UCD, community to scale 'Mountains'
Sharon Stello
Enterprise staff writer
Published: September 23, 2008
Looking for a good book to read?
Consider the bestseller "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Pulitzer Prize-winning
author Tracy Kidder, selected for the 2008 Campus Community Book Project.
Community members are encouraged to read the same book and then participate in
discussions and attend the author's talk and other related events in the fall. The
project was started as a way to bring people together after the events of Sept. 11,
2001.
"The goal of the book project is really a community-building activity," said Gary
Sue Goodman, outgoing book project coordinator and assistant director of the
University Writing Program at UCD.
"Mountains Beyond Mountains" is a nonfiction narrative about Harvard-educated
Dr. Paul Farmer's work to abolish AIDS and tuberculosis in Haiti.
"It's very well written. … It's a good read and it's inspirational," Goodman said.
She said Kidder is "a great journalist" who offers a "gripping" real-life account of
Farmer, an extraordinary individual who works against all odds to improve health
in Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the world.
Goodman said Farmer faces many challenges, including drug-resistant strains of
tuberculosis. He manages to raise the money needed to establish a health care
system run by Haitians whom he trained. With Kidder's book, readers get to know
Farmer and come along on the doctor's journey.
Kidder's other books include "The Road to Yuba City," about murderer Juan
Corona, and "The Soul of a New Machine," which won both the Pulitzer Prize and
National Book Award. Published in 1981, "A New Machine" chronicled one
company's drive to develop a micro-computer under a nearly impossible deadline,
highlighting the work environment of the emerging high-tech industry.
He has also written "House," about the building of a family's first home; "Among
Schoolchildren," about a young teacher's challenging job at an inner-city school;
and "Old Friends," about the friendships and struggles of elderly patients in a
nursing home.
Kidder will speak Dec. 1 at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts as an
add-on to the Distinguished Speakers series. There will be a free talk at 4 p.m.
followed by an 8 p.m. talk that requires paid admission.
"Mountains Beyond Mountains" was selected from a list of 39 books nominated
for the project. The final decision is made by a selection team composed of
faculty, staff, students and community member volunteers.
First they selected a topic — "multi-disciplinary academics" — dovetailing with
one of UCD's 2008-09 centennial celebration themes, multi-disciplinary research
and service.
Goodman said "Mountains Beyond Mountains" and the selected theme will
provide an opportunity to highlight people at UCD and in the community who are
helping others locally and throughout the world. For example, UCD professors
and students are raising money and helping to build water wells in Africa. And
UCD medical students run five free clinics, each serving a different ethnic group
in Sacramento.
Mikael Villalobos, the incoming book project coordinator, said volunteers are
needed for a committee that will meet during the summer to plan events for the
fall.
Villalobos said "Mountains Beyond Mountains" lends itself to many types of
events and discussions because it covers so many topics: geo-politics, health
awareness and promotion, class and poverty issues, race relations and even food
production.
Villalobos said the book project offers a way to learn about new places, people
and ideas. Participants can read the book and then delve deeper by attending
discussions and other events.
"It's a great opportunity to have conversations about things that inspire us and
things that we don't know about," said Villalobos, administrator of diversity
education in UCD's Office of Campus Community Relations.
Goodman said she hopes this year's book selection will encourage people to think
about the role of the United States in international development. As a world leader
and the richest nation, does the United States have a responsibility to help less
fortunate countries? If so, how much and in what ways?
Goodman said the book will be integrated into various summer programs as well
as freshman seminars and other courses in the fall quarter. The number of faculty
assigning the book in their courses has increased in recent years, she said, and the
number of events has expanded considerably.
"It's really grown and become a lot more centrally recognized," said Goodman,
who has led the book project for two years and received several calls from other
college campuses seeking advice to establish their own book projects.
UCD's book project has previously focused on "The Spirit Catches You and You
Fall Down" by Anne Fadiman, "Gandhi's Way: A Handbook of Conflict
Resolution" by Mark Juergensmeyer, "Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992" by Anna
Deavere Smith, "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini, "The Omnivore's
Dilemma" by Michael Pollan and "The Devil's Highway" by Luis Alberto Urrea.
For more information, visit the book project's Web site at
http://occr.ucdavis.edu/ccbp2008
— Reach Sharon Stello at sstello@davis enterprise.net or (530) 747-8043.
Copyright, 2008, The Davis Enterprise. All Rights Reserved.