Interview with Benjamin Percy

Today's Shelf Awareness: Daily Enlightenment for the Book Trade , a newsletter, has an interview with Benjamin Percy. He talked about what he is reading right now, his top five authors, book that changed his life, his favorite line from a book, etc.

Go to the Book Brahmin: Benjamin Percy section of the current issue for the complete interview.

New Book Chosen for 2010-2011

For the 2010-2011 academic year, the CBC Reads Committee has chosen Refresh, Refresh, a collection of short stories by Benjamin Percy . Our goal is to get students, faculty, staff and administration to read and discuss the book. Faculty members may wish to incorporate the book into classes.

Amazon Preview (Click the book cover image to Look Inside a few pages.)
Find a library copy ( The CBC Library is in the process of ordering.)

Sample short stories from the book (full text):

Refresh, Refresh, the title short story, as it was originally published in The Paris Review.

Somebody is Going to Have to Pay For This, short story, as it was published in The Barcelona Review.

Additional sample short story:
Dial Tone , short story, as it was published in the Missouri Review. (Click on the "Download this text" button to download the PDF full text.)

Book Reviews
from EBSCOhost Academic Search Premier (Published Reviews)
from Amazon.com (Online User Reviews)
from Google Books (Online User Reviews)
from Barnes and Noble website (Scroll down to see Overview & Editorial Reviews)

CBC Reads Committee

Chair:
Woods, Meg (History)

Current Members:
Bourouh, Chaoura (Sociology)
Brouns, Donna (Counseling)
Epperly, Julia (Basic Skills)
Lee, Michael (English)
James, Gwen (English)
Meadows, Deborah (Dean of Social Sciences)
Robinson, Margaret (ASCBC, SAB Officer)
Taff, Mark (Anthropology)
Valadez, Martin (VP for Diversity/Outreach)
Yu, Ying (Library)

Past Members:
Vickoren, Daniel (ASCBC, Education Programmer)
Martinez, Lupe (AOT)

Potential Books for 2010-2011

THE BOOKS

1. Refresh, Refresh

Author: Benjamin Percy http://www.benjaminpercy.com/

Published Book Reviews in EBSCOhost
Amazon Preview

Google Books Snippet view and User Reviews

2. Always Running

Author: Luis J. Rodriguez http://www.luisjrodriguez.com/

Published Book Reviews in EBSCOhost

Google Books Limited Preview and User Reviews

Art Show

The Columbia Basin College CBC Reads program would like to thank all who participated in the art contest featuring the book Three Cups of Tea. We are thrilled to have many great works from all different areas of art and are very impressed with the talent that is shown in each piece. Ann Marchand's work "A Penny for A Pencil", the winner, showed a great deal of skill, attention to detail, and connected directly to the book. Four of the submissions are displayed in the library on the wall outside of L104 from May 17th through June 1st. One digital work is only posted below. First place winner is Ann Marchand. Second place winner is Jessica Ferguson. Third place winner is Devin Papp.

Congratulations!

     

  

Inside Islam

Jan. 2011 Update: The film is freely available for online viewing at Snagfilm.org.

Watch more free documentaries

On TUESDAY, APRIL 27 at 7PM in the GJERDE CENTER, CBC Reads will host a showing and panel discussion of the documentary film Inside Islam: What a Billion Muslims Really Think.

Read a letter to the Editor of the Tri-city Herald by Tom Roach recommending this event.

Original post 4/8/10
------------------------------
Update by Meg. Woods:

There were 248 people at last night’s event. I introduced our community collaborator, Sabiha Khan, by giving some background about Three Cups of Tea and how the committee wanted to have a film event and how Daniel Vickoren (ASCBC Education Programmer) contacted Mrs. Khan after reading the story in the Herald when it was shown in January.

The film highlights the results of the most extensive Gallup poll ever done in the Muslim world—20,000 people everywhere in the world sat for one hour interviews. As one of the panelists pointed out, there is a book that goes along with the film that explains all of the results, not just those that can be put into a 55 minute film.

After the film, John Roach, who moderated, introduced the panelists—a man and a woman from Syria, a doctor from Lebanon, a pharmacist, a nuclear engineer, a former Catholic nun from Venezuela who is married to an Egyptian, and Sabiha’s daughter who is a teacher. The questions included what Muslim dating was like, how Malcolm X is viewed, what the similarities and differences are between Christianity and Islam, and the final question was what is one thing that can be done to bridge the gap between Americans and Muslims. One woman said changing foreign policy so the US doesn’t support dictatorship in the Muslim world while advocating democracy everywhere else. Another said the only change any person can do is at the community level and by promoting tolerance in the community, promoting education in the community, and being aware and voting.

The event was wrapped up shortly after 9. Several people expressed their appreciation of the event and I talked with Sabiha about the possibility of more collaboration in the future.

4/28/2010
--------------------------------

Additional Resources:

The title of the book related to the film is Who Speaks For Islam?: What a Billion Muslims Really Think.
Information about the book on  Amazon.com
6 book reviews on EBSCOhost
5 book reviews on ProQuest
Information about the poll from Gallup


5 film reviews on ProQuest

Kite Making Event

The second event of CBC Reads on Mar. 9, 2010 was a great success.

See news on CBC website about the event.

See Tri-City Herald photos from the kite making workshop.

Also there will be a free Kite Festival hosted by Ben Franklin Kite Society starting at noon on Easter Sunday April 4, 2010 at Leslie Groves Park in North Richland. From George Washington Way, turn east on Saint St. towards the river and the event should be at the soccer field.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

Today on NPR's All Things considered program, they chose Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, a Pakistani singer, as one of their series of 50 Great Voices:

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan: The Voice Of Pakistan Listen to the program online.

First Event

The first event for our CBC Reads series, *Geography, Civil Society, and Development in Pakistan*, was last night. It went really well!

Donna Brouns helped organize the event, invited one of the two speakers, and introduced both of them to an audience of close to 100 people.

Dr. Feeney showed slides of his 1999 trip to northern Pakistan. Dr. Bourouh gave a great overview of facts about Pakistan, as well as relevant quotes from Three Cups of Tea. Together, the information and images gave an overview of Pakistan and good context for readers of the book.

As one community member said, “I don’t know who did this, but I’d like to thank whoever did because it’s been very informative and interesting. I read about it in the newspaper.”

Meg Woods

Events 2009-2010

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16
7PM, HUB
Geography, Civil Society, and Development in Pakistan
Come see slides of Biafo Hispar in Pakistan and learn more about the region’s culture and people! Dr. Craig Feeney and Dr. Omar Bourouh will host a question and answer session after the slides and lecture.

TUESDAY, MARCH 9
12:40-1:40PM, GJERDE CENTER
Kite Making Workshop
Join Greg Gregor as he guides you through how to make a Pakistanithemed kite! Space is limited to the first 30 students and each will receive a free copy of the book. Kites for Everyone!

TUESDAY, APRIL 27
7PM, GJERDE CENTER
Islamic Religion and Culture
CBC Reads will host a showing of the documentary film Inside Islam: What a Billion Muslims Really Think which details the Islamic religion and its impact on Pakistan. After the film, a diverse panel of local Muslims will be on hand to comment and answer any questions from
the audience.

Art Contest
FRIDAY, APRIL 30: Deadline for entry
MAY 17 to JUNE 1: Art Show in the Library
Works of art, in any medium, which are inspired by
the book Three Cups of Tea or Pakistani culture are
due on April 30th to the library and will be displayed in the library
from MAY 17 to JUNE 1. For more info, see this blog posting.

Book Discussions

ENGLISH:
TUESDAY, MAY 25
7PM, HUB

ESPAÑOL:
WEDNESDAY, MAY 26
7PM, HUB

BROUGHT TO THE STUDENTS OF CBC BY THE CBC READS COMMITTEE, DIVERSITY, AND ASCBC.

Download color poster in PDF.

Art Contest

The college-wide Three Cups of Tea Art Contest is sponsored by the CBC Reads Committee, the Art department, & the CBC Library.

• This contest is free and open to everyone in the CBC community-students, faculty, staff, and administrators.
• Submission deadline: April 30, 2010
• Subject: Any subject related to the book Three Cups of Tea (Google Book Preview )
Ideas:
• the best idea is your own interpretations of the book
• anything related to the book (education and literacy, especially of girls; cultural differences; poverty; humanitarianism)
• anything related to the region of Pakistan and Afghanistan
• portrait of Pakistanians and/or Afghans
• book illustrations
• tea cups
• four winning pieces in "One Book Chelmsford" program's juried art exhibit
• album art of a song by artist becwi
• All Medium: No restriction. Paintings, graphics, book illustration, sculpture, ceramics, textiles, mixed media, photography, digital art, printmaking, three-dimensional art, etc.
• Submit your original work to the library with the Title of work, your name, media, and size. Please mat your work if appropriate. Contact Prof. Tracy Petre if you need help with matting.
• You may also email a digital image of your work to the library account library@columbiabasin.edu with the Title of work, your name, media, and size.
• Judges: Tracy Petre, Donna Brouns, and a ASB representative.
• "Three Cups of Tea Juried Art Show" will take place in the Library beginning May 17 until June 1. All submitted original art works will be displayed. Photos of the art works may be taken and displayed on the Library website.
• Prizes: An easel, a canvas tote bag, drawing boards, sketch pads, drawing pads and watercolor materials.

If you have any questions or would like to have more information, please contact Ying Yu at yyu@columbiabasin.edu or call her at 509-542-4890.

Research Resources

List of research resources and search strategies for issues related to the book Three Cups of Tea.

Some of the links will only work for authorized CBC staff, faculty, and students.

Stones into schools

The CBC library has purchased a copy of Mortenson's new book Stones into schools : promoting peace with books, not bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Click on the previous title link to see if the status is "available". If it is checked out by somebody else right now, you can request it by email us at library@columbiabasin.edu or call Circulation at 509-542-4458.