions about our need for community and common purpose, which she argues are fundamental to democratic forms of social and political life.
It Can’t Happen Here, by Sinclair Lewis. This underappreciated classic by one of America’s greatest novelists, first published in 1935, imagines a chillingly undemocratic America under a fascist regime, and reminds us of the fragility of democratic institutions.
Lost City Radio, by Daniel Alarcón. A haunting novel by a young California writer explores the aftermath of a traumatic civil war in a fictitious South American country, raising questions about the importance of historical knowledge, collective memory, and access to information in a democratic society.
