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Harvard Book Store, Harvard Square’s landmark independent bookstore, is proud to announce that for the second year in a row we are co-sponsoring Cambridge's citywide reading initiative: Cambridge Reads. Between February and April 2004, the entire Cambridge community is invited to read the same book and participate in facilitated book conversations at many locations throughout Cambridge.

This year’s selection is The Namesake: A Novel by Jhumpa Lahiri. The author’s first book after her Pulitzer Prize winning collection of short stories Interpreter of Maladies, The Namesake follows the story of the Ganguli family through its journey from Calcutta to Cambridge, MA to the Boston suburbs. Lahiri used to live in Cambridge and parts of the book take place in Central Square.

The idea of a citywide book club was initiated about six years ago by Nancy Pearl, a librarian in Seattle. Since that time more than one hundred cities across the US have begun reading together. According to Gail Pettiford Willett, Program Coordinator at the Cambridge Public Library and the driving force behind Cambridge Reads, the goals of the program are to promote literacy and the love of reading and to increase connections within the Cambridge community.

Copies of The Namesake: A Novel by Jhumpa Lahiri are available at a 20% discount at Harvard Book Store throughout the duration of Cambridge Reads. Harvard Book Store will sponsor a facilitated discussion of The Namesake at 7 p.m. on Monday, March 15th. Refreshments will be served.

Cambridge Reads Presents Jhumpa Lahiri
author of THE NAMESAKE

DATE AND TIME: Saturday, March 20th, 2:30 p.m.
LOCATION: The Cambridge YMCA, 820 Massachusetts Avenue, Durrell Hall

This event is free, but tickets are required! Tickets are available starting on Friday, March 12th at Harvard Book Store and the Cambridge Public Library's Main Branch (499 Broadway). Tickets must be picked up in person.