One Book, One San Diego

Has anyone participated in the city-wide book club One Book, One San Diego? If so, what do you think of it?

Further information may be located at: http://www.sandiego.gov/public-library/news-events/onebook.shtml

The first book was Enrique's Journey by Sonia Nazario; the current book being Three Cups of Tea; One Man's Mission to Promote Peace by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.

Not sure how much counts for "participation", but I read 'em both...

C just finished Three Cups of Tea, and I just started it. It's the July selection for my local reading group (not OBOSD-affiliated).

I've read both, but don't live in the confines of the city, so haven't participated in the discussion groups. I have, however, participated in discussions for the Carlsbad Reads Together for the last three years. I don't attend any of the events they schedule though. Too little time . . . .

I just read Enrique's Journey, the 2007 selection for One Book/One San Diego. Living in San Diego, we all are aware and affected by illegal immigration. I thought Nazario did a good, fairly unbiased job of telling the story of a Honduran teenager who makes the perilous journey through Mexico and enters the U.S. illegally in search of his mother who loved him but left him in search of economic opportunities to lift her family out of poverty. The book was expanded from a Los Angeles Times feature series, for which Sonia Nazario won a Pulitzer Prize.

As the author points out, like Enrique and his mother Lourdes, hundreds of thousands of immigrants enter the U.S. illegally every year, including single mothers and children as young as 7. Initially, they intend to return to their homeland, but in the meantime they send money home to help care for their families.

In Nazario’s Afterword, she outlines the immigration debate from different perspectives - - that of the illegal immigrant, the family left behind, the country left behind, and the benefits and liabilities to the United States and its border communities.

One of the points in the book that made an impact on me was the abusive way Mexico treats the illegals entering from Central America. Yet, we see on the news thousands of Mexicans illegally in the U.S., along with Mexico’s government, demanding equal rights with U.S. citizens and immigrants who came to this country legally. Quite a conundrum!

Have any of you read this book, and if so, what did you think? No matter how you initially thought about ILLEGAL immigration (and I'm emphasizing illegal), did this book make you think about it differently?

Vote for the 2010 selection here:
http://www.kpbs.org/one-book/

Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russell
Outcasts United by Warren St. John
Song Yet Sung by James McBride

Voting ends on Halloween.

Michelle
http://straycarrierpigeon.blogspot.com/

Thanks for posting this. I just submitted my vote. So far "Outcasts United" is leading by quite a margin.

Wow! I looked at all three and wonder what they have to do with San Diego? I wish they would pick a book that locals could get into. How about Pipe Dreams: A Surfer's Journey or Stoked!? They both rock.

I just learned that the 2010 book chosen for One Book, One San Diego, is Outcasts United: A Refugee Team, an American Town by Warren St. John.

"It follows a season in the life of a refugee soccer team, from their families and their charismatic coach, as they struggle to build new lives in a small town overwhelmed by change. The story touches on their resilience in the face of extraordinary hardship, the power of one person to make a difference and the daunting challenge of creating community in a place where people seem to have so little in common."

I'll be adding this one to my wishlist.

BoardSurfer I know what you mean. I do know that The Big Read, sponsored by the NEA, is going to be reading Steinbeck's the Grapes of Wrath, and there will be readings around San Diego, I think at the County library system. That definitely is all about California, if not San Diego per se.