“It’s something local to Hamilton,” said Lane Public Library spokeswoman Carrie Mancuso, who’s on the One City One Book Hamilton committee this year. It was founded to get people reading the same book at the same time, and having related events.”
It’s similar to The Big Read, which was founded by the National Endowment for the Arts nearly a decade ago, but Motley said Hamilton wasn’t ready for a communitywide reading event in the mid-2000s.
But she revisited the idea in 2016 with Cohen and Whalen, and a few city leaders, and in 2017, they launched One City One Book Hamilton with “Hidden Figures.” They decided to alternate nonfiction and fiction books, continuing in 2018 with “Station 11.” In 2019, the city read “The Boys in the Boat” and held the project off in 2020 due to the COVID pandemic.
They came back in 2021 with an online-only reading of the “Phone Booth at the Edge of the World,” and last year’s book was “Daughters of Yalta.”
The committee, which also includes Lane Library director Joseph Greenward, wanted to choose a book that is “a woman-empowering book,” Motley said. “It’s so interesting. The main character is a beautiful woman and she’s not taken seriously because of the time period, and all she wants to be is taken seriously as a scientist.”
Lessons in Chemistry, published in 2022, is about chemist Elizabeth Zott, who in the early 1960s wants to be a chemist but is not taken seriously by all but one of her male colleagues at a research institute. Years later, Elizabeth is now a single mother and the reluctant star of a beloved cooking show, “Supper at Six,” which features Elizabeth’s unusual approach to cooking and is revolutionary. Not everyone is happy as she grows in popularity because she’s not just teaching women to cook but “daring them to change the status quo.”
“It’s about real issues,” said Motley, who said this isn’t a book just for women. “It’s about sexism, misogyny, and it’s a really relevant book because it speaks to those themes that we’re still dealing with today.”
One City One Book Hamilton announced the book name earlier this month, and had 300 copies purchased by the committee. And many stores say they have trouble keeping them in stock because of the popularity of the book. The idea of the initiative is to get the book for free, read it, and share it.
“The idea is to get books into people’s hands, and the bulk of the reading done will by people borrowing from the library,” Mancuso said.
For locations and updates on the events, visit the One City One Book Hamilton Facebook page at facebook.com/OneCityOneBookHamilton.
ONE CITY ONE BOOK HAMILTON EVENTS
Oct. 5: Celebrating Women in Science at 6:30 p.m. at the Miami University Hamilton Downtown Center: Laura Jackson Goodman, the principal scientist and Director of Scientific Communications for P&G, will share life experiences and insights from growing up with a mother who began her career as a chemist in the 1960s.
Oct. 10: 4 Paws for Ability, Changing Lives One Service Dog at a Time at 6:30 p.m. at the Fitton Center for Creative Arts: Learn about the life of a 4 Paws dog from birth to placement with a client, the history of the organization, how to volunteer, and how these dogs are changing the lives of people with disabilities.
Oct. 18: Samples at Six Wednesday from 6 to 7 p.m. at the Hamilton Lane Library: Anyone 18 and older is invited for an evening of cooking tips and demonstrations with Librarian/Chef Amy, and a tasting of recipes from Lessons in Chemistry.
Oct. 24: The Lane Libraries Present an Evening with Bonnie Garmus from 7 to 9 p.m. at Parrish Auditorium at Miami University Hamilton: New York Times bestselling author Bonnie Garmus discusses her novel, Lessons in Chemistry with the final One City One Book event, which includes a book signing
PREVIOUS ONE CITY ONE BOOK READS
Here are the previous books in the One City One Book initiative:
2017: Hidden Figures by Margo Lee Shetterly
2018: Station 11 by Emily St. John Mandel
2019: The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown
2020: Did not hold due to COVID
2021: Phone Booth at the Edge of the World by Laura Imai Messina
2022: Daughters of Yalta by Catherine Grace Katz
About the Author
