One Book, One Community

For Immediate Release

2013 One Book, One Community Selection is Ragged Company by Richard Wagamese

April 25, 2013 – This morning, at a special event hosted by Queen Street Commons in Kitchener, the One Book, One Community committee announced that the 2013 selection is Ragged Company by Richard Wagamese.

In Ragged Company, four homeless people seek refuge in a warm movie theatre when a severe Arctic Front descends on the city. During what is supposed to be a one-time event, this temporary refuge transfixes them. They fall in love with this new world, and once the weather clears, continue their trips to the cinema. On one of these outings they meet Granite, a jaded and lonely journalist who has turned his back on writing “the same story over and over again” in favour of the escapist qualities of film, and an unlikely friendship is struck. A found cigarette package (contents: some un-smoked cigarettes, three $20 bills, and a lottery ticket) changes the fortune of this struggling set. The ragged company discovers they have won $13.5 million, but none of them can claim the money for lack proper identification. Enlisting the help of Granite, their lives, and fortunes, become forever changed.

An award-winning writer, Richard Wagamese is one of Canada’s foremost Native authors and storytellers. Working as a professional writer since 1979, he’s been a newspaper columnist /reporter, radio/ television broadcaster and producer, documentary producer and the author of eleven titles from major Canadian publishers, with a new novel, Indian Horse, published in early 2012.

One Book, One Community, now in its 12th year, celebrates the books and writing of Canadian authors.  Through the shared experience of reading and discussing the same book, One Book, One Community has helped create a special sense of community in the Region.

Christine Brown, Chair of One Book, One Community, says “More than heartbreaking story of four people, this book is a story about  friendship , finding strength, and discovering home.”

Free author events will be held in Kitchener, New Hamburg, Waterloo and Cambridge  from September 16 to 18.  Watch the Waterloo Region Record and the official One Book, One Community website (www.oboc.ca) for details on special events as they develop.

Ragged Company by Richard Wagamese is available as a book, an eBook and through the CNIB library.  Visit your library or favourite bookseller today!

Click here to view the PowerPoint presentation from today’s launch.

Click here for greetings from the author.

Click here for information on SHOW (Supportive Housing of Waterloo)

If you would like more information about One Book, One Community, contact Christine Brown at 519-886-1310 ext. 146 or cbrown@wpl.ca

Don’t miss the latest One Book, One Community news!

We send occassional emails on programs, events and OBOC authors.  To subscribe to our mailing list simply contact Sandi Hall at shall@wpl.ca.

In 2011, I purchased the One Book One Community 10th anniversary mug.

I’d always been aware of OBOC. And, for quite some time, I had had this vague notion that one day I would read those books. But now here they were, pictured, each one, on the outside of my new coffee mug. Just looking at them stirred something in me. I got inspired. I resolved to make a determined effort to read all ten books to the exclusion of every other until I was done.  And that was the beginning.

I started with my favourite genre – historical fiction. Book of Negroes was the obvious pick. Enthralling. I loved it! I read it again.

Eyeing my mug, I thought, “Which should I choose next”? Stepping outside my comfort zone, I selected The Best Laid Plans. Humour. Except for Stephen Leacock, I’d never read much humour. Here goes. I plunged in. Again, I loved it!

OK now. How about a murder mystery? Bury Your Dead.

As I read through the selections, I found myself enjoying each one. And I made some surprising discoveries. I was becoming acquainted with genres I’d always thought would never interest me. I was also meeting new authors, savouring their beauty of language, their turn of phrase, their gift for words. Not only did the books interest me but now the writers, too. I began researching them, finding out that many had additional publications. Intrigued, I started drifting, veering off course, reading some of those.

But, soon enough, I’d have another coffee and a new pick from the mug. Back on track. And so, I made my way through to the end.

A wonderful journey. A reading adventure – that’s what it’s been. One that provides eager recommendations for family and friends – both inside and outside of Waterloo Region.

Thanks OBOC. And that 10th anniversary mug? Well, it’s my favourite.

– Mary Ann Vanden Elzen

OBOC 2005: “Hominids” by Robert Sawyer

Robert Sawyer has a new book coming out in April 2013, “Red Planet Blues”.  Opening chapters may be read on Rob’s website.

OBOC 2006: “Three Day Road” by Joseph Boyden

Joseph Boyden’s latest book, “The Orenda”, is coming out in September.  He was recently speaking (and reading new material) at The Banff Centre.

OBOC 2007: “Smoke” by Elizabeth Ruth

Elizabeth Ruth has a new book coming out in April 2013, “Matadora”, and is continuing to mentor aspiring writers in the Humber School for Writers Correspondence Program.

OBOC 2009: “The Book of Negroes” by Lawrence Hill

Lawrence Hill’s Aminata, the French translation of The Book of Negroes, is among five books in the running for Le Combat des livres 2013. The French equivalent of CBC Radio’s Canada Reads, Le Combat des livres determines which book should be read by all Québécois in 2013. Aminata will be defended by Thomas Hellman, who is a musician, poet and literary critic.

OBOC 2010: “Best Laid Plans” by Terry Fallis

Terry Fallis’s Up and Down  has been shortlisted for the 2013 Ontario Library Association Evergreen Award for “the best in adult Canadian fiction and non-fiction.”  He has also agreed to post nude (with a strategically placed prop) for the Bare It For Books calendar, a fundraiser for PEN Canada.

OBOC 2011: “Bury Your Dead” by Louise Penny

Louise Penny next Chief Inspector Gamache book  is called How the Light Gets In and will be published August 27.  Louise will also be interviewing Stephen and Owen King at the PEN Fundraising Event on October 24.  All proceeds go to PEN Canada.