“One Book, One Philadelphia” Events Are Underway

This year's tome is "Cold Mountain" by Charles Frazier.

Events for the Free Library’s annual “One Book, One Philadelphia” citywide book club are underway. This year’s book is Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier.

The events started Tuesday night with a discussion between Frazier and composer Jennifer Higdon, who created the Cold Mountain opera being performed as part of “One Book’s” events and which premieres Friday. Today’s events include a screening of the movie at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute, as well as screenings of other Civil War movies, Glory and Lincoln, at other locations. (The full list of upcoming events in the series can be found here.)

A synopsis of the book: “Inman is a Confederate soldier who has been away fighting for four years, when he becomes sick of the war and his role in it and deserts. He spends most of the book struggling to get back home to Cold Mountain, North Carolina.”

Two companion books are also being offered as reading possibilities during the eight weeks of “One Book.” The Civil War, by Geoffrey Ward with Ric Burns and Ken Burns; and Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup, which tells the true story of a free black man who was kidnapped and sold into slavery.

As of Wednesday afternoon, the Free Library still had about 100 copies of Cold Mountain available to check out and read. All 110 of its ebook copies, however, had been checked out.