Fairfield, Conn. - The Fairfield Public Library and its community partners are pleased to announce the One Book One Town (OBOT) selection for 2023, I Keep Trying to Catch His Eye: a Memoir of Loss, Grief and Love by Ivan Maisel. This is the first time in the Library’s OBOT history that a book by a Fairfield author has been selected.
I Keep Trying to Catch His Eye is an honest, deeply emotional memoir in which the author reflects on the loss of his son Max to suicide, the impact of grief on family and community, and the painful journey that brought Ivan to a place where he could see grief as an expression of love. “One Book, One Town selections are meant to promote discussion within our community,” remarks Scott Jarzombek, Town Librarian. “The themes of grief and loss that this book explore touch everyone, making this an ideal choice for a town-wide read that will, we hope, start an important conversation.”
Companion books for children and teens have been selected by the OBOT Committee as well. Colter Jackson’s The Rhino Suit (for children)is the gentle story of a little girl who feels too much—both good and bad-- and decides to build herself a rhino suit to protect her from the hard feelings. For middle-grade and teen readers, the Committee has chosen two short story collections edited by Dr. Rose Brock, Hope Wins (middle grade) and Hope Nation (teens), both anthologies by popular writers for young people whose work focuses on the idea that “hope is a decision,” but not one that is always easy to make in the face of adversity.
Ivan Maisel is Vice President/Editorial and Senior Writer at on3.com and has covered college football for nearly four decades in various capacities at ESPN. He and his wife Meg reside in Fairfield where they’ve raised three children.
The One Book One Town initiative was inspired by a program created by librarian and author Nancy Pearl of the Seattle Public Library’s Washington Center for the Book, who wondered what would happen if everyone in the city read the same book simultaneously. Fairfield’s own community reading initiative— named One Book One Town—began in 2008, when a committee of members from Fairfield Public Library, the Pequot Library, Fairfield University, Fairfield University Bookstore, and the Fairfield Public Schools met to select that year’s book.
Copies of I Keep Trying to Catch His Eye and its companion books are available to borrow at either location of Fairfield Public Library and at Pequot Library, or for purchase at the Fairfield University Bookstore. One Book One Town and its attendant programs are made possible through the sponsorship of The Friends of the Fairfield Public Library.
All programs at the Fairfield Public Library are free. To register, or for more information, visit us online at: fairfieldpubliclibrary.org or call 203-256-3160. Follow the Fairfield Public Library on Twitter @fairfieldpublib and Facebook @fairfieldlibrary.