This year’s One Book One New Paltz (OBONP) experience will launch this Sunday, Oct. 2 from 4 to 5:30 p.m. at the atrium on the SUNY New Paltz campus, with dramatic readings by the Mohonk Mountain Stage Company from War Dances by Sherman Alexie.
For this seventh year of its program, OBONP is coordinating with the SUNY New Paltz Common Summer Read (CSR) initiative, which centers activities for first-year students on the same book. Many of these activities also are open to the community. Films, poetry readings, literary and academic panels and many community book discussion groups are scheduled throughout the month of October. Don’t miss these exciting opportunities to share reading and conversation with your neighbors.
War Dances is a collection of short stories and poems written by the prominent Native-American writer, Sherman Alexie, winner of the 2010 PEN Faulkner Award. The book is both personal and universal, as the author tells poignant, yet entertaining stories that are packed with unanswered questions of responsibility, guilt, remorse and injustice. These intriguing questions promise lively and enlightening discussions.
War Dances provides the reader with insight into experiences faced by contemporary American Indians as they participate in the larger society. In the companion book, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Alexie turns his fierce observations and sharp sense of humor on the coming-of-age story of an adolescent living on a Spokane reservation.
OBONP/CSR invites you to read both books and take advantage of the opportunities to share your thoughts and learn those of your neighbors during the month of October. Borrow the book from your local library or purchase it at a bookstore on campus or in the community. Visit www.onebookonenewpaltz.org for the full schedule.
Judy Reichler
on behalf of the 2011 One Book One New Paltz/Common Summer Read Committee
Join the family! 
