Door County Reads 2015

Once again, many of our local residents will gather together to read, discuss and celebrate the same book. Ordinary Grace, by William Kent Krueger, is one of those very rare books that readers wish would never end. It is a memorable experience to read it for the first time, and a book that can be read again with increased insight.

William Kent Krueger is an American author and crime writer who lives in St. Paul, Minnesota and is best known for the 13 novels of his Cork O’Connor series of books, beginning in 1998 with award-winning Iron Lake and ending with Tamarack County in 2013.

Ordinary Grace is a recently published, standalone novel, but don’t take the title too literally, for Krueger has produced something that is anything but ordinary. It has won numerous awards, among them a 2014 Edgar award for Best Novel and the 2014 Dilys Award (independent mysteries). It is a New York Times best seller.

The publisher describes the story this way: “Frank begins the season preoccupied with the concerns of any teenage boy, but when tragedy unexpectedly strikes his family—which includes his Methodist minister father; his passionate, artistic mother; Juilliard-bound older sister; and wise-beyond-his-years kid brother—he finds himself thrust into an adult world full of secrets, lies, adultery and betrayal, suddenly called upon to demonstrate a maturity and gumption beyond his years.

“Told from Frank’s perspective 40 years after that fateful 1961 summer, Ordinary Grace is a brilliantly moving account of a boy standing at the door of his young manhood, trying to understand a world that seems to be falling apart around him. It is an unforgettable novel about discovering the terrible price of wisdom and the enduring grace of God.”

Courtesy of the Friends of Door County Libraries, there will be 500 copies of the book distributed via branches of the Door County Library beginning Monday, Dec. 29. Large print, regular print and CD-audio versions of the book are also available via the library’s online catalog, InfoSoup.org. Free audio copies are immediately available for download from OneClick Digital (InfoSoup.OneClickDigital.com) for those who would like to listen to the book on a computer or digital device.

Mark your calendars: On the evening of Thursday, Feb. 5, the author, William Kent Krueger will be in Door County to speak to us. A reception will follow the program. Additional events, programs, book discussions and films will take place between Jan. 26 and Feb. 14.

Program information and useful links can be found in the listings below as well as online at DoorCountyReads.org All events are sponsored by the Door County Library Foundation and so are at no cost to the public.