Meet the 2018 Candidates
Stay tuned! The vote is over and the winning title will be announced on October 20, 2017.
The official campaign launch of the OBOC Campaign will take place in January 2018.
Look for programs at the public libraries that will begin in February during Library Lovers’ Month and Book Lovers’ Month! Multiple copies of the winning title will be available at your local public library beginning in January 2018.
Which book do you want to read and discuss in 2018?
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More about the candidates...
1. News of the World by Paulette Jiles
Captain Kidd had lived through three wars and he hoped he’d never see another one. The last one had ended five years ago, taking with it his printing business and devastating the economy to the point he was now riding through north Texas, reading from his collection of newspapers, bringing the news to each town’s residents. In each location, he tacked up his posters, which announced where he would be reading, and hoped he’d collect enough dimes to feed himself and his horse as well as provide a roof for the night. Then he was asked to escort a young girl who had recently been rescued from the Kiowa by the US Army across the state to be reunited with her aunt and uncle.
Kidd decided he would take the stoic girl on his journey south, little prepared for what would happen along the way. This morally complex novel is hard to put down once you pick it up.
2. Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder
This is a rollicking, exciting fantasy novel with a strong, intelligent female protagonist, Yelena. Her world is authoritarian and rigid with strict laws. Yelena is offered a choice between death and becoming the leader’s poison taster. “Sieges weather, fight together, friends forever” is a quote from the book that encapsulates Yelena’s adventures as she learns to adapt to and change her world. On one level, this is a wonderful fantasy novel, but the deeper themes stay with readers for years.
3. The Hummingbird by Stephen P. Kiernan
Deborah Birch is a compassionate hospice nurse with a battle-scarred Iraq veteran husband, Michael, whom she is struggling to keep alive and an embittered cancer patient, historian Barclay Reed, whom she is struggling to help die peacefully. As Barclay slowly comes to trust Deborah, he shares his own WWII Pacific Theatre experiences with her and through them Deborah learns how to help Michael begin to heal. When Barclay tells about a Japanese fighter pilot who dropped bombs on Oregon in 1942 and the racial intolerance that followed, the story weaves from the past into the present. With an unexpected turn, it is the Japanese soldier who provides the final lesson about reconciliation. The Hummingbird is a powerful tribute to personal and military commitment, service, and integrity and a celebration of the peace that is achieved through wisdom and forgiveness.
4. Grant Park by Leonard Pitts, Jr.
Leonard Pitts explores civil rights and race in America via this gripping thriller that spans forty years. Along the way, he examines many other issues including youthful idealism versus the resigned realism of middle age, father-son relationships, and the role of the media in society. This well-written novel will keep you up way past your bedtime, possibly challenging you to rethink some of your assumptions about 21st-century America.
5. Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
This is a powerful story of the power of the human spirit. Stevenson eloquently shares his trials and tribulations as a young, idealistic lawyer set on changing the system. As founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, Stevenson invites his readers on a journey that reveals a side of the legal system that most of us are not aware of, a system that regularly penalizes people with extreme sentences with little to no chance for redemption based on their age, race, or socio-economic level. Stevenson’s words humanize the marginalized men, women, and children in our criminal justice system. This well-written book will not leave you easily.
Captain Kidd had lived through three wars and he hoped he’d never see another one. The last one had ended five years ago, taking with it his printing business and devastating the economy to the point he was now riding through north Texas, reading from his collection of newspapers, bringing the news to each town’s residents. In each location, he tacked up his posters, which announced where he would be reading, and hoped he’d collect enough dimes to feed himself and his horse as well as provide a roof for the night. Then he was asked to escort a young girl who had recently been rescued from the Kiowa by the US Army across the state to be reunited with her aunt and uncle.
Kidd decided he would take the stoic girl on his journey south, little prepared for what would happen along the way. This morally complex novel is hard to put down once you pick it up.
2. Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder
This is a rollicking, exciting fantasy novel with a strong, intelligent female protagonist, Yelena. Her world is authoritarian and rigid with strict laws. Yelena is offered a choice between death and becoming the leader’s poison taster. “Sieges weather, fight together, friends forever” is a quote from the book that encapsulates Yelena’s adventures as she learns to adapt to and change her world. On one level, this is a wonderful fantasy novel, but the deeper themes stay with readers for years.
3. The Hummingbird by Stephen P. Kiernan
Deborah Birch is a compassionate hospice nurse with a battle-scarred Iraq veteran husband, Michael, whom she is struggling to keep alive and an embittered cancer patient, historian Barclay Reed, whom she is struggling to help die peacefully. As Barclay slowly comes to trust Deborah, he shares his own WWII Pacific Theatre experiences with her and through them Deborah learns how to help Michael begin to heal. When Barclay tells about a Japanese fighter pilot who dropped bombs on Oregon in 1942 and the racial intolerance that followed, the story weaves from the past into the present. With an unexpected turn, it is the Japanese soldier who provides the final lesson about reconciliation. The Hummingbird is a powerful tribute to personal and military commitment, service, and integrity and a celebration of the peace that is achieved through wisdom and forgiveness.
4. Grant Park by Leonard Pitts, Jr.
Leonard Pitts explores civil rights and race in America via this gripping thriller that spans forty years. Along the way, he examines many other issues including youthful idealism versus the resigned realism of middle age, father-son relationships, and the role of the media in society. This well-written novel will keep you up way past your bedtime, possibly challenging you to rethink some of your assumptions about 21st-century America.
5. Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
This is a powerful story of the power of the human spirit. Stevenson eloquently shares his trials and tribulations as a young, idealistic lawyer set on changing the system. As founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, Stevenson invites his readers on a journey that reveals a side of the legal system that most of us are not aware of, a system that regularly penalizes people with extreme sentences with little to no chance for redemption based on their age, race, or socio-economic level. Stevenson’s words humanize the marginalized men, women, and children in our criminal justice system. This well-written book will not leave you easily.
