So Many Books, So Little Time

By Susan Braunstein, Programming Librarian

As an avid reader, I usually have four or five books going at once, and choose one to read depending on my mood at the time. If you are also an eager reader and would like to discuss good books with others, there are several upcoming opportunities for you to do so.

The Rapid City Public Library will host a book discussion called Sunday Selections on September 21st. The title selected is Louise Erdrich’s The Master Butcher’s Singing Club. SDSMT professor Kathy Antonen will lead the discussion for this book, which is the One Book South Dakota selection for 2008-09. The One Book program is sponsored by the South Dakota Humanities Council’s Center for the Book. Join us for a lively discussion on Sunday, September 21 from 2-4 PM at the downtown library; refreshments will be provided.

Erdrich’s book is a post World War I drama with a myriad of characters struggling to scratch out a decent living in small-town North Dakota. The title comes from the main character, who is a butcher and who loves to sing. The men’s singing club he forms in the community is a recurring theme in the book, as the characters create worthwhile lives amidst murder, illness, death and love.

Louise Erdrich is a critically acclaimed author whose books often have a Native American setting, reflective of her mother’s French and Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) heritage; she herself is an enrolled member of the Anishinaabe nation. In The Master Butcher’s Singing Club, the author shifts to explore her German background, coming from her German American father. In addition to her fiction titles, Erdrich has published children’s literature, poetry, non-fiction, and short stories; she also owns Birchbark Books, a Minneapolis bookstore.

Erdrich will be one of the featured authors at the South Dakota Festival of Books, held in Sioux Falls from September 24-27. Other authors include Rapid City’s very own Lori Armstrong and Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve, as well as Susan Power, Otto Penzler and Kenneth Davis. One of the programs for this year’s festival will feature Carl Kassel, the National Public Radio broadcaster and radio show personality from “Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me,” who will moderate a session entitled “Great Books for Many Readers.” A full slate of authors is scheduled for this year’s festival; you can pick up a festival guide at the library, or review it online at http://sdhc.sdstate.org/pdfs/festguide.pdf.

For my visit to the Festival of Books, I am excited to have a ticket to a live taping of NPR’s, “Wait, Wait … Don’t Tell Me.” This is one of my favorite radio shows, and is being sponsored at the Festival by South Dakota Public Broadcasting. It is so entertaining to hear some of the news that you cannot believe is real, and I get a kick out of the guests and their sense of humor in answering the questions. It will be my first experience to see a live taping of a radio program.

RCPL is also excited to feature another state-wide reading event, with The Big Read Egypt/U.S. This event will kick off at the book festival, and feature the book “The Thief and the Dogs,” by Naguib Mahfouz; Mahfouz was the first Arabic writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Watch our calendar in January for a book discussion of this title; that will give you plenty of time to read it or listen to it in an audio format.

This particular Big Read event is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts, in partnership with the U.S. State Department and Arts Midwest. The purpose of the program is to deepen and broaden cultural understanding; the South Dakota Center for the Book was one of only four U.S. organizations selected to lead this program.

Be sure to stock up on your reading and/or listening for the One Book South Dakota, the Festival of Books, and the Big Read events. Visit us at either the Downtown or North libraries to check out your materials, and happy reading!