Book of the Year announced
Published: Oct 14 2006

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It’s a way to combine resources and, perhaps, remind college students and the community as a whole about what, to some, might seem an old-fashioned pastime — reading a book.

Humboldt State University and College of the Redwoods have combined financial and personnel resources to present a Book of the Year.

In an age when televisions, computers and even iPods are pervasive, HSU’s role in this collaborative program is about “re-instilling some of the thrill of reading,” said Rees Hughes, director of HSU Student Life and also the Career Center.

He is also co-leader of HSU’s Book of the Year committee, and their book choice has already made headlines locally this year.

College of the Redwoods announced its Book of the Year this past February. It is Ernest J. Gaines’ novel “A Lesson Before Dying,” which was winner of the 1993 National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction.

This was also the book at the top of the HSU committee’s list, Hughes said.

When interviewed earlier this year about the book and the Book of the Year program, CR English professor and poet Pat McCutcheon said that the program introduces people to ideas and cultures that they might not otherwise know, and it encourages people to pick up a book.

When interviewed Thursday by phone, Hughes said he shares a similar concern that books should not disappear from people’s thoughts or from their hands.

It is important, he said, for people “not to lose sight that there is a value of having a book by your bedside.”

HSU had a program last year titled “Common Reading,” Hughes said. It was comparable to CR’s Book of the Year, but the committee had actually chosen two books — Greg Sarris’ “Grand Avenue” and T.C. Boyle’s “The Tortilla Curtain.”

The committee was “trying to do something to highlight and emphasize reading a common book,” he said. “One of the things we talked about was the logic in collaborating with CR, partly as a chance to pool resources (and) perhaps make it a bigger deal.”

So, HSU formed a new committee, with Hughes and Steve Smith, associate dean in the College of Natural Resources and Sciences, serving as leaders. People on the committee included library personnel and representatives from each of the campus colleges.

Since “A Lesson Before Dying” topped their list, for the remainder of the year, that will be HSU’s chosen book and, further, now HSU and CR are presenting the program together.

In a tribute to the role of food and maternal nurture in Gaines’ novel, Sweet Mama Janisse will present a fixed-price Cajun dinner on Sunday at 6 p.m. at Bless My Soul Café in Eureka. The dinner, which includes salad, cornmeal muffins, choice of vegetable and choice of four different entrees, will be $15.95 per person at the door, and seating is limited. Beverages and desserts will be available at additional cost.

A screening of the film based on the novel “A Lesson Before Dying,” starring Don Cheedle as the schoolteacher Grant Wiggins and Cicely Tyson as Tante Lou, will be held on Oct. 26 at 6:30 p.m. at the Humboldt County Library, 1313 Third St., Eureka. The film will be followed by a discussion led by Joseph Waters, behavioral consultant and CR psychology instructor.

On Nov. 6 at 6:30 p.m., social justice activist and scholar Angela Davis will appear at the HSU Van Duzer Theatre. Through her activism and scholarship over the last decades, Davis has been deeply involved in the nation’s social justice quest, a news release stated.

A distinguished teacher and writer, she is the author of “Women, Race and Class” (1980) and other books on race and gender. She is a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz.


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