Big Read’s pick: ‘Mockingbird’
Get ready to immerse yourself in the world of Atticus Finch and Scout.
Spokane’s Big Read in 2010 will be “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. This community-wide reading project will be supplemented by a number of talks and other activities, beginning Feb. 16 and lasting for a month.
The Spokane Public and Spokane County libraries announced last week that they received a $15,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to fund all of the Big Read activities.
The Big Read is an NEA initiative designed to “restore reading to the center of American culture.”
This will be the second time Spokane has participated in the Big Read program; in 2008, the book was Dashiell Hammett’s “The Maltese Falcon.”
Details of this year’s events will be finalized soon.
McManus at Auntie’s
The many fans of Spokane’s reigning humorist – and mystery novelist – Patrick F. McManus, will gather at Auntie’s Bookstore, 402 W. Main, for a reading today at 12:30 p.m.
McManus will read from his latest Sheriff Bo Tully mystery, “The Double Jack Murders” (Simon & Schuster, $24).
In this third Tully mystery, the sheriff of Blight, Idaho, is being stalked by an escaped killer. He also gets tangled up in the decades-old disappearance of two local gold miners.
You might want to arrive early to get a seat.
Gribble Press poetry
Here’s another noteworthy literary event coming up today: A Gribble Press Poetry Reading, 3 to 5 p.m. at the Community Building, 35 W. Main Ave.
This reading will feature five area poets: Zan Agzigian, Stephen Pitters, Nancy Culp, Tom Davis and Dennis Held.
The Gribble Press is a local press specializing in poetry
Elvis alert
And don’t forget a completely different kind of book event planned at Auntie’s Bookstore on Nov. 29, 12:30 p.m.: a presentation by local author Judy P. Bendewald on her new book, “My Treasured Memories of Elvis.”
Bendewald has been a self-proclaimed Elvis superfan since her teen years, and she’ll share stories and photos of her many meetings with him.