Little Bee by Chris Cleave

Suggestions for the 2011 selection have been solicited
from the public and are now being considered.
An announcement on the 9th annual selection
will be announced in September.


The 8th annual Santa Monica Citywide Reads community reading program took place February 12 to March 13, 2010, and Chris Cleave's Little Bee was the featured selection.
Free public book discussion groups were held throughout the city, as well as a presentation by author Chris Cleave and astaged reading of excerpts from Little Bee on February 20th, and other special events. If you missed out on our program this year, we still encourage you to read Little Bee, which
is available at all Santa Monica Public Library locations,
and we invite you to join us in 2011.

Click here for our Little Bee resource guide (PDF),
featuring information on the book, the author, a schedule
of events and much more

www.santamonicacitywidereads.blogspot.com
 

The second novel by emerging literary talent Chris Cleave,
Little Bee is the story of two women -- Little Bee, a 16-year-old Nigerian refugee, and Sarah, a thirtysomething London journalist -- and the shocking way in which their lives intersect. Their fateful meeting, two years prior to the novel’s start, impacts both of their lives in profound ways and sets off a gripping story of redemption and human connection. Deftly weaving personal themes of survival and sacrifice with broader and more combustible topics of immigration and asylum, Little Bee is both riveting and accessibly humane.
The New York Times calls the book “immensely readable and
moving…an affecting story of human triumph,” and The Chicago Sun-Times raves “Little Bee is a loud shout of talent.” Little Bee was shortlisted in 2008 for the Costa Book Award for Best Novel and in 2009 for Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book..   

FAQs

What is Santa Monica Citywide Reads?
Santa Monica Citywide Reads is a community reading program that invites residents and visitors to read the same book and then come together to talk about it.

How was the 2010 featured title selected?
For eight years, an Advisory Committee, comprised of Librarians, Friends of the Library, city commissioners, and educators has met to select the book and to plan the program.  During June 2009, the Committee solicited suggestions from the public through flyers, a website with an online form, and at library and community events.

Citywide Reads' Featured Novels and Resource Guides (PDF)

2003-  Dai Sijie's Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
2004 - Christopher Isherwood's The Berlin Stories
2005 - Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner
2006- Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
2007- Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife
2008- Jim Lynch's The Highest Tide
2009- Marianne Wiggins' The Shadow Catcher
2010- Chris Cleave's Little Bee