February 2007 Official Selection

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Set in 1930s rural America, The Color Purple tells of the story of Celie, a young African American woman who grows into adulthood and autonomy through the experience of neglect and sexual abuse, as well as friendship, love and redemption.

Alice Walker was born in rural Georgia in 1944 and educated first at Spelman and then at Sarah Lawrence college. A novelist, essayist and poet, she received the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award in 1983 for The Color Purple. Throughout her literary career, Alice Walker has also been a fierce spokesperson for Civil Rights and the women’s, anti-nuclear and anti-Apartheid movements.

The Center will release copies of The Color Purple throughout South Florida. If you find one, read it, share your comments on the Center Web site, then pass it on.

Join the reading adventure!

Read The Color Purple, then share your thoughts during one of the activities listed below.

A dramatic reading of excerpts from The Color Purple, in honor of 18th National African-American Read-In and in celebration of freedom of speech. In collaboration with Miami Dade College’s North Campus College Prep Department.

Monday, February 5 | Noon | Miami Dade College, North Campus, William & Joan Lehman Theatre, 11380 Northwest 27 Avenue, Miami

A dramatic reading of excerpts from The Color Purple, in honor of 18th National
African-American Read-In and in celebration of freedom of speech. In collaboration with Miami Dade College’s Wolfson Campus College Prep Department. (A One Book, One Community Event.)

Friday, February 9 | 10 a.m. | Miami Dade College, Wolfson Campus, Room 2106, 300 Northeast Second Avenue, Downtown Miami

Fall 2006 Official Selection

Prospero's Daughter by Elizabeth Nunez

This fall, One Book, One Community invites everyone to read Elizabeth Nunez’s Prospero’s Daughter, a postcolonial interpretation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest.

Set on a Caribbean island during the height of tensions between the native population and British colonists, Prospero’s Daughter addresses questions of race, class and power as it tells the love story of Carlos, a native son, and Virginia, born in Britain but raised on the island.

Elizabeth Nunez is the author of Grace, Discretion, Beyond the Limbo Silence and Bruised Hibiscus which earned her the American Book Award in 2001. Born in Trinidad, Nunez is a City University of New York Distinguished Professor of English at Medgar Evers College. She co-founded the national Black Writers Conference, is the executive producer of the acclaimed television series Black Writers in America and now chairs the PEN American Center Open Book Committee.

Late Spring 2006 Official Selection

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

This spring, One Book, One Community becomes one book, two communities. The Florida Center for the Literary Arts and the Broward County Libraries' Florida Center for the Book are joining forces to embrace The Big Read , a nationwide initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.

The Big Read provides citizens with the opportunity to read and discuss a single book within their community. It is designed to revitalize the role of literature in the nation's popular culture, and to bring the transformative power of literature into the lives of its citizens.

We invite everyone in Miami-Dade and Broward to pick up Fahrenheit 451 , Ray Bradbury's classic, frightening vision of a future, where firemen don't put out fires--they start them in order to burn books. Bradbury's vividly depicted society promotes the appearance of happiness as the highest goal--a place where trivial information is good, and knowledge and ideas are bad.

South Florida has the privilege of being one of only 10 communities in the United States to participate in The Big Read. Among the 10, we are the largest urban community, and one of only two reaching out to Spanish-speakers by scheduling bilingual events .

The National Endowment for the Arts believes that a great nation deserves great art. The Big Read exemplifies the NEA's commitment to helping the arts become accessible to more Americans.

Early Spring 2006 Official Selection

The Egyptologist by Arthur Phillips

Set in 1920s Egypt during the unveiling of the tomb of Tutankhamun by Howard Carter, the novel addresses timeless issues such as class, ambition, greed, and the quest for eternity through the intertwined paths of an Oxford-educated Egyptologist and an Australian-born detective. This selection coincides with the exhibit The Golden Age of the Pharaohs at The Museum of Art at Fort Lauderdale.

Arthur Phillips was born in Minneapolis and educated at Harvard. He is the author of Prague, a New York Times Notable Book, and the recipient of the Los Angeles Times/Art Seidenbaum prize for best first novel. It has been translated into seven languages. The Egyptologist is Phillips’ second novel and an international bestseller.

Thanks to the Center’s association with bookcrossing.com, a cyber-campaign that tracks the exchange of books throughout communities, copies of the selected title will be released in hospital waiting rooms, jurors rooms, cafés, art galleries, hotel lobbies and other locales, inviting people who pick them up to keep them, read them and share their comments via our Web site.

Fall 2005 Official Selection

Don Quijote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes

This fall, One Book, One Community invites everyone to read Don Quijote de la Mancha, in celebration of the 400th anniversary of the first edition. Recognized as the world's first modern novel, this classic by Miguel de Cervantes is the story of a Spanish gentleman who, obsessed with the chivalrous ideals found in romantic books, decides to take up his lance and sword to defend the helpless, destroy the wicked, and win the heart of his beloved Dulcinea. Seated upon his ever so lean horse, and accompanied by the pragmatic and faithful squire Sancho Panza, Don Quixote rides the roads of Spain seeking glory and grand adventure. Along the way the duo meet a dazzling assortment of characters whose diverse beliefs and perspectives reveal how reality and imagination are frequently indistinguishable.

This season, One Book, One Community begins moving in a new direction -- the Center will recommend titles every two months , some classics, some contemporary works, and new partners will help implement new and exciting programs to spark the imaginations of even more South Florida readers.