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Our Community Reads is Celebrating 10 Years

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By Denise Ward

The Friends of the Santa Cruz Public Libraries will soon be celebrating 10 years of a very successful program — Our Community Reads.

Our Community Reads has fulfilled its mission of bringing community members together through an array of events such as films, talks, music, book discussions, art workshops, field trips, author talks and much more. Every year events are designed around various themes from a particular book selected by members of the community. A history of past seasons of Our Community Reads is available at www.friendsofsantacruzlibraries.org/ocr-history/.

Through all the past seasons, participants have given terrific feedback about the events, about the people they’ve met, and about the particular enjoyment of sharing these experiences. All events take place from late January to early March, and all are free and open to the public.

Be sure to mark your calendars for the Voting Party for the 2027 Season of Our Community Reads! On Oct. 8 Santa Cruz County residents are invited to attend a presentation of this year’s contenders to select the book they believe will resonate best with our community.

Presentations will take place simultaneously at three convenient locations in the county. At each location, doors will open at 6 p.m. with presentations beginning at 6:30. The Voting Party allows our guests to make the tough decision of selecting the “best” book for the coming season of Our Community Reads.

Candidates for the 2027 Season of Our Community Reads

The Music of Bees, by Eileen Garvin, is just the book to lift your spirits and let you in on the secrets of bee colonies, and the secrets of being human!

This is a hopeful and touching novel that revolves around three people whose lives intersect quite unexpectedly.

Each protagonist brings particular talents and challenges as they become interdependent while beekeeping on a farm in Oregon.

You’ll learn a lot about the value of friendship, collaboration and the miraculous lessons of bees!

Shade: The Promise of a Forgotten Natural Resource by Sam Bloch, an environmental journalist, investigates how shade, once ubiquitous in societies, became a scarcer resource.

Trees were removed for road-widening; air conditioning brought people indoors; investments in planting trees in public spaces dwindled in vulnerable communities.

This book examines shade from many perspectives and sheds light on how shade can greatly improve urban life.

The Tree Collectors: Tales of Arboreal Obsession by Amy Stewart is a must- read book that is a feast for the eyes and for the soul. Traveling the world, Stewart met extraordinary horticulturalists and hobbyists who have collected trees of all types.

In fifty vignettes, her book describes each collection, and the significance each one holds in the lives of their collectors.

The author has illustrated the entire book with her own hand-drawn watercolors of the people and their trees. Positively beautiful and engaging!

California Against the Sea: Visions for Our Vanishing Coastline by Rosanna Xia is a fascinating investigation of the impacts of engineered landscapes, the market pressures of development, and the ecological activism along California’s 1,200 miles of coastline told through visits through many communities affected by changing conditions.

Mark Your Calendars!

We hope you will join us for the Voting Party on October 8 at one of the following locations:

Looking forward to seeing you join us!

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