The Mary Lyon Foundation has given RiverCulture a grant to organize a community read and event around the book Into the Beautiful North, by Luis Alberto Urrea. This selection is part of  The Big Read, an NEA project that develops community-wide programs to encourage reading and participation by diverse audiences.

"The U.S.-Mexico border is not just a line on a map; it is a dream-like destination and departure point, surrounded by desperation and expectations. "No one writes more tragically or intimately about border culture than this son of a Mexican father and Anglo mother," journalist Bill Moyers said of Luis Alberto Urrea, author of numerous works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. In his third novel, Into the Beautiful North, Urrea transcends the "us against them" discourse of immigration and writes with compassion, complexity, and humor about the people and places caught up in the border wars. Urrea invites us to think of the border as more than a stark divide between nations: he reminds us that it is a place of convergence where meaningful conversations, and even love, between cultures begins."

DETAILS:
Late Winter: Book groups read the book!
Mid-March/April: Interested readers meet with RiverCulture and plan activities around the plot of the book. For example, we could hire a Mariachi Band!
April 11/12: An opportunity to meet the author, Luis Alberto Urrea at HCC or GCC.
Into the Beautiful North Event in downtown Turners Falls! Date to be announced.

If your book group would like to participate, email riverculture@gmail.com or call Suzanne at 413-835-1390

If you would like to participate but do not have a group, email/call the same number and we will try to find you a group. There is also a book group at Greenfield Community College.

The NEA website has terrific resources to guide book group conversations.
Would you like to start a book group? HERE are some ways to start.