Did You Hear About The Housekeeper and the Professor?

What could be more appealing during the cold, snowy days of January than curling up with a good book?  How about doing so with hundreds of your friends and neighbors.  

Beginning Jan. 1, the Westport Public Library is hosting its seventh WestportREADS program.  WestportREADS is the library's community-wide shared reading experience with programs and book discussions centered on one book throughout January. It's easy to participate — simply read the book selected by the library and join any or all of the discussion groups and lectures throughout the month.

"Our mission is to strengthen our community through the shared experience of a book," Library Director Maxine Bleiweis said.  "It's all about inclusiveness and bringing people together."

The book selected for January's WestportREADS program is, The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa.  The story focuses on the relationship between a brilliant math professor with no short-term memory, his conscientious housekeeper and her 10-year-old son. Bound by an interest in mathematics and baseball, the three develop a loving relationship of caretaking, memory lapses and poignant concern.

Bleiweis admits that it is a challenge to find a book that very few people in Westport have not yet read.  She says that The Housekeeper and the Professor was suggested by a Westport resident who read the book and thought that it would be an interesting selection for the WestportREADS program.  

According to Bleiweis, the criteria for selecting a book for the program is three-fold, "The book has to be short, it has to be fiction, and it has to be accessible to many ages and interests."  

Although The Housekeeper and the Professor was written in 2003, the book has just recently been translated from Japanese and released in the United States.  The author, Yoko Ogawa, is extremely well regarded in Japan and has been awarded several prestigious literary awards. She has published over 20 works of fiction and her writing has appeared in The New Yorker and Zoetrope magazines.

The Housekeeper and the Professor is translated by Stephen Snyder who teaches Japanese literature at Middlebury College in Vermont.

Local book discussion groups are also participating in the event.  According to Bleiweis, more than 18 book clubs in the community have selected the book as their January pick.  The library will be sending a facilitator to their meetings to engage the group in lively discussion about The Housekeeper and the Professor.

Even the youngest members of the community are being included in WestportREADS.   Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge, by Mem Fox, has been selected as a companion book for the younger set.  It's a touching tale of a boy and his elderly friend that explores the nature of memory in a way that children can understand.

Special events related to the book begin Jan. 6, when Westporters Doug and Patti Brill share their first-hand experiences of coping with memory loss.  

The library will also host a number of other events, including:

• Translator Stephen Snyder will discuss his experience in translating the book from Japanese at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 11.
• Dr. Bruce Bukiet, of the NJ Institute of Technology, will talk about applying mathematical modeling for sports, gambling and understanding baseball at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 14.
• Harry Sakamaki, of the Japan Society, will talk about the history of Japanese baseball and how it differs from the American game at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 20. 
• Neurologist Dr. Louise Resor will lecture on memory loss and the human brain at 7:30 p.m. Jan 21. 
• The Staples Math Team will illustrate how math enriches our daily lives at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 27. 

On January 30, the entire family can participate in math and memory games from 1 to 4 p.m. throughout the library. The conversation continues into February with a talk and tasting with an emphasis on Japanese tea by Michael Harney of Harney & Son's Tea.   A full schedule of events, including dates and times, is available on the library's Web site.

Copies of The Housekeeper and the Professor are available for loan or purchase at the Westport Public Library.