Lake County’s largest book club starts next week, and anyone can join.
Local collaborators are giving away thousands of free books about a female scientist who loves trees and lives with bipolar disorder.
They also have arranged free book discussions throughout the county as well as tree-identification hikes, writing-memoir workshops and other events focused on nature, women in science, reading and creative pursuits.
The project, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, is called “The Big Read,” and it kicks off at 6 p.m. Sept. 18 at the College of Lake County in Grayslake.
Guest speaker Nancy Tuchman, dean of the school of environmental sustainability at Loyola University, will talk about women in science, followed by a reception and handouts of free copies of the book “Lab Girl.” The book, geared toward adults, was written by Hope Jahren, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and published in 2017.
“This is a memoir about an author who talks about growing up in Minnesota,” said Holly Ledvina, a College of Lake County librarian who worked on securing the grant and arranging countywide programs with co-worker Michelle Carter. Free books can also be obtained at participating libraries, including those in Lake Villa and Antioch.
“Lab Girl” author Hope Jahren’s father was a community college biologist, and that’s what drew Carter and Ledvina to choose that particular book to read from a selection given to them by the NEA.
“Growing up, Hope Jahren went to her father’s lab every night, and they worked together,” Ledvina said.
“The book chronicles the struggles and achievements she has experienced as a woman in the science field, including the struggle of trying to get funding and have a lab for her work,” Ledvina said, adding the book is both scientific and accessible.
Linda Curtis, a botanist from Lake Villa who is presenting a program on rare plants at 1:30 p.m. Oct 5 at the Lake Villa Library for the project, said she understands what Jahren has experienced.
“I began my masters in botany in the 1960s when women were just beginning to be accepted as faculty at state universities,” said Curtis, a retired botany professor from Lake Villa who taught at CLC.
One of her botany professors told her she should be home taking care of her children instead of in his botany class, Curtis recalled. The same professor told her sedges were too difficult to identify.
“Sedges became my passion, and yes they are difficult, which is why I wrote two books about sedges dedicated to beginning botanists,” said Curtis.
She has been reading “Lab Girl,” and so has Carter.
“After reading the book, you will never look at a tree again in the same way,” Carter said.
She added the Big Read project goes much farther beyond offering free books for the public to read.
“We’re really trying to encourage people to create community around the book,” Ledvina said. “We want to foster conversation and promote STEM and women in science.”
To promote science, technology, engineering and math, they are working with officials from local libraries, colleges and the Lake County Forest Preserves to present programs to get readers engaged not only in STEM fields but also nature and art.
“Every single program is related to ‘Lab Girl’ on some level,” Ledvina said.
Because “Lab Girl” is a memoir, they have scheduled memoir-writing workshops on Sept. 25 at CLC’s Lakeshore Campus in Waukegan and on Oct. 1 at the Waukegan Public Library.
“We want to help readers explore their creative process by learning how to write their own memoir,” Ledvina said.
Book discussions of “Lab Girl” are scheduled at 3:30 p.m. Sept. 24 at the Waukegan Public Library; at noon Oct. 1 at CLC’s Grayslake campus; at 7 p.m. Oct. 10 at the Lake Villa Library; and at 10 a.m. Oct. 15 at the Antioch Public Library in a program geared toward young adults.
CLC will also host a program on nature therapy at 6 p.m. Oct. 6 at the Grayslake campus. CLC faculty — including psychologist Martha Lally, massage therapist Lisa Aguilar and horticulturist Rory Klick — will lead the program.
“They’ll talk about the author who discusses her bipolar disease in the book, and how nature therapy can really affect our well-being,” Ledvina said, adding she belongs to a Monday and Wednesday faculty walking group at CLC.
“We walk on the college trail loop. It’s all about our well-being,” she said.
Other events for the Big Read project include a Wildflower World Tour with Lake Forest College director of environmental studies Glenn Adelson from 7-8 p.m. on Sept. 19 at the Vernon Area Public Library and walking tree-identification classes for children and their caregivers at various Lake County Forest Preserves.
Jan Ward, a forest preserves naturalist who will lead the classes, said her goal is to connect children with nature.
“Whatever the kids are drawn toward, we will encourage them to look at it and touch it and feel it and use their senses to experience it,” Ward said. She’ll show them bark, different leaf shapes and seeds such as acorns that help identify a tree.
The first tree-identification class is set for 10-11:30 a.m. Sept. 17 at the Greenbelt Forest Preserve in North Chicago. Registration for these classes is required. All other Big Read programs require no registration.
CLC is one of 78 communities nationwide participating in the NEA Big Read program. Since 2006, more than 4.8 million Americans have attended Big Read events, according to the NEA.
For more information, how to obtain books and a list of Big Read project events, visit www.clcillinois.edu/events/big-read.
