‘Call of the Wild’ tabbed as this year’s Big Read

This year, the Spokane County Library District’s selection for the Big Read is a classic – “The Call of the Wild” by Jack London.

In February, the library will host or sponsor a number of events related to the book.

• Actor Michael Oakes will portray London in “An Evening With Jack London” at 6 p.m. Feb. 8 at Centerplace in Spokane Valley.

• Donna Campbell, an English professor at Eastern Washington University, will discuss London’s inspiration for the book in “Jack London and ‘The Call of the Wild’ ” at 2 p.m. Feb. 22 at the Cheney Library.

• The Big Read Cinema program will offer screenings of films realted to the book. The films are, “Alone in the Wilderness,” 2 p.m. Feb. 15 at the North Spokane branch, “The Call of the Wild,” the 1935 film version starring Clark Gable filmed on Mount Baker, 6:30 p.m. Feb. 18 at the Spokane Valley branch, and “The Gold Rush,” Charlie Chaplin classic, at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 26 at North Spokane.

• The Spokesman-Review’s outdoor writer, Rich Landers, will moderate a discussion called “Wolves in the Pacific Northwest,” at 7 p.m. Feb. 12 at the Wolff Auditorium at Gonzaga University’s Jepson Center. Panel members are Brian Henning, professor of philosphy and environmental studies at GU, Justin Hedrick of the Spokane County Cattlemen, Leonard Wolf from the Inland Northwest Wildlife Council, Jay Kehne of Conservation Northwest and Joey McCanna from the Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Various book discussion meetings are scheduled at the county library branches, area restaurants and Fairchild Air Force Base. There are programs planned on snowshoeing, sled dog racing, wildlife, and the music of the Alaska Gold Rush era. For a complete schedule, visit www.scld.org/bigread2015/.

On ‘The Bookshelf’

Spokane Public Radio’s weekly audio book seies, “The Bookshelf,” meanwhile, just competed a reading of “The Call of the Wild” last week. Beginning Monday, the show will turn to “Ruined by Reading: A Life in Books” by Lynne Sharon Schwartz, read by Susan Creed of the Spokane Public Library.

Then on Feb. 9 (or thereabouts), they’ll begin “Housekeeping” by Marilynn Robinson, read by Susan Williams. Robinson, who won a Pulitzer Prize for “Gilead” and has been a National Book Award finalist twice, set her debut novel in a fictional version of her hometown of Sandpoint. The timing of this program is fortutitous, as Robinson is scheduled to talk at Gonzaga Univeristy on Feb. 18 as part of the GU Visiting Writing Series.

As Spokane Public Radio program director Verne Windham noted in an email, “Housekeeping” deserves a careful listen. “The book has such gorgeous writing all the way through,” he wrote.

“The Bookshelf” airs from 6:30 to 7 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays on KPBX, 91.1 FM.