The Waldo Reads Together (WRT) committee announces this year’s featured title for its One Book, One Community program: The Heaven & Earth Grocery Story by award-winning author, screen writer and jazz musician, James McBride.

At its August 2023 publication, this book became an instant New York Times bestseller and has since been name Best Book of the Year by NPR/Fresh Air, Washington Post, The New Yorker and Time Magazine. Many know McBride’s work for his previous best-sellers, Deacon King Kong, the National Book Award-winning Good Lord Bird and his memoir, now considered an American classic, The Color of Water.

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store invites the reader to glimpse the bustle and diversity of the Golden Age of Pottsville, Pennsylvania, in the early 1900s. Inhabited by colorful and diverse characters, this novel provides new insights into the settlement and development of America’s cities, towns and neighborhoods. In this neighborhood of Chicken Hill, a mix of Jewish and Black neighbors come together into a mishmash of opportunity and marginalism.

“MacBride veers with irreverence and humor among the realities of immigration, discrimination, entrepreneurship, culture, and capitalism, while his wry observations burst with the color and vibrance of the American experience,” said Waldo Reads Together, in a news release. “Described by the New York Times as ‘a murder mystery, a love story, and a tale of redemption’ and by the Washington Post as a ‘vibrant, love-affirming novel that bounds over any difference that claims to separate us,’ this fifth novel of McBride promises to stir hearts and minds of all readers.”

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store was selected after lengthy review by the WRT committee comprised of community volunteers and led by Literacy Volunteers of Waldo County. The selection process included a review of five additional titles including This Other Eden by Paul Harding and Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward.

“This book offers hope and humor without skirting the deeper issues of our time” said committee member Denise Pendleton. “And we feel this book will meet the expressed priorities of our participants for books that provide insight into social justice issues, along with rich discussion and community connection.”

 A variety of facilitated discussion sessions (both live and via Zoom) will be offered in April. Registration will be available by March 11. Books are available at Left Bank Books at a 15% discount and free books will be made available to those for whom the cost of book purchase creates a barrier to participation.

“One Book, One Community,” created by the American Library Association, is a book discussion program that offers a community-wide read of one designated book over the same period of time with discussions and related activities about the book’s themes. Waldo Reads Together is a local version of this program, offered in 2021 for the first time through the initiative of Aging Well in Waldo County and partner organizations to help alleviate some social isolation and connect community members.

FMI contact Literacy Volunteers at www.waldoreads.org or dpendleton@rsu71.org