The Bailey Public Library launched the Winthrop Community Read in 2012 as our community-wide summer reading program for adults. The program offers neighbors, families and friends opportunities to connect, learn, and grow by reading and discussing themes explored in one specific title. The selections are usually contemporary literary fiction, but with some exceptions: 2013 focused on a memoir; 2016 focused on a youth selection for an inter-generational Community Read; and 2018 focused on two titles: a collection of short stories and a nonfiction book for a statewide collaboration with the Maine Humanities Council. The program takes place each summer and the library hosts the author of the year’s selection in addition to a separate community discussion at the library.

Past Community Read titles:

2023: Soon the Light Will Be Perfect by Dave Patterson
2022: The Northern Reach by W.S. Winslow
2021: Mill Town: Reckoning with What Remains by Kerri Arsenault
2019: Paper Things by Jennifer Richard Jacobson
2018: Settled in the Wild by Susan Hand Shetterly & River Talk by CB Anderson
2017: A Piece of the World by Christina Baker Kline
2016: A Handful of Stars by Cynthia Lord
2015: White Dog Fell from the Sky by Eleanor Morse
2014: Paris Was the Place by Susan Conley
2013: When We Were the Kennedys by Monica Wood
2012: Father of the Rain by Lily King