What's The Issue?

We've made it through a couple book discussions now and one thing most readers seem most interested in discussing about Little Bee is the real-life issues it weaves into its fictional narrative. With Little Bee, the predominant issue would be immigration and asylum for refugees, and discussion participants definitely had a lot to say, both about the issues themselves, as well as how skillfully (or not) Chris Cleave handled those issues within his story. Discussion participants also cited other novels they've enjoyed that dealt with a specific issue well fictionally, books like our 2005 Citywide Reads selection The Kite Runner, as well as classics like The Grapes of Wrath. We'd definitely be interested in hearing what you think, so please take the time to join one of our other upcoming discussions.



You may also be wondering what that picture to the right is. On Wednesday afternoon, February 17th, several of our librarians swooped down on the Third Street Promenade for a "book mob" to promote Santa Monica Citywide Reads. Similar to "flash mobs," where a group of people converge, unannounced, on a given spot for a brief time to catch the public's attention, we dropped in on the Promenade during the Wednesday Farmer's Market rush and passed out coupons for Little Bee books, and conducted a few flash group readings of segments we love from the book. We definitely caught the interest of many passersby, and if any of those passersby was you, we hope to see you at an upcoming discussion or special event. In fact, we hope to see all of you.

Remember, this coming Saturday afternoon, we'll be hosting Chris Cleave himself for a special author presentation, as well as a special staged reading of excerpts from Little Bee by actresses Rosalyn Landor and Petal d'Avril Walker. The program starts at the Main Library at 1:30 p.m., Saturday, February 20th, and free tickets for Auditorium seating will be released at 12:30 p.m. We definitely advise an early arrival, as we think this one will be filled to capacity quickly.

See you then!