What is One Maryland One Book?
When we read a great book, we can’t wait to share the experience and talk about it with others. That’s one of the joys of reading!
In that spirit, Maryland Humanities created One Maryland One Book (OMOB) to bring together diverse people in communities across the state through the shared experience of reading the same book. We invite you to participate in book-centered discussions and related programs at public libraries, high schools, colleges, museums, bookstores, and community and senior centers around the state.
OMOB programs, including an author tour, take place each year in the fall. This year’s author tour will be a virtual event held on Monday, October 4, 2021. Registration is required and will open after Labor Day. Be sure to check back for more information, and keep scrolling to find out more about this year’s book selection and the book discussions being held at CCPL.
The 2021 One Maryland One Book: The Book of Delights: Essays by Ross Gay.
Find a free copy of the The Book of Delights:
- Pick up a free copy (or copies) at any CCPL branch starting September 1. *While supplies last
- Check out or place a hold from our catalog.
- Download the free e-book from Maryland Humanities.
Readers Guide (PDF) Teachers Guide (PDF)
In The Book of Delights, one of today’s most literary voices offers up a genre-defying volume of lyric essays written over one tumultuous year. The first nonfiction book from award-winning poet Ross Gay is a record of the small joys we often overlook in our busy lives. Among Gay’s funny, poetic, philosophical delights: a friend’s unabashed use of air quotes, cradling a tomato seedling aboard an airplane, the silent nod of acknowledgement between the only two black people in a room. But Gay never dismisses the complexities, even the terrors, of living in America as a black man or the ecological and psychic violence of our consumer culture or the loss of those he loves. More than any other subject, though, Gay celebrates the beauty of the natural world—his garden, the flowers peeking out of the sidewalk, the hypnotic movements of a praying mantis.
The Book of Delights is about our shared bonds, and the rewards that come from a life closely observed. These remarkable pieces serve as a powerful and necessary reminder that we can, and should, stake out a space in our lives for delight.
CCPL One Maryland One Book Programs:
CCPL Composting Workshop 9/25 at 11 AM @ P.D. Brown *Registration opens on August 25 and is required to receive a free GEOBIN.
One Maryland One Book: Book Club Bundles Host your own One Maryland One Book: Book Club! All materials provided by CCPL during the month of September. See event listing for details. while supplies last.
Virtual Programs (Registration is required)
Saturday Book Discussion 9/25 at 10 AM
Clark Center Book Discussion 10/7 at 1 PM
La Plata Book Discussion 10/14 at 7 PM