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2022 OBOC Finalists
Click HERE to vote online during the month of October for your choice of the 2022 One Book, One Community read.
Organizers will announce the 2022 title in early December for the read to begin in January. Books and eBooks will be available to borrow. Discussions and related programs will begin in February and be held throughout the Spring.
The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens, 2014
Joe Talbert had avoided doing his college English class assignment until it was almost too late. Interviewing an old person abut his life didn't sound all that interesting. Who cared? He had enough trouble dealing with his own life and family issues. Life his alcoholic, bi-polar mother and his autistic brother, Jeremy. But when Joe decides to interview a Vietnam vet convicted of a murder 30 years ago who was living at a nearby nursing home, he thinks maybe it won't be so boring after all.
Miracle Creek by Angie Kim, 2019
This murder mystery takes place in a small town in Virginia where a group of patients meet at a controversial medical center offering treatment in a hyperbaric chamber that some say can cure a wide range of health issues including autism, cerebral palsy, and infertility. An immigrant couple from North Korea has opened the center in hopes of making a new life in America and providing a brighter future for their daughter. One night the oxygen chamber explodes. Two people die in the accident including one child and others are left scarred and severely injured. The mother of the child who died is accused and put on trial for setting the fire that caused the explosion.
Twists and turns in this fast-paced mystery immediately engage the reader to identify who set the fire and why. The timeline shifts from dramatic courtroom scenes to narratives revealing the many secrets that brought the diverse set of patients together to the chamber in their desperate search of hope. To the very last page the reader is left unraveling emotions and motives that could drive a person to commit such a crime.
The Other Madisons: The Lost History of a President's Black Family by Bettye Kearse, 2020.
For generations, the author's family had been griottes, the keepers of the family's history both physically and orally. One day her mother shows up with a small box and tells her it is time that she takes her place in the long journey her family has taken. Where will this small box take her? Her mother always told her to, "Remember that you are a Madison. You come from African slaves and a president." This is the author's story of her detective journey to trace her ancestry through the corridors of history to a president and a slave woman from West Africa.
They Called Us Enemy by George Takei, 2020
Yes, that George Takei that most people know as the actor in the Star Trek television series. This graphic book format tells the story of George Takei's family as they are ordered from their home to a Japanese Internment camp in Arkansas. The story follows the family, George is a child, as they try to have a list inside the camp as well as life after the Takeis have returned to civilian life. They Call Us Enemy examines themes of racism, xenophobia, loyalty, patriotism, family and more. A fresh look at history that many do not get a chance to see.