Lake Forest Reads: Ragdale Month

It's October, which means it's Lake Forest Reads: Ragdale month! This year's title, A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki is an insightful, inventive, and thought provoking novel. Events are being held at the Library, Gorton Center, and Dickinson Hall leading up to a visit from the author on October 26th and 27th. To see a full list of events, visit lakeforestreadsragdale.org/events. We've assembled some FAQ's about Lake Forest Reads: Ragdale below.

What is Lake Forest Reads: Ragdale?
Lake Forest Reads: Ragdale is an annual program created by Lake Forest Library in partnership with Ragdale, Lake Forest College, and the Friends of Lake Forest Library. The program encourages our community to read and share one book by a writer affiliated with Ragdale, with the purpose of fostering a culture of reading and a sense of community.

How do you choose the book every year?
Since we always choose a book written by a Ragdale author, Ragdale provides the committee with a list of titles and authors that have done residencies there. From that list, we do some investigating, reading reviews, checking availability of titles in different formats (large type, audio, ebook), and interest. We then narrow down the list to 3-4 titles. Everyone on the committee then reads those titles and we meet to discuss them. We try to find books with a lot of substance that would make for great discussions, and cause people to think deeply about the issues in the book. We also look for titles that have a high literary standard, but are still accessible to the general public. This year's choice of A Tale for the Time Being was voted to be this year's title almost unanimously.

What is this book about?
In Tokyo, sixteen-year-old Nao has decided there’s only one escape from her aching loneliness and her classmates’ bullying, but before she ends it all, Nao plans to document the life of her great-grandmother, a Buddhist nun who’s lived more than a century. A diary is Nao’s only solace—and will touch lives in a ways she can scarcely imagine.

Across the Pacific, we meet Ruth, a novelist living on a remote island who discovers a collection of artifacts washed ashore in a Hello Kitty lunchbox—possibly debris from the devastating 2011 tsunami. As the mystery of its contents unfolds, Ruth is pulled into the past, into Nao’s drama and her unknown fate, and forward into her own future. 

Full of Ozeki’s signature humour and deeply engaged with the relationship between writer and reader, past and present, fact and fiction, quantum physics, history, and myth, A Tale for the Time Being is a brilliantly inventive, beguiling story of our shared humanity and the search for home.

How do I get to see Ruth Ozeki speak?
Attend one of the three events featuring her on October 26th and 27th! A Conversation with the Author will take place Thursday, October 26th at 7:00 pm with Professor Davis Schneiderman. Then on Friday, October 27th at 10:00 am she will be the featured guest at Ragdale's Tea and Talk. Finally, Friday evening Ruth will lead a Guided Meditation followed by a book signing at the Lake Forest Book Store. You can register for all of these events at lakeforestreadsragdale.org/events.

How do I get a copy of the book?
Call us at 847.810.4610 or visit our catalog at lakeforestlibrary.org to put a hold on it or head to the Lake Forest Book Store, where you can purchase a discounted copy.