After a year-long hiatus, the One Book One Community program is making its comeback with a new name and a new partner. Two Books Two Communities expands the 13-year program with two book selections—both about the Great Lakes—and a variety of events being held in both Marquette and Munising.
“Partnering with Munising has reinvigorated the project and given us the opportunity to do some really interesting programming,” said Two Books Two Communities chair Anne Donohue. “This year's titles will appeal to a broad range of interests and I'm especially pleased to introduce people to a book of poetry that I think will surprise them in its appeal. It's a chance to try a genre a lot of people think they don't like.”
This year's books include Harborless by Cindy Hunter Morgan, a collection of poems informed by the Great Lakes shipwrecks, and The Living Great Lakes: Searching for the Heart of the Inland Seas by Jerry Dennis, which tells the story of The Malabar, a double-masted schooner the author helped sail from Lake Michigan to Bar Harbor, Maine.
“The books chosen this year both speak to our nautical roots in Munising and to the deep, rich history we have with Lake Superior and our shoreline sister Marquette,” said Lisa Cromell, director of the Munising School Public Library. “It will be exciting to see the many facets of each book come to life as the programs progress.”
Founded in 2006 as One Book One Community, the program began with the goal of bringing Northern Michigan University and Marquette County readers together with a common book. It also set out to introduce new NMU students to the community and to an academic life through the joy of reading, the life of the mind and the free exchange of ideas.
Two Books Two Communities events are scheduled for this fall and details on those events will be released later.