"Outside a dog a book is man's best friend, inside a dog it is too dark to read!" -Groucho Marx========="The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." -Jane Austen========="I don’t believe in the kind of magic in my books. But I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book."-JK Rowling========"I spend a lot of time reading." -Bill Gates=========“Ahhh. Bed, book, kitten, sandwich. All one needed in life, really.” -Jacqueline Kelly=========

Wednesday, January 16, 2019

Pierce County READS 2019!

It is earlier than usual but the Pierce County Library system has declared that 2019 is "A Year of Reading" and they are kicking off the year by promoting Kristin Hannah, author of The Great Alone, The Nightingale, and eighteen other books. The focus of the book discussions hosted at branch libraries all over the county will be on The Great Alone, her newest book which is set in Alaska.
Usually Pierce County READS selects one book and focuses a variety of activities around that book and the topic, but this year the focus will be on the author.

Kristin Hannah lives in the Pacific Northwest which makes her a good candidate for a Pierce County READS event. (I've heard she lives in Seattle but I can't confirm that.) On February 16, 2019 at 1 PM all interested persons are invited to attend an author event with Ms. Hannah at the McGavick Conference Center at Clover Park CC, 4500 Steilacoom Blvd, Lakewood. It is free.

My SOTH book club decided to suspend our upcoming book selection in favor of reading anything by Kristin Hannah, which we will discuss at our next meeting. Many want to read The Great Alone, since it will be one of the featured books, but we aren't sure about book availability at the library. We will also try to attend the author event together on Feb. 16th.

It just so happened that after months on the waiting list, I got the audio CDs for The Great Alone last week from the library. I am about a third of the way through listening to the audiobook. My daughter, who is in another book club, asked if she could borrow the CDs I've already listened to so she is also starting the book.

About Pierce County READS! A few facts I didn't know before now: 1) It is the biggest reading event in the State of Washington; 2) It started in 2008; 3) Selected books have been checked out over 50,000 times; and 4) more than 13,000 people have turned out at Pierce County READS events, over the years. My husband and I have attended the finale event seven times.

Guess I'd better get reading. Feb 16th is just around the corner. If you have read anything by Kristin Hannah, other than The Great Alone and The Nightingale, what do you recommend I read next by her?


6 comments:

  1. Until I read The Nightingale, I thought Kristin Hannah was a romance writer...after all, she has the typical romance author's pen name of two first names and her titles were quite...well, romance-y. But I discovered I was wrong with Nightingale.

    I haven't read anything else by this author. I'll be curious to hear what others think of her books.

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    1. I think she was a romance writer and then branched out and found her real strength is historical fiction. I am currently read THE GREAT ALONE and it isn't as riveting as THE NIGHTINGALE but is novel which is very much about ALASKA and survivalists.

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  2. I haven't read any of her books other than those two, but I did just get copies of Firefly Lane and Winter Garden so I will eventually read those. I am so jealous that your area is doing a whole thing on Kristin Hannah!

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  3. Yeah I've only read The Nightingale ... which I liked. I should try The Great Alone too.

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  4. Hmm...did you eat the idea to read anything by Hannah from my book club perhaps?

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    1. Every year we read the Pierce Reads! book unless we've read it before. Since this year isn't a book it is an author, we opted to read one of her 20 books. But I think most people will try to read THE GREAT ALONE because it is the featured book. But I confess that it was you that set me straight about the Pierce County Reads book/author. I hadn't realized what it was even though I looked at the brochure.

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