Check back here in June 2011 for information about the 2011 One City, One Book: Nashua Reads program.

One City, One Book 2010:
Nashua Reads We Are All Welcome Here

Meet Elizabeth Berg on October 17

We Are All Welcome Here by Elizabeth Berg is the selection for the 2010 Nashua Reads: One City, One Book program.

Against the backdrop of the civil rights movement, We Are All Welcome Here is the story of a 13-year-old girl living in poverty in Tupelo, Mississippi, in the early 1960s. Her mother, a single parent, is severely handicapped by the polio she contracted when pregnant with her daughter and relies on the help of an African-American caregiver, with whom her daughter has a love-hate relationship. The novel explores race and class tensions, the meaning of freedom, and the limits of a child's responsibility for caring for her own mother.

About Elizabeth Berg

Elizabeth Berg has written over twenty books, many of them New York Times Bestsellers. Durable Goods and Joy School were both selected as American Library Association Best Book of the Year. Open House was an Oprah's Book Club Selection.

In 1997, Elizabeth won the New England Booksellers Award for her body of work. The Boston Public Library named her a "literary light", and the AMC Cancer Research Center gave her its Illuminator Award for shedding light on breast cancer, resulting in increased public awareness and concern.

More information about the author is available at www.elizabeth-berg.net.

Get your copy now

The library has 50 copies of We Are All Welcome Here, in addition to large-print and audio copies. A set of 12 books, including two large-print copies, is available for borrowing by book groups. Read it, talk about it with your friends, coworkers, and neighbors, and then meet the author this fall.

About Nashua Reads: One City, One Book

The goal of the One City, One Book program is to get as many Nashuans as possible to read the same book and talk about it with friends, coworkers, and neighbors. The program is now in its eighth year. Previous selections included Skeletons at the Feast, The Tortilla Curtain, Zorro, In the Heart of the Sea, The Kite Runner, Travels With Charley, and  Empire Falls. 

The idea of community reading programs originated in 1998, when the Washington Center for the Book sponsored "If All of Seattle Read the Same Book". For four days, Russell Banks visited the community for programs and discussions about his book, The Sweet Hereafter. In the years since, similar programs, under names like "One City, One Book", "The Big Read", and others, have been held throughout the US.

Questions about Nashua Reads?