Bellevue University Employee Book Forum Special Event

 Author Visit and Book Signing, in conjunction with the

        Celebration of Student Writing, Tuesday, May 14, 2013

 

The One Book One University Committee and Bellevue University’s Writing Center are excited to offer a special community building program to Bellevue University’s faculty and staff. 

 Come join One Book One University to read, discuss, and meet the author of

 “I AM A MAN” Chief Standing Bear’s Journey for Justice by Joe Starita followed by dinner during the Celebration of Student Writing.     

 

In 1877, Chief Standing Bear’s Ponca Indian tribe was forcibly removed from their Nebraska homeland and marched to what was then known as Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), in what became the tribe’s own Trail of Tears. “I Am a Man” chronicles what happened when Standing Bear set off on a six-hundred-mile walk to return the body of his only son to their traditional burial ground. Along the way, it examines the complex relationship between the United States government and the small, peaceful tribe and the legal consequences of land swaps and broken treaties, while never losing sight of the heartbreaking journey the Ponca endured. It is a story of survival---of a people left for dead who arose from the ashes of injustice, disease, neglect, starvation, humiliation, and termination.

Book Discussion and Book Signing is Tuesday, May 14, 2013 from 4:00 – 5:30 p.m. in the Library (Classroom 460).  Mr. Starita will be joining us around 5:00 p.m. for discussion, to answer any questions, and to sign copies of our books.

 All participants in the forum are invited to join us for the Celebration of Student Writing and Research at 6 p.m.  There will be a dinner and awards presentation in the Multi-purpose room of the ASB, followed by the keynote address by Joe Starita.

To participate, please give $5.00 (cash) to Lorraine Patrick in the Library on or before May 1, 2013.  The cost includes your own personal copy of the book and tasty refreshments. 

2012 Winter Book Forum - "The Glass Castle"

Looking for a good book to read over the holidays? 
One Book, One BU is reading  "The Glass Castle" right now, in preparation for our February 26 book forum discussion.

 The Glass Castle is a remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption, and a revelatory look into a family at once deeply dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant. When sober, Jeannette's brilliant and charismatic father captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive. Her mother was a free spirit who abhorred the idea of domesticity and didn't want the responsibility of raising a family.

The Walls children learned to take care of themselves. They fed, clothed, and protected one another, and eventually found their way to New York. Their parents followed them, choosing to be homeless even as their children prospered.

The Glass Castle is truly astonishing -- a memoir permeated by the intense love of a peculiar, but loyal, family. Jeannette Walls has a story to tell, and tells it brilliantly, without an ounce of self-pity.

 

Five dollars (cash) will not only buy you a copy of the book, but also provides snacks on the day of the book forum.  Contact Lorraine Patrick in the Library at Lorraine.Patrick@bellevue.edu or 402-557-7316.  This community event is a great chance to kick back and have fun with other staff and faculty members… we hope to see you there!

                         
And remember to visit the Blog by going to http://onebookoneuniversity.blogspot.com

Fall Book Forum - "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn"

One Book One University hosts the Fall Book Forum on October 4th from 3:00-4:30 PM in the Library Classroom (Room 460).

We will be discussing A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith.  This classic work of literature touches on timeless topics like family ties, loss, and poverty.  Ms. Smith paints a picture of life in turn-of-the century Brooklyn for a poor family.  She introduces us to Francie Nolan, and her family, her mother and father Katie and Johnny, and her brother Neelie as they struggle through what being poor means to them.  They are always thinking about where the money to purchase their next load of coal will come from, or how will they pay the rent, will they have money for food or medicine, basically the necessities needed to raise a family.  Yet this family is not hopeless and although they live in poverty they still have hope and dreams.  Francine and Neelie always put half of the money they earn from their scavenging into the family's tin can where they are saving to purchase land.  

Ms. Smith also takes us back to the very beginning of Johnny and Katie's relationship and we see the progression of their lives as newlyweds to the births of their children and the stress that financial hardship brings upon the family.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a story of growing up and innocence, life and love, caring and the way things go.  Although you may not have a lot of money, you can do one thing that is free, and that is to love.  We learn about sacrifice and the complexity of the human heart.  This book is not only personal and emotional, it is also a reflection on a part of society that shows the life stories and hardships people were forced to endure and how they could change their lives.   

To participate, please give $5 (no checks please) to Lorraine Patrick, in the Library, on or before September 28th.  The cost includes your own personal copy of the book and tasty refreshments.
 

Winter Book Forum

The One Book One University Committee is excited to present The Help by Kathryn Stockett to the faculty and staff of Bellevue University for the February book forum.

lCome join One Book One University on Tuesday, February 23, 2012 to read and discuss The Help by Kathryn Stockett. This is a noval about the relationship between maids and their wealthy employers in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960s.

Joshily Jackson, Best selling author of Gods in Alabama, states, "Set in the rural South of the 1960s, The Help is a startling, resonant portrait of the intertwined lives of women on opposite sides of the racial divide. Stockett's many gifts - a keen eye for character, a wicked sense of humor, the perfect timing of a natural born storyteller -- shine as she evokes a time and place when black women were expected to help raise white babies, and yet could not sue the same bathroom as their employers. Her characters, both white and black, are so fully fleshed they practically breathe - no stock willains or pious heroines here. I'm becoming an evagelist for The Help. Don't miss this wise and astonishing debut."

To participate, give $5.00 (no checks please) to Lorraine Partick, in the Library, on or before February 10, 2012.

Book discussion is on Thursday, February 23, 2012 from 3:00 - 4:30 PM in the Library (Classroom 460).

Fall Book Forum - Room

Come join One Book One University on Tuesday, October 18th to discuss Room by Irish novelist Emma Donoghue.

To five-year old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it's where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.

Room is home to Jack, but to Ma it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a live for Jack. But she knows it's not enough...nor for her or for him. She devises a bold escape plan, one that relies on her young son's bravery and a lot of luck. What she does not realize is just how unprepared she is for the plan to actually work.

Told entirely in the language of the energetic, pragmatic five-year old Jack, Room is a celebration of resilience and the limitless bond between parent and child, a brilliantly executed novel about what it means to journey from one world to another.

To participate, give $5.00 (no checks) to Lorraine Patrick in the Library on or before October 10, 2011. The cost includes our own personal copy of the book and tasty refreshments.

Book discussion is on Tuesday, October 18, 2011 from 3:00 - 4:30 PM in the Library (Classroom 460).

Summer Book Forum

The One Book One University Committee is excited to present the first book forum for the 2011-2012 academic year to University faculty and staff.

Come join One Book One University to read and discuss Kindred by Octavia E. Butler.

Dana, a modern black woman, is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly form her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned to save him. Dana is drawn back repeatedly through time to the slave quarters, and each time the stays grow longer, more arduous, and more dangerous until it is uncertain whether or not Dana’s life will end, long before it has a chance to begin.

To participate, please give $5 (no checks please) to Lorraine Patrick in the Library on or before July 20. The cost includes your own personal copy of the book and tasty refreshments.

Book Discussion is on Thursday, July 28 from 3 – 4:30 p.m. in the Library (Classroom 460).

Special Event – Author Visit and Book Signing

The One Book One BU Committee, along with the partnering of The Writing Center, are excited to offer a special community building program to the Bellevue University faculty and staff.

Come join One Book One BU to read and discuss The River Wife by Jonis Agee.

This fast paced historical fiction novel deftly interweaves the history, lifestyle, and mysticism of five generations of women who experience love, heartbreak, passion, and deceit. Dr. Agee will also be on campus to visit and sign books immediately following so don’t wait – sign up today!

To participate, please give $5.00 (no checks please) to Lorraine Patrick in the Library on or before May 1, 2011. The cost includes your own personal copy of the book and tasty refreshments.

Book Discussion and Book Signing is on Tuesday May 17, 2011 from 3:00 – 4:30 PM in the Humanities Training Room (Room 202) Author Visit and Book Signing Immediately Follows.

On behalf of the Writing Center, All One Book One BU participants are cordially invited to attend an awards dinner and presentation to celebrate and honor Student Writing from 6-8 PM in the Student Center. If you would like to attend this complimentary special event, please RSVP to Lorraine Patrick by Tuesday May 10, 2011.