By LISA BRITTON

Baker City Herald

Baker County will become a huge book club in the coming months for The Big Read, a community-wide event that encourages everyone to read the same book and participate in discussions and celebrations related to the book’s theme.

andquot;The goal of The Big Read is to get people talking about literature with the same casualness, enthusiasm, and critical perspective that they talk about weather conditions, news events, or popular TV shows and movies,andquot; said Librarian Perry Stokes.

Baker County’s featured book is andquot;The Joy Luck Clubandquot; by Amy Tan. This novel, published in 1989, was originally written as a collection of short stories about four Chinese immigrant mothers and their American-born daughters.

andquot;It’s really compelling right from page one,andquot; Stokes said.

The Big Read is sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), and was established in 2006 in response to a survey that found literary reading in America is on the decline, especially among the younger generation.

Ten communities participated in the pilot program. This year, the NEA awarded 127 grants for Big Read events planned for January through June.

One of those grants went to Libraries of Eastern Oregon, a nonprofit association formed to support programming in rural libraries in 14 counties.

Eight LEO libraries are participating in The Big Read: Baker, La Grande, Hermiston, Milton-Freewater, Condon, Fossil, Lakeview and Heppner.

Each community chooses one of the 16 Big Read books, which were selected by a andquot;readers circleandquot; of writers, scholars, librarians, artists and educators, said Paulette Beete, communications specialist for the NEA. New books are added to the list every year.

The NEA provides each Big Read communiy with staff training, reader’s guides, audio guides, and teacher’s guides.

andquot;We have three times as many readers guides as books,andquot; Stokes said. andquot;Hopefully people will read the book and pass it on.andquot;

Additional copies of andquot;The Joy Luck Clubandquot; will also be added to the library’s collection.

andquot;I hope to rally everyone in Baker County to read this book and make a statement that reading is valued in our community,andquot; Stokes said. andquot;If you haven’t read a book for fun in years, read this book with us. If you have already read the book, read it with us again. And if you didn’t like the book, you’re especially invited to come tell others why at a book discussion event.andquot;

The library will also hand out buttons printed with andquot;What page are you on?andquot;

andquot;So they can identify other Big Readers,andquot; Stokes said.

Here is a list of the events so far, and these will be updated periodically on the library’s Web site, bakerlib.org.

— Monday, April 7: Cultural Understanding/Lewis andamp; Clark presentation by the Oregon National Guard, 6:30 p.m. at the Haines Library, 818 Cole St.

— Tuesday, April 8: Cultural Understanding/Lewis andamp; Clark presentation by the Oregon National Guard, 6:30 p.m. at the Halfway Library, 260 Gover Lane.

— Thursday, April 10: World War II presentation by the Oregon National Guard, 6:30 p.m. at the Baker County Public Library, 2400 Resort St.

— Saturday, May 3: Greg Nokes will speak about the 1887 Chinese massacre in Hell’s Canyon, 6 p.m. at the Baker County Public Library.

— Saturday, May 10: Christina Sweet, curator of the Kam Wah Chung andamp; Co. Museum in John Day will present a program about Oregon’s Chinese history while sharing artifacts from the museum’s collection, 6 p.m. at the Oregon Trail Regional Museum, 2475 Grove St.

— Monday, May 19: World War II presentation by the Oregon National Guard, 6:30 p.m. at the Huntington Library, 55 E Jefferson in City Park.

Other possible programs include Chinese cooking, genealogy, and a screening of the 1993 film based on the book.

Stokes does, of course, encourage reading the book before watching the movie.

andquot;Movies are condensed versions,andquot; he said. andquot;(The book) gives you a move in depth understanding of what’s going on on the screen.andquot;

To learn more about The Big Read, call Stokes at 523-6419, or LEO executive director Lyn Craig at 541-763-2355.

Information is also availabe online at www.neabigread.org.