The Big Read, April 13-May 30, 2008

Pick up a free Reader’s Guide and Audio Guide to The Maltese Falcon at your local library branch or by calling the Library’s Programming Division at (209) 937-7778.  

From April 13 through May 30, rediscover an era ambient with the anxiety, pessimism, suspicion, mystery and tension that fill the pages of The Maltese Falcon. Dasheill Hammet’s classic is sure to excite the thousands of readers who participate in The Big Read, a one book community event. Join the Stockton-San Joaquin County Public Library in this year’s effort to reintroduce the love of reading by picking up a copy of The Maltese Falcon at your local branch library today.

The Library, along with its community partners, will host mostly free activities throughout the county that explore the double-crossing, mysterious film noir era. Events will include author talks, book discussions, movie nights, and music from the 1930s and 1940s.

Highlighting The Big Read is the appearance of award-winning mystery writer Laurie R. King. She has created two popular series heroines, Mary Russell (wife of Sherlock Holmes) and San Francisco homicide inspector Kate Martinelli. The author will speak on Friday, May 16, at 7 p.m. in South Hall of Stockton Civic Auditorium.

The Big Read for Stockton-San Joaquin County Public Library was made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and financial support from Friends of the Stockton Public Library and the Library & Literacy Foundation for San Joaquin County. The Big Read is an NEA initiative in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and Arts Midwest. Its goal is to engage everyone in reading and to celebrate classic literature.

For Plainsong by Kent Haruf, see One Book, One San Joaquin 2007.