One Book To Bind Them: One City One Book 2007

While San Francisco is known globally for a certain worldview, those of us who actually live here know that when it comes down to particulars, we don't often agree. We can't agree on Blue Angels. We can't agree on a Muni solution. Heck, we can't even agree on what to do about Ed Jew (oh no!).

But you know a banner we can all unite under? The One City One Book: San Francisco Reads program. Imagine, hordes of people reading a sort of narrative story on paper! No electricity required (save, perhaps, for reading lights). Sounds exciting!

The idea is that as many folks as are willing will read this summer's selection, which is Cane River by Berkeley native Lalita Tademy. In the fall, the program will host events where we can discuss the ideas and themes presented in the story.

The book seems interesting enough: according to the OCOB program, it's an "extensively researched personal odyssey," where the author "brings to life four vivid and remarkable women in her family, beginning in slavery, sweeping through the Civil War, and into the pre-Civil Rights South."

So check it out if you are so inclined, and watch out for events in libraries, bookstores, and schools come this fall.