Celebrating 5th annual St Johns Reads program

Debra Rhodes Gibson reported to the St. Johns County local news desk that the Public Library System is inviting Historic City News readers to join together in celebrating the 5th annual “St. Johns Reads” program this month with the novel March; a Pulitzer-Prize winning novel by Geraldine Brooks.

St. Johns Reads brings together the entire community in a county-wide book club with related programming at all branch libraries.

A Publisher’s Weekly review describes March:

“Brooks’ luminous second novel, after 2001’s acclaimed Year of Wonders, imagines the Civil War experiences of Mr. March, the absent father in Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. An idealistic Concord cleric, March becomes a Union chaplain and later finds him assigned to be a teacher on a cotton plantation that employs freed slaves, or “contraband.” His narrative begins with cheerful letters home, but March gradually reveals to the reader what he does not to his family: the cruelty and racism of Northern and Southern soldiers, the violence and suffering he is powerless to prevent and his reunion with Grace, a beautiful, educated slave whom he met years earlier as a Connecticut peddler to the plantations.”

St. Johns Reads activities include films, book discussions, Civil War reenactments and more. Full schedule below:

Harriet Tubman Living History:
• Ponte Vedra Beach Branch – Thursday, Feb 11th, 4:00 P.M.
• Hastings Branch – Saturday, Feb 13th, 11:00 A.M.
• Southeast Branch – Saturday, Feb 13th, 2:00 P.M.
Dessert & Discussion:
• Main Library – Monday, Feb 8th, 2:00 P.M.
• Anastasia Island Branch – Thursday, Feb 11th, 7:00 P.M.
• Southeast Branch – Saturday, Feb 20th, 2:00 P.M.
• Ponte Vedra Beach Branch – Monday, Feb 22nd, 10:30 A.M.
• Southeast Branch – Thursday, Feb 25th, 6:45 P.M.
• Bartram Trail Branch – Thursday, Feb 25th, 7:00 P.M.
St. Augustine During the Civil War:
• Anastasia Island Branch – Saturday, Feb 13th, 2:00 P.M.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Seminar:
• Main Library – Monday, Feb 1st, 2:00 P.M.
• Ponte Vedra Beach Branch – Tuesday, Feb 16th, 6:30 P.M.
• Bartram Trail Branch – Saturday, Feb 20th, 2:00 P.M.
• Southeast Branch – Saturday, Feb 27th, 11:00 A.M.
• Hastings Branch – Saturday, Feb 27th, 2:00 P.M.
Movie Night “Glory”:
• Main Library – Monday, Feb 1st, 6:00 P.M.
• Hastings Branch – Thursday, Feb 18th, 5:30 P.M.
Movie Night “Little Women”:
• Anastasia Island Branch – Thursday, Feb 11th, 5:30 P.M.
• Southeast Branch – Thursday, Feb 18th, 6:00 P.M.
• Bartram Trail Branch – Monday, Feb 22nd, 6:00 P.M.
• Main Library – Monday, Feb 22nd, 6:00 P.M.
Ken Burns’ Civil War Film Festival:
• Anastasia Island Branch – Nine-part series, Feb 2nd – 27th, call 209-3730 for dates and times
75th Ohio Volunteer Infantry Re-enactors:
• Bartram Trail Branch – Saturday, Feb 20th, 1:00 P.M.
• Southeast Branch – Saturday, Feb 27th, 2:00 P.M.
• Ponte Vedra Beach Branch – Saturday, Mar 6th, 2:00 P.M.
Re-enactor: A Union Soldier Tells His Story:
• Anastasia Island Branch – Saturday, Feb 27th, 2:00 P.M.

St. Johns Reads is sponsored by a partnership with all seven Friends of the Library groups. For more information contact Library Administration at (904) 827-6925