When it comes to selecting a book that the whole city will read simultaneously, the One Book One Community selection team at the East Baton Rouge Parish Library can get pretty picky.
“We wanted it to be interesting and engaging. We wanted a book that had multiple formats and accessibility. We didn’t want it to be too long,” says Mary Stein, assistant library director. “This isn’t ‘One Book One Community’ for academic people. This is for people in Baton Rouge who maybe haven’t read a book since high school.”
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The book that checked all those boxes for 2018? Margot Lee Shetterly’s Hidden Figures, which chronicles the true story of African-American female mathematicians working at NASA during the Space Race.
This Saturday, Feb. 24, will be a launch party at the Main Library at Goodwood, featuring Dr. Tamiara Wade, former learning expert at NASA Stennis Space Center, and 16-year-old aspiring astronaut Alyssa Carson. The event will feature games, music, food and stargazing. Free book copies of Hidden Figures will be available.
Find out more at readonebook.org, and check out our full story about this year’s selection from the February issue of 225.