In September, the Coronado Public Library and the Cultural Arts Commission announced the title selected for the 2019 Coronado Community Read, Laura McNeal’s The Practice House: A Novel.
In this video, you’ll hear from the author, Coronado resident Laura McNeal, about what she hopes readers will take away after reading the book. You’ll also hear from Franklin Escobedo, Principal Librarian, as he shares some of the 2019 Community Read programs and events that will take place over the next couple months, including book discussions, Scottish Highland dancers, a pie contest and so much more! Join your friends and neighbors from February 22 through April 5 for these community book discussions, film screenings that explore the background of the novel, as well as music and programs to celebrate the themes in McNeal’s novel.
In The Practice House, nineteen-year-old Aldine McKenna is stuck at home with her sister and aunt in a Scottish village in 1929 when two Mormon missionaries ring the doorbell. Aldine’s sister converts and moves to America to marry, and Aldine follows, hoping to find the life she’s meant to lead and the person she’s meant to love.
In New York, Aldine answers an ad soliciting a teacher for a one-room schoolhouse in a place she can’t possibly imagine: drought-stricken Kansas. She arrives as farms on the Great Plains have begun to fail and schools are going bankrupt, unable to pay or house new teachers. With no money and too much pride to turn back, she lives uneasily with the family of Ansel Price–the charming, optimistic man who placed the ad–and his family responds to her with kind curiosity, suspicion, and, most dangerously, love. Just as she’s settling into her strange new life, a storm forces unspoken thoughts to the surface that will forever alter the course of their lives.
Coronado’s Community Read is a program that encourages residents to join together in the shared experience of reading and discussion of a book. The Coronado Community Read is made possible by the Friends of the Coronado Public Library and the Coronado Cultural Arts Commission and in partnership with the Coronado Historical Association, Coronado High School, and the City of Coronado.
Related: Coronado Announces 2019 Community Read Title (Sept. 2018)
