The poster for the WINCHESTER READS programs -- celebrating our 10th year!

This year’s WINCHESTER READS book is Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott.

Click on the title or the cover image to request a copy. Additional copies of the book are available in the Library and at a discounted price at BookEnds.

Review:

Insurance claims adjuster Clara Purdy is 43, divorced, and settled into a comfortable, if lonely, routine. That ends dramatically one day when she accidentally runs her car into a family of six. The Gages - Lorraine and Clayton, his elderly mother, and three young children - are homeless and on the road to find work. Lorraine is hospitalized after the postaccident exam and finds that she has cancer, and Clara impulsively decides to offer her home to the rest of them. When Clayton leaves for parts unknown, Clara becomes the family's bulwark and guardian of the three children, including baby Pearce. As the chaos and joy swirl together, Clara finds an unexpected support network in neighbors, relatives, and her pastor. Verdict Winner of a Commonwealth Writers Prize in 2009, this second novel by Canadian Endicott, a former actor/director, is a brilliantly balanced and engrossing work about illness, charity, and the very tenuous nature of goodness. Fans of contemporary fiction exploring the dangers of complacency and how domestic upheaval can lead to personal growth will enjoy; think Anne Tyler, Elizabeth Berg, and Anita Shreve. Library Journal (c) Copyright 2010

Dr Scott Seider will speak on Tuesday, October 18, 2011 at 7:30 p.m. at the Jenks Center in Winchester

Dr Scott Seider is the author of Shelter: Where Harvard Meets the Homeless.

Seider is an assistant professor of education at Boston University where his research focuses on the civic development of adolescents and emerging adults. He also serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Adolescent Research and as a contributing editor for the Journal of College & Character.

Dr. Seider is currently conducting a study funded by the Spencer Foundation of civic and character education efforts at highly effective urban charter schools.

Click on the title or the cover image to request a copy.

An Evening with Marina Endicott will take place at the McCall Middle School on Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2011 at 7:30 p.m.

Marina Endicott was born in Golden, British Columbia, and grew up in Nova Scotia and Toronto. She worked as an actor and director in Toronto before going to London, England, where she began to write fiction. In 1984 she went west to Saskatoon, and worked as a director and dramaturge. She ran the Saskatchewan Playwrights Centre for many years before going farther west with Peter Ormshaw, a journalist and poet, on his first posting with the RCMP to Mayerthorpe, Alberta. They eventually married and have two children, Will and Rachel.

Marina’s first novel, Open Arms, was nominated for the Amazon/Books in Canada First Novel Award in 2002, and her long poem, "The Policeman's Wife, Some Letters," about the murders of four Mounties in Mayerthorpe in 2005, was short-listed for the national CBC Literary Awards in 2006. More about Endicott

WINCHESTER READS is sponsored by:

The John & Mary Murphy Educational Foundation, with additional support from Book Ends, Friends of the Winchester Public Library, the Friends of the Winchester Public Library, the Winchester Multicultural Network, Winchester Public Schools and enthusiastic volunteers.

Contacts for more information

Barbara Yuan
Molly Wiellette
Winchester Public Library

Dede Gallagher
Book Ends

Previous WINCHESTER READS Selections

Click on the links to request the books and related materials.

2010
Hope’s Boy: A Memoir by Andrew Bridge

2009
Song Yet Sung by James McBride

2008
Run by Ann Patchett

2007
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson

2006
In Revere, In Those Days
by Roland Merullo

2005
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

2004
Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder

2003
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

2002
Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman