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Turning Pages
Together Rip-roarin' Readin' in the Rain is back to buck the February blues with another book for the whole gang to pore over together. Popular Portland novelist Molly Gloss scored a slew of awards for The Jump-Off Creek because there's not a thinking, breathing soul amongst us who can't relate to lead lady Lydia's quest for self-sufficiency against the Oregon odds. You think we have fragmented community? Lydia Sanderson's closest neighbors were a couple of crusty cowboys a mile away, and it was a full day's ride to visit the nearest female neighbor. You can live right next door to someone in Eugene and have the same feeling of isolation, but you gotta ask yerself: If you and your neighbor had both read the same book, say, The Jump-Off Creek, might you not have a mite more to say to each other? And having talked once about something other than "Wasn't this recycling day?" can a sense of local community be far behind? This is the thinking of the Readin' in the Rain folk who brought you Ken Kesey's Sometimes a Great Notion in Feb. 2002 as healing antidote to the suck-in-a-deep-breath days of 9/11. "When it's Rainin', it's Siporin" followed that in 2003, showcasing local NPR reporter-turned kick-butt novelist Alan Siporin and his Fire's Edge; then the mega-watt, high-profile Ursula K. Le Guin in 2004 with her book and film, The Lathe of Heaven. Molly Gloss stands on the shoulders of these giants, but the view is great: a whole month of events constellating around the RIR theme of "Celebrating Frontier Oregon." RIR began as a Eugene neighborhood event and exploded to fire the entire metro area with readin' fever. February 2005 is comin' atcha full steam with what are always the major features of One Book festivals: a book reading and signing with a major author — Molly Gloss for us — and a series of free programs. Everyone is invited to participate by reading The Jump-Off Creek, joining in a book group discussion and attending the programs. Molly herself, of course, is very, very cool. In a recent interview, she said that whenever she felt the reader was anticipating a traditional genre scene, she made efforts to give the rug of preconception "a good hard yank." There's an ice-storm scene, a marauding-bear scene, a bar-room brawl, a shoot-out, and nary a one re-run of "Gunsmoke." Instead, we have what one woman had to do to survive, and the more we read, the more familiar it feels. One hundred and ten years ago sounds like a big number, but our history is only a heartbeat behind us; there's still plenty to learn about where we've been, how we got here, and who we are now. Addressing some of that history will be UO History professor Jeffrey Ostler's job, who will give a big-picture perspective on westward expansion along the Oregon Trail at 7 pm Feb. 8, at the Knight Library. "Two-Way Seeing: Pioneers and Native Oregonians" will be a storytelling performance at 2 pm Feb. 12 at Eugene Public Library, with Kalapuya elder Esther Stutzman and Shannon Applegate, historian of the famous Applegate pioneer family. At 7 pm Feb. 22 at the Springfield Public Library, we hear from Susan Butruille through journal readings and song about "Women and Freedom in the Pioneer West." There's an Umbrella Opening with an insightful lecture by guest scholar — moi — on Feb. 1, and Molly will be in town at 7 pm Feb. 18 at the First United Methodist Church for a reading and discussion. Still hungry? visit www.rain-read.orgReadin' in the Rain is February's version of the Eugene Celebration, events that every year bring us together. It's organized and sponsored by a consortium of bookstores, libraries, businesses, and book-lovers, so thanks to them, we can enrich our souls. Welcome to February: Read in the rain, enjoy your brain. Local writer and Road Scholar Sandy Jensen specializes in teaching Women Writers of the West. You can reach her at sajensen@linfield.edu
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