Santa Monica Citywide Reads Features Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, April 3 - May 6

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date:       March 20, 2006
Contact:  Julie MacDonald, Public Services Librarian II, (310) 434-2644

Santa Monica Citywide Reads, a program that encourages people who live or work in or visit Santa Monica to read the same book and come together to discuss it in public book clubs and related events held citywide, takes place April 3 to May 6.

The featured book is Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer (Houghton Mifflin, 2005).  Set in New York after September 11, 2001, the book follows nine-year-old Oskar’s quest to learn more about a key found in his deceased father’s closet.  Santa Monica High school senior Paige Horn found that, “Jonathan Safran Foer vividly captures the distress of America after the terrorist attacks.”  The novel features an unforgettably unique protagonist in Oskar, the aspiring jeweler/inventor/vegan/tambourine player/pacifist/actor, and balances tragedy with humor.

The author, Jonathan Safran Foer, was born in 1977 and grew up in Washington, D.C.  In 1999 he traveled to the Ukraine to research his family, a trip resulting in the 2002 critically acclaimed novel Everything Is Illuminated, which won the National Jewish Book Award and the Guardian First Book Award.  In addition to his novels, he has written many short stories that have appeared in The Paris Review and The New Yorker, as well as a libretto for the German National Opera House in Berlin.  He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife, author Nicole Krauss. 

Sponsored by the Santa Monica Public Library, with support by the Friends of the Santa Monica Public Library, the Santa Monica College Associates, and community, educational, and business partners, Citywide Reads invites participation in the following moderator-led public book discussions:

  • Monday, April 3, at 7:00 p.m.  Main Library Multipurpose Room, 601 Santa Monica Blvd.

  • Thursday, April 6, at 6:30 p.m.  Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, 3150 Ocean Park Blvd.

  • Tuesday, April 11, at 7:30 p.m.  Barnes & Noble, 1201 Third Street Promenade.

  • Tuesday, April 18, at 2:00 p.m.  Ken Edwards Center, 1527 Fourth Street.

  • Wednesday, April 19, at 4:00 p.m.  Teen Discussion:  The Bookmark Café at the Main Library, 601 Santa Monica Blvd.

  • Wednesday, April 19, at 7:00 p.m.  Montana Ave. Branch Library, 1704 Montana Ave.

  • Thursday, April 20, at 7:30 p.m.  Borders, 1415 Third Street Promenade.

  • Saturday, April 22, at 2:00 p.m.  Cafe Bolivar, 1741 Ocean Park Blvd.

  • Saturday, April 29, at 11:00 a.m.  Fairview Branch Library, 2101 Ocean Park Blvd.

  • Monday, May 1, at 12:00 p.m.  The Bookmark Café at the Main Library, 601 Santa Monica Blvd.

  • Saturday, May 6, at 11:00 a.m.  Ocean Park Branch Library, 2601 Main Street.

Participation is encouraged for those who already belong to a book club by reading Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and discussing it with their group using a Citywide Reads Resource Guide, available at all Santa Monica Public Library locations and on the Citywide Reads web site www.smpl.org/cwr.

      Special Citywide Reads programs include: 

  •  "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close:  9/11 in Context," scholar Jack Nordhaus leads a program on the historical consequences of 9/11 and how fiction can provide additional insight into historical events on Saturday, April 8, from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m., in the Multipurpose Room at the Main Library, 601 Santa Monica Blvd.

  • "An Afternoon with Jonathan Safran Foer," the award-winning author of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close presents a reading and discusses his novel, followed by question-and-answer and a book sale and signing on Sunday, April 23, from 3:00 to 5:30 p.m., at Santa Monica College Pavilion, 1900 Pico Blvd.

  • "The Future of Fiction," National Endowment for the Arts Director of Literature David Kipen and the four Southern California NEA Prose Fiction grant winners respond to the graphic elements and stylistic chocies of Jonathan Safran Foer and discuss the future of fiction on Thursday, May 4, from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m., in the Martin Luther King Jr. Auditorium at the Main Library, 601 Santa Monica Blvd. 

 Citywide Reads book discussions and events are free and open to the public. For more information, call the Santa Monica Public Library at (310) 458-8600 or visit www.smpl.org/cwr.

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This page was last updated on 03/20/06.