This summer, Rice Public Library is celebrating our 375th birthday by partnering with Maine State Library in a program called Read ME. Inspired by programs in other cities and states, Read ME is designed to connect adults across our community with books written by up-and-coming Maine authors and with other reading adults throughout town. Through this shared experience of reading the same book at the same time as others in town, we hope to encourage adults to read for enjoyment and to make connections with others in the community.
This year, the selected nonfiction title is Phuc Tran’s ‘Sigh, Gone: A Misfit’s Memoir of Great Books, Punk Rock, and the Fight to Fit In.’ Tran’s experience as a child of refugees who came to the United States in the 1970s is written candidly, poetically, and with a touch of dark humor. The memoir illustrates universal themes as it weaves through the details of his youth in the 1980s.
The novel selected for this summer’s program is Meredith Hall’s ‘Beneficence.’ In a story of hope, contentment, and warmth shattered by sudden grief, Hall lovingly crafts the world of a family farm in Alstead, Maine in the middle of the last century. Compared to Willa Cather and Marilynne Robinson, Hall’s care for the quiet moments sets this novel apart.
The Read ME program will kick off on Friday, June 3rd, and Rice will have multiple copies of each title available, including five print copies of each, ebooks, e-audiobooks, book-on-CDs, and a large print copy of ‘Beneficence.’