Library Unveils Its 2011 'One Book'

Drumroll, please. Fairfield Town Librarian Karen Ronald announced the library’s official selection for 2011’s “One Book, One Town” program Wednesday morning at the Main Library. With much fanfare, Ronald told the crowd that the official selection is Jonathan Safran Foer’s “Eating Animals.”

“I will warn you, it is a mature subject matter,” Ronald said. “But it’s something near and dear to our hearts in Fairfield, with the local organic farms starting up.”

Foer’s book takes an in-depth look at the meat industry. But Branch Librarians Mary Coe stressed that it’s not an advertisement for vegetarianism. Rather, it’s “about where our food comes from.” Teen librarian Nicole Scherer  added that it’s also a personal story about how Foer deals with his research in relation to the upcoming birth of his son.

Scherer recommends the book for adults and older high-school age teens. But this year, the library also chose an official children’s selection so kids can get with the program. They picked “Our Farm,” a collection of poems published by the Animals of Farm Sanctuary.

As part of the program, the library will stage a series of events for adults, kids and families in early 2011. It all leads up to a visit by Foer himself at Fairfield Warde High School on March 29. The library will post a full schedule of programs to its program blog in January.

The library has 200 copies of Foer’s book and they are available at the Main Library, the Fairfield Woods Branch Library, and the Pequot Library. They also ordered extra copies of Foer’s two novels, “Everything is Illuminated” and ‘Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” as companions. Coe said the goal was to get the whole town talking.

“It’s a book that needs to be shared,” Coe said.

 

Have you read “Eating Animals” or any of Foer’s other books? Give us a quick review in the comments.

 

Click here to follow Daily Voice Fairfield and receive free news updates.