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General Information and Past Events
WELCOME
TO NORTH READING READS 2010!
We invite you to join
the North Reading community for our seventh town-wide reading
program.
Other communities that have chosen The Soloist, by Steve Lopez as its community read include:
Philadelphia's One Book, One Philadelphia.
And The Soloist by Mark Salzman
Duxbury Free Library's community reading program .
Community Reading Programs are popular throughout the United States.
To find out what other communities have read or are reading, please visit
The Center for the Book.
.
"It's a simple thing, this coming together
around books…Communities sharing a book can crack the isolation
of technology that allows people to do almost everything without
seeing another human being. The invitation to read gives a
person permission to clear space on the jammed schedule for
reconnecting with the joy of story hour.
What if the whole country read one book?
How about the world? Think about it."
The Boston Globe,
3/1/05
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Steve Lopez
A California native, Steve Lopez is also the author of three novels. The Soloist is based on columns he wrote for the Los Angeles Times, where he has worked as a columnist since 2001.The Soloist is also now a motion picture, starring Robert Downey, Jr and Jamie Foxx
For more information about the book, please visit the website of Steve Lopez and the Wikipedia entry for Nathaniel Ayers and the National Ayers Foundation. Mr. Ayers is making a CD.
Steve Lopez and Nathaniel Ayers appeared together on 60 Minutes, March 22, 2009.
The Soloist, a lost dream, an unlikely friendship, and the redemptive power of music is a moving story of the remarkable bond between a journalist in search of a story and a homeless, classically trained musician.
"By turns harrowing, winsome, and inspiring, this work by novelist (In the Clear) and Los Angeles Times columnist Lopez relates the first two years of his friendship with Nathaniel Anthony Ayers...Lopez's newspaper experience serves him well, and both he and his subject come across as fully developed individuals. A deeply moving story..."
Library Journal
Also by Steve Lopez:
Third and Indiana
The Sunday Macaroni Club
In the Clear
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Mark Salzman
Mark Salzman is a graduate of Yale, an expert martial artist, and an accomplished cellist.
He is the author of Iron & Silk, an account of his two years in China; the novels The Laughing Sutra and The Soloist, which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for fiction; and Lost in Place, a memoir, and True Notebooks: A Writer's Year at Juvenile Hall. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, filmmaker Jessica Yu, and daughters.
In The Soloist, Renne Sundheimer, a thirty former cello prodigy, instructs a young Korean cellist and serves on a jury with a beautiful woman named Maria-Theresa, and he finds romance and a renewed sense of purpose.
"The mesmerizing first-person narration reveals Renne's self-tortured character, keen intelligence, and troubled heart as he ponders classical music, human nature, astronomy, and sanity/insanity. A spiritual journey not to be missed." Library Journal
(Photo credit: Jessica Yu)
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North
Reading Reads 2010 Events and Exhibits
Events will take place in the Flint Memorial Library
Activity Room,
unless otherwise noted.
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Date & Time
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Day
|
Event
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January 30,
12-4PM,
Reading Room
| Saturday
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Open House, music by
Senior Echoes: 12:30PM
guitarist Gerry Johnston: 2PM Emila Pulver,violin: 3:15PM
Janet Harrison, piano: 3:30PM. Children's crafts, refreshments.
There will also be selected readings from both titles.
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| Feb. 9, 7PM
| Tuesday
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Artists Reception, "A Celebration of the Arts"
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| Feb. 24, 10AM
| Wednesday
| Book Discussion, North Reading
Book Discussion Club
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| March 2, 7PM
| Tuesday
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Book Discussion, Evening Book Group, Friends of the Library
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| March 5, 7PM
| Friday
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Coffee House, guitar music by Art Grossman
and Notetorious, North Reading High School's a capella group
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| March 11, 7PM
| Thursday
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Motion Picture, The Soloist, with Robert Downey, Jr. and Jamie Foxx |
| April 1, 7PM
| Thursday
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Dan Green, Social Networking
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| April 25, 3PM
| Sunday
| Concert with Flutist, Michael Finegold and cellist Joanthan Miller and selected readings from both North Reading Reads 2010 titles
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Friday, Feb. 19
| 10AM
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Laughter in the Library, Family Singalong with David Polansky, Chidlren's Program
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DISCUSSION
QUESTIONS
The Soloist by Steve Lopez
Here are selected discussion questions for The Soloist by Steve Lopez:
The Soloist by Mark Salzman
Here are selected discussion questions for The Soloist by Mark Salzman
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IF
YOU LIKED The Soloist by Steve Lopez and The Soloist by Mark Salzman, we suggest...
Fiction:
The Piano Teacher Janice Y.K. Lee
The Music Teacher, Barbara Hall
The Piano Tuner, Daniel Mason
House of Sand and Fog, Andre Dubus
Under the Greenwood Tree, Thomas Hardy
The Cello Player, Michael Kruger
The Spanish Bow, Andromeda Romano-Lax
NonFiction:
Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks
This Is Your Brain on Music, Daniel Levitin
The Essential Canon of Classical Music, David Dubal
The Homeless, Christopher Jencks
Travels with Lizbeth, Lars Eighner
Rude Awakenings: What the Homeless Crisis Tells Us, Richard White
Schizophrenia: Losing Touch with Reality, Daniel Harmon
Hurry Down Sunshine, Michael Greenberg
Mental Illness: Opposing Viewpoints, William Barbour
The Vanishing Newspaper: Saving Journalism in the Information Age, Philip Meyer
Losing the News: the Future of the News that Feeds Democracy, Alex Jones
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Music of Interest
Musical compositions appearing in The Soloist by Steve Lopez.
Selections of related music CDs currently held**
Du Pre, Jacqueline, A Lasting Inspiration CD ORCHESTRAL DU*
Beethoven, 9 Symphonies CDORCHESTRAL BEE (Hanging Bag)
Strauss, Richard, Don Quixote (etc.) CD ORCHESTRAL STR
Tchaikovsky, Best of Tchaikovsky CD ORCHESTRAL TCH
Sibelius, Symphony no. 2 in D major CD ORCHESTRAL SIB
Websites of Interest
Nathaniel Anthony Ayers Foundation, a nonprofit grant provider to organizations that serve the artistically gifted mentally ill
For more information on mental health issues and solutions:
The Lamp Community
National Alliance on Mental Health
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Charitable Outreach
The library is collecting donations for the North Reading Food Pantry.
Please bring canned goods and other non-perishable goods to the main floor.
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NORTH
READING READS 2010 ORGANIZERS & SPONSERS
- Thank you to Steve DiFranza for
designing the North Reading Reads logo and Margarita Drozdoff for assistance with web design. Thank you to Allison Kane and Susan Fisher for their help with arranging to have music performed by North Reading students at the library.
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The Soloist by Mark Salzman