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Introduction
 Dear Friends,
On behalf of the City of Austin, I would like to invite you to participate in the sixth annual Mayor’s Book Club and Keep Austin Reading program presented by the Austin Public Library. The Mayor’s Book Club is designed to bring readers from throughout our community together to create a citywide book club. This year, we have selected Around the Bloc by Stephanie Elizondo Griest. We invite all of Austin to read the book over the next few months, and in April, we ask you to join together and discuss the book at your local library. The University of Texas Humanities Institute will unite with the Austin Public Library, for the sixth consecutive year, to assist with the discussion groups and activities about the book. We will host the award-winning author in a special event in April here in Austin.
In Around the Bloc, Stephanie begins her travel memoir in Russia at 21 she sets of for Moscow with some fellow Texas college students in an attempt to strengthen her Russian language ability, and deepen her understanding of Russian Culture. Her four year travels then take her to China and Cuba and around 12 nations. This book is a wonderful first book by Griest and is a coming of age odyssey every one should read.
The book is available at all Library locations and area bookstores.
Please join one of the many book discussions and special programs planned for our local public libraries in April. The Keep Austin Reading program will culminate with a free public program with the author at a local venue to be announced.
Thank you for participating in the Mayor’s Book Club and our Keep Austin Reading program.
Regards,
Will Wynn
Mayor
Visit our previous Mayor's Book Club resource guides online:
Spring 2006: The Devil's Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea
Spring 2005: Writing Austin's Lives by Metro Austin Residents
Spring 2004: All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
Spring 2003: Holes by Louis Sachar
Spring 2002: Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
To view what other cities across the country are reading visit
The Center for the Book |
