Seattle Reads 2019 at The Seattle Public Library: 'The Best We Could Do' by Thi Bui
release date: March 12, 2019
Celebrate 21 years of Seattle Reads with featured author Thi Bui! Bui will visit Seattle April 13-16 to discuss "The Best We Could Do," this year's Seattle Reads selection. At the Central Library event, Bui will be in conversation from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, April 13 at 1000 Fourth Ave., Level 1, Microsoft Auditorium, 206-386-4636.
All Library programs are free and open to the public. Times and locations are listed below. For more information on these events, visit the Library's website at www.spl.org/seattlereads or call 206-386-4636.
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Meet Thi Bui
Bui will discuss "The Best We Could Do" at five locations throughout Seattle. No tickets are required. Books will be available for purchase and signing at all events.
- 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, April 13 at the Central Library, 1000 Fourth Ave., Level 1, Microsoft Auditorium, 206-386-4636. Also featuring a staged reading from the book, adapted by Susan Lieu and directed by Kathy Hsieh, in partnership with Book-It Repertory Theatre.
- 1:30 p.m. to 2:40 p.m. Sunday, April 14 at Northgate Community Center, 10510 5th Ave N.E.
- 7 p.m. to 8:10 p.m. Sunday, April 14 at Centilia Cultural Center at El Centro de la Raza, 1660 S. Roberto Maestas Festival St.
- 7 p.m. to 8:10 p.m. Monday, April 15 at the Greenwood Branch, 8016 Greenwood Ave N., 206-684-4086.
- 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 16 at Asian Counseling and Referral Service, 3639 Martin Luther King Jr. Way S. Also featuring a staged reading from the book, adapted by Susan Lieu and directed by Kathy Hsieh, in partnership with Book-It Repertory Theatre.
DISCUSS THE BOOK
Library locations with a book group will also discuss the book – check our calendar for a discussion near you.
FIND A COPY
- Individual copies of "The Best We Could Do" are available at all Library locations for informal borrowing by any person or book group.
- Book group kits of "The Best We Could Do" are available to reserve for groups already registered with the Library.
BOOK & AUTHOR INFORMATION
About the Book
"The Best We Could Do" is a haunting memoir about the search for a better future and a longing for a simpler past. Bui documents her family’s daring escape after the fall of South Vietnam in the 1970s and the difficulties they faced building new lives for themselves in America.
As the child of a country and a war she can't remember, Bui's dreamlike artwork brings to life her journey to understanding her own identity in a way that only comics can.
The graphic memoir received 5 starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Library Journal, School Library Journal, and Shelf Awareness. It was also nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award in the autobiography category, and made it onto over thirty "Best of 2017" lists everywhere from the Washington Post to Entertainment Weekly.
About the Author
Bui was born in Vietnam three months before the end of the Vietnam War, and came to the United States in 1978. Her debut graphic memoir, "The Best We Could Do" (Abrams ComicArts, 2017), has been selected as UCLA’s Common Book for 2017, an Eisner Award finalist in Reality Based Comics, and made several Best of 2017 book lists, including Bill Gates's top five picks. Bui is also the Caldecott Honor-winning illustrator of "A Different Pond," a picture book by the poet Bao Phi (Capstone, 2017). Her short comics can be found online at the Nib, PEN America and BOOM California. She is a faculty member of the MFA in Comics program at the California College of the Arts.
PROGRAM INFORMATION
In 1998, The Seattle Public Library launched Seattle Reads, a program to encourage Seattleites to read and discuss the same book. The "one book, one city" program is now an annual event held in cities, states and countries around the world.
Seattle Reads deepens readers' appreciation of and engagement in literature, creates community around reading, and promotes conversation between readers and writers, friends and family.
Everyone is invited to participate in Seattle Reads by reading the featured book, joining in a book discussion, and/or attending programs with the featured writer.
Sponsors and Partners
Seattle Reads is made possible by The Seattle Public Library Foundation and The Wallace Foundation, with support from media sponsors The Seattle Times and KUOW 94.9 Public Radio, and Abrams Books.