The Big Read in Middletown (October 28 - November 21, 2013)

We're reading Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried all over Middletown!

(learn more by watching Eight Minutes in Middletown with Anita Carroll and John Burke)

Get your free copy of The Things They Carried today!

(at the Gardner-Harvey Library and the MidPointe Library Middletown)

Find detailed descriptions of The Big Read events!

(see our calendar of events or print out a calendar)

Save your seat for those events!

(use our Save Me a Seat for the Big Read form)

Get free guides to the book!

(access a reader's guide, a teacher's guide, and an audio introduction to the book online - we also have free copies at the library)

Share What YOU Carried!

(let us take a picture of something carried by a service member for our display)

 

 

 

Learn more about The Big Read in Middletown

Miami University Middletown’s Gardner-Harvey Library has received a grant to host The Big Read in Middletown. The Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts, designed to revitalize the role of literature in American culture and to encourage citizens to read for pleasure and enlightenment. The Big Read is managed by Arts Midwest. Miami Middletown is one of 77 nonprofit organizations to receive a grant to host a Big Read project between September 2013 and June 2014.

The Big Read in Middletown will focus on The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien. According to the Big Read website, “Tracing the tour of one American platoon this book is not just a tale of the Vietnam War, although it's considered one of the finest books ever about combat. This award-winning book is a brutal, sometimes funny, often profound narrative about the human heart—how it fares under pressure, and what it can endure.”

While being led by Miami Middletown, the project is a joint effort among many community partners in Middletown, including Middletown High School, MidPointe Library System, the Robert “Sonny” Hill Community Center, Middletown Area Senior Center, Cincinnati State Technical and Community College Middletown Campus, and the Middletown City Council. Programming will include book discussions, with free copies of the book provided to participants, as well as special events.