Lake Forest College is a partner in “Lake Forest Reads: Ragdale 2014,” the second annual city-wide reading program, which will take place in October 2014. Presented by the Lake Forest Library, this program encourages the Lake Forest community to read one book by a writer affiliated with Ragdale, the artists’ residency that has supported emerging and best-selling authors and their creative process for over 35 years. 

Based on the “One City, One Book” program, which takes place in over 70 communities nationwide, the program’s mission is to foster literacy, a culture of reading, and a sense of community. 

The 2014 selection is Into the Beautiful North (2009) by Chicago author Luis Alberto Urrea. This book was chosen after careful consideration by an advisory committee including representatives of the Lake Forest Library, Friends of Lake Forest Library, Lake Forest College, Dickinson Hall, Ragdale, and the wider community.  

What the book is about: Nineteen-year-old Nayeli works at a taco shop in her Mexican village and dreams about her father, who journeyed to the United States when she was young. In fact, there are almost no men in the village—they’ve all gone north. While watching The Magnificent Seven, Nayeli decides to go north herself and recruit seven men—her own “Siete Magníficos”—to repopulate her hometown and protect it from the bandidos who plan on taking it over. Filled with unforgettable characters and prose as radiant as the Sinaloan sun, Into the Beautiful North is the story of an irresistible young woman’s quest to find herself on both sides of the fence. 

http://www.amazon.com/Into-Beautiful-North-A-Novel/dp/0316025267

There will be a series of events in Lake Forest during the month of October as part of these programs, with three directly affiliated with the College: 

*  Thursday, October 9. 2014, 6:00 pm.  Screening of The Magnificent Seven in McCormick Auditorium, with introduction/discussion from Professor of Philosophy Janet McCracken. This film serves as the inspiration for Into the Beautiful North’s main character, Nayeli. On a pilgrimage north, she and her friends search for their own “Siete Magnificos” to repopulate their town and help protect it from bandits. Free and open to the public.

*  Monday, October 13, 2013, 1:30 pm. Lake Forest Library. A presentation by Betty Jane Schultz Hollender Professor of Economics Carolyn Tuttle. The program is entitled “The U.S.-Mexican Border: Fancy Factories and Dilapidated Dwellings” Free and open to the public. Funded by Friends of Lake Forest Library.

*  Tuesday, October 28, 2014, 6:00 pm. The keynote event: Luis Alberto Urrea will speak in the Lily Reid Holt Memorial Chapel. Free and open to the public. 

The wider program includes connections with area book clubs, a mariachi event at Dickinson Hall, and potential partnerships with a Lake Forest restaurant.

Luis Alberto Urrea, 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist for nonfiction and member of the Latino Literature Hall of Fame, is a prolific and acclaimed writer who uses his dual-culture life experiences to explore greater themes of love, loss and triumph. Born in Tijuana, Mexico to a Mexican father and an American mother, the critically acclaimed and best-selling author of 13 books, Urrea has won numerous awards for his poetry, fiction and essays. Urrea’s recent novel, Into the Beautiful North, a national best-seller, earned a citation of excellence from the American Library Association Rainbow’s Project and was selected by the National Endowment for the Arts for their Big Read program.  Into the Beautiful North, The Devil’s Highway and The Hummingbird’s Daughter have been chosen by more than 30 different cities and colleges for One Book community read programs. Urrea lives with his family in Naperville, Illinois. He is a professor of creative writing at the University of Illinois-Chicago.