Imagine if everyone in Maryland read the same book at the same time…
While reading is often a solitary pursuit, what kinds of conversations could we have if people were reading the same book—on the train to work, on the beach, in a classroom, during their lunch break, or for a book club—and with whom could we connect or reconnect in our communities?
Thoreau said, “How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book.” Sharing the life-changing ideas you find in a great book with your co-workers, fellow students, friends, family, and neighbors is the essence of the Maryland Humanities Council’s One Maryland One Book Program.
Join in Maryland’s only statewide community reading program! Pick up a copy of this year’s selected book, Song Yet Sung by James McBride, to read this summer (you may know McBride’s best-selling memoir, The Color of Water). Then look for book discussions and related programs at your local public library and other locations around the state in September and October, so you can share your thoughts about this provocative book and listen to what others have to say about it.
Set on Maryland’s Eastern Shore in the 1850s, Song Yet Sung weaves an intricate and gripping tale of escaped slaves, free blacks, and slave-catchers. The book centers on The Dreamer, an enslaved woman whose gift for visions of the future quickly reaches mythic proportions following her escape from a local plantation.
The Maryland Humanities Council will host a tour by Song Yet Sung author James McBride this fall. McBride will speak at eight venues across the state—from the Baltimore Book Festival on September 27 to Dorchester County, where the novel is set, on October 28. Click here for event information.
Our more than 70 community partners will host free public programs related to the theme and topics of Song Yet Sung statewide. Community partners are as diverse as The Red Canoe Children’s Bookstore in Baltimore to the Maryland Correctional Library System. Private book clubs and informal groups are encouraged to participate also. Join us!
