The final reading and reflection for “The Mistress of Spices,” the selected reading book for San Mateo County’s “One Book, One Community” program took place in Skyline’s library on Oct. 14.
This year the library received a grant from the Skyline President’s Innovation Fund to sponsor three events in collaboration with the “One Book, One Community” initiative. The library held several events this year that included a lecture by Professor Lori Slicton on “The Anthropology of Cooking: Food and Memory” on Oct. 7, a performance by the Duniya Dance and Drum Company on Oct. 8, and the book reading of “The Mistress of Spices.”
The purpose of the three events was not only to encourage students to read “The Mistress of Spices” but to enrich understanding of the book for students that had already read it.
“Each year the Peninsula Library System chooses one book and tries to get as many people to read it as possible throughout San Mateo County,” said Thomas Hewitt, director of library services. “This year they chose ‘The Mistress of Spices.'”
Library Support Specialist Barbara Daley and Hewitt both helped to coordinate the book events on campus this year.
In reflecting on the three events, the cooking lecture “introduced students to a global perspective on the importance of food in culture and society,” said Daley. The second event “treated us to a taste of traditional folk music and dance from the Punjab region of India.” After the discussion and third event, “Several folks said they were interested in reading the book and a couple of others suggested we start up a regular book club.”Reflecting on this year’s events, Hewitt said “I think the event went really well. Not many people read the book but I think they enjoyed hearing the discussion. In the future, I would hope for a larger turnout and for more people to have read the book.”
Hewitt also said that he hoped the scheduling might be better coordinated next year to make the event accessible to more students.
Daley was happy with the results of the literary event and considered the program an overall success. “I really believe we accomplished our goals of promoting literacy and strengthening our campus community by creating a meaningful dialogue about books and reading,” said Daley.
