Battle Creek Reads

What is Battle Creek Reads?

Battle Creek Reads, which started in 2006, encourages community members to read the same book, talk about it, and then meet the author.

Please note: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 author visits will be virtual and live stream on Willard's Facebook Page, You Tube, Twitter, and website.

'The Distance Between Us'

A 2021 Battle Creek Reads Selection

'The Distance Between Us' by Reyna Grande.

When Reyna Grande's father leaves his wife and three children behind in a Mexican village to make the dangerous trek across the border to the United States, he promises to return from "El Otro Lado" (The Other Side) with enough money to build a dream house where they can all live together. His promises become harder to believe as months turn into years. When he summons his wife to join him, Reyna and her siblings must live in the already overburdened household of their stern grandmother. The three siblings are forced to look out for themselves. In childish games, they find a way to forget the pain of abandonment and learn to solve adult problems. When their mother returns at last, the reunion sets the stage for a dramatic new chapter in Reyna's life--her own journey to "El Otro Lado" to live with the man who has haunted her imagination for years, her long-absent father.
 
Author Reyna Grande will discuss her memoir in a live-streaming talk on Willard's Facebook Page, You Tube, Twitter, and website on Thursday, March 11, at 7 p.m.

'A Woman is No Man'

A 2021 Battle Creek Reads Selection

'A Woman is No Man' by Etaf Rum.

Three generations of Palestinian-American women in contemporary Brooklyn are torn by individual desire, educational ambitions, a devastating tragedy, and the strict mores of traditional Arab culture.
 
Author Etaf Rum will give a live-streaming talk on Willard's Facebook Page, You Tube, Twitter, and website on Tuesday, April  13, at 7 p.m.

For questions or comments about Battle Creek Reads, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call her at 269-968-8166, ext. 504.

Past Selections

2020 - A Dog Called Hope by Jason Morgan
2019 - The Long Haul by Finn Murphy;
           This is Where You Belong by Melody Warnick
2018 - South of Superior by Ellen Airgood
2017 - Life We Bury by Allen Eskens
            Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker by Jennifer Chiaverini
2016 - Safe from the Sea by Peter Geye
            Delicious! by Ruth Reichl
2015 - A Secret Gift by Ted Gup
           Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline 
2014 - The Leisure Seeker by Michael Zadoorian
           An Invisible Thread by Laura Schroff
2013 - Eighty-Dollar Champion by Elizabeth Letts
           The Day the World Came to Town by Jim DeFede
           Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
           The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
2012 - Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson
           Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
2011 - The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
2010 - The Soloist by Steve Lopez
2009 - How Starbucks Saved My Life by Michael Gates Gill
2008 - The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
2007 - Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
2006 - Pay it Forward by Catherine Ryan Hyde