St. Johns County Public Library System Announces St. Johns Reads 2024

• 2 January 2024
• Category: Public Library System
• Tags: 2024

The St. Johns County Public Library System (SJCPLS) is inviting the public to participate in the 20th annual “One Book, One Community” reading celebration, St. Johns Reads, beginning today, Jan. 2. An event focused on creating a shared conversation on a selected novel, SJCPLS will host various programs on “The Reading List” by Sara Nisha Adams.

In addition to book discussions, food and craft programs, and movie nights throughout January 2024, author Sara Nisha Adams will visit each of the six library branches across St. Johns County to discuss her novel.

The schedule for these programs is as follows:

• 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 30, at the Ponte Vedra Beach Branch Library, 101 Library Blvd., Ponte Vedra Beach (Registration is required)
• 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 31, at the Anastasia Island Branch Library, 124 Seagrove Main St., St. Augustine Beach
• 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 31, at the Waterworks next to the Main Branch Library, 184 San Marco Ave., St. Augustine (Registration is required)
• 11 a.m. on Thursday, Feb. 1, at the Bartram Trail Branch Library, 60 Davis Pond Blvd., Fruit Cove
• 10:30 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 2, at the Hastings Branch Library, 6195 S. Main St., Hastings
• 2 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 2, at the Southeast Branch Library, 6670 U.S. 1 South, St. Augustine

“The Reading List” is available for checkout in various formats, including print, digital audiobook, and e-book. For more information about this year’s event, please email sjcpls@tblc.libanswers.com, or call your local branch library.

About the novel:

“An unforgettable and heartwarming debut about how a chance encounter with a list of library books helps forge an unlikely friendship between two very different people in a London suburb. Widower Mukesh lives a quiet life in Wembley, West London, after losing his beloved wife. He shops every Wednesday, goes to Temple, and worries about his granddaughter, Priya, who hides in her room reading while he spends his evenings watching nature documentaries. Aleisha is a bright but anxious teenager working at the local library for the summer when she discovers a crumpled-up piece of paper in the back of To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s a list of novels that she’s never heard of before. Intrigued and a little bored with her slow job at the checkout desk, she impulsively decides to read every book on the list, one after the other. As each story gives up its magic, the books transport Aleisha from the painful realities she’s facing at home. When Mukesh arrives at the library, desperate to forge a connection with his bookworm granddaughter, Aleisha passes along the reading list, hoping that it will be a lifeline for him too. Slowly, the shared books create a connection between two lonely souls, as fiction helps them escape their grief and everyday troubles and find joy again.”

Funding for this program was provided through a grant from Florida Humanities with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of Florida Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities. St. Johns Reads is also generously sponsored by the SJCPLS Friends of the Library groups.