Lots of communal reading programs have similar names but the idea behind them is the same: everyone involved reads the same book and then has meaningful conversations about it. Here are a few happening in May into June.

NEA Big Read with International Festival of Arts & Ideas
https://www.artidea.org/neabigread

The book selected for this year is An American Sunrise by U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo. Harjo’s poems sing of beauty and survival, illuminating a spirituality that connects her to her ancestors and thrums with the quiet anger of living amid the ruins of injustice.

Quiet Corner Reads
http://www.quietcornerreads.org/

Quiet Corner Reads is a collaboration of libraries throughout northeastern Connecticut working together to encourage literacy, library support, and community development. The 2021 One Read selection is Finding Dorothy, by Elizabeth Letts, who brings to life the story of how the movie “The Wizard of Oz” came to be made.

Essex Public Library: One Book, One Community
https://www.youressexlibrary.org/adult-services/ala-ltc-spring-book-discussions/

Essex Library will host a series of book discussions on titles that examine income inequality, culminating in a Q & A session with James Fallows and Deborah Fallows, the authors of Our Towns: A 100,000 Mile Journey into the Heart of America.