HEY, LET’S ALL READ THIS BOOK TOGETHER!

What if the entire neighborhood was reading the same really great book? You could chat with people in line at the bakery! You could have an awkward conversation about the book in the gym locker room! You could become a better person!

Upper West Side libraries, Book Culture and social service organization Goddard Riverside are launching a “community read” series centered around James Baldwin’s classic 1953 novel Go Tell It on the Mountain. There will be readings and discussions. The group also hopes to explore the new collection The Fire This Time – a book written in response to Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time.

The libraries plan to stock extra copies of the book and they can be purchased for $6 by stopping by Goddard’s Bernie Wohl Center at 647 Columbus Avenue (91st-92nd). So go take the book out from the library, or buy it, or download it on one of your devices. Now!

Goddard was also part of a similar project two years ago, reading The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears, which was written by Upper West Side resident Dinaw Mengestu.

“A lot of local community members have been asking ‘What’s the next book?’” said Goddard Arts Director Susan Macaluso.

The series will launch on January 28 at the Goddard Riverside Bernie Wohl Center, 647 Columbus Ave. (at 91^st). Discussion groups are as follows, with more events expected to be added soon: