Steve Slosberg took time from his journalistic writing to write to us. It seems to me that
any book as powerful as the first one he describes, deserves a look. His description
of Eastern Connecticut's One Book project parallels Barbara Hamlin's project in Maine.

Here is a book note: City of Dreams by Beverly Swerling. This came into the newsroom on a publisher's push, like dozens of other books. I brought it home because the cover said it was a story of Nieuw Amsterdam and early New York. My wife is Dutch. She finally opened it, and I didn't see her for a week. Then it consumed me. It's an historical potboiler in the summer page-turner sense, with the additional literary flourishes of graphic sex and even more graphic depictions of early surgeries and herbal remedies and the evolution of medicine in the New World. What can I say? It washed over us, sort of the way The Godfather did when I first read itãmy first non-academic read after college. I'd told you about the 'One Book' reading initiative we were contemplating. Well, the region pulled it off. Eastern Connecticut, a rather ungainly collection of small towns, forestland, aging cities and swellish coastal enclaves encompassing half of the state, sat down to read Snow in August by Pete Hamill. Not a terrific read, rather violent and full of Jewish mysticism and memories of Jackie Robinson breaking in with the Dodgers in 1947, but one that seemingly appealed to high school readers. Part of the 'One Book' concept was picking something that spanned eighth-grade literacy level through adults. A committee looked over a list of 45 titles nominated by community members. But two librarians were hell bent for Snow in August, and they made the most compelling pitch. Hamill came to the area in May to 'launch' the project and will return in late September to close it. Entire high schools got behind itãone public school purchased 2,500 copies, enough for all administrators and support staff, including custodians, to have a copy. Reading groups took it up; rabbis and priests gave public talks about religious elements in the book; Monte Irvin, an old Negro Leagues player who followed Robinson to the Majors, came to speak. In the end, though the whole region didn't jump on it, we did attract thousands of readers, many of whom turned out for book discussions at libraries and other public events. Don't know whether it's been tried in your area, but despite all the glitches and grousing, it was good to see so many people, especially teen-agers, reading the same book. Anyway, look forward to your dispatches and keep those AP teachers inspired.

Thank you, Steve. The "One Book" idea is an interesting one. Snow in August seems,
at first glance, to be an unlikely choice, but was perhaps really apt. On a small scale a
project like this could be a powerful community building endeavor. On a larger scale it
might help build many communities.

There were five "One Book" projects in Minnesota last year: To Kill a Mockingbird
in Duluth and Fergus Falls, Jim the Boy by Tony Earley in Owatonna (not far from Northfield),
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen in Minneapolis, and Profiles in Courage by John F. Kennedy in
St. Paul. The capital city is planning to do another "One Book" project this year:
The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis.