Driftwood Public Library Reveals Book for 2019 Lincoln City Reads

On Tuesday, February 19th, Driftwood Public Library quietly revealed the title of its selection for the 3 rd year of its Lincoln City Reads program. In 2017, Driftwood Public Library announced the inaugural year of a program that cities and towns

across the country have been taking part in for a few years. They asked residents of North Lincoln County to read the same book: Mr Penumbra’s 24-hour Bookstore, by Robin Sloan. This was followed by a series of events intended to promote discussion of the book’s themes, and it was a successful enough endeavor that last year they chose Madeleine L’Engle’s classic science-fiction novel A Wrinkle in Time as a follow up and scheduled a month of programming around it.

For 2019, the library staff took votes from the community about which book to read and discuss, and The winner, hands down, was David Guterson’s beloved 1994 bestseller Snow Falling on Cedars. A mystery, a history lesson, and a love story all rolled into one, the book is a beautifully written tale set amongst a small island community in post-World War II Washington state. When a fisherman of German descent is found drowned, trapped in the nets of his boat with a wound to his head, a community leaps to conclusions and accuses a Japanese-American fisherman of the crime. The families of both the accused and the deceased have had a fraught relationship ever since the island’s Japanese citizens were exported, en masse, to an internment camp in California following the

bombing of Pearl Harbor. The action of the novel centers on the trial of the accused and eloquently explores themes of racism, young love, revenge, and forgiveness in an environment and climate that will be very familiar to Lincoln County residents.

Copies of the book are now available to borrow or purchase from the library, and staff will announce in early April the programming they are working on for the month of May. Keep your eyes on their website and Facebook page for more details as they are revealed.

All questions regarding Lincoln City Reads can be directed to Ken Hobson at Driftwood Public Library, either via email at khobson@lincolncity.org, or by calling 541-996-1242. The library is located at 801 SW Highway 101, on the second floor of the City Hall building, adjacent to McKay’s Market and across the street from Burger King.