Last year, Saratoga initiated the first ever Saratoga Reads project, with the aim of getting the entire city to read the same book, at the same time, and talk about it. The project was initially dreamed up by Leslie Zane, director of literary arts at Montalvo, after she heard about the "If All Seattle Reads Project" and its efforts to get the entire city to read a Russell Banks book in 1998. When she came to Montalvo in 2000, she began thinking about a similar project in Saratoga, and brought up the idea with Dolly Barnes, head librarian of the Saratoga Library.

"Through an initial discussion, Dolly Barnes and I both felt energized about this project, to have the entire community come together over a book," Zane says.

Saratoga Reads was born, and the idea was echoed in the project's official slogan--"One Community, One Book."

In addition to encouraging everyone in Saratoga to read the official selection, several events are planned around the book, such as presentations and question-and-answer sessions with the author, and discussions about the book's major themes and issues with local experts, clubs and organizations.

Last year's selection for the first Saratoga Reads was the decades-old The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of A Girlhood Among Ghosts by Chinese-American immigrant Maxine Hong Kingston.

This year, the selection committee decided to go with something a little different--Friday Night Lights by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Buzz Bissinger. Zane says there were many factors behind this year's choice.

"We wanted something that the kids--and boys--in school could relate to more. So we had general criteria. First, the author had to be living so he or she could appear here. Also, this year we wanted the author to be a male, and American. For the book, we wanted it to be something current, so it would have more of a relevancy for students today, and we wanted it to be something very different from last year," Zane says. "The committee met and we thought up books. We met with Karen van Putten, who teaches honors English at Saratoga High, and she noticed Friday Night Lights [on the list] and had read the book and thought it would be perfect for her students."

Friday Night Lights focuses on the football team at Permian High School in Odessa, Texas, in 1988, and how a small town obsessed with its high school team is affected by how it performs.

Zane thinks she understands why van Putten thought the book would be a wise choice for the school's junior class, all 325 of whom are required to read the book. Zane says one of the biggest competitions for Saratoga High students is academics, whereas the book is all about athletics.

"She wanted them to be aware of competition in all its forms. I think she was hoping to open the world up to them a little more, and thought this book would be a great way to do that," Zane says.

For parents and adults in town, Zane says the book brings up an important issue for them as well--how to tell if children are being pressured too much.

For more information, visit www.montalvoarts.org/literaryarts.html.

Saratoga Reads events

Oct. 5--"Are Our Kids Bring Pressured Too Much?", Community Room, Saratoga Library, 9 a.m. Panel discussion with San José State University's Greg Payne, P.E.D. and Bill Johnson, Ph.D., and Saratoga High School Assistant Principal Karen Hyde. Free, open to the public. Presented by Friends of the Saratoga Library.

Oct. 11--Saratoga Library Book Club, Community Room, Saratoga Library, 7:30 p.m. Discussion led by Dr. Paul Skenazy, professor of American literature at UC-Santa Cruz. Free, open to the public.

Oct. 13--Montalvo Book Club, Solarium, Villa Montalvo, noon. Discussion led by Dr. Paul Skenazy, professor of American literature at UC-Santa Cruz. Free, open to the public, reservations required. Call 408.961.5857.

Oct. 18--American Association of University Women Book Club, Community Room, Saratoga Library, 7:15 p.m. General discussion of Friday Night Lights, led by members. Free, open to the public.

Oct. 21--Buzz Bissinger, Library, Saratoga High School, 9 a.m. Friday Night Lights author will lead an informal discussion with students. Real-life character and Odessa, Texas football star Boobie Miles will be present and engage the students in a question-and-answer session. Saratoga High students only.