Obasan by Joy Kogawa Selected for One Book, One Vancouver 2005
By Richard Eriksson on May 10, 2005 - 8:55pm
The official One Book, One Vancouver website does not have this listed yet, but I just talked to the librarians at the Vancouver Public Library, and one of them told me that Obasan by Joy Kogawa will be the 2005 selection for the city-wide book club. In February of this year, Todd Wong at GungHaggisFatChoy recommended the book be selected (my summary) and gave a long list of good reasons for it. This news is unofficial as far as I know, and the library may announce differently, but regardless they will be holding the book club's opening and an author's reading on the 24th of May.
12 hours pass (this paragraph written at 10 AM Wednesday), and I just checked the One Book, One Vancouver website this morning, and the book has been officially selected. The title of this post originally had a question mark at the end, but I removed it to reflect the fact that Obasan is the club's book to read for the summer.
You'll remember—because I remind people at every opportunity—that I covered the 2004 One Book, One Vancouver which selected The Corporation and interviewed the author, Joel Bakan. This year I'll be buying, reading and reviewing the book for Urban Vancouver, putting aside an increasingly high pile of recently-purchased books for 2005's book club.
