INC NEWS - Title Selected for Durham Reads Together 2007

Wed Dec 6 15:29:45 EST 2006

 Media friends:

Please find attached (and following) the news

release announcing the title selected for

Durham Reads Together 2007.

Thank you for helping us to get the word out about the title selected.  I look forward to your support of this important communitywide reading project.

As always, I appreciate your assistance in publicizing Durham County Library-where great literary events happen!

Best-

Jana A. Alexander

Jana A. Alexander

Manager, Marketing Services Division

Durham County Library

P  (919) 560-0151

F  (919) 560-0137

300 N. Roxboro St.

P.O. Box 3809

Durham, NC  27702

jalexander at durhamcountync.gov

The best of my education has come from the public library... my tuition fee is a bus fare and once in a while, five cents a day for an overdue book.  You don't need to know very much to start with, if you know the way to the public library.        --Lesley Conger

News Release

Date:  Dec. 6, 2006  

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:  Lisa L. Dendy

560-0123 or ldendy at durhamcountync.gov

"The Last Shot" Selected for Durham Reads Together 2007

DURHAM-"The Last Shot:  City Streets, Basketball Dreams," by Darcy Frey, is the book selected for Durham Reads Together 2007.  Durham County Library and the title selection committee for Durham Reads Together encourage people from all walks of life, ages 13 and up, to read or listen to the book in preparation for programs and events, including a visit from the author, being planned for April and May of 2007.  

One of the top 100 sports books of all time, according to Sports Illustrated, "The Last Shot" is far from being just a sports book, according to David Carr, associate professor at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Information and Library Science and a member of the title selection committee.

"It is a book about courage and character, dreams and consequences, economics and education that also happens to be about basketball," Carr said.

The title selection committee was drawn to the book because of the important themes it introduces:  the opportunities and challenges that accompany being gifted and promising; the tensions of growing up in poverty, especially during adolescence; and how poor schools and poverty take their toll, even on hard-working youth.

"This book excludes no reader, as far as I can see," Carr said.  "I see all ages, both sexes, literary types, sports types, parents, educators, students-everyone-taking it up with satisfaction."

"The Last Shot" follows four young athletes at Abraham Lincoln High School in the Coney Island projects as they struggle under the pressures of poverty, crime, drugs and the expectations placed on them by their families, their coaches and the community.  All four see basketball as their ticket out of the ghetto-both for themselves and their families-and are being courted by colleges, but have difficulty meeting the minimum academic requirements for admission.  One of the athletes featured is Stephon Marbury, now a two-time NBA all-star with a multimillion-dollar contract with the New York Knicks that runs through 2009.  Marbury is also promoting his own line of basketball shoes that cost less than $15.

Now that the title has been announced, everyone in Durham-individuals, community organizations, businesses, book groups, students, churches, synagogues, cafés and bookstores-is encouraged to become part of the Durham Reads Together planning committee and to read and discuss the book.  The committee will consider a film series and programs that focus on themes in the book, such as "Helping Your Children Get into College," "Real Life Stories of NCAA Recruiting," "Race, Class and Basketball in Durham," "Closing the Achievement Gap in Durham" and other programming inspired by the book.

The title selection for Durham Reads Together was a democratic process that included representatives from Barnes & Noble Booksellers, Carolina Circuit Writers, Duke University, Durham Public Schools, Durham Technical Community College, North Carolina Central University, The Regulator Bookshop, Durham County Library and the community at large.  The committee met between August and November to review almost 200 suggestions submitted from throughout the community and generated from committee members. 

Most committee members read between six and 10 books to determine which suggestions best fit the criteria for Durham Reads Together:  a well-written book with a wide interest level-teens, adults and seniors, male and female; suitable for book discussions; tie-ins for relevant community programs; current topics that are pertinent to Durham; and an author who is available and willing to visit Durham as part of the project.  After 12 weeks of deliberation, the committee chose Frey's book, which it felt had strong storytelling, emotional impact and wide appeal.  In addition to "The Last Shot," the "Final Four" candidates included "Enrique's Journey," by Sonia Nazario, "The Things They Carried," by Tim O'Brien, and "The Glass Castle," by Jeannette Walls.  

Durham County Library, which is spearheading the communitywide reading project, has added 60 copies of the book, which were purchased with a grant from the North Carolina Humanities Council; the Library will be purchasing even more copies of the book to ensure that the book circulates easily throughout the community.  Eight audiobooks on cassettes have also been added to the collection; the audiobook is not available on disc.  Library customers can check out or request the title at any library facility or by visiting www.durhamcountylibrary.org <http://www.durhamcountylibrary.org/>  and selecting the "library catalog and patron information" option. 

In 1996, "The Last Shot" was named a notable book and a best book for young adults by the American Library Association.  The Harper's Magazine article on which it was based won the Livingstone Award for National Reporting and the National Magazine Award.  

The author is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine; he writes on a variety of topics, including science, medicine, technology, the environment and popular music.  Frey is also a former contributing editor at Harper's Magazine and has published articles in The American Lawyer and Rolling Stone.  His writing has been anthologized in "Best American Essays" and "Best American Science Writing."  Frey's 1996 New York Times Magazine article about three New York City air traffic controllers was made into the feature film "Pushing Tin."  He has been a fellow at the MacDowell Colony, the oldest artists' colony in the U. S.  Frey graduated from Oberlin College in 1983 and currently teaches in the creative writing program at Columbia University.  "The Last Shot," his first book, was published in 1994 and released in paperback, with a new afterword, in 2004.

Durham's communitywide reading program began in 2005 when Durham County Library led the community in presenting Durham Reads Together 2005, featuring acclaimed author and jazz musician James McBride and his book "The Color of Water:  A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother."  Durham Reads Together 2005 was a monumental success, with more 5,000 Durham residents reading and discussing the book and its issues of race, class, religion, education and family.

For more information, or to become involved in Durham Reads Together 2007, please call 560-0123 or e-mail ldendy at durhamcountync.gov.  

The mission of Durham Reads Together is to strengthen the community through a celebration of reading the same book.  Spearheading Durham Reads Together is one of the many ways Durham County Library provides the entire community with books, services and other resources that inform, inspire learning, cultivate understanding and excite the imagination.

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