Behind the Headlines

Look up Michelle Swartz’s story about the Big Read kickoff at monroenews.com. — Paula Wethington

By Paula Wethington

I’ve been participating in the Monroe County Big Read since its 2007 launch with Fahrenheit 451. Now, to be fair, Ray Bradbury is one of my favorite science fiction authors so that was the perfect book to coax me into participating in a community literacy campaign.

The 2008 Big Read book was To Kill a Mockingbird.

The 2009 Big Read book is The Great Gatsby.

My co-worker Michelle Swartz will have a report for The Monroe Evening News Tuesday, but it has become somewhat of a tradition for the reporters to post Big Read blog reports here at Behind the Headlines.

If you were in the audience tonight during the kickoff event at the La-Z-Boy Center, you were able to get FREE books, study guides, CD-Roms and even a T-shirt if you wanted one. (No, I’m not a T-shirt collector. I don’t wear too many souvenir shirts).

There was live jazz music for the prelude, and the film festival viewing featured the 1974 cinema adaptation of the book.

And if you were there, you probably saw several of my co-workers, one of the other bloggers at BlogsMonroe, and at least one MonroeTalks member in the lobby. They weren’t there just to report on the event. They were there to enjoy it.

The local planning committee is already working on its bid for a 2010 Big Read campaign.

In the meantime, go to the Big Read campaign page and pick an event or two to participate in. I plan to attend at least one more film festival.

The Big Read of Monroe County 2009 schedule of events is now available.

This year’s book is “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

All the details are at the Monroe County Community College web site. There will be film festival shows, panel discussions, historic Monroe programs, and dances for the students.

All Monroe County Library System book clubs will be discussing the book; with family story times using the companion book “John Coltrane’s Giant Steps.”

– Paula Wethington

By Paula Wethington / paula@monroenews.com

Did you get involved with Big Read 2007 and Big Read 2008?

Monroe County got a grant to set up Big Read 2009. The next assignment is “The Great Gatsby.”

Read about it on page 1A of today’s print and e-editions of The Monroe Evening News or at monroenews.com.

The MonroeTalkers are chatting about Monroe County’s 2008 Big Read assignment “To Kill a Mockingbird,” with another thread here.

By Paula Wethington / paula@monroenews.com

Evening News editor Deb Saul dedicated her print column today to “To kill a Mockingbird.” You can find the article on page 3A of today’s print and e-editions of The Monroe Evening News and at www.monroenews.com.

A snippet:

Monroe County readers participating in The Big Read know how important reading was in the Finch household in the book “To Kill a Mockingbird.” The children were read to each night and the father read three newspapers a day. When the children noticed a new boy next door the first thing out of his mouth was his name and the statement: “I can read.” And now I think that reading made the father, Atticus, the man he was.

By Paula Wethington / paula@monroenews.com

Behind the Headlines is where The Monroe Evening News reporters blog about anything going on in the community.

One of the recurring topics has been The Big Read 2007 (Fahrenheit 451) and 2008 (To Kill a Mockingbird). (Click through the archives marked The Big Read).

But after I read this year’s book, I realized my book review would fit better at Monroe on a Budget. Go click on Financial Lessons from “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

By Paula Wethington / paula@monroenews.com

Monroe County’s 2008 Big Read book is “To Kill a Mockingbird.” The kickoff for The Big Read celebration is Friday with the opening of Monroe Community Players’ production of the play based on the book.

You can read Barb Krolak’s write-up about the MCP production here.

You can find all the details of what’s going on with The Big Read at the Monroe County Community College’s page.

And Behind the Headlines will be the place to find Big Read blog chit-chat from The Evening News reporters.

In concert with the kick-off to the Big Read, the Monroe Community Players will perform Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” this weekend at the Meyer Theater. During Monday night’s rehearsal, Norb Nowak, as Atticus Finch (left), confers with his client Tom Robinson, played by Chanzo Tambuzi, in the first courtroom scene.

Photo by Kim Brent / posted at The Monroe Evening News photo gallery

By Paula Wethington / paula@monroenews.com

The 2008 Big Read book theme for Monroe County is “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee.

I picked up a book I had on reserve at Dorsch Memorial Branch Library this afternoon and … saw the Big Read promotion items on display!

I haven’t read this year’s book, so I took a copy home. I also snagged a bookmark and a “reader’s guide.”

Now that the literary events for this year’s Big Read program are over, organizers are setting up plans for the next go-round.

The book that was chosen this year was Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. They are now discussing more than a dozen possible titles for Big Read 2008.

The idea is to follow the mold of this year’s program, including book club discussions, marquee events, film showings, etc. Any thoughts?
Here’s the list of books they are choosing from:
Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
My Ántonia by Willa Cather
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Call of the Wild by Jack London
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
The Shawl by Cynthia Ozick
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

I had to make an emergency trip to the library yesterday after an alarming conversation with a co-worker.

Talking about all the literacy-related events with the Big Read this month, she mentioned that it was funny how some libraries have trimmed stacks of the classics to make room for more popular titles.

Cut out Hemingway, Twain and Dickens? For what, dating guides and comic books?

To each his own, I understand. But this is true to a point.

There are more copies floating around of the book on the newest diet craze than there are with Voltaire’s “Candide.” At least people are reading something, I guess.
In our own library I am comforted to find more than a dozen copies of many of what I would consider “the essentials.”

Twain’s “Huckleberry Finn” can be found at 12 different branches and in four different formats. The words of Albert Camus can be found in better than half of those locations.

My personal favorite “Slaughterhouse-Five” is at six branches. And Nietzche’s Zarathustra still speaks from the shelves of four library branches.

But scary indeed if we would enter a library and not find Atlas shrugging.

Went to the Freedom Sings performance last night – it was great. Though, as most people pointed out, it would have been better if more people had attended (nudge, nudge). I think this is how most history and/or educational things should be taught – singing, video, talking, audience participation, etc.

It really got me thinking about our First Amendment rights – as a journalist and a human. As they put it in the presentation, the Bill of Rights and more broadly the Constitution is a contract between the people and its government. I feel like there’s such a disconnect between the behemoth federal government and everyday life though that most people forget we’re supposed to be in control.

It also jolted me to think that these songs that are now relegated to classic rock or easy listening stations – and the frozen foods section at the grocery store as Freedom Sings pointed out – are considered background noise. What used to be so powerful and socially important has now become limp.

Vietnam was one of the major eras of songs that delivered messages. While there is still music being made that comments on the political situation, I’m not sure what context it fits in. What I mean is, in the 60s and 70s, were these songs played all the time? Were they taken seriously? Were they considered anthems or pop music? If something is political now, it seems to either be criticized or mocked, gaining steam only under the radar. Why have comparisons between Vietnam and the Iraq war been so downplayed?

One of the statistics they sited during the Freedom Sings presentation was this: Directly following 9-11, 1 out of every 2 Americans felt the First Amendment went too far in guaranteeing rights for citizens. Now, they said, that is at 1 out of every five – or 20 percent. Is that acceptable?

(That title is taken from an Ani DiFranco song about speaking one’s mind.)

In 1996, Ray Bradbury published a collection of 21 short stories called “Quicker than the Eye.” It was his first new collection of short stories in almost 10 years. Although he had written them over the course of his career, none of the stories had been printed until 1994 and most were now in their first publication.

In addition to his short stories, Mr. Bradbury is credited with more than 30 books, including “Fahrenheit 451,” Monroe’s Big Read project.

“Quicker than the Eye” has such a variety of topics that I had to wonder “Where does he get all these ideas?” He writes about a man who met his mother’s ghost, time traveling to pay tribute to favorite authors on their death beds, and an abandoned highway that leads to a small town long ignored by the interstate traffic a mile away. The more bizarre plots include what might happen if you took home a pile of fill dirt from a cemetery.

Mr. Bradbury did include an afterward that explained, “I don’t write these stories, they write me.” This book features pieces he wrote for his own enjoyment.

One of his favorite stories, and one I particularly enjoyed, was “Remember Sascha?”, the tale of two expectant parents who have conversations with their unborn first child. “The Very Gentle Murders” is the wild tale of a long-married couple who want to get rid of each other – and succeed in an unexpected manner. And “No News, or What Killed the Dog?” was inspired by his 5-year-old antics of playing a recording by that name over and over until his neighbor threatened to “break me or the record – choose!”

Mr. Bradbury closed his afterward with this line: “Live. And write. With great haste.”

I was one of the VIP guests when Ray Bradbury, the author of Fahrenheit 451, was the featured speaker for the Nov. 13, 1996, program in the “Authors! Authors!” series at Stranahan Hall in Toledo, sponsored by Toledo-Lucas County Public Library and The Blade.

The invite came because my husband and I, and several of our friends, were then members of the Science Fiction Book Club sponsored by the Oregon Branch of Toledo-Lucas County Public Library. The book club, which has since disbanded, met once a month to discuss works by Isaac Asimov, Octavia Butler and other classic and current authors. The members took turns picking the books and leading the discussions. For example, one of my assignments was Robert Heinlein’s “Starship Troopers,” because I knew the story behind its references to “The Ballad of Rodger Young.”

When Ray Bradbury was announced on the lecture schedule, the sci-fi book club members quickly arranged for tickets. Then our library liaison informed us that our group had been upgraded to VIP status. We would get front-row seats in the lecture hall and tickets to the invitation-only reception before the program. How cool is that?

The reason Ray Bradbury was on the lecture circuit was to promote his new book, a collection of short stories called “Quicker than the Eye.” I purchased an autographed copy of that book and arranged for a photograph of me and my husband with Mr. Bradbury.

My friends and I don’t remember the details on what Mr. Bradbury spoke about, other than it was an entertaining program. Although I still have my pictures, program and autographed book, I didn’t save the newspaper stories. I do remember that he prepped for the lecture by sitting in a chair on stage, reading to himself while the audience settled in their seats.