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In its seventh year, the 2008 Mayor’s Book Club was very successful. Since Mayor Wynn announced A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier as the 2008 selection in late February, the book has been checked out over a hundred times, and hundreds of people have come together to discuss the book with University of Texas experts and other Austinites across the city at branch libraries. A Long Way Gone is a New York Times Best Seller and is a memoir of a Sierra Leone child soldier, Ishmael Beah. The book prompted conversations and discussion about the incredible account of Sierra Leone’s civil war and the accompanying epidemic of child soldiers.
On Friday, April 25 this year’s reading campaign ended with a visit from the author, Ishmael Beah, in a Mayor hosted event at City Hall. Ishmael met Austinites at a welcoming reception in the atrium at City Hall where attendees enjoyed food by bluAfrica and enjoyed the sounds of music by DJ August Martin. Over 200 people attended the reception and program with Mayor Wynn and Ishmael Beah. The discussion with the author was moderated by UT Dean of Undergraduate Studies Paul Woodruff, and many books were sold by BookPeople and signed by Ishmael.
The City of Austin and the Austin Public Library would like to thank all of our partners and sponsors of this year’s reading campaign: The University of Texas Humanities Institute, the Austin Public Library Foundation, the Friends of the Austin Public Library, Four Seasons Hotel, Time Warner Cable, Sweetleaf Tea, Moonshine Restaurant, and area bookstores.
Visit our previous Mayor's Book Club resource guides online:
Spring 2007: Around The Bloc by Stephanie Elizondo Griest
Spring 2006: The Devil's Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea
Spring 2005: Writing Austin's Lives by Metro Austin Residents
Spring 2004: All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
Spring 2003: Holes by Louis Sachar
Spring 2002: Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
To view what other cities across the country are reading visit
The Center for the Book |
