Oct. 17, 2019 — Pulitzer Prize finalist Tommy Orange and author of one of the Washington Post’s Top Ten Books of the Year Susan Orlean will visit CSU Channel Islands (CSUCI) to speak at separate reading events.
Orange’s book, “There There,” and Orlean’s “The Library Book” are both New York Times bestsellers. “There There” was chosen for CSUCI’s Campus Reading Celebration, which features a presentation by Orange on Wednesday, Oct. 23 from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Grand Salon on campus.
The Ventura County Library chose “The Library Book” for the second annual One County, One Book community reading program. Orlean will speak in the Grand Salon on Saturday, Nov. 2 from 2 to 4 p.m. Each event will be followed with a book signing.
The CSUCI campus community chose the “There There” book to provide a starting point for some important and timely conversations about Native Americans’ present-day experiences in the U.S., according to Campus Reading Celebration committee member Georgina Guzman, an Associate Professor of English.
“The dominant representation of natives in the media usually portrays them as people who lived in the past, but this book makes us reckon with stories of Native Americans today, navigating a society where they are underrepresented and misunderstood,” Guzman said. “As a collection of powerful counterstories, the book is gripping and engaging, and teaches us a lot about US history and multiracial communities today.”
Counterstories, she explained, are stories told by people whose point of view is not usually represented.
“There There” is the story of Native Americans living in the area of Oakland, California, as they struggle with a wide array of challenges ranging from depression and alcoholism, to unemployment, fetal alcohol syndrome, and the challenges of living with an “ambiguously nonwhite” ethnic identity. All coalesce at a community powwow and its attempted robbery.
CSUCI’s annual reading celebration is an invitation to the campus to share a reading experience and discuss it together. The public is also welcome to join in, read the book, and come meet the author on Oct. 23.
“The reading celebration enables us all to participate in rich conversations about topics of concern to our campus community,” Guzman said. “It allows us to create a vibrant intellectual and socially conscious community.”
Free books are available to students in the Student Union, the Multicultural Dream Center and Rooms 1800, 1560 and 1760 in the Bell Tower.
The Campus Reading Celebration event is free to all CSUCI students, faculty and staff and to all non-CSUCI students with a valid student ID. Tickets for the public are $5; RSVPs are required.
For tickets, visit: www.csuci.edu/crc
The second annual One County, One Book program is led by the Ventura County Library with CSUCI as a primary sponsor.
The primary vehicle of Orlean’s “The Library Book” is the mystery of the 1986 Los Angeles Public Library fire. Orlean chronicles the investigation and in doing so, takes the reader through the evolution of libraries across the country, all the often eccentric characters among the shelves and how libraries remain the heart of a community.
The Washington Post called the book “a dazzling love letter to a beloved institution.”
To participate in One County, One Book, pick up a copy of the book from one of the Ventura County Library’s 12 branches, which are set up with additional copies for the event. You can borrow a copy and pass it onto a friend, or return it when you are finished.
The One County, One Book event is free and open to the public.
For more information, email Ron Solorzano at ron.solorzano@ventura.org.