Reflections on the conservative right of Louisiana’s bayou country will soon be heard across West Marin’s public libraries. 

It’s the 12th spring that the county library program One Book One Marin will host a series of events centered around a single book, including discussion groups, author talks, film screenings and live music. 

This year’s selection is “Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right” by Arlie Russell Hochschild, a Berkeley author. 

Ms. Hochschild draws from the discipline of sociology to delve into the perspectives of the people she befriends over five years in Louisiana, including pipefitters, plant operators, a truck driver, a postal worker, a school custodian and a gospel singer. She brings her readers into “red” America, debunking liberal assumptions to paint a portrait of why the people she encounters believe—and, most importantly, feel—the way they do. 

“This year, given everything that’s been going on in our country, we wanted to have a serious discussion and understanding about what’s happened,” Gayle Peterson, the library’s program coordinator, said. “This wonderful book came along that is, at its core, about empathy and understanding. It’s about how we really have a lot more in common than we all might think.” 

The free events are sponsored by the library, Book Passage, the College of Marin and Dominican University. Ms. Russell launched the program at Book Passage on Tuesday, and will soon visit West Marin, with discussions in Point Reyes Station, Stinson Beach and Bolinas. There are a number of other events, unique to each West Marin library. On March 13, the Stinson Beach branch will screen “The Big Fix,” a film exploring the health and well-being of the land and people of Louisiana; the Bay Area band Sauce Piquante will play at the Point Reyes branch on March 24; and Eric and Suzy Thompson will perform a mix of Cajun waltzes and two-steps, Creole blues and an unaccompanied Cajun ballad on March 17 at the Bolinas Community Center. At the Inverness Library on April 2, faculty from Dominican University will lead a discussion around the support from Christian evangelical and fundamentalist groups for “neoliberal globalization and minimal government oversight” and the “greening” of some congregations and how their “ethic of care helps align them with environmentalism.” 

 

Details are at onebookonemarin.org.