Heartland is the 2020 One Book Choice
October 16, 2019 — Representatives from libraries today announced the selection of Heartland by Sarah Smarsh as the 2020 One Book, One Community: Our Region Reads! selection.
The public was asked to help choose a book from a narrowed-down list that they would like to read and discuss with the community. The public vote took place during the entire month of August 2019. There were five titles chosen by the Book Selection Committee on this year’s voting ballot: Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds, Dread Nation by Justina Ireland,
Heartland: a Memoir of working Hard and Being Broke In the Richest Country on Earth by Sarah Smarsh, Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo, and VOX by Christina Dalcher.
This year’s OBOC regional campaign represents collaboration between 40 libraries in four counties: Cumberland, Dauphin, Perry and York and their community partners. Many individual libraries participate in surrounding Central PA counties. Everyone is welcome to read and discuss the book. Reading Group Guide and related materials will be listed online beginning in January 2020.
Reading campaign organizers encourage residents to read the book during January in preparation to attend free programs and discussions that will be held at public libraries beginning in February, which is designated as both Library Lovers’ Month and Book Lovers’ Month.
Participating libraries will stock copies of the book that can be borrowed free of charge beginning in January 2019. Books will also be available for purchase at area Giant Food Stores and at local booksellers. Program schedules for book discussion groups, author lectures and other innovative activities will be available at all participating public libraries and throughout the community. This information may be accessed online. Nearly all the programming is free of charge. Details will be announced on the One Book website: www.oboc.org.
About the Book Heartland: a Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke In the Richest Country on Earth by Sarah Smarsh
People usually think of the heartland of the United States as a bounty of agriculture and a place where comfort abounds. This memoir traces the life of Sarah among the life of the working poor. Intergenerational poverty and life choices affect the lives of this Kansas farm family.
"Smart, nuanced and atmospheric ... Heartland deepens our understanding of the crushing ways in which class shapes possibility in this country. It's an unsentimental tribute to the working-class people Smarsh knows — the farmers, office clerks, trash collectors, waitresses — whose labor is often invisible or disdained."
—NPR Books
About the Author Sarah Smarsh
Sarah Smarsh has written about socioeconomic class, politics, and public policy for the Guardian, the New York Times, the Texas Observer, Pacific Standard, the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, and many other publications. A recent Joan Shorenstein Fellow at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and a former professor of nonfiction writing, Smarsh is a frequent speaker on economic inequality and media narratives relating this topic. She lives in Kansas. Heartland is her first book.
How the Books on the Public Vote Ballot were selected
The books on the Public Vote Ballot were selected by a Book Selection Committee that reviews many books before making their final decisions. The five choices for the public vote were based upon the following broad criteria:
A good, discussable book. Books that make successful subjects for discussion have well-developed characters who are challenged by issues in their lives with which readers can identify;
A book that is available in quantity at reasonable cost, in various media formats (paperback, large print, audio, CD, DVD, or video);
A book that is written at a high school reading level; and
A book that varies in type from others previously selected;
An author, or recognized experts on the author, who would be willing to engage in discussion with readers at several events
For more information and updates about the campaign, go to: www.oboc.org
The public was asked to help choose a book from a narrowed-down list that they would like to read and discuss with the community. The public vote took place during the entire month of August 2019. There were five titles chosen by the Book Selection Committee on this year’s voting ballot: Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds, Dread Nation by Justina Ireland,
Heartland: a Memoir of working Hard and Being Broke In the Richest Country on Earth by Sarah Smarsh, Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo, and VOX by Christina Dalcher.
This year’s OBOC regional campaign represents collaboration between 40 libraries in four counties: Cumberland, Dauphin, Perry and York and their community partners. Many individual libraries participate in surrounding Central PA counties. Everyone is welcome to read and discuss the book. Reading Group Guide and related materials will be listed online beginning in January 2020.
Reading campaign organizers encourage residents to read the book during January in preparation to attend free programs and discussions that will be held at public libraries beginning in February, which is designated as both Library Lovers’ Month and Book Lovers’ Month.
Participating libraries will stock copies of the book that can be borrowed free of charge beginning in January 2019. Books will also be available for purchase at area Giant Food Stores and at local booksellers. Program schedules for book discussion groups, author lectures and other innovative activities will be available at all participating public libraries and throughout the community. This information may be accessed online. Nearly all the programming is free of charge. Details will be announced on the One Book website: www.oboc.org.
About the Book Heartland: a Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke In the Richest Country on Earth by Sarah Smarsh
People usually think of the heartland of the United States as a bounty of agriculture and a place where comfort abounds. This memoir traces the life of Sarah among the life of the working poor. Intergenerational poverty and life choices affect the lives of this Kansas farm family.
"Smart, nuanced and atmospheric ... Heartland deepens our understanding of the crushing ways in which class shapes possibility in this country. It's an unsentimental tribute to the working-class people Smarsh knows — the farmers, office clerks, trash collectors, waitresses — whose labor is often invisible or disdained."
—NPR Books
About the Author Sarah Smarsh
Sarah Smarsh has written about socioeconomic class, politics, and public policy for the Guardian, the New York Times, the Texas Observer, Pacific Standard, the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, and many other publications. A recent Joan Shorenstein Fellow at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and a former professor of nonfiction writing, Smarsh is a frequent speaker on economic inequality and media narratives relating this topic. She lives in Kansas. Heartland is her first book.
How the Books on the Public Vote Ballot were selected
The books on the Public Vote Ballot were selected by a Book Selection Committee that reviews many books before making their final decisions. The five choices for the public vote were based upon the following broad criteria:
A good, discussable book. Books that make successful subjects for discussion have well-developed characters who are challenged by issues in their lives with which readers can identify;
A book that is available in quantity at reasonable cost, in various media formats (paperback, large print, audio, CD, DVD, or video);
A book that is written at a high school reading level; and
A book that varies in type from others previously selected;
An author, or recognized experts on the author, who would be willing to engage in discussion with readers at several events
For more information and updates about the campaign, go to: www.oboc.org
One Book One Community
Finalists 2020
Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds (Atheneum Books, 2017)
Will has two choices when he steps into the elevator. And he’s got 8 floors and seconds to decide. After his brother is shot and killed, Will has to decide if he’ll follow the rule of taking revenge against the person responsible. But as the elevator descends from his eighth-floor apartment, Will is greeted by different ghosts who all share their views of the rule. This gripping novel is told in verse, where Reynolds deals with themes such as love, revenge, and the cycle of violence.
Dread Nation by Justina Ireland (Balzer + Bray, 2018)
Jane McKeene wasn’t born long before the dead rose during the Battle of Gettysburg—an event that ended the Civil War and changed America forever. Jane is nearing the end of her education—a mix of etiquette and weaponry so she can protect the upper tier of society. In this new America, the safety of people falls to the shoulders of a few—where laws place minority children into combat schools to learn how to dispose of the dead. When families and people start to go missing, Jane finds herself caught up in mishaps, and finds herself fighting for her life against enemies. This is a novel where race, humanity, and adventure come together.
Heartland: a Memoir of working Hard and Being Broke In the Richest Country on Earth by Sarah Smarch (Scribner, 2018)
People usually think of the heartland of the United States as a bounty of agriculture and a place where comfort abounds. This memoir traces the life of Sarah among the life of the working poor. Intergenerational poverty and life choices affect the lives of this Kansas farm family.
Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo (Harperteen, 2018)
Xiomara Batista has learned to use her fists to do her talking. Xiomara does have plenty to say and pours herself into her poetry. But she is at a crossroad. She loves to write poetry, and aspires to compete in slam poetry, but finds the pressure of her mom’s vision of her being a good Catholic girl and working in her twin brother’s shadow to be a challenge. When she is invited to join her school’s slam poetry club, X must decide how to maneuver the intersection of her mother’s vision of her while trying to discover her own vision of herself. A coming of age story told in poetic verse about love and discovering oneself.
VOX by Christina Dalcher (Berkley Publishing, 2018)
A decree is put out by the government that women are not allowed to speak more than 100 words daily. If they go over that limit, they are wearing a device that gives them an electric shock. This is only the beginning…Dr. Jean McClellan, a linguist who explores how the brain produces language, is given a chance to change this as she works with a team of scientists to overturn a brain injury to the President’s brother.