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One Book, One San Diego: 2019 Finalists

2019 One Book Finalists
2019 One Book Finalists

KPBS received 430 nominations from the community for this year's One Book, One San Diego selections. The One Book Advisory Committee reviewed each nomination against a list of selection criteria to narrow the list down to seven. One title from this list will be selected at the 2019 One Book, One San Diego for adults at the San Diego Festival of Books on Saturday, August 24, 2019 at Liberty Station. Additionally, a title for teens and children will also be announced.

In the meantime, be sure to add the following books to your summer reading list (in no particular order).

"Becoming Nicole" by Amy Ellis Nutt

The inspiring true story of transgender actor and activist Nicole Maines, whose identical twin brother, Jonas, and ordinary American family join her on an extraordinary journey to understand, nurture, and celebrate the uniqueness in us all.

"The Woman Who Smashed Codes" by Jason Fagone

Joining the ranks of Hidden Figures and In the Garden of Beasts, the incredible true story of the greatest codebreaking duo that ever lived, an American woman and her husband who invented the modern science of cryptology together and used it to confront the evils of their time, solving puzzles that unmasked Nazi spies and helped win World War II.

"Washington Black" by Esi Edugyan

Eleven-year-old George Washington Black—or Wash—a field slave on a Barbados sugar plantation, is initially terrified when he is chosen as the manservant of his master’s brother. To his surprise, however, the eccentric Christopher Wilde turns out to be a naturalist, explorer, inventor, and abolitionist. Soon Wash is initiated into a world where a flying machine can carry a man across the sky, where even a boy born in chains may embrace a life of dignity and meaning, and where two people, separated by an impossible divide, can begin to see each other as human.

"The Sun Does Shine" by Anthony Ray Hinton

In 1985, Anthony Ray Hinton was arrested and charged with two counts of capital murder in Alabama. Stunned, confused, and only twenty-nine years old, Hinton knew that it was a case of mistaken identity and believed that the truth would prove his innocence and ultimately set him free.

"The Great Believers" by Rebecca Makkai

In 1985, Yale Tishman, the development director for an art gallery in Chicago, is about to pull off an amazing coup, bringing in an extraordinary collection of 1920s paintings as a gift to the gallery. Yet as his career begins to flourish, the carnage of the AIDS epidemic grows around him. One by one, his friends are dying and after his friend Nico’s funeral, the virus circles closer and closer to Yale himself. Soon the only person he has left is Fiona, Nico’s little sister.

"A Place for Us" by Fatima Farheen Mirza

"As an Indian wedding gathers a family back together, parents Rafiq and Layla must reckon with the choices their children have made. There is Hadia: their headstrong, eldest daughter, whose marriage is a match of love and not tradition. Huda, the middle child, determined to follow in her sister’s footsteps. And lastly, their estranged son, Amar, who returns to the family fold for the first time in three years to take his place as brother of the bride. What secrets and betrayals have caused this close-knit family to fracture? Can Amar find his way back to the people who know and love him best? "

"The Fox Hunt" by Mohammed Al Samawi

"The Fox Hunt" tells one young man’s unforgettable story of his harrowing escape from Yemen's brutal civil war with the help of a daring plan engineered on social media by a small group of interfaith activists in the West...The story of an improbable escape as riveting as the best page-turning thrillers, "The Fox Hunt" reminds us that goodness and decency can triumph in the darkest circumstances.

Which one will it be?

Join us at The San Diego Union-Tribune Festival of Books on Saturday, August 24 to find out!