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Community joins forces in order to ‘read together’

CARLSBAD — This year’s Carlsbad Reads Together book selection — Julia Child’s “My Life in France” — has local residents eating, drinking and talking about food to celebrate the annual community reading initiative.
Throughout April, the Carlsbad Library has scheduled free book discussions, movie screenings and cooking demonstrations that encourage residents to pick up a book and a snack, and join in on the conversation.
“It’s been fun listening to people share their favorite food stories at the book discussions, along with memories from trips to France,” Carlsbad’s Community Relations Manager Jessica Padilla Bowen said.
On April 9, kids took part in the foodie fun with a family-friendly cooking demonstration at the Dove Library, 1775 Dove Lane. Amanda Curry of the Good Food Factory made healthy food fun for the kids in attendance, inviting them to help create a smoothie.
“We love coming to stuff like this at the library,” Carlsbad resident Tami Krebs said. She brought daughters Kyndall, 6, and Kennedy, 4, to the event. “With all of the budget cuts, it’s awesome that they still offer these things for free.”
Food-themed Carlsbad Reads Together programs will continue for the next two weeks, with book discussions and movie screenings at the Dove Library.
“Mostly Martha” will be shown at the Dove Library’s Ruby G. Schulman Auditorium on April 20 at 6 p.m., while the family-friendly “Ratatouille” will run on April 27 at 6 p.m.
A final book discussion will be hosted in the Gowland Meeting Room on April 25 at 7 p.m.
Additionally, the community is invited to take “A Culinary Journey to France” with personal chef Julie Frans on April 23. Frans will demonstrate her favorite Julia Child dishes, share culinary tales and provide recipes to take home.
In its seventh year, Carlsbad Reads Together is held each April to encourage book discussion among local residents.
The program is based on a nationwide initiative that was launched in 1998.
“It’s a really fun event,” Padilla Bowen said.
The program is sponsored in part by the Friends of the Carlsbad Library, a nonprofit group that purchases additional copies of the selected book to increase availability at Carlsbad’s library branches.
Past book selections include John Steinbeck’s “Travels with Charley”; Ray Bradbury’s “Farenheit 451”; Alexander McCall Smith’s “The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency”; “Funny in Farsi” by Firoozeh Dumas; Elie Wisel’s “Night” and “The Tortilla Curtain” by T.C. Boyle.
For more information about Carlsbad Reads Together and details for upcoming events, visit carlsbadlibrary.org.