The book they are talking about is The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts by Maxine Hong Kingston—and the reason they are so eager for all of Saratoga to read it is because it is the official selection for the first annual Saratoga Reads event, beginning next week.

"We'd like all of Saratoga to read The Woman Warrior," says Marcia Manzo, president of the Friends of the Saratoga Library.

Saratoga Reads was the brainchild of Leslie Zane, the literary arts director at Villa Montalvo. She had heard about the city of Seattle's "If All Seattle Reads" project in 1998, which focused on a Russell Banks book, being that Zane is a huge fan of Banks. After Montalvo started its Literary Arts series in 2000, Zane began thinking about a Saratoga project and mentioned it to someone on the Saratoga Arts Commission, who introduced her to Dolly Barnes, head librarian at the Saratoga Library.

"Through an initial discussion, Dolly Barnes and I both felt energized about this project, to have the community of Saratoga come together over a book," says Zane. In fact, that sentiment became the official slogan of what they decided to call Saratoga Reads—"One Community, One Book."

After much discussion, the idea began to spread like wildfire, and today, several community organizations are partnering with Montalvo and the Saratoga Library to make Saratoga Reads a reality. These include Building Bridges, the city of Saratoga, the Saratoga Arts Commission, the Saratoga Library Commission, Friends of the Saratoga Library, the Saratoga Chamber of Commerce and the Saratoga­Los Gatos chapter of the American Association of University Women.

Saratoga Reads is designed to encourage reading and discussion throughout the community. The project is being modeled after the annual Silicon Valley Reads. Organizers like Zane and Barnes felt that a more local version would be beneficial to Saratoga residents.

"Though this community is small, it is incredibly diverse, and we felt open discussions about a particular book would be a great way to bring the community together," says Zane.

Throughout October, participating organizations will sponsor discussion groups, lectures, dramatic readings and presentations that focus on Kingston's The Woman Warrior and its themes. These will include talks by professors from De Anza College and a representative from AAUW and the showing of a filmed conversation with Kingston at the library, all of which are free events. The week will culminate in two events with the author herself—one writing workshop, and one talk by Kingston, followed by a reception and booksigning. Both author events will take place at Villa Montalvo, and tickets are now being sold. All Saratoga Reads events will take place between Oct. 13 and 21.

The Friends of the Saratoga Library will also host a booth at the second annual Building Bridges festival on Oct. 10 to spread the word about Saratoga Reads. Building Bridges is put on by the Saratoga Rotary Project, in an effort to understand and celebrate diverse cultures, races and religions. The Friends of the Saratoga Library booth will be joining in the theme "Cinderella Around the World," exploring the hundreds of interpretations of the classic fairy tale in countries around the globe. The group will also host a drawing for one ticket to Kingston's workshop and two pairs of two tickets to the evening event with Kingston at Montalvo later this month.

"I think the whole thrust of diversity in this community is an important issue," says Manzo. "I mean, we're as diverse as any European country, in my opinion." She adds that this is one reason why Kingston's book seemed an excellent selection for Saratoga Reads.

So far, the efforts of the Saratoga Reads committee have not been in vain—the committee says that Saratoga High School has reported that more than 160 students in its junior honors classes are reading The Woman Warrior; a large group of Stanford University students has confirmed attendance at one of the upcoming events with Kingston; and many local book clubs are jumping on board as well.

"We made a big push for local book clubs to make this their October book," says Manzo. Participating clubs include the local LitWits, the Saratoga Library's adult discussion group, AAUW, and Montalvo's reading club. Zane strongly encourages facilitators of book clubs to attend the writing workshop with Kingston.

"I think the afternoon workshop will really be wonderful," she says. "It's mostly exercises, such as, 'How can you judge whether a piece of writing is good?' It's really valuable."

Zane and Katy Rees in public relations at Montalvo say that The Woman Warrior has already spawned lively discussion of important issues facing Chinese-Americans both in the past and today and exploration of literary topics such as what makes a memoir. They say another important reason Kingston's book was chosen was how unprecedented writing like hers was when it debuted back in the 1970s.

"This was the first Asian American memoir out there," says Rees. "Back then, it was the only representation."

"It certainly started a huge outpouring of memoir writing," adds Mary Lou Taylor of the Saratoga Arts Commission, who serves on the Saratoga Reads committee.

Excitement about Saratoga Reads has been mounting, so much so that discussions have already begun for the second annual project in 2005.

"We have already started talking about Saratoga Reads 2005," says Zane. "We're already looking at book selections."

Saratoga Reads Events

Oct. 10, 10:30 a.m.­3:30 p.m.—Friends of the Saratoga Library booth at the Building Bridges free festival at West Valley College, with drawings for tickets to events with Maxine Hong Kingston at Montalvo.

Oct. 13, 7­8:30 p.m. at the Saratoga Library—Karen Chow, Ph.D., from De Anza College, discusses The Woman Warrior.

Oct. 14, noon­2 p.m. at Villa Montalvo—Paul Skenazy, Ph.D., from UC­Santa Cruz, discusses "How the Past is Created Through Memoirs."

Oct. 19, 7­9 p.m. at the Saratoga Library—Linda Hagelin from AAUW discusses The Woman Warrior.

Oct. 20, 8­9:30 a.m. at Saratoga High School—Marilyn Patton, Ph.D., from De Anza College, discusses the last chapter of The Woman Warrior, "Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe."

Oct. 20, 7­9 p.m. at the Saratoga Library—Friends of the Saratoga Library presents "A Filmed Conversation with Maxine Hong Kingston," facilitated by John Swensson, Ph.D., from De Anza College.

Oct. 21, 3­4:30 p.m. at Villa Montalvo—Writing workshop with Maxine Hong Kingston. Explores and defines good fiction, nonfiction and poetry. Tickets, $40.

Oct. 21, 7:30 p.m. at Villa Montalvo's Carriage House Theater—Evening event with Maxine Hong Kingston including a reception and booksigning. Tickets, $20, or $10 for students.

For more information or to purchase tickets to events with Maxine Hong Kingston, call Villa Montalvo at 408.961.5800 or visit www.villamontalvo.org. To suggest books for Saratoga Reads 2005, email Leslie Zane at lzane@villamontalvo.org.