The City of East Lansing and Michigan State University proudly present the One Book, One Community 2009 book selection!
We will be reading "The Soloist," by Steve Lopez.
OBOC activities will be taking place August 30 - September 25.
One Book, One Community Announces 2009 Book Selection
March 16, 2009
EAST LANSING, Mich. - The City of East Lansing and Michigan State
University announce the 2009 One Book, One Community (OBOC) selection,
“The Soloist,” by author Steve Lopez.
The New York Times and Los Angeles Times best seller and soon-to-be-released major motion picture, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx, tells the true story of the friendship between two gifted men, one a homeless mentally ill musician, and the other, an award-winning journalist and columnist for the Los Angeles Times.
Meet the author as he kicks off the month-long OBOC program on Sunday, Aug. 30 at the East Lansing High School auditorium. He will also welcome freshmen at the MSU Academic Welcome at the Breslin Student Events
Center on Monday, Aug. 31. A series of community and campus events are planned around the themes in “The Soloist,” including what happens to a book when it is translated into film.
The annual OBOC program, sponsored by the City of East Lansing and Michigan State University, encourages the city-university community to read the same book and come together to discuss it in a variety of settings. The book is an assigned reading for all incoming MSU freshmen.
About the Book
Lopez is fascinated when he first sees a homeless man,
dressed in rags, intently playing a violin on a busy downtown Los
Angeles street corner. Oblivious to the noise and confusion around him,
the man plays with the concentration and elegance of a trained musician.
From their first encounter, Lopez is fascinated by Nathaniel Anthony
Ayers, a Juilliard trained musician who lives on Skid Row and plays
Beethoven on a two-stringed violin in a noisy traffic tunnel.
In fluid prose and with a reporter’s persistence, Lopez tells of his
determination to understand Ayers’ illness, to convince him to come in
off the street to safety and to reconnect him to his music. It’s not
an easy journey for either man, with bitter disappointments punctuated
by hard-fought triumphs. It is a test of wills and friendship as Lopez
refuses to lose Ayers to the street and Ayers struggles to overcome his
fears and demons.
Support the Program
Support the OBOC program by shopping at Barnes & Noble, 333 E. Grand
River Ave., in East Lansing. This week, March 16-22, Barnes & Noble will
donate up to 20 percent of each sale (with the exception of gift and
member cards) to the OBOC program. Please mention that you would like
your purchase to benefit the program.
Click here for Time Magazine's review of 'The Soloist'
Click here for the New York Times Review of 'The Soloist'
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