We hope you will join us this year for a rewarding Saratoga Reads experience.

We are about to kick off our 2011-12 season—our eighth year—with the book nomination phase. Each year, we urge members of the public to nominate titles they think would be super reads for our community. All through the summer (this year from June 15 through August 19) readers from the community are invited to let us know—via the SaratogaReads web site (www.SaratogaReads.org) or at the nomination kiosk at the Saratoga Springs Public Library—what they think we should all be reading.

Fiction and non-fiction works are considered, but we do ask that books be 400 pages or less and available in paperback. Both of these factors, we have found, make for a more widely accepted selection. We are looking for books that can stimulate lively discussion for a wide audience, so when making a nomination be sure to consider gender, age groups, and themes. Don't forget that the selection is going to have to be engaging enough to win a community-wide vote!

We usually wind up with about 150 nominated titles. The Selection Advisory Group (SAG) then endeavors to read through the lot of them! We're a group of avid readers, and we spend the summer reading and discussing the suggested titles. It's a fun job if you love to read, and we're always looking for new members. We don't all read every choice, but we do get enough input to foster lively dialogue and debate. Email me at kids@saratogareads.org if you are interested in joining us.

By the end of September, we've winnowed the list down to a handful of favorites. We often put aside some very treasured works, but we chose the five we think are best suited to the kinds of programming we do best. You can imagine the intensity of emotion at that last meeting when we cut the list down for the last time. It's exciting and intense (and my favorite meeting of the year).

Then, it's back to you, folks. The public vote opens on October 1; you can vote online or use the with ballot boxes stationed at the Saratoga Springs Public Library, Skidmore College, and Barnes & Noble in Wilton. We hope that when people vote they think not necessarily of their personal FAVORITE but of the BEST COMMUNITY READ. You do not need to have read all (or even any) of the books in order to vote. We provide blurbs about each book with enough information to give you a general sense of topic and scope.

In early November, we will announce the winner—the book that will be the source of our programming through April 2012. Get ready for a great Saratoga Reads season, and be sure to participate in every stage of this dynamic community-wide program.

Sincerely,

Lauren Cohen

Coordinator, Selection Advisory Group